Game Reviews
Latest Reviews
Browse our collection of reviews.
Latest Reviews
Review: Sparkle Snapshots (DSiWare)
Adults may find it excessive, but little girls will eat it up.
In 1995, Atlus joined with Sega to create the very first Print Club machine in Japan. Print Club was a special kind of photo booth with the ability for users to add decorative borders, graffiti, backgrounds, and clip-art 'stamps' to their images, which were printed out in sticker form and could then be traded amongst friends, slapped..
Review: Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ (DSiWare)
Not your childhood's Little Red Riding Hood!
You might've heard of Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ before; after all, a classic fairytale character blasting zombies to pieces should be almost guaranteed to get your attention. Chances are, however, that you never saw the game in stores — this is because the game never actually saw release in Europe, so the only way to get it would be to..
Review: PictureBook Games: The Royal Bluff (DSiWare)
A unique card game on a service that's quickly becoming crowded with them.
We've already seen a host of card games released for the DSiWare service, but PictureBookGames: The Royal Bluff looks to add a little variety to the mix with its unique gameplay and entertaining royalty theme. But with a service already loaded with card games, can it beat a full house? The Royal Bluff is basically a card..
Review: Sudoku (DSiWare)
Pick a number from one to nine
Sudoku was invented in the late 70's and introduced to Japan in the mid-80's, but it waited nearly thirty years to become a worldwide phenomenon. Newspapers publish sudoku puzzles even more prominently now than the crossword puzzles that have held dominance for nearly a century, and there are sudoku books, toys, and games everywhere you look: everyone is looking to..
Review: Combat of Giants: Dragons - Bronze Edition (DSiWare)
Sadly not the Gold Edition.
DSiWare has already seen plenty of "A Little Bit of..." games, which are basically smaller, budget-sized (And priced!) versions of Nintendo-published DS retail games. It seems that other developers are now taking similar advantage of the service - Mitchell recently released Sujin Taisen, and now Ubisoft has released this, a miniature version of their recent DS..
Review: Rock-n-Roll Domo (DSiWare)
It's still rock-n-roll to Domo.
Closing off our title-by-title wade through Domo's résumé, we have Rock-n-Roll Domo, which finds our fuzzy brown friend fronting a wildlife-staffed garage band. It's a rhythm game that might strike many as a little too simplistic, but compared to some of Domo's other outings, this one's not half-bad. The gameplay will be familiar to...well...probably everyone..
Review: White-Water Domo (DSiWare)
Preferable to drowning. Just.
Our week-long Domopalooza continues with a look at White-Water Domo, which finds our fuzzy, angular hero kayaking along a periodically-treacherous stream. As a single component in the larger cluster of Domo DSiWare titles, White-Water Domo doesn't do much to stand out, but neither does it do much wrong. In fact, "it doesn't do much" is about the best and..
Review: Crash-Course Domo (DSiWare)
Sometimes less is more, and sometimes less is less
When you have mini-games like the Domo releases that are so simple in design and execution, it's difficult to review them as separate entities. Crash-Course Domo is basically a bicycle racing game that's extremely basic and easy to pick up, but features very little depth as a stand-alone title. That's not to say that it's a bad game, it's just not..
Review: Hard-Hat Domo (DSiWare)
Domo needs his hard-hat because of all the falling quality
With five Domo games to choose from this week, it's more or less a given that some are going to be markedly better than others. That's okay: we like it when games are better than others, and we're sure you do, too. Of course, the flipside of this implication is that some are going to be markedly worse. Pro-Putt Domo represents the former;..
Review: Pro-Putt Domo (DSiWare)
It might be cheap, but it doesn't look or play like it
When the Domo titles were first announced for the DSiWare service, many people were left unsure of what to think of them, especially given their rather inexpensive 200 Nintendo Point price tag. Now just as quickly as they were announced Nintendo has released all five titles onto the service at once. And while this Pro-Putt Domo title isn't very..
