Tag: review

Go Vacation (Switch) review

Published on by Chris Scullion1 Comment
Nintendo / Bandai Namco
Switch, Wii (Switch version reviewed)

The year was 2011. Yer man Scullion was Games Editor at the Official Nintendo Magazine, and was about to review yet another mini-game collection for the Wii.

You’d have forgiven me at the time for being far from excited. As everyone who owned a Wii knew at the time, the popularity of the console meant that every shitmuncher publisher and developer was trying to capitalise on its success with cheap and nasty shovelware games.

More often than not, these took the form of mini-game collections, in an attempt to appeal to all the families who bought their Wii primarily for Wii Sports.

As ONM’s main reviewer, this meant I’d spent the past five years suffering my way through countless half-arsed money grabs. To this day I still occasionally wake up in cold sweats thinking about Carnival Games, Big Beach Sports and the unfortunately named Water Sports.

Go Vacation, then, didn’t exactly have me soiling myself with excitement when the disc came into the office, a fact I’m sure my colleagues welcomed. And yet, I was curious. Developed by (what was then) Namco Bandai and published by Nintendo itself, it seemed that there was a lot of confidence around this one.

Sure enough, I ended up thoroughly enjoying it. I gave the game 80%, and warned readers not to follow my lead. “Don’t fall into the same trap so many others will,” I advised. “Don’t take one look at Go Vacation and pass it off as shovelware. It’s not.”

This isn’t a retrospective rewriting of history either, mind you. You can see my full original ONM review at the bottom of this very page, and my 30 Best Wii Games article on Tired Old Hack has none other than Go Vacation nestled comfortably in the list.

Now it’s been granted a surprise re-release on Switch, and it’s just as entertaining as I remember it being seven years ago. Continue reading “Go Vacation (Switch) review” →

Review round-up: Sonic Mania Plus, Sanrio Picross, Agony, Pocket Rumble, Lumines Remastered

Published on by Chris ScullionLeave a comment

Louise and I had our first daughter three weeks ago, so that’s why there’s been a relative lack of updates on the site. That doesn’t mean I haven’t managed to squeeze in some gaming though, so here’s my takes on what I’ve been playing.

In this round-up yer man Scullion:

• Jumps back in for a second helping of retro goodness in Sonic Mania Plus
• Decides whether Lumines Remastered is back with another one of those block-dropping feats
• Enjoys some 8-bit scrapping in Pocket Rumble
• Embraces his inner Japanese schoolgirl in Sanrio Characters Picross
• Discovers that Agony is appropriately named
Continue reading “Review round-up: Sonic Mania Plus, Sanrio Picross, Agony, Pocket Rumble, Lumines Remastered” →

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Switch) review

Published on by Chris Scullion2 Comments
Nintendo / Nintendo EPD Tokyo
Switch, 3DS, Wii U (Switch version reviewed)

Visit Nintendo Life for my review of the 3DS version!

By this point, the intros for reviews of Switch games like Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker write themselves.

“Despite the Wii U’s poor sales,” they begin, “it continues to offer a fruitful source of material for new Switch releases.”

They then list a load of other Switch games that are ports of Wii U titles, along with links so you can read those reviews too and get the site more hits.

You know: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Bayonetta 1 & 2, Pokken Tournament DX… that sort of thing.

Captain Toad is the latest in this now tried and tested process, and it’s proof that if it still isn’t broken there should be no attempts made to fix it just yet. Continue reading “Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Switch) review” →

Mario Tennis Aces (Switch) review

Published on by Chris ScullionLeave a comment
Nintendo / Camelot Software Planning
Nintendo Switch

Mario Tennis and I have been on bad terms for the past couple of years.

It’s a series I’ve loved ever since the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color days, but in recent years it’s been up and down more times than an eager ballboy.

In 2009 the brilliant GameCube game Mario Power Tennis was re-released on Wii, its once-tight controls replaced with frustratingly inaccurate Wii Remote swings.

Then, a few years later, the series was redeemed with Mario Tennis Open, a brilliant 3DS offering with great online multiplayer and a host of unlockable characters and costumes.

This return to form was then unceremoniously dumped with Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash on the Wii U, a game I described in my video review at the time as “a monumental cauldron of shite” due to its complete lack of anything other than a bare-bones online mode and exhibition games (not even a tournament mode).

Mario Tennis Aces is here to right that wrong, and it succeeds… mostly. Continue reading “Mario Tennis Aces (Switch) review” →

Review round-up: Retro special

Published on by Chris Scullion3 Comments

Now that Tired Old Hack is back up and running at nearly full speed again, that means the return of my written review round-ups.

This week it’s a retro-themed special:

• Tell everyone it’s Alex Kidd and not Alex The Kid in Sega Mega Drive Classics
• Kick 12 different shades of shit out of folk in Street Fighter: 30th Anniversary Collection
• Duck and weave your way through a Nintendo coin-op classic in Arcade Archives: Punch-Out!!
• Harness your inner ebony and ivory in the Switch version of Ikaruga
• Give your shoot ’em up muscles a hefty workout in Tengai
• Experience an odd shooter/beat ’em up hybrid in Sol Divide
• Struggle to somehow get fun out of Lode Runner in Lode Runner Legacy Continue reading “Review round-up: Retro special” →

Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Switch) review

Published on by Chris Scullion2 Comments
Nintendo / Omega Force, Team Ninja
Nintendo Switch (older versions also on Wii U, 3DS)

At times the Switch feels like a recently retired sailor, in that it’s currently going from port to port reliving old adventures.

