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March 21, 2013

Review – Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon

Review Luigis Mansion
Luigi steps out from the shadow of his famous brother, only to once again find himself cast into the shadowy halls of haunted dwellings, where legions of spirits wait to spook the hesitant hero. When the Dark Moon floating over Evershade Valley is stolen, the colorful poltergeists infesting the area begin causing mayhem, prompting Professor E. Gadd to summon Luigi’s assistance in getting his paranormal research back on track.

Rather than tackling one large mansion, Luigi will be transported to several locations, dispatched from the Professor’s bunker via a device that pixelates and transports him through security cameras, ala Tron.

The handheld release offers a stage layout for each area, where Luigi will accomplish small tasks toward recovering the pieces of the Dark Moon hidden within each, which feeds a quicker action based style of game versus a spiraling haunted mystery.

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February 13, 2013

Demo Report – Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , , — Mister Raroo @ 8:12 am

Demo Report Etrian Odyssey IV
I love milkshakes.

I know they’re not necessarily the healthiest treat option available to me, so I try not to drink them too often. However, when I get my hands on one, I am relentless and guzzle it up, usually to the point that my wife has to tell me to stop making disgusting sounds as I suck the straw like an addict trying to get just one last tiny hit from his crack pipe.

The Etrian Odyssey IV demo is kind of like that.

I have tasted every last bit of what it has to offer and am starving for more. Atlus was generous to provide such a meaty demo, but in a sense, they were also a little cruel. If anyone takes the time needed to build a party of adventurers, traverse through and map out every square inch of the available labyrinths, level up their characters to the max that is allotted in the demo, and complete all offered quests, they are going to find it very hard to wait a couple more weeks to continue their journey into all that Etrian Odyssey IV has to offer.

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December 5, 2012

It’s My Aeroplane

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 10:52 pm

Review Aero Porter
My continuing failure at surviving the high stress world of luggage sorting makes it difficult to peel back as much of Level-5’s latest addition to the eShop as I’d like to in order to lay down some review words. But my poor performance hasn’t been from a lack of effort, with Aero Porter stealing plenty of attention over the last week, and the game is certainly worth some words all the same.

Aside from manipulating my OCD, Aero Porter is a terrifically strange and curious offering, and that’s certainly impressive, considering it comes from the mind of Yoot Saito, best known for giving us Seaman – that game where you raise and communicate with a human-faced fish on your Dreamcast.

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November 22, 2012

Review – Crashmo

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 10:19 pm

Review Crashmo
Nintendo’s plush sumo returns to push and pull more blocks for your digital bucks, this time attempting to retrieve wayward birds instead of children. After an awkward attempt to greet a visiting girl frightens her birds away, players will need to help Mallo solve the puzzles of Papa Blox’s Crashmo course in order to rescue each and fix the situation.

Papa seems to have been busy since last year, with the most immediate change being the addition of gravity – meaning that pushing one block will cause the others above it to fall, and offering Intelligent Systems a fresh chance to cram the game’s stages full of puzzles that seem rather impossible, until I chill out and realize the solution is rather simple.

That’s usually the way it goes, except for the times it doesn’t. Those are the terrible times. The dark times. The times when I throw myself on the mercy of Papa Blox for advice and he tells me to try moving some blocks, and I want to cry just a little.

Then I remember I can just skip around it and try again later.

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November 11, 2012

Review – Paper Mario: Sticker Star

Review Paper Mario Sticker Star
Though it will likely come as no surprise to hear that Bowser has once again crashed the festivities of the Mushroom Kingdom, it’s not entirely his fault. Given that the Kingdom has a party for just about everything, the Koopa King would be hard pressed to show up when there wasn’t an event being held.

This time Bowser crashes the party during the annual Sticker Festival, where his attempt to seize power causes royal stickers to scatter across the Kingdom, setting Mario up nicely to do his hero thing – said thing being to visit deserts and snowy peaks in order to retrieve the stars and bring Bowser’s latest dictatorship to an end.

Naturally, the 2D paper aesthetic runs deep in this 3D landscape, from cardboard health bars to enemies that crumple when stomped – an ideal environment for Nintendo’s attempt to augment the series with layers of stickers that litter the landscape to provide players with the means to once again defeat Bowser’s minions.

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November 8, 2012

Demo Report – Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion

Demo Report Disney Epic Mickey Power of Illusion
With Disney now offering up a demo for Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion, we all have an equal opportunity to finally sample the 3DS title, which has held my curiosity since the company revealed that the game serves as a sequel to the fondly remembered Castle of Illusion that hit the Sega Genesis way, way back in 1990.

And while on one hand it’s surprising that Disney would commission a 2D sidescroller in the here and now, the 2D elements of their Epic Mickey series make it a tad less so. It’s certainly far less surprising that the game ties into Epic Mickey at least, and this short taste offers players a chance to see how the relationship bleeds into the 3DS outing.

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October 28, 2012

Review – Liberation Maiden

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 12:53 am

Review Liberation Maiden
Grasshopper’s dip into 3D shooters offers a crash course in Japanese politics – primarily that in times of peril the President will seek approval to defend New Japan by personally waging war in a flying armored mech.

Originally one of four games found in Level-5’s Japanese release, Guild01, Liberation Maiden is the first of three titles from that collection chosen by Level-5 to hit the North American eShop. Shoko Ozora takes to her Liberator, named Kamui, across five stages that players won’t be long for reaching the cliffhanger ending of.

As short as the ride proves to be, it’s difficult to complain about the quantity given the quality. A few precious seconds of Liberation Maiden offers more to digest than some larger digital releases, made shinier with animation sequences from Japanese studio Bones.

Frankly, Grasshopper offers a barrage of ideas here that hits my refresh rate like an Itano Circus.

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