Publisher: Zen Studios
Developer: Zen Studios

Originally published in June 2010, reprinted for additional content

Those of you who love mini-golf, but suffer from some condition that prevents you from actually playing the game, rejoice! Zen Studios has brought Planet MiniGolf to the Playstation Network.  For only $9.99 (plus tax), you too can avoid enduring summer weather and even the mildest form of exercise.

( read more… )

Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: Uber Entertainment
Genre: Action Shooter
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Only in my wildest imaginings could I chase around a mascot, blasting him with as many bullets as I can load, while he spurts money like blood. Uber Entertainment has brought that dream a little closer to life in Monday Night Combat, a new downloadable title on XBLA.

( read more… )

Once a year, Jason Iatomasi, I, and a few friends grab every TV, Console, Monitor, Controller, and Cartridge we can carry and camp out in Jason’s living room and do nothing but play video games for 24 hours. Well, at least once a year. But when we do it in October, we do it for charity.

The charity event in question is Extra Life. It started in 2008 as an event to raise money for a children’s hospital (click here for the full story). In 2008 and 2009, the charity managed to raise $302,000 for Children’s Miracle Network hospital, no small change for two 24 hour events devoted entirely to gaming. This year, participants can choose from among many (local) beneficiaries when they sign up for the event.

( read more… )

Publisher: NASA
Developer: NASA
Minimum requirements: Win XP SP3; 2.0+ GHZ Single Core Processor; 2GB of System RAM; NVIDIA 7000-series or ATI Radeon X1900 Video Card; 2GB of Free Hard Drive Space; DirectX 9.0c
Genre: Sim
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

Sometimes I look at my life and wonder why I didn’t choose to pursue one of those little-boy dreams, like becoming an astronaut. And then, every so often, along comes a video game like Moonbase Alpha to remind me. Mind you, I’m not knocking astronauts. I’m sure that, in reality, it’s really exciting to know that the only thing keeping you from being turned inside out is a thin piece of glass that’s mere inches from your nose. But when you strip away the lurking danger of the vacuum, the fact that a missing screw could ignite the hundreds of tons of rocket fuel you’re sitting on, the natural splendor of space, and the feeling of weightlessness, you’re really just a slow moving piece of meat in the middle of nowhere. And with Moonbase Alpha, you too can be a slow moving oaf in a spacesuit.

( read more… )

Manufacturer: Nox Audio
MSRP: $79.99

I could tell when I opened the case that this was no ordinary pair of headphones. In fact, I knew because I was opening a case that this was no ordinary pair of headphones. Having owned a slew of headphones in every style, from Bose noise canceling headphones to the earbuds included with the purchase of every Zune, I can say that few manufacturers bother to include a case, and all of them should.  It’s a small detail that goes a long way toward both protecting my purchase and reminding me that it’s something worth protecting.

( read more… )

So 2009 ended with an avalanche of new and desirable titles that bury me anew every time I think I’m getting over my addiction to my last purchase. Nevertheless, I’m still able to tear myself away occasionally in an effort to feed my cat, and crack open a textbook. How, you might ask? I’d like to say that I have some measure of self-control that allows me to get far enough away from my TV that I’m physically incapable of taking a 5 hour break to level up, but the answer is nothing so noble. The fact is, my stuff is breaking at an alarming rate.

This all began months ago when I stupidly upgraded to Windows 7, accepting the word of an IT professional that, unlike Vista, the new OS would not delete my files at random. He was wrong. Not only does the random deletion thing still occur (not gaming related), iTunes no longer likes to sync with my iPhone. Sure, I can use another computer, but the games on my Dell are stranded. So my iPhone is down for the count.

( read more… )

Publisher: Perpetual FX Creative
Developer: Perpetual FX Creative
Genre: Arcade
Release date: Available now

The appeal of Mortal Kombat came not from a solid concept and well thought out plot, but instead from cutting edge graphics and envelope-pushing violence. I am baffled as to why any gaming company would try to rely on the Mortal Kombat formula without the benefit of cutting edge graphics and violence. Nevertheless, this is exactly what Perpetual FX Creative does with Galactic Bowling.

