Wii Review: Wario Ware: Smooth Moves

By now it's become almost some sort of unwritten law that when you develop a game for a Nintendo system, it has to feature mini-games as well. Nintendo's newest Wii effort harks back to a mini-game series it created on the Game Boy Advance. While the Wario Ware name is nothing new, the innovations Nintendo continues to inject into the series still makes it one of the most appealing and freshest franchises on the market.

Of course with Wario Ware: Smooth Moves being on the Wii, the mass of mini-games thrown at players will utilize the Wii Remote in a crazy number of fashions. While one could say the choice of control is the only asset that sets Smooth Moves apart from its predecessors, the motion control really does add that extra layer of game play which prevents the game from being a mere "been there, done that" affair.

The premise of the game hasn't changed one iota since the original released almost four years ago: Players work their way through a number of levels, each designated by a character in the Wario Ware universe. The levels are filled with nothing but a string of mini-game in which players can only fail four mini-games. Each stage only takes a few seconds to complete but as the stage progresses the mini-games speed up and lead to a more-involving boss stage.

While in initial execution, the stages will only take a couple of minutes to work through, completing them will unlock more stages as well as a number of extra features, galleries, extended mini-games and multiplayer modes. After completion, players can also return to the stages and work through them endlessly in order to obtain personal high scores. So while gamers will rip the plastic off Wario Ware and start off with barebones options, through single-player dedication, eventually a bevy of options will be selectable.

Unfortunately, that marked a glaring weakness for me as Wario Ware: Smooth Moves does not come with multiplayer out of the box. Furthermore, the multiplayer modes won't even surface as selectable options until someone completes the single-player mode's storyline (which will round out at about two to three hours unless one is sidetracked by some of the unlockable options).

Being able to fly through the game in a couple of hours isn't the most appealing of features for those who aren't completists or willing to replay levels endlessly. However, Smooth Moves executes very well on the Wii – the game really shows off the capabilities of the remote, can be picked up and played by virtually anyone and has a multitude of options that can occupy players for either a few minutes or hours at a time. It, in essence, is one of the titles that exemplify the "everyone" philosophy the Wii was created behind.

Smooth Moves brings a variety of art styles to the table all of which are visually appealing and lend to the series' wacky off-the-wall charm. While the menus and cut scenes feature a vivid, crisp paper animation-type style, the mini-games are appropriately themed with some featuring mere lines and white backgrounds, some are more meticulous featuring full environments and characters and others are exact copies of Nintendo titles (my personal favorite theme). With so much going on in such a short time span, the game is always visually stimulating and stays true to random nature of the series.

The audio of Smooth Moves is just as random; yet, it is appropriate to each situation. The music drives the action along in the background, most of which is quite strange, and speeds up along with the progressing levels. As a bonus, the music and sound in each of the retro Nintendo stages is true to the original game, including titles such as Star Fox, Punch Out!!, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Animal Crossing and much more.

Players should be thankful all of the control schemes in Smooth Moves are explained in "inspirational" segments, which, much like the rest of the game, are quite humorous. The demanding mini-games are each proceeded with a picture of the control schematic that will be utilized in the next mini-game, giving them a few seconds to position the controller in the appropriate fashion. For the most part, the motion sensing controls are spot on, reacting appropriately whether the player is sweeping the controller back and forth, pretending they are unsheathing a sword or even putting the controller on top of their head and squatting.

The game comes with a few potential frustrations, though, stemming from the motion control and the random nature of the game. The games each appear with a very brief description of what to do and with such a short time to react, there tends to be a small handful of mini-games in each Wario Ware where a player just doesn't understand what to do. Also, there are occasions while pointing at the screen where the controller doesn't register on the screen and sometimes the motion controls up and down do not register.

All in all, though, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves is an impressive addition to the Nintendo Wii's quality lineup of casual games. While the single-player mode is hardly deep in any sense of the word, it is a game of potentially infinite replayability due to its random nature and the multiplayer, which spans more than five different game modes, is staple party game material. Just as Wario Ware: Touched served on the basis of showing off the unique system capabilities of the DS, Smooth Moves slides in to show players the multitude of ways the Wii Remote can be used.

