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Mini-Review: Star Wars Pinball

Zen Studios has shown that it can take a popular license and turn it into a fantastic series of pinball tables.  Consider the company's past work on familiar properties like Plants vs Zombies, Street Fighter, and Marvel heroes like Iron Man, Wolverine, and Spider-Man.  After working on so many heavy-hitters, where do the creative folks at Zen go from here?  To a galaxy far, far away, naturally.  Zen has released the first in a series of pinball tables based on the Star Wars universe for its suite of platforms Zen Pinball 2, Pinball FX 2, and as a standalone package for various arrangements of the Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, iOS, Android, and PC.  The Empire Strikes Back, Clone Wars, and the bounty hunter Boba Fett provide the source material for these tables and show that when it comes to adapting one of the most beloved fictions of our time, the Force is with... aw, you know the rest.

Mini-Review: Crosswords Plus

While I spend most of my gaming time stomping monster and shooting enemy soldiers, I also enjoy more traditional challenges.  Give me a solid word game any day.  Nintendo has done just that with Crosswords Plus for the Nintendo 3DS which packs a wide variety of crossword puzzles, word searches, and anagram challenges of varying difficulty levels.  Perfect for the more low-key moments in our lives, there's something here for everyone who enjoys fun with letters.

Mini-Review: The Simpsons Game (Wii)

This article was originally published at Kombo.com on November 14, 2007.

When the instruction manual for The Simpsons Game lands at Bart Simpson's feet he discovers that his entire world is actually a video game. Using his new amazing video game powers, Bart runs amok through Springfield and eventually shares the manual with his family. Just a everything seems to be winding down, aliens Kang and Kodos invade the planet. It's up to the Simpsons to use their awesome new powers to save the world, and in the process they'll meet famous gaming heroes, explore other video games, and even encounter creator Matt Groening himself.

Mini-Review: SPRay

This article was originally published at Kombo.com on December 22, 2008. It is repubished here as part of Review A Bad Game Day.

When an evil queen invades the land and smashes the sunshine away, it's up to Spirited Prince Ray (giving us the title SPRay for all of the acronym lovers out there) to don the magic crown that summons little spirits that spit and spray various fluids such as water and vomit in order to recover the crystals that make up the sun and defeat the queen. Players guide Ray and his spewing companions across several worlds within the kingdom to solve puzzles, rescue citizens, gather new abilities, and collect items.

Ray's companions begin the game with the ability to spray water and vomit. Water washes away enemy goo and nourishes flowers that are planted almost everywhere (make a flower bloom and it'll erupt with what appears to be snot for some reason), while vomit sticks to floors and makes things such as invisible bridges visible when fully coated. Fluids are also used to trigger switches, bathe enemies, and draw symbols with the Wii remote among other things. Swing the Wii remote to whack nearby objects and enemies with Ray's staff. New tricks are added to Ray's arsenal as the game progresses.

Mini-Review: Mario And Sonic At The Olympic Games

This article was originally published at Kombo.com on November 20, 2007.

Gamers who grew up during the 16-bit console wars always wondered if Nintendo's Super Mario and Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog would ever appear together in the same game, and while everyone at the lunch table had his or her own idea about how the two titans may someday clash, very few people would have predicted the setting of the battle to be Beijing. Nevertheless, here we have it, Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games in which heroes and villains from both franchises come together to compete in the Games of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Characters such as Mario, Sonic, Princess Peach, Tails, and "the rest" mix in up in such thrilling events such as the hammer throw, javelin toss, 100m dash, hurdles, trampoline gymnastics, skeet shooting, and many more. Dig deep enough into the mini-game experience to unlock the Dream Events in which traditional Olympic rules are set aside in favor of Mushroom Kingdom madness with power-ups and super moves that one would expect in a Mario sporting game.

Mini-Review: Tomba

Sony PlayStation enthusiasts love to speak of a little side-scrolling platformer game developed by now-defunct studio Whoopee Camp called Tomba for the original PS1 console.  It's one of those games that developed a niche following, but never set the world on fire.  It faded into memory, but the Internet has elevated it into legendary status, and used copies of the game frequently sell for high prices based on the online mystique.  Nevertheless, the game has remained an obscure title outside of the ardent gaming community.  MonkeyPaw Games has brought the game back for the mainstream to take another crack at it via the PlayStation Network, bringing Tomba into the world of PS1 Classics playable on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable (and, one would eventually hope, the PlayStation Vita).  Tomba comes home now for $9.99, but that can be a steep price for an obscure adventure from yesterday.  It's not unexpected to ask what Tomba is all about and if it's a worthwhile investment.  Thanks to a review copy courtesy of MonkeyPaw, I've had the opportunity to look into the matter and am happy to say that Tomba does live up to its reputation.

