But the good games it did get were pretty nice.

Read on and see our 5 winners!

New Super Mario Brothers Wii

A new Mario 2D platformer, which is pretty much a tribute to Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World… Is there anything bad to say about this? Not really. And the addition of a chaotic and incredibly fun 4-player mode just seals the deal. This is THE game to have this year on Wii.

Punch-Out!

I love Punch-Out!!. The simple gameplay might make it seem a bit meh, but make no mistake, learning every characters’ tactics and patterns and finding the way to beat them as fast as possible is really fun. Here the character selection is a bit weak, but the addition of upgraded versions of each character with new patterns and attacks definitely makes up for it.  The same fun gameplay as before, and it still doesn’t get old.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade

This Metroidvania-style side-scrolling action RPG is one of the more unique games this year. Geaturing fast-paced gameplay, fun combat, lots of things to find and explore, multiple endings and 2 fun stories, this is a game Wii owners shouldn’t pass up on.

The House of the Dead: Overkill

This is the on-rail shooter in its best form.  It’s simple, replayable, and fun as hell. The humor is just way over-the-top and hilarious (especially the scene before the final boss), the visual and story-telling style being remeniscent of 70s grindhouse films, the gameplay is fast and furious, there’s some replay value with the various difficulties, gun upgrades and things to find in each level, this is one of the really fun games this year.

Contra ReBirth

I did mention before that Contra is awesome, right? Well, it still is. A great sequel to a great series, and at a low low price to boot.

So of course we went and made a list of the 5 best multiplayer experiences of the year.

Read and and see our 5 winners for this category!

Borderlands

What makes Borderlands’ multiplayer interesting is the different classes you can use, and how everyone can customize them however they want, making each character relatively unique. Taking on quests with different teams leads to different strategies every time you play since everyone will play their characters a bit differently, and mixing up all the different skills can lead to deadly combos. There’s a good amount of quests to take on and going through them with multiple people is great fun. Not to mention DLC which adds more quests and things to do(instead of plain weapon packs), along with constantly adding new areas to explore as a team. And playing in multiplayer gives more experience and better loot, so what’s not to love? (thank you Josh for helping out on the text here)

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger

Fighting games always offer some fun competitive play. And BlazBlue is definitely no exception. Trying out combos on other players or just testing who’s the best, BlazBlue is as fun as it gets in fighting games. Add in the great online play featuring near lagless matches at all times, using a special “synchronization” system that pretty much removes any lag.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Well, the follow up for the most popular online shooter is definitely gonna land a spot here. Taking up basically the same online system as CoD4, with some modifications like killing sprees and death sprees, as well as new perks, this will surely live on as the best online shooter until Modern Warfare 3 comes out. The PC version ended up getting a bit gimped, but it’s still a solid multiplayer title.

New Super Mario Bros Wii

While NSMBW is a great single player experience, it’s great to finally play a Mario platformer with up to 4 people at the same time. It’s chaotic and a lot harder than playing on your own, but it’s so damn fun. Pissing off friends by forcing them down holes or blocking their jumps by jumping on top of them never gets old. What I first thought would suck ended up being a great idea. Great job Nintendo.

Uncharted 2

For Naughty Dog’s first competitive multiplayer outing, Uncharted 2 is stunning. With many maps available, and with each being sizeable with many nooks and crannies to be explored, you’ll rarely find yourself bored of your surroundings. The upgrade system is well made, players being paid cash to spend on new skins and boosters for each kill and for performing specific actions during each match. Multiple game modes add even more depth to the Multiplayer and there is promised to be much on the way in terms of DLC. In short, there’s as much to enjoy in Uncharted 2′s multiplayer as there is in its singleplayer. (Thank you Wintrale for the text)

Is it worth the hype? Read on and see!

Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Date of Release: November 15, 2009
Platforms: Wii

Genre: Side-Scrolling Platformer
Players: 1 to 4 players

Looks and sounds
The game looks like Mario. Simple yet surreal environments, the same character designs as in the last million years Mario has existed, upgraded design for characters and enemies from previous Mario games. Not much that I can really say. It’s Mario looking as good as Mario ever looked. Not exactly at the level of Super Mario Galaxy, but it still has great visual design overall. One thing that’s weird is the fact that the game is widescreen. It’s expected that, on a TV with a 4:3 aspect ratio, black bars would be added because the game is widescreen. But why are the black bars added on a widescreen TV? That makes no sense… Oh, and it’s awesome seeing the Koopa kids in 3D, it’s been so long since they were in a game(other than Superstar Saga).

The sound is top-notch, like in all Mario games, though I have a few gripes. My first is that they reuse the music fron NSMB on the DS. Not a big problem, but I’d rather either have new music, or remixes of older tunes from the NES/SNES days. There’s a few of those, and I think a few new tunes, but most of it is the music from the DS. The rest is classic Mario sounds, nothing to add here.

Gameplay
Let’s skip the story because, frankly, you know how it starts  and you know how it ends before even putting the disc in the Wii.

Outside of levels
The game works like Super Mario Bros 3, or Super Mario World. You have a map for each level, litered with levels, castles, mushroom houses, mansions and a few other things. On the map, there’s not much you can do. Going from one level to another is what you’ll pretty much always do, but you can also press 1 to bring up a menu to use items you get from mushroom houses just like in SMB3. Also back from SMB3 is enemies on the map. Instead of just Hammer Bros and other enemies of the sort, there’s just about any enemy type here. Running into an enemy will trigger a level that fits on the whole screen. You have to avoid attacks and enemies here, and pick up all the Toad ballons without dying. This will make a treasure box appear, which contains a Toad, who will give you mushrooms which you can use on the map.

Mushroom Houses contain mini-games either for lives or for items that will be usable on the map. The item game (in red mushroom houses) is similar to the one in SMB3 where you flip cards and match them, except here if you flip a panel it stays there for the rest of the mini-game and gives you the item when you find another one. Find either 2 Bowser panels or 2 Bowser Jr panels and the level ends. The lives mini-game (in green mushroom houses) requires you to get in a cannon, aim at the lives and shoot to hit them. Yellow Mushroom houses just give a star without a mini-game involved.

In levels
The actual stages are just as you’d expect them. Really smooth platforming gameplay, precise and easy to use jumping mechanics, and tight controls that assure that, if you die, it was your own fault. Like in all Mario games you can run, jump, hit blocks to get coins and power-ups, jump on enemies to kill them other than ones with spikes and enter certain pipes to secret rooms and such. This game, like NSMB, adds a few elements from the 3D games, including wall jumping, double and triple jumps. You can also ground pound. By holding 1 and shaking the Wiimote you can grab objects or frozen enemies(except shells, you pick those up like in every other Mario game), and releasing 1 makes you throw them. Just shaking the Wiimote makes you spin, which… I frankly haven’t found much use for other than clearing fog/clouds.

The power-ups are okay. You have the basic Mushroom, Fire Flower and Star, which work like they always did. Returning from NSMB on the DS is the Mini Mushroom which works just like in the DS game. Next the new power-ups. The Ice Flower shoots iceballs that freeze enemies(they only bounce on the floor once unlike fireballs) and stops enemy fireballs. The penguin suit enables you to slide on ground(smashing anything you touch while sliding, and is a lot more effective on ice) and shoot ice balls like the Ice Flower. It also makes it easier to swim. The Propeller Mushroom gives you a weird suit and a propeller helmet, which enables you to go high in the air if you shake the Wiimote(you can do that in the air). There’s an okay variety of power ups, but SMB3 still has it beat by far. Oh, and Yoshi is in a few levels in the game, he works just like in SMW, except you can use the “float” move from Yoshi’s Island and Yoshi’s Story. Too bad you can’t keep him when you’re done with a level.

The level design is really nice, with a bunch of different platforms and obstacles giving lots of gameplay variety. Moving platforms, rotating platforms, platforms you have to move using the Wiimote while avoiding enemies… There’s tons of different things here. There’s also various types of enemies. Most come from previous Mario games, some of which we haven’t seen in a really long time. Lots of enemies really add challenge to the game, some with projectiles, or spiked balls. Most familiar Mario enemies are here, and there’s actually not that many new enemy types.