Smooth Moves definitely serves as the Wii's greatest title so far for 2007 and fits nicely in Nintendo's releases of mini-game games for the Wii. Wario steps up and fills a gap in the Wii’s launch list, which finally picks up again in the middle of the month. With all there is to do in Smooth Moves, there's no doubt the title will keep players occupied until the next batch of releases for the Wii.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5

PS2 Review: Lumines Plus

Squares have never been seen the same way since Lumines hit the puzzle scene at the launch of Sony's PSP, and while it's surprising it took so long, the musical match up title finally hits the Playstation 2.

Lumines Plus for the PS2 changes only a sliver of the original Lumines release's content in 2005, but thankfully for Buena Vista (now Disney Interactive), the old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" comes into fruition. With an injection of extra skins from Lumines II, Lumines Plus plays 99 percent identical to the original iteration - and that's initially a good thing, especially for gamers giving the series a first go, but not quite as much for those who already played the original to death.

While dropping squares of two colors down to form same-colored squares doesn't sound too appealing off the bat, leave it to the creator of Rez to work in the aesthetics that really drive a player's sense of sight and sound. When four identically colored pieces form a square, they do not disappear from play until a line panning from left to right sweeps over the piece with a speed reflected by the tempo of the music in any given skin (level).

Players clear each skin by activating blocks and combos to keep the music from looping, and once the track plays all the way through, game play transfers to the next skin. As with all puzzle games, getting through the songs and to the later songs requires skill and planning.

While waiting for the line to clear pieces from play, players can add even more pieces of the same color either on top or to the side to create combos for even more points. Special pieces with a blue jewel in the middle can be activated in a square and will also clear away every single piece of the same color that is connected either horizontally or vertically.

The most obvious piece of news to point out is Lumines Plus is not a sequel, off spin or new entry for the series - don't expect anything more than a special edition of the original Lumines. Aside from the addition of "Plus" on the title screen and nine extra skins from the portable sequel, the endless, versus, time attack and mission modes are exactly the same as the PSP version.

The game's skins not only feature a unique song to every stage of a player's progress but also a backdrop that represents the nature of tune, much like a rhythm game would. While the menus still feature the plain, bland silver background and staring at blocks isn't often too visually appealing, starting the game is the green light that puts the game's presentation into fruition.

Not only is each of the levels' backgrounds bright and "in your face," many of them feature busy streams of animations that just want to draw the eye away from the action. Truly, no two skins are the same and they really represent the charm of the game and along with the game's infectious music tracks (well, most of them at least), are the sole contributors of what makes the game's presentation so great.

As a port of PSP game, however, Plus receives no real visual boost and due to the adjusted screen ratio, the console version seems to move differently than the portable version. The game's constant action, moving backgrounds and flashing tends to block out these nuances, but it's sad to see no extra punch was delivered to take advantage of the hardware and the much larger television sets players will be seeing Lumines Plus on.

Lumines Plus, of course, also carries over the interactivity of the music tracks with actions such as moving pieces left or right, speeding them downward and placing them having different audio effects that compliment the current song being played. Much like Rez, the music tracks in tandem with effects based on the player's actions creates a hypnotic beam that moves Lumines from "just a game" to an "experience for the senses."

When the PSP launched, in my mind, Lumines was the only game I wanted to play on the system and for good reason - it's game play is simple, solid and addictive. Once a player presses the X button to enter an endless mode, it's likely they will be glued to the screen for a good hour and that's just for one game. With all of the unlockable skins, avatars and more, players are rewarded with dedication to the game in every single game mode.

Unfortunately for Lumines Plus, the title's biggest crutch is that it is basically a game that is aging toward the two-year-old mark. Many gamers have already experienced this title and it's unlikely a handful of extra skins will keep them absorbed into Lumines Plus as long as the original if they choose to put money down on the title once again. Owners of a PSP should be more tempted to snag a copy of Lumines II for its expansive set of new features and skins for only $10 more.

Not to say Lumines Plus isn't a blast to play, especially in the comfort of one's own home with a television and blazing sound system, but we've seen this package before. To its benefit, though, the versus mode is a lot more accessible now that two copies of the game and systems aren't necessary. As far as benefits go, however, home comfort and accessibility are the only clear advantages for Plus over the PSP versions.

