Review The Voice: I Want You (Wii U)
Desafinado
Since American Idol first graced the airwaves back in 2002, a number of similar shows have stepped up to deliver the singing superstar search process season after season, including - since 2011 - NBC's The Voice. In this Wii U title based on the show, The Voice translates into a karaoke game with a tournament structure, a soundtrack split...
Review LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (Wii U)
Bricks, Bats and Beyond
With a steady schedule of semi-annual releases, dependably decent (and sometimes downright excellent) gameplay, and an ever-expanding stable of licenses, LEGO games are fast becoming the comfort food of family-friendly gaming. The Wii U alone has seen a half a dozen of the titles in the two years since its launch, and the...
Review Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth (3DS)
Mapping your psyche
Atlus’ Megami Tensei series has been an RPG institution for over two decades, but to Western audiences it’s perhaps best known in connection with a numbered pair of revolutionary PlayStation 2 titles: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 and Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4. Starring modern Japanese high school students and integrating...
Review Chests O' Booty (Wii U eShop)
Pieces of 2048
You can hardly swing a stylus without hitting a match-three game on the 3DS eShop these days, but so far the relentless tide of phoned-in puzzlers has mostly sidestepped the Wii U’s digital storefront. And while Chests O’ Booty might at first look like a pirate-themed take on more of the same, it’s actually a surprisingly unique...
Review Skylanders Trap Team (Wii U)
Knaves in Toyland
As the original ’toys-to-life’ video game concept — inspiring both Disney’s Infinity and Nintendo’s upcoming amiibo line — Skylanders has an impressive legacy to live up to. The series’ first release, Spyro’s Adventure, took the world and characters from the classic Spyro the Dragon games and crafted an enjoyable...
Review Legend of the River King 2 (3DS eShop / GBC)
Return of the King
As an extra, easter egg or background element, fishing seems to pop up everywhere in video games; from side-angle angling in Link’s Awakening and Rumble Pak-reeling in Ocarina of Time to museum-filling in Animal Crossing and fly-rod flinging in Yum
Review Cooking Mama 5: Bon Appétit (3DS)
M-I-X the flour into the bowl
Majesco’s Mama is nothing if not prolific; with nearly a dozen main titles and spin-offs on DS, 3DS, Wii, and iOS, spanning genres as diverse as gardening, babysitting, and crafting, it’s easy to forget that it all started with a whisk in 2006’s Cooking Mama for the DS. Mama may have branched out since then, but...
Review One Piece Unlimited World Red (3DS)
A pirate's life
Even if you don’t follow anime or manga, chances are you’ve heard of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece - having gotten its start in 1997 and still going strong today, this long-running tale of the Straw Hat crew’s far-reaching, seafaring adventures in piracy has blossomed into one of Japan’s most popular exports. With such wide...
Review Kirby Fighters Deluxe (3DS eShop)
Popstar wars
Ever since Kirby’s Adventure introduced the pink puffball’s trademark copy abilities in 1993, they’ve been at the heart of his every hobby, from Dream Course’s mini-golf to Air Ride’s racing. With Kirby Triple Deluxe, players were given the chance to use those powers in Kirby’s newest pastime — all-o
Review Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe (3DS eShop)
Hammer time
Though he might be best known for his platforming antics, Kirby is no stranger to spin-offs – from racing and pinball to madcap mini-golf, the pink puffball and his friends have been genre-hopping happily since 1993. Lately, Dreamland’s semi-benevolent King Dedede has spent some time in the spin-off spotlight himself, with his...
Review Donkey Kong Jr. Math (Wii U eShop / NES)
Summin' it
In among the Excitebikes, Super Mario Bros., and Ice Climbers of the NES’s North American launch sat Donkey Kong Jr. Math, an edutainment title seemingly designed so that hopeful tots could point to it on the shelf and Trojan-horse Nintendo’s new Duck Hunt-playing powerhouse into the family home, parents unsuspecting, under the guise...
Review Demon King Box (3DS eShop)
Put a lid on it
Prolific publisher CIRCLE Entertainment’s latest eShop effort takes players down into the world of demons, where the once mighty Demon Lord now sits boxed up and bodiless. Unable to reconquer his kingdom alone, he enlists the help of several of the underworld’s finest fighting spirits; that’s where you come in. While it’s...
Review Mysterious Stars: The Samurai (DSiWare)
Bushi-no.
