December2022
Review The Rumble Fish 2 (Switch) - A Cult Classic Fighter Gets A Great Port
Big Fish
Despite its title being ostensibly plucked from the 1983 Francis Ford Coppola movie of the same name, publisher Sammy’s The Rumble Fish series bears zero resemblance bar the odd bout of fisticuffs. Or, in this case, bout upon bout of fisticuffs, with a cast of colourful and interestingly designed characters. The Rumble Fish series’...
October2022
Review Dragon Ball: The Breakers (Switch) - Dares To Be Different From Other Dragon Balls
Survive in the nightmare that is the Dragon Ball universe
Video games based on the Dragon Ball franchise usually have a very specific focus. While there have been the occasional RPGs like Kakarot or The Legacy of Goku thrown into the mix, most have been firmly focused on fighting your way across the series’ story. However, Dragon Ball: The...
August2019
Review Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet Complete Edition - This Anime Adaptation Misses The Target
Hollow Fragment
Sword Art Online has been around in some form or another since all the way back in the prehistoric times commonly referred to as 2002. Originally a series of light novels, it’s been praised for its exploration of themes relating to the intertwining of real and virtual worlds and the effect this has on the psyche and physicality of...
April2019
Review Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission - A Shallow But Satisfying Arcade-Style Card Battler
Card-carrying heroes
By now there have been so many Dragon Ball games that they’ve practically ticked off every genre there is. So it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to know that this isn’t the first time Goku and co. have taken their war of fisticuffs to the world of card-based battles. The franchise has one of the most successful TCG...
October2013
Smaller screens, bigger problems
Due to the disparity between technical capabilities, it's tough for a dual Wii U / 3DS release to hold up on the portable device that's captivated tens of millions of gamers. So let's just toss that comparison aside and acknowledge that much of the 3DS iteration of Sonic Lost World is following the same principles...
November2011
Review Sonic Generations (3DS)
Spin cycle
A lot can change in 20 years. When the original Sonic the Hedgehog launched on 23rd June 1991 we didn't even have the Super NES in the West, and the thought that Nintendo and SEGA would one day work together was less than laughable. Yet here we are, two decades later, playing a celebration of Sonic's career on Nintendo's latest console. A...
June2011
Review Sonic Advance (Game Boy Advance)
Spin-tendo
One of the few good things about being old is that sometimes you can glean satisfaction from being in the right place at the right time, where you were lucky enough to have first-hand experience of something special. Nostalgia is the bread-and-butter of retro gaming and throughout its history there will always be moments that stick in a...
October2010
Review Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 (WiiWare)
After 15 years, 16-bit is back
The drums are perfect. That's the second thing you notice about Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I, right after Sonic runs past the Sega logo to the classic 16-bit "Say-gah!" sample. Anyone who's ever played a Sonic game will start to smile: it's off to a perfect start. That start builds momentum quickly. Splash...
December2006
Crash landing on DS, mini games a plenty, but how does this measure up to previous Crash titles?
From what I remember Crash Bandicoot was pretty much written off from the first moment when he landed onto PlayStation consoles all those years ago, at least by the non-Sony crowd, he's no Mario or Sonic, right? To his credit, Crash re-appeared again and...