dinosauryoshi

Tropical Freeze does what it's Wii predecessor did, only better. It looks gorgeous, and the soundtrack is one of my very favourites on the Wii U, if not ever. The gameplay is very tight and the characters are enjoyable to control, the lack of waggle controls is very welcome too and my only complaint in this department is the grabbing controls are a bit fiddly, particularly towards the end of the game when things get more difficult and intense. There's more than enough content here, just playing through the game took me over 10 hours and that was without collecting all the jigsaws and KONG letters, something which I probably won't be doing due to the sheer difficulty of the game as it is. If you were to collect all that stuff you're bound to be getting upwards of 20 hours of play from this thing. The levels are very varied and well designed, and I'm a fan of how they're quite long too. Concepts and ideas are rarely repeated too much and things are broken up nicely with mine-kart, swimming, and rhino levels which are all great fun. In terms of negatives I'd say the partner characters could have been a little different, and I found Dixie was your best bet most of the time meaning I generally just went with her. I'd also say that the bosses can be a little frustrating with them often being 10 or more minutes long and having no checkpoints. This did however give immense satisfaction when you did finally beat them! The game is perhaps a little too difficult in general (it's the hardest game I've played for a long time) although I enjoyed that it was challenging enough just to get to the end of the levels and you didn't have to collect everything to make the game challenging. Overall this is a superb 2D platformer, and certainly one of the must-play titles for anyone with a Wii U, just prepare yourself for plenty of deaths, this one is NOT easy.

Overall this is a great version of Smash Bros. and perhaps the version I’ve enjoyed most since my days battling against family on the N64 version. There’s so many stages and characters that I just can’t see things ever getting boring and although I expect the Wii U version to trump it in every way (not least because of the return of multiplayer for me), I can’t take my Wii U on the road, and so this version will be being played for many years to come.

A brilliantly polished 2D Mario title that doesn’t do much new, but doesn’t do much wrong either. To start with I’d like to point out I’m hardly a 2D Mario expert, Mario 64 was my introduction to the series and my only real experience of 2D Mario games up until recently was the original Gameboy titles, I’m reliably informed those are outliers in the series. I very quickly found out that removing a dimension instantly made me rubbish at a game I’m usually good at and it took me a lot of practice to get good. Once I did however I started having a ball. Visually it looks great, things popping out nicely in HD although if I’m going to be picky a little more vibrancy in the tone of 3D World would have been great. The overworld is great and I’ve always liked the all levels fit a certain theme in the worlds approach, whether it be jungle, ice, or desert, there’s plenty of variety and I got a nice feeling of excitement on completing each world in anticipation of what the next world would be and how the levels were going to look. The individual levels are brilliantly designed too and all have some sort of level characteristic that isn’t repeated again making each level feel individual and ensuring that things never get repetitive, a rarity in the platformer world. The gameplay - like the rest of the game - is polished to perfection with Mario’s mechanics feeling spot on, you feel in control despite his heavily momentum based mechanics. The difficulty curve is great and things get plenty challenging later in the game. The star coins add another level of difficulty for those who are up for the challenge. Although I wasn’t compelled to collect all those star coins, doing so certainly adds length to a game that already has plenty of content. The star coins are very challenging at times and I found it too frustrating to go for them all but someone with more skill will likely enjoy the challenge and will be rewarded with some extra levels. I was more inclined to find the secret exits and their associated secret levels which I very much enjoyed. The secret levels were generally pretty short, but a lot of fun. I hear that the music is basically recycled from all the previous ‘New Super Mario Bros.’ entries but as this is the first entry in the series I’ve played this didn’t bother me. I liked the music in general, it’s not amazing, but more than adequate although a little more variety would certainly have been welcome. I’m sure if you’ve played all the previous entries things will be starting to get a bit stale on the musical front by now at this point however and it’s a shame Nintendo didn’t put as much effort into the music as they clearly did the rest of the game. The ability to play with 4 players is cool too, it’s certainly not the most optimal way to play the game, but a welcome addition nonetheless and I had a lot of fun playing co-op with a friend - even if I was losing lives like nobody’s business. Overall this is a perfectly polished 2D Mario title with excellent and varied level design, a great overworld featuring plenty of secret exits, and plenty of content. The only things letting it down are the music, uninspired bosses, and how it doesn’t try much new. These nitpicks aside however it’s a brilliant polishing of a very enjoyable formula.