The DSi’s touchscreen-and-stylus setup has inspired an impressive array of pen-and-paper puzzle conversions over the years, and this trend seems set to continue right into DSiWare’s twilight days. Collavier’s Mysterious Stars trilogy, as the most recent example, pairs classic connect-the-dots puzzles with children’s stories. It’s...
Review Mysterious Stars: A Fairy Tale (DSiWare)
Missed connections
From sudoku and crosswords to mazes and more, pen-and-paper puzzle games have found a happy home on Nintendo’s recent dual-screened systems, especially as part of smaller, downloadable offerings. One of the latest examples of this trend is the Mysterious Stars trilogy, a set of DSiWare games that couple classic connect-the-dots...
Review Steel Empire (3DS eShop)
The Empire strikes back
Side-scrolling shoot-‘em-ups were a force to be reckoned with in the early ’90s, gracing every arcade and home system under the sun with seemingly limitless variations on Gradius-style gameplay. Perhaps surprisingly, given the genre’s popularity, they also tended to stick rather closely to each other in terms of theme;...
Review Glory of Generals (3DS eShop)
Inglorious
The 3DS is no stranger to war games, and CIRCLE Entertainment has been a particularly prolific profiteer, with World Conquerer 3D, European Conquerer 3D and this latest effort, Glory of Generals, all hitting the eShop within the last year. A turn-based strategy game set in World War II, Glory of Generals attempts to stand out from the...
Review Bike Rider DX2: Galaxy (3DS eShop)
Giro della Galaxy
Last year’s Bike Rider DX was a pleasant surprise, bringing auto-scrolling precision platforming to the eShop in a charming, polished, pedal-powered package. Now, fresh from the first game’s world tour, our tireless cyclist returns to take to the stars in this space-themed sequel, Bike Rider DX2: Galaxy. Keeping the same great...
First Impressions Throwing Down in Shigeru Miyamoto's Mech Maker, Project Giant Robot
A robot riot
At the very end of Nintendo’s Digital Event at this year’s E3, Shigeru Miyamoto made a brief appearance to announce that he’s been hard at work creating new games that use the Wii U’s dual-screen setup in innovative ways. One of these works-in-progress was Project Giant Robot, an experimental venture that lets players build...
Interview Pro Smash Competitors Armada & Mew2King on Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
"The game’s graphics are on a completely different level"
With Evo 2014 around the corner, competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee players are gearing up for one of the year's biggest events. Of course, the new Super Smash Bros. for Wii U will potentially become a competitive main
Review European Conqueror 3D (3DS eShop)
Go ahead, mention the war
European Conqueror 3D is a title that might inspire a bit of déjà vu in observant eShop gamers, coming less than a year after the release of CIRCLE’s slightly more ambitious-sounding World Conqueror 3D. Like its predecessor, this is a turn-based strategy game that takes cues from tabletop classics like Risk and Axis...
Interview Yoshifumi Hashimoto Tells Us a Story of Seasons and Harvest Moons
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
As we touched on in our first impressions of Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley, 2014 is looking to be a bumper crop year for farming fans, with Natsume’s upcoming agricultural adventure and XSEED’s Story of Seasons both set to sow the seeds of farming simulation in North American
First Impressions Getting Our Hands Dirty in Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley
Farm fresh
Since its initial début on the Super Nintendo in 1997, Harvest Moon has blossomed into something of an institution; a non-traditional RPG that swapped swords for shovels, replaced fighting with farming, and let players find true love among the turnips, it captivated with a unique charm, and has been hooking would-be farmers on platforms...
Hands On Bewitching Bayonetta 2 Brings Action Gaming To A Climax On Wii U
We spend some time with Bayonetta 1 and 2
It’s hard to overestimate just how much buzz Bayonetta 2’s Wii U exclusivity garnered back when it was announced in 2012; the first game in the series - from Platinum Games and Hideki Kamiya - was critically acclaimed and a big hit with fans, though since it only ever appeared on the Xbox 360 and PS3,...
First Impressions Taking Sonic Boom for a Spin on Wii U and 3DS
Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice)
Back in May 2013 Nintendo announced that it had entered into a partnership with Sega to bring a series of three Sonic games exclusively to its systems. Sonic Lost World and Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games were the first products of that arrangement, and the upcoming Sonic Boom games —...
