Recent Activity



ShockingX reviewed Mario Party DS
This is the first real portable Mario party game, and for what it's worth this game carries over all the traits of the original quite well. Each of the boards are fun and varied, the minigames are diverse and interesting, and there are a lot of modes to play through both by yourself and with friends. The best part about this game is that you only really need one copy of the game to play with as you can send download codes to your friends so that they can play on the board with you.

With that said, this is still a Mario Party game, so if you are not a fan of these kinds of games then you won't get much out of this. Other than that, this is easily one of the better titles in the franchise.

6 days ago


ShockingX reviewed Diddy Kong Racing DS
This is almost the same game that you may or may not have played on the Nintendo 64, but portable. Being able to play this wherever and whenever you wanted was very smart, and working with Rare again to get this released was surprising to see.

With all that said, this is a somewhat lesser version of the original, and it is thanks to the controls. The Nintendo DS does not have any analogue stick, which makes controlling 3D games much harder than before. Now, if this game was like Mario Kart where you only drive a kart around a course it wouldn't be an issue, but flying the plane, and looking around the hub world felt much more cumbersome to do here than in the original.

Other than that, some of the characters and voices were changed for various reasons which always felt off to me since I was so used to the original, but I can understand why the changes were made. This is still a good game throughout, and I almost always have fun with it.

6 days ago


ShockingX reviewed Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3
It took multiple iterations but they finally got it right. This is a fun game to play, both solo and with friends, and is one of the better Dragon Ball fighting games out there. The number of playable characters in this game is staggering, each with their unique techniques, combos, and voice lines from right out of the shows and movies. The game also has an in-depth story mode that goes through every major battle in the Dragon Ball Z anime, including the movies, parts of Dragon Ball, and GT. Multiple tournaments can be played through, the arcade ladder, some challenges to complete, and customization too. This game is full of content for players to sink their teeth into.

This is still an arena fighter, however, and so it can sometimes feel a bit clunky to control, especially on the Wii with force motion controls. But for what you are getting, this is a game worth your time if you are a fan of the franchise. Try this out if you want some classic Dragon Ball Z fighting game action.

6 days ago


ShockingX reviewed Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai - Another Road
Dragon Ball Z Budokai, but on the go... again! The game has expanded more and now includes more characters, new stages, some new transformations, and a whole new story mode with exploration. I like the changes that were introduced in this game, especially with the story mode, however, this is largely the same game as before. If you liked the previous one you will like this one no doubt.

6 days ago


ShockingX reviewed Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
Would you look at this, it's another minigame collection on the Wii. This one has the distinction of being the first real crossover game for Mario and Sonic, which at the time was a big deal. You could tell that it was a big deal too since most of the minigames here play well.

Each minigame, or event since they are all based on Olympic events, is designed well and can be replayed quite easily. Whether to beat friends or to beat a high score, so there is something here to bite into. There are even a couple of Deam Events, which are remixed versions of the available events that utilize aspects of Sonic or Mario's worlds. All of these are cool in concept.

The issue is that there are very few minigames to play, and most of these are very simple and can be completed in a matter of seconds if you do it right. The game tries to extend this time by using circuits as you would see in Mario Kart, but it just shows off the repetitiveness and tediousness of the games more.

At the very least, the game looks nice and does a good job of representing each series well. As the first game in the franchise, it needs more work done, but it is ok as is. Nothing memorable but not offensive either.

6 days ago


ShockingX reviewed Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu
A surprisingly lengthy and in-depth card game that goes through the first few storylines of Dragon Ball Z. This one honestly isn't so bad but is held back by its very long missions. For a portable game, these missions take a very long time, and if you fail a mission you have to start all over again. Outside of that, this is a pretty basic card game and other than a multiplayer mode to face friends this doesn't offer much else substance to the player. If you like basic card games and Dragon Ball Z you might like this, but it's pretty average otherwise.

6 days ago


ShockingX reviewed Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s
To be fair, this game plays pretty well, and the song selection is a good selection of 80's tracks for fans of that era. This should have been DLC though, as this does nothing to improve or push the series forward. If anything, this is a money grab from suckers like me who wanted more songs to play with their plastic instruments. Unless you really, and I mean really, like the setlist, don't even bother getting this one.

