Back in the old arcade days of the ’80s, one of the more popular games was Taito’s Qix. You controlled a little ship the moved around the edges of the screen and ventured forth from there to cut out slices of the playing field, while trying to avoid getting touched by something or other shooting at your path. While I never particularly liked it, apparently many developers of Minis did enjoy it, as we’ve seen a few Qix clones—Cubixx, Urbanix, and Fortix.
Besides all being inspired by Qix, they also all use the same naming scheme, the first part of the name hinting at the twist over the original Qix. In Fortix, the twist is that the thing you move around is a little knight, trying to capture forts, while being shot at by catapults and avoiding dragons flying around as dragons are wont to do. The original Fortix was very well done and well received, so it’s not too surprising that it’s been followed up by a sequel, Knight Fortix 2 (I’m not sure where the “Knight” in the name came from). Read the rest of ”Knight Fortix 2 Review—Sequel Supreme!” »
One of the odder phenomena is how things often come in waves. Celebrities seem to die in threes. In motion pictures, there will often be several movies on the same subject released within a period of a few months. Minis seem to do this as well; right now, most of the Minis, either ports or SNK classics, seem to be sports-related.
In this case, the sport is North American football in the latest SNK arcade game to be ported to Minis, Touchdown Fever. Considering the real game lasts at least an hour, and in reality more like three hours, concessions have to be made to make an arcade game out of it. So basically, you have one possession to score a touchdown. If you do, you win, and if you don’t, you lose. Read the rest of ”Touchdown Fever Review—Needs More Cowbell! And Time on the Game Clock!” »
When I was kid, I wanted a pool table. Instead, my parents got me a ping pong table. While I was disappointed, I grew to like ping pong. So when I saw World Ping Pong Championship get released, I was cautiously optimistic. Unfortunately, rather than reminding me of the fun I had playing ping pong, it reminds me of the initial disappointment.
While Gameshastra created a handful of original titles for the Minis program at the very start (games like D-Cube and Deflector), most have simply been ports, either from their PC casual games or their more recent efforts on iOS. At first I thought this was an original PSP title, but apparently it is simply a port of World Cup Table Tennis, originally by Skyworks (who also originally did Crime Spree). Read the rest of ”World Ping Pong Championship Review—World Class Disappointment” »
There are lots of free Flash-based browser games that have similar gameplay elements to Hungry Giraffe’s. The core gameplay of this Mini is reminiscent of runners like I Must Run! and One Epic Game, only in this game you shoot up vertically. Such gameplay is broadly categorized under the “launch” genre, but to be specific, this game is much more “climb/jump/fly-to-the-sky,” like Mountaineer. I believe this genre was pioneered by Ice Climber, but of course, there may be a game Ice Climber was inspired from, so feel free to correct my error. It’s just that I am young.
Enough about me, and back to the game. It’s insulting to Laughing Jackal to juxtapose their latest Mini offering with those free Flash-based browser games. Hungry Giraffe is a very polished game worthy of a premium. Yes, games like this have been done before, but never in my gaming life have I seen a game elevate a genre like how Hungry Giraffe has done.
Read the rest of ”Hungry Giraffe Review—Insatiable” »
I apologize for the great delay of this review. Trailblazer became available for non-Plus members in the PlayStation Store back in January, but we only had a copy last week. I forgot to download the game since it only came available for download several days after it was announced on the PS Blog. I totally forgot this game.
Anyway, if you purchase, download and play Trailblazer, you won’t forget it anytime soon. This game requires superhuman memorization skills. Still, it’s a fun, simple and colorful Mini. There is not much to complain about, except for its punishing difficulty and psychedelically nauseating graphics.
Read the rest of ”Trailblazer Review—Setting the Trail Ablaze” »
In the 1980s, one of the more popular genres of video games was Olympic sports. In retrospect, it’s hard to see why, other than that the Olympics were just far more popular than today because of the Cold War, but also perhaps because they were one of the few types of mini-game collections back then. Usually it was a different game for each sport, though most featured some type of button (or keyboard) mashing.
Gold Medalist is one of those ’80s Olympic games, based on the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, and it features nine different types of games. Most are track and field events—jumping, running, hurdling, throwing things—but there are also boxing and swimming and one gymnastics event, the horizontal bar. Read the rest of ”Gold Medalist Review—Closer to Bronze” »
