The original, but sadly not the best
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior was nothing short of a phenomenon. If you're old enough to remember when the game hit the Super Nintendo two decades ago then you may recall it as all you ever thought of or spoke about for weeks on end. The gaming world seemed to gravitate around Capcom's seminal one-on-one...
Something smells fishy
Back in 2009, Abylight released Fish'em All! on WiiWare, an arcade title in which you jump around with giant nets attempting to catch the plethora of fish jumping out of the water. The concept was fine but the execution left something to be desired, as the developers decided it was a smart idea to require a swing of the Wii...
Bang bang, he shot the Doe, bang bang...
When the 3DS was launched, it's perhaps unsurprising that a few developers decided it'd be the perfect platform for what would previously be considered "light gun" games. There's no gun with the portable, of course, but the stylus has been proven again and again as a more than useful alternative, affording...
Will it rope you in?
Cut the Rope has been a staggering success for Russian development studio ZeptoLab. Originally released on iOS back in 2010, the title has been downloaded over 100 million times and has spawned two popular sequels. With such impressive accolades tucked underneath its belt, it's not hard to understand why the franchise continues...
No Fair
Taking classic arcade and carnival redemption games as its inspiration, Funfair Party Games combines two things 3DS owners are quite familiar with by now: a collection of mini-games and well-meaning but flawed motion controls. With eleven games of varying quality and some surprisingly solid multiplayer features, the result is a mixed bag -...
Go Ninja, Go Ninja GO!
Chances are that even if you don’t know much about Ninja Gaiden, you’re at the very least aware that it’s a series synonymous with high difficulty. When the original hit the NES back in 1989, we have to imagine it lead to the demise of many controllers – we vividly recall rage-quitting on at least an occasion or two...
Worth waiting for
The original release of Rayman Legends was supposed to be in rather different circumstances. What was once a launch window exclusive at the top of various wishlists is now a multi-platform arrival in a busy game season. While that's a pity, this is still the same project that was so eagerly anticipated in 2012, and it delivers on...
A Rare gem?
The Nintendo 64 and Rare go together like Banjo and Kazooie. The developer was behind several of the stellar titles found on the system, many of which were some of the most original games in history. One of the most unique titles released by the UK-based developer was the 3D action-shooter Jet Force Gemini, which launched in 1999. While...
You'll need the wisdom of Solomon for this one
In Solomon’s Key – an action / puzzler from Tecmo – you take command of a wizard named Dana as he searches for a magical formula that’s said to banish all evil from the world. It began life in arcades back in 1986, finding its way to NES a year later, and now it’s resurfaced on the 3DS Virtual...
Depth incarnate
If there's one thing that you could pretty much be assured of when it came to a Koei game back in the day, it was getting a lot of depth to your gameplay experience. Not only were you generally treated to a very high production value visual experience, but the attention to detail and historical accuracy was always of high quality...
Attack of the clones
The Jewel Quest series is fast becoming something of a recurring negative on Nintendo's handheld systems. Ignoring the fact that each entry has been generically dull, the alarming rate at which each new instalment is being released is certainly a cause for concern. Forget Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed with their yearly...
For shoot 'em up experts only
The release of this game on the 3DS eShop is a bit of a strange occurrence. Summer Carnival '92 Recca was, as you might guess from its odd name, created for a shoot 'em up game competition held in 1992, exclusively in Japan. It was only available from those competitions, so the supply was quite limited and, as a result,...
War is garbage
If there’s one distinguishing feature that makes Teyon’s Heavy Fire series stand out from video gaming’s crowd of military shooters, it’s that it has no distinguishing features. Like, zero. It has features, sure, but nary an original idea nor even a whiff of one. Heavy Fire: Black Arms 3D continues the series’ tradition of...
Easy to learn, difficult to pronounce
What if the Rubik’s Cube only had one side? It seems this question has kept the ironically named developers at CIRCLE Entertainment up all night, and those sleepless hours have resulted in a quality puzzle game that relaxes and taxes simultaneously. Wakedas is a straightforward affair that slowly ramps up the...
I got soul, but I'm not the best Star Soldier
We may as well stop playing games en masse right now, because we all suck. That may sound harsh, but this 3DS eShop release of Hudson Soft’s vertically scrolling NES shoot-em-‘up will either make or break you. Unfortunately, if you play Star Soldier on the smaller screen of an original 3DS, the tiny...
Chaos and colour multiplied by 101
Playing The Wonderful 101 for the first time on "normal" difficulty is a stressful, headache-inducing experience that, nevertheless, delivers a genuine thrill. This isn't a game that feels as if it's gone through hundreds of concept and development meetings, nor through a corporate machine of focus testing, but...
It's on like Donkey Kong
This year marked the 30th anniversary of the initial Japanese launch of the Nintendo Family Computer, more popularly known around the world as the Famicom. Among the landmark console’s launch titles was Donkey Kong, a port of the arcade hit that began Nintendo’s launch into video game history. Now, in the year of the...
Oblivion is at hand
Acclaim Entertainment must have always had a good feeling about Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. Before the game was even released in 1997, the company announced that it was already working on a sequel. In hindsight of course, it’s easy to see why Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was such a massive success; it released at an ideal time in the...
A familiar feeling
Fresh off the court from the surprisingly fun Family Tennis 3D, the world's most competitive family returns to the 3DS eShop to hit the racetrack in Family Kart 3D. Developed by Arc System Works - yes, they of Guilty Gear and BlazBlue fame - this is a simple, straightforward kart racer that fails to stand out from the crowd, but...
Slow and steadier
D3Publisher's Turbo: Super Stunt Squad for Wii U is the HD cousin of the poorly received 3DS racer of the same name. Expectations were kept low for the title, due to the handheld edition's lacklustre visuals, infuriatingly imprecise controls and lack of any actual "stunts." But Turbo: Super Stunt Squad for Wii U is a pleasant...
