Super Mario Galaxy 2

The sequel to Super Mario Galaxy features strange new worlds to explore, new challenges to overcome, and Mario's trusty sidekick, Yoshi.

• Levels have tons of different objectives, all of them fun  
• New power-ups spice up the action  
• Later levels offer a sizable challenge  
• Stunning visuals that are a marvel to look at  
• Catchy soundtrack that combines classic Mario songs with new material.

It may be easy to take one look at Super Mario Galaxy 2, see the same gravity-altering traps and spherical worlds from its predecessor, and dismiss this as a by-the-numbers sequel to the superb original. But by assuming you know what to expect from Mario's latest adventure, you would be doing yourself and this game a great disservice. This is not only the new standard against which every 3D platformer must now be judged, but it also seamlessly integrates so many elements from Mario's 2D roots that it stands toe-to-toe with even its genre-defining progenitors. Every aspect of this game is absolutely bursting with joy. The vibrant artistic design immediately welcomes you into this colorful world, and the catchy soundtrack deftly mixes classic tunes with new compositions to provide the perfect backdrop for your goomba-stomping, star-snatching fun. But it's the expertly designed levels that will keep you coming back, even after you've seen everything this game has to offer, just to experience it one more time. This is an instant classic that belongs alongside the best games Nintendo has ever created.

Journey to the center of Earth, and right back out the other side.

Things are once again rotten in the Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser has taken Princess Peach prisoner for the umpteenth time, forcing Mario to momentarily put his plumbing gig on hold to rescue his fair lady. The best thing that can be said about the story is that it mostly stays in the background. A few lighthearted exchanges between Mario and his foes precede major battles, but there is only a brief break in the action before you get back to flinging fireballs and cracking shells. In fact, Galaxy 2 is much more streamlined than its predecessor. The elaborate hub world that has appeared in each of Mario's previous 3D adventures has been scrapped and replaced by an easy-to-navigate map that lets you hop right into the next level. Galaxy 2 has less downtime than the original, ensuring you're always engaged and entertained.
And you'll be happy to jump right into the action because Galaxy 2 is a long and often challenging adventure. There are lots of different activities to take part in, but everything comes with the same prize: a shining star. It takes 70 of these celestial bodies to make it to the end of the game, but there are many more hidden throughout the universe waiting to be discovered. No matter what you're doing in Galaxy 2, everything feels just right, thanks to the ultraprecise controls. It's a breeze leaping between walls, performing deadly butt-stomps, or jumping across lava-filled pits. There is an unabashed joy in movement that makes even running around the colorful worlds and taking in the uplifting atmosphere feel special. The camera does an admirable job of framing the action, giving you a clear view even when you're dancing on the ceiling in a reverse-gravity room or leaping between floating meteors in space. There are a few times where the angle is less than ideal, making it difficult to line up an exact jump, but for the most part, the camera performs its duty with flying colors.

Even with a belly full of pasta, Mario is still lighter than air.

The wealth of different objectives in Galaxy 2 is mind boggling. Just about every star introduces at least one new mechanic, generating a truly stunning degree of variety. Whether you're grabbing onto the talons of a powerful bird, competing in score-based challenges for a monkey that's wearing sunglasses, or slamming into enemies while ice skating, you're constantly presented with a new activity. Even though many of these situations only appear once or twice during the course of the game, they're all fully fleshed out and incredibly fun. It's really interesting how varied objectives can be even within the same level. The first time you enter a level, you may have to zip down a sand slide at breakneck speed, dodging cactuses and nabbing coins all the while. But when you enter the level again to try for a different star, you may have to navigate an underground obstacle course from a side-scrolling perspective. Because your goals are constantly changing and always at a high level, Galaxy 2 never gets stale or predictable.
If the huge variety of goals doesn't sound like a big enough change, there are also power-ups that further mix things up. One of the few weak spots in the original Galaxy was a lack of interesting power-ups to play around with, but that has been rectified here. The most notable addition is Yoshi, the lovable dinosaur with the prehensile tongue. Once on this green fellow's back, you can point at enemies or objects with the remote and swallow them whole. You can snatch up a spiny and then shoot it like a projectile, inhale a pepper to receive a massive speed boost, or chow down a bulb to light up hidden pathways. There's also a power-up that lets Mario roll around like a Goron from the Zelda series, a special suit that gives you the ability to create clouds in midair, and a drill for digging through soft dirt. All of these power-ups build on their most basic functions as you get deeper into the game, forcing you to look beyond your preconceptions to use them in unique ways.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

In Nintendo's latest Zelda game, Link sports his older look from the Nintendo 64 days. The Wii version of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess makes use of the Wii remote controls.

