August2016
Pulse Pounding Prequel
There's a scene in the film The Expendables 2 in which main character Barney Ross - portrayed by perennial badass Sylvester Stallone - revs up a motorcycle to send it careening unmanned up a ramp and through the windshield of a helicopter. This is the vibe that Gunslugs wants to convey. As far as 8-bit run-and-gun shooters go,...
March2016
Review SMART Adventures Mission Math: Sabotage at the Space Station (Wii U eShop)
Space Case
There's a distinctive feel to many educational games that makes their genre immediately identifiable. If you grew up with the likes of Spy Fox and Pajama Sam, you likely know what kind of style we're referring to. SMART Adventures Mission Math: Sabotage at the Space Station fits this bill rather well, which has both positive and negative...
December2015
Based on the animated BBC series, Walking with Dinosaurs
With such a name, you'd be forgiven for thinking Dinox wanted to recapture the magic of past dinosaur shooters such as Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. Sadly, this is not the case. Developed by Codix Games and published by Engine Software, Dinox is actually an educational quiz title for the Wii U eShop...
November2015
Review Toki Tori 3D (3DS eShop)
A good egg
Toki Tori has been ported, tweaked and re-released a lot, with its blend of accessible but increasingly challenging puzzling appealing to gamers of various types on almost any platform you can name. Suitable for touch inputs or physical controls, it's playable on just about any system you want, though sadly we couldn't find a version for...
October2015
Get to the chopper!
Gunslugs 2 goes right for your sense of nostalgia for dumb '80s action movies; we mean dumb in the best possible sense, in terms of those movies with muscle-bound heroes shooting everything and causing enormous explosions. If you're too young to remember that era then, our sympathies, but you can watch The Expendables and imagine...
March2015
You spin me right Pround, baby
A Russian artist named El Lissitzky coined the term "Proun" for use as a title to describe his series of abstract paintings, which challenged traditional views on geometry and perspective. Though the exact meaning of the word was never fully explained, his Proun works evolved to fit new mediums, and spanned over half a...
January2015
Feud for thought
The best kinds of board games don't force you to rely on sheer luck to win. There are plenty out there which encourage the use of logic and quick thinking to seize victory, which makes for a more satisfying experience overall as a result. All manner of puzzle games have enjoyed a wide level of success on 3DS, but MindFeud from...
To sum up
Puzzle games are ten-a-penny these days and usually take the form of a clone of an existing puzzle game – most notably Bejeweled – so it's nice to see new ideas sprouting forth from developers such as those found in Sumico for the 3DS. Does its shiny new gameplay offer something fresh and enjoyable, or is it puzzle pitfall? The basic...
April2014
Review Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove (3DS eShop)
Dire, dire docs
You know the drill. Mysterious, seemingly-abandoned location. Haunting atmosphere. Looming tragedy that unfolds through documents you find scattered around. It's a formula that works well for video games in general. As an interactive medium, the scares can be taken to a whole other level in the right hands. The mere fact that you...
November2013
Review Secret Mysteries in New York (3DS eShop)
Find every object, for great justice
There's a real puzzle afoot in Secret Mysteries in New York, and it has to do with the game's title itself. No, it's not our attempt to figure out whether or not the phrase "secret mysteries" qualifies as redundant; it's why the developers bothered to rename Secret Mysteries in London for its eShop release. The...
July2012
Review Flip the Core (DSiWare)
Hit or bore?
We've already seen a few shoot 'em ups pop up on DSiWare, but for the most part the selection has felt more gimmicky than traditional. Flip the Core continues that tradition with a unique "flip" design that allows you to flip the flat background planes, greatly altering the level with one push of a button. And while this interesting...
January2012
Review Flipper 2: Flush the Goldfish (DSiWare)
Flippin’ out
The DSiWare service continues to serve as a home for independent developers with innovative ideas, and Flipper 2: Flush the Goldfish is another example of that creative spirit. A sequel in name only to Flipper, this latest creation from Goodbye Galaxy Games is full of surprises. The main link to the first game can be found in the...
March2011
Review Simply Minesweeper (DSiWare)
Simply, Minesweeper
Engine Software doesn't exactly have a track record of making amazing games for DSiWare, all of its output has at the very least always been mediocre at worst and average at best. The studio has previously released Simply games for Mahjong, Sudoku and Solitaire, all of which were quite functional, but ultimately all very basic...
February2011
Review Ferryman Puzzle (DSiWare)
Is this ferry on choppy waters?
Ferryman Puzzle is the latest release from Engine Software, a developer that, aside from the Just Sing! games, has focused on DSiWare in the form of basic titles with a budget price point. The concept here will be familiar to those who have stumbled across it in Professor Layton games: you are a ferryman tasked with...
December2010
Review Just Sing! Christmas Vol. 2 (DSiWare)
Another lump of coal for this year's stockings
Last Christmas, the European DSiWare service received the karaoke title Just Sing! Christmas Songs. As you might expect, it featured a Christmas theme and asked you to sing along, but it only included two songs and proved itself as nothing more than a waste of time. Sadly, Just Sing! Christmas Vol. 2 is...
June2010
Swap 'til you drop
If you've gone anywhere near an electronic device capable of playing games in the past decade, odds are you've heard of PopCap's addictive puzzle series Bejeweled. This WiiWare release of the sequel marks the developer's first foray onto a Nintendo home console and is a worthy version, but it doesn't bring a lot new to the table...
Review Just Sing! National Anthems (DSiWare)
Off-key
How many national anthems can you sing? We're guessing you can comfortably sing your own country's anthem most of the way through, but you would probably struggle with any other country's. That's why the premise of Just Sing! National Anthems is so puzzling: a collection of five European anthems, you're unlikely to be able to – or even...
May2010
Review Simply Solitaire (DSiWare)
Here we go again
It seems that barely a week goes by without a card game being released for DSiWare, and chances are if you were after a virtual solitaire you would have bought one of the previous releases by now. However, Engine Software is hoping to tempt the undecideds with this deck of solitaire games, following the same style as its recent...
March2010
Review Simply Sudoku (DSiWare)
200 Points + 150 puzzles = 10/10?
Let’s face facts here: anyone after a Sudoku game on DSiWare is likely to have bought one by now, but Engine Software has thrown its hat into the ring with Simply Sudoku, a truly barebones package. There’s three different difficulties with fifty puzzles per difficulty, which even if your maths isn’t good...
Review Simply Mahjong (DSiWare)
Simply, mahjong
Although moderately popular around the world, no real effort is usually made to release mahjong-based video games in the west. Only recently did the Wii finally get two downloadable ones, and now it's DSiWare's turn. As the title hints, this game consists of mahjong and mahjong only. In particular, it's the game type that is also...
December2009
Review Just Sing! Christmas Songs (DSiWare)
Not something you'd want to find in your stocking
Developers seem to be absolutely crazy about releasing smaller versions of DS games as DSiWare downloads - just look at Bookworm and Master of Illusion as it is once again the case here. Just Sing! Christmas Songs is a small sampler of the retail game Just Sing!, which is due out sometime in 2010. As...
December2008
Will Engine Software’s WiiWare debut give you much bang for your buck?
Bang Attack is a puzzle game involving hammers, fruit and other random objects. The concept is very simple. Your screen is loaded with refilling objects: fruit on the first level, seaside objects on the second level, etc. To clear the objects from the screen you must “hammer...
