Review Round-Up – 1/5/13

It’s been a little while since my last “Review Round-Up,” due to the madness of the holiday season as well as moving PMO to a new server and performing some refinements you may notice around the site (check out the updated menu and sidebars). On the review side of things, here is what I’ve been up to.

From Slide to Play:

Disney Super Speedway – It’s go-kart racing with the Disney XD crew! Unfortunately, you’re more likely to find humor and references to the shows in this review than in the actual game. Also, Perry the Platypus– pictured in the game’s iOS icon– is an unlockable. Really?

AR Defender 2 – It’s tower defense with an augmented reality spin! On the downside, you’re required to provide your own reality (read: marker) to augment.

Skee-Ball 2 – It’s all the joy of Skee-Ball, right in the palm of your hand! Well, aside from the tangible elements, anyway.

Garfield’s Escape – Things I never thought I’d ever have to say: “Garfield simply tries to do too much.” Also, like Perry the Platypus above, Garfield is an unlockable. I’d say it’s like Mega Man X7 all over again, but I think people are happier playing as Odie than they were with Axl.

From Gamezebo:

Power Rangers Legends – I had hoped this would be as good as Power Rangers: Samurai Steel, but… it isn’t. It’s rather slow, clunky, and finicky, which is too bad– it has a lot going for it. Sadly, I had more fun writing the review and including Rangers references than I did playing the game– hopefully they update it with a patch that makes it playable.

Also: iOS icon is Red Ranger Jason Lee Scott, who– you guessed it– is unlockable. Is this some sort of trend I hadn’t noticed before? On the bright side, the default starting character is Green Ranger Tommy Oliver, and that’s not bad at all– especially considering he wasn’t even in most of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers games, and the one that did have him had him as– you guessed it again– an unlockable.

Legend of Pandora – A free Zelda wannabe on Kongregate. If you’re desperate for any sort of Zelda-style action, it will do, I suppose. At least the price is right.

From Mario’s Hat:

Transformers: Prime – The Game – What better way to follow up Transformers: Fall of Cybertron than with this Nintendo-exclusive semi-sequel? It’s very, very true to the show– in spirit, if not necessarily in accuracy to the story– and arguably to a fault. As I point out, taking on Dreadwing alone with Bumblebee– with a Wii controller, at least– plays out about as you’d expect it to in the show.

WWE ’13 – Perhaps less a “revolution” than an “evolution,” if that. If you’re not one of those who hates the way WWE games have played in recent years, you’ll be happy to know that WWE ’13 stays the course. The big attraction, however, is in the game’s “Attitude Era Mode,” where you get to relive a slightly-revised version how WWE (then the WWF) fought back against WCW in the ratings to emerge as the dominant force in the industry to this day.

That’s it for now, and more is still coming to Mario’s Hat, now that things have calmed a bit. And as always, you can keep up with my Slide to Play reviews here, my Gamezebo reviews here, and my Mario’s Hat reviews here.

David Oxford

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

For a full list of places to find him online, click here.