Aksys Games Game Reviews
Review 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (DS)
Fine, fine, fine
You wake up in a cabin on a ship, clueless as to how you arrived. You soon remember a mysterious figure in a gas mask and an odd odour filling your apartment. Before you have time to put the pieces together, the window cracks and water begins to flood the small space. Either you find a way out of the locked room, or you drown. This...
Review Defense of the Middle Kingdom (DSiWare)
Middle of the road
Many games take the history of Asian nations as their focus, from the Japanese combat-based Samurai Warriors series to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games, which use the warring kingdoms of first-century China as their basis. The newest to enter the ring is Defense of the Middle Kingdom, which also focuses on the latter's...
BIT.TRIP for your trip
It's impossible to deny just how successful Gaijin Games has been at capturing the old-school flavor of video games from our past and their ability to mould those sensibilities with modern technology. Their BIT.TRIP series has spawned some of the most popular downloads available on WiiWare and is now making a go at retail...
Review BIT.TRIP COMPLETE (Wii)
Aptly titled
The BIT.TRIP titles have been wildly popular on WiiWare, but despite being able to purchase the games individually, fans of the series have been clamoring for a Wii compilation disc release since the series was completed. With the release of BIT.TRIP COMPLETE, fans not only get the collection they've wanted, but also a wealth of brand...
Review Pro Jumper! Guilty Gear Tangent!? (DSiWare)
There is no tagline for a title like that
If you’ve never been confused by a video game’s title, now’s your chance! With all of its punctuation and absurdity, Pro Jumper! Guilty Gear Tangent!? is easily one of the most interesting titles on the DSiWare service. As the name suggests, this is a spin-off of the Guilty Gear series of fighting...
Review BlazBlue: Continuum Shift 2 (3DS)
Keeping the 2D brawlers alive and well
The catalogue of 3DS launch games has, arguably, been a mixed bag. Unlike the DS before it, however, the 3DS is quickly building a fantastic stable of fighting games with Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition and Dead or Alive: Dimensions; BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II is no exception. Until now, this stylish 2D...
Review BIT.TRIP FLUX (WiiWare)
FLUXing good
With the BIT.TRIP series, Gaijin Games has somehow been able to take gamers back to the early days of video gaming while at the same time combining this nostalgic experience with a whole host of challenging and engaging gameplay elements. BIT.TRIP FLUX marks the sixth and final release of the series, and while it might look like little...
Reward this hound or send it to the pound?
For all of those gamers out there who are looking for a shallow, average dog racing simulator, Derby Dogs is the WiiWare game for you. Stripped down to the bare minimum, this game will allow you to train your dog to be the top racer, but that’s about all that’s offered here. Disguising itself as a pet...
Review BIT.TRIP FATE (WiiWare)
You can't fight fate
If we've learned anything from the BIT.TRIP series, it's that you don't need a lot of flashy visuals or complicated mechanics to make a great game. The unique combination of old school arcade elements blended together with a host of musical rhythm overtones have given the series a look and feel all its own and made the titles...
Review Everyday Soccer (DSiWare)
Hardly in the Premier League
When it comes to soccer on the DSi, it really comes down to the Real Soccer franchise, and we're certainly not complaining. For a mere 800 Points you can get a portable, yet retail-quality version of the beautiful game with tons of content. Still, it's nice to see a game like EveryDay Soccer come along. Offering a more...
Review BlayzBloo: Super Melee Action Battle Royale (DSiWare)
A royale pain
Arc System Works' BlazBlue fighting games, with their unique anime-style visuals and enjoyable fighting engines, have become quite popular among fans of the genre. Of course, this makes it all the more confusing to see them take such a high-quality series and dumb it down for their DSiWare spinoff release BlayzBloo: Super Melee Action...
Oh deer
Deer Captor is a blast from the past, a lazy rehash of a genre over two decades old that lets you blast stuff. The game doesn't look or feel particularly bad upfront - it has decent graphics, clean presentation and well functioning motion controls - but playing it is simply a bore, like you've been sold some watered-down version of those...
Review Don't Cross the Line (DSiWare)
Simple fun when you're low on funds
If you've ever been a child, you've probably encountered your fair share of activity books. Within these collections of mazes, word searches and other such sources of momentary amusement, arguably the most forgettable of the bunch is the "don't cross the lines" puzzle. It's so underwhelming that if...
Review BIT.TRIP RUNNER (WiiWare)
Running down a dream
The BIT.TRIP series is one of the shining stars of Nintendo's WiiWare service. The simplicity of the game mechanics would work well on the 30-year-old 8-bit consoles to which they pay homage, but it's the intelligence of design and music-rhythm aspect that makes them so addictive. BIT.TRIP RUNNER is the latest entry in the...
Review Family Go-Kart Racing (WiiWare)
A pit stop on the road to hell
The family that just can’t get enough of each other is back in their eighth outing on WiiWare. By now, Aksys has had plenty of time to figure out what works and what doesn’t in this series of games. And it was becoming pretty obvious that if these games have a fault (and they’re all pretty flawless) it’s that...
