Retro News

May2010

  • Review Robin Hood: The Return of Richard (WiiWare)

    Another porting disaster

    WiiWare has already seen a few ports of iPhone games, but this one in particular has to take the cake as the laziest of all. A shooting gallery game based around the legend of Robin Hood, you must protect the people of Nottingham from the seemingly endless hordes of knights running around. As this is a Wii game we're talking...

  • Review Real Crimes: Jack the Ripper (DSiWare)

    This is how criminology used to work?

    Don't be misled by the title of Real Crimes: Jack the Ripper. Neither the notorious serial killer nor crime solving itself really serve as anything more than a framework for I Spy -esque seek-and-find puzzles. Nevertheless, once you realise what this game's all about, you might end up having a lot of fun while...

  • Review Art Style: light trax (WiiWare)

    Racing takes a puzzling turn

    After a year-long DSiWare detour, the Art Style series has returned to WiiWare with one of the series' most action-oriented entries so far. It may look like a simple racer, but as the Art Style series has proven time and time again that looks can be deceiving. light trax is an updated version of the Japan-only bit...

  • Review Star Trek: Tactical Assault (DS)

    Tactics, but not as we know them

    Developer Quicksilver Software is no stranger to the Star Trek licence, having developed the well-regarded Starfleet Command for the PC, which is itself an attempt to deliver a computerised version of the venerable board game Star Fleet Battles. Tactical Assault is essentially a stab at a port of Starfleet Command to...

  • Review Advanced Circuits (DSiWare)

    A puzzler that keeps chugging along

    There's certainly no denying that, a year in, the DSiWare service has quickly filled up with puzzlers, maybe even more than we originally expected, so the sight of yet another making an appearance isn't too surprising. The developers at BiP Media have taken a familiar formula and woven a very challenging puzzle...

  • Review Discolight (DSiWare)

    Dancer in the dark

    The hotly-anticipated sequel to Flashlight, Discolight is the next big thing to hit DSiWare. Not familiar with it? Well, wait until you hear what it can do. It flashes different colours. In different patterns. Oh yes. Naturally there aren't many screenshots available, so here's a short video that should give you a better idea of...

  • Review Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)

    Absolutely spectacular!

    Where do you begin when talking about the Super Mario franchise and what it's brought to video gaming over the years? The series has single-handedly defined Nintendo and its consoles over the past 25 years and is showing no signs of slowing down at this point. The original Super Mario Galaxy introduced so many new gameplay...

  • Review A Topsy Turvy Life: Turvy Drops (DSiWare)

    Tetris D.I.Y.

    A Topsy Turvy Life: Turvy Drops puts an interesting spin on a classic puzzle game and presents a fairly bare-bones package thereof, resulting in an entertaining little release. Its basic conceit is Tetris with a twist – as opposed to waiting for the right pieces to drop, you'll draw those pieces with the stylus, clicking empty...

  • Review Frogger Returns (DSiWare)

    Guess who's back... again

    He may not have gone anywhere in the hearts of classic gamers, but Frogger is apparently back again. This DSiWare edition of Frogger Returns is essentially the same game as on WiiWare, albeit without the underwhelming multiplayer of that version. The stages, modes, power-ups and graphics are largely all the same (although...

  • News Lords of Shadow to Feature Classic Nintendo Castlevania Music

    Super Castlevania IV's brilliant soundtrack is coming back from the dead

    Castlevania producer David Cox has tweeted that the upcoming PS3/360 title Lords of Shadow is to feature classic tunes from older instalments of the series - more specifically the fourth title, which appeared on the SNES in 1991. Here's the tweet: Today I heard the waterfall...

  • Review Blood Beach (WiiWare)

    Total misfire

    Usually when a game is released with so little marketing it's enough to raise suspicions about its quality, but enough excellent WiiWare titles have emerged seemingly from nowhere over the years to make us reconsider those age-old presumptions. Then along comes a title like Blood Beach to remind us exactly why they existed in the first...

  • Review Looksley's Line Up (DSiWare)

    Great idea marred by a crap camera

    Lookskley's Line Up should be a near-perfect game. It's beautiful, immersive and inventive. It fails, however, to perfect the area in which it innovates, and the experience suffers as a result. The game does something quite creative with the system's hardware, and that's to use the camera to track the player's...

