I’m of the opinion that kids games shouldn’t be garbage.

Just because a game is licensed or made for kids, this should not be used as an excuse to shove shoddy, unfinished games out the door. More often than not, short development cycles thwart any attempt to make a licensed game good, because much of the sales come from hitting the shelves at the same time as the movie a game is based off of.

That’s why I was happy to see that Toy Story 3 felt like a real game.

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Scott Pilgrim is having a bit of a media explosion at the moment. It’s gone from an independent comic (started in 2004) that I had only heard about in passing, to a franchise that the entire internet seems to be talking about (both positively and negatively) with a movie and a videogame released last week.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game is an old-school brawler through and through. You and up to three local friends (sorry, no online multiplayer) play as either Scott, Ramona, Kim, or Stills and get to punching and kicking your way through each of the game’s stages.

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“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

One of the coolest parts of playing video games as a kid was the feeling of exploration. Sure, back on the NES it was still in a pretty abstract way, but a well designed adventure could really suck you in. Even back then, when passing the controller back and forth with my friends to work our way through a game (old school co-op), we felt like we were there.

Never was this truer than of the original Metroid. It totally blew us away that we were free to explore the game’s world in whatever order we wanted. Sure, you needed to find new abilities to progress past certain obstacles, but that only added to the challenge and fun. But there weren’t nearly enough of this style of game. We were surprised and delighted to find there was a sequel to one of our favorite movies in game form, and it was in the Metroid style.

That game was The Goonies II.

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"Actual Game Graphics (as seen by my memories)"

As the internet makes everyone’s voices heard more and more, whether it be through comment systems, forums, or social media sites, it’s interesting to see the different patterns that develop. One I’ve taken note of in the last couple of years is the inaccuracies of our memories. Yes, I say “our” because I’ve fallen into this same trap from time to time just like everyone has.

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"A licensed game from the developers of the Ace Combat series."

It’s very odd that I would seek out a licensed game based on a license I (at the time) had never heard of, but The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces had several things going for it. First off, the team behind the Wii exclusive flight game is Project Aces; developer of the highly regarded Ace Combat series.

Secondly, it boasted a unique and ambitious use of motion controls, which is something I’d like to support. And finally, the game retailed at the budget price of $30 on the day of release, though admittedly that could be taken as a strike against its predicted quality.

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"Nice to see you Jim. You been working out?"

“2 Player Reviews” is a series of articles in which two members of the Wing Damage staff separately review a game, so as to give our readers multiple perspectives on the subject matter.

Player 1 – Jonah “spambot” Gregory

“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

Due to overwhelming demand, a federal court order, and a purple nurple, I have been forced to go back and examine one of the crown jewels of gaming’s yesteryear, Goldeneye.

Before frat boys were learning the intricacies of system linking their Xboxes and Pierce Brosnan was the hot new Bond, Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64 set the world on fire (in a good way). Millions of gamers discovered the joy of shooting their friends in the face.

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“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

Rather than releasing a trilogy of Indiana Jones games like they did with Star Wars, Lucasarts and Factor 5 teamed up to make one game that spanned all three films. In Indiana Jones’ Greatest Adventures, you take on the roll of everyone’s favorite 1940′s action-serial throwback, Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones, JR.

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"Life is like a hurricane"

“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

Back in the late 80′s, Disney had a brilliant idea: To bring well produced cartoons to the after school time slot that was normally filled with soap operas and reruns of The Flintstones. It was a great tactic that produced some very popular series. At some point along the way, Disney made a deal with Capcom to make games based on a few of their shows. DuckTales, a flagship series for “Disney Afternoon”, was one of the first games produced and one of the most popular.

What we didn’t know at the time was that we were getting a game produced by several key members of the Mega Man team, including Keiji Inafune, Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, and Tokuro Fujiwara. This lead not only to the creation of a very tight platformer, but also to some amazing original tunes, most notably the Moon’s theme.

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"Where's the radical Pizza dudeshell turtles?!"

Fans of the Smash Bros. series looking for a new fix will be happy to hear that Ubisoft’s newest addition to the long line of TMNT games, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up”, will scratch that party game/fighter hybrid itch.

While the comparisons to Smash Bros. are inescapable, the dev team said in a recent interview with IGN that this game was built from the ground up. While it retains the simplified fighting controls of the Smash Bros. series, even down to the block/roll to get out of danger (not surprising since the games share many of the same developers), the actual moves your character performs are all based in real martial arts moves.

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