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theblackdragon
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42 (42 reviews)
First Article
Fri 23rd, October 2009
Avg. Review Score
5.5
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  • Review Learning with the PooYoos - Episode 2 (WiiWare)

    Another little game for your littlest ones

    Game consoles are perhaps too grown-up for your pre-kindergarteners to fully understand, and it doesn't help that there aren't many games geared toward very young children in the Wii Shop, but Lexis Numérique is slowly working to change that. Learning with the PooYoos: Episode 2 is a continuation of the...

  • Review Game & Watch Manhole (DSiWare)

    Everyone walks all over a nice guy

    The Game & Watch series was Nintendo's first real foray into the world of portable video gaming. Designed by Gunpei Yokoi, who would later mastermind the grey-brick Game Boy we all know and love, these handheld electronic games featured an LCD display, a tinny speaker, and just enough buttons to complete the...

  • Review Save the Turtles (DSiWare)

    Tiny turtles bring big puzzle pleasure

    Sea turtles begin life as vulnerable little creatures. Provided they actually survive the process of incubation and hatching and manage to dig their way out of their buried nests, they often become disoriented on their way to the ocean and, worse yet, they make perfect snacks for local wildlife. With Save the...

  • Review Disney Fireworks (DSiWare)

    All flash, no bang

    Combining both loud noises and pretty colors (things we've been conditioned from birth to stare at in awe), there's something magical about a good fireworks display. Disney is well-known for the nightly shows put on at their assorted theme parks, and now their game-developing arm has brought the fun to the DSi Shop in the form of...

  • Review Game & Watch Judge (DSiWare)

    Judge quick, lest ye be bopped

    The Game & Watch series was Nintendo's first real foray into the world of portable video gaming. Designed by Gunpei Yokoi, who would later mastermind the grey-brick Game Boy we all know and love, these handheld electronic games featured an LCD display, a tinny speaker, and just enough buttons to complete the main...

  • Review Game & Watch Chef (DSiWare)

    It's all fun and games until someone loses a sausage

    The Game & Watch series was Nintendo's first real foray into the world of portable video gaming. Designed by Gunpei Yokoi, who would later mastermind the grey-brick Game Boy we all know and love, these handheld electronic games featured an LCD display, a tinny speaker, and just enough buttons...

  • Review Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs - Fight for Survival (DSiWare)

    T-Rexes and Diplos and Toilets, oh my

    Back in 2008, Ubisoft Quebec released Battle of Giants: Dinosaurs, a game aimed squarely at younger gamers in which you create your own dinosaur and use it to battle others. With the advent of the DSi and the popularity of smaller versions of retail titles on the DSi Shop, Ubisoft saw fit to release a stripped...

  • Review 101 Minigolf World (DSiWare)

    This putt-putt is below par

    Though there are already two DSiWare games based on serious golfing, putt-putt (or crazy golf to our European chums! - Ed) has remained oddly under-represented – until now. Teyon has brought us yet another DSiWare game almost straight from the PC: 101 MiniGolf World, featuring over 100 different holes to play, tons of...

  • Review 4 TRAVELLERS: Play Spanish (DSiWare)

    Demasiado aburrido para las palabras

    Playing board games on a long trip is hard when the pieces tend to go flying at every pothole. Agenius Interactive's 4 TRAVELLERS – Play Spanish, however, promises travel-friendly fun for all ages as you learn over 240 different words in Spanish. By studying via the two quiz modes and playing the board game...

  • Review Elemental Masters (DSiWare)

    Not one for the snotlings

    German developer lbxgames, a newcomer to the Nintendo scene, has thrown their hat into the DSiWare ring with Elemental Masters, a card-based fantasy game set in the mystical land of Elendior. A great demon is rumored to have arisen from the dead in order to continue his initial goal of spreading death and destruction across...

  • Review Globulos Party (DSiWare)

    Shoot glob at target. Repeat. Wipe hands on pants.

    Since 2000, GlobZ has specialized in browser-based webgames, the most innovative of which being Globulos, an award-winning set of adorable multiplayer minigames pitting you against opponents from across the internets. As DSiWare, Globulos Party has received similar acclaim, featuring not just a...

  • Review VT Tennis (DSiWare)

    Don't get court out

    You'd think developers would be racing to bring a MotionPlus-capable tennis game to WiiWare at the moment, especially after Wii Sports Resort didn't include a new version (unless ping-pong is enough to satisfy you). However, Virtual Toys has decided to skip the Wii Shop for now and release their new VT Tennis as DSiWare, offering...

