Review Archives (Staff Reviews)

You are currently looking through staff reviews for games that are available on every platform the site currently covers. Below, you will find reviews written by all eligible authors and sorted according to date of submission, with the newest content displaying first. As many as 20 results will display per page. If you would like to try a search with different parameters, specify them below and submit a new search.

Available Reviews
	Naruto: Clash of Ninja 2 review (GCN) Reviewed on August 08, 2009 Naruto: Clash of Ninja 2 pretends it doesn't have that little number at the end of its title. It uses the same cel-shaded graphics, features the same fighting engine, and even recycles combos for reappearing characters. The game goes so far as to completely subsume the story of its predecessor, starting over to tell Naruto's tale from the very beginning. Clash of Ninja 2 is superior, though, because of one profound improvement: four-way multiplayer.
	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-shelled review (X360) Reviewed on August 06, 2009 Something a lot of fans will appreciate is the ability to chase Krang and Shredder through time as a united team. On consoles, no more than two friends have ever been able to team up for the cause, but now you can gather three other buddies and really raise some shell! Both local and online play are allowed, with plenty of enthusiastic strangers just waiting to team up against evil at all times of the day, night and early morning.
	Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures: The Bogey Man review (PC) Reviewed on August 06, 2009 It's never overtly bad. It's just grossly unambitious, lacking in any real flair, and growing stale at an alarming rate. So while Grand Adventures has been a fun ride, it's for the best that it's reached its conclusion. It just could have done to finish last month instead.
	Icarus: Alien Vanguard review (PC) Reviewed on August 05, 2009 Shuttlecraft, the first level, is arguably the best introduction to a Doom game I've experienced. It's longer than most and there are a few sneaky little tricks to ensure it's a good bit tougher than expected for the first map. It has this tiny chapel that seems non-threatening and actually is uninhabited when you enter, but things go Silent Hill and it transforms into the sort of nightmarish place you'd expect black mass sacrifices to be held. Not to mention all those imps that appear to ensure you're that sacrifice. Pure gold.
	The Conduit review (WII) Reviewed on August 05, 2009 The Conduit most often feels like a light gun shooter that’s been ripped off of its tracks, which is due as much to the arcade-like nature of the level design as it is to the control scheme itself. There’s a light, frenetic nature in the way The Conduit unravels, and High Voltage seems okay with that. The game’s pace is fierce and the action is constant.
	Bookworm Adventures Volume 2 review (PC) Reviewed on August 02, 2009 You might be wondering how the game could possibly be difficult. The answer is that you suddenly find yourself working with extreme limitations. Besides gaining life meters several times the length of your own, enemies gain the ability to lock half of your pieces so that they can't be used, or to devalue them so that playing the selected tiles gains you no particular advantage. Worse, they may even set things up so that playing your own pieces damages you! There are items that can be used to counter these effects, but they are gone for good once you make use of them... at least until you take the time to earn more. The process for that basically amounts to level grinding.
	Little League World Series Baseball 2009 review (WII) Reviewed on August 01, 2009 The general feel of a set of innings in Little League World Series Baseball 2009 doesn't seem to have changed much. You still control most of the important bits with the 'A' button and furious Wii Remote waggles. You still start a game out with mild swings—because that's all that is strictly necessary—and finish it up with wild convulsions that are enough to nearly put an arm out of socket because of their ferocity.
	Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2 - Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon review (PS2) Reviewed on August 01, 2009 In a sense, Devil Summoner 2 is one of the more accessible entries in Atlus's long-running Shin Megami Tensei franchise. The combat is straightforward and quick, the difficulty isn't too high, and the demon negotiations and fusion provide a bit of depth to grab players' interest. Unfortunately, with its lackluster characters, blunt storytelling, and fitting but simplistic visuals, this isn't a game that will sustain that interest.
	Dragonica review (PC) Reviewed on August 01, 2009 Dragonica is a 3D, fantasy, action-oriented, side-scrolling MMORPG developed by Barunson Interactive. Its published by Gpotato in the EU and THQ*ICE in the US. As with most other titles promoted through both of these sites, Dragonica is free to play. However, gamers can opt to buy extras for their character from a shop dealing in real money. Anyone who has played Lunia or MapleStory will feel right at home here. Conversely, Dragonica has a level of polish not yet to be found in its overpopulated peers.
