review

Street Fighter X Tekken Review

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The fighting game genre has no shortage of odd pairings. From Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe to Sonic the Hedgehog in Smash Bros, it seems like we’d seen it all. Then in 2011, Capcom shocked the fighting game world by announcing a crossover between the top 2D fighting game franchise and the top 3D fighting game franchise. Having seen how poorly 2D fighting games and 3D fighting games have mixed in the past, people had a lot of questions about how a Street Fighter and Tekken mash-up could possibly work. Is Street Fighter X Tekken the best of both worlds? A failure like past attempts to mix the genres? Or did it turn into it’s own thing?

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Dominion by Donald X. Vaccarino for iPhone/iPad Review

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My love of video games has historically not translated well into other forms of gaming. When it comes to card games, I don’t play anything more complicated that Klondike Solitaire. As far as designer card games go, anything beyond Uno I either classify as too complicated, too boring or too nerdy for my tastes.

While I still hold that general sentiment around card games (designer card games in particular), I fell in love with Dominion not too long ago. My girlfriend invited me to a game night hosted by one of her coworkers, and we spent all night playing Dominion. What surprised me most about the game was how easy it was to learn while exhibiting a great level of depth. I told Steff multipe times as we were playing it that the mechanics that drive Dominion scratches an itch that I normally get out of Street Fighter.

Immediately after our first game, I searched the iTunes app store to find a Dominion equivalent. To my surprise, it’s available as a free download. While you won’t need to read my review to decide if it’s worth your money, you may want to see if Dominion on the iPhone is worth your time.

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Early Thoughts on The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

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Despite the series success over the years, critics of the Zelda series have knocked it for being too formulaic. I don’t play enough Zelda games to feel that way, but I understand the point. With that said, I loved Twilight Princess and still believe that Ocarina of Time is one of the greatest video games of all-time.

Going into Skyward Sword, I was super-excited to jump back into the land of Hyrule to save the princess and save the world. As of writing, I’m at the front steps of the second dungeon, and my excitement has cooled off considerably.

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SoulCalibur for iPhone/iPad Review

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Following in the foot steps of Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and King of Fighters, SoulCalibur has made its way onto iOS. Unlike Street Fighter and King of Fighters, this SoulCalibur release is mostly a port of the 1999 original. 13 years later, does it still hold up? Does the experience get compromised by having to control it with a touch screen device? Most importantly, is SoulCalibur for iPhone and iPad worth the $15 regular price when its closest competition is roughly half of that?

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Super Mario 3D Land Review

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Do you have a preferred style of Mario game? Do you prefer the classic 2D Mario games, where you run left to right until you jump onto the flagpole? Or do you prefer the 3D Mario games like Mario 64 and Galaxy, where the primary objective is to collect stars? Ever since the release of Super Mario 64, the 2D and 3D styles of Mario platformers have diverged into their own entities. I’m not saying that people can’t be fans of both, but I think most people prefer one style over the other. With all due respect to the Galaxy series of games and Super Mario 64, which is one of my all-time favourite games, I generally prefer the classic 2D style of Mario games.

Super Mario 3D Land is the first Super Mario game that tries to marry the 2D style and 3D style into one game. Is this game able to please both crowds? Or does it just leave everyone underwhelmed?

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Uncharted 3 Single Player Review

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Back in 2009, Uncharted 2 was a groundbreaking game. When I think about that game in retrospect, I think fondly about the great characters, the great story and those incredible setpieces. I still get the chills thinking about playing through that moment in the collapsing building and the train sequence. It wasn’t a perfect game, but it was definitely ahead of it’s time. Even in 2011, there isn’t really another game out there like it.

Well, there wasn’t anything like it until the release of Uncharted 3 a few weeks ago. For better or worse, Uncharted 3 is essentially more Uncharted 2 and not much beyond that. That can’t be a bad thing, can it?

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Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Review

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It’s (Ultimate) Marvel baby!

Having been in the market for a mere 9 months, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has died an (arguably) premature death. In its place is Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, which is a stand-alone, disc-only and $40 release that aims to expand and refine the original formula. While the hardcore Marvel vs. Capcom 3 community have been chomping at the bit to get this more fully-realized version of the original vision, does this game appeal to the majority of the fighting game playing populous, especially if you just bought its predecessor 9 months ago?

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Dance Central 2 Review

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Of all the Kinect games to have hit the market prior to the release of Dance Central 2, only its predecessor has been able to justify the existence of the peripheral to me. The implementation of real-life dancing as a gameplay mechanic was not only revolutionary from a technology perspective, but wildly fun for gamers and financially successful for Harmonix.

Though I reviewed the original Dance Central favourably for the most part when it first came out, it was not without fault. It’s biggest failings were that it didn’t make for a great multiplayer game and that its feature set was paper-thin, which is often a problem with launch games. Does the sequel build on its predecessor to provide a more complete dancing game experience?

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Batman: Arkham City Review

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With high expectations behind it, it wouldn’t be difficult for the sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum to fall short. If anything, it would be easier for Rocksteady to fall short with the sequel than it would be to equal or surpass the original. Arkham Asylum was a fantastic (and arguably revolutionary) game for its time. To this day, I’ll still gush over how amazing that game was (and still is).

Now that the groundwork is set, let’s talk about what people really want to know. Riddle me this, riddle me that, is Batman: Arkham City really all that?

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Gears of War 3 Review

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Do you remember the Gears of War Mad World commercial? Up until that point, the game had been presented as a ‘dudebro’ shooter with all of the emphasis on its revolutionary cover mechanics and stop-and-pop shooting. Then the Mad World commercial hit television and it presented the game as something more emotionally charged. Unfortunately, it was all for the sake of advertising, as none of that Mad World feeling ended up making it into the game. Gears of War 2 sort of tried to capture that, but those few attempts came off as unintentionally funny.

While Marcus and company weave through bombastic firefights and kill all varieties of alien lifeforms in Gears of War 3, it actually manages to capture that Mad World feeling in a number of spots. In one particular case, it literally captures it, but that’s going way into spoiler-territory. Let’s back up and talk about this new, improved and somewhat more emotional Gears of War 3.

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