Tag: 3DS

Review round-up: Doom, Skyrim, LA Noire, Rime, Kirby Battle Royale

Published on by Chris Scullion1 Comment

It’s been longer than usual since my last review round-up so here’s a special bumper edition, packed to the chops with mini-reviews.

This week:

• Get your ass to Mars in Doom on Switch
• Take an arrow in the baws in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on Switch
• Speakeasy or forever hold your peace in LA Noire on Switch
• Getting outfoxed in Rime
• Bowing to the altar of the eternal loading screen in Moon Hunters
• Kicking it old-school in Lumo
• Point-and-click quirkiness in Violett
• Getting cheap but surprisingly non-nasty in Knight Terrors
• Speeding away from mobile roots in Gear Club Unlimited
• Having a good feline about Cat Quest
• Talking fascism and abortion (seriously) in Wheels Of Aurelia
• Passing GO with reckless abandon in Monopoly on Switch
• Smacking the hell out of a bunch of fighting bollocks in Kirby Battle Royale Continue reading “Review round-up: Doom, Skyrim, LA Noire, Rime, Kirby Battle Royale” →

Layton’s Mystery Journey (3DS) review

Published on by Chris Scullion5 Comments
Nintendo / Level-5
3DS, iOS, Android (3DS version reviewed)

I remember back in November 2008 when Professor Layton And The Curious Village was released on the DS in the UK.

The DS was massively successful at the time, partly thanks to the likes of Brain Training and partly thanks to the fact the Wii was doing similar degrees of gangbusters.

As such, following a TV ad campaign, the first Professor Layton game sold out all over the UK and became nigh-on impossible to buy until well after Christmas.

Now, here we are nearly a decade later and it’s fair to say the situation has changed. Nintendo is once again massively popular thanks to the Switch and 3DS, but the Layton series doesn’t appear to have enjoyed the same continued success.

Instead, Layton’s Mystery Journey is out tomorrow and it’s fair to say social media isn’t exactly white hot with hype surrounding it. Continue reading “Layton’s Mystery Journey (3DS) review” →

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions (3DS) review

Published on by Chris Scullion2 Comments
Nintendo / AlphaDream
Nintendo 3DS

There aren’t many game series that manage to last more than a decade with the same developer intact, but AlphaDream has been rocking the Mario & Luigi games for 14 years now.

Although it continues to see critical success with each Mario & Luigi game released though, the fact that the first title in the series – Superstar Saga on the Game Boy Advance – is now nearly a decade and a half old means many of today’s gamers never got a chance to play it.

That problem has now been resolved with this 3DS remake of Superstar Saga, and it’s a testament to the 2004 release that so little of the core game has been changed here. Continue reading “Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions (3DS) review” →

Monster Hunter Stories (3DS) review

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Nintendo / Marvelous
Nintendo 3DS

Although the Monster Hunter series has enjoyed a hardcore following over the years, it’s fair to say its particular brand of lengthy boss-type monster battling only appeals to a certain type of gamer.

Monster Hunter Stories appears to be an attempt to branch out a bit and expand the Monster Hunter universe in a way that might be a better fit for fans of other games.

Well, I say “other games”, but I really just mean Pokémon. Because this is basically Pokémonster Hunter. Continue reading “Monster Hunter Stories (3DS) review” →

Hey! Pikmin review

Published on by Chris ScullionLeave a comment
Nintendo / Arzest
Nintendo 3DS

Hey! Pikmin is not the sequel fans of the main series have been waiting for.

It’s not the new Pikmin game that Shigeru Miyamoto said just last month was still in development.

This is not Pikmin 4. But I’m completely fine with that. Because I really like what it actually is.

Its plot is familiar, at least. Captain Olimar, returning home for some much-needed time off work, crashes his new ship the S.S. Dolphin 2 and once again finds himself on a planet inhabited by Pikmin.

