Criticize This!

GAME REVIEW: Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo Wii)

Before first person shooters.  Before mmorpgs.  Before people, pet or war simulators.  At a time of video games at their simplest, the goal they seeked to attain was just as uncomplicated: To have fun.  That isn’t to say that as games have become more complex, having fun has been left on the wayside.  But all too frequently I see it not made the top priority.

Things like real-to-life graphics, High Def sound, weapon arsenals bigger then most armies, and so on seem to have been pushed to the forefront, and have turned a lot of gaming into more of an ‘experience’ rather then a joyful diversion.  On the other hand, over the years Nintendo has tried to be the antithesis of this trend but frequently went too far the other way, giving us far too simple and shallow games.

Of course there were always exceptions to the rules.  One such exception was on N64 when Super Smash Bros. first came out in 1999.  The idea was so simple yet so genius at the same time.  Take a bunch of their successful franchises like Donkey Kong, Mario, Link, etc. and pit them all in a huge messy multi-player fight with each other.  It was tremendous fun which led to multiple sequels, first Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Gamecube, which greatly expanded the roster, amped up the battle areas, and gave an (albeit sort of thrown together) single player adventure.  It did what every successful sequel should do which is improve every facet of the game without messing with the basic formula.  Again, ridiculously fun and it ended up becoming the system’s top selling game of all time.

GAME REVIEW: Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (XBOX 360, PS3)

Tom Clancy has made a real name for his line of tactical shooter video games.  Though the names have changed (Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell), the format itself hasn't changed that much.  That's a good thing, though, as Clancy's games are nearly unique in a field of Halo clones with no emphasis on strategy or teamwork.  And in this, the sequel in the Vegas line of Rainbow Six games, that emphasis is more present than ever.

First things first: The Story. Don't worry, this won't take long. You play Bishop, team lead and part-time instructor at the Rainbow Six academy. Think Indiana Jones for SWAT, but with less personality.  The game begins 5 years before the present, with your team meeting in the Pyrenees Mountains, sent to address a hostage situation.  You, of course, are successful, but at the cost of letting the villain escape.  Back in the present, you face a group of terrorists, apparently backed by a radical Mexican named Alvarez Cabreros, as they try to wrestle the heart of Las Vegas from the hands of social order.  As you progress, though, you discover that someone else is pulling the strings, and the entire story concludes with an elaborate betrayal and ambush for Bishop, and of course an earth-shaking conclusion for the team as a whole.

GAME REVIEW: Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (Nintendo Wii)

The genesis of the Rayman series has to easily be one of the most unique and strangest in video game history.

Try to figure this one out: Rayman begins as a platforming game.  A mildly successful first outing results in the creation of a sequel, Rayman 2: The Great Escape.  Also a platformer, and also considered by many to be one of the greatest games of all time (even recently it’s been ported to the Nintendo DS due to its immense popularity at the time).  This then spawns a third sequel, which while not living up to the standards of Great Escape, is still a pretty sweet game in its own right.

So Ubisoft now has in its hands a popular character created from the ground up that they are beginning to get a real franchise behind.  He’s a colourful character operating in a colourful world, and they really have the ability to go anywhere with him.  But I highly doubt anyone could have guessed where they eventually ended up.

GAME REVIEW: The Simpsons Game (XBOX 360, PS3, Nintendo Wii)

The vast majority of people out there probably think most Simpsons videogames of old are pretty crappy.  They’ve been generally regarded as complete messes that have been thrown together to make sure there was always a constant stream of games for the kids to buy.  And for the most part these people are right.  All the early NES platformers were ridiculously difficult, not that fun to play, and altogether more annoying than anything else.  Ditto to all the sports games too.  From juggernauts, to mini-golf, to wrestling, there was never any good reason for these games as they had very little to do with the show, nor were they ever done particularly well.

However, I’ve always found there to be a few gems in the past.  Krusty’s Funhouse could be a fairly addictive game (even if it was a Lemmings rip-off), The Simpsons Arcade game is still alright to play (if you can find a working machine) and both Bart’s Nightmare and Virtual Bart had a certain charisma.  That’s because they were games that, despite their faults, embraced the humour and charm of the Simpsons TV show.  Then a few years back Vivendi came out with the fantastic Simpsons Hit & Run, which was basically Grand Theft Auto in Springfield, but still worked very well because of that same charm.

