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
	Final Fantasy Tactics Advance review (GBA) Reviewed on December 06, 2003 What this means is that if you're willing to devote enough time to the effort, you can have a kickass warrior who isn't afraid to cast a healing spell every once in awhile. Of course, the downside to all of this is that while you're learning those killer mage skills, you're weak to physical attacks from enemies. Or while you're learning how to handle a sword, you're dumb as a post and can't use magic.
	Neutopia review (TG16) Reviewed on December 06, 2003 Neutopia may be the darkest of all action-RPGs I've come across, as if a layer of the brightest colour was stripped away. Even the colour of the sunlit outdoors is subdued. Similarly, the trumpeting fanfare that sounds games of this ilk is not so evident here. Instead, the music of the spheres seems wistful, and is easily overpowered for thematic presence by the somber sweetness of the Labyrinths' tunes.
	Legendary Axe II review (TG16) Reviewed on December 06, 2003 At the best of times, Axe II's atmosphere is a hypnotic, quiet storm, like a side-scrolling, medieval Silent Hill; but at the worst of times it is just a morose mission of tedium.
	The Legendary Axe review (TG16) Reviewed on December 05, 2003 Sure, Axe is well drawn, with a gorgeous palette used shamelessly to adorn the exotic locales that your barbarian hero Gogan treks through to find Flare. But perhaps more importantly -- from the darkness of the forest, to the brightness of a mountain plateau; from the quiet mystery of a cavern, to the fanfare of one of the great final confrontations - Axe is dripping with that most elusive quality: atmosphere.
	Legend of Hero Tonma review (TG16) Reviewed on December 05, 2003 Fans of the arcade Tonma will embrace this much easier to play rendition, as things have been toned down to approachable levels for the Turbo version. With practice, you’ll soon find it feasible to beat Tonma on one man, something that seems nigh-impossible with the obstinate original coin-op.
	Keith Courage In Alpha Zones review (TG16) Reviewed on December 04, 2003 Firstly, the story: we are to help a young Keith defend his world from B.A.D. - Beastly Alien Dudes. Though you are no doubt thinking to yourself how powerful an acronym that is, there are those, such as myself, who find it corny, and indicative of how generic the game itself is despite its best efforts to prove otherwise.
	J.J. & Jeff review (TG16) Reviewed on December 04, 2003 Much of this title's humour was deemed inappropriate for North American audiences at the time of its release, though it will seem tame now. Thus, in bringing JJ & Jeff over from Japan, someone undoubtedly felt they were doing us all a huge favour by censoring stuff as mundane and commonplace as a fart joke (Hudson replaced the fart attack function in our version with a lame spray can).
	R-Type DX review (GBC) Reviewed on November 28, 2003 Irem managed to shrink down almost everything and present their flagship's first two strikes intact. It's amazing to hear the music so true to the arcade, to feel that the control is as tight as it is in its console big brothers, and to see that everything is so well represented graphically to boot. Whoever made the decisions on what details to forego, and what to retain, earned their salary. The well outlined characters and backgrounds makes things easy to see on the small screen.
	Insector X review (GEN) Reviewed on November 26, 2003 This isn't the Insector X, from the arcade, that also made the trip to the NES. Gone are the stupidly cutesy characters, replaced by a more serious bunch. The game is still a lame horizontal shooter though - that much hasn't changed.
	Image Fight review (NES) Reviewed on November 26, 2003 Image Fight is a vertical arcade shooter that saw life on the P.C. Engine as well. Common to both installments is the title's obscurity, but only the PC Engine version is actually fun to play. It's hard enough, looks and sounds good enough, and plays tight enough to merit a recommendation. By no means is the Nintendo Image Fight a horrible game - it simply lacks the glorious shooter pain and panache to be worth your time.
	Mario Kart: Double Dash!! review (GCN) Reviewed on November 20, 2003 There's never a moment while playing Mario Kart: Double Dash where you'll pause the game to catch your breath and question how you can be experiencing such a masterpiece. However, early reports of the game being a major disappointment are greatly exaggerated. The truth is that Mario's latest outing may not be racing perfection, but it's certainly worth your time. I can't think of a better purchase for the holidays.
	Vigilante review (TG16) Reviewed on November 16, 2003 While it's often compared to Double Dragon, Vigilante is really more of an update to the kitsch classic, Kung Fu, for the NES. It's similar in that some of the burly toughs are limited to holding you in some kind of vitality-draining bear hug to hurt you - they can't punch or kick, like video game versions of Royce Gracie.
	World Class Baseball review (TG16) Reviewed on November 16, 2003 Orange Juice Style: Sweet gameplay keeps squeezing out OR Beats the competition to a pulp
	Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi review (SMS) Reviewed on November 15, 2003 Dance Gandolf, dance! Dance for me in the shadows!
	The Cyber Shinobi review (SMS) Reviewed on November 15, 2003 If you listen carefully, you can almost hear old man Musashi rolling in his grave.
	Strider review (SMS) Reviewed on November 15, 2003 When you do a number 2, do you ever look down?
	Pac-Man (Tengen) review (NES) Reviewed on November 02, 2003 If the preceding statement is true, there's only one thing more I need to tell you about, the game's conversion. This is because while the NES saw its fare share of ports, most of them sucked, or at the very least paled in comparison to their arcade counterparts. Not so here. Pac-Man from the arcades makes the trip to the home console quite nicely. All that's missing is the joystick, and if you have the NES Advantage, even that's in place.
	Karate Champ review (NES) Reviewed on November 02, 2003 When you see the title screen, you might have reason to be optimistic. It shows that two people can play (though I later learned that even a single person wasting time with the game is a small miracle), and the letters that make up the logo don't look half bad. Not only that, but the background music is some of the best I've heard from the system. It really is. Unfortunately, I've just described almost everything positive there is to say about the game.
	Muppet Adventure: Chaos at the Carnival review (NES) Reviewed on November 02, 2003 Each level is distinctly different from the next, meaning there are basically four little mini-games you must pass on your way to the grand finale. The first of these is a kayaking trip down a little river. Kermit is the guy in charge, and he must steer his little vessel around rocks, floating logs, whirlpools, and the dangerous riverbanks.
	Super Sprint review (NES) Reviewed on November 01, 2003 A typical race is going to involve flooring the accelerator, dashing to the first corner, then swinging wildly about it like a drunken ballerina and hopefully aligning with the rails on the next turn so as to avoid smashing into a barrier and exploding (if going at high speeds) or becoming stuck for a few seconds while your opponents take the lead by about half a track and you curse at the television screen.

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