Author Profile
- Username
- Sean_Aaron
- Articles
- 350 (105 reviews)
- First Article
- Sat 20th, December 2008
- Avg. Review Score
- 6.3
Review Zaxxon (Virtual Console / Virtual Console Arcade)
One for the history books, but not for everyone
In 1982 Sega made a little gaming history with Zaxxon: the first 3D arcade game to use an isometric perspective – even more shockingly, it used sprite-based graphics at a time when 3D games were pretty much all being done with vectors. Whilst Zaxxon got a lot of attention due to its flashy graphics...
The seminal indie game finally comes to Nintendo
Cave Story is like a Cinderella tale of indie game development, arriving at a time when the conventional wisdom was that the days of a lone programmer creating a complex and compelling game were behind us; it proved that the old spirit of the 8-bit era is still alive and well in the 21st century...
First Impressions Bit.Trip RUNNER
8-bit run amok!
RUNNER is the fourth and next entry in Gaijin Games' six-part Bit.Trip series and we've been fortunate enough to spend some time with the latest build, which has just been sent off to Nintendo for final approval. Though this preview is based on the "final" version of RUNNER, we want to emphasise that changes are still...
First Impressions G.G. Series Wonder Land
Alice in bullet-hell land
Genterprise has published a steady string of G.G. Series games for DSiWare, delivering some much needed arcade-style gaming at a budget price with the majority of games coming from development studio Suzak. Wonder Land is a bullet hell shooter based upon Alice in Wonderland – not exactly a logical pairing, but certainly...
My little water demon
In case you don't know what a kappa is (and we certainly didn't until we first heard of this game), know that it is a mischievous water sprite from Japanese mythology prone to eating small children (and cucumbers – hence the "kappa maki" found in Japanese sushi restaurants); now residing on the DSi. A product of...
Review Data East Arcade Classics (Wii)
Some golden oldies from an arcade pioneer
Data East Corp. was one of the original wave of Japanese video game developers that had their wares appear in American arcades at the beginning of the 1980s. They didn't have as big a string of hits as contemporaries like Namco, Konami, Taito or Sega, but they did release a few titles that gamers above a...
Review Dracula: Undead Awakening (WiiWare)
Undead a go-go
Dracula: Undead Awakening is a nice example of how to port an iPhone game to the Wii properly: make sure the graphics are up to scratch and Wii-ify the controls. If you're unaware of the iPhone original, it's like a horror film version of Williams' arcade classics Robotron: 2084 or Smash TV, or the more recent Geometry Wars: players...
News Nintendo Download 1st March 2010 (North America)
March is Mega Month!
This week Mega Man 10 debuts in North America, much to the delight of retro-gaming fans eager to get more 8-bit styled platforming goodness out of their Wiis. Of course let's not ignore the other WiiWare offerings or the fact that the NEO GEO is back on the Virtual Console following a short hiatus. DSi Owners have a couple of...
First Impressions Kai Illust Puzzle Guru Guru Logic
Picross meets ... Quarth?
Nintendo seems to have single-handedly popularised picross on home and console game systems, with only Hudson daring to dabble in the same space. Continuing the tradition they've partnered with D4 Enterprise to bring a new faster-paced game to the DSi which combines traditional Picross with elements of Konami's old...
First Impressions Aa Mujō Setsuna
Lots of flash; not much substance
Nintendo isn't exactly known for publishing shooters, much less shooters of the "bullet hell" variety, but that's exactly what we have here. Developed by Arika and recently shown at the Nintendo Media event in North America as Metal Torrent, Aa Mujō Setsuna is certainly one of the most graphically...
First Impressions Fantasic Cube
Hey, you got your Columns in my Quarth!
Fantasic Cube is very much an old-school puzzle game, but a decent one and more full-featured than most of the puzzlers we've seen lately. There are three single player game modes on offer and two-way multiplayer either locally or over Wi-Fi connection with friends or random strangers. The primary game mode is...
First Impressions Handy Mahjong
Budget majaan on the go
Mahjong (or, as they call it in Japan, "majaan") is incredibly popular in Japan where you can find gambling parlours with fully automated tables shuffling, dealing and stacking tiles for players. It therefore should come as no surprise that there are a few mahjong games available in the Japanese DSiWare shop and...
