Beejor

Who can complain? It's more of the same old Mario everyone loves! Or so Nintendo would have us think. They should've went with the "Mario Kart 7" naming convention and called this one "Super Mario 238", since it's the 238th Mario game. Along with removing "New" from the title, it would describe the game a bit better. Yet another Mario game from the same "if-it-ain't-broke" 1983 Nintendo mold, New Super Mario Bros. 2 does have some nice little puzzles and the standard Nintendo polish. Compared to the DS prequel, it's a little more challenging, but not in the best ways. For example, to get some secrets you need to hit a randomly cycling item block, so be prepared to commit Mariocide multiple times to get that coveted third star coin in some areas. The gameplay is otherwise identical except for the addition of the somewhat disappointing two-plane (background and foreground) 3D graphics and a few new (old?) power-ups. The levels are pretty easy to complete, and in the end you'll have a million coins and hundreds of extra lives. NSMB2 a fun little romp, but if Nintendo wants to play up the nostalgia factor while maximizing profits, I'd rather they just re-release Super Mario All-Stars in 3D and be done with it. It would be far less embarrassing for them, and far more enjoyable for the fans.

Insect Armageddon improves on the (already great) original EDF game in almost every way. It has better music, graphics, sound, controls, enemy AI, and replay value. The biggest additions are customizable character classes, upgradable armor, and online play. Online games are hard to connect to right now, but the developer says they're working on a fix. The multiplayer games I did manage to play were a blast with no lag. This is a great arcade shooter game, especially the online and offline (split screen) co-op. The battles are intense and require some strategic weapon and class selection, and positioning on the battlefield. It feels like participating in a cheesy disaster movie, with giant bugs and robots destroying the city. The developer fixed a lot of bugs from the first game and deaths never feel "cheap"; the enemies present a good challenge without charging you all at once and killing your squad like the first game. This isn't some epic story-driven 100-hour RPG game; it's about having fun blasting giant alien creatures with crazy weapons for a few hours at a time with friends. From beginning to end it's nothing but pure arcade action. Check it out and maybe you'll enjoy it.

The critics really bashed this one, but I'm not sure why. After reading Joystiq's scathing review I was afraid to pick it up, but I'm glad I did. Solid controls, fitting music, nice graphics, fun and frantic arcade-type gameplay... the only thing that really hurts the title for me is lack of offline multiplayer, and the occasional frame rate issues. An inter-event game save feature might have been nice for the longer cups, but it's not a huge deal. In the game you pick a driver, each with their own personality and special attacks. Then you choose a car "loadout" and jump into tournaments to unlock more arenas, achievements, ending movies, and other game content. Each tournament has one or more arenas with a bunch of events like demolition derby, racing, elimination, and (one of the most fun) seeing who can hit the most zombies with their car. The zombie mechanic works well and you can rack up combos or find secret zombies for more points. Some zombies are powerful and will try to latch on to your car or smash it into pieces. The game AI is okay for the most part. It seems like they only really put up a fight in the last stages. You get assigned a rival and you're awarded bonus points if you come ahead in any given match. Blood Drive reminds me of Twisted Metal and Carmageddon, in a good way. If you enjoy demolition derby type games you'll like it. If you're expecting a huge, complex, deep, 100-hour game experience you might want to look elsewhere. If you're able to rent it I would say don't be put off by the critic reviews, and at least give it a try.

Sonic 4's soundtrack, graphics, animation, controls, and level design all have a strangely amateurish quality when compared to the first three games. It feels like playing a Flash game on Newgrounds and Sega should be utterly ashamed for giving this the title "Sonic 4". The controls alone are enough to destroy the game; Sonic feels like he's sliding on soap when he runs and floating on the moon when he jumps. The enemy targeting system is novel but where's the amazing Sonic artwork and music that made the franchise such a massive hit? Where are the 2010-caliber innovations like online multiplayer co-op? Or any sort of multiplayer at all? Where's Tails, or all the classic enemies we've grown to love? Lock-on technology? Traveling through time? Incredible bonus areas? All the characters in this game look like 3D animated cartoon zombies which is fitting because Sega just drove the final nail into Sonic's coffin.

A dozen hours into the game, New Vegas contains no significant improvements over Fallout 3. In fact it plays like it was just another generic expansion pack. Same old glitchy engine full of long load times and vast boring brown terrain to explore, same old steal-items-and-sell-them-back-to-stores, kill-a-billion-ants-to-level-up sandbox gameplay. Some novel improvements would have included multiplayer modes, vehicles, more engaging environments, improvement to the combat mechanics, a deeper character creation system... sadly, none of these were even attempted. I would only recommend the title to someone who completed Fallout 3 Game of The Year Edition. New Vegas was immensely overhyped.