Game Review – Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS)

Tags

3DS, Chrom, fantasy, Fire Emblem, Fire Emblem Awakening, Intelligent Systems, Nintendo, Strategy RPG, War

What do the two best handheld games ever made have in common?

Review Roundup 7

Tags

1080 Avalanche, Gerard Butler, Kathryn James, Mist, Nintendo, Oblivion, Olympus Has Fallen, Tom Cruise, Wario Land: The Shake Dimension

A recent change in my situation has made me take a look at what’s most important to me. I’m starting to make encouraging progress with my goal of becoming a children’s author and things being as they are I’ve realised I need to fan the flames and dedicate more of my time to writing. The trouble is I have a lot of time-consuming hobbies, the least important of which is blogging. I really enjoy keeping this blog and while I’d like to carry on with it as I have been doing, I just won’t have the time. But I’m no quitter; I won’t be abandoning the blog, just pushing it to the back of the agenda. For the foreseeable future you can expect to see more roundups like this one, giving brief voice to my opinions on whatever books, films and games I’ve been digesting. I will still do full reviews for anything that means something to me and hopefully someday I’ll be able to resume normal service. So with that out of the way, here’s what I’ve been checking out lately.

Game Review – Banjo-Kazooie (N64)

Tags

adventure, Banjo, Banjo-Kazooie, Gruntilda, Kazooie, Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Platformer, Rare

You will believe a bear can fly.

Game Review – 1080˚ Snowboarding (N64)

Tags

1080˚, 1080˚ Snowboarding, Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Snowboarding

People talk frequently about Nintendo franchises they want to see come back. Mario, Zelda and Metroid are the evergreen trinity of Nintendo properties that will probably live on forever (you can add Pokémon to that list although it occupies a different place in gamers’ minds as many, myself included don’t play it any more). AWOL franchises like Star Fox and F-Zero get a lot of attention from fans hoping to see them return but one other lesser Nintendo franchise I’d like to see revisited is 1080˚. I never played this original game until now but I’ve known and liked the Gamecube version, 1080˚ Avalanche for years. Snowboarding will never get the same attention as those other series I’ve mentioned which is a shame because it’s so much fun.

Game Review – Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble (SNES)

Tags

adventure, Dixie Kong, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble, Kiddy Kong, Nintendo, Platformer, Rare, SNES

There’s an unusual trend that can be found in SNES games towards the end of the console’s life cycle – platformers starring sidekicks. Yoshi’s Island, the sequel to Super Mario World in which the earlier game’s clan of dinosaur buddies took the limelight away from the Mario brothers, is a fine example but Rare pulled the trick twice. The first sequel to the hit Donkey Kong Country didn’t even include the famous gorilla as a playable character, handing the baton instead to his sidekick Diddy. A year later in this third outing Diddy too ended up shelved while his sidekick and monkey squeeze Dixie took the lead role. We’re still waiting for Donkey Kong Country 4: Kiddy Kong’s Day Out.

Game Review – Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS)

Tags

3DS, adventure, Bowser, Intelligent Systems, Kersti, Mario, Nintendo, Paper Mario, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Princess Peach, RPG

Given the number of times I’ve reviewed games made by Intelligent Systems it should come as no surprise that I’m a fan of the Paper Mario franchise. This series of spin-off RPGs began on the N64 and have become famous for their creativity and charming stationary-themed world of paper-thin characters. This 3DS entry, the first on a handheld, is the fourth game in the series and, like the platforming-orientated Super Paper Mario before it, changes up the formula. The focus this time is on stickers.

Game Review – Skies of Arcadia: Legends (GC)

Tags

adventure, Aika, Drachma, Dreamcast, Enrique, Eternal Arcadia, fantasy, Fina, Galcian, Gamecube, Gilder, Nintendo, Overworks, Ramirez, RPG, Sega, Skies of Arcadia, Skies of Arcadia: Legends, Steampunk, Vyse

As long as there are dreamers with the courage to pursue their dreams, the world will have heroes.

