This is the third game in the Smash Bros. series. The majority of the gameplay is unchanged since the first game and so I shan’t go into much detail about how exactly the game is played and will instead talk about the changes and additions that this instalment brings with it.

The best thing about this game, I thought, was the inclusion of a storyline called The Subspace Emissary. The story brings all of the characters together as they fight against the Subspace Army who have allied with a couple of Nintendo’s better known villains. Every level is a side scroller where each character controls exactly as they would do in other modes. These levels all look quite nice (ranging from forests to power complexes) and, after each level you’ll get to see excellent cut scenes of the various heroes getting on with their quest and interacting with one another. While nobody ever talks, the storyline is still very exciting and often tense and emotional too. This story mode is definitely the thing to buy the game for as the whole thing has a rather epic feel.  And I think the word ‘epic’ is a little overused, but, it definitely should be applied to this story.

The old modes are still in the game too though (other than Adventure mode, which is gone) and this time the roster of characters has been extended to include non-Nintendo characters too (although, at the same time, Roy, Dr. Mario and Mewtwo are all sadly gone). You can now play as Sonic from the Sonic series and Snake from the Metal Gear series both of whom are characters that I enjoy playing as very often. Using (and unlocking) the new characters is a good enough motivation for playing through the older modes. Plus, for the first time you now have the ability to have fights online and while it does feel slightly limited, it’s still very fun to be able to play against strangers and convenient to be able to play against friends. There’s also a new item called a Smash Ball which gives every character a unique and very powerful ability (Bowser, for example, becomes the giant Giga Bowser) which gives a fun new spin to the battles.

Finally, the unlockables have been greatly expanded too. The trophies have returned from the previous game, except this time there are a lot more of them (and there were already loads). Plus, a new trophy feature allows you to pose them on little sets and take photographs, which is quite cool. As well as trophies, there are now stickers to collect too. These stickers are pieces of artwork from various Nintendo games and can be used to give power ups in the story mode, but basically they’re just fun to collect and there are hundreds of them too. CDs are another collectable. Each of these will give you a popular song from a Nintendo, Sonic or Metal Gear game which will then be heard from time to time in various levels that match them. Since I really enjoy video game music, I was very happy that so many tracks could be unlocked (even songs from Tetris!).

On the whole, this game is worth buying to play its fantastic story mode, and then once you’ve done that, it’s worth sticking at to get as many of the collectables as possible. But, despite the fact that game is seemingly very expanded from the previous one, everything still feels very similar and, were it not for the story mode, I may even say it was similar to the point of tedium, so I can only rate it as highly as it’s prequel: 9.5/10

This game is very good, but I can’t help but wonder if the Smash Bros. series can have another equally good instalment without a big change…

Buy it here.

This Mario RPG is certainly very unique. As you may be able to guess from the title, every character in this game is a paper thin cut out. I imagine this decision was made for aesthetic reasons because Mario, Luigi, Bowser and every person and creature in the Mushroom Kingdom looks very nice in this game. In fact, things look rather retro, many characters look like their official artwork for older titles.

The storyline is fairly typical of the Mario series: Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach and Mario heads out to save her, but, thankfully, there are some unique twists this time. Rather than just kidnapping Peach, Bowser steals her whole castle and flies it off into the air, taking several others along with him. Also, Bowser has used an artefact called the Star Rod in order to make himself virtually invincible. Mario loses a fight with him right at the start of the game and then must find all of the Star Spirits in order to have enough power to defeat Bowser.

On his quest, Mario comes across various new and different characters who will help him on his journey. Aside from a short while at the beginning, Mario is followed by a partner at all times. These partners give Mario new abilities when walking around the 3D world (for example a Paratroopa known as Parakarry can fly Mario over gaps he can’t jump over) and also fight by his side in battles, each with their own unique move set. I quite like all of the partners, partly because it’s nice to see some new characters introduced to the Mario series (even if they have been terribly under used since this game). And on the subject of other characters, in this game there’re a few segments where you play as Peach while she’s held captive. Peach sneaks around and gets to do all kind of things, which is a nice change from her usual standing in a cage and doing nothing.

There’s quite a large world in this game too, and it’s one of the few which gives you a wide open Mushroom Kingdom to explore. All of the different locations are similar to places you’ll have seen in other Mario games, such as Dry Dry Ruins, an ancient Egyptian themed place, Mt. Lavalava a vibrant tropical island and the massive haunted house Boo’s Mansion. Every area has its own story to it, there’ll be some problem and Mario has to find out what’s going on so that he knows where he might begin looking for each place’s Star Spirit. This helps to give the game some depth which often feels lacking in the non-RPG Mario titles.

On the whole, this is an excellent addition to the Mario world and the start of a subseries which would later get even better. There’s a lovely mix of RPG, platforming, puzzle solving and good writing which makes this something that should not be missed.

