March2011
My name is Hurl
Ever since David Crane and Richard Gold created Little Computer People for 8-bit computers in 1985, gamers have been fascinated with life simulation games, as demonstrated by the huge sales success of The Sims series. However, The Sims is also a series that has suffered from 'content filtering', as the PC experience has been watered...
Tied to the rail tracks
Rango is a new CGI movie coming to a cinema near you. You gamers all know what that means, a video game tie-in! Rango is a chameleon that becomes stranded as the sheriff of a mini Wild West town populated by animals of the desert; snakes, lizards, rabbits and a mariachi band of owls. So far, so typical of a CGI movie. The...
Third time the charm?
When the original PC title The Sims saw release, Maxis treated it as a spin-off of their popular SimCity franchise, the 3000 edition of which included a teaser for upcoming title SimMars. Before Will Wright could say "(insert Sim gibberish here)," though, it proved a sensational success both critically and...
December2010
Review Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 (Wii)
Should you sign up for Tiger’s swingers club?
Tiger Woods’ games, like the man’s affairs, come with a certain regularity. Once a year you can expect an updated game of golf to come rolling out of publishing giant EA’s headquarters. This is no bad thing mind, as in the case of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 the recent introduction of Wii MotionPlus...
Review Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I (Wii)
Worthy of a life-long Azkaban sentence
Without doubt, Harry Potter has become a huge cultural phenomenon over the last decade. The series, created by J.K Rowling, spanned seven main books and a successful set of films set around the various adventures of the wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, students at...
November2010
Review Need for Speed: Nitro-X (DSiWare)
Fast and (mostly) furious
Need For Speed: Nitro-X has a lot going for it. It's a racing game on a download service that's saturated with puzzlers, for one thing, but it's also part of one of the most long-running and successful racing franchises around. Is it a stripped down version of a retail game? Well yes, but it's a stripped down version of a...
Review Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (Wii)
Crash and burn
Until last year, the Need For Speed series on Wii was synonymous with crap from day one. And while Need For Speed: Nitro had its issues, it at least showed that EA’s heart was in the right place: instead of trying to shoehorn a game developed for HD platforms onto the Wii’s lesser hardware to the benefit of no one, it went out and...
Does it pass Go or should it go directly to jail?
Ah, Monopoly, the classic board game we all know and love, where you attempt to become the dominant force across the market and can become a rich tycoon living the high life in Mayfair or end up in the dumps of Old Kent Road. Starting back in 1903, it has since become one of the most successful board...
October2010
Come on and slam, and welcome to the Jam
You’d be forgiven for looking at this fall’s Wii release calendar and thinking you had stumbled out of a time machine set for 1997. Between all of the new 2D revivals starring some of gaming’s all-time classics and a new, old Bond movie adaptation, there's almost no time to see whether the Fresh Prince...
Finishes mid-table
Gamers that like playing video game adaptations of football (or soccer) will likely fall under one of two categories: the ones that prefer Pro Evolution and the ones that think FIFA games are better. The former has always strived to be as realistic as possible whilst the latter offers more arcade-style action as opposed to ultra...
July2010
Review Scrabble Tools (DSiWare)
Hey, a Scrabble dictionary! And some other junk, too.
After a solid vanilla version of the main game and a less-than-great spin-off, EA and Hasbro's third DSiWare outing of the popular board game comes in the form of Scrabble Tools. It's not so much about playing as it is about improving how you play. The application bundles two useful tools along...
June2010
Review Flips: The Folk of the Faraway Tree (DSiWare)
A classic book revisited
Following the release of The Magic Faraway Tree, EA's Flips series continues with a digital version of The Folk of the Faraway Tree. As with other games in the Flips series, there are sound effects played when certain words are tapped and finding coloured mushrooms throughout the book unlocks some interesting projects,...
Review Flips: The Magic Faraway Tree (DSiWare)
Faraway but not over the hill
The latest in EA's Flips series of digital children's books, The Magic Faraway Tree is part of Enid Blyton's well-known Faraway Tree Stories, with other stories from the collection due to arrive in the coming weeks. As with other games in the Flips series, there are some interactive features to maintain your interest:...
