Review: Mario’s Picross (3DS Virtual Console)

Mario’s Picross suffers from a critical failure – for a game about making pictures, the Game Boy was remarkably bad at showing off pictures. It’s still a game with compelling core gameplay but the lack of sense of reward makes this game a very uncertain purchase, especially with both 2D and 3D Picross games now available quite cheap as DS cartridges.

Possibly the most disturbing Mario ever

Review: Tales from the Dragon Mountain: the Strix (PC)

Cateia Games are well known for publishing interesting takes on genres and are renowned for not being scared to try a little bit of innovation. The tales from Dragon Mountains: the Strix is an eyecatching addition to the Hidden Object game genre, and in the innovative tradition provides a relatively unique splash of adventure. In the Strix, Cateia have provided an enjoyable and beautifully crafted way to pass an afternoon.

Uh oh. Fog always means bad stuff

Review: Nintendo Video... woeful

One of Nintendo’s promises with the 3DS was that it would be able to play video footage in glasses-free 3D. And that Nintendo was ‘working hard’ with content providers around that service.

That service, Nintendo Video, is now available for Europeans and Australians to download off the 3DS eShop. Based on what’s there now and its future potential, I’m hedging bets that this is going to be a failure, and consumer interest will wane very, very quickly.

Ms. Splosion Man Garnering Praise Across the Boards

The just released sequel to the hit 'Summer of Arcade' title Splosion Man, Ms. Splosion Man, is getting loads of critical acclaim and praise from players. A blend of action and platforming, Twisted Pixel's newest and most explosive title should feel like home to fans of the original while adding a ton of new stuff to play around with including an expanded feature set, ghost replays, and copious amounts of unlockables.

Warhammer 40k: Kill Team Brings the Pain on XBLA

Just up on Xbox LIVE this week is the first volley in the latest onslaught of Warhammer 40k branded games, Kill Team. Revolving around an Orc assault on an Imperial Forge World, Kill Team casts players as Space Marines in either single or co-op action.

One of the coolest things about the game is that completing just the first portion of it unlocks the chain sword in THQ's full retail release, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine. That game releases next month, but in the meantime there's no reason not to pick up the demo version of Kill Team and give it a shot.

The game actually looks like a solid shooter, and if you do decide to bump yourself up to the full version, it'll only cost you 800mspts. Not too bad.

Critical Mass; brilliant puzzler, now with demo

When we reviewed Critical Mass, a puzzler by startup Aussie developers, Manic Game Studios, we were very, very impressed.

And if our review wasn't enough to convince you this is a game worth buying into, perhaps the newly-launched demo might help. It's available both on Steam, and the game's own website.

It's a very inexpensive game, so please do try it out and help out an indie team with a whole lot of soul.

Import Review: Rapid Angel (PSN)

MonkeyPaw Games has been releasing numerous PlayStation One import games onto the PlayStation Network, allowing new audiences to experience some of the foreign greats of yore. One such title is Rapid Angel, an action game with a lot of heart. With its many hidden intricacies and terrific cutscenes, Rapid Angel is one of the finest action games the PSN library has to offer.

Insert own subtitles here

Ubisoft acquires Owlient for its Howrse brand

It's a double dip of acquisition news today. Following the announcement that EA is acquiring PopCap, Ubisoft has come up with an announcement of its own: it is acquiring the free-to-play specialist Owlient.

Owlient's premier product is Howrse, and online brand with nearly two million monthly active users. The acquisition brings another 40 people into the Ubisoft fold.

Civilization World beta: First Impressions

The gaming community has long frowned upon social games for not providing a lot of depth in gameplay. They are often regarded as tools to extract value out of unsuspecting grannies who don’t know any better. The likes of Zynga have grown to become industry behemoths by simply tapping into the social graphs and exploiting the addictive quality that games can have on people. With incredibly simple gameplay, most social games function on a system of peer pressure through your friends list. It’s common enough, at a certain point in the game, that to get more mileage out of the experience or advance the game further, you either have to pay or find more people to join your game. I’ve always believed that the social platform had potential to offer something unique if anybody was willing to develop a proper game for it with meaningful gameplay.

Civilization World beta was opened up to the public this past week, and I got a good look at the Facebook game that promises to be a real game. CivWorld is developed by Firaxis,and reportedly Sid Meier (the brain behind the Civilization franchise and Alpha Centauri among other things) himself is overseeing the development. That in itself is enough to get me excited about spending time on a social game.

