March2015
Review Gardening Mama 2: Forest Friends (3DS)
Wilted beyond saving
The 'Mama' series is renowned for being a huge success on the more casual side of the gaming market, most famously for the Cooking Mama series which doesn't actually involve preparing the titular character for consumption. It's inevitable then that Mama would take additional avenues in her quest for motion-controlled dominance,...
October2014
Review Cooking Mama 5: Bon Appétit (3DS)
M-I-X the flour into the bowl
Majesco’s Mama is nothing if not prolific; with nearly a dozen main titles and spin-offs on DS, 3DS, Wii, and iOS, spanning genres as diverse as gardening, babysitting, and crafting, it’s easy to forget that it all started with a whisk in 2006’s Cooking Mama for the DS. Mama may have branched out since then, but...
January2014
Review Zumba Fitness: World Party (Wii U)
Around the world in 80 calories
A modern take on Sweatin' to the Oldies with party-people style, the dance-fitness sensation known as Zumba has become incredibly popular over the last decade, and been perfectly positioned to take advantage of the video-game fitness craze started with Wii Fit. Now, after three successful outings on the Wii, Majesco's...
October2013
Review Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff (Wii U)
Not the best quest ever
Have you ever read a book on parenting? Libraries full of instruction manuals exist on how to raise a child properly, ranging from topics such as bathing to teething to using the potty for the first time. Imagine, if you will, that there was a video game version of those books. A video game designed entirely to teach children...
March2012
Tiny ship, big adventure
There's a new threat to civilization, and this time it's something we can't see: the Nanostray virus, which is deadly enough to serve as an immediate threat to humanity as we know it. The solution? Well, as anyone who's seen Fantastic Voyage (or, erm...Innerspace) knows, it's time to shrink a spacecraft down to microscopic...
August2010
Shooting star
Shoot 'em ups are a rare thing on the DS. Even with the rise of DSiWare last year, we have still seen little in the way of more traditional shooters for the console. Early release Nanostray was one of the first games to step up to the challenge and fortunately, it doesn't disappoint. Published back in 2005 by Majesco, the game is a...
March2010
Review Data East Arcade Classics (Wii)
Some golden oldies from an arcade pioneer
Data East Corp. was one of the original wave of Japanese video game developers that had their wares appear in American arcades at the beginning of the 1980s. They didn't have as big a string of hits as contemporaries like Namco, Konami, Taito or Sega, but they did release a few titles that gamers above a...
February2010
Luchador's lament
Lucha Libre has an interesting history and place in Mexican culture and luchadores can be viewed in the same light as Japanese sumo (unsurprisingly Lucha Libre has a strong following in Japan as well): real-life super-heroes. Like super heroes, most luchadores wear masks and go to great lengths to maintain an air of mystery about...
December2009
Review Hot and Cold: A 3D Hidden Object Adventure (DSiWare)
Will it light your fire or stink on ice?
"Find the Hidden Object" games used to be the realm of books and magazine puzzles, but recently computer and video game versions have become more and more popular. This past Monday Majesco Entertainment made their DSi Shop debut with Hot and Cold: A 3D Hidden Object Adventure, where they take the...
November2009
Review A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia (Virtual Console / NES)
An innovative gameplay idea that's beginning to feel a bit dated.
There's no denying that the original NES release of A Boy and His Blob brought some fairly unique gameplay ideas to the table when it was released in 1989. David Crane, who'd already seen success with his Atari 2600 hit Pitfall, brought a few ideas from his classic and combined it...
October2009
Review A Boy and His Blob (Wii)
Now this is how you're supposed to update a classic
Originally released in 1989 on the NES console, A Boy and His Blob was quickly praised for its originality and unique gameplay ideas. Unfortunately, it was also criticized for its often sluggish control system and sometimes confusing level designs. Over the years several developers have created...
Review MechAssault: Phantom War (DS)
A stomping good game?
MechWarrior. You’ve got to love it. The very concept of stomping around in your own personal giant robot, crushing things underfoot and blowing things up really is the sort of thing we gamers live for. Go on, admit it: every one of you has at some point had ‘the MechWarrior fantasy’. Up until 2002 however, the MechWarrior...
July2009
There's a whole lot of blasting going on, but how does it all work?
User-generated content in games goes all the way back to titles like Bill Budge's Pinball Construction set on 8-bit home computers and first-person shooters like Doom and Quake, but it's not something that's ever really been prominent in console games due to both system storage...
April2009
Mama trades her spatula for a shovel; will the result be a blossom of fun, or a game only a Mama could love?
Our bright-eyed Mama is back and this time instead of breaking eggs, mixing ingredients and needing dough to make mouth watering recipes, your task is to grow a garden that rivals Eden. As with the entire Mama series this final goal will be...
August2007
Review Guilty Gear: Dust Strikers (DS)
The cult 2D fighting game series makes its debut on the Nintendo DS, but has the magic of the previous titles been retained?
The Nintendo DS often represents a rather difficult proposition for developers. The unique nature of the hardware can sometimes pose a significant stumbling block when it comes to porting existing franchises to the popular...
February2007
As I have already stated in my preview the concept for Cooking Mama is utterly fantastic. To think that there are still companies out there that want to be original, that want to make something new and that want make use of Nintendo’s technology is quite heart warming to me.
Cooking Mama might not be the best game you’ll ever play. In fact – I...
