All DS Reviews

Wall-E (Review)

Jul 2, 2008

As the game based off the newest "best movie ever," Wall-E has no real need to be good - kids are going to eat this up no matter what. And if they're lucky, their love of that admittedly fantastic film will overcome the fact that the game itself - a super-kiddie sort of "get from point A to point B" puzzle game - is a rusty bucket of broken-down ideas bolted together.

You work your way through a level by throwing boxes at switches, ...

Kung Fu Panda (Review)

Jul 2, 2008

What’s this? No sooner have we given Hulk a shoeing than another film-based game arrives. Kung Fu Panda seems to have escaped complete badness, probably in spite of itself. The premise is much the same as any of these recent Dreamworks animation fests: lazy talking beast overcomes obstacles to become reluctant but an ultimately charming hero. Here he’s a dumpy panda – and guess what he’s good at? The ...

Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles (Review)

Jun 24, 2008

Although we're big fans of point-and-tap whodunit games like the Phoenix Wright series, we can't quite get behind private detective Jake Hunter. Detective Chronicles has a ton of potential, but ham-handed presentation and "so simple a baby could do it" hand-holding make this gumshoe seem more like a goofball.

There are three cases for you to play through, all of which involve you going to a crime scene, talking to everyone until you ...

Guitar Hero: On Tour (Review)

Jun 24, 2008

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 Incredible Hulk (Review)

Jun 20, 2008

Chugging through The Incredible Hulk’s 30 side-scrolling levels is like running through a maze where all the walls are transparent: It looks like you can go anywhere, but really you’re being cordoned down a very specific path. Because while the 360 and PS3 versions of this movie tie-in set you in a city that’s yours to explore and destroy, the DS iteration only creates the illusion of freedom.

The levels are large and ...

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (Review)

Jun 20, 2008

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift, the long awaited follow up to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, is nearly everything we hoped it would be. Everything we loved from Tactics Advance is intact, with lots of little improvements sprinkled throughout. The grid-based battles are as addicting as ever, with an even wider range of jobs, races and abilities to sink hours into exploring. Like its predecessor, A2 presents a kinder, gentler tactical ...

Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard (Review)

Jun 18, 2008

Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Laagard is a very tough game to review simply because it's one of those "love it or hate it" game types: An old school dungeon crawler. There's only a rudimentary story (you're exploring a single, gigantic tree dungeon trying to find the way into a magic, floating castle), there's no character development beyond gaining levels and choosing skills, and its turn-based battles are ...

Summon Night: Twin Age (Review)

Jun 16, 2008

See if you've played this one: it's a role-playing game with real-time battles and a top-down, slightly angled view (isometric is the big word for it). You're slogging around one dungeon after another, alternately hacking baddies into little bits with handheld weapons or just pummeling them with elemental magic like fire, ice, and the like. Of course it sounds familiar. On the surface, Summon Night: Twin Age is a lot like dozens of ...

Soul Bubbles (Review)

Jun 16, 2008

It’s a sad fact that puzzle games don’t sell magazines, spawn action figures or have blockbuster movies made about them. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. Without the chance of a hype-tastic viral marketing campaign to boost sales, puzzlers have to work with what they’ve got. They’ve got to play like a dream. Soul Bubbles does just that, but it looks and sounds like a dream, too - a very colourful, ...

Space Invaders Extreme (Review)

Jun 13, 2008

The original Space Invaders arcade game is the videogame version of a 78 RPM phonograph record - it's a sacred totem of nostalgia for the veteran generation, but it's so primitive and clunky to youngsters that they feel actual pity for the old guys. That's why it's so great that this reinvention, Space Invaders Extreme, blends old and new into a colorful, hyperactive, deeper than you'd guess shootathon that ...

