First Impressions Moulding Clay With Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
Rainbow Country
Kirby has always been a flexible little guy; from his humble beginnings as a placeholder sprite, he’s been moulded into a pinball, a golf ball, and an animate collection of yarn - not to mention the many hats he wears as part of his trademark copy abilities. Kirby’s workable versatility is a huge part of his identity as a...
First Impressions Getting Creative With Mario Maker
Make Mine Mario
Mario Maker may have been inadvertently revealed a little earlier than intended at E3 this year, but with the allure of what was on offer — a new Wii U title which lets budding Miyamotos create and play their own Mario levels — we’d argue that the effect was less like ruining a surprise and more like knowing you’re getting...
First Impressions Solving the Puzzle of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Toad Captain! My Captain!
Sometimes games play host to smaller experiences so fun they could easily stand as full-fledged titles of their own. Kirby games are famous for this, of course, with Kirby Fighters & Dedede’s Drum Dash on offer in the pink puffball’s latest outing, though Mario’s also been known to get in on the act — Super...
First Impressions Enjoying the Craft of Yoshi's Woolly World
A purled gem
For fans who have been anxiously awaiting news of Yarn Yoshi since it was first announced in January 2013, seeing Nintendo’s Takashi Tezuka and Good-Feel’s Etsunobu Ebisu walk into a yarn shop during the E3 Digital Event was enough to send hopeful hearts flutter-jumping in anticipation. Now sporting a new name and a launch window of...
First Impressions Taking Aim With Nintendo's New Online Shooter IP, Splatoon
Colour us ink-pressed
Whatever your expectations for Nintendo's Digital Event at E3 this year, it's safe to say that they probably didn't include squid-girls flinging ink at each other across a cityscape in team-based battles. A surprise in every sense of the word, Splatoon came out of nowhere to significant fanfare as one of Nintendo’s flagship...
Feature All Of The Vital Super Smash Bros. Roundtable Details, As Pac-Man Joins The Fight
Our man at E3 on Mii customisation, Amiibo and more
Below is a detailed summary from the recently held Super Smash Bros. roundtable, presented by Masahiro Sakurai, as we highlight the most important details and question answers. Once Masahiro Sakurai took to the stage to begin the roundtable, it didn't take long for him to drop the biggest news...
Review The Denpa Men 3: The Rise of Digitoll (3DS eShop)
Good vibrations
Before Denpa Ningen no RPG washed up on Western shores as The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave in 2012, it felt like a localisation long-shot: a candy-coloured JRPG with off-the-wall style, an AR-based hook, very little story, and deceptively traditional, grind-heavy gameplay. Even the Denpa Men themselves — colourful and oddly...
Review Klonoa: Empire of Dreams (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Wahoo!
Starting life on the PlayStation in 1997, at a time when Super Mario 64 had just brought the gaming world triple-jumping headlong into the era of 3D platforming, Namco's Klonoa series has always done things differently. Klonoa's first outing, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, was a pioneering foray into 2.5D, mixing polygonal backgrounds with...
Review Mach Rider (Wii U eShop / NES)
Groovy little motorbike
If you were lucky enough to pick up a shiny new NES way back in 1985, you would have had your pick of several future classics from a legendary launch-day lineup. If your idea of a digital good time happened to involve motorcycles, you were particularly spoilt for choice, with Excitebike and Mach Rider representing two-wheeled...
Review Smash Cat Heroes (3DS eShop)
Tokugawa Mew Mew
Imagine, for a moment, that you are a cat. What would you do for a can of delicious cat food? What about a can of delicious, destiny-altering Super Cat Food? If you're anything like the feline cast of Smash Cat Heroes — the latest eShop title from Escape from Zombie City studio Tom Create — you'd grab a kitten-sized katana and...
Review Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars (3DS)
Birth of the cool
Brought into the world by Spike Chunsoft — of both Danganronpa and StreetPass Battle/Warrior's Way fame — Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars is a delightfully different affair. The generational suffix refers to its pedigree — a single, Japan-only PSP predecessor — but all you need to know about this standalone...
Review Yumi's Odd Odyssey (3DS eShop)
Ocean Belly River's back!
In some games, just moving around is a joy. Soaring through the skies in Pilotwings, loop-de-looping in NiGHTS into Dreams, wet-jetting around Isle Delfino in Super Mario Sunshine, and tumbling through town in Gravity Rush are all exhilarating experiences in their own right, as memorable as the games built around them.