The boss battles are also really cool. You get 2 or 3 per world. One in the mid-world dungeon against one of the Koopa Kids, one in the world’s castle again against the same Koopa Kid as previously, and sometimes you get really cool airship levels like in SMB3 which end with battles against Bowser Jr. The second boss fight against the Koopa Kid of each world is always different from the first one. When you reach them after going through the castle level, Kamek will come by, and like in Yoshi’s Island, will sprinkle some Rainbow Dust or whatever it is and modify something in the level. Sometimes makes platforms appear, makes things bigger… a lot of different things happen and this makes each boss fight fun and unique. Sadly they’re a bit on the easy side, but some of them can be tough, and all of them are really fun. The final boss battle is just as you expect it, but it has a nice twist and it’s quite epic as well.

Overall the single player experience is incredible, like as most Mario platformers. But what about the Multiplayer?

Multiplayer
You can play the game with up to 4 players. And there’s basically only one way to describe the experience: total chaos. And it’s REALLY fun. You can basically go through any level in the game, or play through the whole game, with 4 people on screen at once. How that works is… just like the single player, except here you have people picking you up and throwing you down holes, or jumping on you forcing you down holes, or you can jump on people to get higher. It’s just fun. Dying isn’t really important as you have infinite continues and a good supply of lives. The only thing is that, if you lose all your lives in a level, you’ll have to wait to go back on the map to get a continue and more lives. In a level, if you die, you will shortly return inside a bubble, and you’ll be able to keep playing once another player pops your bubble. If all players are in bubbles(well, if 3 are in bubbles and the last one dies), you lose and must restart the level (maybe at the check-point if you found it in the level). One “trick” here is that you can press the A button to get into a bubble at any time. So you can save yourself from dying and such. Just be careful and be sure you’re not the only one left outside of a bubble or you’ll lose. One thing here is that some levels are really hard with 4 people on the screen at the same time. The dungeons in the middle of each world scroll vertically, and if one or two people go too fast for the other two, they can die because they get too low under the screen (you can save yourself before that by going in a bubble though). Levels with lots of precision platforming tend to be a clusterfuck of people jumping on each other and falling in holes. Even if you don’t TRY to kill someone, there’s always a chance you’ll do it anyways. Not much more to say about this. The multiplayer is great, which I actually wasn’t expecting. I thought it would just be chaotic and boring, but it’s actually loads of fun (though it is still quite chaotic).

Super Guide
Just a passing mention of this feature. I actually think it’s great. For me it was useless since I never died 8 times in a single level(yeah, you have to die a lot in a single level before the feature activates itself, so it’s giving you a LOT of chances to beat a level before offering to help you), but for people who aren’t veteran gamers like you and me, it’s great. It can help them get past whatever killed them, and they can take control anytime during the super guide. That’s really all I have to say about it. After finishing the game I did try it out, and it does an okay job of finishing a level in a way that will teach people new to the game to play properly, showing various tricks and such. Though I find that it goes a bit too slowly. The thing can be a bit glitched at times, I’ve seen videos of the super guide jumping in easily avoidable holes, but overall, from what I’ve heard and seen, it works well.

Overall
To be completely honest… this is a must buy for any Mario fan, and a game anyone with a Wii should consider buying. The gameplay is classic Mario, and easily the best Side-Scrolling Platformer on the Wii. It’s fun, has great level design and some really cool boss battles. It’s around the same quality as you can expect any other Mario Side-Scroller.

It’s a hard game which can offer challenge to veteran players, but the inclusion of the Super Guide and hint videos make the game fully accessible for less talented gamers which is a great thing. You also get TONS of lives in the game, so you can afford to die a lot. I don’t know WHAT game some journalists were playing before calling it “Contra hard”, it’s definitely not that hard. Still, as far as Mario games go, this one is pretty hard.

The 4-player is one of the game’s draws, but it’s not really the main way you’ll play this. It’s a loads of fun, but it’s a completely different experience from the single player.

