Review – Mario Kart DS (NDS)

Review – Mario Kart DS (NDS)

Mario Kart DSNintendo DS – Nintendo1 to 8 players (4 max on WiFi) You’d think it would be easier to review games that you like than to review games you don’t like. Trust me, it’s not. When you review a game you don’t like, you point out all its glaring flaws. You poke a few jokes at its expense, you tell everyone to avoid it, simple. The process for reviewing a good game is similar except you have to be careful to not come off like some sort of deluded fan boy. Also you have to accept that you’re likely…
Review – New Super Mario Brothers (NDS)

Review – New Super Mario Brothers (NDS)

Nintendo DS – 1 to 2 Players IntroWhat do you get when you combine an 8-bit mindset with modern technology? You get New Super Mario Brothers of course! Just about the only thing missing is the inability to move left.I’m not real sure what the idea behind the “New” in the title is though. There isn’t all that much new to this title. It’s not a remake of the NES’ Super Mario Brothers either. They could have just as easily called it say, Adventures of the Super Mario Brothers and it would have been just as relevant. It’s likely the…
Review – Super Princess Peach (NDS)

Review – Super Princess Peach (NDS)

Nintendo – 1 Player Princess Peach aka Princess Toadstool, makes the occasional player controlled appearance in games many Mario games. You can cruise around as her in Mario Kart, you can get her in your party during Mario RPG, you can even control her directly in Mario Brothers 2. Still, she’s always pretty much second fiddle to Mario. Actually it’s more like 4th or 5th fiddle to Mario, there is a whole slew of cast members that take more spotlight than Princess Peach. Not anymore! As the title suggests, Super Princess Peach stars, Mario! Er, Peach! This time Mario gets…
Review – Pokemon Diamond and Pearl (NDS)

Review – Pokemon Diamond and Pearl (NDS)

Oh Pokémon, how conflicted you make us. On one hand, you’re a lot of fun. Your simple system of battling animals is easy to pick up somewhat difficult to master. On the other hand, you’re such a huge blatant marketing whore that we can’t help but hate you for it. Pokémon is a franchise designed to sell… stuff. Lots of properties do this but only someone like say, Disney does it bigger than Pokémon. Ironically, both Disney and Pokémon use a mouse as their mascot, coincidence? Probably. Anyway, Pokémon sells too. Kids eat up all of the toys, the card…
Review – Super Mario 64 DS (NDS)

Review – Super Mario 64 DS (NDS)

There are re-releases of games, and then there are remakes of games. Super Mario 64 DS certainly falls into the remake category. It’s essentially the same game at the core but it adds so many new features that it feels more like a remake. I suppose really it would need more of a graphics overhaul to be a true remake. I didn’t set out to own Mario 64 DS (Abbreviations from 2 systems? How does that work?). When I purchased my DS, Best Buy was running a promotion to get the game free. One might conclude that I didn’t really…
Review – Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (NDS)

Review – Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (NDS)

Nintendo DS – 1 Player – Level-5 I could have sworn I had already done reviews for at least Professor Layton and the Curious Village but it looks like I am mistaken.  Either that or I’ve finally lost a chunk of posts with my constant shifting from one blogging platform to another.  Since this is essentially a fresh intro to the series I’ll just touch a bit more on the details instead of straight referencing old content.  I guess it’s better style anyway. At the core, the Layton games are nothing more than puzzle games.  More accurately, they are essentially…
Review – Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)

Review – Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)

The Good Solid game play from a solid franchise Nice little additions and changes from the original Metroid II Good visuals The Bad Repetitive enemies and play mechanics Bosses are disproportionately difficult compared to everything else Very linear game play for a "Metroidvania" style game. In Depth Metroid: Samus Returns is a 3DS update and remake of the original Metroid II on Game Boy.  It's essentially to Metroid II, what Zero Mission is to the original Metroid.  The maps in Samus Returns are a little closer to the original Metroid II maps than Zero Mission and Metroid, but there are…