May2011
Review Thor: God of Thunder (Wii)
Thundering quest or blundering pest?
The Asgardian warrior Sif has fallen, and Thor, son of Odin, wields his mighty hammer Mjölnir with vengeance. His mischievous brother Loki seizes this opportunity and uses Thor's rage to engineer an attack on their home, resulting in the fall of the Nine Worlds. It's a story well suited to its mythological roots...
April2011
It'll take more than a new lick of paint to save this franchise
When High Voltage Software first decided to enter the Wii first-person shooter space, competition wasn’t exactly something they really had to worry about. Sure, there had been a few half-hearted ports of popular franchises, but The Conduit was the first proper FPS developed...
March2011
Review Super Monkey Ball 3D (3DS)
Are you ready to roll?
Since the original Super Monkey Ball released alongside Nintendo's Gamecube console back in 2001, the series has experienced a roller coaster ride with as many bumps as its level designs. While we've seen some solid releases over the years, fans have typically continued to clamor for a return to the series' roots. While Super...
November2010
All things wise and wonderful
One lament accompanied 2008’s lacklustre Sonic Unleashed more loudly than others – "why can’t Sega ditch the werehog and make the daytime stages into a complete game?" A few years later and in rushes Sonic Colours with all the usual fanfare and expectation around a new 3D Sonic game, except this time –...
All things bright and beautiful
The portable part of a hedgehog double whammy, Sonic Colours is – you guessed it – a high-speed 2D platformer. But wait, there’s more: this time Sonic is joined by a range of unique power-ups that help to refresh the standard formula. If you’ve played either of the hedgehog’s previous two outings on DS, the...
October2010
Review Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 (WiiWare)
After 15 years, 16-bit is back
The drums are perfect. That's the second thing you notice about Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I, right after Sonic runs past the Sega logo to the classic 16-bit "Say-gah!" sample. Anyone who's ever played a Sonic game will start to smile: it's off to a perfect start. That start builds momentum quickly. Splash...
September2010
Review Gunblade NY and LA Machineguns Arcade Hits Pack (Wii)
Blasts from the past
Once upon a time, on-rails shooters ruled the arcades, and arguably no company did the genre better than Sega. Whether blasting criminals in Virtua Cop, gunning down zombies in House of the Dead or taking down dinosaurs, aliens or whatever else strays in front of your barrel, Sega brought a rich collection of shooters to arcade...
July2010
Review Tournament of Legends (Wii)
Decent, but not quite legendary
We've seen quite a resurgence within the fighting game genre over the past few years, in terms of both 2D and 3D varieties. While flashy over-the-top special moves and an almost limitless arsenal of moves have become the staple of these titles, we are beginning to see a bit more innovation within the games, especially...
April2010
The DS boldly goes where no handheld has gone before
Infinite Space begins with a familiar enough RPG scenario: youthful protagonist Yuri (are protagonists in JRPGs ever anything but youthful?), trapped on an oppressive planet and dreaming of life as a space traveller, is whisked from his tedious existence by Nia Lochlain, a kind of female Han Solo...
March2010
Review Sonic Classic Collection (DS)
Hog roast
In a perfect world, there’s surely only one score we could give the first fully portable collection of the hedgehog’s finest outings: a well-deserved 10/10. SEGA’s handheld equivalent of Super Mario All-Stars, Sonic Classic Collection features the first four Sonic titles along with Knuckles’s appearance in Sonic 2 and Sonic 3,...
Review Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (DS)
Pocket rocket
Just like the Wii version, Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing on DS is up against some stiff competition, but as with its bigger brother manages to carve out a fine racing line for itself. One remarkable aspect of the DS version is how faithful it is to the home console version. All the characters, cups and unlockables are present,...
Review Bleach: The 3rd Phantom (DS)
The first tactical RPG for the modern manga classic leaves some to be desired
The 3rd Phantom is the latest Bleach game on the DS and also the first to depart from the fighting game genre. Instead, Sega have produced a tactical RPG resembling Nintendo's Fire Emblem or Sega's own Shining Force games, with players moving characters like pieces on a...
Review Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (Wii)
Constellation prize
The first hour or so you spend with Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, your brain rejects it, telling you it isn’t Mario Kart enough, or it isn’t Sega enough. You’ll wrestle with the wheel and tell yourself you could be playing Mario Kart Wii instead, but once you learn to go with it you find yourself having a blast...
