To say that Disney Infinity is simply a knock-off of Skylanders is rather disingenuous. The toys may work in a similar fashion at a base level, though the actual gameplay experience is quite different. There’s also a level of nuance with the figurines and discs that goes beyond the groundwork laid by Activision. But are these differences enough to justify going with one over the other?
So you’ve got a Wii U. You’ve exhausted Nintendo Land and beaten New Super Mario Bros. U. Now what?
If you haven’t played it on any other platform yet, may I suggest Trine 2: Director’s Cut? This great game got a mostly great port on the Wii U and is totally worth picking up. For more details, head over to Splitkick!
Check Out My Trine 2: Director’s Cut Impressions on Splitkick.com!
At what point does the ‘new’ in New Super Mario Bros. U become false advertising? This is the 4th New Super Mario Bros. game in the sub-series and the 2nd one to hit this year. Does the world really need any more of this style of Mario game? I guess as long as they continue to be quality products, the volume of releases doesn’t matter.
My initial impressions of the Wii U back in August 2012 were lukewarm. While I approved of the general build quality and feel of the Wii U GamePad, neither Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition or Scribblenauts Unlimited did much to demonstrate what it was really capable of. Recently, I got to get my hands on a demo of Rayman Legends, which is the current showcase game at Wii U demo stations. Based on my experience with Rayman Origins, I was expecting this demo to show positively. What did catch me off guard was how well it leveraged the functionality of the Wii U GamePad.
A wizard, knight, and thief walk into a bar. No, this isn’t the setup for a bad joke, but a bad setup for a Trine 2 review. In this 2D puzzle platformer, your objective is to use the three characters you have at your disposal to get past any obstacles in your way as you search for the a magical treasure. Though it was released last year on PC, Mac, XBOX Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, I didn’t really give it much thought. However, I always did hear great things about it, and I picked it up when it went on sale recently on XBLA.
For much of Rayman’s life, he’s suffered from an identity crisis. After his stunning debut outing, Super Mario 64 seemingly made 2D platformers obsolete. Ubisoft felt obligated to move Rayman into the third dimension, which led to a string of mediocre 3D platformers. Eventually, Rayman would find his name slapped on the Raving Rabbids mini-game collections, where he ultimately got out-shined by his insane rabbit compadres.
With seemingly nowhere else to go with the franchise, Ubisoft takes him back to his 2D platforming roots with Rayman Origins. Within minutes of playing this reboot, it’s clear that he never should have left.
Trials HD took XBOX Live by storm when it first came out in 2009. Though it did not have the name recognition of the games it launched with as part of the Summer of Arcade promotion, Trials HD won gamers over in a big way thanks to its wildly addictive gameplay. To this day, Trials HD still stands as the best-selling XBOX Live Arcade game of all-time. Where was I during all of this? Not playing Trials HD. After reading the impressions and hearing people talk about it on podcasts, the game really didn’t sound like my thing. In particular, everyone focused on the game’s soul-crushing difficulty, which did not sound appealing to me at all. Instead of getting in on the action, I took in the horror stories from the community as assurance that I was doing the right thing by abstaining.
Not too long ago, Trials Evolution came out and I was originally set to ignore it just like I did its predecessor. However, after some thought, I figured that I should at least give the demo a shot, as the series has cemented itself within the current gaming zeitgeist. Instead of coming away from the demo with just a point of view, I found a new video game love.
Having never played a Trials game before, I approached this game with a great sense of fear. Though I’ve heard a ton of positive things about the series, the one point that has always deterred me from giving the series a chance is the game’s supposed difficulty. Based on how everyone talked about its difficulty, it really didn’t sound like an experience I’d be interested in.
Recently, I gave Trials Evolution a shot, just so that I could be a part of the current gaming community conversation. In hindsight, I’m kicking myself for not trying this series out sooner.
One of the last EGM issues I ever bought was the issue when Ico was declared game of the month. They wrote about it as if it was a game that came out of nowhere and won them over in a big way. Based on what I read at the time, I thought the game wouldn’t be interested in. Even if I were interested at the time, I was a devout Nintendo fanboy, so going out of my way to play Ico on the PlayStation 2 just wasn’t an option.
Years have passed, console allegiances have dissolved and interest has piqued, which is why I find myself writing about my time playing Ico from the Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection. 10+ years later, is Ico still a game worth playing?
The original Portal has already cemented itself as one of the landmark games of this generation. Though it was originally positioned as an add-on to the Half-Life 2 Orange Box that could be beaten in about 3 hours, Portal has taken on a life of its own thanks to its revolutionary game design that does something truly new. Critics loved it, fans bought into it in droves and elements of the game, such as in-game lines and ‘the song’ have worked their way into popular gaming culture. While it’s sequel may not have the cultural cache as its predecessor, the game is still one of the best of the year and it sold extremely well.
Portal is without a doubt, a must-play game if there ever was one this generation. With that said, I’ve been ducking this game for years. I tried it in passing once, but I made the mistake of trying it out on my brother’s file, when he was over half way through the game. Needless to say, I was immediately overwhelmed and thought I was too stupid for Portal. Only recently did I put my initial impressions aside and try the game from scratch.
In Third Person 