Reviews Archives - Page 118 of 130

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

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Bayonetta Review: To Infinite Climax Action And Beyond

Platinum Games has concocted a new brand of action hero in Bayonetta, an angel-slaying witch with long legs, long hair and a long list of heavenly creatures who want her dead. The action game directed by Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya offers a new alternative, but a familiar gameplay style for the fan of…

By Michael McWhertor Published January 5, 2010

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Darksiders Review: Harbinger Of The Apocopylypse

There are many games you will play in 2010 that will be unique, original creatures. Titles that truly innovate, and for years will be remembered for the trail they’ve blazed. Darksiders is not one of those games. Instead, it’s an action/role-playing game hybrid where you play as War, one of the Four Horsemen of the…

By Luke Plunkett Published January 4, 2010

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0 Day: Attack on Earth Micro-Review: Where’s Will Smith When You Need Him?

Square Enix unleashes an Earth-swallowing alien invasion over Xbox Live Arcade, guaranteeing twitch-addicted gamers begin the new year with a thumb-numbing workout. This top-down, dual-stick shooter retains the arcadey appeal of the genre, while supporting its frenzied action with sharp visuals and impressive effects. Solo pilots are in for an alien-annihilating blast, but co-op world-savers…

matt cabral Published January 1, 2010

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N.O.V.A. Micro-Review: Say “Halo” to iPhone’s New Shooter

Following their hit military-themed FPS iPhone app Modern Combat: Sandstorm, Gameloft reloads and sets its sites on an all new threat-aliens!-in sci-fi fragger N.O.V.A. As with their aforementioned Call of Duty clone, Gameloft’s latest shooter borrows from the best; while it’s unlikely we’ll see Master Chief’s shiny green armor splash across the iPhone’s slick display…

matt cabral Published December 30, 2009

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Avatar: The Game Micro-Review: Palm-size Pandora

As expected, James Cameron’s latest blockbuster brings with it a tie-in title for every platform but the George Foreman Grill. The latest lands the Pandorian-plundering humans on the iPhone, pitting them against your playable Na’vi avatar in a story set years before the film’s narrative. After coming away from the 360 version feeling as though…

matt cabral Published December 29, 2009

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Need For Speed: SHIFT Micro-Review: Changing Gears

Following a reboot of the long-running arcade racing series on consoles, EA Mobile shows the iPhone Need For Speed’s more serious side. After years of cop chases, arcadey controls, and Maggie Q, the NFS franchise took a more Forza-like path for its latest console iteration. The much needed overhaul was a hit with critics, and…

matt cabral Published December 28, 2009

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Style Savvy Review: Dressing Miss Michael

Join Kotaku’s tallest, broadest, and hairiest regular contributor as I explore the world of retail fashion design with Nintendo’s Style Savvy for the Nintendo DS. Style Savvy is a game marketed at girls that’s all about fashion – putting together outfits, running your own boutique, and maybe even making waves on the runway scene. The…

By Mike Fahey Published December 23, 2009

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The Sims 3: World Adventures Review: A Form Of Manifest Destiny

Expansions are to The Sims series as pimples are to puberty: they’re going to happen, so embrace them and try to avoid nasty pit scars. It’s just part of growing up. The Sims 3: World Adventures opens up three new remote locations your Sim can visit: China, France and Egypt. The purpose of visiting the…

By AJ Glasser Published December 22, 2009

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Machinarium Review: Beautiful Robots

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re playing catch-up here at Kotaku. Reviewing some games that were missed in the run-in to the holiday season. Which is great, because it means I get a chance to talk about Machinarium. Or, as I like to call it, the one game of 2009 that I managed to sneak…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 22, 2009

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Jurassic: The Hunted Review: Punch a Velociraptor in the Face

In their “other” recently released first-person shooter, Jurassic: The Hunted, Activision forgoes over-used antagonists such as aliens, zombies, demons, and Nazis, and puts dinosaurs back where they belong-right in our cross hairs! Remember when dinosaurs were cool? You know, when Jurassic Park ruled the box office, Dino Crisis wasn’t set on a spaceship, and Turok…

By Michael McWhertor Published December 21, 2009