Hudson is best known for making two things: Bomberman and minigame collections. Bomberman Land is an inevitable combination of the two concepts, and it’s a disappointing one.
Bomberman Land feels like a first generation title because it originally was. Many delays pushed it into 2008, and at this point it just seems dated. The minigame concept has been killed on the Wii with the deluge of releases in the genre.
The one-player mode is just too clunky. Cutscenes are unskippable, and text scrolls at an excruciatingly slow pace. However, the games themselves do offer a bit of fun. They’re not stellar, but they are at least passable. It seems like the developers took this title as a sort of training of sorts for the next Mario Party title, as many of the challenges offer that same feel.
The other major selling point of this title is the inclusion of standard Bomberman mode. However, Hudson was outdone on this front by…well…Hudson. Bomberman ’93, a TurboGrafx16 game available on the Virtual Console, does a similar if not better job with this, and it’s just six bucks.
While Bomberman Land‘s budget price tag is somewhat redeeming, it just doesn’t justify a purchase. Instead, download Bomberman ’93 (or Bomberman Live on XBLA), or pick up the new, considerably better DS version.
Movie tie-ins are a given in today’s game business. Movie tie-ins that are over three years late? That just doesn’t even make sense. Crave’s Napoleon Dynamite: The Game is the latter. The title offers 25 minigames based on the film, and nothing else.
The games are all based on jokes in the movie. The activities range from A
This week’s additions for Xbox Live Arcade Wednsday are Commanders: Attack of the Genos and Discs of Tron. Both titles will be available at 1 a.m. PST on Wednesday, Feb. 13th.
Commanders will be available everywhere but Japan and Korea for 800 MS Points and carries an E10+ rating. Discs of Tron carries the same regional restrictions, but will only set you back 400 MS Points and is rated E.
Hit the jump for the full release. READ MORE
This week’s additions to the Virtual Console lineup are Harvest Moon, originally on the Super NES, and Lords of Thunder, yet another TG16 game that I’ve never played.
Both titles will be available at 9 a.m. Pacific time this morning for 800 points. Hit the jump for the full description of this week’s titles. READ MORE
Trying to capitalize on vehicles that you wouldn’t normally play in a racing game, MX vs. ATV: Untamed takes dirt bikes, ATVs, and Monster Trucks and pits them against each other to create an arcade racer that strives to be more.
The game’s biggest perk is the sheer amount of vehicles and play modes available. ATVs handle differently than dune buggies and indoor arena tracks are a world apart from the outdoor rally. Perks end there, though. The game quickly devolves into an average experience as the thrill of taking a jump leads to the inevitable crashing down to earth because you didn’t hit the lip of the ramp correctly. Moreover, the developers attempted to walk a specific line with physics and controls that lands somewhere between technical simulation racing and arcade; what they end up with is an unbalanced feel to the game. They should have chosen physics or arcade only, and stuck with it.
You can tell the developers were trying to get the best of both worlds and they mostly succeed with a lot of quick action and forgiving turns that make the game easy to pick up but occasionally the developers threw in some technical details that may frustrate players on both ends of the spectrums. Jumps are especially tricky and unforgiving; if you have any momentum approaching a ramp you need to steer the analog control before and during the actual jump to land correctly, or suffer the ensuing crash. Add to that the random hazards such as water or snow on the course and winning a race is really a tricky endeavor. Ultimately, the gameplay proves to be too weak for the hardcore racer looking for Motorstorm action and too frustrating for the casual gamer looking for a beefed up Mario Kart.
The PSP version of the game doesn’t fare so well in the graphics department. Overly blocky riders and terrain are missing that crucial level of detail the PSP has always been known for. Not that it looks horrible; it just doesn’t fully utilize the graphic capability of the system. The PSP also has the option of linking up to 4 systems for multiplayer games, and while this is a nice notion, it doesn’t add much to the overall gameplay.
If you are looking for a no-brainer racer that gives you fast action and even faster crashes you have come to the right place. If you are looking for a technical racer and tricks then you might find some of that here, but probably not in the form you are going to enjoy.