Pros/Cons
Pros
– Challenging
- Accessible to any type of gamer
- Great gameplay – Sounds and looks great
- 4 players is great fun despite how chaotic it is
- The Koopa Kids are back!
- Some really fun boss battles
- Infinite replay value (and an extra world to explore for people who find all star coins in each world)

Cons
- Can’t keep Yoshi after finishing a level with him
- Nothing else that I can really complain about here

The Save Factor
The starting price is $50, which I think is a bit high for a Wii game, but it’s frankly worth it. If you’re not the biggest Mario fan, wait for a price drop in… a million years, considering Nintendo never reduce the price on their games. Or get it used.

I always kinda liked the Mario & Luigi series, but at the same time I realize that I haven’t finished any of the games in the series.

Now comes the new game in the series, with a different concept from before, and being at least mildly original.

Read on and see if it’s any good!

Developer: Alphadream Corporation
Publisher: Nintendo
Date of Release: September 14, 2009
Platforms: DS

Genre: RPG (With action elements, and lots of minigames)
Players: 1

ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Looks and sounds
The graphics are pretty much ripped right of the 2 previous games in the series. And they look just as good. There’s new areas, or course, which are all fine looking. The kicker here is Bowser’s insides, which you pass quite a lot of time in. They look incredibly cartoony and unrealistic, which is great. I was expecting something pretty lame in this regard, but I’m not disappointed. The character design is faithful to the series’ normal look, and nothing feels out of place.

The sound is okay. The music sound kinda Mario-ish, and the sound effects are almost all recycled. When Luigi and Mario decide to talk, it’s just completely annoying. You don’t see what they say, you just hear random gibberish and it sucks. The sound isn’t the high point of the game, but it’s certainly not bad.

Story
The story is a it on the weird side. It starts at a conference in Peach’s Castle, talking about a fun little disease that makes the citizens big and unable to move. During that, Bowser attacks, so Mario stops him…. AND THEN PEACH THROWS HIM OUT OF THE CASTLE USING THE FORCE (yeah, makes no sense… I never knew Peach was a Jedi, and if she is, why does she never use her powers when she gets kidnapped?). Bowser is then tricked by Fawful to eat a magical mushroom. The mushroom makes him inhale everything in front of him when he opens his mouth. So he goes back to Peach’s castle and inhales everyone on there way, including Mario, Luigi, Peach, and a Star Sprite thing which follows them around. So from here on, Fawful takes over both Peach’s Castle and Bowser’s Castle and Mario and Luigi are stuck inside Bowser.

So your job is to play as both the Mario/Luigi duo and Bowser. M&L must find people inside of Bowser and get out of there. This includes playing mini-games to strengthen Bowser during certain parts. As Bowser, you try to find all your troops and regain your castle, unknowingly being helped by Mario and Luigi on the way. In time Mario & Luigi get out of Bowsers body. but they get back inside it when they need to, either to quickly go from one area of the world to another using the warp pipes he inhaled, or help Bowser through a mini-game.

Overall, the story is good enough. Not incredible, but it’s well written and funny. The characters are pretty much all a bit over-the-top. The dialog is funny most of the time, and rarely long-winded. The story is enjoyable enough.

Gameplay
The gameplay is comprised of 4 main elements: Bowser segments, Mario & Luigi inside Bowser segments, Mario & Luigi outside of Bowser segments and of course fighting.

Exploration
For Mario and Luigi, the gameplay style when inside or outside of Bowser changes. Inside of Bowser it’s side-scrolling action, while it’s a bird’s eye view when you’re outside of Bowser. The gameplay works the same for both of those though. And Bowser is always in a birds eye view as well. The controls are simple enough. The D-pad moves, A controls Mario, B controls Luigi, X controls some of Bowsers moves and Y controls other of Bowsers moves(and, most of the time, you can switch between the Bros and Bowser when you want). Pressing R changes what each button does, switching normal jumping to hammers or floating, stuff like that. Using various moves, like doing an helicopter spin to clear large gaps or digging to find items or pass under things, Mario and Luigi are a bit more concentrated on platforming. Bowser, on the other hand, is a bit more about destroying stuff and puzzle solving, using his flames to burn things, or 2 varieties of punchs to clear puzzles or larger gaps. The overall navigation part of the game is well done and interesting enough to play.

