December2013

  • Review Castlevania (Wii U eShop / NES)

    Just like Dracula, it keeps coming back to life...

    Konami, admittedly following the lead of others such as Nintendo and Capcom, sure likes to remind us it was making awesome games way back in the 1980s. "Hey", it says, "remember how great Castlevania was on the NES?" We sure do, Konami and, oh look, now we can buy it again on the Wii U! It's one of...

  • Review The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (Wii U eShop / SNES)

    The true karate kid

    Konami's classic action title The Legend of the Mystical Ninja is a welcome addition to the Wii U's slowly expanding library of Virtual Console offerings. In an era where lighthearted, fun characters have all but been forgotten in favour of grim shooters, playing as "Kid Ninja" — or Goemon, for fans of his Nintendo 64...

  • Review Contra III: The Alien Wars (Wii U eShop / SNES)

    Lasers and missiles and heliobombs, oh my

    Just when you thought the Wii U eShop had reached a maximum capacity of irresistibly cute little creatures with the likes of Pikmin 3, Toki Tori and Kung Fu Rabbit, here comes Contra III: The Alien Wars to mow down the competition with its terrifying alien invasions, flamethrower-wielding protagonists and...

October2013

  • Review Super Castlevania IV (Wii U eShop / SNES)

    Fangs for the memories

    The Castlevania series is enjoying something of a renaissance at the moment, thanks largely to MercurySteam's commercially successful Lords of Shadow sub-series. However, as many hardcore Castlevania fans will repeatedly tell you until they are blue in the face and you are deeply, deeply bored, the God of War-style gameplay...

September2013

  • Review Gradius (Wii U eShop / NES)

    Just keeps shooting

    To say that the original Gradius was influential on the evolution of the side-scrolling shoot 'em up would be a gross understatement. When it hit arcades in 1985 it was lauded for its amazing level designs and simple, yet wildly playable, power-up system. This NES release was one of the first home ports of the game and has become...

March2013

  • Review Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate (3DS)

    A change is as good as a rest

    As much as it will pain Castlevania fans to admit, the series was in a pretty bad state prior to the release of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow in 2010. Although a string of “Metroidvania” entries — produced under the guidance of the enigmatic Koji “IGA” Igarashi — had hit the mark from a critical standpoint,...

February2013

  • Review Castlevania (3DS eShop / NES)

    Drac attack

    A while back we were "graced" with the arrival of Castlevania: The Adventure on 3DS Virtual Console, an overly simplistic attempt to bring the series to handhelds. Now the NES original has arrived on the service as well, but is it still worth going batty over? If you've played almost any other "classic-style" Castlevania game, you'll be...

  • Review Super C (3DS eShop / NES)

    I think you’re a Contra

    Originally released as an arcade game titled Super Contra, Super C — or Probotector II — is the NES-ported sequel to the now infamously difficult action game Contra. With the continuing story of alien invaders, and most of the same gameplay elements, Super C shares many similarities with its predecessor, but that...

October2012

  • Review Gradius (3DS eShop / NES)

    Dated, but legendary

    To say that the original Gradius was influential on the evolution of the side-scrolling shoot 'em up would be a gross understatement. When the game hit arcades in 1985 it was lauded for its amazing level designs and simple, yet wildly playable, power-up system. This NES release was one of the first home ports of the game and has...

  • Review Quarth (3DS eShop / GB)

    Break it down

    Originally released for the Game Boy in 1990, Konami's Quarth takes the presentation of a Space Invaders-type shooter, and instead gives us a puzzle game. As tempting as it might be to enter these stages with guns blazing, what Quarth actually requires is a healthy amount of foresight and on-the-fly problem solving. It's not without...

August2012

July2012

  • Review Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition (WiiWare)

    Hopping mad

    Frogger reached its 30th anniversary last year so, as is tradition for gaming birthdays, Konami has marched out a new edition of the arcade classic. Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition sets out to bring multiplayer and new play styles to the franchise, but it's not quite all it's croaked up to be. It's split up into eight modes – six game...

  • Review Castlevania: The Adventure (3DS eShop / GB)

    Belmont's first portable adventure

    When the Game Boy hit store shelves in 1989 it didn’t take long for a vast swathe of third-party publishers – many of which had grown fat on the profits generated by Nintendo’s astonishingly popular NES – to sign up to produce software for the device. Konami was one of the first to pledge its allegiance to...

