This is how Vacation Isle began development. A bunch of guys sitting around a table, aspiring to rip off a 9 year old water ripple that some guy at Nintendo did in 2 weeks. Well they succeeded, the water looks pretty good. Unfortunately they were SO EXCITED, they forgot to make the rest of the game before shipping the disc. Who can blame them though? Mario Sunshine has great looking water! Continue reading “Vacation Isle: Beach Party”
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a horror game without weapons. You’ve got a flashlight and a map, and the only way to deal with the horrific creatures in the game is to run for your life. It’s a psychological thriller with a world that is constantly adapting to what you learn, and it keeps you on your toes by completely ignoring gaming conventions and doing it’s own thing.
Pandora’s Tower is one hell of a climb. 12 towers of brutally overpowered enemies, clever puzzles, and awkward camera angles make sure of that. Each tower contains a piece of monster flesh you need to bring back to your vegetarian girlfriend Elena, who suddenly has to eat meat to prevent a curse from turning her into a beast. There’s no real explanation on why all this is happening, but why not? She’s cute! The curse has a time limit, so I better hurry! As I eagerly pursued the first tower, Elena sat in the observatory, awaiting my flesh.
YES! A budget racer on Wii, if there’s one genre I know well, it’s this one! I jumped for joy when I saw this game in Kmart, possibly scaring the lady at the counter. There was no sign of Zelda, Xenoblade, or The Last Story on the shelves, but sure enough: 20 copies of Crash Car Racer! It has to be good, right? At $15AU I had to find out.
The name Crash Car Racer does a pretty good job telling you what it is: a racing game with cars that crash. However, it’s not really ABOUT crashing, it’s just a normal racing game that happens to have completely broken physics, conducive to crashes. The disconnected car handling, poorly programmed AI, and bizarre tracks all combine to create a game that pretty much crashes itself every lap, no matter what you do.
After a long absence, I return with the next Durpthrough session of Fatal Frame IV!
Beware the narrow hallways that make fighting ghosts nearly impossible, the deathly fear of potential game-breaking bugs, the bewildering persistence of that nurse I can’t remember the name of, the REVENGENCE of Ayako as I storm her room for sheet music, the wheelchair lady who somehow pushes herself, and the terrifying black death thing that scares the living shit out of me!
Continue reading ““Durpthroughs” – Fatal Frame IV – Batch 4”
Here we go, another Zelda game; puzzles, bosses, exploring, fighting. You know the drill. Or do you? I never intended to review Skyward Sword, because I thought everyone would buy it and love the shit out of it and we’d all happily talk about our favourite parts and hold hands. Much to my disgust and surprise as I scan the twitterverse and look at sales trends, it seems gamers have let this one slip away. With some time and perspective now I can see why. A lot of games these days make you think, and Skyward Sword does that. The difference here though is that you also have to act.
Skyward Sword is a weird game. It’s lazy and closed off; it won’t play itself. If you want to get anywhere, you have to pick up the controller and ENGAGE. It’s the concept that started video games, and it’s the only reason they ever existed. If you want anything in this game to respond, you have to poke it. Skyward Sword is a naive attempt to put the focus on the actions of the player, and it completely tears apart the passive nature of recent blockbuster games like Skyrim and Mass Effect. Zelda is an AWAKENING. Skyward Sword will have you feel like you’re actually CLIMBING things, and actually wielding a sword. It all comes together thanks to the MotionPlus controller, and it WORKS!
Here we have a lovely piece about one of the greatest games of the last decade, Xenoblade Chronicles. It’s an “amazing game” says the author, Chris Warcraft of GameInformer. It features an “epic storyline” with “engaging characters” and “fresh combat”.
However.