  • Review Kirby Super Star (Wii Virtual Console / Super Nintendo)

    Suck on this!

    Kirby Super Star made its debut on the Super Nintendo console in 1996, and although the game came late in the system's lifecycle, it's gone on to become one of the most sought-after games in the series. Now with the release of the game on the Virtual Console, Wii fans can enjoy the classic in all of its original glory. The gameplay of...

  • Review Flips: More Bloody Horowitz (DSiWare)

    More bloody Flips

    A 14-year-old boy and his mysterious octogenarian neighbour he can't seem to get out of his head. A murder gone horribly, horribly, horribly, laughably, horribly wrong. The whiniest family of reluctant tourists ever to visit New York City. All of these tales, a "horror" soundboard and more await in EA's latest Flips entry...

  • Review Fire Panic (DSiWare)

    There will be panic when you buy this game!

    A simple, fast-paced, arcady DSiWare game that costs only 200 DSi Points. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a few things, actually. There couldn't possibly be any less to Fire Panic's objective. Fires are breaking out all over the city, so the mayor has given you the task of sending out two fire trucks...

  • Review BIT.TRIP RUNNER (WiiWare)

    Running down a dream

    The BIT.TRIP series is one of the shining stars of Nintendo's WiiWare service. The simplicity of the game mechanics would work well on the 30-year-old 8-bit consoles to which they pay homage, but it's the intelligence of design and music-rhythm aspect that makes them so addictive. BIT.TRIP RUNNER is the latest entry in the...

  • Review Brain Drain (DSiWare)

    Cerebral bore

    A version of Brain Drain has already released on WiiWare in North America, and now it's Europe's turn to sample its item-moving action on DSiWare. They both share the same basic principle: rearrange objects into a specific pattern displayed on the top screen as quickly as possible. The best reference is a sliding block puzzle, only you...

  • Podcast NLFM Episode 6: Epic

    Space, monsters and boss battles, oh my

    It's been a while, space cats, but NLFM is back with another mighty handsome selection of the finest chip and game music around. This time we're splitting chip tunes and swirling epics right down the middle, with equal parts fantastic on both sides. NLFM generally focuses on music from games playable on...

  • Review Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials & Tribulations (WiiWare)

    Phoenix Wrong

    Capcom's Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series on DS has become a popular staple of the system over the past few years, combining a novel-style courtroom presentation with many of the unique gameplay functions of the DS system itself. The end product has been a very engaging gaming experience that allows players to feel like a part of an...

  • 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...

  • Review U.N. Squadron (SNES)

    Another Capcom classic

    With various versions of Street Fighter II, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, a bunch of Mega Man games and two exclusive Final Fight sequels, the SNES was a good machine to own for Capcom fans. They also released many other games on the platform including U.N. Squadron, a frantic side-scrolling shooter originally released in arcades in...

  • News Mark Ronson Mixes Legend of Zelda with New Video

    Spot the references in this one

    Mark Ronson's made a bit of a name for himself remixing and revamping other artists' tracks, so it's no surprise to see the video for his new track Circuit Breaker take inspiration from other sources. Nobody expected it to borrow so heavily from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, though. With a...

  • Review Metal Torrent (DSiWare)

    Bullet hell with training wheels

    Most gamers are familiar with "bullet hell" shooters: shoot-'em-ups with so many enemy projectiles that over half the screen is covered in them at most times. Despite this, however, many Western gamers haven't actually played any (as a lot of them are Japan-exclusive) and only know them from YouTube videos...

  • Review Rytmik (DSiWare)

    Music to your ears

    It's tough to know how to approach Rytmik: it has no game elements whatsoever, only existing to allow you to create beautiful (and sometimes not-so beautiful) music. Although its complexity is initially off-putting, spend some time with it and you'll realise it's a very competent and enjoyable music studio. One of the most...

  • Review Flips: Silent But Deadly (DSiWare)

    You get the picture

    The range of Flips books available on DSiWare keeps on growing, with Silent but Deadly the latest in the Too Ghoul for School range released. With the same interface and style as previous entries in the series, you won’t be surprised to hear it “plays” as well as the other entries, with a smooth page-turning system making...

