The Cooking Mama series sprung up around the beginning of the DS’s lifespan, when folks were still pretty wowed by the DS’s touch screen. They didn’t mind that the Cooking Mama games consisted of little more than simple minigame challenges strung together under a cooking theme. But now that the DS and Wii markets are oversaturated with novelty minigame compilations, well, Mama’s got to get out of the kitchen and learn some new skills
Our expectations were immediately set sky high the minute we heard that the lead designer of Ghost Trick was none other than the creator of the Ace Attorney series, Shu Takumi. While it bears little resemblance gameplay-wise to the courtroom drama, Ghost Trick most definitely lives up to the standard set by Phoenix Wright's adventures...
We can’t quite put our finger on it, but there’s something very early-’90s about Go! Go! Cosmo Cops! It might be the genero-levels: forest, volcano, candy-land and so on. Or the cartoony theme music. Or the manga-ish heroes. It all feels very Genesis/Mega Drive. Not in a bad way, mind – this is a polished platformer. And when it comes to the controls, it’s very un- Genesis/Mega Drive.
A worthy successor to the Golden Sun legacy (yes, two GBA games can equal a legacy, if they're beloved enough), Golden Sun: Dark Dawn takes everything we loved about the first two games and refines it, if predictably, into a polished RPG experience that, like the first two, is equal parts tradition and innovation. It looks gorgeous, and the djinn system is even better than before...
Like your doctors beautiful, rife with sexual politics, and invasive surgery tinged with witty banter? Then watch the TV show; this game’s a disaster. Blending soap opera and surgery, both sides of the doctor coin are dire minigame affairs. The ultra-simple ops are too bitty to hold any challenge – like WarioWare meets Trauma Center.
There’s just no other way to slice it: we tried holding it several different ways, but the most comfortable position to hold the DS when playing Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades is totally diagonal. Most any other way, you’ll get cramps from holding your wrist at a cockeyed angle.
Did you ever go see your favorite band in concert, then see them again six months later and then again six months after that? It doesn’t matter how good or bad they are, that third time simply can’t feel as fresh as the first one. Playing Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits is exactly like that.
Guitar Hero has been so massively successful for one reason - it's an excellent guitar-playing simulator with classic video game trappings. Guitar Hero: On Tour can't possibly ship with a fake guitar, so it can only simulate Guitar Hero gameplay, not the just-real-enough rock experience. In the transition to DS, it's lost the party game vibe, the friendly humiliation of poorly playing a song you love, even the quasi-pride you get when five
The box art for Guitar Rock Tour is deceptively informative. You see a dark-haired girl in a tie and miniskirt playing a guitar, and a nondescript dude banging on the drums. And guess what? You’ll be playing either drums or guitar in this rhythm action game, and that girl is the default character in Quick Play mode. Simple, no?
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