Wii review – House of the Dead: OVERKILL

House of the Dead: OVERKILL manages to inject an abundance of new life into the on-rails shooter genre by investing heavily in a stylised grindhouse presentation. Rather than trying to reinvent the gameplay, developer Headstrong Games has taken the Quentin Tarrantino/Robert Rodriguez route and planted the House of the Dead story firmly into campy 70s horror territory. The result is one of the most refreshing, surprising and fun games to come out in a very long time.

Taking plenty of inspiration from Rodriguez’s Planet Terror, House of the Dead: OVERKILL serves up seven chapters of over the top zombie…sorry, mutant shooting action. Mixed into the plot are some of the most memorable supporting characters that have ever appeared in a video game, including a mad scientist, an incestuous prison warden, a hot stripper looking for revenge and a deranged crime lord. The lead characters are equally memorable. Agent G and Detective Isaac Washington play off against each other in true odd couple style during the many well made cut scenes. Their interplay can be quite entertaining and does a great job of endearing players to what could have been two quite anonymous lead characters. Washington in particular has some spectacularly funny lines, but he does often rely too much on swear words, which drags the quality of the script down.

DS review – Crosswords DS

Crosswords DS epitomises Nintendo’s highly successful Touch Generations approach to making games. It features a highly accessible concept that is familiar to almost everyone, a clean and simple interface which is easy to navigate, and most importantly, it contains hours and hours of fun. These three themes are common to all successful casual games and Crosswords DS has them in spades.

The game features 1000 crosswords, as well as anagrams and word search puzzles, which should be enough to keep even the most avid crossword buff entertained for months. The gentle difficulty curve allows players of all ages to enjoy the game, with simple puzzles for the younger crowd and extremely difficult options for crossword veterans. The anagram and word search options provide a nice diversion and are fantastic fun in their own right.

DS review – Ninjatown

Ninjatown is a fantastically quirky tower defence-style game for the Nintendo DS which features an excellent audio-visual production, a genuinely funny story, great pacing and above all, superbly balanced gameplay. The style of game is perfectly suited to portable gaming as each stage is over and done with in about 10 minutes, making it a great fit for a daily commute or when traveling.

The game is based on the extremely cute Shawnimals Wee Ninja character created by former Electronic Gaming Monthly editor Shawn Smith. The story takes place in Ninjatown in the world of Shawnimaland. After an eruption of the nearby volcano, Mount Feroshi, Ninjatown is attacked by the evil Mr Demon and his dark minions, the Wee Devils, who are looking for the recipe for Ninjatown’s famous ninja star cookies. Taking on the role of Ol’ Master Ninja, the player must defend Ninjatown against the demon invaders. It is all very cute and cuddly, but extremely funny, with plenty of pop-culture references and movie quotes scattered throughout the game.

Wii review – Deadly Creatures

Deadly Creatures is a fun but flawed action-adventure game that takes advantage of its unique theme and setting to deliver one of the better traditional gaming experiences on the Wii. Developer, Rainbow Studios, has managed to combine a superbly atmospheric audio-visual style, interesting design and fun gameplay into a game which is more than a sum of its parts. There are some flaws that impact on the final quality, but overall, Deadly Creatures is a great experience that can be enjoyed by everyone.

The story revolves around the misadventures of two human characters, George Struggs and Wade, as they search the desert for buried American Civil War gold. George and Wade are not the most competent people to ever look for buried treasure and things soon take a turn for the worst as greed quickly sours the relationship. The events are revealed from the perspective of the two playable characters, a tarantula and a scorpion, and eventually the paths of George and Wade cross with the arachnid heroes to unexpected results.

DS review – The World Ends With You

The World Ends With You is a fresh take on the Japanese role playing game that introduces plenty of badly needed new concepts to the genre. By challenging the existing norms, The World Ends With You succeeds in thoroughly shaking up a fast stagnating style of game and dragging the entire genre, kicking and screaming into the current generation. The use of bold storytelling techniques, a distinct audio/visual presentation and a fresh modern day setting allows the game to explore psychological and emotional concepts that are rarely touched on in video games. Add a unique control scheme that takes full advantage of the Nintendo DS touch screen, and a very detailed and layered combat system and The World Ends With You is one of the shining lights in an industry that is fast becoming too conservative to take the risks necessary to move itself forward.

DS Review – Anno 1701: Dawn of Discovery

Anno 1701: Dawn of Discovery is a very well made and very entertaining Nintendo DS strategy game developed by Sunflowers Interactive Entertainment Software and published by Disney Interactive Studios.The basic premise sees the player take on the role of governor setting out to establish a new colony for a demanding monarch. Managing the economic, population and military demands of the new colony are the keys to success and require careful planning and attention to detail.

The game is controlled with the touchscreen, which works very well, but the interface could do with being a little more user-friendly. Small things like being able to rotate the view to see behind buildings and mountains and more detailed instructions would go a long way to making things easier for the player.

Wii Review – Disney Think Fast

My latest review has gone up at Australian Nintendo website www.vooks.net.

This one is for Disney Think Fast and you can read it here.

Here is a quick excerpt:

Disney’s Think Fast is an entertaining, but bare-bones trivia game which caters well to its target audience of younger gamers and their families. It features very simple and easy to understand gameplay, a decent variety of questions and an excellent audio/visual presentation, but is a little light on game modes and features. It is maybe skewed too much to the younger crowd, but is certainly something that can be enjoyed for at least a little while by everyone.

DS Review – Soul Bubbles (Updated)

Update: For a more in-depth review of Soul Bubbles head over to www.vooks.net.

Soul Bubbles is a great little Nintendo DS puzzle game developed by French developer Mekensleep and published by Eidos Interactive.

The game puts the player in the role of a young Spirit Herder, whose job is to care for lost spirits. Drawing a protective bubble around the spirits will keep them safe and allow them to be moved around the maze-like levels. The aim is to move the lost spirits to each level’s Gateway Cube.

Wii Review-Legend of Spyro:Dawn of the Dragon

My latest review has gone up at Australian Nintendo website www.vooks.net.

This one is for The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon and you can read it here.

Here is a quick excerpt:

The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon is a competent, but unimaginative conclusion to the Legend of Spyro trilogy. It is technically excellent, features great art direction and superb audio, but suffers with mediocre gameplay, overly simple puzzles and a generic, recycled narrative. Aimed at children, it is most often quite light-hearted, but it does explore some deeper themes of friendship, trust, and good and evil.

Vooks is a really great Australian site dedicated to all things Nintendo. There is plenty of Aussie specific content, as well as coverage from around the world. The community is very good too with all people welcome, regardless of where they are from.