  • Review Aura-Aura Climber (DSiWare)

    A shining beacon of arcade-style fun

    It's not easy being a star, having to worry about losing your place in the night sky. Aura-Aura has slipped and fallen from the heavens, crashing into the Earth far, far below, and you'll be helping him to resume his place in outer space in Aura-Aura Climber, Nintendo's own latest offering for DSiWare. By now,...

  • Review Faceez (DSiWare)

    Fun with friends

    The DSi has been getting some love lately in terms of games that take advantage of its onboard cameras, but applications geared toward straight-up photo manipulation are still somewhat sparse. Neko Entertainment has come forward to help fill the gap with Faceez, a quirky little application promising plenty of ways for you to...

  • Review Prehistorik Man (DSiWare)

    A real dinosaur

    Originally released for DOS as Prehistorik 2, Prehistorik Man has seen ports to the Game Boy, SNES, and GBA already, and it seems the GBA version has been ported to DSiWare this time around. In each version, the story is the same — hungry dinosaurs have snuck into a prehistoric village in the dead of night and eaten all the...

  • Review Spaceball: Revolution (DSiWare)

    The same sphere-shooting fun, now in the palm of your hand

    Last year, Virtual Toys brought Spaceball: Revolution to the Wii Shop, an arcade-style puzzle game that had you firing at a grid to copy patterns. Now that it's hit the DSi Shop, this puzzler has brought the same unique experience to a handheld system. Challenge Mode is where you’ll find...

  • Review Extreme Hangman (DSiWare)

    Less violence, more vocabulary

    With all the sudoku games that have hit the DSi Shop since the service launched last April, it's nice to occasionally see a pen-and-paper puzzle game for DSiWare that doesn't involve numbers. In Extreme Hangman, Gamelion has taken the time-honored word-guessing game and turned it into something a little more...

  • Review Sudoku 4Pockets (DSiWare)

    Time to dig out your sudoku dictionary

    Since 2002, the aptly-named 4Pockets.com has been creating applications and casual games for pocket PCs and smartphones, including Breakout clones, jigsaw puzzles, pinball games, and of course, sudoku. Their version of the ever-popular puzzle game has received a slight makeover and a cute Japanese doll-shaped...

  • Review 5 in 1 Solitaire (WiiWare)

    Tethered to a television is not the way to play

    Just like sudoku, crossword puzzles, word searches, and other public-domain fare as WiiWare, Digital Leisure's 5-in-1 Solitaire will have you tied down in front of a television after having plunked down your Nintendo Points for games available for free on the internet or, worse yet, that came...

  • Review 5 in 1 Solitaire (DSiWare)

    Five games for the price of two

    So far, Digital Leisure hasn't done the greatest job of bringing public-domain games to WiiWare or DSiWare. Sudoku Challenge wasn't challenging in quite the right way, and Word Searcher only worked on DSiWare because word searches were meant to be portable to begin with. The interfaces seemed a bit rushed and...

  • Review Escapee GO! (DSiWare)

    A must for maze mavens.

    Gevo Entertainment didn't have the greatest luck with WiiWare, but they've turned things around for their debut DSiWare release, going from a brightly colored, child-centric theme to something more dark and mysterious. In Escapee GO!, you play as Claire, a girl who has been locked up in an insane asylum by the mysterious...

  • Review "Aha! I Found It!" Hidden Object Game (WiiWare)

    Flawed by fuzziness

    It took Ateam Inc. almost a year to bring their last WiiWare offering to the west after its initial Japanese release, but their next reached our shores within a matter of months. "Aha! I Found It!" Hidden Object Game brings with it the promise of good old-fashioned 'find the hidden object' family fun for up to four...

  • Review The Amazing Brain Train (WiiWare)

    All aboard, kids!

    Back in 2008, indie developer Grubby Games created a collection of cute, quirky mini-games for the PC designed to amuse as well as stimulate your brain. It went on to be chosen as a 2008 PAX 10 winner, and though it did not capture the Audience Choice Award as well, it obviously turned enough heads for an eventual console release...

  • Review Word Searcher (DSiWare)

    Better on a portable?

    Digital Leisure attempted to jump on the Sudoku DSiWare bandwagon a while back, failing miserably in the process. Now they've taken another crack at the service with something different: Word Searcher, a game featuring 100 different word-search puzzles to sink your vocabulary into. Granted, Word Searcher as WiiWare wasn't that...