Game Review – Mario Party 9 (Wii)

Tags

Bowser, Luigi, Mario, Mario Party 9, Nintendo, Peach, Wii, Yoshi

If I have a gaming guilty pleasure it’s probably Mario Party. I’ve played most games in the series and even though the series is fifteen years old now I always seem to end up coming back for more. The games present a surprisingly engaging board game scenario with mini-games to break up the strategy. In multiplayer it can be an absolute hoot especially with four players all conspiring to screw each other over. The last few entries have felt a little stale and now after a fairly long hiatus the series returns with big changes to the formula.

Game Review – Fallblox (3DS)

Tags

3DS, eShop, Fallblox, Intelligent Systems, Mallo, Nintendo, Puzzle

Pullblox pretty much defined the 3DS eShop. The game’s mixture of cuddly characters and demanding puzzles proved the perfect fit for the download platform. The sequel was inevitable but this is Intelligent Systems we’re talking about, they’re not prone to churning out any old cash-vacuuming rehashes and as you can imagine, Fallblox, known in some territories as Crashmo, doesn’t just give you more of the same.

Game Review – Nintendo Land (Wii U)

Tags

Nintendo, Nintendo Land, Party Game, Wii U

Wii Sports revolutionised social gaming in 2006 by appealing to the masses with an intuitive new controller and a large amount of the credit for the success of the Wii can be levelled at the decision to bundle it with the console. Now Nintendo are innovating again and are clearly hoping to repeat this success with Nintendo Land, another minigame compilation designed to introduce players to the new-fangled Gamepad, the only difference is that Nintendo Land is a much better game.

Game Review – New Super Mario Bros. U (Wii U)

Tags

Bowser, Luigi, Mario, New Super Mario Bros. U, Nintendo, Platformer, Princess Peach, Wii U

For the first time since 1997 a new Nintendo console launches alongside a brand new Mario platformer.

Game Review: Kid Icarus Uprising (3DS)

Tags

3DS, action, fantasy, Kid Icarus, Kid Icarus Uprising, Masahiro Sakurai, Medusa, Nintendo, Palutena, Pit, Project Sora

“Sorry to keep you waiting!” Those are the words angelic hero Pit greeted us with at the moment of the first ever 3DS game announcement.  It was an appropriate thing to say on many levels. Think the wait for Duke Nukem Forever was drawn out? A full two decades, an eternity in the video game industry, separated Kid Icarus Uprising from the previous game in the series, the Game Boy game Of Myths and Monsters. In fact we would have to wait another two years after Pit’s apology to play his new title. So here comes the obvious question; was it worth the wait?

Game Review: Pandora’s Tower (Wii)

Tags

action, fantasy, Ganbarion, Nintendo, Pandora's Tower, Wii

Rounding out an interesting trilogy of Japanese games that formed the focus of Operation Rainfall’s localisation campaign is Pandora’s Tower, a dark fantasy action title with mild RPG elements. After the excellent The Last Story and the genre-defining Xenoblade Chronicles this game from Ganbarion feels like the underdog and arrives very late in the day in the UK with North American gamers still waiting, probably indefinitely, for its confirmation. The Wii U is mere days away and its predecessor has been limping along on its last legs for some time now but any Wii owners looking for a fix from their little white box before the new arrival might consider giving this game a go.

Game Review: New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS)

Tags

3DS, Bowser, Luigi, Mario, New Super Mario Bros. 2, Nintendo, Platformer, Princess Peach, Sidescroller

The release of the Wii U is fast approaching and with it New Super Mario Bros. U the first brand new Mario platformer to launch alongside a new console since Super Mario 64. While the prospect of a new 2D Mario platformer might not be quite as exciting as something with the innovation and originality of the Super Mario Galaxy games after the botched launch of the 3DS whatever Nintendo can offer us on day one is very welcome. In the meantime we have the not insignificant matter of New Super Mario Bros. 2, another iteration of the venerable series that feels like a dry run for the main event.

