Retro Reviews
Review Trenches Generals (WiiWare)
Fun with guns or suicide mission?
The blood. The smoke. The little exploding cartoon men. War is Hell. Recreating the feel of battle with a cartoony spin is Trenches Generals, the latest spin on the tower defence subgenre, updated from the recent iOS version for WiiWare with updated AI, levelling-up system, content and more. But is this an explosive...
Review 1950s Lawn Mower Kids (DSiWare)
A bit of a chore
When it comes to attempts to turn boring, low-paid jobs into exciting DSiWare downloads, Zordix AB jumped to the fore with Valet Parking 1989. It was an intriguing but flawed game, jam packed with nostalgia and 80’s humour. The developer is now continuing the theme of decade-specific chore simulation with 1950s Lawn Mower Kids...
Over troubled water
It’s one of the simplest forms of entertainment: if all electronic entertainment is unavailable, when there is nothing else to do, a simple pack of playing cards can save the day. Card games can be simplistic or confusing and complex, with straightforward options often seeming suitable as cheap downloads on the DSi shop. More...
Review Let's Create! Pottery (DSiWare)
Let's not
Let's Create! Pottery may have the least appealing title this side of Let's Perform! Complex Trigonometry and Let's Compose! A Musical About Kobe Bryant's Lunch, but its problems run much deeper than that. Mainly, it’s just not very fun. The game begins with a title screen that offers several options, but none of them involve starting...
Review Magical Whip: Wizards of the Phantasmal Forest (DSiWare)
Magically delicious!
Puzzle-style games have proven to be quite a good fit for the DSiWare service, but some gamers have expressed concern at the growing number of puzzlers that have flooded DSiWare in recent months. Thankfully, Agetec's Magical Whip: Wizards of the Phantasmal Forest brings a fun experience to the service, and while not the most...
Review Aya and the Cubes of Light (WiiWare)
A game with gravity
If there's one system on the landscape of modern gaming that has an abundance of quality 2D platformers with a novel twist, it's the Wii. Kirby's Epic Yarn, And Yet It Moves, Donkey Kong Country Returns, New Super Mario Bros. Wii – all superb side-scrollers that mix the classic play mechanic of precision movement in an...
A bit of a fixer-upper
The year was 2008. Mario and Sonic were on their way to the Olympic Games, the 3DS was but a twinkle in Satoru Iwata's eye and the housing bubble was on its way to bursting. You wouldn't know that last fact, however, from MumboJumbo's 2008 real estate celebration Build-a-lot, a retail DS adaptation of HipSoft's 2007 PC game of...
Review Gargoyle's Quest (3DS eShop / GB)
Firebrand is so hot right now
The Game Boy enjoyed one of the longest lifespans of any system to date, outlasting rivals and finding its way into the hearts of gamers the world over. Following a very basic logic, a system with a long lifespan will typically have a large amount of titles worth your time. In fact, games were being released for the...
Review Blockado - Puzzle Island (DSiWare)
Too tried-and-true
Bitfield's Blockado series has already enjoyed success on Apple's iOS devices, but now the game is looking to take on Nintendo's DSiWare service with a little sliding-block puzzle action. And while there are a few interesting new twists in Blockado: Puzzle Island, it's still basically the same gameplay idea the series has been...
Review Flight Control (WiiWare)
Near miss
The secret of Flight Control's incredible success on iOS devices was that it was perfectly suited to the platform it launched on. It very simply transposed the immediacy of direct touch controls that iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch benefit from within a game that is superficially nothing more than drawing lines on a screen. Yet the key phrase...
Review My Asian Farm (DSiWare)
Enter Old McDonald-San
Farming comes in many forms. Sometimes it's exotic. Sometimes it's Australian. And sometimes it's just regular, old-fashioned farming. But nothing you've seen in this DSiWare series, consisting of split-up portions of 2009's retail release My Farm Around the World, could have prepared you for this: My Asian Farm, featuring
Review Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)
A true epic
It's been a strange year for the Nintendo Wii, with a sparse release schedule and many proclaiming the death of the console. Yet here we have Xenoblade Chronicles, which debuted in Japan simply as Xenoblade in June 2010. This current release is only available in Europe and PAL regions, prompting fan-group protests in North America. To be...
Review GO Series: Fishing Resort (DSiWare)
Luring you in…
Fans of both Nintendo and fishing have been given plenty of opportunities to don the virtual wellies and cast the line, on WiiWare. While the Wii Remote is an ideal opportunity to simulate fishing, the humble DSi stylus and touchscreen have largely missed out. As has often been the case, publisher Gamebridge has come to the rescue...
Review Crazy Hamster (DSiWare)
Crazy cool
The idea behind this game is simple: Crazy Hamster forgot to store supplies for the coming winter, so now it’s up to you to guide the rushed rodent through each level and collect all of the fruit. Make it safely to the end of the level with these supplies and you’re home free. While there may not be much here in terms of plot, this...
