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ReviewsReview: The Fight: Lights Out Swings & Misses
If you feel like destroying something ugly, take a shot at The Fight: Lights Out, a dark, dreary brawler for the PlayStation Move that’s an unpleasant blend of Fight Club aesthetics and wild, Bumfights-style fist flailing. The Fight: Lights Out is a third-person fighting game lets players experience the thrill of brawling in underground fight…
By Michael McWhertor Published November 16, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 Improves With Age
Sure, you’ve weathered plenty of ninja storms in your day, but are you prepared to face the Ultimate Ninja Storm… 2? Developer CyberConnect2 has been telling the story of the absurdly popular Japanese martial arts anime Naruto through the Ninja Storm series since 2003. Part adventure game and part fighting game, each successive title fleshes…
By Mike Fahey Published November 15, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage Is Bloody, But Not A Good Time
Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage is a beat ’em up action game that’s exploding with as much liquid gore as it is fan service, but its monotonous gameplay doesn’t do fans of the manga many favors. Omega Force, the developers of dozens of Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors action games, squeezes the dreary,…
By Michael McWhertor Published November 13, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: FlingSmash Nearly Lives Up To Its Name
For ten bucks more than the cost of a Wii Remote Plus you can pick up the new Nintendo controller with a copy of FlingSmash, Artoon’s paddle-ball platformer. Is it worth it? Let’s see. FlingSmash is a rather ballsy name for a game on a platform that began life plagued with television-damaging controller throwing. When…
By Mike Fahey Published November 11, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: Fighters Uncaged And The Problem With Punching Air
In the classic boxing movie Rocky II, Rocky Balboa learned to beat better fighters by chasing a chicken. As an instrument for simulating face-pummeling and rib-cracking, Fighters Uncaged — the first Kinect fighting game! — is only slightly less ridiculous. Fighters Uncaged is a fighting game played in the spacious part of your living room,…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 10, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: Cut The Rope Is A Quick Slice Of Fun
My green monster is hungry for candy. He’s telling me so, gesturing. I need to cut the rope with a finger swipe, sending the sugary treat into his mouth. But how do I clear the spikes? Ah… the whoopee cushion! Cut The Rope is a puzzle game for the iPhone and iPod touch that tasks…
By Brian Ashcraft Published November 10, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: Call of Duty: Black Ops Redefines Modern Warfare
Black Ops slips players into the counter-espionage and abiding fear of the Cold War, while serving as a powerful link between the World War II games that came before it and the likely countless modern shooters that will come in its wake. Developer Treyarch’s first Call of Duty set outside World War II is a…
By Brian Crecente Published November 9, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: GoldenEye 007
The fat-chewing topic for hardcore gamers today who were the adolescents of the 1990s has been GoldenEye, the seminal Nintendo 64 shooter. Why can’t they bring it to a modern console? Finally, “they” have. But it’s neither reboot nor remake. GoldenEye 007 is instead the “reimagining” of the 1997 classic, reconfiguring the story of the…
By Owen Good Published November 7, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: James Bond 007: Blood Stone
Ian Fleming’s British super spy returns in an all-new original adventure, James Bond 007: Blood Stone, that’s about as unoriginal as video games get. Blood Stone is an entertaining, just good enough shooter that borrows heavily from better games. The Daniel Craig version of Ian Fleming’s Bond is sent on an international manhunt to stop…
By Michael McWhertor Published November 5, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: Sonic Free Riders Shows How Bad Kinect Controls Can Be
Sonic Free Riders is a cautionary tale about the importance of controls in gaming. Make a game interesting, give it solid graphics and some unique hooks, but don’t lock down the controls and you’re going to have a disaster on your hands. Kinect-enabled Sonic Free Riders is the third in the Sonic Riders series which…
By Brian Crecente Published November 4, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: Kinect Joy Ride
Combine racing video games with air guitar and you’ve got Kinect Joy Ride, a game that just might be the closest we get to a Wii Sports of the Kinect launch. Kinect Joy Ride is a simplified racing game, the first in the genre for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect sensor. You have little control of…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 4, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: Your Shape: Fitness Evolved
At last, I have a way to exercise in front of my TV without any contraptions (or other people) near my body but still with a way to get yelled at if my form is bad. No joke: Your Shape: Fitness Evolved has the potential to be a huge breakthrough in home fitness. This workout…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 4, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: Kinect Sports
The Xbox 360 finally has its motion-based sports game. Packed with six sports, ten if you include all of the events of track and field, Kinect Sports drops you controller-free into an eclectic mix of athleticism. Aesthetically, Kinect Sports falls somewhere between Wii Sports and the Playstation Move’s Sports Champions. Kinect Sports uses your recently…
By Brian Crecente Published November 4, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: Kinectimals
Don’t mistake Kinectimals for a Nintendogs clone. This is the closest the Kinect launch has to a traditional video game, one that eight year old girls are going to coo at. Kinectimals is both a virtual pet game featuring cute, fuzzy young wild cats and a quest to unlock the mysteries of an island. It’s…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 4, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: Dance Central
Dance Central is a dancing rhythm game from the folks who created Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Packed with an eclectic mix of music and dance moves from the artists, it hopes to redefine the way we play dance games. Dance Central is among the most visually polished of the Kinect launch titles. Gamers stand…
By Brian Crecente Published November 4, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: Kinect Adventures
Kinect Adventures is the game that every Kinect owner will soon be playing. That’s because it’s the one that comes with the hardware. So it should give players a taste of what they can expect from Xbox 360 motion gaming. As with a bulk of this first round of Kinect games, Kinect Adventures looks an…
By Brian Crecente Published November 4, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: Kinect
Microsoft says that Kinect is the next big thing for video games, a way to control both games and TV without touching a thing. This expensive future is now. It’s amazing, but you can wait for it. The Kinect sensor is a device that plugs into an Xbox 360 and uses a combination of cameras…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 4, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: Bit.Trip Fate
Gaijin Games compromises my ability to deliver a concise game description with Bit.Trip Fate, a rhythm-based on-rails twin stick bullet hell shooter. I guess that wasn’t too bad. Bit.Trip Fate is the fifth installment of Gaijin and Aksys’ Bit.Trip series, which combines ’80s graphics with modern game design to create unique experiences. In the case…
By Mike Fahey Published November 3, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: SingStar Dance
What the hell, Sony must have thought. If people are happy to sing along to a video game at parties, they’ll be happy to dance along too, right? SingStar Dance is Sony’s attempt at reinvigorating its once-flagship casual gaming series by introducing the PlayStation Move to the game, which allows up to two people to…
By Luke Plunkett Published November 3, 2010 -
ReviewsReview: Angry Birds: Halloween Special Edition
Popular puzzle game Angry Birds is all dressed up for All Hallows’ Eve. Nothing quite says “Halloween” like smashing pumpkins, green pigs in ghost costumes and birds flying through the air. Trick or treat! Angry Birds is a physics-based puzzle game for Apple’s iOS in which birds are trying to recover stolen eggs, and Angry…
By Brian Ashcraft Published November 2, 2010