July2014
Review Bases Loaded (Wii U eShop / NES)
America’s 8-bit pastime
Is there anything more American than hotdogs and apple pie? Yes. Yes there is. It’s baseball. The answer is baseball. It’s a game that has permeated the American culture and inserted itself firmly into so many of our lives. As such, it comes as no surprise that there are a plethora of video games available based on the...
Review Bases Loaded (3DS eShop / NES)
Can this old timer still make contact?
Back in the mid-to-late 80s, when the NES was the dominant force in video games, cyber sporting wasn’t exactly the complex affair that it is now. With modern controllers having about a dozen buttons and joysticks to manage, it’s common for every one of those to be utilized for numerous functions —...
November2013
Review Brawl Brothers (Wii U eShop / SNES)
Sibling rivalry
Jaleco released a trilogy of side-scrolling fighters in Japan under the Rushing Beat banner, and while all three made their way to the west, they did so under different titles: Rival Turf, Brawl Brothers and The Peace Keepers. Inspired in no small part by the success of Capcom's Final Fight, the series never really managed to reach...
Review City Connection (3DS eShop / NES)
Crash and burn
Originally released as an arcade game, City Connection puts you in the shoes of a man who wants to travel all over the world in order to paint its roads white, thus proving that he's travelled across the globe. Sounds like vandalism to us, but that's the '80s for you! Of course, this would be rather difficult to accomplish on foot, so...
October2012
Review Nurikabe by Nikoli (3DS eShop)
Blocked and loaded
The Nikoli puzzle factory is filled with evil geniuses. There really is no way else to explain their signature puzzle types sudoku, kakuro, hitori and the plethora of others that have hit the eShop by way of developer Hamster — the puzzles are simple in premise, seem easy enough to complete but then dropkick your brain when...
Review Hitori by Nikoli (3DS eShop)
Brainy cells
Connoisseurs of the eShop should be well acquainted with Japanese puzzle maker Nikoli: Hamster has trickled out an assortment of its brand of logic puzzles for months now, with varying success. Hitori by Nikoli offers a clever inversion on typical puzzle design, a Jeopardy!-style twist to its approach by handing over a grid of answers...
September2012
Review Heyawake by Nikoli (3DS eShop)
Mind bending
Heyawake has been around since 1992 and has spawned several books of puzzles for brain teaser fans to tackle. Now the puzzles are appearing on the 3DS eShop in the form of Heyawake by Nikoli. You can take on 50 puzzles of increasing difficulty on your 3DS and compete with up to three other players in a race to see who can finish the...
July2012
Review Masyu by Nikoli (3DS eShop)
Circle gets the square
The ...by Nikoli series is nothing new to the eShop, but Masyu by Nikoli stands out for being a puzzle of Nikoli's own creation. This means that if you'd like to play it, more than likely this will be your only option on the service. Therefore the question really boils down to whether or not that puzzle is worth seeking out on...
Review Akari by Nikoli (3DS eShop)
Spark in the dark
Hamster is now at the halfway point of chopping up upcoming retail release Sudoku + 7 other Complex Puzzles by Nikoli and selling each puzzle type individually through the eShop. With Sudoku and Kakuro out of the way, the far more interesting chunks have started to hit as evidenced by last month's Slitherlink and now Akari.
June2012
Review Slitherlink by Nikoli (3DS eShop)
Voldemort's favourite puzzle
Hamster continues to roll out piecemeal the components of its forthcoming retail package Sudoku + 7 Other Complex Puzzles by Nikoli onto the eShop, now breaking out the brain-bender Slitherlink by Nikoli. Unlike past efforts Sudoku by Nikoli and Kakuro by Nikoli, Slitherlink offers a type of teaser seldom seen in digital...
Review Kakuro by Nikoli (3DS eShop)
4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42
There's certainly no shortage of number puzzles lurking around the dark, damp corners of the eShop. Sudoku is a prime culprit, and we wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a degree of puzzle overlap between them all, however mathematically unlikely that may be. Kakuro, on the other hand, is much less of a bruised dead horse...
May2012
Review Sudoku by Nikoli (3DS eShop)
SuDDDoku
Given the volume of the genre found in the eShop, we expect a lot from new digital sudoku games. If someone is going to go ahead and plunk down some cash, a game really needs to bring the thunder compared to the free versions found online and on other devices, or even one of those end-all puzzle books down at the five and dime. Sudoku by...
February2012
Review Maru's Mission (3DS eShop / GB)
Mission: Unbearable
Several months ago, the eShop saw the release of Avenging Spirit, a gleefully eccentric title that made us all sorry we missed it the first time around. Lightning doesn't strike twice for Jaleco with Maru's Mission, however, as this time the publisher has dusted off a forgotten title that really should have stayed that way. The...
August2011
Review Avenging Spirit (3DS eShop / GB)
Like Kirby... if Kirby were SERIOUSLY TERRIFYING
It's a story as old as time itself: boy meets girl, boy takes girl out for a walk, boy is murdered by mobsters who kidnap girl, boy possesses vampires and kangaroos to get her back. Jaleco not only provides us with a bizarre and attention-grabbing backstory for the game, but they made sure to craft a...
July2011
Review Fortified Zone (3DS eShop / GB)
Link goes Commando
Jaleco seems to be good at making a game of just about any genre. We've seen fighters, sports games, a firefighting game and more, and this one can probably be best described as a mix of The Legend of Zelda and Commando, similarly to the original Metal Gear, in a way. Like many old games there's not much of a story. You play as...
May2011
Review The Ignition Factor (SNES)
It burns, but it doesn't crash
Ask anybody to name some firefighting games and you'll be lucky if they name one. Despite the games about the profession generally being quite good, there's not many of them, and they're not very widely known either. The Ignition Factor is one of only two on the SNES, the other one being the more well-known The...
April2011
Review Brawl Brothers (Wii Virtual Console / Super Nintendo)
A marked improvement
Jaleco released several beat 'em ups on the SNES, although you may not know that three of them are actually related. Exclusively in Japan, the games Rival Turf!, Brawl Brothers and The Peace Keepers were all part of one series called Rushing Beat, but for their North American releases they were retitled, and the story and...
May2008
Review City Connection (Wii Virtual Console / NES)
Driving round a bend
City Connection was a moderately popular arcade game in the early '80s. The game stars you as a rather strapping young man driving around the world to paint the roads white in order to prove he's been there. Doesn't make much sense to us, but hey, whatever floats his boat! While doing so you must watch out for cars (including...
April2008
Review Bases Loaded (Wii Virtual Console / NES)
Not quite a home run.
To herald the start of the new baseball season in the USA, it seems fitting that Bases Loaded should get a Virtual Console release. When this was first released on the NES twenty years ago there wasn’t really much that came close to it. The simple, yet innovative gameplay struck a home run with baseball fans all over the...