When I first got a GBA as a kid this was the first title I got for it, I remember liking it a lot but I'm not sure if I loved it exactly. Going back to it over the past couple of weeks I can see it's a very good game, that makes the most of the GBA's hardware to create an experience that still feels fast and enjoyable, but it isn't without its faults. On the presentation side of things it doesn't feel that much like F-Zero, there are no character models and Captain Falcon is nowhere to be seen (although a ship referencing him does come as an unlockable later on). The music, likely due to the GBA's lack of audio ability, fails to reach the driving levels of the F-Zero X and GX soundtracks and there's rarely more than 2 or 3 racers on the screen at once which is a world away from the hoardes of racers on the aforementioned games. This is all likely due to the GBA's lack of horsepower however. Where this game excels is in the most important part, the feel of the racing. The sense of speed is still there, particularly when you use your boost. The cars handle well and taking corners is a joyful challenge. The tracks are surprisingly varied considering the limitations of the mode 7 engine it's built on and there's a decent amount of them once you unlock everything. The game is a little light on vehicles though with only 4 to start with and a few more to unlock. The only complaints I have with the actual gameplay are that I wasn't a fan of the random yellow cars that seem to be driving on the track really slowly for no reason whatsoever other than to annoy you and get in your way and the strange system where to get past a race you have to be in the top certain amount of racers after lap one, and further up each lap until you have to finish in the top 3. If you fail to meet this threshold after any of the laps you automatically lose. There's no table at the end of each race to see how each player is doing and so you have no real rival, you essentially get the same reward for finishing 3rd in every race as you do 1st. The table and being able to smash up your rival to get ahead of him on it was one of the most enjoyable parts of the other F-Zeros I've played for me and their decision to not use this here is a strange on in my eyes. On the difficulty front I think it's definitely challenging and the hardest difficulty is only recommended for the really hardcore out there (I got frustrated with it pretty quickly). There's definite rubber-banding going on as always although it seemed a lot less obvious (at least to me) than other racing games I've played from this time. Overall this game excels in the feel of the racing, which is essentially the most important part. However it fails in some of the other areas and does things which I didn't entirely enjoy. It's a great game to pick up and have a race at and I'm sure I'll be doing that often with there still not being a newer alternative for portable F-Zeroing many years later. I just wish there were tables after each race, Captain Falcon was actually in the game, and that the cups didn't take longer than my average bus journey.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Overall, this is a must-own for the Wii-U in my eyes. It is one of the very best multiplayer experiences so far (along with Mario Kart 8) and a great way to get everyone involved with most of the games being really quick to pick up. It is also good fun to just dip into on your own, where trying to get to the final stages of each game is a fun and challenging experience. My only issue is the lack of ability to save your progress in the single-player games which means once you die you have to start all over again with only your high scores to show for how far you've got. Regardless of this, if you own a Wii-U and like incredibly fun multiplayer then you really need to pick this up, particularly as you can quite easily find it for less than £20 at the moment. Probably the best showcasing of what the gamepad can do on the console so far.

A great fun and beautiful download from the eshop. Oh and it’s only £2. The gameplay in Gunman Clive is pretty basic. You can run, jump, and shoot. That is all, you can only run at one speed and you can only shoot in one direction (a straight line forward). It’s polished to perfection however with your character feeling very solid to control (if a little slow) and shooting bad guys a very satisfying experience. The platforming is well done and I liked the subtly varied level design. The game is very short (I finished it in around one and a half hours) but that is to be expected from such a cheap asking price. Where the game really stands out is it’s unique sketchbook visual style which is stunning. One of the most beautiful games on the 3DS. The music ain’t half bad either, and when you consider this whole thing was made by one guy, it’s all rather darn impressive. Highly recommended if you’ve got a couple of quid and fancy an awesome 1.5 to 2 hour game.