February2012

  • Review Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D (3DS)

    Not for honor, but for 3DS

    Every so often a game comes along that makes you appreciate just how clever it is, a feat that creator Hideo Kojima pulls off every time he steps up to direct an entry in his Metal Gear Solid series. From fourth-wall-shattering boss battles to hiding key information in plain sight, they tend to raise the question of why...

  • Review Metal Gear Solid (Game Boy Color)

    Snake sneaks onto Game Boy Color in his first portable op

    Metal Gear is a series born from limitations. Originally intended as a military shooter game for the MSX2 computer system, creator Hideo Kojima found the hardware unable to handle the large amount of on-screen action required for such an adventure. Instead of loud and overt blasting, the...

November2011

  • Review Nikoli's Pencil Puzzle (3DS)

    Sharp?

    It's hard to believe, but there was a time before fancy Tanooki Suits, space-foxes and Lon Lon Milk defined a good game. It was an era without joysticks, Wii Remotes or Power Gloves. How could anyone possibly have had fun in such a world, you ask? Well, back then, people were satisfied with a simple pencil and pad of paper, and that was...

October2011

  • Review Deca Sports Extreme (3DS)

    Sixth time the charm?

    When we first played Wii Sports back in 2006, it woke us up to the potential of sports compilations to provide simple yet rich entertainment. When it was at its best, it boiled down a game to its essence, then refined that to make something truly special. Since then, countless titles have attempted to reproduce the formula, and...

  • Review Frogger 3D (3DS)

    Look both ways before crossing this game

    Why did the frog cross the road? We've still yet to receive an answer, but the little guy's been doing it for 30 years. Marking his birthday is Frogger 3D, begging the question: can yet another entry really bring anything new to the table? The answer is yes, as this title takes the little amphibian on a...

September2011

  • Review 3D Classics: TwinBee (3DSWare)

    Bee very grateful for this one

    Most of our readers could be forgiven for never having played TwinBee: after all, it began life in 1985 as an arcade game that never left Japan. It was later ported to the Famicom, and though some reports state that an NES localisation project was actually completed, for some reason it was never released. In fact,...

March2011

  • Review Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D (3DS)

    A decent first touch

    While the 3DS launch line-up is full of old territory being retrodden, Konami's got itself a bona fide first: the world's first three-dimensional football game. Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D makes a decent run at goal but sadly fluffs its chances in the dying minutes. For starters, the game is disappointingly feature-light:...

December2010

  • Review Goemon's Great Adventure (Nintendo 64)

    A spectacular sidescrolling sequel

    When it comes to underrepresented genres on the Nintendo 64, the humble 2D platformer is perhaps the most neglected of all. Despite forming a cornerstone of the 16-bit generation, the genre suffered a spectacular loss of popularity as the N64, Sega Saturn and PlayStation ushered in an exciting new revolution in the...

October2010

  • Review Silent Hill Play Novel (Game Boy Advance)

    Choose your own survival horror

    A popular release for the Playstation in 1999, Silent Hill saw players take control of Harry Mason – following a car accident, he awakens to find that his daughter, Cheryl, has disappeared. Naturally, Harry sets off to find her, but it soon becomes apparent that there's something strange about the surrounding town...

August2010

  • Review Divergent Shift (DSiWare)

    Deterrent or gift?

    We've already seen Chronos Twins present the dual-screen platforming experience on DSiWare, but Intrinsic Games now looks to put a slightly different spin on the idea. While their title's mechanics are similar in some ways, Divergent Shift tends to put a bit more emphasis on the actual platforming aspects of the game and less on...

  • Review Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (Game Boy)

    Heroes on your handheld

    Turtles, turtles everywhere. By 1990, you could find the four reptile ninjas not only in comics but on TV, t-shirts, toy store shelves and in theatres. Like the majority of the available products, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan was based on the popular cartoon and sees you battle across five levels to...

  • Review Parodius: Non-Sense Fantasy (Super Nintendo)

    Oh, we laugh at this game! Gradius is fine but this is nicer!

    A fiendish giant octopus by the name of Zeo and his intergalactic mutant penguin mates are up to no good, wreaking havoc on the inhabitants of the Parodius Zone. Thankfully, help is at hand as Vic Viper, Pentarou the penguin, Twinbee and a gun-toting octopus have come to save the day. As...