Not only does this let me use terrible analogies like that one, it also gives those who shimmied the Wii U a chance to catch up on all the games they so cruelly shunned.

The latest example is Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, which promises the ultimate version of a game that launched on the Wii U in 2014 (and the 3DS in 2016).

For those not familiar with it, Hyrule Warriors is a spin-off of Koei Tecmo’s Dynasty Warriors series, in which players explore large maps while hacking their way through literally thousands of sword-fodder enemies.

Naturally, whereas the Dynasty Warriors games feature a selection of notable names from Chinese history, Hyrule Warriors replaces those historical characters and locations with ones from the Zelda universe. So long Guan Ping, hello Ganondorf. Continue reading “Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Switch) review” →

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Switch) review

Published on by Chris Scullion5 Comments
Nintendo / Retro Studios
Switch, Wii U (Switch version reviewed)

We all know the Wii U was a dismal failure.

Despite having a decent helping of excellent exclusive games, the negatives surrounding Nintendo’s sixth home console outweighed the positives, and as a result it would take someone truly delusional to argue that the Wii U was anything other than a giant lemon.

Naturally, when life gives you lemons you make lemonade, and Nintendo has been happily squeezing the Wii U’s software library to allow owners of the far more popular Switch to have a taste. Of the lemonade. This is an analogy, go with it.

The point I’m making in a horribly complicated way is that some of the Wii U’s finest games have already found their way onto the Switch.

The Switch ports of Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2 and Pokken Tournament have already outsold their Wii U forebearers, and Nintendo is surely hopeful the likes of Hyrule Warriors and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker do the same when they’re released in May and July respectively.

Before those turn up, it’s time for Donkey Kong’s Wii U adventure to get a second crack of glory. And in this case, it’s fair to say it deserves it. Continue reading “Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Switch) review” →

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp review – six months later

Published on by Chris Scullion2 Comments

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp ‘soft-launched’ in Australia on 25 October 2017 and rolled out to other countries the following month.

As someone who couldn’t wait for it to come to the UK and downloaded a sneaky .apk file of the Australian version for my Android phone the day after launch, that means today marks exactly six months since I started playing it.

While most sites review games right after they’ve launched, not many of them track their progress months later. Although it’s obvious why this is the case – new games get more traffic than old ones – it’s sometimes a missed opportunity, especially when it comes to mobile games.

Mobile titles, more than any, are often treated as ‘services’ and are constantly updated, patched, evolved and enhanced with new features, modes, characters and various other whizz-bangs. Play a mobile game at launch and play it again a few months later and you’ll often find two very different beasts.

Sometimes a barebones game becomes one that’s packed with content. And sometimes a well-balanced game is ruined by publisher greed when the user base grows and the opportunities to make money through microtransactions get too great (I’m looking at you, WWE Champions).

With that in mind, I’ve decided to review Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp six months after it launched. It’s changed a fair amount since October 2017, but is that necessarily for the better? My answer is “it depends”, which is no doubt frustrating for you because now it means you have to read on. Continue reading “Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp review – six months later” →

An extremely serious review of Numskull’s latest merchandise

Published on by Chris Scullion1 Comment

Occasionally yer man Scullion is sent free things. It’s one of the perks of having more Twitter followers than British TV and radio personality Paul Ross.

Recently I was sent a bunch of stuff by Numskull Designs, the UK company that specialises in official video game, movie, TV and comic book merchandise.

Now, I’m not the sell-out type: I’m not a big fan of people who tweet “HEY LOOK AT ALL THE FREE SHIT I GOT”. If people send me stuff it’s still going to get an honest review.

Here, then, are my deadly serious reviews of some of Numskull’s latest products, written in the regular hard-hitting journalism style that has earned me a greater following than the one from Milli Vanilli who’s still alive. Continue reading “An extremely serious review of Numskull’s latest merchandise” →

Kirby Star Allies (Switch) review

Published on by Chris Scullion1 Comment
Nintendo / HAL Laboratory
Nintendo Switch

The Switch is a little over a year old now and the continued roll-out of established Nintendo (and Nintendo-related) franchises is ticking away nicely.

Zelda? Check. Mario Kart? Check. Splatoon, Mario Odyssey, Fire Emblem Warriors, Xenoblade Chronicles, Pokken Tournament? Check times five.

There’s more to come: Hyrule Warriors is out in two months, and we’ve obviously got a Donkey Kong Country game, a Fire Emblem, a Smash Bros, a Yoshi game, Metroid Prime 4 and a new Pokemon in the distant future. Slowly but surely, fans of every series are getting games aimed at keeping them happy.

This week marks the next step in the process, with Kirby getting to take centre stage on the Switch for the first time. Continue reading “Kirby Star Allies (Switch) review” →