GamesRadar - PS2 Reviews

Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol (Review)

11/01/2007

Konami's Karaoke Revolution has been a wonderful hit four times over (we ignore the Country Music Television version the same way we ignore Rocky V). That said, the series was definitely in need of some flavor to make a new iteration more palatable. That flavor comes in the form of American Idol and it has made the game quite delicious. Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol takes the same formula of the other games and melds it with the ever popular show. You get to belt out some tunes ...

Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore (Review)

13/02/2008

Few expected the pairing of the Karaoke Revolution franchise and the popular American Idol television license (previously tied to a horrifying 2003 dance game) to produce such a genuine, revitalized iteration of the aging sing-along series, but it happened - and we're better singers because of it (maybe). Thirteen months later, Konami is back with Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore, and the addition of that final word to the ...

Katamari Damacy (Review)

15/04/2004

First it's a butterfly you're after. Then a pencil. Then it's a shoe and a kebab and an umbrella; then a penguin, a tricycle, a pachinko machine. A synchronised swimmer, a lawnmower, a traffic light. You think that these will be enough, that they will satisfy your sticky urge. But they don't. There are tractors and phone booths, baseball teams and elephants. Windmills, oil rigs, brontosauruses. It's never, ever enough.In Katamari, you are the tiny alien pilot of a super-sticky ball. Whatever it ...

Kessen III (Review)

25/04/2005

A game should make you feel something. From the closing moments of Silent Hill 2 when James is forced to confront his past to Samanosuke and Jacques' final battle against Nobunaga in Onimusha 3, these are moments so perfectly designed, so memorable, so steeped in atmosphere, that they've become the benchmark towards which all games must endeavour.Now, what Kessen III lacks in technical prowess it more than makes up for in content and execution. Watching swathes of troops pile into each other as ...

kill .switch (Review)

10/02/2004

With so many games nowadays wearing ambition like a crown of thorns, a single-minded focus on just one core idea is as good as a change. And so it is with kill.switch: you take cover behind some crates or a corner, enemies scuttle in from the distance taking up their own defensive positions, and a stuttered firefight ensues. And repeat. It's real-Time Crisis.Things are initially good. Bullets are pinpoint, and aiming is smooth and accurate. The Blindfire option is neat, as is the Halo-esque ...

Killzone (Review)

9/11/2004

You know you're onto something when you're taking screenshots of a game and you begin imagining how great it's going to look on the page. When you're pressing the 'grab' button on the 'grabber' and every frame it lifts and tucks away on the hard-drive is a work of art. Killzone is one of those games. We have, in the past, spent hours trying to make some games look anything other than s**t, but with Killzone we just press the button... Perfect. Press again. Perfect. It's impossible to make this ...

King Arthur (Review)

7/01/2005

It's easy to accuse film licences of being soulless sub-average dribble, but that's because, usually, it's true. You wouldn't believe the amount of generic third-person action/adventures we have to sift through each month and, with the exception of truly original titles like The Thing and Indiana Jones, tie-ins are basically merchandise. They're designed to sit alongside mugs and lunch boxes and hoover up as much of your hard-earned as possible. That's the unspeakable truth. Deal with it.We'd ...

King of Fighters 2006 (Review)

25/09/2006

Few things are more likely to reduce a hardcore 2D fighting fan to a weeping, quivering mess than the suggestion that their favorite series is going 3D. Indeed, the history of 2D to 3D fighting game conversions is not exactly bursting with success stories. SNK Playmore's The King of Fighters 2006 (known in civilized countries as KoF: Maximum Impact 2) is the rare exception to this trend. In fact, it's such an all-around good game that it can stand apart from its esteemed 2D ancestors, offering ...

The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga (Review)

24/12/2008

In the arcade glory days, 2D fighting games from SNK had many fans in both the US and Japan. In the mid-nineties SNK created The King of Fighters, a “super” fighting game combining characters from some of their numerous hit series. This annually updated fighting franchise’s first five versions (1994-1998) have been archived in King of Fighters: The Orochi Saga. ...

King of Fighters XI (Review)

4/12/2007

Dec 4, 2007 King of Fighters XI, like most of its older brothers, was originally a 2D arcade fighting game, and has been faithfully ported to the PS2 - with plenty of extras, to boot. The PS2 exclusive features - new characters and endings developed specifically for the conversion - probably wont be a selling point unless youre one of the lucky few who have access to the arcade original, but its nice to know theyre in there. From the moment you turn the game on, youre greeted with a rockin ...

Kingdom Hearts (Review)

28/03/2006

Who wins in a fight between Pikachu and Darth Vader? Does a 50 foot-tall gorilla weigh more than a robot that transforms into an 18-wheeler? If Goku from Dragon Ball Z teamed up with the Hulk, could they out-eat Pac-man? Oh, one more. What if cartoon super-power Disney teamed up with Squaresoft, creators of the Final Fantasy role-playing games, to make a new game? What if they made something that mixed classic Disney characters and worlds with new, Square-created cast members and Action RPG ...

Kingdom Hearts II (Review)

30/03/2006

We're still amazed that Kingdom Hearts even exists. An action RPG that casts Goofy, Donald Duck and now Mickey Mouse fighting through multiple Disney worlds? Along the way, they interact with new characters and villains created by the developer/publisher of the Final Fantasy games? This should never have happened, but it did. And it should never have been brilliant, even magical, but it was. So is this sequel, actually the third game in the series, after the PS2 original and Kingdom Hearts: ...

Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories (Review)

9/12/2008

It's hard to believe in this age of shameless annual sequels to everything, but there have only been three games in the mega-successful Kingdom Hearts franchise since it began in 2002 (we're not counting the weird V-cast game). ...

Kung Fu Panda (Review)

2/07/2008

With Brutal Legend’s fate still undecided, you might think us mad for recommending Kung Fu Panda as an alternative adventure starring Jack Black (not least because all the voices in this tie-in game are sadly provided by so-so stand-ins), but bear with us. First of all, we’re not so addled with bonhomie thanks to our experience with this silly game to deny that the action is the definition of ‘par for the course’. The ...