Nintendo’s newest handheld collected here
It’s clear that Adventure Time: Hey Ice King? Why’d You Steal Our Garbage?!! has one of the greatest subtitles of all time, but what isn’t clear is why it took the series so long to stretch Jake’s extendable legs to the world of video games. Colorful landscapes, quirky characters, and inspiration lifted from video games seem to make the Cartoon Network series a shoe-in for a successful video game transition. Paying homage to classic video games and retaining nearly everything that makes the series equal parts entertaining and ridiculous, Adventure Time: Hey Ice King is a game fans of the series will enjoy, even if it only lasts a few hours. . Even so, I ask thee this: What time is it?
REVIEW TIME!
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Miss a few weeks of the Sunday Roundup and I’ve got to get back in a big way I suppose. I knew there were some great game deals out there for Black Friday at big retailers like Best Buy, Amazon.com, and Wal-Mart, but in the confusion and craziness that is the kickoff of the holiday shopping season, I completely looked past a local store that just so happens to sell video games from decades past. And did I luck out by checking their sales as well. Let’s just say that 20% off and buy 1 get 1 sales make me a happy collector!
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One of the surprise successes of 2010 was Aksys Game’s 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, which took players on a psychological journey filled with devious puzzles, deceitful allies, and the danger of death around every corner. The follow-up to that game, Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward, builds off its predecessor laurels to deliver another compelling and captivating story for gamers to experience. Though light on gameplay, Virtue’s Last Reward offers one of the most thrilling stories you’ll see in any game, handheld or otherwise.
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Traveling to remote villages, solving countless mysteries, and helping everyday citizens with simple brainteasers are all in a day’s work for Professor Hershel Layton. By now you pretty much know what to expect from a Professor Layton game: a good story, beautiful visuals, and of course lots of puzzles to keep your brain working for hours. Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask is the fifth game in the series and the first to appear on the 3DS. With upgraded visuals, 150 new puzzles, and another solid mystery to solve, Miracle Mask is the professor’s best outing since the first game released in 2008. (more…)
Nothing can stop Mario from bashing Goombas, adventuring all over the Mushroom Kingdom, and putting Bowser in his place time and time again. Not even being paper thin. Paper Mario: Sticker Star is the latest entry in the popular Paper Mario RPG series that takes the plumber out of his familiar platforming roots and places him in a turn based RPG.
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And here we are again, playing yet another Professor Layton game. But this time there are some notable differences. Don’t worry, puzzle enthusiasts and top hat conniseurs, this is still the same Layton experience you’ve come to know and love, just in a different wrapper. I’ve delved deep into the game already, passing by three chapters in a night, with a handful more to go, and I’ve already got a lot to say about the game.
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3DS games galore this week in the Sunday Roundup! I actually got all three of these games on Monday, yet I’ve only had time to play one of them (Two guesses which one!). Still though, expect to see full reviews of each game in the coming weeks.
Also note that this is a strong outing for 3DS games in general. The system finally has a strong library forming behind it, giving the vanilla DS a very well deserved successor. These games are all great, and if you’re on the fence on switching to the 3DS, I think the time is right and it’s only going to be getting better. (more…)
The Pokemon series has a lot of tradition that has been seen in every game in the main series: you get one of three Pokemon at the beginning of the game, each of which is either a fire, grass, or water type; you battle through eight gym battles to collect badges; an evil organization is up to no good trying to harm everyone’s Pokemon; apparently you, a young child, are the only one who can somehow manage to collect and/or see every Pokemon in the land, even when capable adults can be found everywhere.
But you know what, that’s what made the game’s great. They were a blast to play because they were so fun and simple. I bring this up though to say that I am desperately craving something new from the franchise. I know Nintendo has to stick to some tradition with each game, but switching things up a bit can make a huge difference. I’m not even going to fault the game for having some ridiculous Pokemon either (I’m looking at you, Trubbish!). I’m sure it’s hard to come up with new species of tiny creatures after you’ve run through the hundreds they have so far. Here’s some examples of things that will make the next Pokemon game amazing: (more…)
Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems for mobile devices like smartphones and iPads/iPhones/iPod Touches have been getting a steady stream of games since their inception. It’s a guarantee that each week, if not each day, a new game or two will be released for the portable devices. Whether or not those games are worthwhile is an entirely different story. But what about those instances where the games being released are ports of actual console video games? It’s been happening more and more recently, and it has gotten me to think about just what that means to you and I as gamers, as well as to the publishers and developers of said games.
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It was 10 years ago that gamers first picked up the keyblade, battled with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, and met the eager hero Sora in the very first Kingdom Hearts. The newest iteration of the game, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, is a step in the right direction for the action RPG series, introducing new gameplay mechanics, characters, and storylines. Though it’s not Kingdom Hearts 3 that gamers have been so eagerly craving, at least it has a 3 in the title. That counts, right?
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