Reviews & Articles

Max & the Magic Marker is a platformer that uses bitmap-like art with a marker and teaches some basic shape drawing and physics. To get from one side to the other, you have to draw something to reach your goals. You can build all kinds of things, such as bridges, boulders and stuff to keep Max dry from the rain, to get some secret black dots hidden everywhere. The black dots are in hard-to-find places difficult to get to. Collecting ink pods helps you create even bigger drawings to get to hard-to-get-to places in the game. Max & the Magic Marker is fun but also challenging.

I’m not much of an artist. I can’t draw or paint or calligraphy well to save my life. Part of this is lack of practice. The other part is that I did not inherit my grandmother’s abilities. Don’t get me wrong, I love art — especially Matisse’s work due to his bold color choices and everyday feel of paintings. That’s the real joy of art to me: being able to create anything, to create connections where they were previously absent. In a way, Max & the Magic Marker fulfills that creative outlet.

I was a fetus when the original Frogger hopped into the arcade, so I never got the chance to sample the novel gameplay and theme that made the original a revered classic. Although it’s not exactly the same as Frogger, Frogger Returns is a faithful recreation combined with updated graphics and additional modes of play. Those who could grasp a joystick back then should be pleased with the game’s new look.

I love the Castlevania series. OK, “love” might be a bit much. “Great joy from playing” is a better way to say it. I’ve played the majority of the games over the years. Some were awesome to play through. Others were good for a short, fun romp. Few were painful. Of course, some of the older games have not aged very well. As much as I love Castlevania II, many gamers will probably find it difficult to play due to the obscure clues and stiff gameplay. Most gamers are not aware of the best legacy console Castlevania game. That game belongs to the ol’ Super Nintendo Entertainment System and is aptly titled Super Castlevania IV, which is available via the Wii’s Virtual Console.

Certain series have roots in old-school gaming centers, such as arcades. Arcade games were tough because they were designed to absorb as many shiny quarters as possible. Console games in the late 1980s and early 1990s retained that spirit. If the timing was off on a jump, you would die. Hesitation meant certain death. For a game to be like that in this day and age is a rarity, unless it has the name Contra in its title.

Capcom was one of the few software companies at the Consumer Electronics Show, and I got to see quite a few of its games, including Mega Man 10, Final Fight Double Impact, Super Street Fighter 4, Lost Planet 2, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and Monster Hunter Tri. For more information about Capcom games, visit www.capcom.com/us/.

Some of the most interesting puzzlers were released for the Super Nintendo. One of those games was Bust-A-Move (sometimes known as Puzzle Bobble). One of the latest releases in the series has become available on WiiWare under the title: Bust-A-Move Plus.

I remember the original Bubble Bobble. It was one of my mom’s favorite Nintendo games; she loved it because she got to blow away bad guys in a number of minutes. Although my mom has moved on and played other various puzzle games over the years, I think deep down she still has a soft spot for Bubble Bobble, a precursor to modern-day action puzzle games. Now, after 20 years, the original game has been released on the Wii’s virtual console, and Bubble Bobble Plus has been released as a WiiWare title.

Congratulations! You are the proud owner of a brand spankin’ new shop in Clover Town, set in the Harvest Moon universe. The town is filled with many familiar Harvest Moon faces from the series, and you can interact with them. Decide what you’re going to sell and build you business to help the town grow and prosper. Will you make fruit juice? How about ice cream? Maybe decorating eggs is more your style.

I loved Final Fantasy IV. It was one of the first role-playing games I played. But the main reason I have such a soft spot for it is because it was one of the first plots I started to understand. I know every aspect of the game, with new little details becoming apparent each time I play. Each little aspect of the game is a piece of comfort for me. It was with that excitement in mind that I quickly downloaded Final Fantasy IV: The After Years onto my Wii.

I know I’m a bit strange, but when I was little (when the other kids on the block wanted to be firefighters and such), I wanted to be a myrmecologist (one of those super cool awesome scientists who study ants). So, of course, I immediately gravitated toward the Ant Nation games at the Konami booth. I saw two versions, one for the Nintendo DS and one for WiiWare.

Joining the growing ranks of role-playing puzzle games, Konami’s Puzzle Chronicles looks like it will be a good fit for anyone who was a fan of Puzzle Quest or other puzzle RPGs. The demo version I saw was on the Nintendo DS, though it should also ship for PSP and be downloadable for Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and WiiWare.

I confess: The Wii has been an interest of mine ever since it came out. It was doing things that have never really been done before. Plus, it has a degree of accessibility that has never been seen before; it is a console that can behave like a traditional console (especially when one obtains a game through the Wii Virtual Console) and can act like a PC due to the motions of the Wii-mote. After all these years, those were the reasons my sister and I finally picked up a Wii. After about a week of proud ownership, a little WiiWare game caught my eye on the Wii Shop Channel. That game was Penguins and Friends: Hey! That’s my Fish! Is it worth using blocks on your Wii?