GAME REVIEW: Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure (Nintendo Wii)

The era of the ‘point and click’ computer adventure game was, as far as I am concerned, the greatest in gaming history.  While my heart will always lie with the 16-bit revolution and the iterations that followed, it was these games that captured by mind, and challenged me for hours and days and weeks on end.  Maniac Mansion, Leisure Suit Larry, Monkey Island, Sam and Max (which is now getting its own rebirth), and every quest from Police, Space to King’s; they all were series’ that combined some of the best storytelling, with the most challenging tasks, all presented with the amazingly basic gameplay of rolling your mouse over different objects and people and places to just explore, explore, explore.

Over the years, these games became a lost art.  Consoles had no means or even apparently real general interest in adopting them and computer games evolved into much more complex simulations in their adventure titles.  They fell by the wayside and despite some absolutely horrendous attempts at resurrecting some of the other titles along the way (Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude being the first to spring to mind) it seemed as the ‘point and click’ games were to become nothing more then a distant memory.

GAME REVIEW: Smackdown! Vs. RAW 2008 (Nintendo Wii)

As is the case with most genres, Nintendo was the all supreme ruler over wrestling games for many a year.  First it was through sheer default as the volume of games for any given system was overwhelming, with other consoles only offering up games like the famously pathetic WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game and its equally stupid successor In Your House, which were more low-rent ‘Mortal Kombat-esque’ rip-offs than wrestling titles.

Then as time progressed Nintendo started to become the home of some genuinely amazing wrestling games when THQ jumped from Sony over to the Big N to create a run of hits starting with WCW/nWo: World Tour and culminating with WWF No Mercy, still the benchmark in wrestling gaming.  Soon the Playstation would take over the reigns with its Smackdown! (which turned to the Smackdown vs. Raw) series, with Nintendo remaining on the outskirts with the Day of Reckoning titles, which were underrated yet still underwhelming.

GAME REVIEW: Carnival Games (Nintendo Wii)

I think the best and most accurate description of Carnival Games for the Nintendo Wii is: It’s Carnival Games.  It is no more and no less then that.  The entire promise of the title is that you get over 25 games that you would find at any average Carnival like Ring Toss, Skeet Ball, Shooting Gallery and so on, and damned if it doesn’t deliver exactly that.

And to be honest, the games aren’t half bad either.  You use the motion controls in various ways to play the games and for the most part they accurately depict what playing the game is like.  To play a game of hole-in-one mini putt, you swing the wii-mote like a putter.  For football, you do a tossing motion.  Hold it like a gun for the shooting games.  Roll it like a ball for Alley Ball.  You get the idea. 

GAME NEWS: Microsoft bringing movies to XBOX Live Canada

It's about time! Starting December 11th Canadian XBOX 360 owners will finally be able to download movies  via the XBOX Live Video Store. The pricing is decent - 310 Points (about $5.00 CDN) for an SD copy of a movie and 460 Points (about $8.00 CDN) for an HD copy. Not the greatest selection of titles upon launch (and no television shows yet) but it's a start.

Check out the press release (with a full list of launch titles) below for all the info (we'll be testing and reviewing the service when it launches).

A scene from 300 - available on XBOX Live Canada December 11th

GAME REVIEW: Smackdown! vs. RAW 2008 (XBOX 360/PS3)

I’m going to just get this off my chest right now since I know it’s what every fan thinks every time a new wrestling game comes out:  Why can someone not just make an updated version of N64’s No Mercy?!  It was the pinnacle of wrestling games and it was two generations ago!  Some developer please, just take the exact same game engine, amp up the graphics, characters, types of matches and move sets, slap a new name on it and get it out there.  It is embarrassing that it has been over seven years since No Mercy came out and aside from the Fire Pro series, nothing has even come close to touching it in terms of gameplay!

Alright, now that that is out of the way we can move on.

THQ and Yukes have brought us their latest installment in their rolling juggernaut of Smackdown! games with Smackdown! Vs. RAW 2008 this time “featuring” ECW (which basically has as much prominence in the game as it does in real life, which means next to none). 

GAME REVIEW: Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo Wii)

Do you remember your first time? I’m sure most of us do.

For a lot of us it was the first game that exposed us to this magical universe. Perhaps it was number two or three. Maybe you didn’t get your start until Super Nintendo or N64. But the moment you play your first Super Mario game, there’s no denying that it’s an experience you would never forget. Each game not only advanced the series, but advanced the industry itself.

That is until the Gamecube came along and gave us Super Mario Sunshine. I have heard from and talked to many defenders of this game who try to say it is vastly underrated. Like it or hate it though, one can’t deny it just didn’t feel like how it should have when playing a Mario game. It had its moments, but was definitely not setting any standards for gaming, instead feeling more like a step backwards then forwards (and really, was anyone that excited that the major change for this title was a fluid-filled backpack?)

So since Mario 64, we have been left without a full Mario fix and while the Paper Mario series has been great, they are just not the same.