For Playstation 2 owners, Lumines Plus will definitely feed the need for any puzzle fanatic looking to get even more mileage out of the system. The original Lumines returns in all of its glory for a mere $20 and won't disappoint fans of the series as well as players who never experienced the game the first time. While the game play never gets old, Plus falls flat just a little faster than any other game in the series and the lack of healthy, new material is a real sore spot on what could have been a exceptionally magical debut for the series on Sony's home system.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 3 of 5

PSP Review: Kurulin Fusion

It seems I’ve been assaulted with puzzle games to finish out the decade, but you’ll hear no complaints from me. Instead of trogging through multi-hour RPGs or generic movie-based titles, the puzzle genre just lets me sit down, relax, and have fun, which, given the hectic holidays, is like a vacation for me. The latest puzzle effort to pass by me is Kurulin Fusion, a downloadable-only title available now on the Playstation Network for a mere $4.99. Featuring classic-inspired puzzle gameplay fueled by compositions from Nobuo Uematsu, Kurulin Fusion refreshingly gives us a straight puzzle game, eschewing the current norm of relying on a sub-genre such as RPG or music. While the end result will feel all too familiar and maybe even a little “borrowed,” Kurulin Fusion gives players an amazing value with solid and addicting puzzle gameplay and a healthy supply of game modes.

Kurulin Fusion doesn’t mess around and pretend it is something other than a puzzle game, so there is no story involved with the title. Perhaps you could script your own story that leads to a multiplayer grudge match using the game’s local battle function, but given the fact Kurulin Fusion doesn’t feature its own story, this portion of the review is based solely on its mode offerings. Right out of the gate, players will have access to an “endless” arcade mode, a time attack mode, a mission mode and local multiplayer. Each mode gives players a variation on the gameplay and each style of endless and time attack featuring its own high score table for players to challenge their best scores. While those two modes are based on score, the mission mode puts forth a variety of challenges, tasking players to form combos, chains and more in order to clear the challenge and progress through tiers of tasks. There are 30 tasks in all and players will be treated to an unlockable if they can tackle each one. Finally, of course, what puzzle game would be complete without a multiplayer mode? The title allows a player to go head-to-head with another player in local gameplay that allows players to flex their puzzle muscle against another human.

While there is a great scope of modes in this title, these are all but expected from a puzzle game anymore and nothing goes above and beyond to offer a fresh, new experience. The core gameplay doesn’t change from mode to mode and each mode merely alters the conditions of when the player stops playing the game. In the end, though, everything is certainly serviceable here and there is a mix of modes to allow players to pick up the game for a couple of minutes or stick with it for a couple of hours if they want to – a great formula present in well-made portable titles. You’ll find everything you’d expect to see in a puzzle game here, but don’t expect to see anything more.

It doesn’t take a lot to describe how one plays Kurulin Fusion. The game revolves around the use of orbs and power pieces, very much akin to the setup of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo – players set different colored orbs onto the playfield and they are cleared by matching a fusion block of the same color either horizontally or vertically. The title also features other puzzler conventions such as being able to store one piece at a time to switch into the gameplay later when you really need it. The one extension Kurulin Fusion adds to the formula, though, is in the ability to join fusion blocks together (if that wasn’t made obvious by the name). Normally in similar puzzle games, when a player joins two power pieces together, they are removed from the playfield, however, in Kurulin Fusion, this fuses the pieces together. Players can fuse these pieces up to a three by three block before using them to remove orbs from the playfield. Each piece fused adds to your combo multiplier and if players clear a three by three fusion, every orb of that color is removed from the playfield. While the change seems simple on the surface, it does change the dynamic of the game and utilizing these fusions is the key to scoring high in Kurulin Fusion.

It can be a bit annoying at times that the game doesn’t allow players to link fusions beyond three spaces, but it’s a bump that players will quickly get over and learning exactly how the pieces fuse is part of learning the game. The only other nuance I had with the gameplay is amid some of the challenges, players will be pressed for time, and while the animations of the pieces clearing (the orbs get sucked into the power piece in a rotation) is pretty neat, it takes a bit too long to clear the pieces from the field, meaning chains can eat up a sizable amount of your time. These are aspects that can be generally overlooked, though, as they are a handful of minor issues in an otherwise solid puzzler.