  • News MadWorld Director's Tango Appointment Has Nothing to Do with Dancing

    The Capcom vein runs deep

    It's always sad when a developer leaves a company responsible for giving us one of the more original and much-needed shake-ups in the Wii's library of games, but it's also interesting to see where they end up going. Shigenori Nishikawa, director of MadWorld, is to leave Platinum Games for a position at Tango, Shiji Mikami's...

  • Review Crazy Golf (DSiWare)

    Miniature golf, billiards and marbles all rolled into one

    We've already seen a few attempts at golf on DSiWare, some obviously better than others, but we haven't seen one quite like Crazy Golf yet. Instead of merely sticking with a simple miniature golf gameplay theme, the developers have instead tossed in some marble and billiard influences to...

  • Review Bounce & Break (DSiWare)

    Slowpoke

    When you think "zen," odds are your mind goes to little bonsai trees and smooth rocks littered about. There might even be a small frog hanging out on a water lily as cherry blossom petals sprinkle the pond. When applied to a game you'd expect a slower pace and possibly some cherry blossom petals, but Enjoy's Bounce & Break...

  • News Fan-Made Fighter Video Shows Classic Characters' Violent Sides

    Nintendo, Hudson Namco and Konami all get in on the act

    A good fan-made video brightens up the dullest of days, but one that sees Kirby digest a monkey, Link fire a bazooka and Michael Jackson appear as the ultimate end boss? It's like your birthday and Christmas all at once. That's The King of Famicom for you, a fan video showing classic characters...

  • Review Sin and Punishment: Star Successor (Wii)

    Treasure's cult classic returns for a second helping of laser death

    When the original Sin and Punishment was passed over for Western release back in 2000 it marked one of the cruellest injustices video gaming has ever experienced. Thankfully this crime has now been partially rectified by the release of Treasure's gloriously chaotic cult classic on...

  • Review 1001 Crystal Mazes Collection (DSiWare)

    Chump's challenge

    Every so often a developer realizes a concept so simple and fun that for as long as games are made, other developers will replicate and modify its formula again and again. Sokoban is one such game, and 1001 Crystal Mazes Collection is one such replication. Not that copying a classic design is inherently bad; Windows users of old...

  • News Kick Back and Relax with Some Super Mario Kart Jazz

    The OneUps take guitars, organs, flute to classic soundtrack

    Since Super Mario Kart launched on the European Virtual Console just a few weeks ago we've had those catchy ditties stuck in our heads all over again. Imagine our joy, then, when we stumbled upon a fully re-recorded and rather lovely-sounding soundtrack from The OneUps. Taking ten classic...

  • News Unreal Famicom Games are... Well, Unreal

    Famicase project shows off 2010 line-up

    The humble Famicom cartridge may not seem like the perfect canvas on which to create art, but every year Japanese game shop Meter hosts Famicase, a project aiming to prove just the opposite. Artists are asked to create artwork for a fictitious game and display it on a Famicom cart, and predictably the results...

  • Review Bloons (DSiWare)

    Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont

    Bloons has already made an appearance on WiiWare, where it didn't exactly bowl us over. Now it reaches DSiWare with a few much-needed improvements, and in places it's quite the fun little puzzle game: it's challenging enough to captivate fans of the genre and other serious gamers, but might be a bit too difficult to...

  • Review Kung Fu Funk (WiiWare)

    Kung Fu Fail

    No wonder people hate the Wii. It's been four years since the world's first real stab at a motion-based console launched, bringing the excellent Wii Sports along to define the grammar of the innovative controller. It didn't take long for me-too developers to begin pumping out cheap minigame compilations that totally ignored why Wii...

  • Review 2010 FIFA World Cup (Wii)

    A semi-final runner-up

    FIFA used to be the console equivalent of a 0-0 draw, but the past few years have seen it emerge again as the dominant football game on the market. Last year's FIFA 10 was an enjoyable arcade-style take on the sport, and 2010 FIFA World Cup is a very similar game but featuring all the teams, arenas and pageantry of the...

  • News Unfinished Virtual Boy Game Bound High Finally Released

    Unfinished title sees the red light of day at last

    There's nothing we love more here at Nintendo Life than a good story of triumph against the odds: a plumber defeating a fire-breathing lizard; a hedgehog stopping the plans of an evil genius; and the continued hard work of ardent fans that finally saw Bound High, an unreleased Virtual Boy game, to a...

