...Mario Super Sluggers (MSS) is an arcade-style game similar to the previous entries in the Mario sports series. Gamers looking for a deep simulation-influenced baseball game should keep on looking. Gamers looking for a revolutionary, over-the-top baseball game that is brimming with tons of innovative and unique idea need to keep on looking as well. But if want a baseball title to sit back and play with your friends that is still loads of fun then MSS should fit the bill nicely. Remember not every game has to be a blockbuster for you to still have fun...
...Mario Super Slugger really is a game that will probably find more people playing the Exhibition mode simply because that is the true baseball portion of the game. The Mario theme of the game, special Star hits/pitches and Error Items do make for a fun filled baseball experience. The simplified controls should allow for almost anyone young or old to get into the game as well. Yet the main part of the game, the challenge mode, does feel rather flat simply because it feels like an overblown training...
Other Online Game News
The Impact of Episodic Gaming Online Games, April 19, 2006GameDailyBiz has a piece up looking at what episodic content is, and what it means to the future of the games industry. From the article: "
Our age is one of aging. Mainstream gamers are now older on average than they have ever been. When you are single and unemployed, it is easy to play The Godfather for nine straight hours the day the game hits the shelf. When you are married, it becomes tougher. When you have kids, it might be impossible. It is difficult to slice some time for yourself. And in that slice, you have to carve a portion for gaming. It is no wonder casual games that require no more than 10 minutes to play continue to grow in popularity. This is why we are more likely to login to Call of Duty 2 on Xbox Live to play a quick five-minute Team Deathmatch and leave the Lobby."
Read full story at:
www.slashdot.orgWorld of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Previewed Online Games, January 17, 2007It's been over two years since Blizzard Entertainment unleashed World of Warcraft upon the masses, and back then no one was sure how well the new MMORPG was going to do. We saw dwindling numbers in past MMO successes like Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot, and people were really unsure of whether a company who had previously delivered only strategy and action/RPG titles on the PC were going to do with an MMO.
As you probably know, it turns out that World of Warcraft was a smashing success. It was almost too successful for its own good, causing too many people to log on at once and lag every single server, all of which at one point were overcrowded. Since then, Blizzard has added dozens and dozens of servers, expanded its player base to 8 million people worldwide, and added quite a bit of free, new content that's mostly aimed at the high-level players. But it's been a long time and while a new dungeon every five or six months has been fun, Blizzard is finally releasing The Burning Crusade, the first expansion pack for World of Warcraft...
Read complete preview at:
www.atomicgamer.comTetris Evolution Review Online Games, April 23, 2007Here is what you need to know about Tetris Evolution. The game is pretty much exactly the same as its ancient socialist forbear, but now it's dressed up in capitalist clothes that don't match or even fit. The game fails for the same reasons as the Soviet Union, it just couldn't keep up with the times. At least the Soviet Union knew when to quit.
For those of you young who don't remember the finer points of air-raid drills, or for whom the cry Wolverines! only means you live in Michigan - Tetris was the granddaddy of all those puzzle-shape gravity games, like Lumines or Jewel Quest, popular today. Geometrical arrangements of colored blocks descend from the top of the screen and the player must rotate and place them to form solid horizontal lines across the bottom. It's sort of like packing for a long trip to a brick convention...
Read full review at:
www.gamerevolution.com