The popular Kingdom Hearts game series combines Square-Enix’s beloved game characters and style mixed with timeless Disney characters and worlds. Re:coded takes place after Sora’s adventures with Donald and Goofy from Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2. Jiminy Cricket is thumbing through the journals he wrote during their adventures, and notices a strange message that he didn’t write! King Mickey decides to digitize the journal into a computer and see if they can analyze how that message got there! But all of a sudden, strange bugs and blocks fill the screen, and they don’t look friendly. King Mickey sends a digital version of Kingdom Hearts hero Sora into the virtual journal to see if he can figure out what’s going on. Now it’s up to Data Sora to stop the bugs and solve the mystery of the secret messages!

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Tags: Game Reviews

Mario just keeps on trucking with more titles under his toolbelt. One of my favorite franchises goes back to his roots of jumping and climbing after Donkey Kong. In the Mario vs Donkey Kong series on Nintendo handhelds, Mario (and his assistants) scamper up scaffolding and other obstacles to reach his nemesis. What I like best about the series is its puzzle-like aspect. Players are rewarded more for careful thought rather than their trigger finger. In recent years, the series has gone in for a bit of Lemmings flavor by using little toy Marios (and other toy Nintendo icons) to achieve the goals and pursue Donkey Kong to save the day. The latest incarnation, Mario vs Donkey Kong Mini-Land Mayhem continues a long trend of excellent action/puzzle gaming and serves both as a nice continuation of the series for fans, as well as a great introduction to the series for newcomers.

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Tags: Game Reviews, Misc

If any game franchise just exudes cuteness, it has to be Pokemon. Cute little animal friends that just want to hang out with you and beat the snot out of any other critters you come across in your travels. The newest Pokemon themed game is PokePark Wii: Pikachu’s Adventure. Pikachu and his friends fall down a hole and into an adventure through a Pokemon theme park. As Pikachu, explore five different zones and challenge Pokemon you meet in order to make friends and restore the park to is former glory. In a mix of exploration and minigames, PokePark makes a fun little title for younger gamers who have comfortable reading skills.

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Tags: Game Reviews

Football fans are gearing up for the upcoming Super Bowl Sunday. Now you can tackle extra weight gain from all those yummy Big Game snacks with some extra exercise thanks to EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp. It’s a Wii motion-based fitness game with an extra emphasis and focus on football related activities.

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Tags: Game Reviews

Just kind of a hodgepodge blog this week, folks. Can’t really think of anything else to write, and game reviews are a little slow lately. So I’ll just take this time to give everyone my Valentine’s Day wishes and give you all a little preview of what kinds of blogs you can expect from me in February.

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Tags: Misc

Hey all you former coin-op junkies, remember the fun you had pumping quarter after quarter into games like Arkanoid, Breakeroids and Asteroids? All right, enough cutesy poo, first of all welcome back. Oh, welcome me back? yeah, I have been quiet haven’t I? I’ve been here, reading Cary’s stuff but things tend to consume me and my time was taken by my struggle against writer’s block. I’m here to talk about Breakeroids because it is a real title, it does belong in the same breath as Asteroids, Arkanoid, Break-out, Gorf and more. It’s that good. Classic good.

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Tags: Game Reviews

Fads come and go, but sometimes they become video games along the way. One fad that is popular with kids nowadays are these little rubber band toys called “Silly Bandz” (and various off-brand knock-offs). They are rubber bands that fit around your wrist and can snap back into a silhouette shape. They’re collectable, tradable, and inexpensive, and that’s why they’re so popular. So how on earth did they make a video game out of this? You’ll just have to read on to find out.

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Tags: Game Reviews

Have you ever had an idea that you thought was a good one, but you lacked the know-how, materials, and time to pull it off? But you wanted to try and make your idea happen anyway? Well that’s what this blog is all about. You may have seen videos or blogs of people ‘unboxing’ a new console or special edition game bundle where they show you what’s inside. I thought this was a dumb idea at first, until I was awaiting my copy of the special edition of Ys Seven and wanted to know what was in it. I thought I would give unboxing a try myself someday. Except instead of putting me in the action, I thought it would be fun to have it star a puppet! Everything’s better with puppets, right? And that’s how “Boxer the Unboxer” was born! Now here’s Boxer’s debut as he unboxes the Little Big Planet 2 Collector’s Edition!

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Tags: Misc

Dairojo Samurai Defenders is a downloadable tower defense style game for DSi. The game is set in Japan’s Edo historic period, and enemy troops are marching along the path to destroy your castle. Strategically place your own troops along the road to defeat the waves of invaders to protect your castle. If enough of the enemy reaches your castle, it’s Game Over.

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Tags: Game Reviews

In this game, you’re already dead at the start. As a ghost, you don’t remember who you were or why you died. And your only lead is a lady who gets killed soon after you did. You quickly learn that you have special powers as a ghost. You can possess and manipulate nearby objects, and even rewind time four minutes after someone other than yourself had died. Now it’s up to you to use your ghost powers to save lives and unravel the mystery of your death!

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Tags: Game Reviews