Was expecting to love it but ultimately struggled to get into it. This is not a bad game by any means and it shares some of the great fun of the original Donkey Kong on the Game Boy, I just didn’t like many of the ideas that were added. The levels where you had to get all the minis to the end were cool but I felt the ones where you actually collected the minis weren’t particularly exciting and never very challenging. The puzzle element was often removed and replaced with platforming. I loved the original for its puzzles and having to look at the whole map to figure out how to get the key to the door. The levels where this was still the goal in this game were generally good fun although I felt that the puzzles weren’t as inventive as in the original and the worlds certainly not as individual. This is strange as you’d have thought with the additional firepower of the GBA they could have made the worlds a little more distinctive but ultimately the levels and soundtrack are nowhere near as memorable and most worlds just feel like more of the same. I came away feeling slightly disappointed, though it must be re-iterated that this is in no way a bad game, the visuals look good, it controls pretty well, and the level design is good. However it’s missing that Nintendo magic that takes things to the next level and makes a game a really memorable experience. Things just feel a little stale. I’m interested to play the ‘March of The Minis Series’ to see how that competes with this effort.

Yet another great Mario Kart. I bought this when I was fed up of waiting for my Wii U MK8 bundle to arrive a few months ago and it proved a more than satisfying game to fill that gap and I still regularly turn to it for some on the move Mario Kart goodness. Visually I like it a lot, things are bright and the 3D works well and adds a sense of speed, although I have to have it turned low otherwise I’m constantly moving out the sweet spot and things get blurry. Tracks are varied with a wide variety of themes keeping things interesting. The Kart customisations, although not as cool as the ones available in Mario Kart 8 still offer some nice variety, especially considering this is the game where this concept was first introduced. The driving doesn’t feel as smooth as MK8 and it’s not as fun to drive. It is the most fun to drive of all the handheld iterations I’ve played so far however with drifting being a satisfying experience. Gliding and driving underwater (both of which were introduced in this version) also feel great. The Kart variations offer plenty of variety in terms of how you want your Kart to drive. There’s no bikes here however, not something that bothers me as I rarely use them anyway but some people will find this an issue I’m sure. The weapons are as good as ever with my only complaint on this front being the super leaf item which I’m glad they dropped for MK8. Although it’s satisfying to hit people with it it’s just not that useful unless people are right next to you. There’s the usual rubber-banding AI although it’s nowhere near as obvious as on the DS version and the AI proves to be fun competition most of the time. The online of this game is great too. Not far behind MK8 in terms of the interface although there are less available options. I’ve never experienced any disconnecting or lag issues either so it gets two thumbs up from me. At this point it’s worth pointing out one area that MK7 thrashes MK8, and that’s the battle mode. 8 dedicated arenas and two fun modes make it very enjoyable to play, especially online. I do wish that you could have a life limit rather than a time limit on the balloon battle mode however (like the classic N64 version) and it’s a shame that all the arenas are played out on one level and not multiple levels like block fort and double deck (again from the N64 version). This would have made things a little more interesting. Content wise there’s the now standard 16 new tracks and 16 retro tracks. Most of the new tracks are great (big fan of the Wuhu tracks in particular) although a few perhaps a little confusing (I’m looking at you Wario’s Galleon). The retro track choices are good too (especially the n64 ones but I’m biased on that front) but it would have been nice if they’d jazzed up some of the older tracks (from the SNES and GBA) a little like they did in MK8 as they look a bit plain and flat when compared to the others. The character list is interesting to say the least with the rather questionable inclusion of Honey Queen and Wiggler and the exclusion of Diddy Kong. Other than those oddities though the roster is solid in my opinion and offers a good variety of racers from light to heavy. Overall this game is a lot of fun, the new items, mechanics, and courses are all great and the online is well implemented. Its flaws are quite easily looked over due to just how enjoyable the game is in general and I see this as the best hand held Mario Kart yet.

Yet another classic Mario Kart. I liked the double-kart element which added a nice twist to the gameplay and I liked how in general it was a bit more focused on skill than other Mario Karts. Great track design as always and visuals that were a big step up from Mario Kart 64 completed the package. This was also the last time a battle mode was good on a home console Mario Kart, though I still think Mario Kart 64's battle mode is the best.

