Reviews

Trials Evolution Review

JettLeave a comment


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.

Continue reading →

King of Fighters-i 2012 Review

JettLeave a comment


The first King of Fighters outing on iPhone was fantastic. It did an amazing job of translating the game into an iPhone-friendly experience with a simplified control scheme and some nice touches to the feature set. The only thing that put it a place below Street Fighter IV: Volt was its lack of online play.

SNK has addressed its main criticism with the release of The King of Fighters-i 2012, which is a brand new app and not an update to the previous game. If you haven’t played The King of Fighters on your iPhone before or already own The King of Fighters-i, is it worth the extra coin?

Continue reading →

Street Fighter X Tekken Review

JettLeave a comment

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?

Continue reading →

Portal 2 Review

Jett1 Comment


When I first completed the original Portal not too long ago, I did not feel the need to experience any more of it. Sure, Portal is a fantastic game, but within the three or so hours it took me to complete it, I felt like the game had said everything it needed to say. Although I was crazy late to the party and Portal 2 had been out for months, I wasn’t sure what Valve would do to keep the experience going without tarnishing the legacy of the original.

Continue reading →

Some Things I Don’t Like About Catherine

Jett1 Comment

A few days ago, I posted a pretty glowing review of Catherine for the XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3. In hindsight, I’m still happy with how that game turned out and how that review was written. As much as I gushed about it before, it does have some kinks. Since I didn’t really go into them in detail in my review, I thought I’d call them out here. It’s still a fantastic game as is, and you may not agree with my list of gripes, but you’re always free to chime in with your point of view in the comments!

1. Your controls when Vincent is behind the block tower sucks

Controlling Vincent when he’s in-between the blocks and your direct line of sight is straightforward. However, in cases where you have to control Vincent behind the blocks, your controls become a complete mess. The problem is two-fold. For one, controlling movement behind a block tower isn’t consistent at all. You may hit left on your d-pad to make Vincent move right, but the next time you hit left, he’ll stay still. The controls when Vincent is trying to maneuver behind blocks constantly flip, which makes it extremely difficult to get places in this manner.

This issue could have been alleviated if the camera was able maneuver all the way around the block tower. At its best though, you’ll only have access to a 180-degree view. This makes it impossible to see how you’re maneuvering Vincent behind a tower of blocks. While you won’t be spending a lot of time maneuvering behind blocks, it sucks every time you have to do it.

2. Lack of interaction in the real world

Most of the gameplay in Catherine takes place in Vincent’s nightmares, where you maneuver through block towers. While I love playing through these towers, I really wish there was more to do in the real world. I have no problem with sitting through all of the cutscenes, as they’re really well done and they’re the main driver of the story. Where the game could have gone a bit further with are the times when you control Vincent in the bar. Why not give him more to do? Why not give him more opportunities here to impact the story beyond talking to people and answering text messages? Why not let the player visit other environments besides the bar? These suggestions would have helped make players feel a bit more involved outside of the nightmares.

The last points in this post contain SPOILERS, so please proceed at your own discretion!

Continue reading →

Early Impressions of de Blob 2

JettLeave a comment

 

The revolution will be televised. Well, the colour revolution, anyway. The sequel to the highly-fun and possibly underrated Wii platformer is back; this time on the Wii, PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360. As a huge fan of the first game, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the sequel. Though I’m only on level 3 of a possible 11 (that I can see on the world map), I thought I’d share some thoughts on my experiences so far.

Continue reading →

NBA Jam for iPhone Review

Jett3 Comments

 

Within days of announcing that NBA Jam for iPhone was on the way, EA released the game to the iTunes store. Unlike NBA Live 10, which was a heavily watered-down version of the console game, NBA Jam on the iPhone stays relatively close to the recent console games. This mobile package includes essentially the same graphics, same sounds, and most importantly, the same exciting gameplay, in a format you can take with you anywhere.

Continue reading →

NHL 2K11 for iPhone Review

Jett3 Comments

NHL 94 is one of my all-time favourite sports video games. I have fond memories of playing this game for dozens of hours with friends. Many years later, when I got a Super Nintendo again, I made sure to pick up a copy of NHL 94, which to me, still holds up as a fun game to play. I understand that video game hockey has progressed greatly in the last 15 years, but as a non-hockey fan (and as someone who hasn’t played a hockey game since then…yet), that game is still good enough for me.

I was sold on NHL 2K11 on the iPhone when I played the lite version. Almost instantly, I realized that it played a lot like NHL 94. After a few minutes with the demo, I shelled out the $0.99 for it and have been playing it since.

Continue reading →

Girlfriend Gaming – We Play Def Jam: Icon

JettLeave a comment

The last time Steff and I played a rap-music-related game, we were caught by surprise. I figured that 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand at best would be ironic fun, but it turned out to be a fairly solid game. Steff, who isn’t into shooters at all, really got into it. It was good enough that I went out and picked up my own copy so that we could play co-op.

When she saw Def Jam: Icon at the store, she was hoping that it would be the fighting game equivalent to Blood on the Sand. Instead, the game broke her heart after the very first fight. In her words, the game was, “Utter disappointment.”
Continue reading →

X-Men Arcade Review

JettLeave a comment

It’s scary to me to think about how old this game is. Though this game will forever be linked to my childhood, I’m sure that this game is alien to 95% of gamers who weren’t born in the mid-80s or earlier. This game lived and died in the early 90s as a 4-player or 6-player arcade cabinet and was never legally available anywhere else…until now.

If you’ve played this game during the hey day of the arcades, I do not need to sell you on it. You know enough to judge whether or not you’re ready to spend money on this experience again. For everyone else, here’s what you’ve missed out on (or what you’ll get if you decide to pick this up).

Continue reading →