Fighting
Fighting is of course the most interesting gameplay element here. You either fight using Mario and Luigi togheter, or Bowser on his own.

For Mario and Luigi, Mario is controlled with A, Luigi is controlled with B. The basic attacks are jumping and the hammer. Each require pulling off different timing for more damage. Jumping gives more damage and a second hit if you press the proper button before the jump hits(and just before the second jump as well). For the hammer, the bros you’re using will start “charging the hammer”, pulling it back behind him, and he will attack once you press the button. If you hit when the hammer is tilted enough you’ll do more damage. Special attacks are all controlled with both the A and B buttons as well, where you have to press the button when the proper brother needs to do something. This is very fun and intuitive, and getting high damage on those attacks requires great timing. Each attack by enemies can be avoided or countered. When they attack, the bros will already be set to either jump or use the hammer, depending on the attack, and getting the right timing will prevent you from getting hurt, and sometimes even cause damage to the enemy attacking you. It’s a fun system, though it reduces the difficulty a bit since you can technically never get hit in the game if your timing is top-notch.

Bowser is quite similar to Mario and Luigi in battle, except he’s alone, and he has 2 buttons to avoid/counter attacks. Instead of instantly going to method you need to use, you can, and sometimes HAVE to use both. The methods here are punching and hiding in your shell to protect yourself from aerial attacks. Using Y to hide in the shell and X to punch, you have to look at the enemy’s attack and determine which to use, and the proper timing for it. Sometimes attacks will require to protect yourself, and then punch to damage an enemy or things like this. His basic attacks are a punch and fire-breathing, which both have a timing similar to the Bros’ hammer. The firebreath is a big attack that hits all enemies on screen, while the punch deals massive damage to one enemy. Another element here is the inhale attack. When the option flashes, you can inhale to do some sort of effect, sometimes disabling enemies or certain attacks, sucking enemies inside of Bowser for Mario and Luigi to fight seperately, or getting healing items that are on enemies. And Bowser has his own set of special attacks, based around his army. His special attacks are touch-screen based, basically mini-games which require speed and timing. For example, the Goomba attack requires touching each goomba, burning them and sending them flying through the air, causing a lot more damage when they hit the targets. Those attacks are intrusive and are pretty fun to do. Fighting as Bowser is really fun and quite different from fighting with Mario and Luigi, while keeping a similar style.

Leveling
The leveling is basically the same as in the other Mario and Luigi games. You get enough experience, you get higher stats, and then you choose 1 stat to get an extra boost, determined by numbers in a roulette. The numbers are lower if you stat is high, but you can try and get the number you want from the roulette by timing the roulette to stop at the number you want. This adds a small element of customisation to the game. Leveling up also gives you ranks when you level up enough. This enables to get extra pieces of equipment on, and Mario/Luigi can get access to more expensive stores later on as well. Not much more to say here. It’s basic but to the point and easy to use for anyone.

Mini-games
For a big part of the game, Mario and Luigi are condemned to take part in mini-games to strenghten Bowser. Some repeat themselves, others are a one time thing. Most require pressing A for Mario and B for Luigi in the right timing to get Bowser to reach his objective. Another is a lame puzzle-like game using the touch screen, there’s a Shmup-like minigame where you much shoot 2 different colors of bullets at the same colored balls. There’s another type of battle as well, involving Bowser becoming Godzilla-sized and fighting various types of enemies. This uses the touch-screen for control, and requires holding the DS in an awkward vertical position. It’s pretty fun though, and requires slightly different challenges from normal battles.

Overall… there’s a lot of mini-games, most that feel useless to do after the first time, and most that aren’t really fun either. Not a big problem, but it can become annoying to be playing mini-games all the time.

Overall
This is a very fun game. I feel like it’s a few steps above Partners in Time. Primarily using Bowser was a bit random at first, but as I played I got more and more sections where you control M&L.