Continue reading “Why GameInformer Makes Me Want To Punch A Kitten”
Deep within Ferrari: The Race Experience on Wii, lies a card game! Each player is given 33 cards (or 16 if you play half-deck), and on each card is a picture of a Ferrari with the stats of that particular car. The idea of the game is to trump the other player, by picking a feature of your car that represents it best and trumps that same feature on the other players card. The catch is you can’t see the other players card so you have to guess your strengths. Here’s an example; we start a game and I’ve got a 1958 Testarossa that’s rare as hell and costs $12,000,000. I go first because someone has to, and I’m lucky. I don’t know which car the other player holds, but I’m pretty sure it’s worth less than 12 million dollars, so I pick the money category…
After the critical and commercial success of Ninjabread Man, a press release was issued on 8th of February 2008 announcing the sequel, Ninjabread Man: Blades of Fury for Wii. More than 4 years have passed, and we still haven’t seen any screenshots or had any update on its release. Will it be a Wii U launch title? 3DS eShop game? Or will it still come out for Wii and compete with Dragon Quest X? We did some investigating and got more than we bargained for.
The Last Story is captivating. It tells the story of a group of honest mercenaries striving to be knights – not so they can dominate the world – but merely on the hope of a good night’s sleep without one eye open. The story that unfolds is wonderfully intriguing and engaging, and with fun gameplay and interactive environments; you’re not just watching or reading the story, you’re PLAYING it. It’s a fairy tale set in a living, breathing world that embraces the interactive nature of videogames. It’s such a different game in so many aspects and brings a lot of new things to the table in terms of how you approach things as a player. I could fill this entire paragraph with buzzwords and verbal wankery, and still fail to capture what the game is like. Everything has a magical, whimsical story-telling feel to it, like a long descriptive dream with talented British voice actors. It’s a love story because I’m in love with this game.
There isn’t much point doing a review for this – you either like Mario Party or you don’t. If you do, then you’re in for a real treat. I think this is the best one yet due to the quality of the mini-games, amazing graphics, and excellent presentation. Above all, I prefer the new board concept to the old one; it makes the progression of the game a lot more exciting. This makes my earlier impressions post a bit redundant, but that must be how Mario Party 8 feels right now. I’ve played a lot more since then, and unlocked everything in the game.
After FIVE LONG YEARS, Mario Party is back! Was it worth the wait? No, not really. More Mario Parties would have been nice. Nevertheless, this is the best looking one yet, with some of the most polished mini-games and a brand new concept of play!
Now that every player shares the same place on the board, you might think the competitive strategy aspect has been taken out or dumbed down…
Ooooops, I’ve had these done for a while now, but I’ve been so busy I forgot to put them up.
In this round, Misaki battles a bully from her childhood and a new character surfaces to explore the medical wing of the creepy complex in search of the man responsible for the kidnappings. The ghost encounter rate continues to increase as the setting gets spookier, so how long can I last!? Enjoy!
Continue reading ““Durpthroughs” – Fatal Frame IV – Batch 3”
What do little boys, tag teams, creepy old men, nurses, and an old, abandoned hospital have in common?
…
Actually, don’t answer that. The answer is, Batch 2 of my Fatal Frame IV Durpthrough! The ghost encounters escalate as the plot sends me fighting an unexpected and familiar villain, puts me behind the eyes of yet another character, and teases a battle against a sadistic little girl! Enjoy!
Continue reading ““Durpthroughs” – Fatal Frame IV – Batch 2″
Welcome BACK! Free Roaming time is over – it’s time to get into some more activities! Go Vacation supports a shitload of control options through its wealth of games, including Wiimote, Wiimote + Nunchuck, Balance Board, MotionPlus, Wii Wheel and the Zapper. Today we’re going to get out our fancy new controller to play some MotionPlus games.
Windsurfing is the first game I’m going to talk about, because it really took me by surprise. Expecting a passable point A to point B race, I got a creative use of Wii controls I’ve never seen before. No buttons are used in this, and there are two things you control. The first is the sail’s angle, and the second is the direction of the boat. These are BOTH controlled, simultaneously, with the Wii Remote.
Pietriots 