This article is going to be part game-review, part anecdote. I recently returned from a three-week vacation in India. A week or so before I left, I bought a Nintendo DS Lite with New Super Mario Bros. and Pokemon Emerald and started playing both so that I would be familiar with the game play and wouldn't have to look things up online after leaving. My sister bought Super Princess Peach and seems to be enjoying it, but I haven't actually played it yet. So I'll save that for a future article.

New Super Mario Bros. is great. The new…

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W.Soft, I am a Nintendo generation gamer. Starting with the NES I own just about every console (sorry Genesis 32X) and I'm no stranger to computer gaming. Don't worry, this isn't a rant about my gaming preferences - I want to give you some context before I plow ahead.

My objective is to create a series of articles for this site that detail the different challenges, opportunities, success, and failures that I have gone through over the last seven years. I would have been thrilled to experience W.Soft as it is now, and I want to do everything I…

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As I look forward to the games being released this year, one of the titles that I am most anticipating is Capcom's new Playstation 2 action title Okami. This title has been touted as an innovative, beautiful, and potentially classic game. With its unique premise, stylish art direction, and new game play mechanic, this game could become a very heavy hitter. However, one has to wonder whether a game like this is being over-hyped. Okami shows signs of being an instant classic, but has just as much of a chance of being a huge disappointment.

The Story

Okami centers…

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I've recently picked up two of the most wildly popular 3-D action-adventure titles in recent years. One is Sony's Greek epic God of War, and the other is Ubisoft's sequel to a classic Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. Experiencing these games one after the other has prompted me to think about state of the 3-D action-adventure genre, and the importance of titles like these to future generations of 3-D action games. Just what is it that makes these games so different from other games in this and other genres? What game, if any, provides promising innovation fit to inspire…

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I am speaking, of course, about Pirates! (1987) And Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004). They dumbed-down the swordfights (and other aspects of combat) in foolish and unnecessary ways, as well as fundamentally changed the scoring and world map.

"Superficially, PIRATES! appears to be an arcade-style game. The sailing, ship battles, and swordfights all run in real-time where your actions and reactions must be quick, decisive, and correct. But upon closer examination, each aspect of the game is based around the actual principles of that activity."
--- That is from the (entertainingly educational) manual for the 1987 edition of Pirates!…

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For those of you who have never played any of the main games of the Worms series (Worms, Worms 2, Worms Armageddon, Worms World Party, Worms 3D, Worms Blast, etc.), think of it as a much evolved version of the good old turn-based tank-shooter games, only with worms, crazy weapons, and hilarious voices.

I started playing Worms 2 some years back and World Party is my main 'I'll just play one round before I start on homework, or maybe two, or three, or ten' game. A few weeks back, I decided to download the demo for Worms 3D, which,…

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That's pretty much what I thought of the new Sonic E3 trailer. When I saw the initial trailers for the new 360 and PS3 Sonic game, I had high hopes for the blue guy; I couldn't wait to see him retake his spot in the video game hall of greatness. But as soon as I saw this new trailer with princesses, Shadow in a jeep, and a psychic hedgehog; I gave up any looking forward to it. Now I'm just afraid it's going to be another horrible 3D Sonic game.

You've got to wonder what made Sonic so good…

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As many people involved with Wolverine Soft know, producing a great game is no simple or easy task. Whether one starts with a basic compiler and some free libraries, or a top-notch team and the most sophisticated tools available today, it is difficult to make a truly great game. (For the purpose of this article, take 'great' to mean both critically acclaimed and, in the case of a commercial games, a big seller.) But what is it that makes some games great and other duds or merely decent?

One could begin by listing various qualities of games that one…

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Note: Each of the three parts was written at a different time and with a different state of mind. I decided to mostly preserve the original format of each part for the sake of authenticy (and laziness). Hopefully you will observe and find it interesting to see how the writing reflects the shift in mindset.

Part I - Day 1 Game Impressions (May 10, 2006)

Going into it: Really excited to play Wii, Too Human, 99 Nights, Viva Pinata, Guitar Hero 2, new Sonic, and others that i can't think of right now. Didn't expect much from PS3…

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Indigo Prophecy:

This game is awesome. Play it if you haven't and you have a ps2. You can find this game for around $15 shipped on ebay, or for 17.99 used locally. I really enjoy playing games that make you play differently than most games, and this is one of those gems. You play as both a murderer and the cops investigating the murder trying to both cover up the crime and uncover it in the different chapters. The game plays very much like an interactive movie that never gets boring. Many small details are included so that almost…

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