The battle system is fun and simple, though a bit on the easy side since every enemy attack can be evaded/countered. The story and characters are pretty fun, and the game offers lots of gameplay variety, and a slew of mini-games if you’re into that stuff.

If you’re a fan of the series, this is probably one of the better games between the 3.

Pro/Cons
Pros
- Fighting is fun
- Fun story and characters
- Playing as Bowser is always a plus
- Lots of things to find and collect

Cons
- A bit too easy
- So… many… mini-games….

The Save Factor
The game has a starting price of 40$, which I feel is a bit high for a handheld game. Though for a game that is high quality like this, I’ll say it has a Save Factor of:

$35 (worth the full price for fans, otherwise wait a little bit)

This game is loosely based on a japanese TV show that involves playing retro grames, which is called Game Center CX. I say loosely, because I kinda doubt the story in this game is the same as in the TV show. And add to that the fact that you don’t play any actual retro games, but instead you get a bunch of new games made in a retro style, inspiring their gameplay on actual retro titles.

What I’m reviewing here is basically eight 8-bit games, and I’ll also be reviewing the package as a whole. This will be kinda long…

Well, read on!

Story
Game Master Arino, the host from Game Center CX (I think), sends you back to the past in the 80s, and changes you into a kid. To get back to the present, you have to beat video game challenges given to you by Game Master Arino. Once you get in the past, you meet Arino, but as a kid, and he decides to help you out by letting you play his games. That’s pretty much it. No character development (other than Game Master Arino getting pissed when you finish challenges too fast), no setting other than 2 kids talking about games in front of a TV while playing games.

The “story” is really just there to get you to go forward in time to get more games as they come out in the timeline.  But there’s one thing that confuses me… Why does my character WANT to go back to the present time? Being stuck in the 80s wouldn’t bother me much…

Games
So at each game’s release date, you have to do certain challenges in them, in order to go forward in time and unlock more games. Each game takes on a retro game’s gameplay and graphic style, so if some of them sound, look or play familiar, it’s intended. Also, in most of the games, getting 20000 points gives you an extra life, then reaching 70000 gives you another, then each increment of 700000 points gives you another. For points, there’s secrets in the game that give bonus points most of the time, by going through secret passages or shooting certin spots a few times until a “Hidden Character” appears for you to pick up.

In addition to the 4 normal challenges, each game has a “finish the game” challenge, and you can freeplay all of them once you finish the 4 base challenges for each. Just a note, in freeplay your Guadia Quest and Haggle Man 3 saves do not carry over from the story mode.

Cosmic Gate
why hallo thar Galaga. Yup, the first game is exactly Galaga. So that’s a great point here. Added to the usual Galaga formula (being stuck on the bottom of the screen to shoot enemies on top), you get a few new elements. There’s a power up which gives you a piercing bullet every 3 shots, which helps a lot in getting points. There’s also warp points. Those are activated by shooting a blinking enemy without shooting any of the others and then shooting the warp that appears until it swallows you, which makes you skip 3 stages, unless you get to a stage with a special portal that let’s you skip 12 stages. And every few stages there’s an asteroid field, and you get more points if you destroy more asteroid, and extra points by destroying the bigger ones.

This game is really fun if you like really old-school shooters, but sadly the challenges aren’t really… challenging. Beating an early stage, getting warps, destroying a giant asteroid and getting a certain amount of points. Easy stuff, especially if you were a good Galaga player. Also, the game can be finished in like 2 minutes using a super secret cheat you see in the magazine at the end of the story, so no need to go through all 64 stages to get to the end.

Robot Ninja Haggle Man
This time it’s a platformer. Uses elements from Mario, Bobble Bubble and a few others. You can jump, enter and exit doors, throw shuriken and summon allies by gathering 3 scrolls (gathering the 3 scrolls automatically summons an ally, you have no control on that). The goal of every level is simple. Kill each enemy, then kill the boss. All enemies can be killed by jumping on them, and shuriken can only stun them for the most part. Some enemies have different patterns as well. Each stage is a looping section. There are various doors in each stage. Entering them stuns everyone in the vicinity or kills everyone in the vicinity (depending on if they’re already stunned or not). The doors are colored. If you enter a red door, all red doors will spin and hurt things in their general area and again when you get out and the door re-opens, and the door you entered changes color. Getting hit twice kills you just like in Ghosts n’ Goblins.

