Review Archive

When you first boot up LIMBO and find your nameless protagonist face-down in the mud, it’s immediately clear that something is amiss. The boy wakes up alone, probably wondering where he is and how he got there. The deep woods inspire a sense of dread, and its silence further signifies that the next few hours are going to be quite lonely.

While Braid may deal in time trickery and P.B. Winterbottom specializes in cloning, this latest puzzle platformer’s biggest selling point is melancholy. LIMBO of course has a few mechanical hooks along the way, but its shadowy look and haunting atmosphere set this apart from almost any other game I can think of, downloadable or otherwise. The swinging traps and whirring saw blades are familiar; the quiet boat ride in between is not.

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Playing as Sam Fisher, the legendary spy who could put Solid Snake in a sleeper hold, I skulk through the shadows of a heavily guarded airfield; the guards don’t realize that they have me completely surrounded. I’m absolutely meticulous – not a single light bulb is left intact – but I’m not sure how much longer I can keep up my silent assault. One of the guards turns the corner with his flashlight in hand, but I press the B button and knock him out before he becomes trouble. Using my execution move, I pick off two more stragglers in the distance. I’m ruthless, I’m cunning and I’m empowered. This is where Splinter Cell: Conviction shines.

I then trip an alarm, enemies start heckling me repeatedly and the A.I. goes haywire. So much for that.

Fortunately, Splinter Cell: Conviction‘s campaign is usually more hot than cold, but these inconsistencies will drive you mad as you search around the globe for the killer of Sam Fisher’s daughter. The series has always taken pride in its cat-and-mouse dynamic, but in Conviction, Fisher’s increased firepower throws all of that off-balance. Perhaps the guards weren’t all that clever in previous installments, but at least they had weaponry on their side. Now that Fisher can eliminate his adversaries without confidence, its a wonder that they don’t spend the entire game in hiding.

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While our Club Nintendo pales in comparison to the Japanese equivalent, we still get some pretty nifty stuff, including a new Punch-Out!! opponent, tangible Game & Watch collections and even Hanafuda cards from the Nintendo of yesteryear. But these gems don’t come cheap. Not only do you have to buy a ton of games, but you also have temptations like Grill-Off with Ultra Hand, an 80 point download that just seems to cheap to resist. Unlike every other WiiWare title, this one actually received some advertising, too (featuring Tim Olyphant and American Ringo Starr in a poncho). I’m utterly baffled by the gold treatment, as Ultra Hand is about as lightweight as it gets.

This barbecue simulator is essentially a Game & Watch game, except for the fact that it requires you to wildly flap your arms like a chicken. Meat continuously falls from the sky, and you must yank it away with the Ultra Hand before it overcooks. (The titular toy was a Gumpei Yokoi creation, and it’s made a few WarioWare cameos since.) I will admit that I appreciated the challenge of keeping track of various kinds of meat at once. Roasted chicken takes longer than kabobs or steaks, for instance, and thus grilling becomes a delicate balancing act. Even so, the game is just too unforgiving; if you drop even a single kabob, it’s an instant game over. Apparently, Nintendo doesn’t believe in the five second rule.

I doubt this will hold anyone’s attention for more than five minutes. Save your points, kids.

Long before we became the discerning gamers of today, we were kids unwrapping video games and Nerf guns under our Christmas/Nondenominational trees. For me, there were some real holiday stinkers, like NES Ghostbusters 2 and Pictionary. But for all the licensed junk, there was usually a Mega Man cartridge nearby. I know that popular opinion dictates that I should dislike parts four through infinity, but they were always my video game comfort food. I guess it’s through this nostalgic lens that I can fully embrace Mega Man 10, a solid but not stellar entry in the series.

Of course, MM10 has the unfortunate distinction of following 2008′s Mega Man 9, one of the best games in the series and a wonderful digital throwback. MM9 was just the back-to-basics shot in the arm that the Blue Bomber needed. Almost all of the bloat was cut out, leaving gamers with a lean action-platformer that was actually fun to play, even when it was kicking their behinds. MM10 also leaves out the superfluous stuff – don’t bother trying to charge your Mega Buster here – but it doesn’t add much either.

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