Reviews Archives - Page 115 of 128

Crush The Castle Micro-Review: Fun With Trebuchets

The lords and ladies of Arcturia have had it far too good for far too long, with their fancy castles and fancy clothes. It’s time to bring in a medieval siege weapon and do some crushing. The App Store on iTunes is packed with physics-based games that have you tossing, flicking and shooting one object…

By Brian Crecente Published February 4, 2010

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KrissX Micro-Review: Fun With a Purpose

I keep wanting to pronounce this game “Chris-Ex” but I’m reminded it’s “Kriss-Kross.” Whatever the case, it’s a set of brain-teasing acrostics with goals and rewards that shrewdly incentivize their completion. It’s just a little young for most tastes. Loved Smart Words: KrissX draws on a strong vocabulary any mother would be glad to hear…

By Owen Good Published February 3, 2010

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Blood Bowl Review: No Fun League

Nearly 25 years old as a board game, Blood Bowl has a strong history among fantasy gamers for presenting quasi-football in a turn-based, strategy framework set in the Warhammer universe. But does any of that translate well to a console? Short answer: No. Loved The Release Date: The fact Blood Bowl came out a month…

By Owen Good Published February 3, 2010

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Glory of Heracles Review: A Forgetful Adventure

Ancient Greece’s immortal amnesiacs want answers, damn it, and they intend to get them in Nintendo’s role-playing game Glory of Heracles for the Nintendo DS. Nintendo gives North American gamers their first taste of the long-running Glory of Heracles series with the franchise’s DS debut. The traditional, perhaps to a fault, Japanese RPG follows the…

By Michael McWhertor Published February 2, 2010

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MAG Review: World of Shadow Warcraft

It’s the year 2025 and a mandated world peace gives rise to three Private Military Corporations. The rise of the PMC also gives birth to the shadow war, a raging worldwide battle fought for profit and power rather than political ideologies. The backdrop of PlayStation 3 exclusive MAG isn’t weighed down with things like plot…

By Brian Crecente Published February 2, 2010

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No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle Review: Repetitious Rebel

Well, fun was never a given in a game made by Suda 51 anyway. What do you want from a video game? Fun? What if it makes you laugh? And smile? What if it can surprise you? What if it’s a sequel that removes the bad parts from its predecessor and replaces them with…. wait…

By Stephen Totilo Published February 1, 2010

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Assassin’s Creed II: The Battle of Forli Micro-Review: An Un-Machiavellian Plan

Kotaku’s runner-up for 2009 Game of the Year gets its first expansion with the downloadable, playable bonus “memory” of The Battle of Forli. Somehow managing to be essential and unessential, it’s unlikely to be nominated for DLC of the Year. The Battle of Forli is presented in terms understandable to Assassin’s Creed II players as…

By Stephen Totilo Published January 29, 2010

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Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond Micro-Review: A Bloody Fun Hazard-Time

Matt Hazard, the guns-blazing game-hero parody with a “legendary” status that’s never quite been explained, goes searching for his backstory again in Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond. Vicious Cycle may have overreached with the predecessor, Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, a 3D action game panned for derivative level design and rote gameplay.…

By Owen Good Published January 28, 2010

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Muscle March Micro-Review: Flex Crimes

Aliens have stolen Earth’s precious protein powder and it’s up to an international community of bodybuilders (and one polar bear) to safely return that protein to the excessively ripped community. That’s the plot of Namco Bandai’s wacky Muscle March. The WiiWare game’s premise may be as deep as the gameplay, tasking players with chasing down…

By Michael McWhertor Published January 27, 2010

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Alienware Area-51 m15x Laptop Review: It Ain’t Heavy, It’s My Laptop

Alienware has long been one of my favorite computer and laptop makers. It’s purchase by Dell didn’t change that. The computer maker’s latest line of gaming laptops promise to deliver on-the-go gaming in a slick looking new laptop. But can the Area-51 m15x deliver the goods at an affordable price and in a package you’d…

By Brian Crecente Published January 25, 2010

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Serious Sam HD Review: This Time It’s Really Serious