This game is really a good change from Cosmic Gate and is surprisingly fun to play. A bit easy though, and the challenges aren’t really hard. Killing 2 enemies in 1 jump, reaching a stage without using shuriken, reaching a stage without dying and reaching the halfway point of the game.

Rally King
An NES style racing game, using a overhead view and having kinda meh controls. This takes on the gameplay the R.C. Pro-Am games on the NES, with slightly more confusing controls. You start in 20th place, and you have to catch up to other drivers that somehow already started the race.  Hitting other racers and walls damages you, and you explode when you get too much damage. This game implements some Mario Kart elements as well. You can get a boost start by holding the A button just before (or while?) the number 2 appears in the countdown. Also, by letting go of A and turning, you can drift. holding a drift long enough gives you a boost, which is pretty important to finish the challenges.

This game… isn’t very fun. It’s not bad, if you like this style of racing game. But the controls are too slippery, it’s way too easy to get damaged, and it’s not really that fun. The challenges are incredibly easy too. Drift boost twice, finish races and get a bunch of points (you should get enough by the time you finish the second course, if not before that (getting the panda hidden character in the first race makes it sure you’ll get the needed score in the first course).

Star Prince
This is a top-down shooter ALA 1942. A step-up from Cosmic Gate, from the same “imaginary” developers. There are various powerups this time, like fast shooting lasers, missiles that go in various directions, and an explosion in front of you in addition to your normal shot. There’s mid-bosses and big bosses (the same one in each stage from what I’ve seen) for added challenge. Shooting a powerup 12 times makes it explode, killing all flying enemy on the screen. After the first challenge, Kid Version Arino buys a turbo controller, so you can hold the Y button to shoot faster. You also have a shield by holding A or B, which unleashes a big counter attack all around you. You are not locked to the screen itself. You can more just a bit more to the left and right, and the screen scrolls with you, giving a wider range of movement.

This game is fun. But too easy, moreso when you get the turbo controller. There’s a few hard sections here and there though. The challenges are ridiculously easy as well. Finish the first 2 areas, getting a 1up (either finding the hidden one or getting 20000 points) and getting a certain amount of points. Shouldn’t take many tries to do.

Rally King SP
Now THIS is funny. It’s exactly the same game as Rally King, but it’s a special edition, and has different challenges. It’s funny because it’s a promotional item, full of in-game advertisment. Typical. You get it from winning a giveaway in the Gamefan magazine, so it includes their mascot. It’s really just a mockery of oldschool “special editions”.

Oh well. The game is still the same with added bumps on the road, and the desert is blue. The challenges are still easy, though some can be a bit harder than in the non-SP version.

Robot Ninja Haggle Man 2
Yay, more Haggle Man. This takes on the same mechanics as the first game. Just a lot harder, with more enemies, and enemies that spawn after a while in the stage. Added here is a healing item, an hourglass item to give you a time bonus, getting 3 scrolls doesn’t automatically summon an ally, so you can “store” them just in case you need them later. Also, you can “force” the boss to come out before killing all enemies (that’s required for a challenge). I don’t know how to determine what door a boss is behind, but it requires going in another door, and waiting a bit if the boss is revealed for him to come out, them you can fight him. Bosses here are “tougher” as they require 3 hits to die instead of 1.

Haggle Man 2 is loads of fun, better and harder than the first. But since the game itself is harder, well they decided to make the challenges a lot easier! Yeah, weird. The first game required finishing half the game, while this one requires you to finish 4 stages…

