Review – Disney Epic Mickey

Disney Epic Mickey
The Wasteland is a refuge, a place where forgotten cartoon characters can live on within Junction Point Studios’ heartfelt tribute to the house that Mickey Mouse built. Freed from ownership by Universal Studios, even Oswald the Rabbit can find new purpose in this place, acting as both mascot and ruler for this world, providing shelter for his fellow ‘toons while obsessing over the popularity of Walt’s favorite son.

The sincerity drips from every digital brush stroke, and remarkable seems like a word worth using to describe the amount of attention given to the details. Junction Point has created a living, breathing world for characters few players are likely to readily remember. But the devil in those details is whether this labor of love offers an opportunity and incentive for players to truly immerse themselves in this world, or if this epic undertaking merely offers a lightly pulsing museum, one which assumes that the care of content can counterbalance significant design problems, which Disney Epic Mickey unfortunately offers in spades.

If this quick appraisal leaves you making a sad face beneath your Mouseketeer hat, join the club.

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Posted: December 1, 2010 at 9:20 am By | 5 comments

Review – Donkey Kong Country Returns

Donkey Kong Country Returns
Marathon playtime with a casual audience caused one observer to remark that I was more boy than man despite my age, which possibly owed in some small part to the fact that I’d begun banging my chest after surviving a particularly hellish level.

Two straight days in the jungle have created a time machine, the latest cog in Nintendo’s flux capacitor bringing players back to the age of Super Nintendo, taking advantage of an evolved 2D palette and a long absence that brings characters back with a vibrancy I fantasized about while playing the original titles so many years ago.

Perhaps the key is that the visual seduction inspires the same level of awe now as it did then, so that even if everything new is old again, it’s hard to complain about the result.

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Posted: November 23, 2010 at 1:56 pm By | 1 comment

Review – PokéPark Wii: Pikachu’s Adventure

PokePark Wii: Pikachus Adventure
Caught between the release of HeartGold & SoulSilver this year and the waiting game for the new Black & White editions next year, Pikachu and the gang have opted to get away from rigorous training and stat grinding for some relaxation on the Wii via the PokéPark. It’s a vacation easily labeled and largely written-off as kid friendly, a description that earnestly sounds a bit ridiculous given the number of children I’ve watched swarm handheld stations at events for the more portable offerings the house that Pikachu built is known for.

Perhaps we could label this release more free-range, with players turning the WiiMote sideways to take direct control of Pikachu, exploring the zones that comprise the PokéPark and grasping at another opportunity to touch the franchise by different means.

The priority of the PokéPark isn’t to catch them all, rather to meet them all, and if possible to become friends with them all. Certainly that touchy-feely angle sounds more childlike, but the label is more properly grounded in the simplistic design and approach, from the controls to the specific objectives on Pikachu’s todo list.

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Posted: November 6, 2010 at 9:56 am By | No comments yet

Review – Kirby’s Epic Yarn

Kirbys Epic Yarn
As the puntastic title suggests, immense amounts of yarn were spooled and stitched together to form Kirby’s long awaited return to proper console platforming. And as far as visual / narrative gimmickry goes, you’d be hard pressed to find a better example of a game that brings back the tactile feel of a classic franchise whilst presenting an entirely new aesthetic to capture the eyes, mixing new and old ideas that preserve plenty of the old time Nintendo charm that keeps me coming back.

Kirby’s a critter of simple pleasures, and this latest adventure matches that philosophy by turning the WiiMote sideways to wax a bit nostalgic on straightforward NES styled controls. The simplicity of the game leaves me feeling far less words are required than usual, though I could certainly go on about Kirby’s cute abuse – his excited arm flailing animation for example is cuter than a basket full of baby bunnies.

All the same, the depth of the stitch work that creates the visuals deserves some words, as does the way in which the game weaves together a toybox of ideas that is simply a pleasure to play with.

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Posted: October 21, 2010 at 6:43 pm By | 3 comments

Review – Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I


I never owned a Sega console. I thought I’d come right out and say that, so there’s no confusion. I am not attached to Sonic; indeed, when I was growing up, Sonic was the enemy—the figurehead for those dark, unknown other children, playing their Genesis and carrying out Sega’s terrible bidding.

My encounters with Sonic—The Blue Satan—were largely exclusive to instances where I would commandeer my cousin’s Game Gear on thanksgiving. It had color; Tetris could not compete for my attention. Now I’m a little older and a little more polytheistic with regards to my console allegiances, but I still may not be the ideal test subject for the coherent nostalgia beam conjured by Sega’s latest Sonic release, the wholly digital Sonic 4.

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Posted: October 15, 2010 at 8:58 am By | 2 comments

Review – Ivy the Kiwi?

Ivy the Kiwi?
Last year’s mobile game from Prope has returned for a Wii/DS combo release, though interviews have revealed that the Wii version preceded all other concerns – and it definitely shows.

Prope Studio founder Yuji Naka’s life after Sega is easy to typecast as one focused on the control side of gaming – the way we interact with the medium, not simply via the use of new peripherals but in exploring the way tactile actions and video output work together to create new experiences. Last year that focus had me tapping on a cereal box to vibrate a WiiMote with the release of Let’s Tap, but where that release came across more as an interesting technical demonstration, Ivy the Kiwi? is less on the esoteric and more about playtime with straight-forward appeal.

More over, Ivy feels like a return to form, a game of crafted levels designed for an instantly iconic character that is unavoidably as cute as a box of puppies, and finds a welcome place alongside other Naka creations such as Sonic the Hedgehog or Nights into Dreams

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Posted: September 16, 2010 at 6:07 pm By | No comments yet

Review – Metroid: Other M

Metroid: Other M
In 2004, the original NES release of Metroid joined several titles deemed classic enough to represent that period of gaming through revisits on the GameBoy Advanced, and yet that same year also saw a much more thorough revisit on the handheld with the release of Metroid: Zero Mission. Aside from several tweaks within the game, the release returned to the source of the series to establish cannon at ground zero, setting the tone and direction for all subsequent releases.

The most significant element of that release was the newly added Zero Mission, a mission that showed Samus Aran stripped of her armor and evading space pirates in the instantly iconic zero suit. It was the emergence of a more vulnerable, but still capable Samus, and a defining moment that opened the floodgates for a greater discussion of the role gender plays within the Metroid series, executed with clever subtlety.

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Posted: September 7, 2010 at 9:31 am By | 8 comments
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