May2010
Review The Beatles: Rock Band (Wii)
Here comes the fun
We've seen the market quite saturated with numerous Rock Bands and Guitar Heroes, and at this point we’d need something extra special to pique our interest in the genre. The Beatles are happily just the right thing. They’re the perfect band for a music emulation game to take as its focus, their repertoire being one of the most...
Review Flips: More Bloody Horowitz (DSiWare)
More bloody Flips
A 14-year-old boy and his mysterious octogenarian neighbour he can't seem to get out of his head. A murder gone horribly, horribly, horribly, laughably, horribly wrong. The whiniest family of reluctant tourists ever to visit New York City. All of these tales, a "horror" soundboard and more await in EA's latest Flips entry...
Review Flips: Silent But Deadly (DSiWare)
You get the picture
The range of Flips books available on DSiWare keeps on growing, with Silent but Deadly the latest in the Too Ghoul for School range released. With the same interface and style as previous entries in the series, you won’t be surprised to hear it “plays” as well as the other entries, with a smooth page-turning system making...
Review 2010 FIFA World Cup (Wii)
A semi-final runner-up
FIFA used to be the console equivalent of a 0-0 draw, but the past few years have seen it emerge again as the dominant football game on the market. Last year's FIFA 10 was an enjoyable arcade-style take on the sport, and 2010 FIFA World Cup is a very similar game but featuring all the teams, arenas and pageantry of the...
Review Scrabble Slam! (DSiWare)
More of a slap, really
Scrabble Slam! is a different take on word puzzles for DSiWare. Instead of searching out pre-determined ones or collecting letters to spell elaborate words for maximum pointage, Slam! gives you a hand of cards with letters, puts four starter cards on the table and yells "go!" The goal is to play one of your cards on...
April2010
Review Surviving High School (DSiWare)
If only the real thing were this much fun
With this downloadable title, EA provides a very entertaining and engrossing experience that many will unfortunately write off based on its name alone. The game is almost completely text-based, which means that there aren't any explosions or fancy graphics, but the story and characters are funny and...
March2010
Review Flips: The Enchanted Wood (DSiWare)
Now with stories from more well-known authors!
It almost looked as if EA was simply going to release all stories included in the retail title Flips: Too Ghoul for School on DSiWare, but that seems not to be the case. This third book is actually from Flips: Faraway Tree Stories, which did not include completely "new" stories, but rather old...
Review FLIPS Percy Jackson (DS)
Harry who?
Rick Riordan’s tales of teenaged demi-god Percy Jackson’s adventures are a big hit in America. Following the success of 20th Century Fox’s adaptation of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief to the big screen, it somehow seems fitting that the Percy Jackson series makes a break for the UK market too by becoming one of the latest...
Review Flips: The Bubonic Builders (DSiWare)
More of the same
The first Flips story on DSiWare was a fairly decent reading experience for young kids, so it should come as no surprise that this second one provides more of the same. Just like Terror in Cubicle Four, The Bubonic Builders is one single story taken from the retail "game," Flips: Too Ghoul For School, which contained eight...
February2010
Review Flips: Terror in Cubicle Four (DSiWare)
Reading fun for the young kids
Digital books seem like a pretty obvious thing to sell for just about any handheld. Strangely enough, we didn't really see any notable ones on the DS until 2008 when Nintendo released their 100 Classic Book Collection. At the end of 2009, EA released a set of five Flips games, each featuring a number of decently sized...
Review Scrabble Classic (DSiWare)
Words in your pants
Scrabble has been kicking around as a DS release for almost a year now, but plopping down full price for a board game adaptation that you might only play every once in a while is kind of a tough pill to swallow for a lot of people. This DSiWare release, while reduced in both price and features, is a good alternative for...
Review Downtown Texas Hold 'Em (DSiWare)
One step forward, two steps back.
We've already seen a host of card games released on DSiWare so far and Texas Hold'em seems to be the hot new card game to get. Hudson recently released its High Stakes Texas Hold'em onto the service to rather mediocre reviews and now EA is serving up its version of the game with the release of Downtown Texas Hold...