Guadia Quest
Dragon Quest? Well, pretty much. This though starts you with a party of 3 characters and you even have a monster-capturing mechanic to add a fourth party member. The basics are just like Dragon Quest. The battles play out similarily, but with the strength of hits change depending on which symbol appears when you attack. You can have multiple opponents in battle as well. Just to really parody DQ, to talk to people you have to press A, then select “Talk” in the menu that appears, hoping the person didn’t move out of range. To open chest, you have to go on them, press A, then choose “Look”. As for equipment, you get a modified version of the DQ menus to equip your stuff and it works really well.
In this game are monsters called “Guadia”. There’s multiple versions of that, with elements and such. And even a Game Master Arino Guadia that’s overly powerful. When you find them, you can try to form a “pact” with them. It makes them stronger when you do that(or so it seemed to me), and you have to defeat them for them to join you. When they do join you, they will progressively get interested/worried about the battle, dish out an attack, and go back to not caring for a little while. The leveling is just like Dragon Quest. Gets your stats up and you get spells and other skills at certain levels. And the graphics are exactly like Dragon Quest.

Overall this is a fun Dragon Quest rip-off/parody. There’s little direction as to where to go, you have to figure that out yourself by talking to people or just randomly exploring. The longest game here if you want to complete it, but still not THAT long. I have the feeling it won’t last the 20 hours XSeed(the people publishing the game here) are saying it lasts. The challenges though are easy stuff. Go to a town, reach level 7, get 1000 gold at once and beat the first boss of the game.

Robot Ninja Haggle Man 3
A complete revamp of the series. Big graphic boost, completely different gameplay, save feature, everything is different. Like the first 2, A jumps and B attacks (if you’re close to an enemy you use a sword, if you’re far you use shuriken) and pressing Up and B does your current special attack. Though here jumping on enemies doesn’t work. This takes on a more Metroid approach with some Ninja Gaiden/Shinobi mixed in. You get big and long stages and an RPG element. Enemies drop nuts and bolts when they’re killed, and you use those to buy stuff in stores. Health, special attacks, gears and gear upgrades. Gears give you special skills. attack power boosts, attack upgrades, high jumps. Each gear takes a an amount of gear power and you can’t go past that, but you can boost your maximum. The gameplay itself is relatively fast-paced and requires a bit of exploring like in Metroid, with various paths to take in each stage to find secrets.

It’s pretty fun. Really different from the other 2 Haggle Man games, but still interesting. The challenges are stupidly easy though. Find a gear, break an obstacle, finish the first level and kill 100 enemies on the second level.
BUT after you’re done with those, you get the final challenge: Beat all the games. Now that’s probably the only kinda hard challenge in there

The package as a whole
This is a fun little package. Graphically it’s kinda “cute”. While playing games, the bottom screen always shows you and Kid Arino, with you not moving at all, and Arino looking fucking bored.

The one really interesting part is the GameFan magazines. They give you tips, tricks, and cheats for the games which is pretty cool, and it’s really humorous. Each, like, 2 issues, the editor in chief changes for completely random reasons, the “in-depth reviews” are funny and really short (you know those short reviews I made of each game? They’re longer than their “in-depth” reviews). And to add to the comedy, there’s the “ask a question”-type section which never really makes sense (and one of the people asking a question is named “Homer Sexual”… funny stuff ). Of course there’s a bunch of references to retro and new games everywhere (Zelda is seemingly a detective game there).

As a whole, this package is really good. Though it’s too easy for the most part, it’s very well done. A throwback at oldschool games, the graphical style is spot on most of the time and the gameplay feels very oldschool as well. Just to make it feel even more like oldschool games, there’s weird grammar errors (probably generated by the engrish translation), like “YOU SHOOTED x ASTEROIDS!” all over the place. You even get access to manuals for each game to get the basic controls and such. Great stuff, and it’s nice to see that the art of oldschool game-making isn’t completely lost (though Megaman 9 proved that last year already). The best games there are definitely the Haggle Man games, though all of them are interesting in their own right. I didn’t like Rally King much, but it’s still fun to see a new racing game in that style.

If you like Retro/8-bit games, you should NOT miss out on this. The presentation is fun, the magazines are great, the conversations are a bit annoying and useless but sometimes quite entertaining and the games are well made.  The games are just a bit easy. But this game will most likely be really hard to find soon, so pick it up as soon as possible.
Now let’s hope the second game in the series, which comes out in Japan this month(maybe I should get it….), comes out here as well sometime, the game lineup is really interesting.