Game Reviews scoring 3/10
Review Japanese Rail Sim 3D Journey to Kyoto (3DS eShop)
This train has gone off the rails
Japanese Rail Sim 3D Journey to Kyoto is the sequel to Journey in Suburbs #1, which was released in June of this same year. Just like its predecessor the title centres around the idea of playing the role of a train conductor in Japan, in this case the city of Kyoto; unfortunately this title fails to change the...
Review Tiny Galaxy (Wii U eShop)
A dizzying experience
Tiny Galaxy is an action platformer that takes the original concept of a platformer and turns it on its head. You play as a nondescript blue square, Orion, as you race through the "tiny galaxy", jumping from planet to planet to try and retrieve your stolen headphones. With a unique gameplay approach that blends the 2D...
Review G.G Series THROW OUT (DSiWare)
Throw this one out
We return to the G.G series with the sports genre, this time looking at a soccer game with combative elements reminiscent of the Mario Strikers series. It somewhat succeeds in this attempt, but matches are seldom challenging and consequently feel dull. While the game mechanics themselves are solid enough, one can't help but...
Review G.G Series THE LAST KNIGHT (DSiWare)
Hopefully this really is the last knight
The G.G series has grown a great deal in recent weeks, and another addition is an action adventure game that bears more than a passing resemblance to dungeons from The Legend of Zelda. Unfortunately, G.G Series THE LAST KNIGHT doesn't hold any of the same magic and fails to deliver entertainment that has much...
Review Baila Latino (Wii U eShop)
Lati-NO
The Wii was (and is) a wonderfully appealing console, enticing folk who'd never considered picking up a joypad into a quick round of Wii Sports or Mario Kart. The Wii was also the natural home (and origin) of the Just Dance series of games, which went on to sell in vast quantities. Waving a Wii-remote to a spot of Katy Perry on a Friday...
Review Japanese Rail Sim 3D Journey in Suburbs #1 (3DS eShop)
Yes, that's actually the title
Every once in a while you play one of those games where it just makes you ask, "Why?" This isn't necessarily because the game is bad, as such, but occasionally one wonders what compelled the developer to make a game so decidedly perplexing. Japanese Rail Sim 3D Journey in Suburbs #1 is one of those games. While it more...
We'd prefer Lasagne Sim 2016
Mario Kart has gone from strength to strength over the years, and many of us have our own personal favourite entries in this superb series; as Mario Kart has evolved, so have rival Kart games from other developers. There have been some notable successes; Diddy Kong Racing and Crash Team Racing spring to mind, but head...
Review Journey of a Special Average Balloon (Wii U eShop)
Balloon Fight this ain't
TreeFall Studios has had a rocky experience on the Wii U. The Letter, which is one of our worst-rated titles, was followed up by Maze, which was poorly received but at least contained some semblance of functional gameplay. Its latest title, Journey of a Special Average Balloon, continues to show TreeFall's growth and...
Review Stone Shire (Wii U eShop)
As plain as a stone
In the absence of Minecraft on Nintendo platforms, many developers have opted to try to recapture the legendary game's magical gameplay in their own knockoff attempts. These have, by and large, fallen short of the high standard that's been set and failed to present any meaningful contributions to the popular formula. Stone Shire...
Review Titanic Mystery (3DS eShop)
My heart can't go on
If you aren't some form of malicious AI bent on revenge against humanity, then the idea of mixing puzzle gameplay together with tragic events might not make very much sense. It's a strange combination that has "honoured" the RMS Titanic in particular with several different examples, and we've pondered both the implications and...
Review Best Friends - My Horse 3D (3DS eShop)
Put this one out to pasture
It seems as though publishers just can't get enough horse related games released on the 3DS, with Best Friends - My Horse 3D being the sixth one; you'd think by now that horse racing simulator games would have been mastered, but you'd be sadly mistaken. Best Friends - My Horse 3D does absolutely nothing to improve on...
Review My Style Studio: Notebook (Wii U eShop)
Out of style
Theoretically, the Wii U is a great platform for art applications and software. Art Academy: Sketchpad and its dedicated Miiverse community have created some wonderful works of art using the GamePad, with many wondering where the heavily delayed full Art Academy application is. Cypronia's My Style Studio: Notebook might be a tempting...
Review Bubble Gum Popper (Wii U eShop)
Pop goes the bubble
Bubble Gum Popper is about as basic as a match-three puzzler can get, and unfortunately this doesn't work in the its favour. Puzzle games don't necessarily have to be groundbreaking to be worthwhile, but it certainly helps if they're at least engaging; this lacklustre effort is barely even worth the low price thanks to its...
Review My Pet School 3D (3DS eShop)
Plays dead
Do you get the feeling we've barked up this tree before? My Pet School 3D is much like other entries in TREVA's bloated stable of pet sims, such as Me & My Pets 3D and Life with Horses 3D. Each successive instalment comes with the desperate hope that some new tricks have been learned this time around, only to have it stare back at you...
Review Shanghai Mahjong (3DS eShop)
Meagre Matching
Mahjong's long and prestigious history in the East may be well established, but its presence in the West is far less apparent; to say that Mahjong isn't hugely popular outside of Asia would be somewhat of an understatement. Despite that, the sheer number of Mahjong titles currently found on the 3DS eShop seems to suggest its...