( read more… )

Publisher: Chillingo
Developer: Tetraedge
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now

I hadn’t played a real adventure game in something like 15 years. Perhaps with the coming of the information age, the temptation to look up a walkthrough was just too much, and I thought the genre would lose its magic. But it hasn’t, and Jules Verne’s Secrets of the Mysterious Island proves it. Secrets offers a great adventure experience on a platform perfectly suited to it.

( read more… )

Publisher: I-Imagine Interactive
Developer: RTL Sports
Genre: Sports
Release date: Available now

I should preface this review by pointing out that, more than most games I review, I am not part of the target market for this game. Even compared to the games made for girls aged 9-12, of which I’ve reviewed many. I know so little about soccer, it is literally impossible for me to participate meaningfully in this game. Watching soccer, to me, is a very small step up from watching long distance running on TV.

( read more… )

Publisher: Digital Prunes
Developer: Digital Prunes
Genre: Action
Release date: Available now

The iPhone may well be the greatest thing I’ve ever purchased. I’ve virtually no sense of time or space, and the phone does both of those things for me. So long as I keep my iPhone charged, I will probably never be bored again. That is, of course, unless I use it to play Slingshot Cowboy.

( read more… )

If you can’t make killing zombies fun, you can’t make anything fun.

Now, take that in context: I’m a 2nd year law student. I’m used to being surrounded by soulless, flesh-eating monsters. I also think there’s a little part of all of us that wants a release from the pressure of standing out in an overly populated world and just succeed merely by surviving. Or maybe we’re just a bunch of middle-class man-children who’ve always had too much to lose to do what we want, which is grab a shotgun and go to town on every slack-jawed, animated corpse who gets in our collective face.

Whatever the reason, there are precious few things my friends and I enjoy more than a good zombie blasting. Which is why I am appalled at the incredible let-down that has been Left 4 Dead. It wasn’t an awful game, it just wasn’t worth the money we paid for it. All we got was four characters with no distinct abilities or even personalities, 4 weapons, and no plot. Single-player mode was virtually unplayable. The only thing a change in difficulty did was make your teammates more useless.

( read more… )

Don’t get me wrong, I feel really cool whenever that little notification pops up in the corner of my screen to tell me I just smashed 5 whole sets of chattering teeth. I didn’t know why I did it, or even that I was doing it, but there I sit, like a puppy who just figured out that he’ll be praised whenever he swings his paw at the bald, flat-faced figure before him. I know everybody who’s ever played the game before has done it. Hell, I did it by accident. But it feels good. Just imagine how good it’ll feel when I unlock every last achievement, even the really tough ones that nobody gets. There have to be some that nobody’s done, right? I mean, nobody I know, anyway. Right?

Wrong. I feel empty. I feel like, in the time it took to knock that arrow down with my knife, I should have learned to play the piano, or speak French, or even play a video game I haven’t long since lost interest in.

( read more… )

Publisher: Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment
Developer: Torus Games
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now

I’m of the belief that licensed titles are rarely worth playing, even when I really love the property on which the game was based. I would therefore expect that maxim to hold even truer when the underlying work, for instance, Scooby Doo, was something that I never liked at all. Imagine my surprise, then, when I found that Scooby Doo! First Frights is actually one of the better games I’ve played this year.

( read more… )

Publisher: Oxygen Interactive
Developer: Oxygen Interactive
Genre: Sim
Release date: Available now

If playing Britney Spears at Abu-Grabe qualifies as torture, then forcing people to play My Make-Up must be tantamount to water-boarding. I’m noticing an alarming trend, as I review the latest slew of games from O-Games USA. “E for Everyone” is quickly becoming a euphemism for “N for Nobody.” My Make-Up is the latest evidence.

( read more… )

Publisher: Oxygen Interactive
Developer: Oxygen Studios
Genre: Sim
Release date: Available now

Folks, I know Chicago is a harsh and unforgiving place in the winter. I know not all kids have room to run around in their parents’ houses. I know that parents don’t want their kids playing violent games with “mature” themes. But for the love of God, are we so lazy we can’t even get off our butts to play a real game of tag? O-Games seems to think so.

( read more… )