Author Profile
- Username
- Sean_Aaron
- Articles
- 350 (105 reviews)
- First Article
- Sat 20th, December 2008
- Avg. Review Score
- 6.3
Nintendo Download 8-9 December 2009 (Japan)
Virtual Console and DSiWare hog the spotlight
A second week in a row with a solo WiiWare entry, but a bumper crop of Virtual Console goodness and a hefty helping of DSiWare downloads help make up for it. WiiWareChokkan! Balance Labyrinth (500pts - Gameloft) - Not a new title from Gameloft, but just them publishing Digital Leisure's The Incredible...
Review Castle of Shikigami III (Wii)
Shooting things and shooting the breeze...
The Castle of Shikigami series is one of the more recent shooting franchises to appear in Japanese arcades and subsequently home consoles. Castle of Shikigami III is the first to appear on Wii with Aksys providing the localisation for North America. Combining good looks, humour and challenging gameplay,...
First Impressions 530 Eco-Shooter
Recycling - with a vengeance!
Intelligent Systems has a reputation of being one of Nintendo's better first-party development teams, with an impressive resume including the Fire Emblem games, Tetris Attack, the Paper Mario series, the WarioWare games and Super Metroid. Seeing a WiiWare title from them naturally raised our curiosity, and that...
Nintendo Download Monkey Island, Zoos, 'Copters, Face Stealing and Puzzles! (US)
A mix of catch-up and new titles in another big update for Wii and DSi.
There's a mix of new and catch-up titles in the update this week including the penultimate chapter in the new Tales of Monkey Island series: Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 4. Copter Crisis and My Zoo were both recently released in PAL territories. Reviewer Tommy Bowskill...
Review Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (Wii)
Do not underestimate the power of the Darkside!
When Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles was seen to only cover RE0, 1 and 3 it was pretty clear that a sequel would be in the offing; the positive reception and respectable sales figures it received probably didn't hurt. If you're a fan and expecting more of the same in this digest-version of the...
Loners rejoice!
It would be proper to regard any WiiWare program consisting of a game that's already pre-installed on every Windows PC in the universe as a complete waste of everyone's time. It would be about as pointless as releasing a poker game with rules for only one version of poker. The only way you could possibly justify putting out a...
Review Shanghai II: Dragon's Eye (Virtual Console / Sega Mega Drive)
A history lesson in the failure of PC-to-console ports.
Activision was the first to sell a mahjong solitaire (for lack of a better term) game for IBM PCs and Apple Macs in 1986 under the name Shanghai. They even got the programmer of the original game -- which was created on University of Illinois mainframes -- to do the programming and create...
Nintendo Download 1-2 December 2009 (Japan)
A light download selection next week after this week's mega releases.
This week's update was full to bursting, so it's just as well that next week is a little on the light side with only a few downloads for both Wii and DSi. WiiWare: Ponjan (1000pts - Tomy) -- The Wii counterpart to the DSiWare release of the kiddy version of mahjong (real mahjong...
Review ANNO: Create a New World (Wii)
Have sim fans' prayers been answered?
The history of sim games on home consoles hasn't been the brightest since the control pad interface doesn't lend itself as well to the fine control you would normally expect using a mouse on home computers. The Wii's pointer makes a good mouse replacement of course, so theoretically a game like Anno: Create a...
Jambo! Now jam on outta here!
Animal games seem to be the big new thing, especially on the family-friendly Wii. You can't throw a Remote in a shop without hitting one these days, with every major publisher putting out their own take on the safari-vet-sim sub-genre. Jambo! Safari is Sega's entry in the virtual-wild-animal-game stakes, and a...
A mini-game collection for retro-fans.
Whilst the word "arcade" will mean "video game" to many, it mustn't be forgotten that many arcades also featured carnival-style games that dispensed tickets for buying plastic trinkets (or, for the truly skilled, something more flash like a transistor radio or a soft toy) from a prize shop...
Nintendo Download 24-25 November 2009 (Japan)
WiiWare is back and the MSX returns with a vengeance, plus DSiWare and more Namco Arcade games!
Japan gets a lot of downloads ordinarily, but next week must be setting some kind of record - and there's not even a public holiday to account for it! WiiWareOkiraku Kart Wii (500pts - Arc System Works) - You cannot keep the Family down, especially if...
