All Wii Reviews

Samurai Warriors: Katana (Review)

Jan 15, 2008

Jan 15, 2008 Samurai Warriors Katana is finally here, and after several so-so earlier titles, it pretty much has the ‘remote as sword field to itself. In Campaign mode this is basically Time Crisis with a sword. This is a very good thing. Relentlessly on-rails fighting can get boring, but Katana mixes up the missions in imaginative ways - youll have to creep through forests filled with archers, spotting them before they can shoot you in the back, hide behind fences and shoot onrushing ...

Scarface: The World is Yours (Review)

Jun 19, 2007

Last year, Scarface: The World Is Yours caught just about everyone by surprise. It turned out to be a damn good game, sold like crazy (having moved over two million PS2 and Xbox copies to date), and set a world record for the most profanity and drug trafficking in video game history. Continuing with the didnt-see-that-coming approach, Vivendi has now released the hyperviolent and decidedly non-family-friendly game on the happiest console on the planet – Nintendos ...

SD Gundam Scad Hammers [import] (Review)

Feb 7, 2007

Start talking about mecha and most people will probably picture a heaving Islamic mass pilgrimage, as opposed to hulking great mechanical exoskeletons doing battle in a futuristic landscape. You see, to the uninitiated there are few things less welcoming than Gundam - a writhing mass of franchises and back-story that refuses to stop for breath and explain itself. All of which makes Scad Hammer s accessibility such a pleasant ...

Sega Bass Fishing [2008] (Review)

Mar 6, 2008

If any game can convert a non-fisherman into someone who actually uses words like Jointed Shad Rap, Hula Popper and Buzzbait, it's the action-packed arcadery of the Sega Bass Fishing series. It doesn't make you hunt down the fish, and when you find them, they're ravenous. What does that leave? Action, mostly.While most fishing games make you spend huge amounts of time seeking out the fish, Sega Bass Fishing spreads them three layers thick just ...

Sega Superstars Tennis (Review)

Mar 18, 2008

The best part of this game is Superstars mode, which is a selection of minigames, challenges and tournaments based around old-school Sega hits such as Space Channel 5, Golden Axe, Virtua Cop, Monkey Ball, Out Run, After Burner and Alex Kidd. You’ll either play on courts designed to look like environments from the games or you’ll unlock one of the characters in a head-to-head contest. Minigames include knocking down waves of zombies ...

Showtime Championship Boxing (Review)

Mar 4, 2008

Great boxing games are few and far between. For every Punch Out!! and Fight Night: Round 3, there are half a dozen pugilistic clunkers that litter bargain bins in game stores near and far. As amazing as it may seem, though, we may have discovered the least entertaining one of all. Showtime Championship Boxing would be a lousy looker two console generations ago; in 2008 it’s nothing short of a Mike Tyson-biting-ears-level ...

Shrek the Third (Review)

May 31, 2007

How far can you stretch the excuse that a game is designed for children? At a rating of E10+, Shrek The Third is just too simplistic. If a ten-year-old can handle Super Mario, surely they will be bored with just flailing a Wii Remote over and over. The gameplay is braindead and repetitive: run up to bad guys and shake the remote. Sure, you can do a few special moves, but there is nearly no need to. Occasionally you have to do a jump attack (gasp!) or navigate a 15 second “puzzle.” ...

The Simpsons Game (Review)

Oct 30, 2007

Oct 30, 2007 Not so much a cohesive game as a series of "episodes" with co-op play in mind, The Simpsons Game is nonetheless consistently funny, occasionally inspired, not too taxing and diverse. A bit like your average episode of the TV show then, which is why this is head and shoulders above the spin-off games that have clouded Springfield's finest down the years. It starts with a typically bizarre Homer dream involving chocolate rabbits, and from there goes all post-modern when Bart ...

The Sims 2: Castaway (Review)

Nov 2, 2007

Nov 2, 2007 Desert island Sims... right from the start, that's got to be a more interesting concept than any amount of getting jobs, cleaning carpets and going to the toilet you'd have to do in a normal Sims game. Actually, you still have to do a lot of that sort of thing in Castaway, but then it wouldn't really be a Sims title without it. The big difference for us is that the scenario is now a much better motivation for making sure your virtual person stays alive and well in a strange and ...

The Sims 2 Pets (Review)

Jun 26, 2007

Ten years ago, if you wouldve told us that as games continue to innovate ways to defy the laws of physics, redefine societal boundaries and violently break the protocol of human decency, an unending simulation of household chores would materialize as the most successful PC game series of all time, we wouldve charitably filled your hand with loose change and been on our way. But here we are. And were not immune to the to The Sims irony either. Many of us at the Radar have stepped over piles of ...

