Given how crazy violent the postmodern, hip-hop-heavy anime Samurai Champloo is, you'd think it'd be easy to make it into a decent video game; just inject the characters into a cool-looking slash 'em-up and add a whole lot of weirdness, right? Guess not. That's more or less what the developer did, but Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked still kinda sucks.
Not that Sidetracked doesn't have good things going for it. Created by the TV series' writers as a "lost chapter" in the show's canon,
The great trouble with a lot of SNK games is that due to the exorbitant cost of the Neo Geo consoles and cartridges, pretty much no one got a chance to play them when they first came out. It’s only now, through downloads and retro compilations like this one, that many of us are getting our first taste – and for many titles (such as the uber-bland King of Fighters) it’s just come a little bit too late.
It has been a long time since any of publisher Koei's Warriors games have felt new. No matter what the setting (this series is in Japan instead of the usual China), you’re still pretty much hacking hundreds of identical dudes into little pieces. Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends is now the second expansion release for Samurai Warriors 2 (the first being SW2: Empires) and offers even more bonus content for the hackers and the
Bike games are hard. Finding the inch-perfect line every time, keeping it on the black stuff and shiny side up amidst a field of amazing riders while juggling brake balance, lean angle and rider weight is a demanding prospect for even the most experienced gamer.
However, although were all for being eased into a game, SBKs Arcade mode offers so much assistance that you can ride at full lean, at full throttle on the gravel without getting asphalt in your face. By way of contrast, the full-on
Everyone always knew Tony Montana was one tough hombre - but strong enough to survive the famous attack on his mansion? Last time we saw the Cuban drug lord, he was knee deep in blow and bullets, and his life appeared to be finito. However, in Scarface: The World Is Yours, our antihero has emerged none the worse for wear. He's as bad-ass as ever: a coke-dealing, woman-chasing, f-bomb-dropping son of a bitch hell-bent on reclaiming what he feels is still
The Secret Saturdays stars 11-year-old Zak Saturday and his super scientist parents Solomon “Doc” Saturday and Drew Saturday. The three of them together study supernatural animals called Cryptids – which are kind of like Pokemon only less cute. The PlayStation 2 game puts players in the shoes of the Saturdays at different points throughout the game.
Ah the Genesis. Back in the 16-bit era, Sega's black box was a masterpiece of hardware that competed fiercely with Nintendo through a combination of killer software and slick marketing. "Blast processing," anyone? Though the speedy blue hedgehog Sonic has been the focus of recent compilations, Sega's latest trip down memory lane takes a somewhat broader approach, revisiting a number of classics that many current gen gamers have never played.
Among the featured titles are the first two Sonic
Wednesday 7 June 2006
Oh, dear. It was only a month ago that we said Sensible Soccer is "a big bag of fun". And, at first, it is. 'Cos, you know, it's Sensi - the best football game of the '90s. But then, after a few matches, the nostalgia blindfold falls off and you realise that, actually, its only Sensi in the loosest of senses. All it really has in common with the peak of last decade's gaming is its overhead viewpoint. Aside from that, it's not much like Sensible Soccer at all.
You see,
By
PSM2_
posted February 15, 2006
Sigh... you can't help but expect any RPG on PS2 without the words 'final' and 'fantasy' in the title to achieve nothing more than the status of 'also ran'.
This was the case with the first game in this series, which scored a rather pallid 60%, despite being developed by a group of ex-Square Enix employees. Covenant, however, has restored our faith and proved it possible to make a great RPG that isn't a me-too Final Fantasy clone.
The storyline picks up a year after the first game, with
The Shadow Hearts series is an enigma in role playing games. You have one of the deepest combat mechanics in the genre, mixed with some seriously wacky storylines. After jumping the publishing ship from Midway to newcomer XSEED Games, one may worry that the delicate balance the series treads would be in jeopardy. Not so, and Shadow Hearts: From The New World is another truly great and genuinely interesting RPG.
We get introduced to a new cast of characters here, making it more spin-off than