6 days ago


ShockingX reviewed Sonic and the Secret Rings
The fact this came out the same year as Super Mario Galaxy is an insult to platformers. This looks horrible, the story makes no sense, and the controls are sluggish and unresponsive... this is easily the worst Sonic game I've ever played.

The only thing I want to add is just how backward they made the controls. This game has the design of a linear Sonic level and yet plays like an auto-runner, where tilting the controller forward and backward for speed and left to right for side movements. This does not work, at all. They shouldn't have forced motion controls, but what do I know? Anyway, skip this unless you really want to get upset one evening.

6 days ago


ShockingX reviewed Super Mario Galaxy
One of the greatest games on the system, and a perfect example of why Nintendo is the king of creativity. The way this game utilizes gravity, the unique structures of each planet. the new power-ups, and the control of the game in general is truly great. Even the story of this game, which is usually light for this series, has depth and intrigue, especially with Rosalina.

If I had one complaint about this game, it would be the linearity of it all. This game wants to have the open-world feel of 64 or Sunshine, but I don't think that comes through properly. I get that this is a small nitpick overall but that goes to show just how spectacular this game is. This is a must-play for the system, hands down and deserves the recognition it gets.

6 days ago


6 days ago


6 days ago


ShockingX reviewed Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales
At first, this game seems to be a cute yet simplistic adventure game revolving around a Chocobo. A game that, while fine for small children, wouldn't offer much else to fans of Final Fantasy. After playing it for hours on end, however, I couldn't feel any different. This is a really fun story with some really fun and competitive minigames and is a cute love letter to the lore of Final Fantasy.

The story centers around a young Chocobo whose entire town has been sealed inside over a dozen books, and it is up to you to free them all and save the town from the dark magic. You explore the world and solve puzzles to either get to new locations, find new books to save townsfolk, or even unlock new cards to use in the Pop-Up Duels. The puzzles are pretty basic microgames like matching or whack-a-mole, but the requirements for gold ranking are pretty intense.

When you find a book, you will be thrust into the story as a main character. Each story utilizes a well-known fairy tale as its central plot and creates a minigame out of the contents of that story. For example, one of the stories is Jack and the Beanstalk, and you are tasked with climbing up to the Giant's Tower in the sky. So the minigame is creating trampolines for your Chocobo to climb up to the top the fastest. Each minigame usually has 5 different levels of difficulty, along with a time attack or a score attack depending on the game. Each book also has a list of 5 tasks that can be done to complete it, usually by beating the different difficulty levels. Every task that is completed will either give a new ending to the book which unlocks something in the overworld like the townsfolk or a barrier, give you a card for the Pop-Up Duel, or unlock new levels within the book itself.

All of these can be played with friends outside of the story mode and it is really fun in a Mario Party kind of way, with some of the games standing out more than others. Unfortunately, a couple of these games are not very fun, as the controls can sometimes not be very intuitive. The minigames are not the only part of this game though.

During certain encounters, you will face off in a Pop-Up Duel, and this is where the cards you collect come in. This is a really fun card game that has you building your deck in a way that can counter the deck your opponent is using. The strategies you can employ within this game prove to me that these developers were passionate about this game, as it feels balanced and fair in every fight.

To me, this is as good as a minigame collection can get, from its aesthetic to its gameplay. The biggest downside is that this is all the game is, a minigame collection. With that said, if you are okay with that and want something fun and cute to play on your Nintendo DS, this game is a genuine hidden gem.

6 days ago


ShockingX completed Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s
To be fair, this game plays pretty well, and the song selection is a good selection of 80's tracks for fans of that era. This should have been DLC though, as this does nothing to improve or push the series forward. If anything, this is a money grab from suckers like me who wanted more songs to play with their plastic instruments. Unless you really, and I mean really, like the setlist, don't even bother getting this one.

6 days ago


ShockingX completed Rock Band

6 days ago


Filter Activities