In the Godzilla films, the citizens of Japan don’t hesitate to run away from the big guy at first sight. After playing Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash, I feel the same impulsive need to flee as fast as I can.
The gameplay shares nothing with its console brethren; rather than a brawler, the DS version is a sidescrolling action title that makes players hit planes and boats on both screens. Grounded monsters are used on the bottom screen, and are paired with a flight-capable creature on the top. The screens hardly play differently, and only serve to make the game longer as switching from one to the other allows the inactive monster to rest. The attacks are few in number and similar in effect, making strategy almost nonexistent.
The player’s characters are overly weak, which makes the short game still somewhat difficult to complete in one sitting. Well…tough luck, I guess. Developer Santa Cruz Games, while saving unlocked characters, didn’t include a game save, so everything has to be played through at once. Having everything in succession shows just how repetitive the game is…while sometimes enemies look different, they have identical functions and behaviors.
To the developer’s credit, there is a single-card multiplayer option. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t include enough fun for even one person, so it doesn’t really matter.
Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash is arguably the worst DS game ever. If you have to buy it, make it a gift for someone you hate.
The WWE feels as though it’s designed for a game. Over-the-top action, crazy characters, flashy movesA
Cooking Mama 2: Cooking with Friends is, almost motion for motion, the exact same game as the original Cooking Mama. Recipes are different, but the visuals, minigames, and motions used to prepare dishes are exactly the same. There’s something to be said for not fixing what isn’t broken, but the new content here is so insignificant that Nintendo really should have offered new recipes via Wii download to the DS.
Cooking Mama 2 is, without a doubt, aimed at aspiring chefs that never played the original title, and for that audience it is a good game, but those that played the original would do better to save some cash and fire up the original again. Like its predecessor, Cooking Mama 2 has players chopping and sautA
The Mario Party series has attempted twice before to leave the living room. Mario Party Advance, however, was focused solely on single-player, and Mario Party-e wasn’t exactly a wonderful product. Finally, with Mario Party DS, Nintendo has put a full party experience on a handheld.
Shrinking the game to the DS hasn’t shrunk the experience. The game features five different boards with different themes and game mechanics. The graphics seem a lot like the N64 versions of the title, which is both nice and irrelevant since the game relies little on visual appeal.
The single player is painful. The AI is unbalanced to the point of frustration. It seems overly incompetent in minigames and just too lucky with dice rolls. It ends up balancing out near the end, but it just seems like it could have been written better.
The most important part of Mario Party is multiplayer, and this is where this installment shines. The game is entirely download play. The load times are swift, and there is no real lag. Having four players eliminates the need for the bad AI, and the minigames don’t seem imbalanced. The title features over 70 minigames
There are lots of bonuses thrown in to make the game last longer. All the puzzle-related minigames featured in the previous versions make a return in a standalone mode, and though none could carry a game alone, the combination of them makes for hours of fun. Playing the game unlocks little items, and though most are just trophies, some are game modes or special features.
There are some areas that Mario Party DS fails at, but it does the multiplayer right, which is the most important part. If there was ever a reason to have a party in the park, this is it.
t feels strange to have to review Master of Illusion. It’s not even a game, really – it’s more of an electronic magic kit. Nintendo’s never been one to shy away from the strange and off-the-wall, and this is yet another example.
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