The best Uncharted game yet in my opinion. The story is as gripping as ever, the action constantly spectacular and the dialogue funny and fresh. I much preferred the ending to this one than 2 (was not a fan of that boss fight) and the multiplayer and co-op modes were a really great addition. Perfect.

There is nothing bad I can say about this game. It pretty much single-handedly got me back into sci-fi in a big way. Great characters, great plot, massive worlds and seemingly endless scope for exploration. This thing **** me in like few games do and I couldn't get enough of it. One of the truly great games on PS3 that's for sure.

Overall this is a brilliant game. It’s creative, original, and genuinely hilarious. There really isn’t another game like it on any other console out there. Sure it has it’s flaws but the many positive points and sheer amount of fun this game is to play make these very easy to overlook. If you own a Wii U, I’d say this is an essential purchase. It’s one of those games I’ll never forget, for all the right reasons. For the full review (it had too many characters) head over to my darkadia page (dinosauryoshi)

A fun multiplayer experience and plenty of challenge in single-player if you have the patience. The graphics are some of the best on the Gamecube in my opinion.

A fun and great value download from the Wii U e-shop. It’s in the gameplay where this really shines; combining castle defense, troop combat and angry birds style castle smashing to create a truly unique gameplay experience. Although the controls are quite fiddly at first (a couple of things could certainly have been changed to make it a bit easier) you’ll soon be bombarding castles, casting spells, and creating troops rapidly with minimal effort. Killing enemy troops and knocking down castles is a hell of a lot of fun even if things do get a little repetitive after a while, the game is plenty long enough to warrant its price tag. The story is cheesy but it knows it and the humour is great, dishing up more than a few laugh out loud moments! The multiplayer is great fun too especially as players can have a screen each thanks to the gamepad. Visually it’s pretty good for an eshop game. Not groundbreaking by any means and the visuals especially come up short during the cutscenes, during the gameplay however they’re perfectly adequate. The music is great, and the sound-effects add plenty of hilarity to the situation, particularly the various things the troops say during battle. Overall this is a great little purchase from the e-shop and well worth the money. It has that ‘just one more go’ addictive quality and the additional DLC is good value too even if it generally just adds more of the same. When it’s this much fun, who cares?

The best Mario Kart since the N64 era. The end. Well actually that’s not the end, here’s the full review; On the gameplay front this is the best Mario Kart yet. The physics feel deeper and the karts feel so fun and smooth to drive. The anti-gravity works really well and I love the addition of the spin boost especially. I also think the new weapons are great and add something new. I even like the coin item as it means the leader can’t always bank on getting something to hang off their backside and protect them as they zoom to victory, I do however wish it appeared a little less frequently. Now only being able to hold one item at a time was also a good move in my opinion for similar reasons, the leader can’t have two protective items at once and is always at least a little vulnerable. Visually it looks good enough to eat (particularly the candy track). This (along with Mario 3D World) is one of the best looking games I’ve ever played and it truly feels ‘next gen’, a great display of what the Wii U can do. The amount of detail put into each of the tracks and backgrounds is wonderful, more than you’ll ever pick-up while zooming along. It’s a colourful visual feast throughout. The frame rate is a rock solid and smooth 60hz,only dropping in 3 or 4 player local play and the music played by a live band really adds energy to each track and brings the whole experience to life. There’s plenty of content too. 32 tracks, 16 of which are new and all of which are great. Not a dud in the bunch. The 16 retro tracks have been so well done and changed to accommodate the new anti-grav and/or underwater elements that they feel almost like new tracks themselves. The battle mode however leaves a little to be desired due to the lack of battle arenas and use of a variety of the tracks instead. This is still quite fun but gets boring quickly and the addition of some arenas really would have improved this mode no end. There are plenty of characters to choose from but the roster is a little samey and the lack of Diddy Kong is a particular shame. One has to mention the brilliant and well balanced vehicle customisations though which offer a lot of variety and are a lot of fun to play around with to find your preferred combination of kart/bike, wheels, and glider. The single player won’t take a seasoned pro long to complete and is made up of the usual 50, 100, and 150cc and mirror modes across 16 cups of varying difficulty but it’s in multiplayer where this game shines, particularly with the new refined online experience. The frame rate drops noticeably when over two players play locally which is a shame but is to be expected and this doesn’t stop the game being fun at all. It just loses a little of it’s polish. The online is magnificent. Tournaments allow for custom rulesets and times for tournaments to be open. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being able to join in on tournaments from my favourite online publications (Nintendo life etc) and to my experience the races run completely smoothly with lag a rare occurrence. Having 12 racers on the track from all over the world hurling shells at each other is honestly some of the most amazing fun I’ve had playing a video game in recent times, if not ever! Being able to play 2 player online is an excellent addition too. In conclusion this is easily the best Mario Kart since 64 with the only things holding it back from a perfect score being the lack of battle arenas, the slightly disappointing roster and the over prevalence of the coin item. All in all Mario Kart 8 is some of the best fun you could ever have on a console. It really is that good. Drop dead gorgeous, thrilling gameplay and a rock solid and fun online mode make this a game I’ll be playing for a long, long time. Update: An update is apparently imminent in which the map will be moved to the main screen along with a bunch of other small fixes. Whoop.