Guides Everything You Need To Know About Importing a Wii
Are considering getting a North American Wii?
Given the pan-Wii coverage on Nintendo Life there's been plenty of opportunity for the green-eyed monster to make himself known on both sides of the Atlantic. You might have considered buying a Wii "from the other side" to avoid waiting for your favourite downloads or disc releases, so here's a few tips...
Review Ju-On: The Grudge (Wii)
Time to break out those rubber underpants!
The Ju-On series of films are a true horror landmark. Released at a time when most horror films have just become an endless series of remakes or are more depictions of torture than "scary movies," they refreshingly provide genuine frights with terrifying tales of vengeful spirits haunting the...
Nintendo Download 17-18 November 2009 (Japan)
More Namco arcade games and DSiWare next week.
Another WiiWare holiday and only two Virtual Console releases - both Namco arcade games. Hardly seems possible given the number of announced Virtual Console titles for November yet to be released, unless the 24th is going to break all previous records! Virtual Console Bosconian (800pts Arcade - Namco)...
Review Ninja Gaiden (Virtual Console / Virtual Console Arcade)
The original, but possibly not the best.
Ninja Gaiden is a game best known to many as a series of action-platformers that started out on the NES and has continued into the present day on the current crop of HD systems as a 3rd-person action game. It's worth remembering that it started out as an unforgiving beat-em up in arcades and thanks to Tecmo's...
Review Frogger Returns (WiiWare)
The return of an arcade legend.
It cannot be denied that Frogger is one of the original arcade hits. It was ported to pretty much every 8-bit console and computer system in the world, bootlegged numerous times and even immortalised in song on the seminal "Pac-Man Fever" LP by Buckner & Garcia. It's the only Konami arcade game from the...
Gameloft WiiWare card games, take two!
Like many American board games, Uno was started by your average Joe making sets in his house and selling them to friends and neighbours before getting picked up by a big outfit and made into a classic. It's a fun social game that's been around for nearly 40 years now and is played around the world. Given the...
Nintendo Download 10-11 November 2009 (Japan)
WiiWare takes a holiday, but that's okay because we've got Arcade action and DSiWare!
Well, after this week's Japanese holiday, it looks like we're back to Wii downloads on Tuesdays and DSiWare on Wednesdays for next week. No WiiWare is coming, but that's probably okay after the bumper crop of titles released in October! Virtual ConsoleStreet...
Is this a charming game about an altruistic robot or a shambolic scavenger hunt?
Meet the Sandersons, your atypical dysfunctional American family: Mr. Sanderson is an out-of-work engineer-cum-manchild who lives on the lounge sofa playing with action figures and watching his favourite superhero program Space Ranger Drake Redcrest(TM) (apologies if...
A worthwhile upgrade or just Nintendo milking its new cash cow?
Wii Fit's runaway success seemed to take even Nintendo by surprise given the number of times Satoru Iwata has publicly stated he never thought he could sell millions of bathroom scales as a new kind of fitness product. It's probably not much of a surprise to see them testing whether not...
Nintendo Download 04 November 2009 (Japan)
Japan converges the dates and a long lost Virtual Console system returns from the dead!
Owing to a holiday on Tuesday Nintendo are releasing downloads for both Wii and DSi on Wednesday. Only one WiiWare release and two VC releases appear for the Wii, though Virtual Console fans will be excited to see the first NEO GEO game in ages. 4 DSiWare...
Review Midway Arcade Treasures 2 (GameCube)
This time the spotlight is on Midway's glory days
Whilst the first Arcade Treasures collection was firmly focused on the Williams catalogue, this second collection is all about the Bally Midway and Midway brands featuring games spanning the mid to late 1980s and 1990s, with a handful of Williams and Atari Games titles for good measure. This...
First Impressions Shadow Walker (Japan)
Unconventional puzzling for the kiddies.
This game kind of came out of nowhere, but there does seem to be few WiiWare games concerning shadows on the horizon: Nicalis' Night Game and Hudson's Tower of Shadow being the ones that spring immediately to mind. Shadow Walker's story isn't completely clear seeing as it's relayed storybook-style with a lot...