The Good

• Compelling characters and story  
• outstanding world and puzzle design  
• longer than most action adventure games  
• terrific graphics, from an artistic perspective.

The Bad

• Wii-specific elements feel tacked on  
• graphics and sound sometimes go from nostalgic to dated.

When game consoles transitioned from offering primarily 2D games to polygonal 3D games about 10 years ago, all of the tricks and gameplay ideas that developers had been relying on for years flew right out the window. During this time, Nintendo quickly found its footing and released masterful takes on its old franchises that retained the fun and feeling of the older games while properly updating them in exciting and impressive new ways. 1998's The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was a prime example of this. It featured a more realistic take on the series' fantasy world than ever before, while implementing innovative new controls and offering a good sense of freedom without making the player feel lost. It's one of the greatest games of all time, so it's hard to fault Nintendo for revisiting that same formula. And that's precisely what the latest game in the series, Twilight Princess, does. For the most part, that's a very good thing, because Twilight Princess is a lengthy adventure packed with many well-designed puzzles and some interesting characters. But once you get over the rush of excitement from a big, new Zelda game having finally arrived, it's hard not to feel a tinge of disappointment--there's a very noticeable lack of evolution here, which makes aspects of the game seem more dated than classic. Even so, there isn't much out there that compares to Twilight Princess, except for the Zelda games that have come before it.

Link is back! In wolf form!

Like most other Zelda games, Twilight Princess is a retelling of the same basic tale, though this one is not without its twists. There's a princess named Zelda, a land called Hyrule, and a world that's on the verge of destruction if you don't do something to save it. In this installment, there's a darkness creeping across the land, locking it in the eternal dusk of the twilight realm. You play as Link, a humble, pointy-eared boy who lives in a far-off village and herds goats for a living, yet he ends up getting involved in the conflict. The twilight that's infected the land is an alternate reality of sorts, serving as the game's equivalent of A Link to the Past's dark, alternate world, or in some cases, serving the same purposes as the adult Link/child Link differences in Ocarina. The difference here is that when you're in the twilight, you're transformed into a blue-eyed wolf.
Early on in the game, you meet up with one of the shadow dwellers, an impish little creature named Midna. Midna rides around on your back while you're in wolf form and serves the same purposes as Navi in Ocarina, providing you with the occasional hint. Link's beast form behaves roughly the same as the human form, as far as combat is concerned, but you can't use items. You can, however, access otherwise unreachable areas by following set jump paths that Midna will lead you through. The wolf can also dig and go into a heightened-sense mode that shows off scent trails and other hidden objects. For the first portion of the game, you'll be forced back and forth between forms, but you eventually earn the ability to switch back and forth at will, and some of the game's later puzzles will require you to do just that. You can also ride around on horseback, if you like, but by the time you get to a point when you have large distances to cover, you'll also have the ability to warp around, limiting the horse's usefulness to a couple of combat-oriented sequences.
Many of the early parts of the game take place outside in the game's overworld and in various outdoor areas as you try to clear the darkness from the land. But along the way, you'll also enter various temples and dungeons to collect new items, solve a wide variety of puzzles, and fight bosses. While most of the game's story sequences take place above ground, these temples are the core of the entire game, and they're very well done, even if they cover a lot of the same ground that you may have seen in past Zelda installments. You start out with a forest temple, make your way to a mine under Death Mountain for your fire temple, scratch your head and try to figure out the inner workings of moving water around in the water temple, and so on. That's not to say they're all taken from old blueprints, though, and some of the later temples take you to somewhat more interesting locales, like a sky temple that demands that you make precise use of your grappling hookshot.

Most of the weapons and items you'd expect to see in a Zelda game are back in Twilight Princess.