Review Zaxxon (Virtual Console / Virtual Console Arcade)
One for the history books, but not for everyone
In 1982 Sega made a little gaming history with Zaxxon: the first 3D arcade game to use an isometric perspective – even more shockingly, it used sprite-based graphics at a time when 3D games were pretty much all being done with vectors. Whilst Zaxxon got a lot of attention due to its flashy graphics...
The DS' first retro sci-fi MMO
Phantasy Star Online for Dreamcast was a genuine revolution: the first-ever online RPG for consoles, it boasted an advanced translation system, free online play and stacks of action. The GameCube saw Phantasy Star Online: Episodes I & II that expanded the original game with all-new areas, weapons, monsters and...
February2010
Review ChuChu Rocket! (Game Boy Advance)
The ultimate game of space cat and mouse
Around the turn of the millennium, Sega wasn’t doing so hot. Their much-beloved Dreamcast failed to ignite the sales charts despite being home to a plethora of fantastic new and original games as well as nigh-perfect (in some cases, improved) home conversions of arcade hits. It was with a heavy heart that...
Review Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll (Wii)
Rollin' rollin' rollin', get those monkeys rollin'
One of Sega's first games for a home console of former rival Nintendo was Super Monkey Ball on the Gamecube. It quickly became a favourite among many with its simple arcade gameplay and irrepressibly cute characters. Reception for the first Wii installment, Banana Blitz, was a bit mixed due to a...
Review Sonic & Knuckles (Virtual Console / Sega Mega Drive)
Lock-on, baby
It's widely known that Sonic and Knuckles (S&K) started out as the latter half of Sonic 3, but development constraints forced SEGA to split the game in two, putting S&K onto an innovative Lock-On cartridge that, when combined with Sonic 3, pieced the game back together into its original state. Now, with the announcement that...
January2010
Review Sands of Destruction (DS)
Yet another engaging DS Japanese RPG.
There's no denying that Nintendo's DS system has seen quite a few Japanese RPG releases over the years and is quickly becoming the system of choice for fans of the genre. Imageepoch, comprised of former developers of such legendary RPG classics as Xenogears and Grandia, have once again combined their talents to...
Review Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi (Virtual Console / Sega Mega Drive)
Shinobi Joe is back, and this time he’s brought his dog
Shadow Dancer started out life in 1989 in the arcades as the sequel to the ever-popular Shinobi, which was a sizable hit for creator Sega. In the same year the company also released the rather excellent Revenge of Shinobi as an early title for the fledgling Mega Drive/Genesis. It strayed from...
December2009
Sega’s African adventure bagged and tagged.
Jambo! Safari: Animal Rescue is a bold attempt at converting the popular Arcade title to something more palatable for the home audience. Quite obviously aimed at younger gamers, this conversion basically boils down to a few veterinary minigames tacked on to the central animal-wrangling gameplay sections...
Review Pole's Big Adventure (WiiWare)
Big, crazy, amazing
This game has garnered some attention - partly because it's from Sega and it's an 8-bit retro platformer, but mostly because it's filled with the wacky humour the Japanese have come to be known for. Despite having a large amount of Japanese audio text, the humour is mostly in the form of visual video game gags that should be...
Not quite out of this world...
Well, by now you'd have already seen our review for Planet 51 on the Wii, so it's time to see how the dual-screen version of the new extra-terrestrial flick fares. Did Sega manage to blast this out of the stratosphere of gaming delight or did its cargo jettison somewhere in the atmosphere of the mundane? Just like the...
Review Alex Kidd in Shinobi World (Virtual Console / Master System)
Does Sega's original mascot go out with a bang or a whimper?
Poor Alex Kidd. The pint-sized, big-eared wonder never really caught on as a mascot, although it was not through lack of trying on Sega's part. Alex appeared in a number of games featuring vastly different forms of gameplay and, with this last throw of the dice, Sega tried to pair the...
Join the space race!
Planet 51 is based on the animated film of the same name. It’s produced by Pyro Studios, the team behind the Commandos series, and published by none other than Sega, so it should be pretty good. The problem is of course that most film to game translations are cheap and badly designed. Does Planet 51 join them? Planet 51 is a...
