Game of the Month - September 2006

Yakuza

Japanese gangster Kazuma Kiryu curses in front of small children. He has no qualms about beating a man to death with a baseball bat, an expensive umbrella, a sofa, a bicycle, an advertising standee, a gold club, a flowerpot or a decorative column. Yet he’ll spend quality time hunting the streets of Tokyo for dog food to save an injured puppy, or he’ll help the less fortunate by giving them what they need (mostly liquor). He is—not to sound like a tenth-grade English report or anything—a study in contrasts.

Game of the Month - August 2006

Chromehounds

The first thing Armored Core veterans will notice when they power up their lumbering “chromehound” is that this game offers a much better control system. Armored Core, for those not in the know, is the long-running mech series from Chromehounds developer From Software—and the game most folks thought this 360 title would mimic almost completely.

Game of the Month - July 2006

The Legend of Heroes II: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch

The life of an adventurer isn’t always that exciting. For young pilgrims Julio and Chris, the protagonists in the PSP role-playing game The Legend of Heroes II, it’s sometimes downright tedious, filled with extended sequences of tidying up other people’s rooms, swabbing the decks of a ship, and discussions about who’s going to wash whose underwear.

Game of the Month - June 2006

Odama

I’ve played my share of pinball, and I’ve played medieval Japanese war simulators. But never in a million years did I dream that I’d play a game that mixes these two disparate genres. Yet that’s exactly what Odama, the newest title from innovative game designer Yoot Saito and his team, does. And you’d be surprised how well the genres work together.

Game of the Month - May 2006

Suikoden V

Fans of role-playing games usually have a lot of secrets they’d like to keep under wraps—they’ve never had a girlfriend, for example, or they haven’t changed their boxers in half a fortnight. The worst transgression they remain silent about: They’ll be darned if they can remember the storyline of any of the RPGs they’ve enjoyed. Final Fantasy X? This dumb jock gets sucked into another world, and then there’s this really whiny chick, and they beat up monsters. Ys? Red-haired dude bashes into monsters, climbs up a tower, and then some other stuff happens.

Game of the Month - April 2006

Kingdom Hearts II

The best way to describe Kingdom Hearts II is, simply, better. Everything about the game, from the story to the play mechanics to the presentation, is a more polished and refined version of the original. The Disney-based worlds look fantastic and are more expansive than the areas found in the original, many of which were only one or two rooms. The combat is the same real-time hack ‘n’ slash stuff, but packed with new abilities and a much-improved (though still somewhat irritating) camera system. The Gummi Ship sequences that seemed tacked-on and painful in the original game are improved to the point that jumping from world to world is no longer a chore. The list goes on and on.