Developer Croteam has ported its 2001 first-person shooter Serious Sam: The First Encounter to Xbox Live Arcade with Serious Sam HD. The game is a time capsule. A really, really shiny one. Covered in bloody body parts. Plot-wise, Serious Sam follows Sam as he travels back in time to save humankind from the evil Mental…

By Brian Ashcraft Published January 22, 2010

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Dark Void Zero Micro-Review: Classic, Focused Fun

Dark Void Zero is built around not one, but two stories. One is a story of a jet pack wearing hero named Rusty trying to stop the invasion of Earth by aliens. The second is the fiction surrounding the game’s creation, a false history that claims the game is a remake of a classic NES-era…

By Brian Crecente Published January 21, 2010

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Dark Void Review: Innovation In A Void

Cargo pilot turned jet-pack jockey William Grey finds himself teaming up with Nikola Tesla to save humanity from aliens and fascism after crashing in the Bermuda Triangle in Capcom’s sci-fi shooter Dark Void. But it’s not the unlikely plot that is the biggest selling point for Capcom’s new franchise, it’s the developer’s game lineage. Dark…

By Brian Crecente Published January 20, 2010

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Pocket God Micro-Review: Heaven or Hell?

You are god. That’s the premise of iPhone app Pocket God from the two-man developer team Bolt Creative. But is it a heavenly experience or a hellish one? In Pocket God, players are a divine hand. As the first sentence of this review explains, you are god. And, as god, you can do pretty much…

By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010

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Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth Micro-Review: Something M2 Whipped Up

Konami goes back to Castlevania’s roots with Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth, as the series joins Gradius and Contra to get the Konami ReBirth treatment. Once again, developer M2 takes a long, hard look at a classic Konami franchise and produces a retro-styled rehash. This time around the game is Castlevania: The Adventure, the 1989 Game…

By Mike Fahey Published January 18, 2010

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VVVVVV Micro-review: AAAAAAH!!!

Gravity flipping intergalactic platformer and death by spike simulator VVVVVV has already resulted in heavy casualties at Kotaku. My first playthrough of the game ended with my character dying more than 900 times. Such is the torment of VVVVVV, an old-school platformer from developer Terry Cavanagh featuring simple controls and a smartly explored mechanic. Unlike…

By Michael McWhertor Published January 15, 2010

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Army of Two: The 40th Day Review: Co-Op Shooting At A Crossroads

Jonah Wade is a madman whose paid soldiers are blowing up Shanghai. Also, he used to make action movies to recruit soldiers. That’s one of the many absurdly excellent ideas in the unfortunately choppy Army of Two: The 40th Day. The mutli-million selling Army of Two series is back with a console sequel, the first…

By Stephen Totilo Published January 12, 2010

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Trajectile Micro-Review: Testing Your Talent For Precision Demolition

Satisfying the unknown need for a thinking-person’s Breakout, Trajectile is (psst) a new DSiWare game from the veterans behind the acclaimed PixelJunk series and a brick-breaking breakthrough. It also might be the best non-golf golf game made in some time. Trajectile is the second DSiWare game from Q-Games, the small Kyoto-based company run by original…

By Stephen Totilo Published January 8, 2010

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Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot Micro-Review: A Very Long Engagement

Don’t call it a deathmatch, says Gearbox. Don’t call it Horde mode either. It’s just Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot, an epic-length firefight in Borderlands, played to shifting rules and a brass accompaniment of spent casings clattering on the ground. Borderlands’ “role-playing shooter” combination makes it one of 2009’s most spectacularly addicting games. But what happens…

By Owen Good Published January 7, 2010

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Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers Review: The Big Book Of FF Activities

The Crystal Chronicles continue on the Wii with Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers, the action-packed third installment of Nintendo’s personal Final Fantasy series. A thousand years after the original Crystal Chronicles the world has changed. The four races are three, with the now dominant plant-like Lilties having defeated the Yuke tribe of machine…

By Mike Fahey Published January 6, 2010