The Settlers of Catan is an up-and-coming board game craze from designer Klaus Teuber that originated in Europe. Since 1995, the series has grown to have multiple expansions and spin-offs, and now has popped up both on MSN Games and Xbox Live Arcade. The premise is simple enough (more…)

Conflict-Denied Ops features a storyline we’ve all seen a hundred times before – evil dictator with designs on world domination has his hands on some WMDs, with only two people available to stop him. In this instance, those two are an unlikely duo named Graves and Lang. The former is the grizzled veteran. The latter is the mouthy rookie. Stereotypes galore, the two have no particular charisma or engaging relationship. (more…)

This was the first game that had players exploring and finding the next goal on their own, instead of players getting from point A to point B. In this game, a young warrior by the name of Link. Link must find eight triforce pieces and rescue the princess of Hyrule, Zelda, from the grasp of Ganon. This was also the first game that has a progress-save feature. (more…)

I was thinking if this was some lame side scrolling game pertaining to the Rugrats theme or something like that when you play as Tommy or someone and you have to jump on enemies or something – you know, those cookie cutter type of game.  But this isn’t the case for this game because it is something a whole lot different; I am thinking that the game developer for this game got his head on straight and create a game for the market niche. (more…)

The graphics in this game are pretty damn good, and the MS detail particularly is a sight to behold. What you get are mobile suits that are highly accurate and true to the original anime they were based off of, while maintaining a gritty look that really makes them look like they’ve been through the major battles of the one-year war. (more…)

Best described as a combination of Asteroids, Diablo and Sinistar, Armada involves elements of each in a formula that winds up being refreshingly simple. Players choose from one of six distinct races (each with differently armed ships), plod about their home base for a bit talking with allies, and blast off into space in order to take on the Armada. (more…)

Rhythm Heaven is a set of fifty songs that have you doing different tasks set to their rhythm. You may have to juice up robots coming off an assembly line, for example, or follow along to play guitar at a rock concert. Everything in the game uses three control methods. You are either tapping the touch screen, tapping and holding down, or flicking upward. (more…)

The environments were breathtaking, but the southwestern-US desert setting of Monument Valley was somewhat monotonous. The online community was small but dedicated, and the experience was surprisingly lag free, although it suffered a bit from less than stellar lobbies and wait times. Though the racing itself was an absolute blast, there were no other event types apart from time attack, and no splitscreen multiplayer of any kind. (more…)

Set in a world where orcs and man are at an uneasy peace, a group of dwarf miners have stumbled across a buried tomb, which may contain the fallen orc god, Azriaal. This discovery has raised tensions considerably, as the orcs now see this as a holy crusade to recover their deity, and return to power like they enjoyed centuries earlier. While this chaos is swirling around, players take control of a lone adventurer (more…)

Like the prior games, Ring of Fates will support up to four players in multiplayer mode, as well as sporting the option to go it alone in single player. In the event one decides to play with some friends, everyone involved votes on a group leader, and then they get down to business. (more…)