A great port, bringing all the thrills of the N64 classic but unfortunately also the game's short duration. The presentation has been spiced up with the graphics notably improved, particularly the water/ground detail. The sound effects are as fantastic as ever and the voice acting as cheesy (yet lovable) as it was a all those years ago. The music is great too, really adding a sense of scale to the game. Unfortunately that scale isn't there in the content. With the main game being completable in under an hour! Taking all the alternate routes and completing the hardest route will likely take an extra 2 or three hours depending on your skill level but that still makes for a very short game. If you're the high score type you'll be constantly coming back for more due to the new score attack option and the medals you can earn in each level (which are very challenging). The rest of us however won't find much to come back for other than to play the game through again for the pure enjoyment factor (which I do regularly). The gameplay is as great as ever, barrel rolling, summersaulting and u-turning feel fantastic. As does plucking enemies out the sky. The story isn't going to win any awards but is a cheesy in a loveable way and the 4 main characters make a great team, even if your team-mates are useless most of the time! The multi-player is good fun and can be done locally with just one copy of the game using download play. Online play isn't included unfortunately as this could have been a lot of fun and improved the replay value of the title considerably. The ability to save is worth noting! Something missing from the original meaning runs had to be completed in one go. The addition of an easier '3DS mode' is welcome too, providing an easier option for the less experienced gamers out there. 'N64 mode' provides all the challenge of the original! Overall this port improves upon the original graphically and in the availability of modes as well as the option to save. It's some of the best fun that can be had on the 3DS but is held back by the very short game length and limited replay value unless you are the type to go chasing high-scores and earning medals on missions (in which case you'll have plenty to do).

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I felt the difficulty was a bit much with it getting genuinely frustrating at times and all the jigsaw collecting felt a little like a chore but other than that this is a great game that every Wii owner ought to have tried. Great visuals, gameplay very true to the originals and plenty of content as well as a cool soundtrack and co-op mode make it highly recommended.

Completely boring as a single-player game but a hell of a lot of fun in multiplayer. I loved the gameplay that the boards added and there was some great mini-games on offer. Unfortunately there was also a few that weren't so great. Overall though a hell of a lot of fun.

This is my favourite tennis game of all time. The gameplay was absolutely fantastic and in my opinion this was one of the best 4 player games on the N64 (which is saying something). Easy enough to get into but difficult to master it got the balance just right and didn't clutter the gameplay with needless powerups like the Gamecube follow-up. Great memories.

Not as god as it's predecessor due to it having a little too much going on! I mean all the shells and stars and special moves just took away from the experience for me. Visually it was obviously far superior to the N64 version but the gameplay became too cluttered. Still fun, but could have been better.

This was a hell of a lot of fun both in single-player and multi-player. The single-player's crude humour was one of a kind and it's parody of various popular films was great. An absolute gem from Rare. The visuals were probably some of the best on the N64 and the gameplay constantly varied. There was some really fun multiplayer modes too (War, Heist and Beach kept me and my friends most entertained). Brilliant stuff.