  • Review DJ Hero (Wii)

    Definitely worthy of a rewind

    Whether you like them or not, the Guitar Hero series has done a lot to popularise the rhythm genre in contemporary gaming, and although the premise of hitting buttons to the beat isn't exactly new, you have to give them credit for the success they have garnished. However, after years of seeing essentially the same game...

  • 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...

  • Review Ferrari GT Evolution (DSiWare)

    Drivers may want to exercise caution

    Ferrari GT Evolution is a decent arcade-esque racing game. It looks quite good, handles well and has enough gameplay variety to keep things interesting, but you'll have to return to certain tracks far too many times before progressing to warrant a stronger recommendation. The meat of the game is Career mode, in...

  • Review Scrabble Slam! (DSiWare)

    More of a slap, really

    Scrabble Slam! is a different take on word puzzles for DSiWare. Instead of searching out pre-determined ones or collecting letters to spell elaborate words for maximum pointage, Slam! gives you a hand of cards with letters, puts four starter cards on the table and yells "go!" The goal is to play one of your cards on...

  • Review The King of Fighters '95 (Virtual Console / Neo Geo)

    For those who like having their asses handed to them

    After having some solid success in arcades with the inaugural game in the series The King of Fighters '94, SNK wanted to try to address some of the complaints players had with the game in the sequel. Two of the biggest complaints were the inability to customise your own team lineups and the...

  • Review Brain Drain (WiiWare)

    A drain on your brain... or on your lifespan?

    Brain Drain asks you to look at a pattern of objects, then scrambles those objects and tasks you with the job of unscrambling them. It's rather like having your Mom throw all of your stuff on the floor and then tell you to pick it up. Some people enjoy this sort of treatment, masochists and puzzle fans...

April2010

  • Review Puffins: Let's Roll (DSiWare)

    Let's not

    It's kind of a bummer when games come out with controls that just don't fit the platform. This wasn't much of a problem a mere generation ago, but with the plethora of options today ranging from button to motion and touch it's become more prevalent an issue. Other Ocean, behind the excellent Dark Void Zero, has fallen into this very trap...

  • News Fancy Playing Super Mario Bros. With Other Nintendo Characters? Now You Can

    Mario gets by with a little help from his friends

    Overly-creative gamers may, from time to time, wish that protagonists from different games would swap roles and see if the grass is indeed greener. We've often wondered what it would be like to have a Mario-centric GTA-style game, complete with unsavoury weapons and potty mouth. Well now it seems...

  • Review DodoGo! (DSiWare)

    Does it crack under the pressure?

    For anyone that's even played Lemmings or Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, you'll have a pretty good idea of what to expect from DodoGo!. Your goal in each level is to guide at least one of the eggs back to the nest safely. If you want to earn medals, however, you're going to have to get all the eggs...

  • Review Earthworm Jim (DSiWare)

    A slippery customer

    Like previous platforming conversion Rayman, Earthworm Jim is something of a missed opportunity. Fondly remembered by many gamers from its original outing on Mega Drive and Super Nintendo, Earthworm Jim was a welcome antidote to the huge numbers of cutesy animal platformers with its bizarre attitude and plenty of character...

  • Review 5 Arcade Gems (WiiWare)

    Gems? More like paste.

    The term "arcade" has seemingly come to be synonymous with a game that has a "pick-up-and-play" feel to it, just as arcade games of old. Of course the motivation of manufacturers of these arcade machines was to encourage players to drop coins on games they hadn't seen before, in the hopes they would enjoy...

  • Review Don't Feed the Animals (DSiWare)

    Un-bear-able

    In Don't Feed the Animals, you play a child who, with his or her friends, has stored a bunch of candy at a fort. On your way to eat said candy, wave after wave of covetous animals bombard the clubhouse. You must protect the candy – all twenty pieces of it – with robots. There are three robots that you can use in your defence:...

  • Review The Will of Dr. Frankenstein (WiiWare)

    You don't want to inherit anything from this!

    Enjoy Gaming seems to enjoy bringing us smaller versions of games they've released at retail. System Flaw Recruit was their first time doing this, and now they've done it again. The Will of Dr. Frankenstein is a prequel to The Island of Dr. Frankenstein, a Wii game that has, curiously enough, been...