Seeing as the title feels familiar to a number of other puzzle titles, most players should be able to jump straight into the title with minimal effort. The d-pad handles all of the piece movement and a simple press of a button rotates the double puzzle piece sets and all of this handles just as well in Kurulin Fusion as it would in most other great puzzle titles. With this simplicity and its price tag, the title should garner a lot of appeal from a number of different people and, as such, Kurulin Fusion carries a great sense of game balancing. The arcade mode starts off simple at level one, with only a few different colors to manage, but, as players progress, more colors are thrown into the mix to challenge you puzzle management skills. Players can choose to start at varying levels of the arcade mode, which lets players of any skill to jump straight into the game. Time attack mode has a variety of settings and the mission mode challenges start off insultingly easy and appropriately progress to more challenging tasks with each tier. Considering the title should appeal to many gamers looking for a great puzzle title on the go, Kurulin Fusion does offer something for everyone. When you further consider the nearly infinite replayability and addicting nature of the genre, which does carry over into Kurulin Fusion, what you get with the title is a great deal.


Outside of the main gameplay, Kurulin Fusion also stands tall on its presentation. The graphics are similar to what you might find in a title such as Lumines or Geometry Wars – the graphics are basic, but they’re filled with eye-catching bright lighting and illuminated colors. A number of animations also accompany the title in the background, so the screen is kept fairly busy even though players are viewing what are essentially basic shapes. The menus are fairly simple, but everything is clean and easy to navigate. When you boil it down, the visuals are minimal, but in that sense, being a puzzle game, sometimes less is better and in Kurulin Fusion, the visuals are a perfect fit. Along with your conventional puzzle game sound effects of rotating and clearing pieces, Kurulin Fusion has the hook of featuring a soundtrack composed by Nobuo Uematsu, most widely known for his audible contributions to the Final Fantasy series. For the title’s soundtrack, Uematsu has revisioned a handful of tracks from classical composer Bach and the results mix well with the game. Unlike music-based puzzlers, Kurulin Fusion’s gameplay doesn’t hinge on these tracks at all, but they are very well produced and feature enough variety to keep them interesting as players tackle the game multiple times.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5

As a straight puzzle game, Kurulin Fusion isn’t confused about what it wants to be. While it borrows a number of puzzle elements from other titles, the few revisions made to the formula add a little bit of depth and uniqueness while still maintaining the replayability and addictive nature of the puzzle genre. The musical styling of Nobuo Uematsu is a nice touch, and the spread of game modes will give players a lot to work with whether they are relaxing at home or playing in quick bursts on the go. If the $5 price tag doesn’t entice you, then it’s clear you just aren’t into puzzle games.

DS Review: Lunar Knights

Lunar Knights marks Konami's interesting new foray into the Boktai series, which is now appearing for the first time on the Nintendo DS. While gamers have always seemed to have mixed opinions on the series that "forced" people to play under the sun, what happens when you take the sun away from the game's universe?

Straying away from once again using the infamous sunlight sensor, Lunar Knights launches players into a world where vampires have succeeded in placing the world under perpetual darkness. While this might seem like a bad thing at first, it initially puts players in the shoes of Lucian, a seriously pissed off sword-toting vampire hunter whose inhuman powers derive from absorbing the light of the moon.

Following strings of leads, Lucian tackles one of the head vampires, which puts a hole in the blanket of darkness engulfing the planet. Finally, with a shred of sunlight now hitting earth, the game's second character, Aaron, armed with what seems to be a useless solar gun, realizes his potential and sets off with Lucian to rid the world of the evil vampires.

While players initially control only Lucian or Aaron through the story's introductions, when the two heroes meet, they can be switched on the fly with a press of the select button. This element becomes crucial to progression in the game as with the light sensor gone from the Boktai cartridges, Lunar Knights uses an in game day and night cycle.

To further stress strategies, the top screen of the DS not only indicates what time of the day it is, but also the current weather conditions. Cloudy conditions will obviously block the sun or moon and traveling indoors will also hinder access to whichever light is currently available. If characters have no access to light, they will have to depend on restoration items players pick up through the course of the game - thankfully, they are plentiful.

