Nintendo Enthusiast
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I pull out my SNES every year to enjoy the good ol\' days of gaming and last summer, a series I decided to tackle was no other than Donkey Kong Country. While playing, I would keep muttering under my breath, "Why can't gaming be like this today?" Imagine my excitement when I found at E3 that Retro would be blessing us with another Donkey Kong platformer!
Unepic is a liar. There — I said it. Why is it a liar? Well, look at the name — the game implies that it\'s \"unepic,\" but in actuality, this is one of the most epic quests seen on the Wii U eShop. The name actually helps set the tone because, while the gameplay is for the hardcore gamer, the game manages to lighten the tone with excellent and funny dialogue.
CastleStorm is just as much a game as it is a test of your multitasking and micromanaging abilities. What seems like just a knock-off of the iOS hit, Angry Birds, is actually so much more. In fact, CastleStorm boasts just as much, if not even more, addicting gameplay, as well as several other layers of depth that make the title even more exciting to play. Couple this in with extensive single-player and multiplayer modes and quite the quirky style, and it becomes quite the appealing product.
To say that Sonic has had a rough time since transitioning to 3D would be a massive understatement; after his glory days on the Genesis, nothing was the same for Sonic. Many people would defend at least a few of the Sonic games released between 1995 and 2009, but few would argue that the era as a whole was a rather painful, dark age. Sonic Colors in 2010 was a turning point and Sonic console games have been in an upswing since its release. This means that Sonic Lost World actually has some expectations to live up to. Can it continue the cautious optimism that the Sonic games have finally won back? While there are certainly some problems with the game, the overall answer is yes.
If I were to describe Knytt Underground in one word, it would be \"contradictory.\" In some ways, it\'s everything I could hope for in a metroidvania-style game: it\'s beautiful, intuitive, clever, and most importantly, fun. For large portions of the game, you are pulled into an almost dreamlike state, exploring the massive world and marveling at the eerie ambiance. It\'s then that the game truly shines. But then, it turns around to have horribly unfitting dialogue and characters that pull you out of the experience that the developers work so hard to involve you in while the game simultaneously grows more and more tedious.
Minor quirks aside, NES Remix is a real treat that came out of nowhere. It always amazes me how Nintendo can keep things so secretive and, in this case, make no mention of it until the release day.
The Mario Party franchise and I have always had a rocky relationship. I love its charming aesthetics and generally fun mini-games, but its focus on luck and random “surprises” always left a sour taste in my mouth. My favorites were the N64 titles, with sprawling maps and mad dashes to the power stars. Later entries tried to change the formula with varying success. Island Tour once again tries to shake things up ever so slightly, and again, has varying success.
A Link Between Worlds is close to perfection. It hearkens back to the old days of Zelda, encouraging players to explore Hyrule to their heart’s content. It has a charming art style and some of the best dungeon designs in the series to date. And yet, it only succeeds; It never soars. Link’s latest adventure makes nearly every right choice from a mechanical front, but it never goes beyond that. The result is a product that could have been the next Ocarina of Time, but settles for Twilight Princess.
The launch of a three-dimensional Mario platformer on a console always carries huge expectations with it. Ever since Super Mario 64 redefined 3D gaming and single-handedly sold countless people on the Nintendo 64, each 3D Mario game is expected to somehow match its impact. Well, that's physically impossible — literally, we'd have to make a 4D game to recreate it — and we need to accept that.
Overall, Bowling for Wii Sports Club is pretty fun. If you are a fan of the original Bowling in Wii Sports, you will enjoy this version. The classic mode, as well as the newer modes, helps to add some spice to the game. Online play helps to take the boredom of playing alone and will keep you coming back for more.
Depending on who you talk to, Call of Duty: Ghosts is either a banal sequel or a fulfilling one. It\'s the series at its worst, or it\'s the series changing just enough to keep it fresh.
The debut trailer for Assassin's Creed IV depicted a tipsy Blackbeard profiling the suave and stylish Edward Kenway. The famed pirate tells the stories of this elusive man and his hierarchy in the ranks of other pirates. He ends the trailer by saying, "If it's fortune and adventure you seek, then Captain Edward Kenway is your man," following Kenway's subtle dispatching of a guard before walking off with a woman, a smirk on his face. Edward was portrayed as a cool, collected man and Assassin's Creed IV an adventure heavily focused on pirate culture. As it turns out, that is not what it is.