Author Profile
- Username
- Gabbo
- Articles
- 54 (54 reviews)
- First Article
- Tue 27th, May 2008
- Avg. Review Score
- 5.9
Review Word Searcher (WiiWare)
Words fail to impress
Digital Leisure and Aksys seem locked in a fight to the death to see which company can release more generic, public domain games on the WiiWare service. Following up on their release of Sudoku Challenge earlier this year, which we found to be about as barebones a presentation of that game as you could get, DL now brings us...
Review Family Tennis (WiiWare)
By downloading this game, you agree to get served
One of the very first Wiiware games was also the first in Aksys’ “Family” series: Family Table Tennis. We gave it a fairly generous 5/10 score considering we labeled it “outclassed,” “hard to recommend” and even “un-loseable.” Well, it seems that someone at Aksys was paying...
Will you have the patience to shop till you drop?
Kart racing has a long and illustrious history on Nintendo consoles. Now replace “Karts” with “shopping carts” and “racing” with “be the first to complete a tedious task” and you have Mart Racer, arguably the most unsatisfying racing game on WiiWare. Mixing the usual suspects of...
Review Super Return of the Jedi (Virtual Console / Super Nintendo)
The Emperor has been expecting you
The third and final game in the Super Star Wars series promises more of the same great experience offered as its two forerunners, but did LucasArts give us a conclusion worthy of the series or just a clichéd third act with some kid-friendly Ewoks thrown in? Like the previous two outings, Super Return of the Jedi...
Review Super Empire Strikes Back (Virtual Console / Super Nintendo)
Do or do not: there is no try.
Following up on the success of Super Star Wars, LucasArts released Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes back (a.k.a. Super Empire Strikes Back) to an audience already hyped and waiting. As we discussed in our previous review, the story barely paid lip service to the movies, and this release is little better. Even so,...
Review Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings (Wii)
You call this archaeology?
Filled with cut scenes and swashbuckling action sequences, The Staff of Kings has the feel of an actual Indiana Jones movie. There are a lot of concepts included here that, if fully realized, could have made for a spectacular movie-style game. Sadly, as it turns out the imagination of the game’s developers exceeded...
Review Super Star Wars (Virtual Console / Super Nintendo)
Is the force strong with this one?
When Super Star Wars was released in 1992, it was an instant success. Offering old-school platforming but set in the Star Wars universe and culminating in the destruction of the Death Star, the video game format fit the movies like Harrison Ford fits the role of a roguish scoundrel. At the time, video game critics...
Review Tecmo Bowl (Virtual Console / Virtual Console Arcade)
Older. Prettier. Just not wiser.
In every genre there is one game that stands as a pinnacle to which other games in that genre aspire. Final Fantasy VII, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Sexy Poker. In their respective genres, these games are the standard by which other games are judged. Tecmo Bowl for the NES is often cited as that...
Put on your Wii gloves…
Filling the hole in Wiiware’s library of card games is Gameloft’s Sexy Poker, the self-proclaimed “first sexy poker game on the Wii.” It certainly is unique, but has Gameloft dealt their latest offering a winning hand? The first thing that must be said about Sexy Poker is that this is an M-rated game. For many of...
Review HB Arcade Cards (WiiWare)
You know what this game of Rummy needs? Gin. And lots of it
HB Arcade Cards has one thing working for it, and three things working against it. Let’s start with the good news: it’s six great games for one low price, but you don’t need to read a review to tell you that. So now on with the bad news. The first problem the game has is that there is...
An antagonizingly good game.
Konami returns to Wiiware with another semi-strategy game. This time instead of reactively fending off crabs, you’ll be proactively leading a nation of ants in a war of senseless aggression. Finally, those ladybugs will get what they deserve. But is this nation worthy of a leader such as you? Ant Nation is...
Review Heracles: Chariot Racing (WiiWare)
Will Heracles slay the Titan of Nintendo racing games?
Due to the space constraints that Nintendo places on WiiWare games, most games on the service are short, simple, and lacking in the graphics department. One certainly would not expect a complete port of a PlayStation 2 game on the service. But that is exactly what developer Neko Entertainment...