  • Review Mahjong Quest Expeditions (DS)

    A fresh update to an old-time classic

    Let's get something out of the way right now: Mahjong Quest Expeditions has nothing to do with the game of mahjong (a four-player game more akin to gin rummy or poker): it's a solitaire game which is played using the same tiles and there the similarities end. Nevertheless it can be a fun diversion and the fact...

  • News A $50,000 Cure for Virtual Boy Headaches

    Play it on the TV with this handy accessory!

    3D gaming is on the cusp of being cool again after some of the remarkable damage done to its reputation by Nintendo's less-than stellar Virtual Boy machine. The onset of eyestrain and headaches did the machine no favours, but if you've picked one up and fancy playing it on a more comfortable surface, such...

  • News The Real Mario's Yearbook Photo is Unearthed

    Along with details of his past

    Back when Nintendo was still trying to gain a foothold in the US market the company rented a warehouse owned by a fellow called Mario Segale. Legend has it that NOA President Minoru Arakawa was taken aback by the similarity between Segale and the lead character of Donkey Kong - an arcade title which Nintendo was...

  • Review Game & Watch Flagman (DSiWare)

    A game you might want to flag down

    Flagman might not be one of the top tier Game & Watch titles, but it's still quite entertaining if you've got a few minutes to kill. The game borrows heavily from many of the memory-type games of the era: one that immediately comes to mind is the classic Milton Bradley electronic game Simon. As with most of the...

  • Review Surviving High School (DSiWare)

    If only the real thing were this much fun

    With this downloadable title, EA provides a very entertaining and engrossing experience that many will unfortunately write off based on its name alone. The game is almost completely text-based, which means that there aren't any explosions or fancy graphics, but the story and characters are funny and...

  • Review myPostcards (DSiWare)

    Maybe a bit too simplistic for its own good

    We haven't seen a significant amount of apps made available on the DSiWare service to date, but that hasn't stopped Nnooo from tossing a couple into the mix with their ongoing myLifeConnected suite of DSiWare applications. We've already seen the release of myNotebook in various colours and now the company...

  • News Dedicated Castlevania Fan Beats NES Version With Dance Mat

    Virtual Console port is bested using some smooth moves

    Those of you brave enough to have downloaded the Virtual Console port of the original NES Castlevania will be aware that the game is hard. As in tough-as-old-boots hard. Here at Nintendo Life Towers we've lost count of the number of NES pads we've broken over the years attempting to put Drac...

  • Review System Flaw Recruit (DSiWare)

    Seriously flawed

    Essentially a first-person Space Invaders, System Flaw Recruit uses the DSi’s external camera in a crude form of augmented reality. The bottom screen displays a radar showing enemies in your proximity, and the top screen lets you line up the targets with your reticule. When the alien craft get within a certain range they attack,...

  • Review Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love (Wii)

    Genre-mashing cinematic robot-girly goodness

    It might seem surprising that one of Sega's longest-running and most successful franchises would never have seen the light of day outside of Japan, possibly a result of it being perceived as "too Japanese". namely due to a strong adventure game component which is commonly referred to as a...

  • Review Kaiju Busters (DS)

    A monster disappointment

    Kaiju Busters (or "Monster Busters" as its effective English translation goes) is just one in a long line of monster-based video games that we don’t often get to see in the West. This handheld effort from Bandai Namco inevitably draws comparisons with Capcom’s massively popular Monster Hunter games, and in that...

  • Review Pocket Pack: Words & Numbers (DSiWare)

    Five very basic games in one

    We've already got more than enough Sudoku games on DSiWare, but thankfully that's not the only thing included in this collection. Pocket Pack: Words & Numbers offers a total of five different games: Sudoku, Kakuro, Anagrams, Word Guess and Word Cubes. And while it's a jack of all trades, it's a master of none. We...

  • Review Game & Watch Donkey Kong Jr. (DSiWare)

    A rather snappy LCD version of the arcade release

    The first thing you'll notice about Donkey Kong Jr. Game & Watch is that it's clearly a lot more playable than many of the other Game & Watch releases. Not only are there more ways to do more, but now you have four-way controls, not to mention a jump button. The vine layout is also something...