Nintendo Download 2nd & 3rd March 2010 (Japan)
Another light week for the Wii and the usual assortment for DSi to start the month off
Japan seems to have settled very much into a release schedule like other territories, which will hopefully send some green-eyed monsters off to bed (well, except Virtual Console fans). WiiWare: Aqualiving: Television de Nagameru Sakana Tachi (800pts - Nintendo)...
The 8-bit classic returns
If you were gaming on home computers in the 8-bit era then it's very likely you came across a game called Pipe Dream. Originally published on the Commodore Amiga as Pipe Mania, it's a puzzle game in which the goal is to link together pipe sections on a grid to complete a route for a green (or blue) liquid called...
News Teyon Announces 101 Minigolf World Release and Other Upcoming Downloads
Latest DSiWare game gets a publication date and new DSiWare and WiiWare titles revealed
Teyon is really ramping up their output on the DSiWare and WiiWare fronts, announcing that their third DSiWare game, 101 Minigolf World, will be coming to the North American DSiWare Shop on the 15th of March. In addition they unveiled the names of five other...
News GlobZ Announces Globulos Party for March
DSiWare release coming soon to North America and Europe
We've just gotten word from independent French development studio GlobZ that they've received a publication date for their upcoming DSiWare game Globulos Party. Globulos Party is a mini-game collection featuring cute and colourful blobby critters that you guide with the stylus to play a full...
News Warner Bros. Interactive Announces New Batman Game for Wii and DS
Animated show tie-in to coming this fall
Wii owners may have missed out on Arkham Asylum, but they're getting an exclusive release in the form of a game based upon the Batman: The Brave and the Bold animated series, in which the Dark Knight teams up with other DC heroes to combat villainy. Wayforward are the developers behind this licensed tie-in,...
Home improvements needed
Mouse House is the latest game to make the jump from iPhone to WiiWare. Not all of these transitions are very successful, but Mouse House is a basic enough puzzle game that it survives the leap intact and without bringing any shame upon developers Plaid World Studios. Unfortunately, in the competitive WiiWare marketplace,...
Review Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll (Wii)
Rollin' rollin' rollin', get those monkeys rollin'
One of Sega's first games for a home console of former rival Nintendo was Super Monkey Ball on the Gamecube. It quickly became a favourite among many with its simple arcade gameplay and irrepressibly cute characters. Reception for the first Wii installment, Banana Blitz, was a bit mixed due to a...
Nintendo Download 22nd February 2010 (North America)
Ghost slaying, mouse housing, flight controlling and fish finding this week!
North America is clearly the territory to envy thus far this year with weekly updates featuring a variety of downloads for the Wii and DSi. Whilst retro-gamers will bemoan the absence of any Virtual Console releases this time around, there's still a bevy of budget WiiWare...
First Impressions G.G. Series Z・ONE
Budget shooting on the go
Genterprise has published a lot of DSiWare in the past year, mostly as part of a budget line called G. G. Series. These are small arcade-style games with a 200 Point price tag which have caught the attention of many who read our weekly Japanese download news because we just aren't seeing this kind of thing elsewhere for...
Nintendo Download 23rd & 24th February 2010 (Japan)
Another light release week, but a surprise VCA release takes us higher
This year Nintendo seems to be taking a more leisurely release pace than its overseas arms. Whilst this can be disappointing for importers, it certainly seems more fair and we have to think that game publishers will be happy to have less competition than in those massive release...
First Impressions Shashin de Kakutō! Photo Fighter X
Two street fighters and a microphone
No doubt many have seen the latest and greatest fighting game on the Wii and thought "me and my mates could do better than that." Well Nintendo must have read your pixie-stick addled thoughts because they went and released a D.I.Y. fighting game for the DSi last December in Japan called Photo Fighter X...
Talking Point Does Nintendo Need to Exercise More Quality Control on the Wii?
Are shoddy ports and the tide of cheap cash-in titles putting the Wii at risk?
Nintendo is right to be proud of the Wii: it has single-handedly put them back at the top of the console stack after two generations of consoles which, whilst not outright disasters, failed to capture the imaginations of the majority of the game playing public. The Wii...
