Reviews

Ju-On The Grudge: Haunted House Simulator Impressions

JettLeave a comment

Based on the hit Japanese horror movie that got an American remake, Ju-On The Grudge: Haunted House Simulator is an idea that I think is fundamentally sound on the surface. There’s a segment of casual players that want a scary experience, but don’t have the gamer acumen to take something on as hardcore as Resident Evil or Silent Hill. If put together properly and packaged at the right price, this concept could come to life in a way that most other games in the genre haven’t. After playing a few levels of Ju-On, it’s evident that this falls well short of the mark.

Continue reading →

DuckTales Remastered Impressions

JettLeave a comment

DuckTales Remastered

I remember the cartoon fondly, but my time with the cult classic DuckTales on the NES was limited. I do remember playing it, and I can hum the moon theme on command, but I don’t remember getting very far. Instead, most of my early Disney gaming came from titles like Chip & Dale’s Rescue Rangers and Aladdin. While my level of nostalgia for the source material was low, I was still excited to play DuckTales: Remastered for a taste of classic gaming with an HD facelift.

Continue reading →

Formula D Review

JettLeave a comment

Formula DThe act of car racing is defined by speed. Video games have almost always done a great job of capturing that sensation as well as the act of racers jockeying for position thanks to their ability to simulate racing in real time. But how do you translate that experience into a turn-based tabletop game? Formula D has the answer. With 2-10 players, you can partake in a thrilling tabletop experience that amazingly simulates the magic of car racing. Continue reading →

Batman: Arkham Origins Impressions

JettLeave a comment

With the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era nearing its twilight, we saw a number of high-profile franchises stumble over themselves with one entry too many. God of War: Ascension came and went without a care. Gears of War: Judgment I felt was a huge disappointment, as it played like a shameless cash-grab. After playing an hour or so of Batman: Arkham Origins, I’m disappointed to also toss Bruce Wayne’s latest into that pile.

Continue reading →

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Impressions

JettLeave a comment

I’ll be the first to admit that Japanese role-playing games are not my cup of tea. I’m generally not a fan of menu-based combat, level grinding or stories that take dozens of hours to complete. The only JRPG I ever played and loved was Super Mario RPG on the SNES. Pretty much everything else from Chrono Trigger, to Final Fantasy VII and everything up to this point has completely passed me by. Quite frankly, I don’t even regret being mostly oblivious to that whole aspect of gaming, because it’s just not my thing.

So why even bother with Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch? Well, for one, its phenomenal visuals went a long way towards grabbing my attention. Then, the positive word-of-mouth just wouldn’t go away. I figured that if I was going to give this genre a fair shake, I might as well try the best.

Continue reading →

Need For Speed: Rivals Impressions

JettLeave a comment


Aside from one attempt at a Need For Speed iPhone game, I’ve never played any of the games in this franchise. I’ve never held any sort of grudge against it, though its particular brand of racing action hasn’t really grabbed my attention, either. With Rivals, EA caught me at just the right point where their latest entry built up a lot of positive word-of-mouth during a weak console launch. Is this the game that hooks me in for good?
Continue reading →

Ticket To Ride Review

JettLeave a comment

photo 1(4)First published in 2004, Ticket to Ride has grown into a modern tabletop classic. It is one that I only discovered last year and finally picked up for myself within recent memory. Since then, it’s become a favourite at Steff and I’s tabletop nights.

Continue reading →

Game & Wario Review

JettLeave a comment

Ever since the release of WarioWare: Twisted!, most of Wario’s mini game outings also function as a showcase for new hardware. WarioWare: Touched! was one of the first games to harness the potential of the Nintendo DS touchscreen, and WarioWare: Smooth Moves gave players all sorts of silly ways to waggle their Wii Remote. Game & Wario attempts to demonstrate the Wii U Gamepad’s potential in the same manner, though it falls short of the bar set by its predecessors by providing an experience that’s short on content and replay value.

Continue reading →

Project X Zone Review

Jett1 Comment

With a cast of over 60 feature characters from dozens of different Namco, Sega and Capcom franchises, it’s no wonder that fan service is such an important aspect to the Project X Zone experience. There’s no shortage of neat moments for these characters to build cross-dimensional relationships with one another. There’s also more than enough tag-team action to show off everyone’s combat prowess. As great as it is to hit those marks, it clearly came at a cost, as there are other aspects of this strategy RPG that are sorely lacking.
Continue reading →

Skylanders: Swap Force Review

JettLeave a comment

The Skylanders franchise fell victim to the sophomore jinx.  Skylanders Giants failed to address the issues of its predecessor while its biggest innovation was a boring character class that actually made the game less fun and more difficult to play. Clearly having learned its lesson, the Skylanders are back in their best adventure yet.

Continue reading →