Review Navy Commander (3DS eShop)
A piece of ship
Don't be suckered in by the game title - Navy Commander is a take on the classic paper and pencil game Battleship (or board game for all you '80s kids) and there's very little commanding involved. The basic premise is simple, beginning with selecting a grid size from three options: 10x10, 15x15 or 20x20. While the 10x10 size is...
Review Gardening Mama 2: Forest Friends (3DS)
Wilted beyond saving
The 'Mama' series is renowned for being a huge success on the more casual side of the gaming market, most famously for the Cooking Mama series which doesn't actually involve preparing the titular character for consumption. It's inevitable then that Mama would take additional avenues in her quest for motion-controlled dominance,...
Review Best of Arcade Games - Air Hockey (3DS eShop)
Error Hockey
Step into the dimly-lit, sticky-floored interior of any arcade, pizza place, or bowling alley you can find, and there's bound to be at least one air hockey table somewhere. They're an iconic fixture, always ready to lure you and a friend over for just one game, no matter how many hockey pucks you've sent flying across the room in the...
Review Rock 'N Racing Off Road (Wii U eShop)
Not-So-Super Off Road
EnjoyUp was clearly inspired by the classic arcade racer Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road when developing Rock 'N Racing Off Road, an old-school, top-down racer. But while the game looks like a modern update to Super Off Road, it's not nearly as fun or memorable. Unfortunately, Rock 'N Racing Off Road is a disappointing...
Review Frenchy Bird (Wii U eShop)
Avian aggravation
From the title alone, it's pretty easy to tell that Frenchy Bird is yet another in the line of Flappy Bird imitators released on the Wii U eShop. Yet whereas some of its competitors have been content to merely replicate the feel of the original, Frenchy Bird makes the bold move of replicating it with personality. Goofy music,...
Double-plus-ungood
One of the quirkier titles to hit the 3DS eShop recently, Rocket Studios' Kemonomix+ is the sequel to a Japan-only DSiWare game from 2010: a streamlined simulation featuring a combination of exploration, time-management and monster rearing set on a faraway pastel planet. It borrows good ideas from excellent influences, but leaves...
Get lost
Sometimes the simplest concept can make for an utterly addictive and engaging virtual experience. From Wii Sports to Angry Birds, the original Mario Bros. to the Mario Party series, there have been plenty of games that have bridged the gap from casual to advanced players, and it all starts at how accessible and universal the concept at the...
Review Snake Den (Wii U eShop)
Snake? Snake?! SNAAAAAAAAAKE!
When revisiting a well-worn concept, it's important to bring something new to the table. After all, we've reached a point in the gaming industry where certain genres — first-person shooter, platformer and adventure, just to name a few — have been pioneered and perfected over the years by generations of developers...
Review Football Up Online (3DS eShop)
The life of lag
Amidst the clamouring hands of football fans over the next entry in the FIFA series, EnjoyUp Games saw a gap in the market, namely the 3DS eShop, and so decided to release its original Football Up 3D. Not content with simply remaining a sub-par local multiplayer experience, Football Up Online has since been released to little...
Review Angry Bunnies: Colossal Carrot Crusade (Wii U eShop)
Colossal Clone Catastrophe
More and more cheap titles on the Wii U eShop are being released with amateurish production and design, and Cypronia's Angry Bunnies: Colossal Carrot Crusade is only a half-step up. A port of a 3DS Angry Birds clone, Colossal Carrot Crusade contains the exact content of its 3DS counterpart, but with added online...
Review My Style Studio: Hair Salon (Wii U eShop)
Bad hair day
In the grand scheme of things, hairdressers can seem pretty insignificant, but deep down they hold the secret, terrible capacity to utterly ruin your entire week. You put your faith into them and trust that they know what they're doing, or else just one bad haircut will stick with you for a month. If a new generation of these stylistic...
Review Horse Vet 3D (3DS eShop)
Horse pucky
Two things became apparent during Nintendo Life's time with TREVA's Horse Vet 3D. The first is that, apparently, everyone owns a horse; the second is that these horses needed a lecture in safe mating, as nearly all the horses treated had scabies at one point or another. Horse Vet 3D, like TREVA's recent offerings Top Model 3D and Outback...
Review Secret Empires of the Ancient World (3DS eShop)
Trash as old as time
Do you have too much money and space on your SD card? Are you the type of person who enjoys finding objects hidden in low-resolution images? Do you adore games with lengthy and misleading titles? Then we've got just the thing for you! Welcome to the depressing experience that is Secret Empires of the Ancient World! This is the...
Review Hideaways: Foggy Valley (3DS eShop)
Low visibility
It’s hard to believe that the 3DS eShop houses so many hidden object games within its figurative walls. We haven’t tallied an exact count of these games on offer, but we do know that there are very few that we’ve scored higher than average; in most cases we’ve found them to be unsatisfactory. It’s a pity that we've seen a...
Review Top Model 3D (3DS eShop)
Not so style savvy
There are going to be many unhappy customers in the eShop thanks to Treva's Top Model 3D. The misleading title would suggest an affiliation with any number of popular reality television series, such as America's Next Top Model, but there is no branding to be found. The atrocious presentation is going to turn off anyone expecting a...