The ship’s fuel supply, powered by Sparklium, is completely empty, so it’s up to Olimar to explore the planet, aided by the Pikmin, to find seeds and items that can be harvested for Sparklium. Continue reading “Hey! Pikmin review” →

New 2DS XL review

Published on by Chris Scullion6 Comments

Hello Chris!

Oh, hello there, Completely Fictional Person Created For The Purpose Of Livening Up A Review Of A Minor Hardware Iteration! I haven’t seen you since the days of the PS2 Slim.

What’s that you have there?

This? Oh, glad you asked. This is the New 2DS XL. It’s the latest in Nintendo’s 3DS family. Continue reading “New 2DS XL review” →

New 2DS XL unboxing and first hands-on impressions video

Published on by Chris Scullion4 Comments

Nintendo will be releasing the New 2DS XL on 13 July in Japan and 28 July in the US and Europe.

The latest member of the 3DS family, the New 2DS XL is the budget offering in the ‘New’ range, clocking in at £50 cheaper than the New 3DS XL.

But how does it look, and is it worth the money? Yer man Scullion will be giving a full written review next week, but until then here’s a 12-minute video of me unboxing it and pointing out some of the key good and bad points. Continue reading “New 2DS XL unboxing and first hands-on impressions video” →

My 100 best (and worst) ONM headline jokes

Published on by Chris Scullion5 Comments
ONM issue 5, the first I appeared in
ONM issue 5, the first I appeared in

My six years at the Official Nintendo Magazine were (at the time of writing at least) the best six years of my career.

There were plenty of reasons for this: it was my first major job, it was the job I’d always wanted to do, and there was a massive reader base who regularly communicated with me (many of them still do to this day).

One of the main reasons, though, was that I always had the freedom to tell bad jokes.

I’ve told bad jokes all my life, but usually people at school and uni would groan and walk away. ONM was my chance to tell bad jokes to tens of thousands of people who were less tempted to bail because they’d already paid £3.99 for the privilege. Mwa haaaa.

Recently I was going through my ONM archives and I started chuckling at some of my worst jokes, many of which I’d forgotten over the years. It got me in a nostalgic mood, so I’ve decided to share said nostalgia with you.

I’m going to run a series of articles based on my time at ONM, sharing my favourite ‘funny’ moments. In the future these will include my best screenshot captions and my best review quotes.

Today though, I’m sharing 100 of my headline jokes – be it the headlines themselves or (most often) the snarky one-liners under the game name in previews and reviews. Continue reading “My 100 best (and worst) ONM headline jokes” →

Picross 3D: Round 2 review

Published on by Chris Scullion1 Comment
NINTENDO / HAL LABORATORY
3DS

I love Picross. I’ve loved it ever since a 12-year-old me visited the Edinburgh branch of Toys R Us back in 1995 and discovered Mario’s Picross on the Game Boy.

This relationship has survived 21 brain-teasing years. And, as in the best relationships, just as things look like they’re starting to go stale something manages to breathe new life into proceedings and remind me why I fell in love in the first place. Continue reading “Picross 3D: Round 2 review” →

10 years as a games journalist – my most memorable moments

Published on by Chris Scullion11 Comments

On 2 May 2006, I joined Official Nintendo Magazine as a Staff Writer.

After a quick glance at my calendar, I have determined that today is therefore my 10th anniversary as a video games journalist (or critic, or writer or whatever you want to call it: I still don’t really know myself).

My first ever ONM review: a shit DS racing game. The glory days
My first ever ONM review. They got better, honest

Over the past decade I’ve loved every minute of working for ONM, then Nintendo Gamer, then CVG and finally as a freelancer.

And now I’ve got Tired Old Hack, which gives me more freedom to write what I want than I’ve ever had. In short, it’s been a bloody good 10 years.

With that in mind, although games are usually the main focus when I write, I hope you don’t mind if I make today’s article about my own career.

Here are 20 of my favourite memories as a games journalist over the past decade. These are not all of them, not by a long shot: they’re just the ones that stand out at this very moment. Continue reading “10 years as a games journalist – my most memorable moments” →