For a moment, imagine playing a fantasy game where you are an adventurer. You regularly visit the King or townsfolk to get your daily quest. Then you head out to battle through the caves and foreign lands, level up a few times, gain gold to purchase new equipment only to finally return a victor in search of a hefty reward. In My Life as a King, this all happens but you are not the adventurer; you are the King who sits back waiting for the adventurers to return safely with that prized item you requested.

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LostWinds is a very beautiful, yet short title for the Nintendo Wii Ware The game implies that there will be Chapters or Episodes released regularly in the same way Sam and Max games have been (where you buy each episode individullly). This game has some of the best uses of the Wiimote. For instance, your character automatically jumps and climbs up small ledges. You…or better yet the Wiimote is the wind. If you even slightly move the Wiimote, wind wind begins to blow in the local area affecting the background and foreground objects. The harder you shake the Wiimote the stronger the wind blows. You can guide slipstreams by pushing a button and drawing out the current direction. You can create a vortex by drawing a circle with the Wiimote or you can just give your character a jumping boost by creating an updraft by pushing a button and swiping upwards. Using these abilities, you must uncover the forgot story of LostWinds. (more…)

Shibuya Shopping Center, Tokyo, Japan

Big things definitely come in small packages. I’ve never had so much to say about a little DS cartridge.

When Nintendo first announced the DS, their intentions were to give developers the tools to go beyond current video game ideas. Although many gamers like myself love the idea of porting over, real-time strategy (RTS) games, puzzle games, and other traditional uses of a stylus-based interface, Nintendo was more interested in ideas that had nothing to do with any game currently in the market. In my opinion, The World Ends With You (WEWY) is exactly one of those games. Calling this it a role playing game (RPG) is quite misleading. When I first began to play it I almost hated it cause I was so confused on what’s going on. The truth is, it’s it’s own genre. (more…)

Mario Kart Wii is a nice collaboration of many of the great ideas we’ve seen in many the previous versions. The slide boosting, drift boosting, battle mode, and all the classic arsenal like bananas and turtle shells. One of the best upgrades added to the Wii version is 12 player online racing. The game also allows a second player to play split-screen on the same console during these online matches. Unlike the Mario Kart DS, there are online battle modes and now with up to 8 players! (more…)

 My Word Coach falls in that category of DS games that have many gamers arguing they are not games and do not sound enjoyable. Some believe these games are a blatant† aberration†: an anattempt to gain a quick buck. I believe this form of entertainment† is referred to as Edutainment. Argue the semantics† as much as you wish, but I’m finding My Word Coach an exhilarating† experience! The game is filled with mini-games designed to increase the size of your lexicon†. The game implies that this form of lexical† enhancement is sure to improve your relationship. Who would have thought a few years back, a simple game could increase the size of your lexicon! (more…)

Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings for the Nintendo DS is a spin off of the PlayStation 2 (PS2) Final Fantasy XII (FFXII) game. Square-Enix totally went back to the drawing board on this one. The end result is pretty damn good. Forget all the turn-based mechanics you normally see in Final Fantasy Titles. Similar to Final Fantasy XII for the PS2, The game is real-time. However, this game resembles more of a traditional real-time strategy. Each member of your party is called a group leader. For each group leader, you can summon monsters to fight with them, or espers. Each leader and esper falls under one of three categories, melee, range, or flying. Like most strategy games, one category bests the other. Here we have, melee beats range, range beats flying, flying beats melee. You can mix and match your groups for more advance strategies. (more…)

When I first started playing Baroque for the Nintendo Wii, I was excited to engulf myself in a hack and slash, rpg dungeon crawler. I grinded my way all the way to the bottom level of a tower that is consist of about 20 randomly generated floors. During my journey, I acquired some very nice gear and leveled up to 27. My sword was laced with an electric buff that caused electrical damage and usually gave me one hit kills. When I manage to get to the final floor I felt the usual grand feeling of accomplishment. After the FMV ended, I was sent back out of the tower to the ‘Outer World’ at level 1 with none of my gear and none of the attribute boosts I acquired. First response, “OMFG, WTF!!! What did I do wrong?” After reloading my save file 5 times and realizing no matter what I got the same results. After my frustration waned, I thought further about what this game could about. In the game, there are spheres that you can store up to 5 items. Then it hit me…”Wait a minute…I was meant to die! I was meant to die not once but many times! I played the game entirely wrong!” (more…)