Ubisoft Game Reviews
Review Petz Hamsterz Family (DSiWare)
This time, you won't be so sad when your dad accidentally steps on it
The hamster is largely considered a cute and desirable pet, even in spite of its often curmudgeonly temperament and stinky, difficult to clean cage. They're a lot more fun to watch than they are to play with, which means that it shouldn't be difficult for Petz Hamsterz Family to...
Impurrrfect
There once was a time when all that one could expect from a virtual pet was to feed it and play with it when it beeped. We've come a long way and should now expect a lot more, having moved on from imaginary digital creatures to real animals. Certainly a kitten simulator should simulate the behaviour of a kitten. It should be good enough...
Review Combat of Giants: Mutant Insects - Revenge (DSiWare)
If only we could squish this game under our shoes
Ubisoft seems to love its Combat of Giants series. With three retail DS releases and two DSiWare adaptations based on two of those retail titles already available, it was quite obvious that they were going to go for the full set. The third and hopefully the last, Mutant Insects Revenge very...
Review Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Wii)
Sand trapped
Ignoring the free-running, rather mouthy Prince from 2008’s HD Prince of Persia, The Forgotten Sands is set between Sands of Time and Warrior Within, playing as the expected combination of platforming showpieces, close combat and simplistic lever and button puzzles. As the Prince’s first original adventure on Wii, it has to be...
Bad mojo
Developed by Exkee, the guys behind the rather average ColorZ, Voodoo Dice is a puzzle game in which you control a large yellow die, attempting to reach the end of every stage in order to earn gemstones used to proceed further into the game. Of course, it's not a matter of simply rolling over to the exit: each level has various dice-related...
Review Star Trek: Tactical Assault (DS)
Tactics, but not as we know them
Developer Quicksilver Software is no stranger to the Star Trek licence, having developed the well-regarded Starfleet Command for the PC, which is itself an attempt to deliver a computerised version of the venerable board game Star Fleet Battles. Tactical Assault is essentially a stab at a port of Starfleet Command to...
Time to shoot and slice some bros
Ubisoft promised the sky for their Wii launch game Red Steel; since nobody had used the Remote before, plenty of gamers drank the kool-aid and had high hopes for its swordplay potential. The concept was interesting, but the execution left a gross aftertaste. It's telling that the idea was never emulated in the way...
Review Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs - Fight for Survival (DSiWare)
T-Rexes and Diplos and Toilets, oh my
Back in 2008, Ubisoft Quebec released Battle of Giants: Dinosaurs, a game aimed squarely at younger gamers in which you create your own dinosaur and use it to battle others. With the advent of the DSi and the popularity of smaller versions of retail titles on the DSi Shop, Ubisoft saw fit to release a stripped...
Review Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes (DS)
A classic DS mash-up is born
Mixing the heavy plot and masses of dialogue from an RPG with the instant gratification of a puzzle game might seem an odd choice, but Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes pulls it off with aplomb. Reminiscent of classic DS puzzler Meteos, Clash of Heroes offers a stylus-sliding take on the match-three genre. Each puzzle is...
Review No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Wii)
Travis Touchdown is back with a vengeance and better than ever
The mirrors don’t work. It’s a minor detail and completely inconsequential to gameplay, but when Travis Touchdown meanders into a public restroom to do his deeds and save the game in No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, he might as well be a vampire. Despite his bloodlust, Travis is...
The sum of its parts
There's no doubt that James Cameron's Avatar in all its 3D blue-and-green beauty is a worldwide phenomenon, grossing millions upon millions of dollars and becoming a word of mouth sensation. With such a wave of success comes James Cameron's Avatar: The Game from Ubisoft, with its oft-heard promises of being an interactive...
Rayman's first adventure, now with added warts
You don’t see a lot of Rayman any more. While technically he has his name on a few prominent Wii minigame compilations, Rayman has since been cast out of his own spinoff series by the Rabbids. But now he’s back, sort of, as Ubisoft has unleashed the limbless freak’s first outing on DSiWare. It...
Take this one back to the lab
Here at Nintendo Life Towers we are quite partial to those Raving Rabbids: those mindless jabbering critters remind us of ourselves. Seeing the release of a scaled-down version of Rabbids Go Home’s In Ze Remote feature, however, gave us cause for concern: could this dress-up game justify the 500 Point price tag? For...
Review ANNO: Create a New World (Wii)
Have sim fans' prayers been answered?
The history of sim games on home consoles hasn't been the brightest since the control pad interface doesn't lend itself as well to the fine control you would normally expect using a mouse on home computers. The Wii's pointer makes a good mouse replacement of course, so theoretically a game like Anno: Create a...
Review C.O.P. The Recruit (DS)
Cop a load of this.
With the DS now nearly five years old, you’d think there’d be no surprises left inside that flip-top wonder box, but here comes Ubisoft with something we probably didn’t even realise was possible on DS, under the rather off-putting title of C.O.P. The Recruit. The very talented (if unfortunately named) V.D. Dev have...
