PixlBit

April Review Showers bring May Review Flowers, as they say.  Or not.  Anyway, here’s another batch of game reviews I’ve written over at GamerDad.com.  Please read as many as you can and comment on whichever you like as well.  I’d really appreciate it.  I’m also thankful for the many comments I got on my DC comics blog from last time.  Although I don’t know why nobody told me about this:

Anyway, on to the reviews:

Toki Tori 2 (Wii U)

Back in 2001, there was an awesome GBC game that just came out called Toki Tori.  It was a simple puzzle platformer starring a cute baby chick and it looked and played great, and even rivaled some new at the time GBA games.  It’s been ported to PC and Wii, and now there is a sequel.  I reviewed the Wii U version.  You can only do two things: peep and stomp.  Peeping generally brings animals toward you, and stomping drives them away.  You must use these skills to solve puzzles.  It’s all about how you interact with other creatures, so everything feels rather organic.  One cool thing is that after you get to a certain point in the game, it turns into a “Metroidvania” style of gameplay.  You can even get to places you’re not supposed to at that time if you know skills beforehand.  And Toki Tori is just freaking adorable.  I just want to run around in the game going “peep peep peep” all the time.  The makers of this game should have an online web shop where you can get Toki Tori shirts, plush, and other toys!  Definitely get it if you have a Wii U (also on PC I think).

BattleBlock Theater (360)

Castle Crashers is one of the best Xbox LIVE games ever made, and the makers of that have finally come out with their newest: BattleBlock Theater.  It’s basically a 2-D platformer with elements of Smash Bros. thrown in.  It also plays a lot like the little handheld mini-games from Alien Hominid (another one of their games).  There’s a two player co-op story mode, battle modes for up to four players, and even a level editor.  The game has been a HUGE hit around the house for me, Jeff, and his friends when they come over.  Best of all, the game is really funny!  Check out this video of the story intro:

Anima: Ark of Sinners Advance (iPad)

Anima Beyond Fantasy is supposedly a series of tabletop RPGs, as well as strategy and card games.  But I’ve never heard of it.  Now there’s a video game of it, too.  It’s a basic 2-D hack and slash with some Metroid style exploration thrown in.  I hear it was also on WiiWare a few years ago.  I imagine it worked better on the Wii considering the iPad has really floaty controls.  The main character is a female warrior and all I have to say is “Hellloooooo, Nurse!”  Sorry, I’ve been watching too much Animaniacs lately.  She is purdy, though.

GungHo Releases Six More Japanese PSOne Classics on PSN

A few months ago, a company called GungHo released a bunch of Japanese PSOne Classics on PSN in the US.  Most were import friendly and many of them were really fun, like Zanac X Zanac.  Now they’ve released six more, but the results aren’t so good this time.  Mainly because they are all very text heavy and would be hard to play if you don’t know any Japanese.  There’s a cute Wizard of Oz RPG that I would love to play if I knew what was going on.  There are also a couple of board and card games, strategy RPGs (one has a 16-bit look to it that would be right up my alley), and even a dating sim!  Blech!  You couldn’t get me to play a dating sim unless Ulala, Cammy, and Reiko were in it.  Ha ha!  Just joking!  At any rate, I’d stay away from these if I were you unless you are very fluent in reading Japanese.

Reader Review: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity (3DS)

When my brother Jeff was little, I got Nightmare of Druaga.  It’s one of the Mystery Dungeon series of games, and this was based on an old Namco arcade game called Tower of Druaga (only reason why I got it).  To my surprise, Jeff LOVED that game a bunch and even wanted a Druaga birthday cake that year!  So since he loves Mystery Dungeon games AND Pokemon, I thought he’d be a perfect fit for this review.  Especially since I just bought him the Pikachu 3DSXL.  If you read this review, you can even see a picture I posted of Jeff’s old Druaga birthday cake!

BioShock Infinite Strategy Guide (Book)

Well I’ve never played BioShock Infinite, but that won’t stop me from reviewing the strategy guide.  I know a lot of people would object to that, but I don’t care.  It’s nice to see that publishers are still making nice print strategy guides since most everything is on the Internet now.  This guide also doubles as an art book, too, as it has lots of art and illustrations from the game.  Anyone who loves this game will like this guide, too.

Alien Spidy (360)

This one is like a cross between a super challenging 2-D platformer like Super Meat Boy, and the swinging action of Bionic Commando.  You play as a little spider and can swing from web strings.  It’s an all right game.  I’m not really a big fan of super hard platformers that are like that just for the sake of being challenging.

Mr. Runner 2 (iPad)

There are WAY too many of these endless continuous running games on iOS devices.  But at least this one has a sense of humor and makes fun of classic gaming properties.  Mostly Nintendo’s.  In the stage with tall grass, you can see Pikachu’s tail in the background running alongside you (it’s actually a hamster with a Pikachu tail tied to his head.  Pixelated Duck Hunt ducks will also fly out of the grass, too!  You can even get some outfits like Mario & Wario’s overalls.   Of course they don’t really SAY that, they just allude to it.

Monster High: Skulltimate Roller Maze (3DS)

It’s just a kart racer with those popular monster dolls on roller skates.  At least it’s a little better than some of the other licensed kart racers I’ve had to review.  I don’t know why little girls would even like the Monster High toy line, though.  The dolls are just ugly.  But then, kids do like monsters.  And what do I know anyway?  I’m a guy.

Piano Genius (iPad)

I was really excited to review this game, as I took piano lessons starting in third grade all the way into high school.  I’m way out of practice, but I still know my way around a keyboard.  I even taught myself how to play Terra’s theme from FF6 on the piano.  So I was disappointed that this game didn’t turn out as well as I thought.  It’s really hard to play, and the song selection is abysmal.  The scant few free songs are decent classic pieces, but the songs you have to buy are WAY too expensive, and they’re just piano versions of contemporary pieces from folks like Justin Bieber.  You’d think they could get a few more free classical pieces in the public domain.  I haven’t played any other piano apps on my iPad, but I would think there would be some out there better than this.

Angry Birds Cheese Nips

And finally, I saw some Angry Birds Cheese Nips at the grocery store and decided to write a little bit about it.  These kinds of cross promotional things just crack me up!

And that’s all I’ve got for now!  Thanks for reading and commenting!  Later!  --Cary