December2022
Review Samurai Maiden (Switch) - A Saucy Hack-And-Slash That Makes For An Entertaining Romp
Pleated Swords
Samurai Maiden’s characters look great. Really great. While perhaps not leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, nevertheless, they’re a striking cast of multicoloured, glassy-eyed femme fatales that glow from every angle. As is much the case with most output that falls into anime ecchi categories, they’re not particularly...
March2018
Review The Men Of Yoshiwara: Kikuya (Switch eShop)
Kimono Friends
While we’ve seen all sorts of titles make their way to Nintendo systems in recent years, one genre that’s been distinctly underrepresented - and largely confined to PlayStation Vita - are otome games: romance titles starring female protagonists and marketed to women. D3 Publisher’s The Men Of Yoshiwara: Kikuya is the first title...
February2018
Review Escape Trick: 35 Fateful Enigmas (Switch eShop)
Derren Brown's knock-off
Whenever someone reminisces about the “escape from a locked room” genre, their first thoughts are usually of the Nonary games, 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors on Nintendo DS and its follow up, Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward on Nintendo 3DS. They were defining releases on their respective consoles, and for...
Review Pool Billiard (Switch eShop)
First round exit
There has been a surprising amount of pool-based games released onto the Nintendo eShop as of late, hasn’t there? We have the simply named Pool, which looks to be giving Tennis a run for its money in the award for most generic title of 2018, as well as Premium Pool Arena that looks to add a fair amount of customisation into the...
January2018
Simple name, even simpler game
When Wii Sports helped to launch Nintendo Wii back in 2006, the Tennis mode was lauded as one of the reasons to own the console and an instant hit with gamers of any age or skill level. Its simple yet addictive gameplay was easy to pick up on and follow, and on top of that it shipped with four other excellent sports to...
February2014
Review Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW! (3DS)
Size doesn't matter
D3Publisher, Cartoon Network and WayForward were definitely onto something in Adventure Time: Hey, Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! Though the title was over too soon, it took players all over the Land of Ooo on a true-to-series nonsensical quest using Zelda II-like gameplay, with a top-down overworld and side-scrolling...
December2013
Review Ben 10 Omniverse 2 (Wii U)
Big bad Ben
With a plucky, wise-cracking kid hero, a host of supporting characters with funny and unique personalities and abilities, a surprisingly deep mythos and aliens to beat up, the Ben 10 franchise is rife with potential for great video games. Unfortunately, D3Publisher and developer High Voltage Software completely miss the mark with Ben 10...
Review Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW! (Wii U)
Mathematical?
D3Publisher, Cartoon Network and WayForward were definitely onto something in last year's Adventure Time: Hey, Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! Though the title was over too soon, it took players all over the Land of Ooo on a true-to-series nonsensical quest using Zelda II-like gameplay, with a top-down overworld and...
November2013
Review Ben 10 Omniverse 2 (3DS)
Ben bleh
The latest tie-in to the Ben 10 television series, Ben 10 Omniverse 2 is a serviceable title that falls prey to many of the issues that plague licensed games. It's a shame, too, because the creative, action-packed world and characters of the series certainly would lend themselves well to a video game. Developer 1st Playable Productions has...
Review Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby in 8-Bit Land (3DS)
Regular Show game for 3DS, send it to the moon
When we heard that WayForward was developing a Regular Show video game, we were optimistic. Not only does the studio generally pump out better-than-expected licensed games, but last year it produced Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?!, which ended up being a loving tribute to the...
August2013
Review Turbo: Super Stunt Squad (Wii U)
Slow and steadier
D3Publisher's Turbo: Super Stunt Squad for Wii U is the HD cousin of the poorly received 3DS racer of the same name. Expectations were kept low for the title, due to the handheld edition's lacklustre visuals, infuriatingly imprecise controls and lack of any actual "stunts." But Turbo: Super Stunt Squad for Wii U is a pleasant...
Review Turbo: Super Stunt Squad (3DS)
A snail's pace
Based on the movie from DreamWorks Animation about a garden snail who longs to become the fastest racer in the world, Turbo: Super Stunt Squad for 3DS is yet another licensed title that suffers from a lack of working controls, solid visuals and compelling gameplay. While D3Publisher and developer Torus Games have the right idea —...
