November2022
Review Sonic Frontiers (Switch) - A Bold But Ultimately Failed Attempt At Something New
Blue sky blues
Sonic Frontiers had a bit of a wild ride ahead of its release. Since the initial announcement and subsequent trailer reveals, public opinion of the blue blur’s latest outing has been all over the place, going from lingering dread to a more optimistic “hey, maybe this will actually be okay, after all”. Well, after sinking over 20...
November2017
Gotta go fast
Sonic Forces has found itself in a rather tricky position at launch; some of the build-up to the game’s release suggested a potential flop in the making. Early impressions from the game’s demo and previews told a story of apprehension, and the fact that most review codes were sent out so incredibly late suggested that even...
April2017
Review Puyo Puyo Tetris (Switch)
Switching up the Tetris formula
Tetris is a classic almost as old as gaming, having first released in 1984 before making its first appearance on Nintendo hardware in 1988. Puyo Puyo is comparatively new, but has a legacy all its own. Back in 2014, Sonic Team got the idea of fusing the two popular franchises into something new, and thus Puyo Puyo...
October2011
Review Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (GameCube)
Super Sonic or Super Chronic?
SEGA's attempt to have Sonic the Hedgehog transcend his 2D roots and venture into the realm of 3D didn't go nearly as smoothly as Nintendo's own Super Mario 64, despite Sonic Adventure being generally well received upon its release on the Dreamcast in 1999. It didn't take long for the cloud to lift from the judgement of...
November2010
All things wise and wonderful
One lament accompanied 2008’s lacklustre Sonic Unleashed more loudly than others – "why can’t Sega ditch the werehog and make the daytime stages into a complete game?" A few years later and in rushes Sonic Colours with all the usual fanfare and expectation around a new 3D Sonic game, except this time –...
All things bright and beautiful
The portable part of a hedgehog double whammy, Sonic Colours is – you guessed it – a high-speed 2D platformer. But wait, there’s more: this time Sonic is joined by a range of unique power-ups that help to refresh the standard formula. If you’ve played either of the hedgehog’s previous two outings on DS, the...
March2010
Review Sonic Classic Collection (DS)
Hog roast
In a perfect world, there’s surely only one score we could give the first fully portable collection of the hedgehog’s finest outings: a well-deserved 10/10. SEGA’s handheld equivalent of Super Mario All-Stars, Sonic Classic Collection features the first four Sonic titles along with Knuckles’s appearance in Sonic 2 and Sonic 3,...
February2010
Review ChuChu Rocket! (Game Boy Advance)
The ultimate game of space cat and mouse
Around the turn of the millennium, Sega wasn’t doing so hot. Their much-beloved Dreamcast failed to ignite the sales charts despite being home to a plethora of fantastic new and original games as well as nigh-perfect (in some cases, improved) home conversions of arcade hits. It was with a heavy heart that...
Review Sonic & Knuckles (Virtual Console / Sega Mega Drive)
Lock-on, baby
It's widely known that Sonic and Knuckles (S&K) started out as the latter half of Sonic 3, but development constraints forced SEGA to split the game in two, putting S&K onto an innovative Lock-On cartridge that, when combined with Sonic 3, pieced the game back together into its original state. Now, with the announcement that...
November2009
Too sexy for its shirt
When word leaked out that Sega's Sonic Team was working on a minigame collection for Nintendo's new DS system, many wondered why such a talented development group would be wasting their time creating something as trivial as a minigame compilation. Gamers got their answer with the release of Feel the Magic XX/YY (known as...
March2009
Review Sonic and the Black Knight (Wii)
Hardly the stuff of legend.
Describing Sonic’s early career to young gamers is like discussing dinosaurs, it’s been so long since he was the golden boy of video games whose cheeky blue mug was a bringer of joy in the early Nineties. Since then each new game is touted as a “return to form”, with the Wii’s Sonic and the Secret Rings being...
February2009
SEGA couldn't keep him on the leash any longer...
Better late than never - this review - not Sonic Unleashed. Sonic Team offered us the latest Sonic adventure just before Christmas, we'd like to tell you we've been so busy playing it since then that we're only just getting round to the review, but that's not true. So let's get on with it. Sonic...
December2007
Review NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (Wii)
Ah NiGHTS.. you're finally here, it's been a long time coming, so how does it measure up?
Journey of dreams, the sequel SEGA Saturn fanboys have been waiting 10 years for, after all those rumours its finally here, but was it ever going to live up to the cult following surrounding the original, NiGHTS Into Dreams? Our hero is NiGHTS, a Nightopian who...
September2007
Review Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Virtual Console / Sega Mega Drive)
Sonic and Tails are back for another adventure as they again battle the evil Dr. Eggman (AKA Dr. Robotnik), who is desperately trying to collect all the Chaos Emeralds in order to rebuild his Death Egg.
After the sublime Sonic 2 Sega decided to stick with the same tried and tested formula for the sequel – a move that disappointed many fans that...
June2007
Review Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Virtual Console / Sega Mega Drive)
Dr. Eggman (aka Dr. Robotnik) is searching for the Chaos Emeralds to fuel his new Death Egg engine.
Any gamer worth his or her salt will remember the day Sonic 2 was released. Cheekily dubbed 'Sonic Twos-Day' (it was released worldwide on a Tuesday, you see) it became a massive seller for Sega and cemented Sonic's position as one of the most popular...
November2006
Review Sonic the Hedgehog (Virtual Console / Sega Mega Drive)
The game that introduced the world to Sega's speedy hedgehog.
The original Sonic the Hedgehog was quite a groundbreaking title for Sega and their 16-bit Mega Drive console. Not only did it give Sega a true mascot to wrap their video game business around, but it also gave them a platformer that could actually compete with Nintendo's Super Mario...
May2006
"The Rub Rabbits help you to score with the girl, but how does the game itself score?"
Rub It! Touch it! Breathe on it! Yell at it! Are the best phrases to describe Project Rub (Feel the Magic). The game makes use of every feature that is individual to the DS. Making it one of the most exclusive and refreshing titles around. Quirky can not even...