To be quite honest, I don’t play very many first person shooter games. I guess it’s just not a genre which appeals to me in the same way that RPGs, platformers, life sims and other genres too. In fact, Halo: Combat Evolved might be the first FPS game I’ve ever reviewed on here. But since this was such a popular game and supposed to be one of the very best in its genre, I wanted to give it a try.

So what did I think? Well, actually, I was quite impressed. The game has you playing as a character called Master Chief as he fights in an inter-planetary war. Things do take quite an unexpected turn and though the story is a little too complicated, it does a good job of setting up for some high quality gameplay.

Master Chief (with the help of his AI companion, Cortana) has to fight his way through a race known as the Covenant (and later, “the Flood”) and this battle takes him through lots of different locations. You’ll find yourself fighting your way through space ships that are under attack. Sneaking around snowy wilderness. Having shoot outs in dark jungles and abandoned military bases.

Some of the area in the game are actually quite creepy and I appreciated how atmospheric it could be. In fact, the Halo games drew a lot of inspiration from fellow sci-fi franchise Alien. There are a lot of little references to the first Alien film and scenes which mirror moments from it – if you’re an Alien fan, you’re likely to like this game even more.

In terms of gameplay, I felt like the controls worked really well. I didn’t have any issue with the general combat. The vehicles, perhaps, took a little bit of getting used to, but they weren’t too bad. Generally though, I can’t fault it and that does a lot to contribute to my overall appreciation of the game.

The game has two major flaws, in my opinion. The first is that some of the research centre and space station levels are extremely monotonous. It felt like some rooms were just copy and pasted but with no enemy locations. Not only did they lack variety, but they also were far too long. I usually don’t like really long levels that are really interesting, let alone really long levels that are not.

But, still, most of the game’s levels were good fun and the game, on the whole, provided a solid experience for me. There’s also a multiplayer mode for people who enjoy having death matches with their friends.

Rating: 8.3/10

Buy it here.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)

Though he has definitely fallen somewhat into obscurity, as I was growing up, I always thought of Bomberman as one of the icons of gaming. He was loveable and the gameplay of his games was simple and enjoyable. This was the game that started off his video game career.

Even in this very first game, you’ve got the classic Bomberman formula pretty much exactly as it would remain. You walk around in mazes full of enemies and drop bombs which explode in four directions. You have to plant them carefully so that you won’t get caught in the path of the explosion, but your enemies will. Along the way, there’ll be several destructible blocks and blowing them up can sometimes reveal power ups – these include additional bombs, increases to the size of the explosions, increased mobility and more. Once you beat all of the enemies, you have to find the exit (under a block) and leave.

It’s pretty fun. Catching the particularly speedy enemies can be very rewarding and you’ll find that you have to use different strategies for different types of enemy. It’s one of those games that actually gets easier as you progress, because the more power ups you have, the easier the game is, no matter how many powerful enemies you’re facing. Every time you die, you lose all your power ups, so you’ll find yourself being extra careful as you go on, because death carries great significance!

However, while the general concept behind this game is very good, it does have its shortcomings. Every level, for example, looks exactly the same and every level uses the exact same piece of music. Yes, it’s a nice little piece of music, but it starts to get repetitive after fifty levels! Another thing worth mentioning is that the Bomberman series is well known for it’s multiplayer, but this first game is an entirely single player experience.

Overall, it’s a nice game and quite fun. I was also very fond of its bizarre ending. But I do have to say, that it’s very simple and doesn’t offer very much in the way of variety.

Rating: 6.3/10

Buy it here for Game Boy Advance.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)