Looney Tunes: Cartoon Conductor (Review)

Jun 11, 2008

Yes, this is an unashamed Elite Beat Agents clone. And yes, you’ll be tapping along to handily copyright-free classical tunes (Flight of the Bumblebee, Ride of the Valkyries and the like) rather than Elite Beat Agents’ young persons’ popular tunes. But it really isn’t too bad.

Guitar Hero-style note-hitting breaks up the Elite Beat-style circle-tapping, and a reasonable difficulty level should keep the kids ...

River King: Mystic Valley (Review)

Jun 9, 2008

We’re well used to RPG characters being somewhat unhelpful, but in River King the miserable sods take great pleasure in deliberately obstructing your quest. If we had a sword or a nice spiky ball on a stick, things might be different. But with just a fishing rod and a bag of bait, people don’t have the incentive to get out of your way.

It’s the usual story: your sister has fallen into a deep sleep - otherwise known as ...

LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (Review)

Jun 4, 2008

How can a game that’s identical to the brilliant LEGO Star Wars in almost every respect not be as good? Simple - the setting. The Star Wars universe is vibrant, colourful and fantastical, while Indy’s real-world ’40s setting is more subdued. This works in the context of the films, but recreated in LEGO it has none of the outlandish flair of Lucas’ galaxy far, far away. ...

GRID (Review)

May 30, 2008

Last year’s Race Driver: Create & Race showed that the DS could handle a much more thorough and serious driving game than we’d ever thought possible, and without resorting to nasty steering wheels on the touch screen. With online multiplayer, smooth graphics and the option to draw your own tracks, it was in a class of its own on DS. So it’s no surprise to find there’s a sequel, although we didn’t expect it ...

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Review)

May 21, 2008

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian on the DS isn’t about the Narnia that you read about in C.S. Lewis’s books when you were a kid – and that’s the real problem. Even though Prince Caspian features a few fun elements, this RPG feels less like an adventure and more like an interactive advertisement for the recently released film on which it’s based. But really, did you expect anything ...

Drone Tactics (Review)

May 19, 2008

Worker insects are known as drones. That explains how Drone Tactics got its name. But it doesn't explain why publisher Atlus chose such a lifeless title for a turn-based battler that 1) lets you wage war with a squad of giant robotic insects, and 2) lets you customize your fighting bug-bots with spikes, machine guns, and nearly a hundred other wonderfully destructive weapons.

The school age heroes, "let's be friends" story, and ...

Speed Racer: The Videogame (Review)

May 13, 2008

With a game like Speed Racer, you know what you want going in: full-tilt racing, crazy stunts, and the opportunity to crash your opponents as often as possible. This DS speed demon delivers all of that. The game picks up where the movie left off and lets you get behind the wheel as Speed Racer, Trixie, Racer-X, or any of 13 other familiar characters. The Mach 6 is present, of course, and each car offers three different paint jobs. ...

High School Musical 2: Work This Out! (Review)

May 8, 2008

Even the most mundane task is a treat when you’ve got a swing in your step and a beat in your ear. That’s the lesson those East High Wildcats try to teach us during their summer break, as they pick up golf balls or perpetually create sandwiches to the beat of the drum in the traditional student summer scramble for pennies.

The Ouendan-light rhythm-action mechanics of the original game are still in evidence, but ...

Iron Man (Review)

May 5, 2008

“Iron Man, locate this. Iron Man, destroy this. Iron Man, kill this. And while you’re at it, make me a cup of coffee.” So says Tony Stark’s irritating computer Jarvis in Sega’s mind-numbing DS release of Iron Man (Jarvis doesn’t actually say this verbatim, but his requests eventually begin to feel like mom’s constant nagging). And while you’re trying to get Jarvis off your ass by doing what he ...

Brain Voyage (Review)

May 1, 2008

Ahhh, the ancient art of citing academic endorsement in order to add scholarly sophistication. Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training. Prof. Kageyama’s Maths Training. Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine. Reiner Knizia, on the other hand, is a little bit dubious. He has no scientific institutions or followings to his name, being, as he is, a board games designer. ...