Review /
Review /
Review /
Mega Man's NES swan song
In 1993, the SNES was already out and Capcom was about to release Mega Man X, but they just couldn't let themselves to say goodbye to the NES and made one last 8-bit Mega Man game for the beloved system. Mega Man 6 was released so late into the system's life that Capcom decided to not even publish the game in Europe — this...
Still one of a kind in the franchise
The Legend of Zelda is a franchise that has typically come in two stylistic flavours — top-down 2D/2.5D or fully 3D worlds. The latter began with Ocarina of Time while the former was common on older systems and notably on handhelds, with the DS entries shifting the top-down camera angle slightly. With that in...
Emphasis on the “mean”
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine is somewhat of an anomaly. It's a Puyo Puyo puzzle game that takes place in the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog - a short lived but wildly popular television series from the mid-90s - universe, but the blue blur is completely absent. Instead, the only hero here is you, a presumably...
On a scale of one to awesome, it'd be awesome
Monster Hunter is a huge deal in Japan, with the upcoming Monster Hunter 4 likely to cause retail mayhem, or perhaps crashes of the 3DS eShop servers. Despite the high quality of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on Wii U and 3DS, however, it's not hit those heights in the West, relying on a loyal core following...
Insanity redefined
Bakuretsu Muteki Bangaioh (which translates as Explosive, Invincible Bangaioh — you might know it as Bangai-O) is a relatively obscure Japanese exclusive for Nintendo 64 that holds a rather interesting history. Released in 1999 and developed by Treasure — the same team that produced the Sin & Punishment games — it is...
Zero times two
Just one year after Mega Man Zero, Inti Creates released a sequel. That might sound a bit quick, but Mega Man Zero 2 is no mindless cash-in. It took the sturdy foundation set by its predecessor and built upon it in impressive ways, while also smoothing out the rough edges. On top of that it wove an excellent narrative of its own and...
Put a ring on it
As one of gaming's most iconic mammals, Sonic the Hedgehog needs no introduction; he's graced consoles, comic books, crossovers and clothing lines in his double-decade career, and this is where it all began. Well, nearly — Sonic the Hedgehog on the Game Gear isn't a port of the Mega Drive / Genesis classic, but rather of the 8-bit...
Believes modern platformers should strike a balance
Wind-Waker lookalike A Hat In Time is currently being developed by Gears for Breakfast after it smashed through its Kickstarter goal. It's a cell-shaded homage to the classic N64 plaformers and though it's currently only down for a PC and Mac release, the developer has expressed its desire to...
Earthbound and Super Mario Bros. 2 both feature
A new set of books based on video games is set to be published after the team behind it smashed through their goal on a recent Kickstarter campaign. The series - known as Boss Fight Books - will feature five books based on historic and groundbreaking video games - two of which are on a Nintendo...
How an obscure little N64 title grew into a hit franchise for Nintendo
The hype and excitement for Animal Crossing: New Leaf across the web is reaching a critical level. Hitting North America on 9th June and Europe on 14th June, it begs the question whether some people might literally explode as a result of not being able to contain their...
Thor Aackerlund is a Tetris master
Like the talented and popular sporty kid you used to hate at school, Thor Aackerlund has been annoying the hell out of Nintendo fans for decades, thanks largely to his superhuman gaming skills — skills which won him the coveted Nintendo World Championship back in 1990. Turns out Aackerlund hasn't allowed his...
Be very afraid
Those of you old enough to recall the 16-bit era will no doubt remember a fighting game for the SNES by the name of Shaq Fu. It took the famous basketball star Shaquille O'Neal and placed him in a fantasy world when he had to use his intense B-Ball skills to defeat the malevolent Sett-Ra. Despite being created by the respected French...
First portable Zelda was a dream come true
Two decades ago, on 6th June 1993, Japanese gamers were the first to explore the mysteries of Koholint Island in what is still considered by some to be among the top Zelda games in the series — all on the now-humble Game Boy, no less. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening was originally intended as a...
A side character gets a great spotlight
The classic Mega Man series was popular enough to warrant its own spin-off series, Mega Man X. That, in turn, proved strong enough for a spin-off series of its own, and in 2002 it arrived in the form of Mega Man Zero. The Zero series spans four titles — all released exclusively for the Game Boy Advance —...
Lots of pain for little gain
From Software’s Demon's Souls and Dark Souls titles have been hailed as two of the most engaging games of this current hardware generation, praised by critics and gamers alike for their intense difficulty and complete lack of hand-holding. Set against other modern titles — which seem to fall over themselves to make...
How the GBA’s best fighter doomed the company that made it
We’d be willing to bet that if you quizzed any games developer, they’d admit that pushing a system to its absolute limit is one of the most satisfying parts of the job. Taking a piece of hardware and making it do things it really shouldn't be capable of shows incredible talent and...
Just what the fans want...
While this year has been a celebration of the Mega Man franchise's 25th Anniversary, Capcom's mainly been offering soundtracks, USB pen drives, laptop skins and other non-gaming products. We've also seen the release of the classic NES titles on the 3DS Virtual Console, with some doubling up on the Wii U Virtual Console for...
Augusta this 'ain't
Kirby, being a lovable if slightly non-descript pink ball, can lend his hands — or flappy arms, whatever — to lots of things. Being shaped like a ball and all, he's indulged in pinball, for example, and when participating in his named spin-offs generally performs as the ball, rather than going all Mario and playing the sports...
The N64's is still the strangest...
Nintendo has often played the role of innovator with its control schemes, particularly in more recent times. When not innovating it's been satisfied with simply producing the best controllers of their kind — in the NES and Super NES variants — with the Nintendo 64 starting a trend for curious designs and...
Could this urban legend be true? We'll soon find out
Before Nintendo came along and revolutionised the video game industry with the NES, American company Atari was the undisputed king of the home gaming arena — right up to the point where low-quality software and catastrophic mismanagement resulted in a massive video game crash. One of the most...
