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Top 10 Games Of This Generation – Honourable Mention – Tomb Raider

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(Original Review)

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve held a lifelong disdain towards the Tomb Raider franchise. At the time, I hated the fact that it played a major role in gamers adopting the PlayStation One in droves, which did not sit well with my Nintendo fanboy self. I also just thought that the few experiences I had with a few of the games in the series didn’t strike me as anything interesting or special. The last time I tried to play a Tomb Raider game was Legend on the Xbox 360, which I grew bored of after an hour of playing the demo.

Regardless of the validity of my claims against the Lara of yesteryear, they don’t apply here. The new Tomb Raider is awesome.

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Hard Corps: Uprising Review

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As much as I love the first and third iterations of the franchise, Contra as a whole has way more misses than hits. The franchise has struggled to find new ways to freshen up the formula, especially when it haphazardly forayed into 3D. As a spiritual successor to Contra, Hard Corps: Uprising gives the series an anime twist thanks to the handy work of Arc System Works, who are best known for Guilty Gear and BlazBlue.

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Pikmin 3 and Doing It Wrong

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Recently, I started playing Pikmin 3. Having never played any of the games in the series before, it caught me off guard in a number of ways. For instance, I didn’t expect the little critters to melt my heart with their sheer cuteness. I also found that watching those same adorable creatures die in assorted ways was rather traumatic. Most surprising to me was how hardcore its gameplay mechanics were. Dig past its cuddly exterior and this is a game that can mercilessly rip out your still-beating heart from your chest.

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Early Impressions of Ninja Blade

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Best known for their work on Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, From Software created Ninja Blade before that; a Ninja Gaiden inspired chopsocky game exclusive to the Xbox 360. If you don’t remember it, that’s cool, cause it came and went within the blink of an eye. For years, I patiently waited until it hit the bottom of the bargain bin before picking it up. After finding it brand new for $5, I decided to take the bait.

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Disney Infinity Review

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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?

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Early El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron Impressions

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El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron has been a game I’ve been meaning to play for quite some time. It first caught my eye with its arresting visual flair, though the mixed reviews kept me at bay until I could grab it on the cheap. A few months back, it hit rock bottom on Xbox Live, as it was on sale for a paltry $3. Having played a little bit of it now, I’m not sure if the game was worth the wait.

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Hands-On With Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

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After the last two disappointing console releases, my perception of the Assassin’s Creed franchise is in the toilet. The series has hit the point of saturation where the annual release schedule not only wears me out, but the quality of the product suffers for it. In particular, Assassin’s Creed III was a buggy mess that still would have fallen short of the mark had it been bug-free.

I want to believe that a jump to next gen is the kick in the pants that this franchise needs, but so far, this doesn’t look like it.

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Saints Row: The Third Review

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Saints Row: The Third did not win me over right away. Having only played the demo of the first game before and hating it, this from a gameplay mechanics perspective felt as derivative and janky as its predecessor. Having said that, it becomes readily apparent that gameplay is not the focus here. Instead, this is all about playing a Grand Theft Auto-like experience with the humor and ridiculousness pushed to extremes. Once the game heats up, it manages to dress up relatively unremarkable mechanics and turn them into a title that’s arguably more fun than it should be.
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Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon Single Player Review

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A lot of people forget that the original Luigi’s Mansion on Gamecube wasn’t heralded as a premiere Nintendo experience when it first came out. Many knocked it for being too short and repetitive, which caused me to avoid it completely. Despite that, the game’s legacy grew with time to the point where we now have Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon on the 3DS more than a decade later. Was it worth the wait?

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Tomb Raider Review

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The Tomb Raider franchise means a lot of things to a lot of people. Some associate her with their original love of PlayStation. Others adore her for being a pioneer of girl power in video games. There might be one or two people for whom Lara was their first crush on a video game character. For me, she didn’t mean much. As a diehard Nintendo fanboy during her heyday, I wanted nothing to do with that series. Nor did I feel I was missing much, as the series never won me over during the few times I actually played a Tomb Raider title. This reboot may have rubbed some purists the wrong way, but this is definitely more up my alley.

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