[Quick Note: This is my first experience with the King of Fighters (KoF) franchise. I hope that this review benefits, and isn't hindered, by my newbish eyes.]

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the KoF series SNK has released a brand new entry onto the next-gen systems. Covered in 100% hand drawn art and brand new fighting mechanics, their new entry has “ambitious” written all over it. However, the fighting genre, where people are still playing SFII, it’s possible taking a leap forward can be a fall back.

Read more… »

I’m sure we have all heard and grown tired of the old cliché of making sure to never judge a book by its cover. It is assumed that in doing so, one could wrongfully pass up a good book with a bad title for a terrible book with a great one. Fortunately, as far as titles go, there seems to be an exception in the newest addition to the PSN network, Fat Princess.

Just by hearing those two words, lucid images appeared before my eyes of a fairy tale not so generically centered around a helpless beauty of a princess, but of a tale perhaps with a bit more character to it. Needless to say, all expectations I could make, based on the title alone, were happily met and exceeded. Read more… »

Ever since Mary Poppins, Disney has been working to unite the animated world with our own. Often times, they succeed and create a memorable fantasy world with believable relationships between humans and cartoons alike.

It doesn’t always go according to plan, however. Disney’s latest film, G-Force, is currently sitting on a 25/100 rating on the aggregate review website Rotten Tomatoes.com. Surprisingly, the game actually isn’t that bad. Read more… »

Magic: the Gathering is one of those games you hate to love.  At any one given moment you will be loving the game, at the top of the world, destroying all decks that come your way, and then a split second later you will be hating life, rationally contemplating setting fire to your deck and throwing your opponents out the window.

Fans of the game need not worry, the Xbox Live Arcade game Magic: the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers provides this same great experience.

Read more… »

Only in recent years has EA Sports faced any stiff competition in the way of sporting titles. 2K has found great success in its annual NBA, NHL, and MLB titles, while Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer successfully dominated the football genre for the better part of this decade.

Does Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 stand above the crowd as a pillar of gaming brilliance, or is it simply another dreary carbon copy that gaming fans have come to despise in sports titles?

Read more… »

In an era where twitch is king and thinking is optional, the market for deep and rich strategy games has become increasingly niche. The few developers who try to enter and expand this market usually end up sacrificing accessibility over complexity and alienating new players to the genre.

Historical strategy heavyweights Paradox Interactive have been the exception to this rule. Their extraordinarily deep and well made titles have pushed many to savouring each release, with popular series like Europa and Hearts of Iron captivating many a thinking gamer the world over.

Their most recent effort, East India Company, developed externally by Finnish bracket Nitro Games, looks to carry that success by introducing gamers to the world of sea-based trading. Does it sail broadly into the sun, or sink tragically into the depths?

Read more… »

Last year, the Xbox Live Summer of Arcade dished out some of the best downloadable titles you could find on the virtual market: Braid, Castle Crashers, and Geometry Wars 2. Each of these titles was a smaller and cheaper game that delivered just as much fun, if not more, than some of the retail titles sitting on the shelves at the time. Well, Microsoft is at it again and their new line up for this year’s summer of arcade is looking to drain those Microsoft points from your account faster than you can say “hadouken!”

Just recently, Microsoft started off their new summer line up with a bang, ‘Splosion Man, and now they are bringing one of the most celebrated fighting games of all time into your living room for a mere 1200 Microsoft points ($15). That’s right, Marvel Vs Capcom 2 (MvsC2) has finally hit our living rooms once again, so put up your Dreamcast, trash that boomerang controller, and get ready for fast paced fighting mayhem! Read more… »

Developed by Digital Illusions and published by Electronic Arts, Battlefield Heroes is joining a new breed of PC gaming that spreads the joy of video games to anyone who has a less than stellar PC.

What makes Battlefield Heroes so distinct are its flattering graphics, basic style of play, and its addictive properties. That, and it’s also absolutely free.   Read more… »

I’m not a big fan of sequels, and the Final Fantasy games have been no exception. Final Fantasy X-2 had a goofy name, a goofier premise, and the combat, while functional and fun, was easy to break into a million pieces. The Final Fantasy Tactics Advance games were a neat change of pace from the darker tone of the original game, but I unfortunately found them to be boring. Additionally, don’t even get me started on the various sequels and prequels to Final Fantasy 7.

Yet, for some reason, I felt hopeful and excited for Final Fantasy 4: The After Years. Perhaps it’s because I hold the original game on a very high nostalgic pedestal. At the tender age of six, it was the second RPG I ever played (long before I ever thought about approaching games from a critical perspective). It’s easy to see why Final Fantasy 4 holds a special place in my heart. So, I embraced FF4: The After Years with open arms, but with the critical eye that I’ve crafted in the eighteen years since. My verdict? The game is good, but there certainly could have been much more effort put into it.

Read more… »

Since 1990, The Secret of Monkey Island has captivated many gamers through brilliance in writing and comedy, as well as an intuitive use of the point-and-click puzzle adventuring that has popularised the series and genre as a whole.

With nearly twenty years of swashbuckling, voodooey questing under his belt, Guybrush Threepwood returns for an encore – and a much needed face lift – in LucasArts’ The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition for the Xbox 360 and PC. But after two decades and a generation of gamers, can Guybrush keep you laughing and intrigued? Or has the game lost its silly, piratey flare after all these years? Read more… »

If you were alive during the 80s, you might vaguely remember a line of crude toys called “Madballs“. The product’s popularity was rather short lived, and it spawned an unsuccessful TV show and comic series.

After more than two decades, Playbrain has attempted to resurrect Madballs as an Xbox Live Arcade shooter, which happens to have the worst title in the platform’s history: Madballs in Babo: Invasion. Read on to find out whether or not this incessant creation should be put to rest. Read more… »

Sony’s Playstation Store has served up some sumptuous gaming delicacies since its launch. Users have nibbled on treats such as Pixel Junk Eden, Flower, Flow and The Last Guy. Each one has showcased the Playstation brand’s unique take on downloadable games: innovation, originality and quality.

With Trash Panic Sony hopes to add to this platter. Does this latest serving belong on the main course with the others, or does its name indicate where this title should be placed?

Read more… »