A One on One look at Epic Mickey with Warren Spector

I was lucky enough at New York Comic Con to get some one on one time with Warren Spector and to get a walkthrough of Epic Mickey from him and another lead developer on the game. I was able to check out the game a bit while at PAX last month, but being able to check out some new areas and talk about the creation of the game with Spector and a lead developer was probably the best experience ever. I got to see a new area from the intro area shown at PAX and it was here where I learned that not only are old characters found by Mickey in this land, but so are old and forgotten rides from Disney parks. Going through this one area in the game already brought up a lot of memories since the main toon characters you saw were the gremlins and it

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Review – Metroid: Other M

For me, turning on Other M and finding a sort of side-scrolling 3rd person throw back, meant a pleasant reception to the game. Even so, it did take some getting used to.

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Review: Trauma Team (Wii)

Is the latest "Trauma" game even worth it, or does it just bang some more life out of a tired franchise? The answer may surprise you.

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First Look – Metroid: Other M

Last week I was invited to the Nintendo offices in NYC to get a sneak peek at the new Metroid game: Metroid: Other M. It was a smaller event where members of the press were able to get a good taste of what this next game in the Metroid series has in store for us. I have to say I left feeling excited about the game. Metroid: Other M takes place between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. There’s a great cinematic at the beginning that really brings you into the story and helps to give you a slight recap on events. A Nintendo representative also told me that the creators of this Metroid (Yoshio Sakamoto and Yosuke Hayashi) really wanted to focus on the story of Samus, and that this game is  something that they have been waiting for in order to do that. The basic plot of the story

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Demo Review – Rooms: The Main Building

The demo for Hudson’s new Wii game, Rooms: The Main Building is sadly too short. I don’t feel I got a great feel for what the full game might hold in terms of the story they’re trying to tell. It did however give me a decent feel for how the game works. You play as Chris who has been transported to Rooms Street, where in order to figure out what’s going on, and how to get home, you have to solve the puzzles of the Rooms mansion. This plays a little like those sliding picture puzzle games, where in order to build the full picture, you have to slide the pieces around. The concept is similar here, where in order to get through a room, you have to slide around the jumbled pieces of the room so that Chris can get out of it. The picture concept is important because

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Hands On with Disney’s Guilty Party

Last week I had a hands-on with Disney’s original title for the Wii, Guilty Party. Guilty Party is a party game geared toward families and young children and where other Third Party Wii titles have failed Disney just might excel. Guilty Party is created like a mystery board game akin to Clue. Stubbs the Zombie creator Wideload Games is working with Disney on Guilty Party, which results in a cute and hilarious game. The title has a story that is woven through all the various mysteries to be solved. The clues are earned through various mini-games. Just because it’s a party game does not mean it has to be easy. There are levels of difficulty and the game will also increase the difficulty if it thinks the current level is too easy for you. The mini-games vary from things we have seen before to bribing a witness or staring them

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Guest Review: Boogie Superstar

Boogie is EA’s attempt to cash in on the singing and dancing sensations made so popular by DDR and SingStar. The concept is sound, the Wii’s motion sensing controllers make it the perfect console to support this kind of game, and with the addition of a Logitech microphone and EA’s history of always including excellent music in their games, it would seem like it would be hard to get wrong. Unfortunately, EA is up the challenge, and managed to completely ruin a perfectly feasible game concept. Developer: EA (Montreal) Genre: Rhythm, Singing, Dance ESRB: E+ 10 Number of players: 1-4 Publisher: Electronic Arts Release Date: October 14th, 2008 PASS The game consists of two main types of game play, a singing mode and a dancing mode. The singing mode isn’t terrible, it has just been done before. The words are displayed at the bottom of the screen, and a series

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Guest Review: Muscle March

You know that feeling you get when you’ve been spinning around really really fast, everything is a blur, and you feel confused, exhilarated, and a little bit pukey? Prepare yourself, as that’s what you get when you play Muscle March on the Wii. Rating: E10+ Players: 1-4 Genre: Action Publisher: Bandai Namco Release Date: January 18, 2010 (North America) BUY The confusion started when my boyfriend was a little too eager to download easily the most camp game I’ve ever seen onto the Wii, a game mainly comprised of oiled up blokes, babes and bears in speedos that leave nothing to the imagination. It continued when we were greeted with this. In the single player, you play as a chain of body builders. No single entities here, oh no. You’re quite happy pumping iron at the local gym, with your gym buddies that seem to share your stylist, and your

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Review: “No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle”

Want the fun of the original, but without the boring? Goichi Suda’s got the formula down in this ultra-violent action title. Rating: M Players: 1 Genre: Action Publisher: Ubisoft Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture Release Date: January 26, 2010 (NA) BUY No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is like a good steak. Delicious meat with just a little bit of fat mixed in, and a little bit of extra fat on the outside that you can do without. Designer Goichi Suda of Suda51 has done a good thing with this game, and it’s what every designer needs to do from now on: He actually looked at the previous title, decided what worked, made that better, and got rid of what didn’t. The tedious parts of the first game are gone: The Grand Theft Auto-esque overworld? Gone. Now, you just select where you want to go from a list menu. Raising a ton

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Review: Toy Story Mania!

If you are looking to have a bit of light fun for you and your young family, then “Toy Story Mania!” could be what you’re after. Rating: G Players: 1 – 4 Genre: Arcade Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios Release Date: September, 2009 (NA) RENT Being a big Pixar fan, of course I have seen the Toy Story movies and I’m eagerly awaiting installment #3‘s release in 2010. I’ve even played a Game Boy version from the Toy Story empire, but we aren’t exactly friends any more if you get my drift. Now we have a new game for the Wii by the name of “Toy Story Mania!”. Based on the real life attraction “Toy Story Midway Mania!” at California’s Disney theme parks (as well as the Toy Story movies), “Toy Story Mania!” is a series of arcade-style mini-games to test your skills on. Many of these mini-games are the same

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