Smarty Pants (Review)

Nov 21, 2007

Nov 21, 2007 And the EA success train chuffs ever onwards, from The Simpsons to EA Playground to this: the video game equivalent of bingo night at the senior center. You answer questions. You spin a category wheel with the remote. Occasionally you partake in a game to set a wager - a shooting gallery so shallow that it makes the remote synchronising screen look like Mario Galaxy firing on all cylinders. Dull, dull, dull. Localised questions are a nice-ish touch - even if it does result in a ...

Sonic and the Secret Rings (Review)

Feb 22, 2007

For a while we thought Sonic was a goner, a blue hedgehog-shaped smear on the tarmac of gaming history. With Sonic Teams every attempted step forward, his scores plummeted down. Multiple characters exploring 3D environments? Big the Cat? Sonic with guns? With Secret Rings, the team has finally realized that the only way forwards is backwards. At breakneck speeds. Filter him down into his purest form - the original Sonic on Genesis - and youll find little more than the urge to move forwards. ...

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (Review)

Jan 22, 2008

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity is missing the sense of speed that we expect from Sonic. It isnt entirely gone, but only shows up in short bursts. The really fast parts tend to happen on invisible (or visible) rails. Everything else seems like the slow part between the shortcuts and boosts. We do like the courses, which are packed with flashy scenery and things that will slow you if you run into them. And were indifferent about the new gravity controls. Part of the lack of a feeling of speed comes ...

Soulcalibur Legends (Review)

Nov 28, 2007

Nov 28, 2007 Bringing Soulcalibur's weapon-based brand of fighting to the Wii seems like an obvious choice; the series is all about swinging and slashing with a variety of death-dealing devices, and the Wii's motion-sensing tech practically puts those weapons in your hands - sort of. The thing is, Namco Bandai has traded the one-on-one fighting game focus of a traditional Soulcalibur game for a shallow hack-'n'-slash, action/adventure offering. The result is a mildly entertaining, but ...

Speed Racer: The Videogame (Review)

May 19, 2008

Despite glossy trailers and the oft-epic power of nostalgia, the Speed Racer film seems firmly ensconced in the realm of box office bombs, drawing barely $30 million in its first two weekends (against a nine-figure budget) at North American theaters. Such dismal figures might dampen your enthusiasm for a $50 adaptation of the material, but shockingly, Speed Racer: The Videogame proves to be one of the most engaging racers on the ...

Spider-Man 3 (Review)

May 10, 2007

Let's not even joke around here. Spider-Man 3 on either PS2 or Wii is a waste of time and money. It's ostensibly the exact same game as 2004's Spider-Man 2, only with an uglier city, choppier gameplay and somehow, even worse combat and camera. The fact that it actually looks and plays worse than a game that came out three years ago is simultaneously unforgivable and baffling. This Manhattan doesn't even look like a city. It's a bunch of colored blocks that happened to fall into place and had ...

Spider-Man: Friend or Foe (Review)

Oct 5, 2007

Oct 5, 2007 With the ability to beat-and-greet many of the familiar faces orbiting the Marvel-verse, Spider-Man: Friend of Foe would have you believe that it's a punchy fan serenade that'll make a nation of gamers forget about the disappointment of the last Spider-Man game. Instead, it's a brawler of very little substance that, quite irresponsibly, squanders Spidey's great power (reference #1). It's really more of an insult to the people who love the little web slinger, and will only appeal ...

The Spiderwick Chronicles (Review)

Feb 27, 2008

Maybe you love The Spiderwick Chronicles book series or know someone who does. Or, perhaps you saw the recent movie and wanted to stomp the goblins yourself. Regardless of the reasons you have for taking an interest in the video game based on the movie, we're here to give you a big old Thimbletack style warning: The Spiderwick Chronicles game is the kind of dull, tedious 3D adventure that gives movie cash-ins a bad name. There's nothing wrong ...

SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature From the Krusty Krab (Review)

Feb 12, 2007

In the same vein as the previous SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob Squarepants: Creature from the Krusty Krab transforms our porous pal's homeland into a den of platforming action. There are three playable characters in the game, SpongeBob, Patrick, and Plankton, and each has their own set of levels that almost feel like three distinct ...

SSX Blur (Review)

Mar 13, 2007

SSX Blur has the best snow ever. Its a wintry playground with a new and better distraction around every corner, tucked in tunnels through rumbling glaciers and in the cotton-draped branches of the trees. A world that looks this soft and inviting just begs to be explored. And the way you make your mark on this gleaming white paradise is so satisfyingly ingenious, reality – or, at least, lesser snowboarding games – is always going to come a distant ...