	Vagrant Story review (PSX) Reviewed on July 29, 2009 Every combat action Ashley takes affects a risk meter. As it rises, both good and bad things happen. He can cause much more damage, but his accuracy and defense both suffer. If you gain high risk because you chained a 10-hit combo on some fool and immediately get assaulted by something else, you'll receive a severe dose of pain.
	Flower, Sun, and Rain review (DS) Reviewed on July 29, 2009 Sumio immediately finds the entire island is stuck in a time loop, though he perceives it as a sort of dream. Every morning he rises with his singular goal in mind, but he always gets sidetracked by an unrelated request. Hell, it takes him a week's worth of days just to make it outside the hotel grounds. Once his daily task is completed, the doomed airliner explodes overhead, right on schedule. Time for the next wakeup call.
	Madballs in... BABO: Invasion review (X360) Reviewed on July 28, 2009 Madballs in... BABO: Invasion isn't the deepest game, but it shouldn't be. Games like this are great because of their simplicity, not in spite of it. Gameplay revolves (get it?) around your chosen circular hero rolling from place to place and causing as much havoc as possible.
	The King of Fighters XII review (PS3) Reviewed on July 28, 2009 The first and most obvious stumble is the limited character roster, which perhaps wouldn't be a problem except that some of the very most important fighters are missing in action. In particular, there's little presence from the female side of the crowd. Mai, best known for her heaving bosom but also for her acrobatic and lethal attack style, is nowhere to be seen. Somehow The King of Fighters feels wrong without her, like a Street Fighter game with no Chun-Li or a Dead or Alive game with no Kasumi. Mary didn't make the cut, either, nor did plenty of beefcakes.
	Resident Evil 4 review (PC) Reviewed on July 27, 2009 Resident Evil 4 might be a carefully balanced, ingeniously designed and admirably self-assured game, but on the PC it's a woeful, miserable, inconceivable mess of code. It's very possibly, depending on your mindset, nestled within the highest echelon of videogame design - but it's an experience tailored only for the consoles. On a computer, it's often barely playable, which is more troubling than a village full of zombified religious extremists could ever be.
	Naruto: Clash of Ninja review (GCN) Reviewed on July 26, 2009 There's a reason they say patience is a virtue. Naruto: Clash of Ninja has only 8 distinct characters. In the story mode, you control Naruto as he fights each of these opponents once. It takes about fifteen minutes. After that, what's left?
	Dawn of Discovery review (DS) Reviewed on July 26, 2009 What sets Dawn of Discovery apart from many of its peers is the focus on multiple regions. It's never enough to just settle a single island, since certain resources are always out of reach until you expand to another island. This wrinkle adds a surprising amount of depth and forces a level of strategy that feels quite unique. The big difference isn't so much that you sail around the ocean—which sounds significant but ultimately isn't—but rather that you have to account for delays and you have to prioritize how you expand your empire.
	Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships review (PC) Reviewed on July 26, 2009 Ransom of the Seven Ships works because it has high ambitions. When you step into Nancy's shoes, you're doing more than clicking through a few lifeless menus. You're arriving at the edge of a hauntingly beautiful island, one that you'll cautiously explore over the next six or eight hours of play. White sands, lush foliage, towering cliffs and murky pools of water all meld perfectly to form Dread Isle, the sort of destination that should scare off tourists by reputation alone. The place is large enough that you'll use a golf cart when it comes time to explore everything, plus there are outlying islands that you'll have to reach by way of sailboat. The resulting sense of freedom adds a lot to (and to an extent defines) the whole affair.
	The Bigs 2 review (X360) Reviewed on July 26, 2009 TB2 is all spectacle, but it’s well done. Gargantuan sluggers take powerful rips at incoming pitches, practically jumping out of their cleats; pitchers throw fastballs almost exclusively in the triple digits and curveballs with such acute breaks that head-high tosses end up low and outside. Line drives scream from the batter’s box to the wall; retrieving fielders send missiles back to the infield. An alarming percentage of balls hit are homeruns (and more are doubles). Many that otherwise would be big hits are snared by outfielders exhibiting the “legendary catch,” enabling them to leap 20 feet into the air or dive 30 yards to snag line drives headed for the gap.
	Crimson Gem Saga review (PSP) Reviewed on July 24, 2009 Crimson Gem Saga is a game that has all the traditional elements, but is self-aware to make fun of them.
	Challenge of the Dragon review (NES) Reviewed on July 22, 2009 Meanwhile, you have "Dragon Style Kung Fu", which consists of flailing about with a tiny sword, tapping foes with your foot and executing an amazingly awkward jumping kick. The ghost of David Carradine is not impressed.

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