Review Jazzy Billiards (DSiWare)
Every day I'm hustling
Out of the entire spectrum of bar games to make the digital jump, billiards is second only to poker in delivering really fun interpretations, like Virtual Pool on PC. What makes that series great is a total understanding of why billiards is fun and how to translate that into mechanics that feel more like skill than luck. Arc...
Review Animal Puzzle Adventure (DSiWare)
Puppies and kittens and piglets, oh my
Aksys Games makes most of their living by translating and localising Japanese games for Western markets. Their choices for WiiWare offerings, at least, haven't been great so far, but they've now graced the DSi Shop with partner developer Arc System Works' Animal Puzzle Adventure
Review The Combatribes (Virtual Console / Super Nintendo)
A beat 'em up that packs very little punch
There was a time when Technos ruled the beat-'em-up genre of fighting games during the 8-bit era with their Double Dragon and River City Ransom titles, but sadly the 16-bit generation wasn't as kind to the company. Once Capcom's Final Fight hit the scene, there was little room left for any other...
Review Castle of Shikigami III (Wii)
Shooting things and shooting the breeze...
The Castle of Shikigami series is one of the more recent shooting franchises to appear in Japanese arcades and subsequently home consoles. Castle of Shikigami III is the first to appear on Wii with Aksys providing the localisation for North America. Combining good looks, humour and challenging gameplay,...
Review BIT.TRIP VOID (WiiWare)
Don't avoid the VOID
The third release (of six) in Gaijin Games' BIT.TRIP series has quite a bit in common with its predecessors. And that is a good thing. Even better, though, is just how much VOID manages to stand apart from its popular older brothers. Rather than striving to recapture their specific glories, VOID charts territory of its own. And...
Review Family Card Games (WiiWare)
The family that plays drinking games together, stays together
Worn out from extended sessions of Table Tennis, Mini Golf and Slot Car Racing? Feeling like if you have to look at Mommy, Daddy, Billy, or Sarah’s plastic smiling faces one more time you will throw your Wii Remote through the TV? Why not unwind with a few pleasant card games?...
Review Family Tennis (WiiWare)
By downloading this game, you agree to get served
One of the very first Wiiware games was also the first in Aksys’ “Family” series: Family Table Tennis. We gave it a fairly generous 5/10 score considering we labeled it “outclassed,” “hard to recommend” and even “un-loseable.” Well, it seems that someone at Aksys was paying...
Review Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge (Wii Virtual Console / NES)
It's River City Ransom with a side order of Track & Field.
What do you get when you combine the River City Ransom theme with Track and Field-style gameplay? You get Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge. The game takes the street gang theme and creates some fitting Olympic-style events to go along with it. Sounds like a mouth-watering proposition, but...
Review Family Slot Car Racing (WiiWare)
Slot car racing fun for the whole family...or is it?
Arc System Works is clearly enjoying some success with the "Family" series of games because they just keep on putting them out. Considering what real life slot-car racing is all about a video game version could offer some improvements, so is it possible that this game is worthwhile?...
Review Bit.Trip Core (WiiWare)
Gaijin Games are back with the second game in the BIT.TRIP saga
The original BIT.TRIP BEAT took the old-school play control of Pong and created a unique and more modern spin on it. It was a bit like the original Pong games, but with far more charm and visual flair. Now Gaijin Games has taken that successful formula and bumped it up a level to give...
Review Family Mini Golf (WiiWare)
A little golf for the whole family.
The "Family" series of games has developed a reputation of being, well, a bit crap, really. They're bare-bones, budget versions of sports games you probably already have better versions of elsewhere, making you wonder why Arc System Works even bothers making them. This only serves to make the fact that...
Review Family Pirate Party (WiiWare)
Does this new party title set sail for glory or is it forced to walk the plank?
Although some would argue that it flies in the face of common sense, Aksys Games has decided to continue their "Family" franchise with the release of Family Pirate Party. Previous games in the series received unanimous criticism. Unfortunately, Family Pirate...
Review BIT.TRIP BEAT (WiiWare)
Feel the beat!
It seems nowadays if you want to revive a classic videogame idea, you only need add in some pulsing musical beats and some flashy background visuals in order to do so. The creators of Lumines managed to revive the stale "falling blocks" puzzler of the 80's with this formula, so what's to stop someone from doing the same...
Review Family Glide Hockey (WiiWare)
Does Family Glide Hockey capture the fun and excitement of a real air hockey game?
Let's face it, there are some recreational games that lend themselves perfectly to the Wii Remote's motion controls. We've already seen such games as billiards, miniature golf, and even a table tennis release make use of these motion sensing capabilities with varying...
Review Super Dodge Ball (Wii Virtual Console / NES)
Not too dodgy
The characters from River City Ransom (of which the main character is known in Japan as Kunio-kun) are back for a friendly game of dodge ball. Or are they? If you've played the aforementioned game, you'll know that the Kunio series hilariously overdoes everything. You were able to smash enemies around not just with chains, but also...
