Cadaps

August 11, 2008

Order Up!

Filed under: Wii — Tags: — Robert @ 8:10 pm

Recently, a handful of full retail games have been devoted to emulating the challenges of food preparation, and Order Up is the latest of these games to embrace the Wii’s motion-sensitive controls. As a short-order cook in Order Up, you to use the Wii Remote not only to slice, grate, and cook food, but to prepare up to four dishes simultaneously and plate them all in a timely fashion. The challenge of accurately prepping each ingredient while coordinating multiple dishes is highly engaging, and you’ll find yourself hungry for more after completing this delicious, but not quite filling, game.

You begin the game as many chefs begin their careers–by jumping out of a plane, landing in a dumpster, then strolling into the local fast food joint to take a job as a short-order cook. Yes, Order Up is a bit goofy, but it works to great effect. The rotund, bean-shaped (more…)

July 31, 2008

Lego Indiana Jones

Filed under: Wii — Tags: — Robert @ 9:15 am

Now that Traveller’s Tales has conquered a galaxy far, far away, it has set its sights on giving a Lego makeover to a more terrestrial franchise. Lego Indiana Jones: The Complete Trilogy lets you reenact the key scenes from the first three Indiana Jones movies, with a blocky twist only Lego can provide. The idea of children’s building toys pasted atop action-packed adventures may seem strange–and seeing a Lego monkey is rather unnerving–but the enduring charm of the movies is the perfect foundation for some small-scale tomb robbing. The surprise is, even without a nostalgic-powered handcuff fastening you to these stories, the seamless co-op and clever puzzles should be enough to draw even the Indy ignorant into the experience.

Like the Lego Star Wars games, Lego Indiana Jones is primarily a puzzle-solving game with light combat and platforming elements. While the core experience remains largely unchanged from the previous games, the puzzles are constructed in a much more intelligent and logical manner this time around. Previous Lego games had bewildering sections that would stump even seasoned puzzle-solving veterans, not to mention frustrate casual fans who were just looking for a Star Wars fix. Those tricky sections still exist in Lego Indiana Jones, but now they have been relegated to the bonus missions. Though you’ll still spend the majority of your time trying to figure out how to open locked doors or cross perilous pits, the pacing is never halted by overly complex solutions.

Even though the adventuring is more streamlined this time, the obstacles you’ll encounter are quite diverse. Every level seems to throw a new trick your way that will continually keep you on your toes. The most amusing puzzles involve the severe phobias with which (more…)

July 30, 2008

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon

Filed under: Wii — Tags: — Robert @ 1:55 pm

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon marks the third time Square Enix has paired dungeon-crawling with the world’s most adorable yellow bird, capitalizing on the public’s seemingly insatiable appetite for anything with a cutesy Final Fantasy theme. The game is an aesthetically pleasing continuation of its PlayStation predecessors, boasting charming visuals and soft melodies. It also introduces a job-changing system as popularized by Final Fantasy Tactics. But don’t let its endearing, child-friendly exterior fool you: Chocobo’s Dungeon is an intense, often grueling challenge for even experienced dungeon crawlers.

Chocobo’s Dungeon opens with treasure hunter Cid and his feathery sidekick, Chocobo, searching for an ancient trinket known as Timeless Power. A familiar foe beats them to it, however, and then uses the bobble to send our heroes to the town of Lostime in an alternate world. The citizens of Lostime harbor (more…)

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