For the most part, the puzzles are great and rooted in logic. So if you stare at the map long enough and figure out what each lever-pull does, deducing what's going on in the water temple isn't impossible. And once you get movement-enhancing items like the hookshot, you'll be carefully looking at each wall and ceiling, hoping to see a grapple-friendly target that will move you along. You'll push blocks, you'll move cannonballs from room to room in hopes of finding a cannon and clearing a path, you'll fire arrows at targets that cause blocks to move--it's all pretty standard if you've been keeping up with the Zelda series, but the formula still works quite well. However, with the way the puzzles are designed, it's certainly possible for just about any of them to trip you up and cause you to spend an hour or so just wandering around, staring at everything and trying to figure out what to do next. However, none of the puzzles are especially fiendish, which means that you might catch yourself feeling a little foolish when you finally realize that the solution was staring you in the face the entire time. But really, figuring these puzzles out is where the majority of the fun and sense of reward comes from as you play, because most of it's designed extremely well.

It's good that Twilight Princess' world and puzzle design can carry it, because the combat and boss fights aren't very deep at all. Most enemies just require you to swing your sword at them, which is done by shaking the Wii Remote or shaking the Nunchuk for a spin attack. You can lock onto enemies with the Z trigger and strafe around them, hop back and forth, leap in for a jumping attack, or jump back and out of the way--the same basic moves as past installments. But normally you can just keep on shaking the Wii Remote like a maniac and come out on top against most enemies. There's no finesse to the way the Wii Remote is used, and at times you'll wish that you could just hit a button to swing the sword instead of dealing with all the motion-sensing nonsense. This is especially true in the rare cases that require you to time your sword swings properly, as well as once you start learning a few extra moves, like the shield bash, which is done by shoving the Nunchuk controller forward. Most of the time, performing this move resulted in a spin attack. The combat controls using the Wii Remote may feel somewhat different from past games, but it doesn't draw you into the experience any more than using a standard controller would, and at worst, it's imprecise.

Twilight Princess' tale will take somewhere around 40 hours to complete. That's a long time, especially for an action adventure game.

A few enemies require more advanced tactics, like spinning around to get behind them or using one of your items to make them vulnerable. Just about every boss fight in the game requires you to use more than just your sword and shield. Like in every other recent Zelda game, in Twilight Princess you'll find a new item about halfway through a temple, and you can bet that you'll need that item to take on the boss. There are a few tricky parts, but it's certainly feasible that you'll get through the game's 35-to-40-hour story without running out of hearts and dying. That being said, the boss fights make up for some of their ease by being pretty epic. Almost every one pits you against a giant, screen-filling creature that at least looks tough, even if you're just going to grapple your way onto it and stick your sword in its weak spot over and over again, or use your ball and chain to bust it apart, without even breaking a sweat. Even the final confrontation is relatively easy, and if you get stumped going against any boss, you can ask Midna for help and get a fairly good idea about what you're supposed to be doing. If you want to go off the beaten path, you can find a handful of side tasks to take on, like fishing and some other minigames, but aside from the combat-filled Cave of Ordeals, which is a 50 stage area that acts as a sort of survival mode, these aren't too exciting and the rewards you get for completing them aren't especially helpful.
Overall, the game is paced well and it keeps you moving more often than not. At one point you have to move around to various statues that are stashed throughout the world, and this bogs down the action a bit, but it's nowhere near the time sink that the late-game sailing marathon that padded out the back end of Wind Waker was. Your time spent in Twilight Princess involves very little back-tracking, and not too much repetition, keeping the focus squarely on original, interesting stuff.
The Wii was designed with relatively modest graphical capabilities, at least from a technical perspective. So if you spend a lot of time trying to pick apart the visuals of Twilight Princess, you'd notice plenty of low-res textures and jagged edges. But that would be missing the point. Twilight Princess is an excellent-looking game due to some terrific art design. Much has already been said about the art style reverting back to a more mature or realistic look after Wind Waker took the series in a decidedly cartoonlike direction. While there's nothing terribly "mature" about this T-rated game, it looks absolutely great from an artistic perspective. The world itself offers the sort of variety you'd naturally expect from a fantasy game, with everything from lakes to deserts to dungeons, but it's when you start seeing the twilight realm that the game really takes off, visually.
Twilight realm portals that open up do so with an almost Tron-like glowing, computerized look, and when you teleport around or change forms, that same style shows through, breaking your character into cool, tiny black squares and reforming you in a new place or shape. You're also going to fight a lot of crazy-looking dark shadow creatures, and many of the enemies in Twilight Princess look really nice, up to and including those large boss opponents. At the same time, the game gets a lot of little details right, too. You get a lot of close shots of characters' faces in the game's cutscenes, and their faces are often filled with emotion. The eyes, particularly, convey a lot of soul, which really helps make Link's wolf form work, too. It may have its rough edges here and there, but Twilight Princess is the best-looking launch game on the Wii. Like most other Wii games, you can play this one in 480p and widescreen, if you're so equipped. Playing in progressive scan sharpens things up, which makes some objects look better, but it also makes the edges on everything more jagged-looking.
The Legend of Zelda series' symphonic-style music has always been great, dating all the way back to the NES original. That same music keeps getting updated, and more new themes have worked their way into the series and become recurring, as well. You'll hear a lot of classic melodies in Twilight Princess, and those help give the game a nostalgic feel. Much like the graphical portion of the game, the music gets by on the strength of the compositions, but at the same time, all of the music is rendered in the same sort of sample-driven, synthesized style that the series has had since the Nintendo 64 days. While that might also give you a dose of nostalgia, it's also really dated. Given that the Wii is running discs on a greater storage capacity than Nintendo games have had in the past, and advances in standards for video game music, it's disappointing that the series hasn't finally moved to full digital recordings. After all, these songs are worthy of an orchestra. Similarly, it's surprising that the game's story is conveyed through text and text alone. Link has always been that sort of blank-slate character that doesn't speak in games, and he doesn't have any lines in Twilight Princess, either. That's a fine stylistic choice, but there's plenty of dialogue in the game coming from other characters, and in this day and age, for a game whose story is as much a factor as this one's is, it should have all been spoken. At least the dialogue is well-written.

