“It’s a me! Mario!” Those are four words that can bring a smile to anyone’s face. Mario is one of the biggest icons in gaming, and i challenge you to find a single gamer who doesn’t know who he is. From the moment we completed Super Mario 64 we wanted more. Super Mario Sunshine just couldn’t satisfy our thirst for Mario platforming.

But in 2007 Nintendo released Super Mario Galaxy, and it was out of this world.

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I cower behind a metal pillar in some unknown alien city, clinging to my last bit of health as an army of killer alien droids encircle my position, waiting nervously as my healing ability recharges, my slain squad-mates being of little use alive or dead . I’m wondering why I’m choosing to push forward in a game that is so unwieldy to control, at least during the battle sequences, that death seems so frustratingly routine.

Is it the Star Wars-inspired (or, for some, derivative) story, or the depth of role-playing, even with the inclusion of some useless character-classes? Read on to find out what I mean. Read more… »

For a long time before and after the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, gamers have been speculating about the nature of the Xbox 360 exclusive downloadable “episodes” the were to be added on to the package. The Lost and Damned is the first of two exclusive episodes for the Rockstar’s flagship franchise, and while it isn’t in a new city, and it doesn’t do anything particularly different from the core product, it is a brand new chapter in America’s favorite virtual city, and it is more of the fantastic game we’ve already come to love.

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Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People.  The title alone clues you into the quirky humor the web-based Homestar Runner cartoons are known for.  The series is also known for fondly poking fun at retro relics such as floppy disk-based PC games and the TurboGrafx, so it comes as little surprise that an ideal game version of the Strong Bad Emails cartoon would be based on the point and click adventures of yesteryear.  Does Telltale Game’s combination of old school gameplay and surreal humor strike an enjoyable balance in Homestar Ruiner, or will you feel burninated after playing?

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Skate, marketed as (skate.), is a skateboarding game developed by EA Black Box for the PlayStation 3 and XBox 360. Skate was a smash hit and brought a fresh taste to the skateboarding game genre. For years the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series dominated the skate game market; hell it was pretty much the only game out there, then suddenly in 2007 EA released Skate and it completely blew us away.

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[Editor's note: this review was written before the US game was released. Astro Tripper is now available in the US]

PomPom Games came straight out of their successful Xbox Live Arcade shooter “Mutant Storm”, and tried a new title the Playstation Network: Astro Tripper. In case you’re checking the US Playstation Store now, you won’t find it listed; it’s a European release only. Read on to find out how Astro Tripper stacks up in comparison to other Arcade shooters. Read more… »

Kingdom for Keflings really confused me when I first heard about it. Is it a strategy game? Is it a manic action game? Come to find out, it’s a God game. Similar to Black and White, or Spore, you guide your Kingdom to victory as a God on Earth. The difference between Keflings and the previously mentioned titles is your progression is one-hundred percent peaceful. What’s the result? A digital Zen garden. Read more… »

Mech games are a dime a dozen these days. Mech Assault and Chrome Hounds come to recent memory when reminiscing of recent releases, as does Armored Core. War World attempts to take elements from multiple Mech franchises and distill them into one $10 arcade game. Does it succeed? Read on to find out. Read more… »

The highly anticipated spiritual successor to System Shock 2, Bioshock finds the player exploring the underwater dystopia of Rapture, a setting that borrows more from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged than the lonely, zombie filled space ship corridors of the System Shock series.

Would you kindly hit the jump to see whether this underwater odyssey sinks or swims. Read more… »

Around the turn of the millennium, cutesy, cartoony platforming games were all the rage.  Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot dominated the PlayStation generation, and both adults and children loved them.  Then something changed.  Games like Jak and Daxter, which had helped bridge the console generation gap for light-hearted platformers, began to take on a grittier edge when they started including guns and darker stories.  With this shift from charming, innocent platforming to harder edged shooters, it seemed that a good ‘ol 3D platform game could only be found within the Mushroom Kingdom.

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PowerUp Forever is yet another shooter for the Arcade platform. The gameplay is part Spore, part Sinistar, and part Geometry Wars. Confused yet? It’ll all make sense soon, but despite how grand it sounds, it’s hard to justify a purchase. Read on to find out why. Read more… »

For better or worse, people generally like things they’re familiar with. If you take a beloved formula and change things up too much, you risk alienating your fan base. If you do too little to the same formula, you’re just making more of the same. Luckily, Street Fighter 4 is a gleaming example of  an old favorite, revitalized and expanded upon, without sacrificing anything that made the original a renowned classic. Read more… »