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.
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Disney/Pixar Ratatouille review (PS2)Reviewed on July 02, 2007You just never know what a mission will involve until you accept it. Some have you completing mini-games, others have you sliding down huge slides and collecting stars, others have you rushing to the highest points of an area and still others ask you to run toward through cluttered environments while an enemy chases you. If you don’t feel like completing a mission at the moment, you don’t have to. |
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Tortuga:Two Treasures review (PC)Reviewed on July 02, 2007The damage engine in particular is exceptional, as you can see individual sails being ripped, and holes appearing in the sides of the ships due to cannon fire. Honestly, it is quite an impressive sight. The sea itself is handled very well, with sharks circling for snacks in the form of men overboard! |
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Ancient Wars: Sparta review (PC)Reviewed on July 01, 2007While Sparta may look nice, it feels as though somebody took great elements from all over the RTS genre and put them all together in one game. It's a case where the whole is less than the sum of its parts, probably due to the fact that most of the parts are quite dated. |
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Final Fantasy review (PSP)Reviewed on June 28, 2007In the original Final Fantasy, frequent encounters meant that players had to carefully execute each dungeon assault. Preparations sometimes required an hour or so of play time, just because each labyrinthine complex posed such a risk. On the PSP, the frequency of those battles has been toned down by something like 50%. You’ll still find moments where your avatar leaves one battle behind and takes only two or three steps before finding another, but such instances are infrequent. |
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Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm review (PS2)Reviewed on June 28, 2007If you spend too much time aimlessly running around an alterworld, you’ll get zapped back to town before accomplishing what you set out to do. Same thing if you get into too many fights against tough foes. If you’re able to beat them in the first two turns of battle, you won’t be penalized any time, but a lot of tougher enemies are capable of lasting longer than that. |
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Puzzle Scape review (PSP)Reviewed on June 26, 2007It’s neat that you can move pieces around at will, but the fact that vertical movement isn’t possible really stinks. Sometimes, you’ll see a killer move but you can’t execute it because there’s nothing available on your row. Other times, everything is moving quickly as the stage is about to wind down, and the only block you can use to finish your combination is on the opposite side of the screen. |
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Touch the Dead review (DS)Reviewed on June 25, 2007Zombies have had quite the resurgence in popularity lately. And why not? You can beat them mercilessly, chop off their limbs, set them on fire, and generally vent all your frustrations about humanity without feeling a shred of guilt. |
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Trackmania United review (PC)Reviewed on June 25, 2007If you persevere with the single player racing mode, you'll find beautiful scenery, gravity-defying tracks, and uber-fast speeds. If you're unlucky, you may also encounter another issue - crashing into the barriers occasionally causes the player to become impaled right through the scenery. |
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Safecracker: The Ultimate Puzzle Adventure review (PC)Reviewed on June 23, 2007Although there's a loose narrative that ties the adventure together, Safecracker is almost all about cracking safes. And, in spite of my whining, it’s actually a lot of fun. |
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GrimGrimoire review (PS2)Reviewed on June 22, 2007Plot plays a large role in GrimGrimoire. You’re either viewing the story or you’re fighting a battle. There’s no character customization in between, since you learn skills as you go, at set points in the narrative. That’s all there is to it. Every time you win a battle, you’re rewarded with a few more pages’ worth of information. |
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Hot Brain review (PSP)Reviewed on June 21, 2007That’s the hook to Hot Brain: you have to do everything as if your pants were on fire. When you’re in high school and looking at a series of pictures in a test booklet, you aren’t cramped for time. You start to think “Wow, I could be out at recess or checking out the cutie in row three.” When you’re holding a PSP and a timer is ticking down and your performance will have instant results, the activity you formerly may have found tiresome suddenly becomes interesting. |
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Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords review (DS)Reviewed on June 20, 2007Winning and losing should be based on skill and strategy, not a roll of the dice. Although it’s their first venture into the RPG genre, 1st Playable Productions found an intriguing way around this problem, through puzzles and a rich character building system. |
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Code Lyoko review (DS)Reviewed on June 20, 2007Code Lyoko is the game adaptation of of a French children's cartoon. The back of the box outlines the game's sales gimmick in one succinct, entirely capitalized phrase. "4 UNIQUE WAYS TO PLAY!" |
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Pet Alien: An Intergalactic Puzzlepalooza review (DS)Reviewed on June 19, 2007Everything that could have made Pet Alien a success is suspended in an atmosphere of mediocrity. |
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Snatcher review (SAT)Reviewed on June 19, 2007Snatcher remains an excellent game in any form, even if all Konami really offers here is one major improvement in exchange for some noticeably detracting changes. |
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Mercury Meltdown Revolution review (WII)Reviewed on June 18, 2007Ultimately, what makes Mercury Meltdown Revolution such a great game is the game design. Igntion Entertainment have crafted a superb example of player versus environment. |
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Pacific Storm: Allies review (PC)Reviewed on June 18, 2007There’s a magical moment in each game of Pacific Storm: Allies where all the tiny nit-picking in the planning stages and the tweaking to your forces manoeuvres in-battle all come together to form one huge, working scene of battle, or darting attacks and sneaking counterattacks. To watch you plans take effect and wipe out an enemy fleet or to watch a hail of torpedoes you failed to plan against smash into the bow of your battleship from the cockpit of a defending fighter is a unique feeling. Total control puts victory or defeat squarely on your shoulders and yours alone. |
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Valhalla Knights review (PSP)Reviewed on June 17, 2007Valhalla Knights is a game designed to sell X copies to X gamers for (X*Y) dollars. You could say that about anything, but most games have something more. Something catchy. Unfortunately, there's nothing catchy about Valhalla Knights — nothing to make me even want to pick the game back up again. |
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Dawn of Mana review (PS2)Reviewed on June 12, 2007A boulder is as likely to bounce as not. A pumpkin could very well float like a balloon. Worse, anything you try to toss could inexplicably head to a nearby wall, bounce off it and into Keldy, then send him plummeting to a ledge below and into the midst of a bunch of enemies. Taking your chances with object interaction is a bit like sticking your hand into a bowl of piranhas and hoping they aren’t hungry. |
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Mad Tracks review (X360)Reviewed on June 12, 2007One odd mechanic that definitely will affect how you play is the acceleration feature. You press the right trigger to accelerate, but as you do there’s a gauge on the bottom of the screen that reflects a dwindling supply of energy. Thus, simply holding the trigger for a race’s duration is going to come back to bite you at the worst possible moment. Strategy is necessary. |
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