First Impressions News, First Impressions Features - Page 6 of 12

We take Nintendo's newest Kirby title for a spin

In the weeks leading up to the E3 show, we all heard the rumours of a new Kirby game being possibly in development so it should come as no real shock that one actually materialised during Nintendo's Press Conference. What is surprising is that Kirby's Epic Yarn is not only a 2D side-scroller for the Wii, but it also sports one of the most unique..

Hands on with Nintendo's amazing 3D portable

Any time there's an announcement of new video game hardware, a certain buzz is created. In all truth, you couldn't walk five feet on the streets of Los Angeles on the way to the Convention Center without hearing someone talking about Nintendo's upcoming 3DS system. Even the line for the Nintendo keynote was atwitter with talk of 3DS and what it would..

We got hands on with Nintendo's flagship E3 title.

If there's one first-party game that's getting most of the attention at Nintendo's E3 booth, it's got to be Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword with the line to play it snaking around the entire Nintendo booth several times. So you can imagine the dirty looks I received when I was whisked up to the VIP area of the booth to sit and play the Nintendo..

Shiny 3D platforming comes to WiiWare

Everyone was impressed by the initial videos of Jett Rocket when they first came out, but they don't prepare you for the experience of playing the game itself. We were lucky enough to play a preview build consisting of the first area and it's probably safe to say that based upon our experience this could be the definitive 3D platformer for WiiWare. The..

Put those backstage lighting skills to work!

Although some may argue that there are too many puzzle games on the Wii's download service, it's always nice when a developer shows us a fresh concept in the genre. Studio Walljump recently treated us to a near-release version of its upcoming WiiWare title Liight and after a bit of time exploring what it has to offer we're happy to report that it looks..

Crack cocaine comes to Wii

Popcap Games is a modern internet success story. At a time when it was deemed impossible to make money from selling downloadable content on the web, John Vechey, Brien Fiete and Jason Kapalka managed to build a gaming juggernaut on the back of simple, but addictive games like Zuma and Peggle that have gone on to become the bane of office managers everywhere. Bejeweled was..

Diving for retro pearls

After Cosmonaut Games' "spot the difference" WiiWare debut, 5 Spots Party, you might not have expected anything exciting to come from them. But after some hands-on time with their latest effort, Dive: The Medes Island Secret, we think that opinion may change. We were lucky enough to get to play a pre-release build of the game which, despite a rather slick..

Downloadable picross? Yes, please!

Although video game versions of nonograms (better known to Nintendo gamers as Picross) were originally controlled with a D-Pad and buttons like any other game, it's clearly a genre that benefits massively from the touchscreen interface of Nintendo's DS family of handhelds. No surprise then that Hudson has seen fit to release a version of their own picross game,..

Running on the run

Whilst the Japanese DSi Shop features some fairly robust gaming experiences it has to be said that there's a place for quick games that can be played in a few seconds. G-Mode's 10 Second Run is a perfect example, essentially a collection of dozens of short platforming levels for when you need a quick bit of running and jumping on the go. There are 50 levels to be played in three..

Fail in the Dark

Fall in the Dark looks pretty good on paper: take an adventurer and guide him through a series of levels in six different worlds with gameplay that's a mix of Toki Tori and Montezuma's Revenge: difficult puzzling combined with 8-bit visuals and gameplay could be good, right? Well it would be except for some rather bizarre level design and worse game mechanics. Your Indiana..

Brick-breaking fun on the go

Tasuke seems to have been putting out a lot of board game titles recently, which all seem to be broken out from a retail release called Table Game Spirits: Victory; which is itself an enhanced version of Table Game Spirits. Both of them are Japanese DS cart releases that collect various Japanese board games including shogi, go, mahjong and hanafuda, as well as Western..

More fun with mahjong tiles

Despite releasing versions of Shanghai on both Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advance in Japan (not to mention Wii and WiiWare versions), Sunsoft have elected not to favour Nintendo's current generation of handheld with the classic match-two puzzle game which they seem to have a monopoly on in the Land of the Rising Sun. Fortunately Acute Entertainment has stepped into the..

More camera-motion mini-game madness

It seems a number of developers have been taken with the idea of using the DSi's cameras to simulate motion-based gameplay, but unfortunately many of these games end up feeling like gimmicky tech-demos more than actually fun games. HI Games & Publishing's latest attempt makes for an uneven experience with one of the four games in Katamuction providing a..

Dogfight motion demo a go-go

Though the DSi has no native motion-sensing capabilities, it hasn't stopped developers from trying to use the system's built-in cameras to approximate the tilt-sensors of the iPhone. As expected however, cameras are not motion sensors and although the latest effort from Genki Mobile includes a fair collection of mini-games involving flying and shooting targets, it all..

"Blame it on the (robot) boogie"

Robots pretty much go with everything and afros are no exception. After getting a bit of time with a pre-release build of Fugazo's WiiWare debut, Frobot, we'd have to say the hairstyle is as fresh on a machine as it is a human being. Navigating menus displaying a fun '70s look to the "Single Playa" game, you'll find that Frobot is an action puzzle game..

Burt Reynolds not included

Whilst a game based on Deliverance probably would be very cool, Exciting River is about kayaking to a goal in the quickest time possible, rather than surviving a weekend river-rafting amongst crazed banjo-duelling hillbillies out for blood. Still, exciting it is thanks to good controls and fast-paced gameplay. There are a number of courses to play through in two..

Fancy a game of 4-on-4 Cyberball?

Although "proper" sports video games have been more successful at home and in the arcades, there's something to be said for the made up ones that have less focus on player stats and more on just playing the game. Suzak's Throw Out, a more recent entry in the G.G. Series of budget arcade-style games, is definitely one of the latter: a game that marries..

Drift on outta here

Nothing is perfect, not even the G.G. Series. We figured there had to be at least one dud in this assortment of budget-priced slices of arcade fun and this is definitely it. From the screenshots you'd think you're going to be playing a fun overhead racer like Moto Roader or Super Sprint – a notion reinforced by the fact that there's nine tracks included – but you'd be sadly..

Side-scrolling bullet hell magic

One good thing about the Japanese DSi Shop for retro-gaming fans is the availability of old-school sprite-based shooters, with several decent ones to choose from. The G.G. Series already has a few among its number, but they're all different enough that it cannot hurt to add another one: enter Dark Spirts, of the bullet-hell variety. Players control a figure in a..