Ninjas are awesome, and this game certainly contains them. However, this alone isn’t enough to make the game worth buying. The game, known as Tenchu 4 in Japan, is the next instalment in the stealth/action series that dates back to the original PlayStation.
You control both Rikimaru and Ayame who attempt to restore peace blah blah, all set in 13th century Japan. The story is well presented through cutscenes which feature surprisingly well done voice acting. Well, except for the occasional cockney enemy guard, and the fact that they all spout the same three phrases when looking for you. Overall production values are quite high, which is unusual for a Wii game. Character models look good and animate well, though there is a distinct lack in variety of enemy models (the bad guys must be investing in a clone army), and the lead protagonists and enemies are fantastically designed. Music is also great, and really does a good job setting the mood. Unfortunately, as soon as you are placed in control of the ninja, cracks start to show.

For many years now, videogames have had this weird fascination with zombies. We’ve seen games where you shoot them, games where you run over them, and even games where you play as them. There’s something about the undead that really captures the imagination of players and developers alike, and Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, a port of an Xbox 360 game, continues this fine tradition on the Nintendo Wii. But a fine tradition does not automatically equal a fine game, so I have been given the task of finding out if Dead Rising makes the cut, or ‘chop’ as it were.

I’m going to start this review with something bad, but important. This game is short. Damn short. Got it? Good. Now onto everything else.

Most of the supposedly ‘kid-friendly’ Wii games that are reviewed for this website are panned for being cheap shovelware with bad controls, hardly any content, and gameplay so dull that not even kids would enjoy it. That is why I was more than a little nervous when I received a copy of NERF N-Strike. This game appeared to be no more than a cheap ad for NERF (the toy company that specialises in guns that fire foam projectiles) aimed at kids, and made by the one-time champions of cheap cash-ins, EA. Further analysis suggested it was a mini-game compilation. All signs pointed to another massive failure.

The moral of this story is that first impressions can be deceiving, because Nerf N-Strike is actually a good game.

Unlike most recent Spider-Man games, Web of Shadows is not based on a movie. It follows an original story that involves New York being invaded by the alien symbiote, resulting in the city being covered in said symbiote (read: black slime) and everyone being turned into a Venom clone. Enter your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man to save the day! But wait! This is not your average Spider-Man story! In Web of Shadows, Spider-Man interacts with other Marvel characters such as Black Cat, Nightcrawler (who most people will know from the film X-Men 2), and Green Goblin, as they work together to save the city. However, Spider-Man can call on the power of the black suit, and make certain morality choices that will decide whether New York is saved… or destroyed!

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia takes place during that time after the original reign of the Belmont clan, but before the Morris clan were given the Vampire Killer whip. During this time, the legendary whip has apparently been lost or sealed away or something, and mankind has been forced to find other means to combat Dracula. Enter Ecclesia (Wikipedia tells me it’s a latin word for ‘the chosen ones’ or something like that), a secret organisation made up of the world’s most powerful and talented sorcerers. Ecclesia have been given Dracula’s soul (magically sealed inside a container of course) and asked to find a way to destroy it. It appears that they are successful, having created a magical Glyph capable of destroying Dracula. Unfortunately, that Glyph has been stolen, and it is up to our hero, Shanoa, to retrieve it.

When Rare released Viva Piñata on the Xbox 360 many Nintendo fans cried out for a Wii release; unfortunately, this did not happen. Some time later, however, Microsoft Game Studios, Rare, Nintendo and THQ announced Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise for the Nintendo DS. Nintendo fans rejoiced. The title received positive reviews and Nintendo fans were left wanting more. Sadly, Rare could not deliver anymore and as a result the fans’ hunger was never satisfied.

There is only one game I ever want to come back to and finish over and over again. Its beauty of design escapes language except to say it is brilliant. If you are reading this review out of curiosity, odds are you already have it.

With a name like SimCity Creator, I wasn’t expecting much from the latest instalment in the popular city building series, but it seems my judgement was incorrect. Hidden beneath this dodgy cover title is a game that rivals its predecessors. Well, almost…