Wii U, 3DS, Wii, DS, DSi, WiiWare, DSiWare, Virtual Console Reviews - Page 33

Bonjour, Kitty

Hello Kitty first burst onto the scene in 1974 courtesy of Japanese company Sanrio, which designs and produces products solely aimed at the kawaii – meaning cute in Japanese – section of popular culture in the country. Since then, Hello Kitty has become one of the most recognised and successful brands in the world, appearing on...

Not the best quest ever

Have you ever read a book on parenting? Libraries full of instruction manuals exist on how to raise a child properly, ranging from topics such as bathing to teething to using the potty for the first time. Imagine, if you will, that there was a video game version of those books. A video game designed entirely to teach children...

Mystifyingly bad

Porting games has always been common practice for most third-party companies. It goes without saying, but it makes good business sense for a game publisher to enable its software to reach as wide an audience as possible. And it's something that most of us don't have a problem with; if a company makes it easier for us to play its...

Evolution or revolution?

Do you remember that first time you rushed home with the latest copy of Pokémon, gleefully slotting it into your handheld and dreaming of becoming the next Pokémon Master? Everything was new, fresh and exciting. Every time that pixelated grass flickered and you encountered another never-seen-before monster you held your...

Family, friendly - fun?

After developing something of an unenviable reputation on WiiWare, Arc System Works' Family series of sports games has been reborn as a dependably decent option on the 3DS' eShop. Following on from Family Tennis 3D and Family Kart 3D, Family Table Tennis 3D is the latest in the line, and while it isn't quite up to the...

A secret best kept hidden

Hudson had many classics in its NES library - Adventure Island, Faxanadu and Bomberman are just a few of the great titles it gave us all back then. Milon's Secret Castle probably shouldn't be counted among those. As the title might reveal, you play as Milon, who has to make his way through a castle filled to the brim with...

Have you the need?

AiRace Tunnel was a neat little arcade flight obstacle course on DSiWare that felt as if it was a bonus mode ripped out of a larger racing game. A few months later, QubicGames dropped AiRace onto the service, which was that larger game, filled with actual race courses against opponents other than time. That same trajectory...

A case of swine flu

If you’ve been hanging around the site during the past two weeks, chances are you’ve at least stumbled onto one Tales to Enjoy review. These games are compilations of activities targeted at kids who are just learning how to read, write, and develop basic problem solving skills. Each one uses an identical interface, but...

Missing the mark

There isn’t really an interesting or unique way to introduce Letter Challenge, but that might be the point. There are plenty of word-based puzzle games available in the world, and so many of them already exist in one form or another on the Nintendo eShop, but that wasn’t enough to stop Enjoy Gaming from throwing another one...

Just keeps shooting

To say that the original Gradius was influential on the evolution of the side-scrolling shoot 'em up would be a gross understatement. When it hit arcades in 1985 it was lauded for its amazing level designs and simple, yet wildly playable, power-up system. This NES release was one of the first home ports of the game and has become...

A boatload of dull

2012 marked the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, a maritime disaster that saw around 1500 people lose their lives. People sadly die as a result of tragic accidents every day, but the reason why the Titanic has such a poignant legacy is perhaps because it was the result of human arrogance — not to mention...

Are you not entertained?

The original WiiWare version of Rage of the Gladiator was a triumph in more ways than one; not only was it a hugely playable take on the classic Punch Out!! formula but it also managed to bring a considerable sense of gravitas to Wii's downloadable game service — a gravitas which was sorely lacking due to Nintendo's...

Don't call it a comeback

When Etrian Odyssey arrived on the DS in 2007, it was something of a revelation. A dungeon-crawler that traded in dusty catacombs for organic, open-air environments and prized cartography and character customization over narrative, it combined the best of pen-and-paper RPGs with Nintendo's new touch-screen hardware to create...

Give it the boot

Tales to Enjoy! Puss in Boots is a compilation of activities and games geared towards the youngest audience, ages 3-6 years old. If you’ve taken notice of our review for Tales to Enjoy! Little Red Riding Hood, then you should know exactly what to expect here – exactly. The activities and interface are identical, but the...

Hard to see, the dual screen is

The Wii U version of Star Wars Pinball activated the hyperdrive of success and shot off into the stars, promising many more adventures to come — the table designs were impressive and fantastic production values sealed the deal. Unfortunately, downloading the same title onto your 3DS results in a poor compromise,...

Hat-trick hero?

The Inazuma Eleven football / soccer RPG franchise is a major success in Japan, so much so that spin-offs and new releases are — at a minimum — arriving on an annual basis. Localisation to Europe has been a slower burn, and unfortunately non-existent in North America, so the arrival of Inazuma Eleven 3, the third title in the...

Understandably lacking in freshness

The Super NES was home to what are still considered by many to be a some of the finest RPG experiences ever produced. It's a predictable lineup of big names, and Breath of Fire II doesn't often get a mention. If it was overshadowed in the past it perhaps has an early opportunity to earn new fans on the young Wii U...

You should probably stay out of the woods.

Tales to Enjoy! Little Red Riding Hood is a collection of activities and games designed to be accessible to young children, ages 3-6 year old. With eight modes in all – which consist of puzzles, games of memory, a digital colouring book, and of course a re-telling of the classic fairy tale – there’s...

Watch that 3DS hinge on the snap

Before video game football became just as complex as real-life football, there was Tecmo Bowl. There weren't hundreds of plays with varying formations or special spin moves to worry about, in fact you didn't actually have to know much about the game of football to enjoy and play it. It was this simplicity that made...