Review Archives (Staff Reviews)

You are currently looking through staff reviews for games that are available on every platform the site currently covers. Below, you will find reviews written by all eligible authors and sorted according to date of submission, with the newest content displaying first. As many as 20 results will display per page. If you would like to try a search with different parameters, specify them below and submit a new search.

Available Reviews
	World of Goo review (PC) Reviewed on October 24, 2008 If World of Goo were developed and published by Nintendo -- which it absolutely could be, given the phenomenal fusion of style and substance on display here -- not one person would have a problem with its being released as a full-price title. At this super-budget rate, it's simply incredible.
	Dead Space review (PS3) Reviewed on October 23, 2008 When it (Dead Space) sticks to its more original ideas; the zero-g environments, the severing of limbs with unique weapons, the lack of ammo, etc. it works very well. But it doesn’t capitalize on these innovations as it should.
	Commando: Steel Disaster review (DS) Reviewed on October 22, 2008 Commando is a completely generic clone of the Metal Slug blueprint, giving us nothing new, except for its own unique list of problems.
	Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen review (DS) Reviewed on October 22, 2008 Dragon Quest IV was always about those five stories and they were always interesting, but never to the current extent. Maybe the old translation job was handled poorly or perhaps I was too young at the time to appreciate such things. Perhaps the graphics just weren't up to the task of communicating the required subtleties. Whatever the case, I never cared enough to wonder how the scraps of narrative all fit together. Imagine my surprise, then, when Chapters of the Chosen showed me that the story behind the scenes is actually quite compelling.
	Airlock review (A2600) Reviewed on October 21, 2008 Well, actually, the play control's probably the real obstacle. Let's face it, with good control, this game would be nearly as easy as playing Sneak 'n Peek against yourself. Here, you're controlling a character that has barely enough jumping ability to clear one of those coffins and mistiming your jump even by the slightest of margins will cause you to recoil back behind it.
	Game Party 2 review (WII) Reviewed on October 21, 2008 In November 2007, Game Party hit the Wii as a collection of seven simple minigames. Ten months later, six of those games return to a roster of eleven activities in Game Party 2. The major improvement: this time the motion controls work competently.
	World Heroes Anthology review (PS2) Reviewed on October 20, 2008 World Heroes Anthology makes no excuses for itself: its a simple, brutal fighting game optimised for the multiplayer experience. Comparisons between it and the Street Fighter series are inevitable, especially since the latter has released compilation packs of its past titles before. World Heroes Anthology follows the same schema of thinking, featuring all four World Heroes games bundled together onto the same disc for the PS2. Its really good value if you and your friends have gotten bored of button-mashing in other games of the genre, but don't expect WHA to come equipped with the same flair that's found in more polished games.
	de Blob review (WII) Reviewed on October 19, 2008 The developers wisely threw in some hazards and puzzles to mix things up a bit, but these don't help nearly as much as they should. Early on, there just aren't enough enemies to challenge you. Even when more of them enter the picture, defeating the various nasties and their machinery drains your paint meter at an alarming rate. Then you have to go refill it before you can fight some more. You're seldom in actual danger, meaning that foes are more inconvenient than they are difficult.
	PDC World Championship Darts 2008 review (X360) Reviewed on October 19, 2008 No one held their breath in anticipation, robbing me of a sense of clichéd drama. Their loss. The 360 version doesn’t really try to innovate or reinvent the original game; it simply builds upon it, gives you a create a character system of note, marries it up to decent career mode and throws the entire thing online.
	Violent Storm review (ARC) Reviewed on October 19, 2008 Playing this game was all too bizarre for me, like watching the adapted version of your favorite show or movie for a foreign audience. Only the version your watching is an adapted version of an adapted version of an adapted version… it’s at least three levels removed from the original source material. This is Final Fight for some remote portion of Siberia, some culture that just couldn’t comprehend the mean streets of Metro City ruled by crooked cop EDI E. Some culture that wanted guys named DRIGGER and MR. JULIUS and men dressed in garbage can lids.
	Bangai-O Spirits review (DS) Reviewed on October 18, 2008 This is how you make shooting games mean something again. Bangai-O Spirits puts so many twists on the genre formula it's hardly recognizable, yet all the more fun for it. Just be prepared to die a lot until you get the hang of it all.
	World of Goo review (WII) Reviewed on October 16, 2008 World of Goo is a stunning example of how to build a simple physics-based puzzle game into something truly epic.
	The Witcher review (PC) Reviewed on October 16, 2008 There's a lovely quality to The Witcher's atmosphere, stemming from a combination of lush art design and the gripping plot on offer. It suffers from occasional pacing issues -- chapter one in particular requires a horrific amount of to-ing and fro-ing before it gets to the point -- but it's delivered in a generally satisfying, urgent and compelling way, driving the player to press on with the journey through Temeria. It certainly feels a lot more focused than some of its next-gen peers, which will relieve those who found themselves wandering around Oblivion's vastness with little clue of what was unfolding around them.
	Final Fantasy XII review (PS2) Reviewed on October 15, 2008 After beating the game's final boss, I remembered a fight with one of those trophy enemies — a zombie mage named Disma. That dude was rough, able to take off obscene amounts of hit points with both his physical and magic attacks while getting far tougher as you close in on killing him. It was a fight only a masochist could love and winning it gave me more of a sense of accomplishment than I received from the final boss or any other storyline encounter. And that's considering my "Disma-killing" tactics would likely be looked at as cowardly and cheap even by the hardcore fans who've dedicated an ungodly amount of time to figuring out the most efficient tactics for virtually every battle in the game.
	Mario Kart Wii review (WII) Reviewed on October 15, 2008 Nintendo should be commended for making genuine improvements to its classic formula, but my resulting goodwill vanished the minute I was reminded that rubber band AI is the devil.
	Geo-political Simulator review (PC) Reviewed on October 14, 2008 Getting things back into the green through changing the budget is like playing Operation with shaky hands – doable, but difficult and pointless. All this makes for an experience that is essentially unfriendly to the causal player or warmonger, as you have to be really secure in your power (usually only possible after investing a considerable amount of time into balancing your affairs) before even thinking about launching a mission to 'blow shit up'. Its accurate to real life, but will really deter people who simply don't have the opportunity to play a game for that long in order to get to the juicy part.
	The Political Machine 2008 review (PC) Reviewed on October 13, 2008 The presidential race is split into forty one weeks. This gives you forty one turns to play out in the same time as your opponent to fly all over America and convince as many states as you can to vote for you. By any means necessary..
	Dead or Alive 4 review (X360) Reviewed on October 12, 2008 Things haven’t changed a lot, so much as been refined, the fourth time ‘round. The usual suspects are on offer: Ninja Gaiden’s Ryu Hayabusa, the super ninja; Kasumi, the sexy ninja pacifist (I kid you not); Hitomi, the hot German kareteka; Hayate, the unbelievably powerful pretty boy ninja. In case you’re new to the DoA experience – yes, there are a lot of ninjas.
	Ankh: Curse of the Scarab King review (DS) Reviewed on October 12, 2008 Ankh remains a game worth playing. Just not in this form.
	Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru review (SAT) Reviewed on October 11, 2008 Once you get past the quirky control scheme, this game — the tale of a psychic monk gorily slaughtering feudal Japanese demons — really is pretty damn cool.

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