The game's puzzles might stump you from time to time, but they're logical and rewarding to figure out.

The rest of Twilight Princess' sound is really weird. On one hand, it's using plenty of the same sort of sound effects and battle yelps that the series has relied on, which again will tap into fans' nostalgia for the series. So you'll get the familiar sound of swinging swords, exploding bombs, and all of that. It generally sounds fine, but the game also makes frequent use of the speaker on the Wii Remote, piping a lot of combat noises through it. Unfortunately, this speaker is cheap and tinny, making everything that comes out of it sound distorted and poor. The audio coming through this speaker also chops up fairly frequently, as if it can't maintain a decent connection with the console. Hey, no big deal, right? Just turn the speaker down in the settings menu. That's an option, but some sounds are either only played through the Wii Remote speaker or they're played so quietly on the TV that they lose impact. Having some of the sounds play through this speaker seems like a neat idea, but it doesn't work all that well in practice.
Objectively speaking, it's still a little disappointing that the series hasn't evolved much at all with this latest installment. You'll almost certainly enjoy the game for its terrific puzzles, colorful characters, and compelling story, but at some point the feeling of nostalgia crosses the line and holds this game back from being as unbelievably good as some of its predecessors. So as impressive of a game as it is, Twilight Princess seems like it could have been so much more with a few presentational updates and more effective and interesting uses of the Wii's unique control scheme. But even without those things, Twilight Princess is a great game that stays extremely true to the Zelda franchise's past. That's excellent news for fans of the series, who'll find in Twilight Princess a true-blue Zelda game with updated visuals, some new twists, plenty of challenging puzzles, and a faithful dedication to the series' roots.

Wii The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Review II

A fearsome boss waits at the end of each dungeon. These duels comprise a variety of different combat techniques and make you use your full repertoire. There are times when your swordwork takes center stage. Here, you stab and swipe with the precision offered by the motion controls, and though the actions don't always correspond to your own movements, it's still a rush to chip at an enemy's defense until you bring it down. Other times, you may have to utilize your clawhook or shoot a few arrows, and trying to decide what the best tool for the job is makes these battles feel like fast-paced puzzles in which you could die if you take too long to solve things. As good as the boss fights are--and all of them do test your wits and skills--it's a shame you have to fight two of the bosses three times each. Part of the appeal of The Legend of Zelda and other adventure games lies in seeing the grotesque enemy designs. By presenting the same foe more than once, predictability sets in and the shock factor is diminished.

Link's passport book is full of stamps, lucky dog.