Same old same old for me, yes the game looks great and seems fluid but I don't feel very in control. There seems to be a delay from me pressing a button to something actually happening, this seems to be done for the sake of making it look fluid rather than making it have fun gameplay. I liked the ultimate-team thing but it sometimes felt as if the computer had already decided who was going to win before the match started which meant it got very frustrating and I stopped playing after a short while. This is still good fun to play against friends but I maintain that no football game has ever beaten PES 6 on the gameplay front and this doesn't come close.

I think I played this one too late, the voice acting and story felt very cheesy and the visuals were pretty bad too. I liked the premise of an alien attack during World War 2 and shooting around was a lot of fun (especially with a friend) for a while but things got boring pretty quickly for me.

I really enjoyed this game and all the characters in it. However it wasn't without it's flaws, namely collecting all the tribals felt like a real chore, the multiplayer wasn't much fun (except for co-op) and the controls felt far from perfect. besides all this however it's was a very engaging game and I think an underrated part of the N64 library.

My favourite racer of all time. Improves on F-Zero X due to it's massively improved visuals and more single-player game modes. Plenty of tracks, racers and great music as ever and the speed you feel is insane, it's really in a class of it's own. The sometimes impossible difficulty level (even on easy this thing was REALLY hard) holds it back from absolute masterpiece-dom however. I really hope they make one of these for the Wii-U, it would blow my mind.

Although the rest of my family never seemed to care much for this game I used to love it as a kid. 30 racers on one track was all kinds of awesome and it was just mayhem. Great music, track design and a butter smooth frame-rate made it really feel super-fast. Visually it was a little plain however but that's a minor gripe!

I loved Fludd and the bright colourful levels and visually it was perhaps the most impressive game on the Gamecube. I felt however that a lot of the stars were 'filler' and it began to feel like a chore to collect them all once I'd cost past the 80 mark. Something I don't generally feel in Mario Games, also I felt the controls weren't as smooth as they could have been and many deaths felt as if they weren't really your fault. As with any Mario game it's a lot of fun however and I thought the Fludd was a great and innovative idea. I'd absolutely love to see a remake of this on the Wii U with some of those issues sorted out.

This hasn't aged particularly well (mainly due to the clunky controls) but at the time I remember really being blown away by the graphics and extra guns on offer! The story kept you engaged throughout and the level design is up there with some of the best in Tomb Raider. One of the best Tomb raiders out there in my opinion.

This game is awesome fun. The story is cheesy but I loved the characters as a kid (and still do) and the missions were varied and always fun (as well as challenging). Being unable to save during the single-player was a bit of a pain however and the game was pretty short but very high on replay value. The multiplayer was really fun too although it could have done with a few more maps or modes. It's still my favourite space-shooter to this day.

Tons of tracks, karts and characters and a hell of a lot of fun both in multiplayer (although the single-player is fun too for a while). The battle mode was a let-down however when compared to previous Mario Karts.

I love the humour (Drake is such a cool character), the cover shooting gameplay and the story, however it was a little short. The sequels are superior but this is still highly recommended.

This one had me gripped, a far more action orientated take on a Tomb Raider game which didn't suit the by now slightly archaic combat controls however it's a lot of fun. I finished in well under 10 hours though which seems a little short, especially for a Tomb Raider game.

I remember playing this on lazy days in with the family. A great multi-player game if you're after a chilled out affair! Never did really enjoy playing it alone though.

From what I remember, the first two 'worlds' were great but I didn't like the futuristic Area 51 at all. Also it still suffers from the old clunky control problem. An enjoyable adventure nonetheless!

Not much going on on the single-player front at all but as a multi-player game this is a lot of fun! Shame the online was ruined by people using exploits all the time which were never patched. Fantastic on the local multiplayer front though as I've mentioned.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Great graphics, great gameplay and a gripping story which means it's damn addictive make this a fantastic 3rd person Adventure game. It's more of a shooter than a puzzler, which wouldn't normally be my preference. However the cover system and light hearted nature of the game (mainly thanks to Drake's great sense of humour) makes this massive fun from start to finish. The final boss was a bit of a letdown for me and occasionally the constant cover shooting felt a little repetitive but that's just me being picky. Generally this is some of the best fun that can be had playing a video game!

