Our copy of Ubisoft’s latest rabid animal outing was acquired dubiously. Not stolen, or downloaded, but priced up incorrectly – according to the price sticker the staff member who had put it out on the shelf had got it mixed up with 2006’s Rayman Raving Rabbids. When even game store staff get confused, this suggests …
Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training proved that a system seller doesn’t have to be big budget or be packed with pretty visuals. It took nine developers just three months to make and went on to sell millions. You’d think that Nintendo would have tried to recreate its success with the 3DS, but no, they’re seemingly happy …
There’s no explanation as to why characters from Shrek, Madagascar, How to Train Your Dragon and Monsters vs Aliens have been brought together for a spot of kart racing. We all know the real reason though – to make Activision money. It’s painfully clear that this is a budget effort. Menus are bland, speech samples …
Just think – in an alternative reality Winter Stars could be a game based on the stars we see on TV over the festive period. Gene Wilder as the original Willy Wonka, Sean Connery in one of the old James Bond films and Home Alone’s Macaulay Culkin. Maybe also The Queen, if you can count …
The 3DS hasn’t had a very smooth start and in fairness Ubisoft can be held partly responsible. Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars aside, their 3DS games have been very lazily made and although we can excuse the launch games like Rayman 3D, Asphalt 3D and Splinter Cell 3D for having frame rate problems and being generally …
Quelle surprise – Sega has served us up another rubbish Sonic game. Oh, sorry – this one is actually good. Force of habit, there. The plot sees ‘90s short and stubby Sonic and modern lanky Sonic hurtling through time, where they meet in a colourless world which acts as a hub. Both are playable and …
I haven’t seen a single episode of Ben 10, and nor do I plan to, but I still think I could hold my own in conversation just by what I’ve learnt from press coverage of the Ben 10 games. I know that Ben’s full name is Ben Tennyson, that the watch he wears is called …
Revisiting the past can be a dangerous thing to do. Watching clips of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon on YouTube recently sullied fond memories of our youth due to the shoddy animation, lame jokes and predictable storylines. Did we really think the Ninja Turtles were cool? The fact that whole carrier bags full …
It’s very easy to make fun of something that a lot of people are obsessed by. So much so, that sometimes people do it without even realising it. We have nothing against Call of Duty here though – anything that keeps the children off the streets is fine by us. A few people have had …
The difference between Tropico 4 and Tropico 3 is similar to the difference in yearly sporting updates – the graphics have been improved, the presentation has been tinkered with and there are a few new inclusions, but it’s still the same game underneath. We could have decorated this page with screenshots from Tropico 3 and …
Hand holding. From fellow soldiers yelling what buildings to blow up to breadcrumb trails of collectables in platformers, the majority of games proverbially hold gamers’ hands even if we don’t realise it. This is where From Software’s Dark Souls is different from most – after a brief run down of the controls you’re dropped into …
Licensed games often suffer as the developers have to make their game while sticking to any constraints that the license at hand may have. The good news here is that the idea for Once Upon a Monster came first, and then the chance for Double Fine to use the Sesame Street license came along at …
Although they weren’t developed by Codemasters themselves, Clive Barker’s Jericho, Damnation and Turning Point are often referred to as being amongst the worst games this generation. This suggests that Codemasters hasn’t quite got the knack of sniffing out decent first person shooters to publish. With their past in mind, we always feel sceptical when Codemasters …
It’s easy to forgot how much of an important part Mercury played during the PSP’s launch. Praise was almost universal, with Sony’s Japanese arm so impressed with it that they snapped it up to publish themselves. Having the name of a respected developer – Archer MacLean – on the cover certainly didn’t do it any …
It pains us to say it, but there are developers out there who simply take on projects that are destined to be dire to save having to turf their staff out onto the streets. A fine example are studios signed up to make movie tie-ins on incredibly short deadlines, or asked to make a budget …