April2013
Review The Croods: Prehistoric Party! (3DS)
Party of one
When popular films are adapted into video games, publishers tend to cover their bases by releasing the results across as many platforms as possible. This often leads to portable systems receiving scaled-back ports from their big-screen brethren, and The Croods: Prehistoric Party on 3DS is a prime example of a handheld hand-me-down. We...
Review The Croods: Prehistoric Party! (Wii U)
Croodités
As a video game adaptation of Dreamworks' cave-dweller caper, The Croods: Prehistoric Party casts the film's characters in a Mario Party-style experience for up to four players. It borrows heavily from Nintendo's series, linking disparate mini-games together with a simple board game conceit. Like the movie's titular Neanderthal family...
February2013
Review Ben 10: Omniverse (Wii U)
Hangin' with the Plumbers
Is it just us or has Wii U already amassed a swath of licensed beat-em-ups in the three months since its November launch? It seems like there's no shortage of ways to punch and/or slice hordes of bad things, between the reasonably OK Transformers Prime and the why-oh-why of Rise of the Guardians, so forgive us if the...
Review Rise of The Guardians: The Video Game (3DS)
A bad game gets an even worse port
When it comes to a portable version of a recent console game, there are two approaches developers can take. The first is to create a brand new experience, independent from the original. The Sonic Colours team did this, and we're glad they did; instead of one great game we got two, and the portable version was...
Review Rise of The Guardians: The Video Game (Wii U)
A legendary failure
In Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game you take command of a small army of characters, each of whom is designed around a childhood legend. You have characters based on Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sand Man, and Jack Frost. They are coming together to fight a common evil: the sinister Pitch, who wants the...
January2013
Review Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade (Wii U)
Obstacle to fun, maybe
If you were to poll gamers at large and ask them what they felt were the worst things about the Wii, chances are you'd hear "waggle" and "bad minigame collections" pretty frequently. In fact they often went hand in hand, and Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade is trying its hardest to make sure both of things carry...
Review Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! (DS)
I'm ready for you now Brad
Back in March 2012 fans of the cult TV series Adventure Time rejoiced around the world, as series creator Pendleton Ward announced via a doodle on his Twitter page that WayForward Technologies and D3 Publisher would be working on a video game adaptation for the DS and 3DS, the absurdly named Adventure Time: Hey Ice King!...
June2011
A bad dream
Given the anaemic flow of 3DS games as of late, the mere fact that Dream Trigger 3D was a new release for the system after the initial launch caused a lot of gamers to sit up and take notice; toss in the fact that the game was a shooting title and things got even more interesting. While it looks like a wealth of unique ideas on paper,...
January2011
Review Despicable Me: The Game - Minion Mayhem (DS)
Forgettable game
Like its home console counterpart, Despicable Me: The Game – Minion Mayhem refreshingly constructs an original experience around elements from a film rather than rigidly attempting to follow the source material and fit it to a game framework for which it was never intended. Unfortunately, beyond that it shares the status of subpar...
November2010
Review Family Party: Fitness Fun (Wii)
Witness fun, but not much fitness
Hang around any Nintendo-themed internet forum, and you're bound to find similar posts over and over, all declaring the same thing: The Wii needs more party games! Alright, obviously that's not the case. The poor little Wii has more party games than it knows what to do with, making it difficult for new entries in...
October2010
Review Kidz Bop Dance Party! The Video Game (Wii)
Your children would prefer a spanking
As a franchise, Kidz Bop is a strange one. While compilations of popular dance songs are nothing new, Kidz Bop releases are actually compilations of covers of dance songs, all performed by a troupe of prepubescent moppets whose voices are auto-tuned and otherwise processed until they arrive, indistinguishable...
September2010
Review Despicable Me: The Game (Wii)
When you wish upon a moon
Ever since George Bailey promised Mary in It's A Wonderful Life that if she said the word, he'd throw a lasso around the moon, people have plotted to steal that thing. Despicable Me: The Game tells the tale of one such dreamer, Gru, as he heists parts to build a combination rocketship/shrink ray. It's up to you to guide...
February2008
We know what you are thinking.
You have looked at the score at the bottom of the page, noticed that it is quite high and wondering how on earth a Sudoku package could possibly be rated so highly. The answer is that it isn't the Sudoku that holds our interest, it's the rather well hidden mode of picture puzzle that has us gripped, otherwise known as...
