SUPER SMASH BROS. BRAWL (T)
Rating: *****
Nintendo
Wii
Nintendo has always had a tendency to hit gamers over the head with nostalgia, but no game makes this tendency quite as literal as Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Here, you will have 35 video game icons hitting one another over the heads with virtual artifacts of video games past, and it will take place on one of 40 battlefields of pure nostalgia. Of course, if you’ve played Nintendo 64’s surprise hit Super Smash Bros. before, or GameCube’s #1 bestselling follow-up, then you’re used to seeing game franchise mascots duke it out in a particle effects free-for-all. Well, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Brawl is insane. The degree of loving detail that went into what is essentially just a fighting game is extraordinary. You’ve got a full-on orchestra doing the music, the best graphics Wii has ever seen, classic characters from both Sega and Konami joining up with the Nintendo gang and every possible control configuration—including setups for GameCube controller, Wii classic controller and Wii-mote (both with and without the nunchuk attachment)—effectively guaranteeing that if you have hands, there’s a way you can play this game. And really, if you have hands and a Wii, there’s no excuse not to. This game’s destined to be as much a classic as the games to which it pays homage.
BULLY: SCHOLARSHIP EDITION (T)
Rating:****
Rockstar
Wii, Xbox 360
I never thought repeating high school would be this much fun, but Bully packs as good a satirical punch now as it did on PlayStation 2 a year and a half ago. This version adds a few brand new schoolyard cliché-skewering missions, and the variety they add further obscures the fact that most missions are basically collect-a-thon fetch-quests. While upgraded, the graphics still aren’t quite next-gen, but this is made up for by the distinct art style—sort of a Norman Rockwell gone horribly wrong.
FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: RINGS OF FATE (E10+)
Rating:***1/2
Square Enix
Nintendo DS
If Crystal Chronicles on GameCube left you with the sensation that you were playing Final Fantasy Lite, chances are, Rings of Fate will leave you much more fulfilled. Sure, it has the same cutesy presentation as the GameCube entry, but this story has the depth (and length) of a true Final Fantasy epic. Ironically, the game’s greatest weakness was the original’s sole reason to play: the multiplayer. Team up wirelessly with a friend or three, and watch your framerate slow the story down to the pace of a Lord of the Rings novel.
MYSTERY DUNGEON: SHIREN THE WANDERER (T)
Rating:**1/2
Sega
Nintendo DS
The real mystery here is why the designers allowed the levels to be entirely random. There should have been a few constraints, like, for instance, eliminating the possibility that the level’s exit door is in the same room as the entrance. There’s some decent turn-based dungeon crawling to be had here, especially for fans of the SNES-era Mystery Dungeons, but it’s more fun if you have a dungeon to crawl through BETWEEN the entry and exit.
When Las Vegas Weekly contributor Matthew Scott Hunter realized his career as a lab technician was seriously interfering with his gaming, he pink-slipped himself into a successful career as a freelance writer. Bug the hell out of him at [email protected]