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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 Jason Venter 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
Platypus (PSP)

Platypus review (PSP)

Reviewed on January 05, 2007

Each world is divided into several stages. These typically are somewhere close to the length of a stage in any other shooter you might chare to mention, and there are typically around six of them strung one right after the next with only a status update screen to divide them. The background doesn’t change significantly the whole time you’re playing through a given world.
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos (PC)

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos review (PC)

Reviewed on January 03, 2007

That might lead you to believe that you spend a lot of time in micro-management screens, but you really don’t. While some of that is here by necessity, it’s kept more minimal than battle-hungry players might ever have hoped. You recruit new soldiers to replace those lost in combat, revive fallen heroes as necessary and purchase available armor upgrades. In a minute or two, you’re done and can return to the plot and the battles.
Metal Slug Anthology (Wii)

Metal Slug Anthology review (WII)

Reviewed on December 28, 2006

There are numerous options available, more than most people would ever expect. You’d think that one of them would be perfect for the average gamer who has been playing Metal Slug games for years. It turns out that none of them are, though. That’s downright mystifying when you consider how many times these games have been ported to home consoles.
Elebits (Wii)

Elebits review (WII)

Reviewed on December 21, 2006

Elebits provides is one of the most truly convincing 3D atmospheres yet presented in a console game. Though the visuals are clearly inspired by animation and maybe 1950, they are endearing in their way and really suck you into the experience. If at times there are hiccups, they’re still an acceptable price to pay for the freedom you often enjoy.
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin review (DS)

Reviewed on December 12, 2006

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin is as rewarding an experience as the series is likely to ever provide. It’s huge, it’s fun and it’s devious in all the right amounts. I can think of only two flaws: nothing here feels overwhelmingly new compared to previous installments, and sometimes you have to wander around breaking apart too many candlesticks for gold because healing items and accessories are so expensive.
Cartoon Network Racing (PlayStation 2)

Cartoon Network Racing review (PS2)

Reviewed on December 05, 2006

There are a few problems with Cartoon Network Racing, all somewhat typical of hastily-designed games within the genre. The first of these is a tendency to rely on items rather than good courses to provide the bulk of your experience. That translates to a lot of frantic rocket firing and oil slicks. At first, it’s kind of fun. It quickly grows tiresome, however, when you spend half your time spinning cookies after rebounding from an attack you couldn’t avoid.
Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 (PlayStation 2)

Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 review (PS2)

Reviewed on December 05, 2006

Basically, the games here are the lion’s share of memorable titles you might have missed from the first collection. There’s no Ghouls ‘n Ghosts here, because that was already done. There’s no Trojan or Final Fight for the same reason. What you get instead are a collection of brawlers and shooters, along with Strider and Super Street Fighter II Turbo to round things out.
Online Chess Kingdoms (PSP)

Online Chess Kingdoms review (PSP)

Reviewed on December 04, 2006

Sometimes you play your best and the computer does the same and when all is said and done, you’ve won. The congratulatory screen comes and goes like it should. Then the next match is another inexplicable stalemate, or the disc freezes again. You just never know with this game, which is frustrating because of all the things does right.
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (Game Boy Advance)

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends review (GBA)

Reviewed on December 02, 2006

Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends is rather large, a few winding staircases stacked on top of one another with doorways that connect to long hallways and still more doors. At first, it’s easy to get lost in all the options, and it’s only by the end of the game that you’re likely to know your way around the building. That’s because by then, you will have wandered rather aimlessly about for hours on end, grabbing little trinkets and starting to wonder why things have to be so monotonous.
Lumines II (PSP)

Lumines II review (PSP)

Reviewed on December 02, 2006

For each moment where you’re groaning as things pile so high that you don’t stand a chance, you’ll find moments where you sneak that piece in place just in time and watch a combo clear half the screen out of your way. Playing a single round for very long is difficult when you’re new, but there are definite rewards if you take the time to get better. Only by surviving a good long while can you hear all of the music and unlock the available skins.
Tony Hawk's Project 8 (Xbox 360)

Tony Hawk's Project 8 review (X360)

