It’s not every month you get classic game revival worth talking about. Then again, it’s not every month that you get something like Taito’s Space Invaders Extreme. The Square Enix owned company has been churning out Space Invaders games for a long time now, but not one managed capture my attention. I know what Space Invaders entails, but it never piqued my interest. With the release of Space Invaders Extreme, they managed to not only grab my attention, but also impress me. The question is: ‘How did they do it?’

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The fourth installment of the original stealth action franchise brings the legendary hero’s saga to an end. As a fan who loves this series, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is my most anticipated game of the year and quite possibly, ever. I purchased a PlayStation 3 for this game. In fact, you could say I assembled my entire home entertainment system in preparation for Snake’s final mission. The expectations are high with the folks at Sony, Konami, loyal followers and critics alike anticipating nothing, but the best from Kojima Productions. I don’t know if it rocked the sales charts or silenced the critics, but I do know it spoke to me and delivered an extremely satisfying gaming experience.

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After spending 40+ hours with Grand Theft Auto IV, I thought I experienced enough of it to really share my views on this monolith sized game. Like many folks out there, I adore the game. More so than the previous installments where I found much of the praise to be misplaced — they were good games, but for good the sum of their parts and not the finer details. Did GTAIV change all that? Mostly.
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Being the only one of my friends who actually makes the most of his Wii (pun intended), I pre-ordered Mario Kart Wii a month ago. I did this not only because I have owned every single Mario Kart created so far, but also because over the past two years I have developed a ritual with a few soccer buddies of mine where we would play soccer each week in our seasonal league and if the game ended early enough in the evening we would gather at one of our houses and jam a few session of Kart to relax ourselves, which especially worked after any match where we got our asses kicked, because we could then go and kick each others asses at Mario Kart.

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Square Enix’s Compilation of Final Fantasy VII games were either ill received or too difficult for me to acquire. Thus, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII was my first FFVII spin-off. And having played through it: it is by far the only spin-off that matters. This is a game for its fans and full enjoyment requires that you have played Final Fantasy VII first despite Crisis Core being the prequel. I am a fan of Final Fantasy VII, but don’t misconstrue that as high praise for it. It may be one of the most beloved RPGs of all time by many, but I found its prequel to be more enjoyable. And before you send your hate laced e-mails, allow me to elaborate.

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I realize this “review” is late. Part of it is due to laziness, but the other half is wading through the content Super Smash Brothers Brawl offers. The Smash Brothers series isn’t completely foreign to me; I’ve played every single one of them at limited amounts of time. I’ve always given the series respect for being a good party game, but as a fighter not so much. I simply never understood the depth or the intricacies. What makes Brawl so special, though? Is it the copious amounts of Nintendo content? No. I took me awhile to realize it, but like most successful Nintendo games, Super Smash Brothers Brawl is a game with several layers of depth.

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The Nintendo DS is a haven for variety and quirkiness. Many games found on this handheld console just would not work on other consoles – no arguments. One such game is Level 5’s Professor Layton and the Curious Village, the first of three puzzle oriented games under the Professor Layton name. Professor Layton utilizes the point and click adventure system, but instead of trying to find obscure ornaments to solve illogical puzzles, you are roaming through the village of St. Mystere seeking out puzzles, clues and mysteries - I think of it as an interactive book of puzzles. The question is: ‘How does an “interactive book of puzzles” translate into game?’ and most importantly, ‘Is it a good game?’. I thought it was a great game.

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It hasn’t been very long since God of War 2 arrived for the PlayStation 2, but here we are, 12 months later with another epic anger filled adventure with our pale friend, Kratos. Developed by the talented folks at Ready at Dawn, this PlayStation Portable title hopes to capture what we all love in God of War and cram it into a handheld. Was the task too much for them? No, I’m very pleased to say they succeeded. And more.

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Since Tokyo Game Show 2006 and the explosion of Devil May Cry 4 media, I’ve been keeping Capcom’s demon slaying action game in the back of mind. While it may be the fourth installment in the franchise, Devil May Cry 4 served as my second foray into Dante’s world. Having played and loved Devil May Cry 3, I had high hopes for Devil May Cry 4. I wanted it to be bigger, badder and basically be Devil May Cry 3 in high definition. In many ways they delivered, but I believe they may have taken my request too literally as well.

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LTTP or late to the party pieces are opportunities for us to catch up and write about games we missed out on the first time around. They may contain spoilers.

I toiled with VanillaWare’s Odin Sphere quite some time. It’s one of those games which I was skeptical of despite glowing reviews. Let me cut to the chase: Odin Sphere is not a good game. It’s a border line “okay” game with a handful of painful flaws. I picked up the game months after its North American release through a Boxing Day deal, but even then I don’t believe it’s worth the $29.99 CAD price tag. Well enough with the intro; let’s get down to it. (more…)