Review The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)
Has the Hero of Time’s style withstood the test of time?
Twilight Princess is Nintendo’s last Zelda game for the Gamecube and also the first for the Wii. Although the Wii boasts technical improvements over the Gamecube in terms of its processor and graphics hardware, in this case the Wii version is essentially a port of the Gamecube game and...
Review Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (Wii)
Will Wii MotionPlus help EA land this golf franchise on the green, or is it just a sand trap for your wallet?
The Tiger Woods games are the current ‘serious’ golf games for PCs and consoles, but let's be honest: how seriously can you take a game of golf that you play with a keyboard or analogue sticks? Tiger Woods 10, (the 12th game in the Tiger...
Review Genghis Khan II: Clan of the Gray Wolf (SNES)
Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!
Koei's 'Universal Ruler' simulator lets you live the life of the Mongol legend himself. You'll go where he goes, defile what he defiles and eat who he eats. But before you misjudge this game as an indecipherable Japanese take on medieval Mongolian life, understand that Genghis Khan II is actually a conquer the world style game...
Review Silver Star Chess (WiiWare)
A silver star for a second rate Chess game.
As the world’s oldest game (except perhaps bowling...see the Bowling Hall of Fame in St. Louis, Missouri for a compelling argument that Bowling was invented by cavemen), Chess is the ultimate in public domain properties. Amazingly, Silver Star Chess is the first variant of the pastime on WiiWare and so...
Review Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (GCN)
Double the usual number of exclamation marks means double the fun!!
Mario…perhaps the most multi-faceted video game hero since MacGyver. He can make fireballs out of flowers, plays tennis and baseball professionally, balances two careers (carpentry and plumbing), and even has two girlfriends. Okay, maybe MacGyver wasn't actually a video game...
Review Star Trek: Conquest (Wii)
It's time to boldly go where no man has gone before...
Back in the olden days (the nineties) there were a plethora of game choices for Star Trek fans. Most notable for fans of strategy games were Birth of the Federation and Star Trek: Armada. These games were essentially clones of earlier, better games. But they were redesigned with a Star Trek...
Review Nobunaga's Ambition (Wii Virtual Console / Super Nintendo)
An ambitious strategy game from a nobler time.
It is hard to imagine now, but there was once a time when strategy games were the primary style of play on home computers. Japanese game developer Koei made it their mission to bring this style of game to consoles. And by appearances, they were successful given the sheer volume of games they were able...
Review High Voltage Hot Rod Show (WiiWare)
Will this highly anticipated WiiWare racer take pole position, or will it merely drive us to distraction?
High Voltage Hot Rod Show is all about taking control of large trucks and racing them against each other, which is all well and good. However, because of certain game design choices, the trucks themselves handle more like a cross between an R/C...
Hopefully that’s just sand in your pants and not crabs…
Konami is well known in the gaming world and is a much larger game company than the typical WiiWare studio. With their resources, a simple budget title should be something they could throw together in a weekend. Unfortunately, Sandy Beach (developed by Frozen Codebase and published by...
Will Tiki Towers build Wiiware to new heights or crash under its own weight?
Some might see this jungle themed construction game as a bit of a cash in on the success of World of Goo. After all, both games command you to get from point A to point B by building a structure. However, this is where the similarities end. For starters, the structures...
Review Fun! Fun! Minigolf (WiiWare)
So much fun they named it twice, but it is really up to par?
Wii Sports golf - which, lest we forget, comes bundled for free with the Wii console - offers a taste of what playing golf with a Wii Remote can be like. However, with only nine holes and a clunky putting mechanism that can often feel inaccurate, the game is just not satisfying enough to...
Review Big Kahuna Party (WiiWare)
Is WiiWare puzzler Big Kahuna Party a beach party or a shipwreck?
Big Kahuna Party is a "match-three" game in the style of Bejeweled. This style of play has been around for a while now and there is not much left to add to the genre, though this doesn’t mean there isn’t room in your collection for a fun variation on the theme. So is...
