Alice in Wonderland on the Nintendo DS is rather lovely; we thought we’d get that in early before you see ‘Inspired by the Tim Burton Film’ and walk away shrugging your shoulders in indifference. It’s not that we’ve got anything against Mr Burton, but movie spin-offs are on the whole very easy to ignore, mainly because they’re usually not very good. In this instance however, developer Étranges Libellules have crafted a game of rare quality, movie spin-off or not. Read the full story »

Over the years Mario Kart has had to endure a seemingly endless succession of imitations. It has stoically observed the gimmicky (Street Racer with eight player split-screen, anyone?), the soulless (Rare’s blandly efficient Diddy Kong Racing) and -looking ahead – the potentially innovative (that’ll be ModNation Racers and its real-time track creator), whilst itself undergoing revision after revision with each new iteration. However in amongst the controversy that surrounds each of these updates – a blue shell here, a sidecar there – is the consistency of the gameplay. This legion of imitators may often be technically superior, but nothing has really been able to match the controlled anarchy, pure joy and – important bit this – the strong sense of identification that lies at the core of Nintendo’s most important franchise. Nothing that is – cut for dramatic pause – until now. Read the full story »

Switchball is what Super Monkey Ball would have looked like had it been made by Nikola Tesla – where Sega’s effort was all spinning bananas and mild simian peril, Atomic Elbow have laid down pipes, fans, circuitry, weights, magnets and steam. While this may sound more like a science experiment than a compelling videogame experience, the reality proves to be quite the opposite. Read the full story »

The lovely folks over at Rising Star Games and www.bagofbees.co.uk have given us FIVE limited edition ‘Half Minute Hero’ retro themed T-Shirts to give away! Read the full story »

The Super Monkey Ball series is perhaps one of today’s most puzzlingly prolific games series. Not puzzling in a sense that it lacks quality, puzzling in how developer SEGA have once again managed to re-invent gameplay that literally amounts to rolling an encased monkey towards a goal. In the wake of stylus control (Super Monkey Ball Touch & Roll – Nintendo DS) and Smartphone accelerometers (Super Monkey Ball iPhone), SEGA are hoping its second Wii installment give gamers a reason to (literally) dust off your Balance Board and control Aiai and friends in a much more embarrassing fashion. Read the full story »