Reviewed on November 27, 2006

It’s definitely nice to see the franchise returning somewhat to its roots. The humor is more reminiscent of Ollie the Magic Bum than it is the days when Bam Magera terrorized the gameplay (though his fans will be happy to know that he is here again). Another change I loved is the lack of an enforced tutorial mode.
Wii Sports (Wii)

Wii Sports review (WII)

Reviewed on November 24, 2006

Wii Sports isn’t really a game. It’s a tech demo disguised by artwork that makes you think you’re playing five different sports—bowling, tennis, boxing, baseball and golf—but all you’re really doing is swinging your Wii Remote this way or that and convincing yourself that you’re having fun.
Rampage: Total Destruction (Wii)

Rampage: Total Destruction review (WII)

Reviewed on November 22, 2006

Stomping down a building isn’t a simple matter of pressing a button; you have to operate the Wii Remote like you might a hammer. That’s fun for a minute or two, and then you realize that just waving your arm up and down to keep doing the same thing mashing a button might have done isn’t particularly fun. Nor is whirling it around in a circle a hundred times, for that matter.
Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Wii)

Trauma Center: Second Opinion review (WII)

Reviewed on November 21, 2006

Play control had the potential to either make or break the experience, depending on whether or not it delivered. Fortunately, it did. The Wii remote works wonderfully. You may find your hand shaking as you make that first incision, but isn’t that what you’d expect? And the scheme mimics things perfectly.
Rayman: Raving Rabbids (Wii)

Rayman: Raving Rabbids review (WII)

Reviewed on November 21, 2006

You’ll chuck cows and rabbids, kick animals, shear them, slap them on the head with shovels and pretty much make a nuisance of yourself, all to the great delight of the rabbids. It’s sick and twisted, even funny. Is it fun, though? Well, yes and no.
My Frogger Toy Trials (DS)

My Frogger Toy Trials review (DS)

Reviewed on November 13, 2006

If you bump into creatures that populate the map often enough, your life meter will quickly drain and your game will be over. The same is true if you accidentally hop off a tile and into a bottomless pit or into water (since Frogger can’t swim). This might not sound so bad—and at first it isn’t—but eventually you’ll be working your way through really long stages and jumping into pits or bumping enemies is all but avoidable.
Camp Lazlo: Leaky Lake Games (Game Boy Advance)

Camp Lazlo: Leaky Lake Games review (GBA)

Reviewed on November 10, 2006

It’s clear that Camp Lazlo: Leaky Lake Games was conceived as a collection of mini-game madness, just as it’s clear that the team behind it ran out of ideas about five minutes in. To pad things out, they made an exploration mode that will occupy about two thirds of your time. This mode is about as much fun as playing Tic-Tac-Toe against yourself.
.hack//G.U. Vol. 1: Rebirth (PlayStation 2)

.hack//G.U. Vol. 1: Rebirth review (PS2)

Reviewed on October 30, 2006

Everything’s happening real-time (except when you access menus for healing items), so you can set up brutal combo attacks and then follow through with special moves that add significantly to the damage you inflict. Another benefit is that sometimes, colored bands of light will briefly circle around your impending victims. That’s your cue to use a special move, which will add to the experience points you and your friends gain once the confrontation has come to its bloody conclusion.
Spectral Souls: Resurrection of the Ethereal Empires (PSP)

Spectral Souls: Resurrection of the Ethereal Empires review (PSP)

Reviewed on October 26, 2006

It’s all but impossible to talk about Spectral Souls without coming back to those load times. They affect the experience that much and you’re never far from their next appearance. So insidious are they that any joy you might have felt is sucked out of your very soul.
Magnetica (DS)

Magnetica review (DS)

Reviewed on October 23, 2006

As you advance through the levels, the track designs change and make things more taxing. Suddenly, two streams of marbles may be approaching the hole and you might have more than one bay from which to draw your own marbles. Or maybe there’s a switch that keeps turning the track so that you have multiple intersections to worry about. There are a few tricks like this throughout the game, and they really make things frantic and addictive.

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