While the changes mix Lunar Knights up in a good way, the core mechanics of the game stay the same. Each area has a denizen of baddies to hack and shoot through and as the kills tally up, so does a character's experience. By leveling up, the game will throw stat points your way to distribute in areas that raise the attack, life and magical levels of that character. All of this culminates in a very satisfying dungeon crawling romp that plays very reminiscent of what Castlevania would play like in an isometric view.

The title is a mixed bag graphically, showing an obvious strength in anime-style portraits and FMV sequences glowing beautifully from its screen. During game play, however, Lunar Knights doesn't seem up to par with many other titles on the Nintendo DS. While everything pops off the screen in vivid colors, many items in the environments, and, most notably in the characters, lack detail. In essence, Lunar Knights looks very similar in appearance to its Game Boy Advance predecessors, only touched up a bit.

To push the hardware a little more, however, Lunar Knights replaces the need to backtrack the carcass of a vanquished vampire boss through an entire Boktai level and implements 3-D rail shooting segments. A vampire's body is this time cargo in Lucian's spaceship, which is now taken to a space satellite that destroys a vampire in a beam of light. The space shooting scenes show much more of the title's graphical muscle and the shift to three-dimensional graphics puts some much-needed punch to detail.

Most of the sound effects in the title sound like they could have been ripped straight from a GBA version of the series, but Konami really stepped up to provide Lunar Knights with a memorable score. The music definitely sets the mood for each encounter and the soundtrack overall really nips on the heels of the quality set by Konami's Castlevania titles for the Nintendo DS. Small snippets of voice work are sprinkled here and there to liven up the game's dialogue and, along with the music, brighten up the title's average sound effect work.

Thanks to the step up on hardware, Lunar Knights provides much more action and less stealth and thinking than its previous editions. The beefier action is very enjoyable thanks to a fluid control scheme that makes use of the touch screen to cycle between various elemental familiars accumulated through the adventure or activate a extremely powerful (almost too powerful) character transformation. While targeting with Aaron's solar gun can be finicky at times, hacking away with Lucian's sword and using the DS microphone to distract enemies couldn't be any easier.

The biggest factor that distances Lunar Knights from the enjoyment of Boktai is the decision to drop the solar sensor. While the sensor made its bid as the true innovation of the series, it dictated when and where people could play the game, making it not only more of a chore to play but a real turn off to some gamers.

Konami, however, implemented a very suitable and more appealing alternative to the matter and not only does it make the game more playable, but it also brings a wealth of strategy and character management to the table. For those who don't want to give up playing in the sun, though, those who have a Boktai or Boktai 2 cartridge can utilize a double slot feature between the DS and GBA slots and use the sun sensor to further strengthen characters.

For Lunar Knights, Konami takes a very interesting concept (although the clichéd storyline reads like a Castlevania subplot) and by ditching a gimmick creates one of the better adventure titles released so far this year. The title is full of action and the nature of the game's two playable characters and customization allows for surprisingly deep game play. Despite its presentation blemishes, Lunar Knights freshens up a unique concept and successfully transitions an underrated series onto a new platform.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5

GameCube Review: Super Monkey Ball Adventure

Monkeys. Balls. Oh, the countless jokes I could make about the game’s title - Super Monkey Ball Adventure. Unfortunately for gamers, the real joke is this game’s tedious, fetch-questing adventure aspect.

Super Monkey Ball has always been known for its simple but frantic single player puzzle mode and its addictive and highly competitive multiplayer modes. While both of those elements are still present in Super Monkey Ball Adventure, they are hacked down in number and take a complete backseat to the chore that is the story mode.

In order to flesh out the puzzle mode, developer Traveler’s Tale added a full-fledged overworld environment to the game’s story mode. Things begin innocent enough with the Monkey Ball crew barbecuing bananas on the hottest day of the year. But when a mysterious “mechanical bird” flies overhead and crashes into the local lighthouse, the situation turns ugly when the monkey heroes not only have to investigate the crash but also find out why the joy of Monarch is missing.