Well and truly off its trolley
As the fourth Rabbids game in the Wii’s three-year lifespan, you’d be forgiven for thinking Ubisoft has run out of ideas for its bizarre creations, but Rabbids Go Home is potentially the oddest game in the series yet. Making a clean break from its minigame origins, Rabbids Go Home is an all-new adventure game from...
Review Combat of Giants: Dragons - Bronze Edition (DSiWare)
Sadly not the Gold Edition.
DSiWare has already seen plenty of "A Little Bit of..." games, which are basically smaller, budget-sized (And priced!) versions of Nintendo-published DS retail games. It seems that other developers are now taking similar advantage of the service - Mitchell recently released Sujin Taisen, and now Ubisoft has...
Review Academy of Champions (Wii)
A drab 0-0 draw
Over the years there have been some really enjoyable and innovative takes on the game of football (or soccer to our overseas chums) – Nintendo brought us the Mario Strikers series of course and Sega released the stereotype-laden but still enjoyable Sega Soccer Slam on Gamecube. Now Ubisoft are after a piece of the half-time meat...
Any port in a storm?
For those of you who missed out on the PS1/N64 generation of the late 1990s, Rayman was actually quite a big deal. Viewed by many well recognized gaming institutions as one of the ‘Greatest games of all time’, Rayman 2: The Great Escape received many plaudits for its innovative level design and gameplay features. Though a...
Review Tenchu: Shadow Assassins (Wii)
"Are you finished? Save your speeches for Hell!"
This is the fourth in a series of stealth-based action games which have often met with mixed reviews due to control and camera issues. After watching the atmospheric sepia-toned montage of game cut-scenes scored with Japanese opera and playing the game, fans and those new to the series will find that...
Review Rogue Trooper: Quartz Zone Massacre (Wii)
Can a last generation port based upon a licensed property possibly be any good?
Rebellion and 2000 A.D. are both British veterans of their respective fields: video games and comics, and like Marmite and potato crisps, both go well together. Unlike Marmite crisps, however, Rogue Trooper: Quartz Zone Massacre is a winning combination in anyone's book...
Review Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (DS)
Can Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword live up to the standards of previous titles?
Set six months after the events of the original Xbox version of Ninja Gaiden, Ryu Hayabusa has rebuilt Hayabusa Village. Momiji, a resident of Hayabusa, is abducted by the Black Spider Ninja Clan. During his quest to find her, Ryu uncovers the mysteries of the Dark...
Review Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director’s Cut (Wii)
The Broken Sword murder mystery adventure comes to Wii, but is this the definitive version?
It is with some fond memories that we review Broken Sword: The Director's Cut on the Wii. The original game proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable mystery adventure, with a tantalizing storyline, memorable characters and logical puzzles. This new release is more...
Review Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director’s Cut (DS)
Murder, mystery and… Clowns?
It is a terrible mistake to call Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars a simple port seeing as it’s a game that has more added material than Nintendo have fanboys. Yet there is some basis to the claim; this game has been released on a handheld before. Originally brought to Nintendo through the GBA, Broken Sword was...
Review Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party (Wii)
Wabbit, wabbit.... wabbit wabbit wabbit... Bwaaaaaaaaah!
Rayman runs for cover as the Rabbids return for a third instalment on Wii in Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party (RRR TV). As the title suggests this latest game has a heavy emphasis on the world of TV and Movies, the title "story" goes something like this: Rayman is being chased through...
Is this worthy enough to be remembered in the shoot-em-up hall of fame?
Protöthea originally started life as a PC game, developed by Digital Builders back in 2005. It pretty much went unnoticed at the time, so it seems like a strange choice for Ubisoft to use for its debut on the Wii as there's little here in the way of innovation other than the...
Review Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (Wii)
The Rabbids Are Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!
[screenshot=46cc118319213]Those Charming Rabbids Are Back!If I learnt one thing last Christmas, it was this; Rabbit's Wii Violence = Hilarity. Or to put it another way; I discovered the joys of Rayman Raving Rabbids. With this title Ubisoft gave the world a prime example of how to make a good, fun, energetic...
Review Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii)
Rabbits With Plungers, What Else Is There To Say?
[screenshot=44d320f1eb8b3]Rayman Is Back... er, Just As Before!It's been a while since a Rayman title last graced any console, and never before has one been any more that a platformer. So it came as a surprise to find that the latest installment was actually a mini-game compilation. The story of...
Allow me to pose you with a question. You are armed with a Katana blade and a shotgun. Your enemy is armed with just a sword. Would you have a sword fight with him or would you blow his brains out with your shotgun? Exactly.
I guess Ubisoft thought that sword fighting might be something a bit different – particularly in a first person shooter game...
Review Beyond Good & Evil (GameCube)
Hillys, a world under constant threat from the DomZ, needs help, and this help comes in the form of the tenacious female photojournalist, Jade.
Beyond Good and Evil will either be a game you have played (and loved) or never even heard of. Unfortunately, it seems like the latter is the common answer: this classic Ubisoft gem never received sales that...
