Pokemon: Shades of Gray Version (An Exercise In Critical Thinking)

Pokémon. Many a video gamer has grown up on the series, whether the first Red and Blue games on the Game Boy back when Nintendo was king, or the contemporary fourth and fifth generation on the DS. And with the series still going, people will perhaps continue to do so into the future. Still, the classic Pokémon has a special place in our hearts.

Maybe that’s why we don’t think about the world of Pokémon that hard. It has a light-hearted atmosphere, an innocent charm that deflects concentrated attention from the fine details and encourages us to simply have fun playing through the games.

Let’s push aside the nostalgia and give it some scrutiny, shall we?

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Review – Monster Tale

DreamRift rewards fans of their previous sleeper hit, Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure, with a room-crawling*, beat’em up, platforming adventure in Monster Tale.

* Since I’ve called a personal moratorium on the awful term “Metroidvania“, I’m going to define that type of game as a room-crawler.

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Review – Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem

Nintendo released the 4^th installment in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series over the Holiday 2010 season and I have been pretty much sitting on this game the whole time. After owning the game for a couple of months, I dusted off my DSi XL and took the plastic of Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem. The Lemmings-like puzzle game was one of my favorites at the Nintendo booth from E3 2010. I had a really good time with the game, but is it for you?

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US Okamiden DS Release Date Confirmed

Capcom released a ton of new information about one of my favorite games from E3 2010 this week. First and foremost is that the US released date for Okamiden, the sequel to Okami for the PS2 and Wii, has been confirmed for March 15th, 2011. This is right in line with the schedule that Capcom laid out back in June, if not a little earlier than expected.

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Mario VS Donkey Kong: Mayhem Nintendo Style

Nintendo’s next big offering for the DS is coming from a series that hasn’t been getting much love. As the 3rd installment in the series (4th if you count the DSiWare download), Mario VS Donkey Kong: Mini-land Mayhem! I got a chance to check this game out at E3 2010 and it definitely looked like another worthy entry into the series.

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25 Years of Super Mario Bros: A Look Back Through Mushroom Kingdom History

The man responsible for most well-known characters in gaming, including Link, Donkey Kong and our heroes, the Mario Brothers, Shigeru Miyamoto celebrates the 25th anniversary of his breakthrough side-scrolling epic with a historic video look-back at the evolution of gaming’s most recognizable face.

As Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros crosses the same quarter-century milestone I myself crossed in May, I look back at a literal lifetime of Mario with great reverence.   Since 1985’s release of the second-most selling console game of all-time, over 200 Nintendo titles have featured the eponymous Mario Bros.   Plumber Power is as prolific and topical today as it was back in ’85, and to celebrate, we are going to take a look back at a cross-section of the different Mario Milestones across the ages.

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Nintendo Fans: Get Out Your Wallets

It’s not going to be hard to get to the Nintendo Club Elite status this year.  Nintendo just announced the official release dates for most of the games they showed at E3 and it is going to be a busy couple of months.

While the last couple of years have been very painful for Wii owners, this year should close out with a bang.  I got a chance to play most of these games at E3 and they looked good even in their unfinished demo forms.  Several other Golgotron staff members have had some good feedback on these titles as well.  Don’t even get Belisle started on NBA Jam.

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