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  • Samurai Warriors 3

    Pressing one button over and over and over again might sound dull, but it can be a compelling experience. It's all about the context in which those buttons are used. Look at the original Super Mario Brothers: you've got a direction pad, a jump button, and a run button. With just those three inputs, Miyamoto and Nintendo created a genuine work of art.

  • Sin and Punishment: Star Successor

    With the possible exception of Bangai-O Spirits, it's been a while since Treasure has created a good old-fashioned shooter, which is why Sin and Punishment: Star Successor is such a treat: it takes Treasure back to its hardcore shoot 'em up roots, hearkening back to classic rail shooters like Panzer Dragoon Orta and Star Fox 64 while maintaining its own distinct flavour. Sufficed to say, fans of old-school shooters will be delighted.

  • Super Mario Galaxy 2

    Super Mario Galaxy 2 is truly a rare beast. After all, Nintendo is more than happy to rehash many of their biggest franchises ad nauseum, and the 3D Mario games never stray far from the established norm. But surprisingly, Nintendo seems to have found enough creative elbow room in the Mario Galaxy universe to create an entirely new trip. I was sure that Nintendo would rehash most, if not all, of the same ideas they put into the first Galaxy title for this sequel, but surprisingly, there's very little redundancy present at all.

  • Trauma Team

    If you've never played a Trauma Center game, it's basically a fancier version of the classic board game Operation married to an anime soap opera. Various patients are presented to you with different ailments, and using a doctor's toolset -- complete with some high-tech gadgetry that is more sci-fi than ER as well as some psychic powers -- you root out the malicious causes. The series was successful on both the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii, but the formula was starting to get a little long in the tooth.

  • Monster Hunter Tri

    Despite Capcom's best efforts, the Monster Hunter franchise has struggled to gain a foothold with Western gamers, even as their Japanese brethren rabidly devote countless hours to every new release.

  • Rugby League 3 for Wii

    It's been almost 15 years since there was a Rugby League game worth playing — ARL 96 on PC. For long suffering league fans, Sidhe's Rugby League and Rugby League 2 promised the world, but ultimately delivered very little. Sidhe's back with Rugby League 3, which again promises a fun and innovative league video game. It's a much better game than both of its predecessors but still suffers from poor controls, outdated playing rosters and erratic gameplay.

  • Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon

    Post-apocalyptic worlds are all the rage these days. Never mind the fact we may inevitably be one day cast, bruised and battered, into the decimated ruins of our own crumbling society following some global catastrophe; it's still fun as hell to wander around grim virtual wastelands mingling with other depraved souls struggling to survive by resorting to any means necessary. Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon eschews the brutal smash and grab mentality that sucked me into many dozens of hours of loot-hunting slaughter-fests in Fallout 3 and Borderlands, delivering instead a more poetic and introspective journey through a slowly dying world shrouded in darkness.

  • Red Steel 2

    The original Red Steel was a Wii launch title, which is the only reason why I find it interesting. It was flawed and poorly designed, but it remains memorable because it was one of the first attempts to implement Nintendo's new-fangled motion controls into something other than a simplistic party style game.

  • Shiren the Wanderer

    Atlus has strictly avoided using the term "roguelike" in its marketing for Shiren the Wanderer, instead trying to push it as more of an RPG. Perhaps it's trying to avoid poor sales that all roguelikes besides the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games succumbed to in the US, or maybe it's banking on how starved Wii owners are for RPGs of any type. Who knows? Fortunately, Shiren the Wanderer is a game good enough to satisfy both hardcore roguelike fans and RPG-lovers alike with perhaps the deepest turn-based Wii game to date.

  • Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces

    The Ace Combat team is no stranger to anime-based games. Having previously worked on the Japan-only mash-up Another Century's Episode games, they've returned to the realm of licensed entertainment with Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces. This time, however, they're playing more to type, crafting a game that plays like an Ace Combat set in an alternate World War II.

  • Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars

    Reviewing a fighting game is a difficult process because they're akin to gourmet cheeses: their quality is best assessed after they've aged for a while.

  • No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

    An ambitious deconstruction of the tired hack-n-slash genre, 2008's No More Heroes introduced gamers to hot-headed otaku-turned-assassin Travis Touchdown's blood-soaked trek to the top of the United Assassins Association charts. Wildly successful in North America and Europe, No More Heroes brought already established Grasshopper Manufacture and director Suda51 into the stateside spotlight once more with its absurd sense of humor, bucketfuls of blood, and plethora of pop culture references. It was a bona fide hit, even though it debuted on the Wii, a platform where "mature" titles usually don't succeed, and its close-quarters combat, eye-popping art-style, and killer soundtrack makes it one of the most innovative titles to date.

  • Video games blamed for rickets surge

    Computer games are being blamed for the surge in the number of children suffering from rickets.

  • HP 2509p LCD monitor

    A 25in LCD monitor with a stylish design, the HP 2509p's good looks come at the cost of efficiency. It provides reasonable image quality, but is let down by a highly reflective screen.

  • Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3

    If TOMY's licensed games have taught us nothing else, it's that they are very good at catering to the fans, and Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja 3 is an excellent case in point.

  • Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers

    I initially considered opening up this review by likening Crystal Bearers to a roller-coaster ride in that it's full of ups and downs. But after careful consideration, I've decided that the metaphor applies in a very different way: playing it is the video game equivalent of a theme park attraction whose first big drop is exciting but then peters out with a handful of rickety, ill-designed bumps before it lurches towards an unsatisfying end.

  • Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage

    Shaun White Snowboarding returns with World Stage, a brand new snowboarding experience created from the ground-up exclusively for Nintendo's family-friendly console. By limiting the franchise to coincide with the Wii's mainstream appeal, Ubisoft may have ensured we get more sequels in the fledgling franchise as Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage offers a more accessible, trick-filled trek down the virtual slopes than its multi-platform predecessor.

  • Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

    My first exposure to Konami's Silent Hill series of scare-fests was back in 1999, fresh off of a week-long bender of Resident Evil 2. Ready for even more malformed monsters and mutant crocodile menaces, I was somewhat surprised when I powered my Playstation on to find an incredibly different environment than RE2's Raccoon City.

  • Ashes Cricket 2009 (Wii)

    I very nearly gave this game a score of 0. Seriously, what the heck were they thinking asking Shane Warne to commentate? This nearly unforgivable lapse in judgement aside, there’s a decent game of cricket hidden within Ashes Cricket 2009 (AKA "Wii Cricket").

  • Scene It? Twilight

    Because of my age (21) and my sex (male), I am not a primary candidate for Twilight-ification. In fact, I'm almost convinced that I have a genetic predisposition to despise the cheesy romance and angsty vampire melodrama. The way my younger sister described it, it sounded like trashy Buffy fan-fiction except much, much worse. But I became curious as to why Twilight was such a huge deal and with my morbid curiosity piqued, I started reading the novels. At first, I read it with the detached interest of a curious observer but soon, I became hooked. I lived in a state of denial for a while, going so far as to create an alternate Twitter account dedicated solely to trashing the series but it wasn't long before I had to admit to myself that I actually liked Twilight.

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