Toronto Thumbs

Fashionably Late Review
Civilization: Revolution

When I first heard that they were going to make a console version of Civilization, I was taken aback; how were they going to take such an expansive premise and simplify it in an enjoyable way? Then I read that they were also going to bring it to the DS; my mind was blown. I recently picked up this title and tried it out in my daily travels on the TTC, and man, let me tell you, this game is hella fun!

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Posted in DS, DSi, Reviews | 2 Comments »

Fashionably Late Review
Assassin’s Creed 2: Discovery

After Altair’s Chronicles, I was a little hesitant to dive right into Assassin’s Creed 2: Discovery. On one hand, the original game had over-reached; the graphics were less-than-impressive, and the gameplay was stunted. On the other hand, some time had passed between the creation of these games, so improvement was inevitable.

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Posted in DS, Reviews | No Comments »

Late to the Party
Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles

After playing the Assassin’s Creed series on a next gen console, I was curious to try it out on a hand-held. So I ran out and grabbed Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles for the Nintendo DS. I had just purchased a DSi XL, so I was interested in putting it through its paces. While I love the ideas behind it, and admire the ambition of the creators, I did not like this title as much as I wanted to; and now I’m going to tell you why.

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Posted in DS, Reviews | No Comments »

JAMMIN’
With the KORG DS-10 Plus

Former Editor-in-Chief Shaun Hatton shares his thoughts on a game that’s been occupying much of his time……[ed]

I received a review copy of XSEED’s Korg DS-10 Plus application near its release and have been tooling around with it since. Due to both the depth of the title and the fact that I was transitioning over to my new job at The Electric Playground, I haven’t been able to share my thoughts on it. Now that I’ve spent a lot of time with it, and am completely happy with how great a program it is, I feel I can at least give a testimonial regarding how I use it and why I like it.

For those not familiar with the Korg DS-10 Plus, it’s the successor to the Korg DS-10 title, which was essentially an emulation of Korg’s classic synth, the MS-10. As synthesizers go, it’s an impressive if not ambitious feat to take such a tactile instrument and digitize it. The touchscreen serves as the primary interface option, with the buttons duplicating functions such as starting and stopping the song loop or navigating through the synth’s various interface screens.

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Posted in DS, DSi, Overviews | 1 Comment »

To Infinity and Beyond!
Toy Story 3 Preview

Last week we were invited to check out some of Disney Interactive’s new offerings, namely Guilty Party and Toy Story 3. Disney is always fun to check out because they usually have the added challenge of accommodating a larger demographic than other companies (Street Fighter IV is not officially for kids, is it?); they always do a great job when it comes to games that involve the whole family. We settled onto some comfy couches in an office in downtown Toronto - amidst a pile of plush friends and some stand-up cardboard likenesses of well-known characters - and watched Wideload Games and Avalanche Software show off their shiny new games. In this second segment we take a look at Avalanche’s offering…

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Posted in Awesome, DS, DSi, PC, PSP, PlayStation 3, Previews, Wii, Xbox 360 | No Comments »

Build a Better Mousetrap
WarioWare D.I.Y.

It’s probably fair to say that every gamer - at some point - has uttered the phrase: “I could have done a better job on that game than the programmers did”. Most of the time they are wrong, but this game allows you to become a game maker without any of the prerequisite skills or academic training. WarioWare D.I.Y. is a tribute to the gaming construction sets of yesteryear (and even todayear).

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Posted in DS, DSi, DSi XL, Reviews, Wii | No Comments »

Super Effective
Pokémon HeartGold

Snubbed by some grown-ups; fervently lauded by others; a religion to children the world over: this is Pokémon. After years of skillfully avoiding anything to do with this franchise, I have failed to escape the clutches of these little creatures. That’s right folks; with their latest installment, Pokémon HeartGold, the Pokémon have caught me!

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Posted in DS, DSi, Pokémon, Reviews | 3 Comments »

Review
Avatar

[Please note that there are some mild spoilers for the 3 of you that have yet to see this movie. - ed.]

While the movie may be an Oscar winner, Avater: The Game won’t be taking home any awards any time soon, but that doesn’t mean it’s a total failure. Reviews for the movie - while mixed - are mostly positive.  On the other hand, the game was met with relatively poor ratings from the gaming community; my theory is that the initial underwhelming scores robbed the game of a fair shake, before the movie could provide any inspiration and incentive to play it through.

I’d like to believe that my hypothesis is true. I really would. Ubisoft is known for publishing engaging titles (Assassin’s Creed, Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, etc.), so one would think that perhaps all that is needed is a second glance with eyes that have seen the film.

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Posted in DS, DSi, PC, PSP, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Wii, Xbox 360 | 2 Comments »

Video
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

Let’s say you love Prince of Persia but just can’t stomach any more soft-focused publicity images of Chesty Jake. Good news! Ubisoft has your PoP fix sans Gyllenhaal.

Check out this gameplay trailer (complete with developer commentary) and prepare to be enthralled by the Prince yet again. What’s not to love about parkour mixed with elemental control and lots of baddies?

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Posted in Awesome, DS, DSi, Microsoft, News Bytes, PSP, PlayStation 3, Videos, Wii, Xbox 360 | 2 Comments »

PEW! PEW! PEW!
LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars Announced

Good news for Star Wars fans: Today LucasArts and TT Games announced that LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is in development and scheduled to hit all platforms this fall. Awesome.

I’ve been a fan of the console LEGO games since picking up the prequel-based LEGO Star Wars for the GameCube years ago. The human characters actually had yellow faces back then, much like real minifigs! I wonder what happened.

While I’ve only played the LEGO Star Wars games and LEGO Batman, I have the utmost confidence that they’re well-designed console platformers. I can’t speak well for the DS counterparts since LEGO Star Wars II was by far the worst DS game I’ve ever tried to play.

That negativity aside, I’m especially stoked about seeing what TT does with The Clone Wars franchise. I still can’t figure out when this new animated series is supposed to take place, considering the fact that the original 2D highly-stylized Clone Wars cartoon spanned from the end of the film Attack of the Clones right up to the beginning of Revenge of the Sith. Does Lucasfilm wish to ignore the first series as it wishes to ignore the amazing Droids and Ewoks cartoons?

TT Games is promising that this will be the most action-packed LEGO game to date. It’ll feature all the characters from the show’s first two seasons (it’s currently in season two) as well as other characters from elsewhere in the saga. The game’s also said to contain new modes of play, including a battle mode allowing for head-to-head fighting, a level builder, and an interesting-sounding feature called “Lightsabre slicing.”

If you can’t wait till the fall to get some LEGO Clone Wars action, check out this cute Unity-based online game where you play as Anakin on a rescue mission to find R2-D2.

Posted in Awesome, DS, DSi, News Bytes, PC, PSP, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 | No Comments »