Wii U eShop Game Reviews
Review I've Got to Run! (Wii U eShop)
Take a walk
Made using the Nintendo Web Framework, 4 Corner Games' I've Got to Run! works more as a proof of concept than a full-fledged experience. This little game is functional and cute, but the bare bones presentation and gameplay won't sustain anyone's attention for more than a few minutes, and most will wonder why this game isn't on 3DS or...
Review Mr. Driller 2 (Wii U eShop / GBA)
You know the drill by now
The re-release of classic Game Boy Advance titles on the Wii U eShop marks the first opportunity many new players will have to take on a variety of really substantial experiences, short of retroactively buying the system itself. Many have made the transition to the TV screen look easy, but some are detrimentally anchored by...
Review Luv Me Buddies Wonderland (Wii U eShop)
Luv Me Don't
The Luv Me Buddies seem to do a number of things right when creating a new children’s brand. A menagerie of cute and cuddly characters? Check. A silly but charming origin story? Check. Hints of personality? Check. A lovable, entertaining game that introduces characters to new fans? No check. Uncheck. An idea vacuum in which the...
Review Ittle Dew (Wii U eShop)
A Link to the (Swedish) Past
Let's get this out of the way first: if you like The Legend of Zelda, you'll absolutely love Swedish studio Ludosity's new Wii U eShop adventure title Ittle Dew – it's a love letter to A Link to the Past with the cartoony art style of The Wind Waker. With a sweeping soundtrack and a charming, self-aware
Review Gravity Badgers (Wii U eShop)
Out of this world
Badgers and space are certainly two things we would have never expected to see together, but then here's Gravity Badgers, a game all about badgers in space. Originally released for PC, this relatively unknown game has now received a Wii U port, but is it worth your time? The plot in Gravity Badgers is almost non-existent, but...
Review Fit Music for Wii U (Wii U eShop)
Fit dance the blues
Losing weight and getting active isn't always an easy task. The motivation, patience and willpower it takes to make a healthy lifestyle change is one that many find daunting, and so there is an entire industry built around making the idea more palatable. Using games consoles to try and get you up off the couch may seem like an...
Review Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Wii U eShop / SNES)
Akuma Matata
Street Fighter II casts an indelibly long shadow over the rest of Capcom's fighting games from the 1990s. First launched in 1991, SFII in all its Super and Turbo varieties has become synonymous with the Street Fighter franchise, a cultural touchstone the series wasn't truly able to move past until the launch of the successful Street...
Review Klonoa: Empire of Dreams (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Wahoo!
Starting life on the PlayStation in 1997, at a time when Super Mario 64 had just brought the gaming world triple-jumping headlong into the era of 3D platforming, Namco's Klonoa series has always done things differently. Klonoa's first outing, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, was a pioneering foray into 2.5D, mixing polygonal backgrounds with...
Review Swords & Soldiers (Wii U eShop)
The battle returns
Originally released exclusively on WiiWare in 2009, Swords & Soldiers has had its fair share of ports in the five years since its initial release; it's made an appearance on almost every platform under the sun. The last of these to grace a Nintendo platform, the 3DS version, was not exactly a shining example of what one would...
Review SQUIDS Odyssey (Wii U eShop)
Calamari meets kamikaze
Squids Odyssey plays like a mix between Angry Birds, billiards, and a strategy RPG. If that sounds like fun to you, that’s because it is. A cast of cephalopodic heroes embarks on a quest to save their underwater world from a corrupting black ooze the best way they know how: by launching their soft, squishy little bodies...
Review Adventures of Lolo (Wii U eShop / NES)
YOLO, Lolo
HAL Laboratory's 1989 puzzler Adventures of Lolo falls into the same category as titles like Mach Rider and Clu Clu Land: C-list NES classics that are often overlooked today but provide an arcade-like fun experience for those searching out Nintendo's "deep cuts" from the '80s. Adventures of Lolo is probably best remembered these days as...
Review Color Zen (Wii U eShop)
Passes with flying colours
If you enjoyed Abyss earlier this month and you're thirsting for another relaxing, atmospheric Wii U eShop title with a smooth electronic soundtrack, Color Zen is exactly what you're looking for. It's a puzzle game with no time limit or scoring system: you simply match colours and unwind. The iOS/Android success-story has...
Review Scram Kitty and his Buddy on Rails (Wii U eShop)
Off the rails
Announced over a year ago, Scram Kitty and his Buddy on Rails was one of the earliest Wii U download games to be confirmed. Now that it's finally here, has the wait been worth it, or should this game scram? Although you're pretty much immediately thrown into the action, there is a little bit of a story to Scram Kitty. The titular cat,...
Review Wario Land 4 (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Someone should write a 600-page book about this game!
Wario Land 4 has seen a revival of sorts lately. Although Wario's core platforming series has been overshadowed for years by the surrealist microgames of WarioWare, last December journalist Daniel Johnson published Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4, a staggering 600-page...
