June2012

  • Review Mad Dog McCree (3DS eShop)

    Send it to the pound

    Remember back when Laserdisc games were king and everyone loved them and we were all playing them at home? No? Well, that’s probably because it was never the case, and the really great news is that Laserdisc games quickly came and went before they could do any real lasting damage to the future of gaming. With that in mind,...

December2011

  • Review Word Searcher 4 (DSiWare)

    It’s more word searches… again

    You know the old adage “less is more?” Well, it’s pretty obvious that Digital Leisure takes this saying to heart with its Word Searcher series. Word Searcher 4 marks the fourth game in the series of word search puzzle games, and it’s not much of an advancement from the last one, or the one before that, or...

May2011

  • Review Dragon's Lair Trilogy (Wii)

    Is Dirk still daring after all these years?

    If you were a child of 80's or 90's, chances are you hold a Don Bluth cartoon close to your heart. Though Disney or Looney Tunes may be the first names you think of when it comes to classic hand-drawn animation, at least inside the United States, such beloved films as The Secret of NIMH, The Land Before...

  • Review Overflow (WiiWare)

    Say it ain't flow

    Overflow is possibly the most frustrating game you'll play all year. You'll be frustrated at the countless times you'll fail a level for reasons you don't even understand; you'll be frustrated at the finicky pointer controls that you're forced to use; you'll be frustrated at the camera, which doesn't always scroll up and down as...

  • Review Word Searcher 3 (DSiWare)

    The same old search

    It has become apparent that each of Digital Leisure's Word Searcher titles is intended to vary the content rather than improve the design toward a more interesting take on the activity. If you’ve played any of the previous entries, then you know exactly what’s in store with their newest addition to the DSiWare service, Word...

April2011

  • Review Word Searcher Deluxe (WiiWare)

    Word down

    It's hard not to question the practicality of a game like Word Searcher Deluxe. Word search books are almost literally a dime a dozen these days, and even the cheap-o books are becoming a little unnecessary considering the number of free options there are on the Internet and mobile app stores. As if that wasn't enough, Digital Leisure...

January2011

  • Review Word Searcher 2 (DSiWare)

    Legend of the seeker

    In late 2009 and early 2010, Digital Leisure released versions of Word Searcher on both WiiWare and DSiWare respectively. Finally, after nearly a year of waiting, fans of the original adventures can quit holding their breaths and take in the fresh air of Word Searcher 2, available now as a brand new addition to the DSiWare...

December2010

  • Review Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp (DSiWare)

    A trip back to the days of the LaserDisc

    Few series divide players – including our own writers – as sharply as Dragon's Lair. Originally intended for the LaserDisc format, its titles are more interactive movies than traditional video games, tasking you with pressing the correct button quickly enough every few seconds. If our hero, Dirk, has to...

  • Review Space Ace (DSiWare)

    Jedi school dropout

    Originally released to arcades in 1984, Space Ace sought to recapture the magic of its predecessor, Dragon's Lair. And by "magic" we mean "ability to eat money." Gameplay was not high on the list of priorities for the team that designed these games, but flashy presentation certainly was. As a result, we are...

November2010

  • Review 21: Blackjack (DSiWare)

    Strong suit or bad bet?

    The time has come for blackjack to take its place among solitaire and Texas Hold 'Em as a card game that can stand alone on the DSiWare service. The objective, as the name gives away, is to get as close to 21 as possible in card value without going over. We've already seen a couple versions of the game in two slightly...

  • Review Mix Superstar (WiiWare)

    SCRATCH-ficky-ficky....Wii-mix!

    Lately the DSiWare service has received several musical creation tools: Music On series has provided us with a means to play musical instruments on the go, and the excellent Rytmik titles have shown exactly how awesome creating tunes on your DSi can be. Well, now it's WiiWare's turn in the form of Mix Superstar. If...

August2010

  • Review Match Up! (DSiWare)

    Fun but forgettable

    Since time immemorial, man has sought to sort his symbols by shape and colour. While we may take for granted our efficacy at this essential task, things would be a lot more disorganised without the work of scientists like the moustachioed Professor Lexis. Now, for the first time, Digital Leisure gives us an inside look at his...

June2010

  • Review Mega Words (DSiWare)

    If by "mega" you mean "bland"

    If it's simple word puzzles you want, then by golly, it's simple word puzzles you'll get with Mega Words. It'll put your vocabulary to the test across its three game types, sure, but in the most basic way possible. Anagrams plunks down a handful of tiles and asks you to create at least six words to advance, whereas in...