With all of the monkeys’ joy gone, everyone on Jungle Island has a sudden dilemma and players will later discover the same has happened throughout the monkey world. For the most part, it ends up that almost all the monkeys are now missing something and it’s up to you to fetch it for them. While the idea seems good on paper, the big 3-D worlds just add an annoyance factor with extremely frustrating and mundane tasks.

The worlds' layouts consist of areas that are either completely flat or inclined and fail to capture the essence of speed or precision that the games before brought to the table. While some areas are easy to access, extremely awkward camera angles, poor collision, and a pretty much useless map will lead to a lot of frustration as players attempt to navigate the remainder of each world.

When a player does reach someone in need, missions sometimes just add up to trial and error and require a lot of exploration. While there are some enjoyable missions such as ones that require stealth and running down monkeys, they are mixed in with a huge number of missions that are nothing more than “collect this” and “find this.”

Players are also not able to take multiple missions and if you should fall off the map and fail the mission, your monkey comes back in a seemingly random location with the mission deactivated. You then have to track down the monkey in need once again and start the mission completely over. After failing a mission multiple times, the repeated process becomes quite annoying.

The frequent disc access will also have players banging their head against the wall. Every world is made of multiple sections, which require loading when going back and forth. Accidentally entering another section during a mission will cancel the mission and players will have to start from scratch no matter how far they are into the task.

On a good note, however, the large worlds will keep curious players rolling around for quite a long time. The landscapes are riddled with bananas that, when enough are collected, will help players accomplish a few more missions and — more importantly — purchase extras that will increase the number of features in multiplayer.

Over the course of play in story mode, some neat power-ups become available to the player. Incorporated into the game as chants players learn to string together, the monkeys can customize their ride with power-ups. While some simply transport players to a different location in the world, others deck your ball out with a spring-loaded boxing glove, suction cups, invisibility, growth, and more. Of course, the power-ups are the key to solving much of the later missions in the game.

The puzzle and multiplayer modes still remain in the game with more than 50 new puzzles, which are also encountered periodically throughout story mode to unlock certain doors.

Puzzle mode is basically the original single player modes from the first two Monkey Balls in which players make a mad dash for the exit for maximum points. The multiplayer modes are cut in half with three new additions – cannon, bounce and tag. While it brings new games to the table, the only one I personally found any fun was the addicting Monkey Cannon, which has you shooting down other players’ castles by using your monkey ball as a cannon ball.

Graphically, Super Monkey Ball Adventure loses its flair over the previous titles through the story mode’s generic looking environments. Instead of the bright, zany graphics of the puzzle mode, players are given areas that seem like they were pulled out of Sonic Adventure with frame rates that sometimes aren’t consistent with the action.

All the sound in the game is recycled from previous versions, including the ever-annoying monkey talk. The story mode is filled to the brim with these sound bytes and will drive anyone older than 10 completely insane. Pound for pound, every sound byte in the game is 100 percent from other versions of the game. You get nothing original, but, just as in the previous versions, what you’re given does its job.

The game controls just as well as the previous versions, but the game is chock full of horrid camera angles that will cause many bad situations for your monkey. Although there is some questionable physics with the inclines, your ball will do everything you command it to do.

Overall, Super Monkey Ball Adventure is an excellent idea that falls victim to poor execution. While the game is very playable, the story mode will try many gamers’ patience and the cutback in everything that made the game a success in the first place is lost among the expansive fetch-driven single player mode. Players will most likely spend most of their time in the puzzle and multiplayer modes for a quick fix of monkey action.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 2 of 5

DS Review: Mario Hoops 3-on-3

Mario and crew lace up their sports shoes once again, this time taking it to the basketball courts in Mario Hoops 3-on-3 for the Nintendo DS. The game teeters on the rim with its mix of pros and cons, but in the long run Mario Hoops shoots and scores

The Mushroom Kingdom cast originally balled with the NBA pros in NBA Street Vol. 3 (and I guess technically also with mini-games in the Mario Party series) but now the ball is in Mario's court and the game of basketball is given the full Nintendo treatment.

The game is actually developed by Square-Enix, and adds even more flavor to the superb presentation of the game with classic Final Fantasy characters and settings.