Review Mach Rider (Wii U eShop / NES)
Groovy little motorbike
If you were lucky enough to pick up a shiny new NES way back in 1985, you would have had your pick of several future classics from a legendary launch-day lineup. If your idea of a digital good time happened to involve motorcycles, you were particularly spoilt for choice, with Excitebike and Mach Rider representing two-wheeled...
Review Stick It To The Man (Wii U eShop)
Get out of my thoughts and into my Wii U
You're on the run from the law, hunted for a crime you didn't commit and unable to return to your own home for fear of being caught. A road block looms ahead, halting everyone except for an acclaimed opera singer who is performing later that evening. As the sirens echo through darkened streets, you slowly...
We all live in a cyclops submarine
Abyss is perhaps exactly the sort of game the Wii U eShop needs in greater numbers: adventurous little indie titles with strong artistic vision and a focus on core game mechanics. With a budget price tag, you can't afford not to try out Barcelona studio EnjoyUp Games' HD re-release of its attractive 2012 DSiWare...
Review Ava and Avior Save the Earth (Wii U eShop)
Toxic waste
A good educational video game needs to be both enriching and fun for the player. While 2020 Venture's Ava and Avior Save the Earth may sound like a good idea — it attempts to teach children about recycling, composting and getting rid of waste in a "green" way — it fails in almost every regard. With amateurish presentation and...
Review Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Egg-ceptional platforming
When you take into account just how much of a landmark title Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was when it released back in 1995, it’s absurd to think that it’s only just being re-released on one of Nintendo’s Virtual Console services – well, that is if you exclude the exclusive 3DS release under the guise of the...
Review Child of Light (Wii U eShop)
The brush is as mighty as the sword
Listen, dear readers, and we shall recall our journeys with Child of Light. The darling of Ubisoft Montreal, it has become known as a beautiful sight. Screenshots and videos released to the world have proven its visuals most stunning. Yet when the tale is told and story unfurled, will all its design be as...
Review NES Remix 2 (Wii U eShop)
Electric boogaloo
Shortly before the end of 2013 Nintendo suddenly surprised us — during a Nintendo Direct, it announced and then immediately released NES Remix, a very unusual but, we thought, very fun collection of small challenges based on various games from Nintendo's NES catalogue. A few months later and, in a different Nintendo Direct,...
Review My First Songs (Wii U eShop)
Hickory Dickory Don't!
We all had high hopes for My First Songs, with fifteen of the most legendary nursery rhymes of all time finally together in one package. Bangkok-based developer RingZero Game Studio brings us this hotly-anticipated karaoke title just in time for your tax refund shopping spree — alas, My First Songs is not quite a Yankee...
Review Flowerworks HD: Follie's Adventure (Wii U eShop)
A few carnations short of a full bouquet
You're a pint-sized explorer that's crash landed your spaceship on an alien planet dominated by vegetation, where flowers are your greatest ally. No, it's not Pikmin, it's Flowerworks HD: Follie's Adventure. A high-def remake of the well-received 2009 WiiWare title, Flowerworks HD is a floral-themed action...
Review Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate - Deluxe Edition (Wii U eShop)
The broken Bat
For as long as portable games have existed, the trend of developing handheld versions of popular console titles has been present and correct. These games tend to be inferior versions of the originals, taking a substantial hit graphically and often limiting gameplay, depending on what the portable console is capable of. In some cases,...
Review My Exotic Farm (Wii U eShop)
Not a roaring success
Farm management sims are hard to get right; farming is work, after all. Successful farming games either add substantial non-farming elements like Harvest Moon's social elements, or they take the work so seriously that it becomes comically overbearing, à la Farming Simulator. French studio BiP Media's My Exotic Farm ultimately...
Review WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Fun incorporated
Ever since its first foray into the video game market, Nintendo has been known for the incredible amount of creativity it brings to the medium. Innovative ideas – whether they add a pleasing minor touch or groundbreaking gameplay feature – have to some degree been the company’s bread and butter for decades. It’s these...
Review Kirby & The Amazing Mirror (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Kirbytroid
For the most part, not much has changed about the Kirby series — many of its titles are fairly straightforward platformers in which your main ability is to suck up enemies and acquire their powers. It's not until somewhat recently that the development teams started trying different things, and one can certainly make a case saying that...
Review Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Double trouble
Back in 2003, Nintendo had already released two excellent Mario RPGs; Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and Paper Mario. Rather than immediately making a Paper Mario sequel, the company decided to add a third completely different game to the line-up. While the previous games were developed by Squaresoft and Intelligent...
Review Super Dodge Ball (Wii U eShop / NES)
Utterly ridiculous and sublime
When firing up an NES game in the modern day, no less a silly spin-off sports title from the era, a certain mindset is required. If you're intolerant of sticky animation, that flickering effect that NES games have when there's too much on screen and wonky frame performance, there are plenty of games that are immediate...
Review Advance Wars (Wii U eShop / GBA)
War has never been so much fun
Mention Advance Wars to a seasoned gamer and they're almost guaranteed to have heard of it. One of the earliest major Game Boy Advance titles, it's now also one of the earliest titles from the handheld on the Wii U Virtual Console, giving veterans another chance to pick it up and newcomers an ideal opportunity to see...
