Review Round-Up – 5/30/13

This is a bit overdue, even though I can’t tell whether anyone really reads these things (there are never any comments, at any rate), but better late than never. Here’s some of what I’ve been up to, and check back soon, as I’d like to be a little more active here, and I’ll be looking for your opinion moving forward.

Nintendo Land – What is “Nintendo Land?” Is it a theme park? A toy box? An arcade? Or perhaps it’s a masterful blend of all three, combining the strengths of their parts into one satisfying whole.

Fluidity: Spin Cycle – A game which tends to break conventions, and does well for itself as a result.

Fire Emblem Awakening – Without a doubt one of the finer games the Nintendo 3DS has to offer.

LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins – TT Games tried to fit a big game into a small package. In some ways, they succeeded, and in others, they fell a little short in what is still an admirable effort.

Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move – If Nintendo were to get into the business of producing games for Apple’s App Store, this would be a perfect fit.

Dillon’s Rolling Western: The Last Ranger – Everything the original was, for better and for worse, and more beyond that.

Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon – It took 12 years for Luigi’s Mansion to finally receive a sequel, and even after a couple of delays, it was absolutely worth it.

From Slide to Play:

Garfield’s Trivia Party – Fun for fans of the fat feline, but a bit unbalanced in multiplayer.

Nitro – A good racing game held back by its business model.

Mighty Dungeons – The best way to enjoy hack ‘n slash RPGing without gathering up a GM and party.

Lumber Jacked – Playable, but feels like the controls begin to work against you after a while, making for an arduous experience.

Iron Man 3 – The Official Game – A fun and addictive game bogged down by the mechanics of its genre and business model. After seeing the movie, however, I’ll add that the constant crashing and burning kind of feels true to the film.

Transformers Legends Review – You may have no idea what you’re doing in card battles, but if you’re a Transformers fan, you probably won’t care– the art in this game is just that good, and the seeming lack of gameplay logic isn’t very detrimental.

Angry Birds Friends – If you’re ready to put your Angry Birds skills to the test against your friends and everyone else in the world, this is the game for you.

Can Knockdown 3 – More “can” than “can not.”

Updated: Fangz – An update to the game helps it a lot, but it’s still pretty tough at points.

Hyper Breaker Turbo – Decent at what it does; not bad, not great.

From Gamezebo:

Ninja Slash – Ninja Slash does a few things different; not enough to necessarily redefine the genre, but a little goes a long way.

Robot Unicorn Attack 2 – The name pretty much says it all, and it’s as crazy as it sounds.

CandyMeleon – CandyMeleon is the type of game which feels like it would have been right at home in arcades in the early 80s, but with graphics and sound a bit more befitting a contemporary title.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run – I want to say this is perhaps the best endless runner I’ve ever played, but to be honest, it practically transcends the genre; better to think of this as more of a “speed running action game.” Seriously, it has only one minor but noteworthy flaw, and you should definitely check it out, especially if you love the new cartoon show.

Sonic the Hedgehog – Possibly the definitive version of the game.

Gravity Guy 2 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run has spoiled me. If you’re an insatiable fan of endless runners, then you can do worse than playing this game. If you’re a fan of the original Gravity Guy, you might want to approach this with caution.

Combo Crew – Despite some iffy controls, Combo Crew still lets you beat ’em up and brawl like there’s no tomorrow.

From HonestGamers:

This is a new thing I’m doing: Reviewing retro titles (mostly NES) for HonestGamers. So far, we have:

Golf – It delivers what it promises.

Excitebike – Still fairly good, but you’ll find an overall more robust and enjoyable yet similar experience in Excitebike: World Rally on WiiWare.

StarTropics – This one sparked a little controversy, as I love everything about this game except actually playing it. As such, it remains one of the top titles I want to see Nintendo remake/resurrect. Maybe a 3D Zelda-ish title by Retro, wouldn’t that be nice?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Also controversial, as I still like this game. Read on to find out why.

Casino Kid – Combine the flair of Japanese Role Playing Games with Poker and Blackjack, and what have you got?

Rad Racer – It’s Raaaaaaaaad Racer! As an aside, I’ve made it my personal mission on Twitter to try to get Hironobu Sakaguchi at Mistwalker to reunite with Nobuo Uematsu to create a spiritual follow-up to this game. Join me, won’t you?

As always, you can keep up with my Slide to Play reviews here, my Gamezebo reviews here, my HonestGamers reviews here, and my Mario’s Hat reviews here. You can also catch some of my other reviews in Nintendo Force magazine, which is something I still need to address here on this site.

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.