Mini-Review: Spec Ops: The Line

It's not a good time to live in the city of Dubai.  A massive sandstorm has devastated the region, turning the opulent desert haven into a dwelling of death.  The United States Army's "The Damned" 33rd Battalion volunteered to enter the city and spearhead the evacuation of its citizens, but instead the unit's commander, Colonel John Konrad, went metaphorically up river and set himself up as the local ruler.  Now the 33rd patrols the city, plundering its remaining riches and resources for itself.  Enter the Delta Force team of Walker, Adams, and Lugo.  They've come to find out just what went wrong and then call for extraction.  Along the way, however, Walker and his men will discover just how damned the 33rd really are.  Welcome to Dubai, gentlemen.  This is Spec Ops: The Line.

Mini-Review: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

This article was originally published at Kombo.com on March 31, 2009.

Who would ever have thought that a sword could cause so much trouble? When protagonist Huang Lee's father dies, our hero must take the family's ancient ceremonial sword heirloom, Yu Jian, to Liberty City and present it to his uncle as part of a time-honored family tradition that dates back to when Huang's father won the sword in a poker game. After arriving in the city, however, Huang is nearly murdered by his uncle's rivals and the sword is stolen right out from under him. Now he's going to work for his crime-boss uncle in a bid to retrieve Yu Jian and restore the family's honor through murder, drug dealing, theft, and all kinds of other nasty, illegal acts that make the Grand Theft Auto series so much fun.

What we have here in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is the traditional Grand Theft Auto experience scaled back in terms of visuals and music but expanded in the gameplay department. Still, there's just as much to do in the pocket sized version of Liberty City as in its home console big brothers. As the story unfolds, Huang will be tasked with all of the usual kinds of GTA mayhem, but there are plenty of new additions and tweaks to the usual formula that play up the Nintendo DS's strengths. While Niko Bellic in Grand Theft Auto IV depended on his cell phone, Huang is completely reliant on his PDA, allowing him to check e-mail, order weapons online from Ammunation for home delivery, plot routes on a GPS, manage his address book, and several other important functions. The PDA fills the touchscreen, providing quick access to just about everything Huang needs at just the tap of a finger (or a stylus).

Mini-Review: Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City

This article was originally published at Kombo.com on April 30, 2010.

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV raised the bar for sandbox action games when it released back in 2008, and rather than plunge ahead into a properly number fifth installment of the franchise, the developers chose to explore the nooks and crannies of Liberty City only hinted at during the course of protagonist Niko Bellic's adventures. Releasing exclusively for Microsoft Xbox 360 through the course of 2009, the add-on downloadable content "The Lost and Damned" and "The Ballad of Gay Tony" has finally crossed over to the Sony PlayStation 3 as both traditional DLC via PlayStation Network and a stand-alone disc, Episodes From Liberty City, that combines both "Lost" and "Ballad" as a single retail item. Considering how the genre has evolved since GTA IV's release (consider the advances found in Just Cause 2 and inFamous, for instance), is the Episodes release an example of "better late than never" or "too little, too late?"

Mini-Review: Mega Man X Collection

This article was originally published at Kombo.com on February 6, 2006.

Capcom has taken a little blue robot named Mega Man and spun him off into numerous iterations and variations over the years. Want a Mega Man who lives in a data network? Check. How about a Mega Man who works as a digger? Done. Desire a futuristic Mega Man swimming in personal angst while blasting enemy robots with powerful weapons? Then you’re in luck. Mega Man X brought the Mega Man franchise into the 16-bit world way back in 1993, extending the popular franchise for the first time and starting another popular gaming series. Eventually X and the entire cast of characters – Zero, Sigma, Vile, and more Mavericks then one could shake a stick at – would become just as beloved and profitable as the original Mega Man and Rush. With nearly a dozen games under his belt, the time has come to look back on Mega Man X's gaming career. Capcom has taken the first six games in the series and loaded them into a compilation disc for the Nintendo GameCube and the Sony PlayStation 2 as Mega Man X Collection.