Exploring Stuff That Makes Life Great
Another oddly named Indiana Jones games is on the way, and this trailer does nothing to show how the Wii controller will be used to make this a unique experience – But we still have hope! Continue reading “Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings – Coming to the Wii”
Not really. Remember the good old days with games like Monster Truck Madness and Motocross Madness? Well, nowadays we get games such as Score International Baja 1000 The Official Game for the Nintendo Wii and Monster Jam: Urban Assault for the Nintendo DS. When I was handed these two games, I thought to myself, “Oh cool! Its been years since I last played a game like this!” These games took that excitement, and punched it in the throat.
Lets start with Baja 1000 for the Wii. This game was a little deceiving at first. The Activision Logo followed by the sleek menus were a fresh start, as soon as I moved my controller around, I noticed that the Wii-mote had no interactivity with it. You couldn’t point and click on the icons. Selection was all done with the analog stick or D-pad.
Oh well, lets see how it plays. Moments later, I was ready to turn it off… so I did. Here is why: THIS GAME BLOWS! Horrible graphics, horrible music, unless you love TOTALLY KILLER GUITAR RIFFS DUDE!!!!.. and horrible game play mechanics. There is no use of the Wii-mote, the game is extremely simple and short, and it plays like a shitty PS1 game. The experience all together made me mad at David for giving me such crap games.
Now, lets talk about Sex… oh man.. I wish we could… but no. Lets talk about Monster Jam: Urban Assault for the DS. SWEET DUDE! THIS GAME IS KILLER BRO!… (urp) …hm.. excuse me.. ok so, this game has a little bit more going for it than Baja 1000 did. MINI GAMES! But, these mini games are absolutely pointless and ridiculous. Monster Jam consists driving big trucks in the city. COOL! And a mini game that has you launching off of large Ski-Ball ramps. OOOOOH FUN! I played that mini game for about 5 minutes, and then I stopped. Actually, my DS died, but 5 minutes was all I need to play that mini game. With horrible 3-D environments that put the DS to shame, a horrible soundtrack, and controllers that basically consist of you holding A and pressing forward, this game can bite a big one. Oh, and not to mention that there is no use of the DS’s touch pad.
Score International Baja 1000 The Official Game on the Nintendo Wii Rating: F
Monster Jam: Urban Assault on the Nintendo DS Rating: F+
GREAT JOB ACTIVISION!!!
The first Popolous game that I played was Populous III: The Beginning. This game introduced the series to a 3D world. I absolutely loved the game. Since then I’ve seen plenty of gameplay footage of the first game and I will honestly say that now that I’ve played the DS remake, I didn’t miss out on much. Continue reading “Game Review: Populous DS”
If I were told to describe Empire Interactive’s Animal Paradise in three words I would say cute, adorable and mildly addicting. Ok so the last description is two words hopefully you’ll see what I mean. Continue reading “Game Review | Animal Paradise (Nintendo DS)”
Remember all of the skills you learned from those marathons of CSI New York? Well its finally time to put them to use! You get to use the intuitive observation skills of Gil Grissom and the deductive reasoning skills of Sherlock Holmes as you solve cases as the rookie in the New York Homicide division in 1976. You and your partner Marcy Blake are assigned cases from Captain Abbot, the head of the department. And as if the bodies aren’t enough for this, add in an abducted model (who happens to be Marcy’s sister) and you have Empire Interactive’s Unsolved Crimes.
With this being my first hand held game since Pokémon Yellow for the Gameboy Color, it was an easy introduction game for the DS. While investigating crime scenes, Marcy asks you questions involving the case and you get to choose the correct answer from multiple choice options. Sounds simple right? Well, it is. You have a total of three tries before you get kicked out of the department, with the occasional bonus question to gain an extra “star”. Some of Marcy’s questions involve drawing the trajectory of a bullet, or filling in missing portions of a map but most consist of either writing in the answer or choosing from 5 multiple choice answers. This makes for the game to be simpler that I would have preferred but I will admit that there are those questions that had me perplexed for a while, but for the most part the questions were pretty easy as long as you think it through logically. It’s all elementary my dear Watson.
Dare I add to the cheesiness? Yes I do. The graphics are a crime in itself. With the graphic’s color range as far as I can throw an elephant, I wouldn’t suggest nominating this game for any awards in artistic design. The colors are limited in shades and textures are minimal at best. The 3D aspect of searching through the crime scenes are rather flat. Whether this was a conscious choice on the designers part I’m not sure, but I don’t believe it fits with the game very well.
The continuing story line of a kidnapped model gives you a break from the usual routine. With the tracking down of suspects, searching their apartment for incriminating evidence, or memorizing license plates from suspicious vehicles, the game becomes a little more intriguing. After a while, solving cases one after another becomes a routine and rather predicable, but when side investigations from this continuing story arc are put in intermittently into the case lineup, it can keep us interested enough to see the game through to the end.
Although the somewhat repetitious game play and poor graphics are a downside to the game, upside of a good thinking game with a story to break up the monotony helps bring this game up a couple of notches in my book. It may not be the huge adrenaline rush that games like Gear of War 2 is, but if you want something different than “woah! Did you just see its head explode?” kind of game then give this game a try! Not that I’m condemning those kind of games. I may not look it, but trust me, I enjoy the games where I get to watch an alien creature’s head pop through a sniper scope! But every once in a while I do want to embrace the idea that while playing a video game you can use your brain for more than planning around AI aliens trying to kill you, and Unsolved Crimes would be one of those games where I can get my synapses started up.
I first encountered interest in pipe related games about 13 years ago playing Pipe Dream on my parent’s computer. At the time however, I was more interested in playing Chip’s Challenge, but the memory of Pipe gameplay had been stored into my memories. Jump forward to high school where the only thing to keep me from jumping through a window in boredom was another pipe game on my cell phone. It was fun and passed the time but it had no pizzaz.
Finally, Empire Interactive has made the best of the best when it comes to laying pipes. Pipe Mania for the DS is the most fun I’ve ever had trying prevent slime from leaking onto the floor. Empire went all out (as far out as you can go for a pipe game at least), to make a challenging, yet entertaining (it has a story mode believe it or not) game of plumbing. The game breaks free of strictly connecting pipes, and challenges you to connect factory assembly lines, internet cords, electricity cabling, and train tracks. While they all follow the same basic rules of laying and connecting pieces, each category has special requirements needed to fully connect start piece to end piece. The factory requires splitting assemblies into multiple lines, the electricity can be temporarily stored in special glass pieces etc. If this isn’t your thing, the game comes with a Classic Mode where you can lay pipe till your head explodes with frustration. I say this as a good thing however because the other pipe games I’ve played have been incredibly easy to beat. Pipe Mania starts off easy enough, but once you beat the first few levels, it really challenges you; not to the point of throwing your DS across the room (I’m lookin at you SMB 3!) but enough that you sometimes have to play one level a few times to really plan out what you need to do to get things done.
That being said, I also want to add that the DS is probably the best kind of platform for this kind of game. No more messing up pipelines by pushing the wrong button or having a crappy mouse that clicks the wrong place. With the touchscreen you just touch right where the piece goes and you’re good to move on. This is a good play before bed type games, or just to play to pass the time. Its worth the buy if you’re into games like these, and has tons of replay value and a surpising number of levels and mini games.
Rating: 3 Pipes Out of 2.2 Lighthouses