If the title of the game wasn't a clear indication, players will man teams of three and hit the court in exhibition, multiplayer or tournament modes. Hoops also offers up several practice lessons to help players learn the game as well as a training mode and mini-games.

Players will notice as soon they start the game that Mario Hoops is one of the most vibrant and visually polished games yet to be released on the system. Very few games on the system have yet to the match graphical shine, superb sound and overall style that 3-on-3 brings to the table. The menus are easy to navigate and are full of great visuals... and of course there's that uber-catchy theme song.

Even in the midst of game play, the graphics are second-to-none for the Nintendo DS hardware. The characters have full detail and still look good when in animation and all of the explosions and items look just as nice. While the environments aren't distracting during play, taking a look at the surroundings still reveals great detail and notables such as the 8-bit advertisement boards, ghosts and Podobos (yes, those fireballs have a name).

While the music during play isn't as dominant as it is in the menus, it serves as an appropriate backdrop to the theme of the current court you're on. Add in all the crazy voice-overs and sound effects you'd expect from a Mario sports title and presentation-wise, Hoops is right on par with the style from even the Gamecube's sports titles.

Unfortunately for Hoops, though, while it looks and sounds like a dream, its most glaring issues are in the areas where it counts most - control and game play.

The main hook of the game is the one-of-a-kind control scheme which allows players to tear up the court with stylish dribbling and on-the-fly passing and shooting all by using the touch screen. Taps and strokes of the lower screen will perform not only passes, shots and steals but also pin-point dribbling, item use, sidesteps and flashy special shots.

While the schematics sound good in theory, ultimately, the commands just end up feeling gimmicky and sloppy in execution as there were many times where my stroke or tap of stylus yielded results much different than my intention. Even a couple of the simple tasks presented in the practice lessons became an exercise in patience - especially in tasks that required jumping and multiple stylus strokes.

This key element is further watered down since a "help button" option allows players to use the DS's face buttons to emulate touch screen strokes. While this saved the control and made Hoops much more playable and enjoyable for me, it defeats the purpose of which the game was designed around since I played the whole time without using the touch screen.

While Mario Hoops is basketball on the surface, the coin system used in tallying a team's score really detracts from the finesse of basketball and puts the focus of the game more on coin chasing than anything else.

Players will find a number of Hatena Blocks (you know, the Mario blocks with the question marks on them) on the court and by dribbling on top of them, coins will be added to a team's total coin count (to a max of 100). When a team scores a basket, not only is it awarded 20 or 30 points (based off of regulation basketball's 2- and 3-point scoring) but also one point for every coin in the team's tally.

When players can score 130 points in one shot, games amount more to running around tallying coins and fetching items (when a player without a ball steps on a Hatena Block, they are provided with a Mario Kart weapon) instead of concentrating on the deeper facets of basketball.

When environmental hazards such as Podobo explosions, cannonballs, ice and more are mixed in, players are constantly being slammed and the game can occasionally turn into a trial of making it past half court. While all the inclusions provide the essential Mario style, basketball takes a backseat to coin collecting and item flinging.

Thankfully in exhibition modes, the Hatena Blocks can be turned off, making the game a more traditional 2- and 3-point basketball game without turtle shells and banana peels flying all over the place. While the items do add a nice competitive element to the game, dribbling over a block a handful of times and making a quick dunk yields more results than using skill to set up a pick and netting a three.

Sticking with the game through all the modes will reward players with a number of new features including new characters, new ball designs and mini-games. Square not only developed the game but also placed a piece of the company in Hoops with unlockable characters - White Mage, Black Mage, Ninja, Moogle and Cactar. While there is a ton to unlock, the process starts slow in the tournament modes.

The first three cups will give players no problem whatsoever, with easy computer AI. The problem is that same AI is laughable - easy to the point where playing through the cup seems more like a chore than anything else. Blowing the computer away in 1,000+ to nothing shutouts is only fun after the first time and it takes some time before the matches seem worthwhile with challenging AI.

However, it seems computer-controlled teammates never increase their AI. Your teammates mostly choose to run around on your flank and provide little assistance in your efforts unless you pass them the ball and control them yourself. While they do a decent job of keeping open for passes and stick decent man-to-man defense on opponents, they do not chase loose balls, converge under the basket for rebounds or even run to the paint so you can hit the post.

