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Reviews
Gurlz Vs Robots Micro Review: 11 Fingers of Fun
Gurlz Vs. Robots is the first 11-finger, simultaneous four-player retro arcade game for the iPad. Players gather around each side of the device as it lays on a flat surface and drag directional arrows onto the screen to try and guide the stream of robots away from the other players’ escape pods and to their…
By Brian Crecente Published May 6, 2010 -
Reviews
Alan Wake Review: Transcending Its Medium
Alan Wake promises to deliver a new style of storytelling to the Xbox 360: A “psychological thriller”, “riveting plot”, “multilayered character interactions”, all bullet points that scream: This game could be really bad. But it is a game by Remedy Entertainment, the creators of Max Payne. And it’s an intriguing idea, taking on the role…
By Brian Crecente Published May 5, 2010 -
Reviews
FIFA World Cup 2010 Review: I Got 199 Teams, But Vatican City Ain’t One
As has been customary with every World Cup and European Championships since the year 1998, EA Sports has this year released a video game to cash in on the planet’s biggest sporting event, the 2010 World Cup. Being, you know, the planet’s biggest sporting event, you can hardly blame EA as a business for wanting…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 4, 2010 -
Reviews
Nier Review: Not Without His Daughter
Can one hideously ugly man facing impossible odds to save his daughter from a mysterious disease make for a beautiful action role-playing game? Find out in our review of Square Enix’s Nier. Dog-faced Nier’s young daughter Yonah has been infected with the strange Black Scrawl virus, and he’ll do whatever it takes to free her…
By Mike Fahey Published May 4, 2010 -
Reviews
Iron Man 2 Review: Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toys?
Iron Man was cool. I like to think it was the world’s first rock n’ roll superhero movie, one so confident in its performances and style that it could afford a little swagger. Iron Man 2 does not swagger. No, from the outset, it’s an entirely different beast. There are flashes of bravado, but gone…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 4, 2010 -
Reviews
Picross 3D Review: Block The Monkey
The follow-up to the incredibly addictive puzzle game Picross DS, Picross 3D moves the picture finding gameplay into the next dimension, a game of block breaking and brain teasing that’s also one of the best Nintendo DS games of the year. Instead of presenting the player with a blank canvas and numbered clues with which…
By Michael McWhertor Published May 3, 2010 -
Reviews
Tecmo Bowl Throwback Micro-Review: Retro-Rockin’ Football
Today, a sports title without real players and teams has a hard pitch to make. If any franchise can close the deal, it’s the one that started it all: Tecmo Bowl, trading on 20 years of nostalgia with Tecmo Bowl Throwback. Packing new 3D player models and cutscene animations, Throwback bluntly leaves its core unchanged…
By Owen Good Published May 3, 2010 -
ReviewsActivision Claims World Record in Double Down Speed-Eating
Two Activision game testers staged a speed-eating competition of the KFC culinary profanity known as the Double Down, with the winner polishing it off in 57.97 seconds. Video inside, plus my review of the “sandwich.” Kotaku received this exclusive video on Friday. This result has not been verified by Twin Galaxies. I corresponded with the…
By Owen Good Published May 2, 2010 -
Reviews
Chaos Rings Review: Ring Around The iPhone
From the creators of Final Fantasy and Wild Arms comes Chaos Rings, a 3D iPhone role-playing game that can’t possibly live up to its pedigree, can it? With Wild Arms studio Media Vision handling development, art designs by Final Fantasy VII art director Yusuke Naora, music by anime and video game composer Noriyasu Agematsu, and…
By Mike Fahey Published April 30, 2010 -
Reviews
Mikado Defenders Micro-Review: Sold For The iPhone, Made For The iPad
There are games that are best seen at a size bigger than a telephone. Mikado Defenders, Taito’s lovely but prickly iPod Touch and iPhone tower defense game is one of them. Gamers would best play this beauty place-mat scale. Mikado Defenders is another tower defense video game, the last thing a world of gamers satisfied…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 29, 2010 -