Review: Viking Invasion (DSiWare)
Pillage the village!
Viking Invasion by BiF is a tower defence game that puts the player in charge of protecting various castles and forts from hordes of Viking invaders. The game takes a slightly different approach to the standard tower defence set up, with foes pouring in through various waterways and rivers. Set over three difficulty levels and offering two modes of game play, Viking Invasion..
Review: Wakugumi - Monochrome Puzzle (DSiWare)
Ikaruga: the puzzler
There’s a great “I’ve got it!” moment in Wakugumi where you graduate from simply sliding blocks about in the hope of making a capture to preparing combo captures with expert precision. Something about the game simply clicks and you find yourself having that classic puzzle inner monologue – “well, if this bit goes here and this pieces goes there..." It’s just..
Review: Pinball Pulse: The Ancients Beckon (DSiWare)
Maybe too realistic for its own good
Pinball simulations have always been a mixed bag over the years. While some developers have chosen to shoot for more of an authentic pinball machine experience, others tried to make their pinball simulations more arcade-like using multiple boards and mini-games to further accentuate their gameplay schemes. Pinball Pulse: The Ancients Beckon takes the more..
Review: Thorium Wars (DSiWare)
One more proton and you'd be playing Protactinium Wars.
It's always refreshing (to us at Nintendo Life and also, we imagine, to you folks at home) when a game is released for WiiWare or DSiWare that fills a tangible gap, and the first thing you'll notice about Thorium Wars is that it's like nothing else available through DSiWare. That uniqueness alone might have been enough to earn it some default..
Review: Art Style: INTERSECT (DSiWare)
It'll drive you mad!
Games in the Art Style series have a reputation for originality, aesthetic invention and for being among the highest quality games on WiiWare and DSiWare. Art Style Intersect, however, is a remake of an old GameBoy Advance title known as DigiDrive, originally produced by Q Games of Pixeljunk fame. Although it might sound off-putting to download an old GBA game that was in..
Review: Art Academy: Second Semester (DSiWare)
Less of the same.
Two weeks ago, Nintendo released Art Academy: First Semester. We reviewed it and were happy to do so. The title was impressively functional, easy to use and very much successful at fostering creativity. These are all good things. We were painting apples and red peppers like there was no tomorrow. The sun was shining. We were merry. This week, Nintendo released Art Academy: Second..
Review: Dragon Quest Wars (DSiWare)
It might not be a typical Dragon Quest RPG, but there's still plenty of fun to be had
It goes without saying that the Dragon Quest series has enjoyed phenomenal success around the world as an RPG series over the years, so placing the name on any game is going to automatically heap certain expectations onto that game, no matter what type of game it might be. Thus is the case with Dragon Quest Wars,..
Review: Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam (DSiWare)
A fallen soufflé
You may remember this game from its appearance on WiiWare, so you won't be surprised to know this is a direct port. We didn’t think much to its incarnation on the Wii, particularly struggling with its controls, but now it’s on the DSi is it more to our taste? Yes and no, is the answer. Essentially, the DSiWare version is all-but identical to the Wii edition, only really..
Review: Clubhouse Games Express: Strategy Pack (DSiWare)
Nintendo rehashes another set of Clubhouse Games, so we rehashed the review. Touché!
Nintendo seems to have a penchant for taking their DS retail releases,cutting them up into bits and selling them on the DSiWare service. So it should come as no surprise that they're at it again with this third release in the Clubhouse Games Express series. This time around, they're offering up five more classic..
Review: MySims Camera (DSiWare)
Ever wanted to share a photo with a My Sim? No, we haven't either...
My Sims Camera is a simple program that requires an equally simple explanation; essentially, it takes animations from the My Sims series and allows you to edit photos taken with the DSi camera by placing characters and stamps into your photos in various poses and styles. The game is in essence a very basic photo editing program;..