  • News NES Autographed by Miyamoto Sells for Just $1000

    And not a penny more

    How much would you pay for a working Nintendo Entertainment System signed by Shigeru Miyamoto? $1,000? More? If you answered the latter, you've missed your opportunity to bid on this item, sold today on eBay for just a cool thousand. Of course, the buyer may just put the system up for auction again, as surely someone would be...

  • Review Game & Watch Ball (DSiWare)

    A load of old balls

    Before the world-crushing DS, before the Game Boy began its decade-plus of supremecy, Nintendo’s handheld division began with the humble Game & Watch line, which started with the even more humble Ball in 1980. Over the past 30 years, odds are good that if you’ve had any interest in the company’s portables you’ve come...

  • Review Monster Hunter 3 (Tri~) (Wii)

    A tri-umph

    Monster Hunter Tri has a lot resting on its broad warrior’s shoulders. An online-enabled, unashamedly hardcore title for Wii with huge amounts of advertising and hype behind it, anything less than a critical and commercial success would be a huge blow to Capcom, as well as Nintendo’s never-ending crusade to market the Wii as a great...

  • Review AiRace (DSiWare)

    Bet you can't deduce what this one's about

    The first time we entered the AiRace universe, if you will, was through the simple and fun 200 Point DSiWare tidbit AiRace: Tunnel. While it was a satisfying arcade flight experience, it felt more like a bonus mode that was chopped out of a larger game. AiRace is that larger game. With more aircraft, actual...

  • Review Mega Man 4 (Wii Virtual Console / NES)

    A bit weak, but still a good game

    With both Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3 ranking among the best NES games ever made, many people were quite excited when Capcom announced a fourth entry in the series back in 1991. After all, if they managed to make it even better, it would be pretty much near perfection! Sadly, it didn't quite turn out as people hoped...

  • News Mario Leaps Across the Virtual Pages of Kindle

    Amazon presumably thrilled

    You might have an Amazon Kindle e-reader, but chances are you probably don't: all that reading is understandably off-putting. You know what might brighten it up? Some Mario, of course. That was seemingly the thought process over at Klab, a Japanese company behind a NES emulator for Kindle. Although it's perhaps best not to...

  • Review 7 Card Games (DSiWare)

    Fold!

    7 Card Games makes no effort to disguise its simplicity. It is what it is: seven card games, no more, no less. There’s no fluff, no extras and no incentive to play beyond the desire for quick, cheap, 500 Point fun. You might enjoy it while waiting for the train or before bedtime, but beyond that this game holds very little potential for...

  • Review The Price is Right (DSiWare)

    No it isn't

    Guess a number. Wrong. Wait ten seconds, then guess again. Wrong. Wait ten seconds, then guess again. Wrong. Now all this exciting number-guessing action can be yours to own with the release of Ludia’s The Price is Right for DSiWare! Yes, you too can estimate the prices of fanciful items you can’t win, compete against AI opponents...

  • Review Mortal Kombat II (Game Boy)

    A kut down but kompetent konversion

    Smoother gameplay, new moves and more characters than its predecessor made Mortal Kombat II a hit with arcade players. The Game Boy port of the first Mortal Kombat had been a sluggish, border-line unplayable mess with terrible music so it seems unlikely anyone would have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the...

  • Review AlphaBounce (DSiWare)

    Quite possibly the best Arkanoid clone ever

    AlphaBounce started out life as a free to play online game. Borrowing heavily from Arkanoid and other "move the paddle to bounce the ball and break the blocks" games, it added a few rather unique twists, rather than being almost a direct copy like most of them are. The game focuses on one of...

  • Review Zombie Panic in Wonderland (WiiWare)

    Beware the zombies of luuurve

    Love and zombies aren't normally associated with each other — except possibly a love of eating brains — but in Akaoni Studio's Zombie Panic in Wonderland the titular enemies are all about hugging people to death in the fairy-tale setting of Wonderland. In the main Story mode you'll find yourself in the role of...

  • Review Learning with the PooYoos - Episode 2 (WiiWare)

    Another little game for your littlest ones

    Game consoles are perhaps too grown-up for your pre-kindergarteners to fully understand, and it doesn't help that there aren't many games geared toward very young children in the Wii Shop, but Lexis Numérique is slowly working to change that. Learning with the PooYoos: Episode 2 is a continuation of the...

