The current generation of consoles has been an ironic one.  Nintendo’s Wii, with its trendy motion controls, dashed to an early and sizeable sales lead over its HD, more powerful cousins, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.  Consumer demand for the Wii’s motion gaming, as rudimentary as it was, eventually led both Microsoft and Sony to create their own motion-based gaming peripherals. But things changed.  In the last two years, Wii sales have dropped steadily while the PS3 and 360 have gained momentum.  What happened? What were Microsoft and Sony doing that could so forcefully change the tide? While Nintendo’s motion gaming appealed on a novelty level, Xbox Live and… (more…)

The Fun Havers Club is a web-comic started by GameJudgment author Perry Jackson and his friend Cary Frank. It showcases their awesome artistic ability and makes fun of videogames in web-comic form. This week’s installment introduces us to the comic’s main characters, Zach (brown guy, headphones) and Trent (white guy, d-Pad shirt), two gamers wondering what happened to all the classic game titles. Every week (on a date that still needs to be determined) you can read the latest comic from the Fun Havers club, right here on GameJudgment.com. This week’s issue tackles the classic NES title, Balloon Fight. If you want to learn more about Fun Havers Club, catch… (more…)

Final Fantasy XIII is the only video game I have ever returned to a store. Yes, it was that bad, and I absolutely hated it. Square Enix, why are you releasing a sequel to a game that was generally resented by even Final Fantasy’s most hardcore fans? It just doesn’t make sense. When I was younger, the release of a Final Fantasy game always seemed like a special occasion. New entries in the franchise came out every few years and gamers everywhere were certain each Final Fantasy title would offer quality, narrative driven gaming. Now it feels like a new Final Fantasy title comes out every few months and, most… (more…)

I’ve always had a strange attachment to the Halo franchise. For me, Halo: Combat Evolved was the game of high school. Everyone was playing it and cafeteria conversations always somehow ended up being Halo related. But lately, I can’t stand the franchise. I tried getting back into Halo: Reach’s multiplayer last night and got absolutely destroyed. But that wasn’t the only reason I wasn’t having fun. It doesn’t matter if it’s the multiplayer or the single player, I think I just have what I like to call Halo fatigue. I’ve played a lot of Halo: CE in my life and have spent countless hours with friends messing around in local… (more…)

Okay, maybe ‘suck’ is a strong word – because Club Nintendo does have some cool rewards – but the items are highly subjective. Unless you’re twelve or otherwise into stickers, posters, and other Nintendo related swag, there haven’t been many actual games to spend your hard earned Nintendo coins on, aside from a few expensive Game & Watch DS titles. But that all changed in December. Nintendo is now offering Majora’s Mask (Wii) 150 coins, Dr. Mario Rx (Wii) 100 coins, Kirby’s Dreamland (3DS) 100 coins and Dr. Mario Express (3DS) 150 coins. I’ve never been interested in Nintendo’s points club before, but as soon as it started offering free… (more…)

The Zelda series is a franchise that hasn’t changed much over the years. There’s an over world, dungeons, a princess in distress and an angry, magical, evil enemy. During every Zelda adventure you traverse various elementally themed dungeons and meet strange and colourful characters – this is Zelda as we know it. For the last ten years or so any changes have been incremental.  New features have been added, but the core game stays relatively the same. This is due to the fact that the series’ rabid fan base seems content with the franchise remaining relatively similar game after game. Many fans still even believe that Link and the series’… (more…)

2011 was another year of amazing gaming experiences and, for me and select other gamers, it passed virtually without issue. Unfortunately, many others seem to have gotten the short end of the pointy gaming stick. In other words, even though 2011 offered some of the greatest games released this gen, a few screw-ups, mishaps, let downs, and straight-up bad decisions made some gamers feel like the industry’s only real goal was to get them to grab their proverbial ankles.   Without further adieu – and in no particular order – we present the most defining video game letdowns of 2011. Kinect’s Lack of Appealing Games When Kinect first came out, I… (more…)

Metroid Dread has been every Metroid fan’s dream game since rumours of it leaked out roughly a year before the DS Lite’s launch. The rumour was that it would be a 2.5D Metroid game going back to the classic style of gameplay that it leant it’s name to. While many fans would still love to see this hit a DS or the 3DS even, I think it would be far better suited to the upcoming WiiU and may even be able to move systems like few other titles could. It’s certainly worth noting that this is all just me speculating. Unfortunately, nothing has been heard of Project Dread for a while…. (more…)

I’m an Xbox guy through and through, but upcoming Playstation 3 exclusive, The Last Of Us, looks exactly like the game I’ve been imagining in my head for years. I realize that all we’ve seen is a relatively short trailer, but I’ve taken Naughty Dog’s bait; I want this game. I’m well aware that the fact that I haven’t wanted a PS3 before this point is extremely hard for many gamers to fathom. I should also point out that I am by no means ‘anti’ PS3. The best I can explain it, really, is that I’ve grown up playing games on Nintendo and Microsoft consoles and am therefore naturally inclined to want… (more…)

The PlayStation Vita looks awesome and I want one. In fact, I’m a Sony fan and I personally think the upcoming handheld is exactly the kind of device the average “hardcore” gamer could love like no other before. Two analog sticks? Yes please. After research and some rather unwanted personal financial honesty, however, I can no longer recommend picking up a launch Vita in good conscience to those on gaming on a budget. I say this for two reasons, number one being the tendency of handheld makers to release improved versions of a device throughout its lifecycle.  We’ll come to number two later. With reason number one, we look at… (more…)