The definitive Smash Bros so far (I'm expecting the Wii U version to top it though). Tons of characters, stages, items, and general madness make this an absolute riot in multiplayer and the single player is the best of any Smash Bros game yet too in my opinion. Only complaints for me are the character balance problems and some of the final smashes being far more useful than others. Other than that this thing rocks and is one of the best local multiplayer games ever, not least because of the lack of need for split screens.

A classic and the first game in one of my favourite series. I don't think the atmosphere of this title was ever recreated in later Tomb Raiders even the great remake of it. There's a sense of emptiness and genuine fear when something attacks you that is taken away by the later games' abundance of bad guys and man eating animals. My only complaints are the clunky feeling controls and combat system. Besides that this is a true great.

In my opinion this is a wonderful remake. The graphics are superb and I love the way they stayed faithful to the levels. I do think a little of the first game's atmosphere was lost here but that's made up for by the much improved controls. A wonderful adventure faithfully brought up to date.

This game is huge, especially with all the DLC (which is admittedly of varying quality). I love the huge map and post apocalyptic world. The main story isn't as gripping as it could have been (the dodgy voice acting and facial animation are partly to blame) and I wasn't too bothered about completing all the side missions as things got a little too easy once I'd reached a certain level. Nevertheless this is a great game which you can easily put hundreds of hours into. The atmosphere created and post-apocalyptic world you explore is what makes this game special, the gameplay and story isn't perfect however!

I spent many, many hours playing this as a kid and still go back to it to this day. I love the amount of civilizations (especially with the conquerors expansion), units, buildings and maps available and of course the addictive, easy to pick up and yet difficult to master gameplay. I'll always remember this game for its great soundtrack too. My only gripes were the population limit and how you had to manually get each farmer to start a new farm once it had expired (although this was fixed with the expansion). Regardless of these minor flaws this is one of those games I'll never forget. The visuals were great for the time, and the gameplay thoroughly addictive and fun. A classic, no doubt about it. I remember playing a lot of Red Alert and Total Annihilation but this is the game that always sticks out as the best.

Normally when I rate games it's either more as a multiplayer experience (Super Smash Bros) or a single-player experience (Mario 64); this however, was both. The single-player really **** me in, the visuals were great at the time and the soundtrack is still one of my favourites in game history. On the multiplayer front it was amazing for it's time, I had countless games with my family as a kid and the game enjoyed a comeback in my second year of university when me and my housemates regularly played it. Sure everyone seemed to have massive amounts of health but the gun modes, game modes (man with the glden gun) and maps are all top drawer. Yet another classic N64 game.

I loved this game. I was gripped from start to finish like I never have been with any other game. Everything about it was great but most of all the story. Ellie and Joel are such great characters (probably my favourite in game history) and the story is as good as any book or film. The control scheme was pretty much perfect (the cover system worked very well as did the melee controls) and I loved being able to customise your melee weapons and the incentives to collect things such as being able to upgrade your guns. Oh and the graphics were stunning, hands down the best I've seen on the PS3 and that's no easy feat, there's some great looking games on the console. Sure it's very linear but there's still just enough exploration and it makes a nice change not to have an open-world game with a million choices at every turn. I'll never forget this game, to me it's truly a masterpiece.

If you like blowing stuff up (space **** in particular) then this'll be right up your street. I'm not much of an FPS man generally but occassionaly I get the hankering to play one and this was such a time. This featured the most immersive gameplay I've ever experienced in an FPS, the controls are slick, the sound effects great, and although the graphics are starting to show their age a little they're still more than adequate. Where it falls down a little is on the story front for me, I didn't feel the characters were that great (a little too stereotyped for my liking). The ISA (the team you play as) didn't have much going for it to make you really like them and the story was all pretty simplistic. I did like the Darth-Vader inspired bad guy Radec and his clearly **** inspired chronies however, their red faces contrasting to the general greyness of the game looked really bad-ass. That's another topic worth mentioning, the game is very grey, a little more variation in the levels would have been nice. Overall this was a hell of a lot of fun, with amazing gameplay but falls short of being great because of the simplistic unengaging story and generally forgettable 'good guy' characters.