Reviews
Sumosac Gigantor Bean Bag Chair Review: It’s Nothing Like Standing Up
Somehow I went from discussing reviewing the neat little bean bag chairs Sumo provides to events like the recent Penny Arcade Expo East to having a seven foot by six foot Sumosac Gigantor in my living room. Sumo sells bean bag chairs, from the relatively small one-person Omni often seen piled throughout the corridors of…
By Mike Fahey Published April 28, 2010 -
Reviews
Lead & Gold Review: Fool’s Gold
Do Team Fortress 2, only set it in the Wild West. Looks simple on paper, but is it really that easy to copy Valve’s successful formula for multiplayer shooters? Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West is a team-based online shooter, where you can play as either the red or blue side, and then…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 28, 2010 -
Reviews
Super Street Fighter IV Review: Rebirth of a Gaming Nation
Released to U.S. consoles last year, Street Fighter IV helped to reinvigorate the franchise, if not the entire fighting genre. Now, a little more than a year later, Capcom is at it again, perhaps with less lofty goals. Where Street Fighter IV introduced Capcom and Street Fighter fans to the notion of 3D fighters brawling…
By Brian Crecente Published April 27, 2010 -
Reviews
After Burner Climax Review: You Will Do A Barrel Roll
Adrenaline junkies who feel the need—specifically, the need for speed—but don’t have access to an actual F-14D or a deluxe arcade cabinet will be gleefully forced to settle for Sega’s console port of After Burner Climax, its 2006 aerial dogfighter. Rarely do Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network games feel as arcade-y as does After…
By Michael McWhertor Published April 26, 2010 -
Reviews
3D Dot Game Heroes Review: Connecting The Dots To The Past
Can the innovative implementation of 3D pixels and a good sense of humor save Silicon Studio’s 3D Dot Game Heroes from being labeled a gimmicky Zelda clone? The king of 2D Dotnia felt that sprites were outdated, so he decreed the kingdom switch to 3D, and so it did, though not in the way one…
By Mike Fahey Published April 24, 2010 -
Reviews
Left 4 Dead 2 ‘The Passing’ Review: The New Mutants
Valve’s first expansion to post apocalyptic zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2 makes one appreciate the developer’s gift with wordplay and just how important being able to see through walls is when battling the infected. The Passing brings new things to Left 4 Dead 2, including a new three-level campaign set in a wet Georgia…
By Michael McWhertor Published April 23, 2010 -
Reviews
Does For the Win…Win?
Groups of massively multiplayer online gamers from around the world band together to form…unions. No, wait, stay with me! For the Win is the latest book from Cory Doctorow, known for his work at website Boing Boing as well as his best selling novel Little Brother. The book is set in the near future in…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 21, 2010 -
Reviews
Espgaluda II iPhone Review: When Will My Phone Explode?
For me to review Espgaluda II, this thing, this manic greatest-grandchild of the Galagas and Space Invaders with odd soundtrack and as many bullets as there are water droplets in a fire hose, might be like a vegetarian reviewing meat. It is clear as day that Espgaluda II has appeal, but… what in the world?…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 16, 2010 -
Reviews
Kick-Ass Movie Review: Please Step Away From The Comic Book
An average high school student learns the painful answer to the question of why there are no real superheroes in Kick-Ass, a completely new kind of comic book movie. Based on the critically acclaimed comic book series from writer Mark Millar and artist John Romita Jr., Kick-Ass tells the story of one Dave Lizewski, an…
By Mike Fahey Published April 16, 2010 -
Reviews
Star Wars Cantina Micro-review: Serve Greedo First
Not since Bea Arthur’s spin as Ackmena the bartender in the Star Wars Holiday Special have we been as thrilled to revisit a classic Tatooine bar as we have in Star Wars Cantina for the iPhone. Star Wars Cantina puts you in the shoes and Dewback-sized beehive hairdo of Nia Adea, a drink-slinger at the…
By Michael McWhertor Published April 15, 2010