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
Horizontal shoot 'em ups have become quite scarce in recent years, even on the WiiWare and DSiware services, so when one does pop up from time to time, fans of the genre tend to sit up and take notice. With Kyotokei, Microforum have crafted a fairly basic shoot 'em up that borrows heavily from such classic...
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...
Review Play & Learn Spanish (DSiWare)
¿Plus ultra?
A good pocket translator can cost hundreds of dollars, so it's no surprise that some smart software studios would see an incentive in offering DSi and 3DS owners an affordable alternative. So far we've only seen the average 4 TRAVELLERS – Play Spanish on the service, so it's good to see a challenger appear. But is this a helpful...
Dog's dinner
With Go Fetch!, ICM took the simple activity of playing fetch with a puppy and added a timer, health bar and obstacles to create a unique racing game-esque experience that was unfortunately let down by imprecise controls, lack of depth and repetitiveness. The developer doggedly returned to the drawing board to remedy these issues and...
Review Go! Go! Kokopolo (DSiWare)
Koko-crazy
DSiWare is, quite rightly, well known for providing a diverse range of quirky titles to give DSi owners small downloadable gaming fixes. We’ve seen a few ‘off the wall’ concepts on the service, and Go! Go! Kokopolo deserves its place in this category. The title says it all; this is a game that doesn’t want to be taken seriously...
Review Pac-Man (3DS eShop / GB)
Pac's back to steal your money
Everybody knows Pac-Man. The game's been ported to just about every platform under the sun, including the NES version on the Wii Virtual Console. It's now being released yet again on the 3DS Virtual Console, but is it worth another investment? Of course, there is absolutely nothing different about the gameplay in this...
Review Monochrome Racing (WiiWare)
Unintelligent design
One of the best modes in the Micro Machines games was undoubtedly “Head-To-Head”, in which the goal was to reach the furthest edge of the screen while pushing an opponent to the opposite side. The balance of risk and reward resulted in a nail biting play experience where one mistake would cost you dearly, the most talented...
Review B Team - Episode 2: Ice & Venom (DSiWare)
New name, same game
May of 2011 saw the DSiWare release of B Team - Episode 1: Dust & Steel. Now, a short three months later, the gang is back in B Team - Episode 2: Ice & Venom. Anyone who played the first game (or read our Dust & Steel review) will know exactly what to expect here. As this game clearly shows, consistency is not always...
Review Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GameCube)
For super players
Back when Super Mario Bros. 2 came out in Japan — the real Super Mario Bros. 2, known here overseas as The Lost Levels — there was a little label on the box that said “For Super Players.” It meant it, too: Super Mario Bros. 2 is a ridiculously difficult game, often using your knowledge of the first game against you while at...
Review Metroid Prime (GameCube)
Prime cut
You know the story. By now, everyone does. In 2002, a new Metroid game was released after nearly a decade of silence, and it was done by a little studio in Texas that no one had ever heard of. Oh, and it was 3D. And first person. It shouldn't have worked, but it did, and the ensuing trilogy would secure that little studio as one of the...
Review Successfully Learning German: Year 5 (DSiWare)
The end of an era?
Another week, another instalment in the venerable Successfully Learning series from Tivola. Successfully Learning German: Year 5 is on DSiWare so young German speakers have another opportunity to return to Freddy the Vampire’s classroom. It’s the final instalment in the series, so prepare to graduate and say goodbye. How does...
Review Artillery: Knights vs. Orcs (DSiWare)
A misfire
Most of us have played one of them before: one of those free online Flash games where your goal is to hit something by firing a projectile, after deciding what angle and what speed the object should be thrown or shot at. Of course, you'll also be familiar with this concept if you've played any Worms game. Artillery: Knights vs. Orcs takes...
Review Captain America: Super Soldier (DS)
Save the fireworks
Stars. Stripes. Rockets' red glare and bombs bursting in air. Deer and antelope playing. America. The United States is a country with enough national pride to fuel a superhero, and that's exactly what Captain America is all about. Does his movie tie-in handheld outing Captain America: Super Soldier channel these well enough to...
Review My Australian Farm (DSiWare)
You call that a farm? THIS is a farm
Ahh, life on the farm. The sweet taste of buffalo milk, sheep and crocodiles playing together... OK, perhaps My Australian Farm isn't the most realistic agricultural simulator, but at least it makes for a decent money-management time-waster. This, along with My Farm, My Exotic Farm and the upcoming My Asian Farm,...
Review Burn the Rope (WiiWare)
A game that'll rope you in
Step one: create a simple, fun and addictive activity. Step two: throw in an interesting twist. Step three: build on that foundation with something that adds variation and challenge while channelling the essence of what makes it fun. These are the steps to making a great puzzle game, and it's that first task at which many...
Review GO Series: Portable Shrine Wars (DSiWare)
Shinto to go
What do you get when you mix Mikoshi (portable Shinto shrines) and top-down shooters? Oddly enough, you come up with Gamebridge’s newest DSiWare release, GO Series: Portable Shrine Wars. But is this bizarre combination a match made in yomi, or is it just too weird to work? The goal in Portable Shrine Wars is to race your Mikoshi...
