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 Double Dragon II: The Revenge (3DS eShop / NES)
Now actually living up to its name
As one of the first scrolling beat 'em ups ever made, the original Double Dragon became a smash hit when it was released way back in 1987, and like most arcade games at the time quickly received a port to the NES. A single year later, Double Dragon II was released in arcades and, as was to be expected, it was also...
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 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,...
Harvest Merchant
Released in North America and Japan last year, Hometown Story has now hit European shores at long last, thanks to the efforts of Rising Star Games. You play as a young boy — or girl, if you wish — who takes over a shop in a small town after his grandmother, who previously owned it, passes away. If this sounds in any way similar...
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 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 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...
This cat ain't rad
There's been a surge of popularity when it comes to "runner" games over the last few years — games where you do little more than move right (or occasionally, left) while dodging everything that comes at you in an attempt to improve your high scores. While "endless" runners seem to be the most popular variant, Skater Cat falls...
Review Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (3DS eShop / GBC)
Super Small Screen Bros.
Especially in recent years, we've seen Super Mario Bros. re-released a ton, but back in 1999 it had been a number of years since the last release, Super Mario All-Stars. As such, Nintendo decided to port the original game to Game Boy Color and add some interesting new features at the same time. Naturally, at its core, this...
Review Renegade (3DS eShop / NES)
Crime doesn't pay
The company known as Technos might be best known for creating Double Dragon and River City Ransom, but before coming up with either of its two big hits, it made a number of lesser known titles — of which perhaps Renegade is the most well-known. Renegade is actually the first game in the Kunio-kun series, which River City Ransom...
Review Steel Diver: Sub Wars (3DS eShop)
Dive right in
Nintendo has been working on a game to enter the free-to-play market for a fair amount of time, announcing last year than an early experiment with the idea would involve the Steel Diver series. The basic concept has been a game that is free to download and partially play, but requires you to pay a little extra if you want to unlock all...
Review Castlevania (Wii U eShop / NES)
Just like Dracula, it keeps coming back to life...
Konami, admittedly following the lead of others such as Nintendo and Capcom, sure likes to remind us it was making awesome games way back in the 1980s. "Hey", it says, "remember how great Castlevania was on the NES?" We sure do, Konami and, oh look, now we can buy it again on the Wii U! It's one of...
Review NES Remix (Wii U eShop)
Mixing it up
During what is likely to be the final Nintendo Direct of 2013, there were a few surprise game announcements. One of these was a bit more surprising than the rest, because it was available immediately after its announcement — NES Remix. At first glance, NES Remix might just seem like a collection of NES games, but in truth it's more...
Review Mega Man X2 (Wii U eShop / SNES)
A mega effort
Capcom has really been on the ball with the Wii U Virtual Console — in just about one year, it has managed to release every single Mega Man game that saw the light of day on the Wii Virtual Console — and more — with Mega Man X2 being the latest release. Much like the original Mega Man series before it, the X series doesn't seem...
Review City Connection (3DS eShop / NES)
Crash and burn
Originally released as an arcade game, City Connection puts you in the shoes of a man who wants to travel all over the world in order to paint its roads white, thus proving that he's travelled across the globe. Sounds like vandalism to us, but that's the '80s for you! Of course, this would be rather difficult to accomplish on foot, so...
Review Toki Tori (Wii U eShop)
Super cheap puzzle fun
Many moons ago, when WiiWare first launched on the Wii, Two Tribes had Toki Tori ready to go as one of the very first games on the service. It was a remake of the Game Boy Color game, which in itself was also a pseudo-remake; we liked it a lot. Unfortunately for some, however, a PC version of the game was released not too...
Review Donkey Kong 3 (Wii U eShop / NES)
Bugging you?
When the original Donkey Kong proved immensely popular, Nintendo decided to ride off its success and create a sequel changing the roles, making Mario the villain and Donkey Kong Jr. the hero. What is surprisingly not well known, however, is that there was a third game after that. While the next logical next might have been to allow you...
Review Clu Clu Land (Wii U eShop / NES)
Clu Clu Bland
Back in the NES days, Nintendo had a lot of experimental, arcade-like games, many of which never quite made it into the big leagues in order to get sequels and the like. Perhaps one of the most often forgotten of these games is Clu Clu Land. Similarly to Kuru Kuru Kururin, you need to know a bit of Japanese in order to understand the...
Review Milon's Secret Castle (3DS eShop / NES)
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...
Review Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link - Unforgiving But Underappreciated
Zelda II, have you any tough dungeons? Yes sir, yes sir...
Back in the early days of several franchises, the second game in a series tended to be radically different from the first, as developers had not quite pinned down what they wanted the series to become. Take a look at Castlevania II or the Western Super Mario Bros. 2, for example. Zelda II:...
Review Mahjong 3D - Essentials (3DS eShop)
Mahjong 3D Lite
A while ago, TREVA released Mahjong 3D: Warriors of the Emperor on the eShop, which surprisingly wasn't "just another" Mahjong game but, instead, a rather unique and fun take on the genre, featuring characters and a campaign mode. As is frequently the case with Mahjong games, the title might be a bit misleading — this is not the...
Review Carps & Dragons (3DS eShop)
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...
