PixlBit

Pretty graphics, good music, but bland gameplay, oh my!

It won't take players very long to realize that this isn't the same tale of Oz written by L. Frank Baum over 100 years ago. While the game begins in very much the same way - Dorothy getting swept up by a giant tornado – the tale of Oz as we all know it is not the same tale told here. In fact, the only similarities to the book is the land of Oz itself and the four main characters ... oh and Toto too.

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The greatest game of the year or an exercise in frustration?

Demon's Souls is an unapologetically hard game. For full disclosure, I have played quite a bit of the game, but have not made very much progress. The title, set in a dark dreary medieval land, is split into levels each being of considerable length. Unlike most modern games, Demon's Souls offers no checkpoints mid-level, even though each level can take upwards of an hour to complete.

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Magic and fairy tales combine in this unique RPG that's mostly sweet but has a hint of darkness too.

I'll admit it; I'm not a big fan of RPGs. I don’t like being forced to spend hours upon hours fighting the same enemies with the same strategy just so I can level up to beat a boss, watch an over-the-top cinematic, and then repeat the entire process in the next area. However, I do like RPGs that don't just rely on battling, but instead require players to explore, strategize, and solve puzzles. I'm also the biggest sucker for Halloween and the dark, non-sugarcoated versions of most fairy tales. Taking all of this into consideration it's no wonder why A Witch's Tale by NIS, worked its magic on me so well I could barely bring myself to stop playing.

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No one ever found out why a group of 20 superheroes would only send out four at a time.

The Marvel Universe action RPGs began when Raven Software made X-Men Legends, which was a landmark game for me as it was one of the first comic book games to borrow so heavily from the source material. The fourth entry in that series is Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, which is the first in the series not done by Raven. The final product is quite similar to Raven's last effort and brings some new ideas to the table, but also brings some questionable ones.

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Sick of clocks and Sudoku? You might want to liven up your DSiWare collection with this shooter.

Thorium Wars is a futuristic shooter that reminds me of Star Fox if you took out the anthropomorphic animals and stuck it through the generic science-fiction machine. The story takes a backseat for the most part, but it's centered on a future where robots and humans are warring, hence the "Wars" in the title. The gameplay is fun as the controls work well and you have many vehicle types to choose from, and the best part of it all: this sucker is basically a retail DS game in DSiWare clothing.

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