Wii U eShop Game Reviews
Review The Quiet Collection (Wii U eShop)
Shh...
If you've ever gone digging through old diskettes (or, like some reviewers, are kind of old yourself), you might have come across some pixelated shareware adventures from the '90s. The Quiet Collection has four little games that feel like a love letter to these old-school distractions, in ways that are both fun and potentially frustrating...
Review KEYTARI: 8-bit Music Maker (Wii U eShop)
Weak Beats
Keytari: 8-Bit Music Maker seems to be an interesting entry in the eShop for anyone who's ever grooved along to the chiptunes that played during NES games. After hearing music from Super Mario Bros. and Mega Man for decades, Keytari tries to put the tools in your hand to make your own. Unfortunately, its limited capabilities turn it into...
Review Santa Factory (Wii U eShop)
Ho ho ho? More like no no no
XINESS Games' Santa Factory isn't likely to inspire much confidence in players over the age of five. It's clearly aimed at very small children, featuring extremely simple platforming mechanics and some light edutainment elements after each level. That being said, it's not fair to write it off for its target demographic...
Review Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Tending to the roots
If you're a fan of the Harvest Moon series, you know that a faithful instalment will leave only two questions: who do I get to marry and just how much free time can I afford to sacrifice over the next month or two? Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town sticks closer to this original formula than some of its more modern cousins,...
Review Final Fight One (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Still the One?
It's fair to say Capcom was on a roll in the late '80s and early '90s. During this period it pushed out some bona-fide classic pieces of software, including 1989's seminal coin-op brawler, Final Fight. Indisputably one of the finest side-scrolling beat-'em-ups ever created, it joined a rush of similar coin-guzzling titles including...
Review Asteroid Quarry (Wii U eShop)
Lost and Bored in Space
The life of a space miner is a lonely, but simple one. With Earth's resources exhausted, a single miner is dispatched to cut ore from nearby asteroids and bring it back to a space station. It's not the most complex work, but it is complicated by the abundance of space pirates out there who want to capitalize on the player's...
Review Neon Battle (Wii U eShop)
Ping
Every Indie developer has to start somewhere. However, it seems that in this day and age where just about anybody with a laptop can make a game, many fail to remember an absolutely critical fact: you've got to walk before you can run. Nowhere is this more evident than in Helix Games' sophomore outing, Neon Battle. While this simple arcade game...
Review Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Revival (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Ryu on Wii U (again)
1991's Street Fighter II is a game that got people very excited and led to a surge of interest in the fighting genre. It's also a game that got updated a lot — new moves, new characters, new speeds... — while being ported to numerous home consoles and computers. Several of those ports have seen a Virtual Console release...
Review Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Just like a black hole, it'll suck up hours of your time
With the first Advance Wars being a hit on the GBA not long after the system launched, it was no wonder that a sequel would eventually follow. Released about two years later, Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising feels very much like an expansion pack, but one that is still more than worth the...
Review Baila Latino (Wii U eShop)
Lati-NO
The Wii was (and is) a wonderfully appealing console, enticing folk who'd never considered picking up a joypad into a quick round of Wii Sports or Mario Kart. The Wii was also the natural home (and origin) of the Just Dance series of games, which went on to sell in vast quantities. Waving a Wii-remote to a spot of Katy Perry on a Friday...
Review The Stonecutter (Wii U eShop)
Cut the crap
Visual novels haven't historically made much of a splash outside of Japan. It's only been in relatively recent times that titles like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward have shown Western gamers that reading can be fun - especially when mixed together with simple game elements like puzzles and branching...
Review Star Fox Command (Wii U eShop / DS)
Command and conquer
Fox McCloud and friends are coming back in a big way this Holiday season with Star Fox Zero for the Wii U, and while the jury's still out on whether the title will live up to expectations, Nintendo has given fans a refresher course in barrel rolls by releasing Star Fox Command on the system's Virtual Console in North America...
Review Quadcopter Pilot Challenge (Wii U eShop)
Controls failin', players wailin', quadcopter
A common complaint among Wii U critics is that the platform's primary controller, the GamePad, doesn't get utilized enough to justify its existence. Whether or not you agree with this assessment, one indie developer that's making an effort to assuage these concerns is TACS Games, whose Quadcopter Pilot...
Review Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (Wii U eShop / N64)
Kirby Sixty-Phwoar
Like many of Nintendo's properties during the transition from the SNES to the N64, Kirby underwent a shift from a flat 2D sprite to a fully rendered polygon rendition of himself. Rather than taking Kirby down the route of Mario and Link, however, the pink mascot stuck closer to his origins - the mechanics of Kirby 64: The Crystal...
Review Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time (Wii U eShop / DS)
Fun for all ages
It takes quite a lot of star power to be able to co-star with yourself in something. The upcoming Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam is set to show that our favourite plumbers are not lacking in this department, but it's not the first time developer AlphaDream has pulled a similar gimmick! For that we should look to Mario & Luigi:...