May2010

  • Review Chess Challenge! (DSiWare)

    Chuck, mate

    Chess is over two thousand years old and still hasn't gone out of style. It's arguably the perfect game of strategy, enjoyed the world over by countless bright adults, reflective retirees and nerdy youths. Just about every city has a hub, a certain coffee shop or public park, at which one can go to watch two competitors going at it, the...

  • Review Chess Challenge! (WiiWare)

    The “challenge” must lie in making a good chess game

    From the makers of Sudoku Challenge comes Chess Challenge in all of its public domain glory. In our earlier review of Silver Star Chess, the first chess game on Wiiware, we advised to wait “until a better version of the game comes along later.” Is Chess Challenge that gold star chess game...

February2010

  • Review 5 in 1 Solitaire (WiiWare)

    Tethered to a television is not the way to play

    Just like sudoku, crossword puzzles, word searches, and other public-domain fare as WiiWare, Digital Leisure's 5-in-1 Solitaire will have you tied down in front of a television after having plunked down your Nintendo Points for games available for free on the internet or, worse yet, that came...

  • Review 5 in 1 Solitaire (DSiWare)

    Five games for the price of two

    So far, Digital Leisure hasn't done the greatest job of bringing public-domain games to WiiWare or DSiWare. Sudoku Challenge wasn't challenging in quite the right way, and Word Searcher only worked on DSiWare because word searches were meant to be portable to begin with. The interfaces seemed a bit rushed and...

January2010

  • Review Word Searcher (DSiWare)

    Better on a portable?

    Digital Leisure attempted to jump on the Sudoku DSiWare bandwagon a while back, failing miserably in the process. Now they've taken another crack at the service with something different: Word Searcher, a game featuring 100 different word-search puzzles to sink your vocabulary into. Granted, Word Searcher as WiiWare wasn't that...

  • Review Fast Draw Showdown (WiiWare)

    “Keep it in your holster!”

    Fast Draw Showdown is a game set in the distant past…the year 1994, to be precise. In those days, arcades were lit up with light gun games; even as other genres drifted into console-only territory, there was still a ready supply of them. But where most of these games were frantic on-rails, shoot-everything-that-moves...

December2009

  • Review Dragon's Lair (DSiWare)

    Dragon slaying for people on the go!

    In 1983, former Disney animator Don Bluth decided to create a video game using his stunning animation talents. Instead of the regular sprite-based games normally found in arcades, Dragon's Lair created a vivid world through some of the best animation of the time. Of course in order to store all of this animation,...

  • Review Sudoku Challenge! (DSiWare)

    It's challenging, all right, but not as intended

    Back in 2008, Digital Leisure hit the Wii Shop with Sudoku Challenge!, a somewhat bare-bones sudoku game with one new twist for fans of the popular pencil-and-paper puzzles: Grand Sudoku. The layout of five conjoined sudoku grids, while interesting, was not quite enough to wow critics or sudoku...

November2009

  • Review Copter Crisis (WiiWare)

    What a load of cop(ter)!

    There's something appealing about being a helicopter rescue pilot: it's one of those aspirations we have when we're children of what we'd like to grow up to be. Sitting at home pretending to be one via Digital Leisure's latest WiiWare instalment certainly doesn't sound the full realisation of such childhood pipedreams, but...

October2009

  • Review Word Searcher (WiiWare)

    Words fail to impress

    Digital Leisure and Aksys seem locked in a fight to the death to see which company can release more generic, public domain games on the WiiWare service. Following up on their release of Sudoku Challenge earlier this year, which we found to be about as barebones a presentation of that game as you could get, DL now brings us...

March2009

  • Review Texas Hold'em Tournament (WiiWare)

    Does Digital Leisure’s latest WiiWare offering fold or make a clean sweep of the table?

    It’s no lie that video game conversions of popular poker card games are few and far between nowadays as online poker has become increasingly more popular and widely regarded. WiiWare developer Digital Leisure has decided to try its luck with an adaption of...

November2008

  • Review Sudoku Challenge! (WiiWare)

    This WiiWare puzzler truly sticks "by the numbers"

    Although books of Sudoku puzzles can be found at your local dollar store, the 100 million puzzles promised in this game will set you up for life and should be enough to tempt any Sudoku fan. But is the game as fun with a Wii Remote as it is with a pencil? For those who don’t know, Sudoku is a...