Professor Layton and the Last Specter is an interesting yet frustrating game. For starters, the title blends classic PC point and click game-play with mind-bending puzzles. The concept is great, but instead of tying the game’s puzzles to the story – as is the case in classic adventure titles such as Monkey Island or Sam and Max – the Last Specter doesn’t even try to integrate the two. Basically, there are puzzles for no other reason than the town of Misthallery’s inhabitants are simply puzzle-crazed individuals. This strange decision pulled me out of the game’s otherwise reasonably engaging story line. Professor Layton and the Last Specter is a prequel to all previous… (more…)

Last time I wrote a post on this subject I hit a cord with some people when I criticized their favorite virtual pleasures. One of the issues raised a few times, and not so eloquently, was that I was a Nintendo fanboy and just wanted to bash on other games. I thought that was odd because two of the games I talked about, Final Fantasy and Mega Man, originated on the back of grandpa Nintendo. So in an effort to quell my o’ so many denouncers I aim my sights at you today Nintendo. From hell’s heart I stab at thee. Nintendo was founded over a hundred years ago. Did… (more…)

When I was younger, my main console of choice was Nintendo’s GameBoy. It was a perfect match for me, I could take it anywhere and always gamed to my heart’s content. I probably spent far too much time with my eyes glued to my GameBoy Colour’s screen playing Zelda Link’s Awakening, Kirby’s Dream Land, Wario Land, and a crap load of other classic titles. I can confidently credit Nintendo’s little portable juggernaut as the machine that got me into gaming. It cured summer boredom and gave me something to do on long car rides. It began with the original GameBoy then graduated to the GameBoy Colour and GameBoy Advance (I remember being… (more…)

I’ve already written quite a few articles about Pokemon and here finally is my review of Pokemon Black and White. I’ve only got as far as the Pokemon League but I’m thinking that’s far enough to get a fair gist of the game. If you are planning on getting this game and haven’t yet, be aware I won’t spoil the story that much, but I might go into a bit of detail to start with. For the first few towns, this will sound like a walk-through with opinions but I’ll tone that down as I go. With a slightly different start and some pre-named character friends, I chose my Snivy,… (more…)

Ems: Pokemon Black and White is released in the UK today, Chris and I are going to let everyone know what we think of the starters before we even own the game.

Chris: We decided on our choices for starters a few days ago while we started to hype ourselves up over it’s impending release. So without any knowledge of what we’ll actually come across we made snap judgements of which was our best choice to start exploring the Unnova region with.

Also, I apologise for the bad drawings. Just got a new tablet and I’m breaking it in.

My lucky, lucky girlfriend over in Northern Ireland has received her copy of Pokemon White two days early. She kindly recorded a short video of her opinions. Pokemon Black and White are released on Friday in the U.K. and Sunday in the U.S. and Canada.

Last time I talked about this, (back here) I was analysing the new designs of the Pokemon themselves but I didn’t know enough about the world, or even the rest of the game in general to talk about it. Now the info has been released and I’ve wised up – let’s get to it. The land itself is going to be American based, some fans were expecting this. It’s to be set in a place that is New York-esque in the way that characters of many cultures and job descriptions will be wandering around. I say wandering around, but given NPC behavior in past games they’ll probably be walking in… (more…)

I’ve been playing Tetris since I was big enough to hold the classic gameboy. Although you did have to have big hands to do that. In the old days of Tetris, there was no hold button, there was no ghost brick, you could even hide the upcoming block. Yes, block. Not a list 0f blocks. A single upcoming block. I’ll admit now that back then, I sucked at Tetris. I think I made it to around level 11 once – Maybe. Tetris these days has come so far and added so much. In Tetris Party Deluxe DS there are 9 single player modes and a few multiplayer ones too. There’s… (more…)

I just saw this video on Kotaku and was blown away, Eminem you better be afraid this kid has some serious lyrical skills.

“I was inspired by the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, where he’s sick, he makes this call where he plays back puking sounds from his keyboard,” says Tobias Weyand. “Bueller inserts this diskette into his keyboard and pretends to be really sick, I’ve always wanted a thing like that.” Weyand’s a Nintendo DS homebrew game developer.