Author Archives: Alex Yau

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows [Wii Review]

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock or with some part of crazy strict religious cult you’ll know of Harry Potter. Like Haribo, kids and grown ups love it so. J.K Rowling’s certainly been doing pretty well for herself spawning seven books making billions out of it. Of course you can’t have a large worldwide popular franchise without some merchandising and spin offs. Harry Potter is certainly guilty of this. As the series grew so did the tone. Abandoning the more childish themes of previous books, The Deathly Hallows is a darker and more adult story.

For those who need a little catch up, The Deathly Hallows is the first part of a two part adventure which involves Harry Potter flunking out of Hogwarts due to the death of Dumbledore. Voldermort is rising in strength and it’s up to Harry and his friends to destroy the Horcruxes – items which give Voldermort his immortal power.

Throughout most of the game you’ll go through a third person shooter fashion with some small stealth elements thrown in. The main problem with the style of the game is that you’ll often be blocked by objects in the environment as you try to attack the enemies. Furthermore aiming is annoying. There’s no auto aim to aid you making the imprecise and inaccurate targeting cumbersome.

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Sonic Colours [Wii and DS] Review

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Like Arnie to Stallone or Brown to Cameron there have been many epic face offs throughout the history of man. One of them is Mario and Sonic. Both have met brilliant acclaim but Sonic always manages to lose to Mario. The past few years for Sonic have been pretty bad as he has met less than desirable responses for his previous games. Fortunately, Sonic Colours for both the DS and Wii rises above the negativity.

The main story is that Sonic and Tails need to go and save the day again. Dr Eggman has created an evil theme park in which he kidnaps and imprisons alien visitors known as Wisps.

The design for both versions is purely Sonic. The colours are vibrant and the designs of each level are quirky, fantastic and awe inspiring. Sure you’ll be zooming past each level in a fast classic Sonic fashion but that’s not enough to deter you from admiring all the beauty that each level has to offer. Whether it’s looking at the large multicolour mountains or the beautifully shaped planets Sonic Colours definitely lives up to the name providing a solid piece of eye candy. The DS version is different solely for the fact that its set in a 2D platform fashion but the innovative design prevents it from being too boring.

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Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes

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War games have always had their fair share of fan bases. There were the Command and Conquer series and the Dynasty Warrior games which brought Eastern Asian elements to the formula. Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes is Capcom’s offering with a Japanese anime twist.

In SBSH you are given a choice of several characters as you progress through their storylines. Each characters are given their own cut scenes and they all intertwine together. This is only the start of a long list of negatives though.

The voice acting is so terrible and cheesy throughout each scene that you can’t help but laugh. The often over exaggerated screams that some characters give are pure comedy rather than pure drama.

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Last Window – The Secret of Cape West [DS] Review

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It seems that the introduction of games like Phoenix Wright have jumpstarted a certain style of gaming on the DS. Gaming where puzzle solving and storytelling are intertwined like Mario and Mushrooms. Phoenix Wright was pretty successful in its own right as was the later Professor Layton. Now how about getting introduced to Kyle Hyde?

Hyde gets fired from his job as a door to door salesman for the Red Crown. On the outside, the Red Crown seems like a normal business but on the inside, they collect “special” items. He arrives home to his crummy apartment to discover that it he has been served an eviction notice due to closure of the entire complex. Alongside this, Hyde discovers strange messages asking him to locate the Scarlet Star.

Last Window is played holding the DS on its side like a book. It’s a novel way (excuse the pun) of playing a game that is very much focused on its driving and captivating story line. Throughout the game you move Hyde with your stylus. On the left hand side of the screen is a first person 3D view and on the right is a bird’s eye 2D view. The left hand side is slightly pointless however as you’ll often be using the right hand side to play most of the game.

Wii Party [Wii] Review

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Wii Party Box

What makes Wii Party different from the rest?

Wii Sports, Wii Play or Mario Party. Nintendo’s motion sensored console definately doesn’t have an absence of casual and fun multiplayer games. Who could blame Nintendo though? Their main target seems to be that of a more family orientated or casual gaming audience. Now Wii Party is the latest in the series of multiplayer games that the Wii seems to love.

So what is Wii Party? At first glance it seems just like any other Wii Party game. You can choose to play games from one to four players using your own Mii which is a nice personalisation as with previous party games although certain game modes are strictly for more than one player. You compete against each other through a series of mini games in attempt to come out on top.

Wii Party has many game modes. The first which are known as party games and are split up in five categories. Board Game Island requires you to navigate around a board attempting to beat your opponents just like Mario Party. Globe Trot is a game that requires you to use more of your brain as you aim to travel to places such as India, Egypt and the USA in order to gain the most souvenirs and photographs. Unlike Mario Party, Wii Party manages to make use of quick gameplay. There aren’t any traps that slow down the gameplay, just a nice, fast paced game although the ability to skip NPC turns would have been nice.

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Wii Causes ‘a fraction’ of Game Related Injuries

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The Nintendo Wii only takes up a fraction of game related injuries.

The American Academy of Pediatric’s found that 696 video game releated injuries occured from 2004 to 2009. 92 of those injuries were found from ‘newer’ forms of entertainment such as the Wii. Injuries more likely to be sustained included shoulders, ankles and feet with bystander injury being the highest with the Wii.

The Wii shows a warning message about safety before games start and they started offering free wii mote covers for better grip. At the launch of the Wii there were many cases of frantic wii-motes flying and hitting people’s TVs.

696 game related injuries between 2004 and 2009 [CVG]

Goldeneye 64 Story is Not Relevant

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Wii Goldeneye producer Julian Widdows has cast his verdict on the N64 precursor.

Widdows said: “It was a case of saying, ‘OK, what can’t come forwards? What doesn’t stand the test of time?’ The narrative doesn’t really stand the test of time in its purest form; it does feel very ’90s. Daniel Craig’s Bond is now more relevant and contemporary, so we had to bring that up to date.”

Speaking about his own experience of the N64 version, Widdows said “I don’t ever want to tarnish my memory of GoldenEye; I have such amazingly fond memories of it.”

Goldeneye 64 Story ‘Doesn’t Stand Test of Time.’ [CVG]

Metroid Other M [Wii] Review

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Samus Aran is back and it is a whole different adventure from previous games.

Metroid Other M is a game that brings together some old classic elements from the Metroid series and combines them with some new tricks. At the start of Other M the baby metroid sacrifices itself to save Samus. After this spectacular cutscene Samus recieves a distress call to a ship where she then discovers her old team and they investigate the ship.

Compared to previous Metroid’s, Other M is a fast paced action shooter. This results in a game that is an exciting and visceral experience. Often throughout each section you’ll find plenty of enemies to battle with and the games charm derives from the hectic fights. The boss fights are fantastic as they truly bring an epic scale to the game.

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Sonic Colours Greatest Sonic Ever

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Sega’s Takashi Lizuka has called Sonic Colours the greatest Sonic game ever.

Lizuka said:

“This is a similar title to Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, but the similarity comes from the concept – keeping the tempo very fluid. A similar concept applies here. Is it the best since then? We always strive to make the best Sonic game yet. It’s at least on a par with Sonic Adventure Battle 2, and I’m confident it is one of the best Sonic games ever.”

Sonic Adventure Battle 2 was named the best Sonic game in a recent poll.

Sonic Colours ‘is one of the best sonic games ever’. [CVG]