Author Profile

Username
Kid_A
Articles
40 (36 reviews)
First Article
Tue 17th, August 2010
Avg. Review Score
6.1
  • Review The Seller (DSiWare)

    Sell it

    Quick! What's the most convoluted and fun-deprived card game on the DSiWare service? Wrong: it's The Seller, an unnecessarily complicated and almost completely unstimulating card game that probably won't even keep you awake long enough to irritate the Hell out of you. Now, let's get one thing clear: The Seller isn't broken. It's (almost) a...

  • Review Surfacer+ (DSiWare)

    A+

    The year may be young (really, really young) but we've already seen two must-have games hit the DSiWare Shop. The first was Alt-Play: Jason Rohrer Anthology, a collection of some of the most beautifully realised artistic statements gaming has to offer. The second is Surfacer+, a wonderfully unique action-puzzler that came out of nowhere and...

  • Review Cosmo Fighters (DSiWare)

    Decent multiplayer fun

    If the DSiWare service is lacking one thing, it's a compelling multiplayer experience. And if it's missing two things, it's a compelling multiplayer experience and a solid fighter. Cosmo Fighters, the latest from developer Abylight, hopes to kill both those birds with one downloadable stone, and, although it's seriously...

  • Features NES Characters, Then and Now: Part One

    See how some of your favourite characters have evolved over the past 25 years

    The Nintendo Entertainment System was a system that stimulated the imaginations of designers and gamers alike. Whether it was the smiling, dream-like wonderland of the Mushroom Kingdom, the sprawling fantasy world of Hyrule or the atmospheric depths of planet Zebes, the...

  • Features Don't Touch My Samus: Metroid's Controversial Turn

    Why the latest Metroid game's depiction of Samus isn't a complete departure

    Metroid isn't a franchise that is known to rest upon its laurels. While each entry maintains the same basic elements that made the first game successful, one could hardly say that the series has gotten comfortable over the years. Whether it's adding a narrative, introducing...

  • Review Spot It! Challenge (DSiWare)

    Spot It or Ignore It?

    Spot It! Challenge, if nothing else, has to be commended for making an incredibly boring idea (that's usually relagated to children's books that you'd find in the waiting room at the pediatrician's office) frantic and fun. At its core this is is still very much a portable version of the Spot It! search-and-find books on which...

  • Review Need for Speed: Nitro-X (DSiWare)

    Fast and (mostly) furious

    Need For Speed: Nitro-X has a lot going for it. It's a racing game on a download service that's saturated with puzzlers, for one thing, but it's also part of one of the most long-running and successful racing franchises around. Is it a stripped down version of a retail game? Well yes, but it's a stripped down version of a...

  • Review Adventure In Vegas: Slot Machine (DSiWare)

    What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!

    There's a reason slot machines are successful: they tease the player with the chance of winning it big. The idea that you can walk in to a casino with only a few pennies to your name and walk out a rich man has enticed people for decades, and the game remains a staple at nearly every casino in existence. Once...

  • Review Peg Solitaire (DSiWare)

    Does it hit the peg on the head?

    Many Americans will probably recognise Peg Solitaire as a variation on what's more commonly as “that weird little game they have at all the tables at Cracker Barrel," but in Europe, Peg Solitaire is just, well, Solitaire (while that one-player card game we're familiar with is known as Patience). So if you feel...

  • Review Luigi's Mansion (GameCube)

    It's-a me! Mari- wait, what? Luigi?

    Nintendo has always had a dark side. Though it's built up a name for itself as a family-friendly game company, every so often, when it can be contained no longer, its dark side manifests itself in the form of a Super Metroid or a Majora's Mask. But while we expect a touch of gloom and misery in our Zeldas and...

  • Review FIZZ (DSiWare)

    Fo Fizzle

    Shocking update: a puzzle game was released on DSiWare this week. Non-sarcastic shocking update: it's actually pretty good. We know, we know, it's hard to get too excited about downloadable puzzle games these days, but even with stiff competition on the service, FIZZ still proves itself as a fun and affordable puzzler – even if it's...

  • Review Everyday Soccer (DSiWare)

    Hardly in the Premier League

    When it comes to soccer on the DSi, it really comes down to the Real Soccer franchise, and we're certainly not complaining. For a mere 800 Points you can get a portable, yet retail-quality version of the beautiful game with tons of content. Still, it's nice to see a game like EveryDay Soccer come along. Offering a more...

  • Review Super Smash Bros. Melee (GameCube)

    Better than Brawl?

    We live in a world of advanced communication. We can be sitting in our living room in Columbus, Ohio and play a game of Call of Duty with our friends in Vietnam. We could even put a headset on and have a conversation with them while we do so. We can whip out our Nintendo DS consoles and play a game of Mario Kart against complete...

  • Review My Exotic Farm (DSiWare)

    Cleaning up animal excrement just got a whole lot more exotic

    If My Exotic Farm teaches us anything, it's that picking up animal poop isn't any more fun in Africa than it is in America. And yet, it isn't any less fun either. So while it may simply be My Farm with a new lick of paint, My Exotic Farm still may be worth a look for those who missed out...

  • Review Absolute Reversi (DSiWare)

    A board game that won't make you a bored gamer

    Handheld editions of classic board games are typically not anticipated with much excitement, in part because there's a certain coldness about playing them against a computer. Not all are completely contingent upon human interaction, but beating a faceless opponent is distinctly less satisfying than...

  • Review Space Trek (WiiWare)

    Space dreck

    Calaris's last WiiWare game, WarMen Tactics, was allegedly “created to reflect the realities of urban warfare." Not only did it completely and utterly fail to accomplish its goal, it completely and utterly failed to function as a working and playable videogame. The operations guide of its latest outing, Space Trek, describes...