Review Roving Rogue (Wii U eShop)
Stark roving mad
So what exactly does an adventurer do after they beat the last boss? This is the question Padaone Games' Roving Rogue poses to its players, and it gives a pretty straightforward answer: they walk back to the first level, of course. Kurt the Righteous does just that in this light platforming adventure, which begins promisingly but...
Review Shiftlings (Wii U eShop)
Stuck in second gear
Puzzle-platformers are all the rage in the world of indie games. Perhaps it's because they're so accessible for so many different kinds of gamers - or because they're a genre well suited to exploring unconventional narratives. Whatever the case, intuitive design is central to the success of these generally more minimalist games...
Review Don't Crash (Wii U eShop)
Crash and burn
The Wii U eShop sometimes comes under fire for having a library of games that seem better suited to mobile platforms. Let's be fair, though: despite their reputation, mobile games aren't intrinsically bad - there are plenty of quality titles to play on smartphones and tablets if you're inclined to seek them out. That said, the eShop...
Review Kirby Squeak Squad (Wii U eShop / DS)
Squeaky Clean Fun
For a company so often associated as being at the forefront of innovative thinking in the video game industry, Nintendo can have a tendency to stick with a tried and tested formula. The Mario, Zelda and Pokémon franchises have all received their share of criticism for not drastically changing their instalments over the years, and...
Review The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Wii U eShop / N64)
A classic for any time
There's little remaining to say that hasn't already been said about The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. A true masterpiece and a genuine game-changer; what was once revolutionary is today simply one of the greatest action/adventure games ever created. Now available to download from the Wii U eShop, this latest release...
Review Solitaire Dungeon Escape (Wii U eShop)
Fortress of solitaire
Since the introduction of Windows, most PC owners have had the ability play Solitaire for free. A simple, addictive game of strategy and luck, there's a reason it continues to be available for free in various forms, so releasing a paid version of the game is an uphill battle from the beginning. Jose Varela Games' Solitaire...
Review Life of Pixel (Wii U eShop)
A passionate pastiche of pixels past
Independent games are well-known for reaching into the early days of the industry for inspiration. Many indies borrow the retro style of chiptunes and pixel art, being an aesthetic that's easily created on a smaller budget, and titles like Shovel Knight have even elevated the look beyond its original form. Life...
Review Never Alone (Wii U eShop)
A beautiful mess
One of the best things about indie games is the freedom available to the developers; with all the money involved in publishing triple-A titles, there's little incentive to take risks. There's no way you'd ever see a title like Never Alone coming from a major publisher, and that's what makes it so refreshing. Developed with the input...
Review Cube Blitz (Wii U eShop)
More like a square than a cube
Every once in a while, you play one of those games where it just makes one wonder how exactly it got published in the first place. Usually, this is due to a woeful lack of polish or because some part of it could be argued as being fundamentally broken, be it due to core game mechanics or unforgivable performance...
Review Funk of Titans (Wii U eShop)
Funk off, Titans
On the surface, it seems like Funk of Titans might be crazy enough to work. Take a jive-talkin', funk-lovin' interpretation of Perseus, toss him in a Mount Olympus setting occupied by an Aretha Franklin-inspired goddess, add a dash of hop-and-bop auto-running and stir vigorously. This project had the recipe for cheesy goodness, but...
Review Journey of a Special Average Balloon (Wii U eShop)
Balloon Fight this ain't
TreeFall Studios has had a rocky experience on the Wii U. The Letter, which is one of our worst-rated titles, was followed up by Maze, which was poorly received but at least contained some semblance of functional gameplay. Its latest title, Journey of a Special Average Balloon, continues to show TreeFall's growth and...
Review Big Brain Academy (Wii U eShop / DS)
So keep on playing those mind games
The advent of the Nintendo DS into the handheld arena back in 2004 ushered in a fresh experience for many gamers, made possible by the system's many new features and abilities. This brand of entertainment was often referred to as "Touch! Generations" by Nintendo, and ran throughout the Nintendo DS and Wii era...
Review Cube Life: Island Survival (Wii U eShop)
A summer blockbuster?
For the past few months, multiple developers have been releasing their own clones of Minecraft in an effort to provide Nintendo gamers with the closest approximation to that source material as possible. Though the concept may seem simple initially, most developers have failed to recreate it in any meaningful way, with...
Review Don't Starve: Giant Edition (Wii U eShop)
Tim Burton meets Minecraft
The general approach of playing Don't Starve: Giant Edition is set rather early. Once you reach your first rank up - no doubt through a few feeble run-throughs where you are easily offed by the environment, whimpering and confused - you're awarded with a pyromaniacal character with which you can prattle about and convert...
Review Vector Assault (Wii U eShop)
Identity theft
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but in the case of WizByte Games' Vector Assault, it isn't flattering. Heavily inspired by Geometry Wars - a game that in many ways helped usher in the era of downloadable console games - Vector Assault is not nearly as polished, addictive, or fun. While it's playable and functional on...