  • Review Rune Factory: Frontier (Wii)

    Everyone could use a good plough

    If there’s one thing guaranteed to liven up a good hack-and-slash dungeon crawler, it’s a bit of farming. There’s many a Zelda game that could have been saved with a bit of ploughing, yet the combination has been mostly ignored by cultivators of digital goods, with only the snack-sized Rune Factory on DS...

  • Review Game & Watch Manhole (DSiWare)

    Everyone walks all over a nice guy

    The Game & Watch series was Nintendo's first real foray into the world of portable video gaming. Designed by Gunpei Yokoi, who would later mastermind the grey-brick Game Boy we all know and love, these handheld electronic games featured an LCD display, a tinny speaker, and just enough buttons to complete the...

  • Review Game & Watch Helmet (DSiWare)

    When tools fall from the sky, just stay home that day

    We should all be very glad that affordable portable video game technology has moved beyond the rudimentary LCD screen of the Game & Watch. Not that there haven't been any worthwhile endeavours to come out of the series, but when you're stuck designing your game around strict on-screen...

  • Review Game & Watch Vermin (DSiWare)

    Everyone loves to whack it!

    Before the days of Game Boys and DS systems, Nintendo manufactured a small portable game device called the Game & Watch. These electronic games featured LCD screens that featured specific movements that could be controlled via various buttons and D-pads on the units. While they didn't feature the same type of...

  • Review Mr. Driller: Drill Till You Drop (DSiWare)

    All driller, no filler

    Mr. Driller has become quite a beloved arcade puzzler over the years and after a solid WiiWare release, it seems Namco Bandai thought it might be time for the game to make an appearance on DSiWare as well. Now puzzle fans looking for a little arcade digging action can enjoy the game on the go and with a nice added set of...

  • Review Avalon Code (DS)

    Not a code breaker

    Role playing games are rapidly becoming a staple genre for the Nintendo DS, with more and more quality titles arriving on the handheld. With Final Fantasy games, Dragon Quest releases and even new titles in the form of Nostalgia and Sands of Destruction, there is a lot of competition among a crowded market so

  • Review Infinite Space (DS)

    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...

  • Review Puzzle to Go Diddl (DSiWare)

    Just change the puzzles and release what is essentially the same game for more money!

    A while ago we got Puzzle to Go Wildlife, a relatively decent jigsaw puzzle game marred by one major flaw: over half the puzzles had to be unlocked, which took an eternity. Did developer Tivola learn their lesson from this or not? For this second Puzzle to Go...

  • Review Fishie Fishie (WiiWare)

    All-you-can-eat fish feeding frenzy

    Fish have been a staple of games ever since Herman Melville adapted Moby Dick for Babbage's legendary Difference Engine and the posthumous sequel, Moby Dick 2: Queequeg's Revenge, was published for the PDP-11 . Certainly on WiiWare we've seen some real blockbusters centred around our finny cousins, prompting many...

  • Review Super Mario Sunshine (GCN)

    Water, water everywhere so let's all have a drink!

    Mario made his 3D platforming debut on the N64 way back in 1996 in one of the greatest and most influential pieces of gaming ever. Fast forward the clock six years and you'll find Nintendo's attempt to beat the near unbeatable in Mario's next adventure, but in order to top its predecessor a hefty...

  • Podcast NLFM Episode 5: Dark Side of the Mario

    Shake your plumber bootie

    It's been a while, space cats, but NLFM is back with another mighty handsome selection of the finest chip and game music around. This time we're going to listen in on what makes Mario groove, go East/West (who knows?!) with the Kusagari and see just how epic one man can make the NES. NLFM generally focuses on music from...

  • Review Grill-Off with Ultra Hand! (WiiWare)

    You get what you pay for

    For a video game rewards programme, Club Nintendo is dishearteningly light on actual video games. Apart from arguably overpriced Game & Watch DS collections and a year-end bonus for Elite members in the form of Doc Louis' Punch-Out!!, rewards have mostly been items such as posters and playing cards. But now, for a mere...

  • Review Save the Turtles (DSiWare)

    Tiny turtles bring big puzzle pleasure

    Sea turtles begin life as vulnerable little creatures. Provided they actually survive the process of incubation and hatching and manage to dig their way out of their buried nests, they often become disoriented on their way to the ocean and, worse yet, they make perfect snacks for local wildlife. With Save the...