While there are some nagging issues with Hoops, it still maintains the fun of the Mario sports series, although to a slightly lesser degree. While the lack of Wi-Fi play is a disappointment, the multi-card and download play has a lot of playability, especially in the addicting Coin Hunter mode - basically a Mario Kart battle mode minus the karts.

Mario Hoops 3-on-3 adds the Mushroom Kingdom charm (although it adds almost a little too much) to the classic game of basketball in a title that stands as one of the most technically impressive and appealing titles on the Nintendo DS. While the remixed basketball game play might turn a few people away, those who give it a shot will find a fun twist on the sport with a huge number of accomplishments to tackle.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 3 of 5

NES Review: TMNT Tournament Fighters

Regardless of their quality, Konami had three extremely popular Ninja Turtles games for the NES under its belt and when the Street Fighter craze swept the world, the company had no better license to slap onto a fighter than the heroes in a half shell. While this meant the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis received yet another obligatory fighter in its pile, surprisingly, NES owners were treated to one of the very few one-on-one titles ever officially released for the system.

The menus are very clean and the up-close character portraits are very detailed, but in-game, the characters resemble the small models seen in previous NES entries, making the large character Hothead seem much more detailed than the others. Regardless of detail, however, the bigger distraction is the massive flickering occurs during every second of the match. While players learn to ignore it, it is by far the biggest nuisance of the entire game. If the character models and animation could have measured up to the rest of the game, Tournament Fighters would be a perfect graphical concoction. Thankfully, excellent music and “voice effects” are present to flesh out an overall superb presentation.

Although the control is mapped to only two buttons, the fighters have a lot of versatility during matches, with a number of punches, kicks, running attacks, special moves, throws and even a super projectile that can be executed after picking up an item. While the turtles mostly play the same, all of the characters differ slightly in some way so players should be able to find a favorite among the seven playable fighters. The real joy of playing the game is in multiplayer since the CPU fights pathetically unless pumped up to the hard difficulty. With a total of four players alternating the controllers, the game’s tournament mode alone can produce hours of intense play and rounds out the surprisingly robust option set the game offers.

Overall, when it comes to the NES, Tournament Fighters may surpass what gamers expect from an 8-bit fighter. While the single-player mode lacks depth and flicker runs rampant, the title will certainly entertain those who can look past the flaws. Collectors should take special note of the title as for a number of reasons: Releasing in 1993, it was Konami’s final NES offering in the U.S.; Tournament is the final game series based on the original 1987 animation; it is the only game in the TMNT universe where the turtles do not use their trademark weapons; complete copies feature the NES variant cover of Leonardo fighting Hothead. As such, values on the cart are climbing insanely fast with a recent eBay auction netting nearly $140 for the complete package.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 3 of 5

Lost Capsule Reviews

The following is a couple of capsule reviews I did for a source that were killed before publication. They aren't very long, but, hey, it's better they finally see the light of day instead of being buried forever.

Title: SNK Arcade Collection Vol. 1
System: Playstation 2
Developer: SNK-Playmore
Publisher: SNK-Playmore

SNK’s first multi-IP collection hits the PS2 with a bang, offering up a number of titles from multiple genres that will keep any MVS diehard happy. The span and quality of the titles is more than worth the money and there is plenty for one or two players to enjoy. With 16 total games and a lot of challenges to tackle for unlockables, this collection without a doubt tops all of the company’s previous retro offerings and will provide hours of game play for less than $20. While there are a few odd choices in the lot and the genres lean heavily toward fighting, Vol. 1 leaves us looking forward to Vol. 2.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5

R-Type Command
System: Sony PSP
Developer: Irem
Publisher: Atlus

Switching up the genre of the classic shooter hasn’t put it down in the least, as Command offers up a great futuristic tactics game on the go. Progression is nicely handled as players have a ton of options with building ships, managing pilots and positioning fleets and even have the option to replay earlier levels with more powerful fleets to unlock items missed before. While the game’s presentation is great, the disc access on the PSP really kills the game flow if all of the cinematics are toggled. However, with one or two players, Command is sure to please strategy fans.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5