Game Review: The Legend of Zelda – Spirit Tracks (DS)

Tags

adventure, Chancellor Cole, DS, fantasy, Link, Malladus, Nintendo, The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda - Spirit Tracks, Zelda

I have a theory about escapist storytelling; trains make everything better. The evidence is present in everything from Paper Mario – The Thousand-Year Door to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. There’s just a romance about old locomotives chuffing their way through breath-taking landscape that elevates the sense of adventure and transports the reader/viewer/player just as effectively as the passengers. Nintendo evidently feels the same as evidenced by The Legend of Zelda – Spirit Tracks, a DS follow-up to Phantom Hourglass built around the romance of trains.

Game Review: Yoshi’s Island – Super Mario World 2 (SNES)

Tags

Baby Mario, Kamek, Mario, Nintendo, Platformer, Sidescroller, SNES, Yoshi, Yoshi's Island, Yoshi's Island - Super Mario World 2

A game about a sidekick can’t possibly be as good as the most popular sidescrolling platformers ever made, right?

Top Ten Fire Emblem Beauties

Tags

Fire Emblem, Fire Emblem - Path of Radiance, Fire Emblem - Radiant Dawn, Fire Emblem - Shadow Dragon, Fire Emblem - The Sacred Stones, Intelligent Systems, Nintendo

I’ve just had my third house move in less than eighteen months and while this one was not without its hiccups the transition this time was considerably less stressful than either of the other two despite taking place at the business end of the London Olympics. The need to focus on preparations for the move has meant posts have been somewhat few and far between in the last couple of weeks although things will soon be back to business as usual with the release of Pixar’s Brave, my most anticipated film of the year, imminent. In the meantime to keep things ticking along here’s a nice little Top Ten for you. One of the most enjoyable parts of the Fire Emblem series is meeting and recruiting armies of gorgeous young ladies so now that I’ve reviewed all five games in the series to be released in the UK (Fire Emblem, The Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn and Shadow Dragon) it’s time to celebrate the most beauteous among them. There are only two rules for candidates; they must be playable characters and they must have featured in at least one of the aforementioned games. I’m not going to waffle on about each choice, not all characters in the series are developed beyond a few basic traits so there wouldn’t always be much to say and this list is about looks rather than character anyway so I’ll just let you enjoy the pretty pictures instead.

Game Review: Fire Emblem – The Sacred Stones (GBA)

Tags

Eirika, Ephraim, Fire Emblem, Fire Emblem - The Sacred Stones, Game Boy Advance, Intelligent Systems, Nintendo, RPG, strategy

When it comes to certain video games, more of the same is not necessarily a bad thing. This is generally the case with Fire Emblem, a series that sticks fairly faithfully to its well-balanced and addictive formula. But while the strong core gameplay has remained sensibly unchanged for years the structure is open to embellishments and new concepts that give each new release a different flavour, an extra layer of complexity to make it stand out from its brothers, something to add a little variety to the familiar. Perhaps the boldest and most controversial example can be found in The Sacred Stones, the third entry in the series for the Game Boy Advance (second to see release in Europe). With the title available to 3DS Ambassadors how does it stack up next to The Sword of Flame?

Game Review: Warioland 4 (GBA)

Tags

Game Boy Advance, Nintendo, Platformer, Sidescroller, Wario, Warioland 4

Who would have guessed that a gluttonous, money-grabbing cad with personal hygiene issues would become the poster boy for handheld platformers? Wario’s pinched a fair amount of coin in his time but perhaps the theft he’d be most proud of is Mario’s thunder. Created as a sort of alter-ego for gaming’s greatest icon and the final boss of Super Mario Land 2 – 6 Golden Coins, Wario made his playable debut in that game’s follow-up Warioland – Super Mario Land 3 and since then he has gone from strength to strength. The Warioland series is a shining example of consistency, four superbly playable handheld games each of which boasts its own strong identity and Warioland 4 for the Game Boy Advance is arguably the best of them.

Game Review: Metroid Fusion (GBA)

Tags

action, Adam Malkovich, Game Boy Advance, Metroid, Metroid Fusion, Nintendo, SA-X, Samus Aran, science fiction, Shooter, Sidescroller

Planet Zebes is no more and the Metroid threat has been neutralised but Samus Aran is about to discover why the Metroids were created by the Chozo in the first place.