Mario Tennis Fever is one of Nintendo’s weakest titles in years, and certainly its weakest tennis title. This is tragic because I loved Mario Tennis back on the N64, Game Boy, and Game Cube. Let’s start with the story mode. On the one hand, I do congratulate the developers for targeting a proper story mode. This hasn’t always been the…
The Amiga was home to a whole host of exceptional games in its time, but not all of them earned the right to be called true classics, even if they were innovative for their time. Advancements not only in visuals but also gameplay design have left some old school retro…
To start this review with something very personal: My father passed away…
Disclaimer: I’m making this quick disclaimer so it’s clear and up-front. I…
For some decades now, wrestling game fans have been seriously limited in game choice, with only titles produced around the dominant brand, WWE – such as WWE 2K23 easily available to Western audiences. However, the publisher of WWE made a huge misstep with WWE 2K20, dropping Japanese developer, Yukes, in…
Read More
What is it with sports video games and card-based modes being the focus? I do understand that sports and cards go together fine. I used to collect basketball cards myself. But I always thought the appeal in those was the tangible collectability (and potential value) of them. Apparently, there’s something…
Read More
Since AFL 23 launched a week ago, patches have been released nearly every day. The game was released in a poor state (note: as I noted in that article, I have in the past worked with Big Ant, the developer of the game, though I have not had any association…
Read More
I know that AFL isn’t a sport that matters much to anyone outside of Australia. So this is one of those rare articles where we remind readers of just how Australian we are by writing about an AFL game. AFL 23 launched this week and the response can be tactfully…
Read More
Some good news for the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand racing fans: one of the leading esports competitions for racing games is open for local competitors for the first time. The Ferrari Esports Series is a six-month-long racing tournament that brings together serious racing game fans from Europe, North America…
Read More
To all the big AAA publishers out there: if you are going to insist on monitoring our play sessions for every second that we play your thing, make sure your servers are rock-solid. Having to re-log into a golf game every two or three holes because a server disconnection throws…
Read More
As a baseball simulator, MLB The Show 23 is barely different to last year’s iteration. Even by the standards of annual sporting franchises, this one comes across as having the lightest of touches to improve the experience. The commentary cut in with the same comments at the same moments that…
Read More
I was almost going to skip past this year’s MLB the Show 23. Partly because I’m still playing last year’s edition, and… well, no, that was the only reason. I am still playing last year’s iteration and I don’t see any value in the iterative annual upgrades of sports games…
Read More
Annual sports game refreshes all tend to get a little stale over time, but few have had such a fall from grace as we saw out of 2K Games’ WWE line of games back with WWE2K20. The shift from Japanese developer, Yukes, to US Studio, Visual Concepts, led to one…
Read More
I’m Canadian. I love hockey. My love for the Ottawa Senators has been unwavering for decades now, despite the fact – let’s be real here – that they’re maybe not always the best team around. Hey, we’re getting there! As a hockey fan, I can tell you nothing gets other…
Read More