Rating: 9.3/10

Buy it here.

• This is the second Tingle game, but it has no connections to the others in the series and is, in fact, just a remake of the game Balloon Fight but with Tingle as the protagonist rather than the Balloon Fighter. Rather than repeating myself in this entry, I’ll just write about the changes between the two games. To find out out about the core gameplay, read my Balloon Fight review first. 

Changes:

• Tingle (and his the other ‘Tingles’ Ankle, Knuckle and David Jr.) replaces the Balloon Fighter characters. Which is quite good, since they’re much more entertaining. Enemy characters remain the same though.
• The graphics have all been updated and look much nicer.
• The game can now have four players at once, rather than just having two, which definitely increases the fun of multiplayer. (Also, to play the multiplayer, you only need one copy of the game, since you can do single card download play, which is always good).
• You can now save the game, meaning you can keep high scores going as long as you can stay alive. Another improvement.
• The game has a new soundtrack and all sound effects are changed. I especially like the noises Tingle makes when he flies. If you don’t like the new sounds though, you have the option to use the original ones, so it’s win-win really.
• There’s a new picture gallery where you unlock pictures of Tingle for winning lots of levels. These pictures range from things such as Tingle in space to Tingle having fun with a couple of young women. They’re certainly worth working for, I only wish there were more.

The only negative thing is that all the menus are in Japanese as the game never received a western release. Luckily this isn’t much of a problem as the menus are easy to figure out and there’s no in game text. So, on the whole, this is a nice improvement over the original.

Rating: 7.5/10

This, the third Banjo-Kazooie game, actually takes place between the first and the second. Here you find out that Klungo actually thought up a successful plan to rescue Gruntilda from underneath the boulder she was trapped under at the end of the first game: he builds a robotic body which she moves her spirit into. Then, in her new robotic body, she travels back in time in order to change history so she’s not defeated in the first place.

The game has very similar gameplay to previous two instalments, and since they were both so fun, this is certainly not a bad thing. As always, you have to explore various different exciting worlds in order to find all of the hidden jigsaw pieces which either will be hidden somewhere or given as a reward for helping somebody. The worlds are even still in 3D, though from a top down kind of perspective similar to portable Zelda games. Plus, as always, Banjo isn’t capable of doing everything as he is, and so various transformations are unlocked in order to overcome certain obstacles, these include a tank and a torch (among other things) which I thought were quite cool. Plus in this game you can use any of the transformations in any of the worlds, something which cannot be done in either of the other games.

But, of course, due to limitations of the systems, a few cut backs have been made. Aside from the obvious point of graphics, Banjo and Kazooie have fewer abilities than they had in earlier games; they can’t, for example, fly anymore. The number of levels has also been cut down. Whereas the others both have about ten, this one only has six (including the hub world) which makes the game’s length a bit shorter.

Despite its shortcomings, this game is still excellent. The soundtrack is enjoyable, the graphics still look very nice (especially for a GBA game), all the levels are big, immersive and fun to explore and the game still has the humorous ‘charm’ that the other titles are loved for. It may not be quite on the same level as the previous two games, but I still rate it very highly. Rating: 9.3/10

Buy it here.

Back in the early days of the NES, Nintendo decided that it could be a good idea to try and make some educational games. Donkey Kong Jr. Math was the first of these, but it was so unpopular that they decided not to make any more. I think this is quite a shame, really, since I find this game to be pretty fun, so who knows what the other planned games would have been like?

There are two games modes in this, single player and multiplayer, and I’ll admit that the single player mode is boring and not at all fun. Basically, Donkey Kong has a maths question and you, as Donkey Kong Jr. have to answer it for him. That’s it. There are different modes for this question answering, but, really, they’re all the same thing. So, unless you have somebody else who’ll play with you, don’t buy this game.

The multiplayer mode is, for me, what makes this game very fun and worth buying. In this player one controls Donkey Kong Jr. and player two controls another, pink Donkey Kong Jr. Donkey Kong holds up a board with a number on it and, the winner is whoever ‘gets’ that number first. Scattered about the 2D stage are several numbers from one to nine and several binary operators (plus signs, minus signs, division signs and multiplication signs) and so, if Donkey Kong’s number was thirty, you could get an, eight, then a plus, then a two, which would give you ten, then you’d get a multiplication sign and get three, which would give you the number he wants. Of course, that’s just a very basic example and it will normally be a number that you have to think a lot harder to get, but you get the idea. When playing against somebody else, it’s a real hurry to get the things you want and, when you win, it feels better than just winning a Mario Kart race (for example) because you’ve had to actually apply your mind to win.

So, basically, this game is made up of a missable single player mode and a terribly fun multiplayer game that you can play for hours. It’s certainly not perfect, but I suggest giving it a try.

Rating: 7/10