  • Review Disney Fireworks (DSiWare)

    All flash, no bang

    Combining both loud noises and pretty colors (things we've been conditioned from birth to stare at in awe), there's something magical about a good fireworks display. Disney is well-known for the nightly shows put on at their assorted theme parks, and now their game-developing arm has brought the fun to the DSi Shop in the form of...

March2010

  • Review Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber (Virtual Console / Nintendo 64)

    One of the N64's only strategy titles, but also the best

    Last year, the Virtual Console brought us Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, the "fifth" title in the Ogre Battle series (although none of the first four chapters in the story actually exist.) An incredibly rare game, it was also one of the best strategy titles on the SNES, allowing...

  • Feature The Making of Star Fox

    We go behind the scenes to discover how a small UK code-house helped Nintendo enter the realm of 3D – and make millions in the process

    In these days of ultra-realistic graphical plenty it’s all too easy to forget that for console gamers, 3D visuals didn’t really become par for the course until the advent of the 32-bit technology in the...

  • News Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon Gets The NES Treatment

    Classic rock album is re-imagined on the vintage 8-bit

    Pink Floyd may be a band that your dad was into when he was younger but that doesn't deny them the privilege of being one of rock music's all-time greatest acts, and their magnum opus The Dark Side of the Moon still sounds amazing even today. But you know what would make it sound even more...

  • Review WarioWare: D.I.Y. Showcase (WiiWare)

    A nice little added bonus.

    We've just recently seen the release of WarioWare D.I.Y. for the DS system which lets players design, play, and share their own unique microgame creations. But for those who feel like enjoying even more of the same, not to mention the ability to play and share their creations on their television screens, Nintendo has just...

  • Review Nintendo DSi Metronome (DSiWare)

    It's a metronome

    The DSi wasn't intended just for games; part of the meaning of the "i" is in reference to using it as a "personal tool," according to some Nintendo rep who may or may not have been full of it. We've already seen some fairly useless applications hit the service already, lending credence to this, so it makes a...

  • Review Nintendo DSi Instrument Tuner (DSiWare)

    It's an instrument tuner

    The DSi wasn't intended just for games; part of the meaning of the "i" is in reference to using it as a "personal tool," according to some Nintendo rep who may or may not have been full of it. We've already seen some fairly useless applications hit the service already, lending credence to this, so it...

  • Review Diner Dash (WiiWare)

    Warmed-up leftovers

    From the description you might think Diner Dash is a throwaway mini-game: guide office block refugee Flo through her dream job of running her own chain of restaurants with gameplay centred around seating customers, keeping them happy and getting big tips. It's best not to write it off as it's actually quite a fun game (think...

  • News Eminem Prepping Donkey Kong High Score Attempt?

    Rapper's Tweet suggests he's a mean Kong player

    Considering it's a crusty old arcade machine from a few decades back Donkey Kong sure is grabbing a lot of headlines recently. First there was the amazing King of Kong movie based around Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell's titanic struggle to achieve the best DK score in history. More recently we're seen...

  • Review Gangstar 2: Kings of L.A. (DSiWare)

    Sample the sweet taste of crime

    If you weren't interested in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars but still hanker for some big city crime drama, you might be drawn to Gameloft's latest DSiWare release, Gangstar 2: Kings of LA. Taking the GTA template to a download title and offering it all for 500 Points should be a pretty sweet deal, but once you've...

  • Review Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces (Wii)

    A sky full of aces

    Air combat games are a rarity on the Wii, which is quite surprising considering the tilt sensors on the Remote and Nunchuk have been demonstrated to be the most reliable form of motion control available on the Wii. Thankfully Namco Bandai have decided to step into the breach with Project Aces' excellent movie tie-in Sky Crawlers:...

  • Review Super Yum Yum: Puzzle Adventures (DSiWare)

    Fairly yummy

    First released for mobile phones and iPhone, Super Yum Yum is a puzzle game in which you play as Leon the chameleon, attempting to recover all your children and your large supply of fruit, all of which have been stolen by Ms. Tum Tum, a big blue creature with a large appetite. After a quick tutorial level you'll be thrust into action...

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