Review Adventure Island II (3DS eShop / NES)
"Just you wait, Master Higgins!"
The original Adventure Island — though a fun little platformer in its own right — is most fondly remembered today for being a strikingly comprehensive clone of SEGA's Wonder Boy, as a result of developer Escape licensing the property (minus SEGA's character designs) to Hudson Soft for an NES port. Adventure...
Review Inazuma Eleven (3DS eShop)
A Beautiful Game
In Japan Inazuma Eleven is an institution — a multi-modal soccer sensation spanning several sequels and spin-offs, a wildly successful anime adaptation, and even a collectable card game; it's also enjoyed a number of releases in Europe. It's captured hearts from Kyoto to Cádiz, and now Level-5 is aiming to complete that...
Review BLOK DROP U (Wii U eShop)
In Soviet Russia...
Developed by the one-man team at RCMADIAX, BLOK DROP U represents the first eShop release to emerge from the Nintendo Web Framework platform, an HTML5-based approach that aims to deliver browser-bite-sized indie experiences direct to your GamePad. True to that concept, BLOK DROP U is a simple physics-based puzzler with a fun and...
Review Sky Kid (3DS eShop / NES)
Heavy Weather
An arcade force to be reckoned with, Namco graced the Famicom and NES with impressive cartridge conversions of quite a few of its enduring coin-op classics. From Dig Dug and Pac-Man to Galaga and Xevious, Nintendo's console quickly amassed a collection of A-list arcade hits, and — along with the heavy hitters and household names —...
Review Super C (Wii U eShop / NES)
Junco Partners
Konami's massively popular Contra became synonymous with side-scrolling shoot-'em-up action when it was released for the NES in 1988 — so much so that when the sequel hit Nintendo's home console in 1990, Konami felt confident that a single, stylized 'C' would be enough to evoke the series' name in the hearts and minds of loyal fans...
Review Ninja Gaiden (Wii U eShop / NES)
Original Gaiden
With a hit-list of sequels and spin-offs spanning more than two decades and its latest iteration — Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge — even slicing out a spot in the Wii U's launch lineup, Ninja Gaiden's reputation precedes it. An East-meets-West action platformer with an Japanese aesthetic and an American action-hero heart, this is...
Review Mighty Bomb Jack (Wii U eShop / NES)
Pyramid schemes
Bomb Jack, released in 1984, was one of Tecmo's early hits, a single-screen arcade game that had players rushing to diffuse bright red bombs planted at major tourist attractions around the globe. By the time its sequel rolled around in 1987, the Super Mario Bros.-induced side-scrolling craze had taken hold of the gaming world, and...
Review Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (Wii U eShop / NES)
Should've put a stake in it
With 1987's Castlevania on the NES, Konami created a classic. The vampire hunting action game was a whip-roaring success, kicking off one of gaming's most iconic series and introducing a generation of gamers to the adventures of Simon Belmont, the joy of whip-based combat, and the explosive properties of holy water. The...
Review Zumba Fitness: World Party (Wii U)
Around the world in 80 calories
A modern take on Sweatin' to the Oldies with party-people style, the dance-fitness sensation known as Zumba has become incredibly popular over the last decade, and been perfectly positioned to take advantage of the video-game fitness craze started with Wii Fit. Now, after three successful outings on the Wii, Majesco's...
Review Wipeout: Create & Crash (Wii U)
Primetime pratfalls
ABC's Wipeout - transatlantic cousin to the BBC's Total Wipeout - is a long running television show that sees a motley crew of caricatured contestants enthusiastically flinging themselves through, over, and off of the real-life equivalents of foam-padded platforming levels. It's also had quite a few video game adaptations over...
Review SpongeBob Squarepants: Plankton's Robotic Revenge (Wii U)
Best left in a pineapple under the sea
Not content with his role as star of an immensely successful Nickelodeon cartoon and enviable position as the world's most popular anthropomorphized sponge, SpongeBob Squarepants also enjoys a prolific and presumably lucrative side-career in the world of video games. This latest release, Plankton's Robotic...
Review Jump Trials Supreme (3DS eShop)
Might as well jump!
On DSiWare, G-Style's Jump Trials games followed in the fleet footsteps of 10 Second Run, providing short bursts of one-track, one-button gameplay with no fuss and few frills; if Super Mario Bros. is an epic platforming poem, Jump Trials is a list of words that rhyme with "cat". There's certainly a place for the simpler things in...
