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Well, it’s a party game…

For better or worse, Ubisoft shows up at most new consoles on day one like an excited but clueless child on the first day of school: brand new pencils, lunch box, and folders, but also torn jeans, hole-y sneakers, unkempt hair, and the same mustard-stained shirt they wear every week. Hey kid, did you get yourself ready for launch day in the dark? With the Nintendo Wii U, Ubisoft is looking sharp with a range of heavy hitters like Assassin’s Creed 3, to new creative new work like ZombiU, and then you have their recurring badge of mediocrity in the form of Rabbids Land. The Rabbids have made a zany name for themselves over the years and their newest outing is more akin to games like Mario Party than anything else. I can say after spending some time with it that it’s not a great game, but it’s not terrible. Rabbids Land is a party game, and that’s that. 

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With a bigger budget, 505 could've had a real hit on their hands.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to turn in my gamer card for this one, but Funky Barn is a legitimately fun game. I know it sounds like shovelware garbage, and it does seem like it was built on the budget of such a title, but the farm sim is actually competent in its design, complete with an addictive game loop. Unfortunately the game's low budget is painfully obvious – from the low quality art to the long loading times to the hard freezes, Funky Barn has a healthy dose of anti-funk.

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Lighting effects in a Mario game are still kind of weird to see.

Being the fourth entry in the series, prepending “New” to the title seems disingenuous. Despite tossing in a new power-up in the form of a flying squirrel suit, New Super Mario Bros. U is more of the same tried-and-true gameplay the series is known for. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a bad thing, but it’s hard not to feel some fatigue with the now familiar art style, level layout, and presentation. Despite this fatigue, there’s little question that New Super Mario Bros. U is the strongest title in the subseries and a fond callback to both Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World.

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I present to you - the Matrix of Mediocrity

As a fan of the television series Transformers Prime, I have to admit that part of me enjoyed parts of this game that is clearly aimed for a much younger audience. Earlier this year, I got my Transformers fix with High Moon’s Fall of Cybertron, but I felt that Prime had an opportunity to do justice to a different part of Transformers lore. The universes are both part of Hasbro’s initiative to create continuity within the cannon and not only that, but a dark and grittier tone is also shared by both. After playing Transformers: Prime however, I was left disappointed.

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The brightest stars burn out first.

Roughly one year ago, German developer Shin’en released the latest entry in the “Nano” series and what turned out to be the first in the Nano Assault series. Nano Assault Neo recycles some of the content from that release, but removes the Star Fox-like levels and shifts all of the focus to the pure twin-stick shooting levels. This new focus proves to be a big success, but the shortened selection of levels (16, down from 32) leaves something to be desired.

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