Let me preface this with two warnings. 

Electronic Arts acquires PopCap

Remember this rumour we speculated on a while back? Well, turns out we were right. PopCap has indeed been acquired by EA for no less than $750 million. That's no chump change, even for EA which is one of the largest publishers in the videogame industry.

Trouble Brothers hosting online board game games nights

Got some digital board games? Having trouble finding a game? Trouble Brothers, the developers behind the excellent Cargo Runners, has been good enough to organise a regular games night.

The team has organised games for the next few weeks on Mondays, from 7pm to 1am, Pacific Standard Time. You can find a full schedule here: http://www.troublebrothers.com/?cat=6

If you're around at that time, pop over to this site: http://www.troublebrothers.com/?page_id=259 and get playing! Current games include Ticket to Ride, Cargo Runners, and Carcassonne for the iPad. That's an excellent set of games, to be sure.

It's really great to see digital board game developers so passionate about their art to fully immerse themselves within the community of people they're developing for. Hopefully the games night is a success and blossoms into a large community of board game fans.

While we're at it - anyone up for a game or two of Samurai?

Dear OnLive: the perfect time to launch in Australia is now

OnLive is a gaming concept that is slowly gaining momentum. Originally launched in the US, this cloud-based platform is now paddling in European waters. So far, Australia has missed out, and with cloud gaming competition starting to crop up, OnLive will want to start ramping things up here, big time.

Review: Panzer Corps (PC)

Panzer Corps is a big release for Matrix Games – with a longer development and marketing cycle, following its progress has been an interesting experience. The team behind it at Lordz Game Studios has endeavoured to recreate the hex-based light strategic experience found in the old turn-based SSI Panzer General games, and this loving devotion to the traditions that series set up is admirable.

Watch your flank!

Import Review: Yakiniku Bugyou (PSN)

I love eating at yakiniku restaurants (a Japanese form of barbecue were the restaurant visitors cook for themselves). It is one of the most pleasant memories from the last time I went over in Japan. There’s something warm about sitting around a table with a small barbecue, eating small portions of meat and vegetables and drinking large quantities of beer.

Yakiniku is a casual experience – meals can easily span over three or four hours. Yakiniku Bugyou is too frenetic to be a casual experience, but it is very effective in making me want to head on down to get some of the real deal. The way the virtual meat sizzles and smokes is enough to make the mouth water.

So. Hungry. Now

Win a double pack of MonkeyPaw Games Japanese import games!

In collaboration with MonkeyPaw games, Digitally Downloaded and Otaku Gaming are able to offer up a new competition to win one of three packs containing not one, but two great Japanese import games: Yakiniku Bugyau and Rapid Angel.

These games are available for download through the U.S PlayStation Network, but European and Australians (and anywhere else in the world) is also most welcome to enter - just create a second, 'dummy' PSN account based in the U.S if you win; one of the best things about the PlayStation 3 is that it is not region locked at all.

(If you need help with that, just let us know and we'll provide a step-by-step for you).



Anyway, to enter the competition, you'll need to do two things:

1) Follow MonkeyPaw Games on twitter: http://twitter.com/monkeypawgames
2) Sign up on our forums, post your twitter username there and let us know which Japan-only game you would most like to see released out west.

Winners will be drawn at 9pm, July 25 (Sydney, Australia), and will be notified (with their game codes) though these forums.


Good luck with the competition, and keep your eyes on both Digitally Downloaded and Otaku Gaming for full reviews of both games very shortly!

Review: Cohort Chess (PSN Minis)

Chess has become an incredibly difficult kind of game to build into a compelling purchase. There are literally hundreds of great chess offerings out there, each with different value propositions, ranging from flashy battle chess visuals through to hardcore AI simulations that Elo ratings (the statistic assessing a person/ game’s skill level) providing a challenge greater than scaling Everest.

With that in mind, Cohort Chess is going to be forgotten very quickly. It’s not that it plays a bad game of chess. It’s just that it’s a limited package that does nothing original.

Review: Amazing Breakers (iPhone)

The name of the game pretty much sums it up; it's amazing and you break things. What more could you possibly want? In this brilliant new destruction-puzzler from Dekovir you must launch bombs at gorgeously constructed ice-sculptures in an attempt to wipe them out. Sounds simple enough and in terms of “pick up and play” it certainly is. The challenge, and the fun, comes in mastering the different types of bombs to get the highest score on each stage and destroying every last shard of ice.

One of the most visually striking iPhone games ever?