When it came time to play Off Road, a Ford & Land Rover-branded racing game from Empire Interactive, Xplosiv, and Razorworks, my biggest concern was the level of realism involved. When it comes to racing games, I distinctly prefer an arcade experience over a simulation. I’m not saying Gran Turismo or Forza are bad games by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ll take a game like Burnout, Daytona, or even Mario Kart every time. So, I was worried when Off Road loaded up and started showing off its vehicle selection — all Ford and Land Rover vehicles, modelled after their real-life 2008 counterparts. I quickly discovered, however, that I had worried for nothing: Off Road may have a selection of real-life vehicles, but it is nowhere near a simulation game. Ultra-simple controls and forgiving physics give Off Road a definite arcade flavor… it’s a shame, however, that that flavor is a little on the bland side. Continue Reading

I feel liberated. For the past several weeks, I’ve reviewed a series of utterly average Wii titles, all of which seemed boring at first but — when I would least expect it — clubbed me over the head with something remotely resembling fun. I’d then feel duty-bound to report these instances of fun, and watch perfectly good hit pieces be reduced to wishy-washy ‘balanced’ reviews.

“Sure, the game’s a chore to play through all by your lonesome,” I’d find myself writing, “but wait till you check out the hilarious co-op mode!”

“Yeah, it’s a three-year old piece of PS2 shovelware, but it’s actually kind of fun to reel in the fish,” I would relate.

But this week, I don’t have to hold back, because there is nothing — absolutely nothing — to save SPOGS Racing from being eviscerated at my hands. Continue Reading

There’s a very good chance that you’ve played — or are, at least, aware of — The Settlers of Catan, a German-born board game which has sold over 11 million copies worldwide. If you’ve played it, you know how clever and fun it is, and if you haven’t, you may remember how excited everybody was when they heard it was being released for Xbox Live Arcade. The bottom line is, Settlers of Catan is an extremely good game and is frequently cited when discussing the modern board game industry. It’s popular enough to have gone digital in a number of forms, from XBLA to N-Gage to blatant rip-offs in Second Life. Did you know, however, that there’s an entire free-to-play MMORPG based on Catan? Probably not, given the extremely low population of the game world, and the complete lack of press for the game. It’s called Catan Online World, and has actually been around since late 2002, though the North American (i.e. English) version only launched earlier this year. Just imagine it — an entire game world full of players who have already made every conceivable variant of the “wood for sheep” joke. Continue Reading

After last week’s two-hour tour of Burning Fight barely steamed my knuckles, I was hoping there might be some more satisfying SNK fisticuffs in my future. So I was more than happy to put this week’s sole Virtual Console title, Fatal Fury 2, to the test.

Fatal Fury 2 certainly deserves credit as the birthplace of Mai Shiranui — fighting’s favorite* foxy female ninja — but vintage T&A alone is hardly worth the $9 price of admission. As a fighter, does the venerable classic pull any weight in 2008? Continue Reading

I’m hoping I can go this entire review without saying “The twist is,” or “But there’s a twist!” or “With just a twist of,” or any such obvious quip. I’m also hoping my wrist stops aching soon — Magnetica Twist is a fairly addictive little action-puzzler, controlled entirely through small rotations of the Wiimote. After a few hours of play, you can start developing a case of localized Wii-itis. The upside to that, of course, is that Magnetica Twist is the kind of game you’ll want to play for hours at a time: accessible, addictive, replayable, and challenging. Granted, it’s also a game we’ve all played a hundred times before in any number of incarnations, but thanks to a tiny handful of additions to the familiar formula, Magnetica Twist is a thoroughly enjoyable little distraction. Also, though it may weigh in at 1000 Wii Points, its modest 85-Memory-Block size makes it a fairly painless addition to your channel lineup. Continue Reading

One part eye-opening look at the world of professional gaming, one part true American underdog story, Game Boys is a highly informative, enjoyable read that challenges popular perceptions of the dedicated gamer. Continue Reading

If you’ve ever desired to be transported to a 2-D world where you spend your days and nights beating up thugs, bashing through backdrop scenery and procuring tasty barbecued meats from the most unlikely of places, then go track down a copy of Final Fight.

But if you’ve already played the seminal beat ‘em up; worked your weary way through Double Dragon and Streets of Rage; and found you still have a taste for animal flesh straight from the rusty oil drum, then Burning Fight just might be your ticket… especially if you have a willing buddy who shares your enthusiasm. Continue Reading

This week’s WiiWare offering is Gyrostarr, an on-rails space shooter from High Voltage Software. It represents a fairly clever bit of engineering in its own way — the game’s press release boasts that through clever use of High Voltage’s Quantum3 game engine, Gyrostarr has managed to squeeze 50 procedurally-generated levels into WiiWare’s 40MB size limit. As always, of course, we ask the question: How do those 50 levels play? Are they worth your 700 Wii Points and 290 rapidly-disappearing memory blocks? Well, to answer those questions, we have to ask this one: Did you ever feel like the bonus stage from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 deserved its own game? Continue Reading

My personal game review philosophy dictates that I approach each new game title as blind as can be. I don’t do any research, I don’t read any other reviews — I try to isolate myself entirely until I’ve finished experiencing whatever the title has in store, so I can accurately judge it on its own merits. Going into Cocoto Fishing Master, for instance, I had no idea I was about to waste several hours with a three-year-old piece of PS2 shovelware. Well, I had a hunch…

But them’s the breaks, and if it means I can dissuade even one more individual from wasting their time, then I’ll have done my job. And as it turns out, Cocoto’s not all bad — follow the jump and I’ll explain just what I mean. Continue Reading

Here’s a fun experiment you can do at home! Go to Google and search for Arkanoid. You should see some five-dozen free online flash games, each one implementing one or two new wrinkles into the classic brickout-with-powerups archetype. Now, open each one of those games in a new tab, and attempt to play every one of them at once. In short order, you should be tripping over multiple interfaces, losing track of the ball, and you should feel a stinging sensation as your brain attempts to process the overabundance of color and effects. Now, on top of this process, pop in a DVD of Scarface and let the “Push it to the Limit” montage scene run in the background on an endless loop, letting the entire game take on a vague theme of a coke-fueled rise to success. This is very much what it feels like to play Block Breaker Deluxe! You have now saved 800 Wii Points and 285 valuable memory blocks. Continue Reading