Predictability crops up in the quest structure as well. You repeat the pattern of fetch quest, dungeon, fetch quest, dungeon so many times that it starts to feel like you're just going through the motions. Thankfully, there are a few diversions that add a hint of variety to the been-there-done-that trappings. The silent realm forces you to tear through previously explored areas with a slight twist. You must collect scattered tear drops without being seen, but you have to use different techniques from what you would normally use because you don't have any weapons. Granted, by the fourth time this situation crops up, what was once fresh begins to feel a bit stale, but it's a nice detour from the meat-and-potatoes progression that the rest of the game encompasses.
Repetition exists not only in what you do but also in where you go. There are three main areas in Skyward Sword (a desert, a volcano, a grassy plane), and you visit each of these on three separate occasions. Your objectives do change, but you often have to walk through the same environments you've already visited. Considering that revisiting the same area was one of the most maligned aspects of Phantom Hourglass, it's odd that Nintendo would once again reuse places to pad the length of this adventure. And in no place is this more troubling than in the final few hours of the game, where your last trip to the volcano world thrusts you into an unusual mission that plays unlike the rest of the game. The levels are meandering and illogical, and the artificial intelligence is laughably bad. Not only does this section feel out of place--it just isn't fun on its own terms.
When you're not questing through dungeons, you can take part in plenty of side missions. Your main mode of travel in Skyward Sword is on the back of a bird. You're free to travel anywhere in the sky your heart desires, and the stirring music does a great job of making you feel like a soaring adventurer. Quests are usually handed out by the needy citizens of Skyloft, and these encompass a great deal of different activities. Some of them, such as carrying pumpkins for a tavern owner, are quite lame, but most of them are fun in their own right. One quest lets you decide the proper use for a love letter, while another sees Link in the role of unassuming steroid pusher. Both scenarios trigger side stories that are not only funny but will entice you to finish them just to see how they turn out. Still, the overworld is not without its faults. First, flying through the air is a slow process, and once you test the limits of your bird's diving ability early on, there's little to demand your attention on the long flights. Second, although there are many islands in the sky, few of them contain anything worthwhile. It's a far cry from the rich world of The Wind Waker where you were never sure what you would encounter next.

Harp playing is one of Skyward Sword's weaker minigames.

A few of the new elements introduced in Skyward Sword are positive additions to the series. An upgrade system lets you use collectibles you scrounge up in your quest to improve your tools. For example, you can turn your slingshot into a scattershot that fires three pellets at once or improve the healing powers of your potions. This is a great addition to the franchise because it gives you a purpose for collecting things, with a tangible result when you acquire enough goods. Link is also more agile than in past games. He can now sprint through worlds and shinny up short walls, and this allows the labyrinthine design to be more robust. A stamina meter ensures you can't abuse this, and there are clever situations where you must run precisely, lest you run out of breath and fail your mission. There's also a motion-controlled segment onboard a minecart, and though it only lasts a few minutes, it's a thrilling detour from the main actions. These elements are worthwhile additions to the franchise, but it's a shame that there aren't more of these features to really set Skyward Sword apart from previous games.
The good elements do outweigh the bad in Skyward Sword, creating another engrossing experience in this venerable franchise. Strong visual design meshes the cartoony world of Wind Waker with the more realistic approach offered by Twilight Princess, and the riveting orchestral soundtrack brings back many classic tracks while offering a few tasty new ones. However, the formula is beginning to show its age. There just aren't enough new ideas to separate Skyward Sword from its predecessors, and the few additions come with mixed results. Even with many bright spots, Skyward Sword still feels like a nostalgic retread. Those yearning for something new will be disappointed, but anyone thirsty for another exciting adventure will find plenty to enjoy here.
Editor's note: This review originally stated that aiming was handled through the Wii Remote's infrared sensor, which is incorrect. The review has been amended accordingly. GameSpot regrets the error.

Wii The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Review

Skyward Sword stays true to the Zelda formula, carrying many of the same strengths and weaknesses that have been present for years.

The Good

• Excellent dungeon design  
• A host of worthwhile collectibles  
• Great boss fights  
• Strong visuals.

The Bad

• Troublesome controls  
• Lots of padding  
• Predictable formula.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword finds itself in an unenviable predicament. In the 25 years since its inception, the franchise has picked up a few bad habits. Chief among these are a predictable structure and fetch quests that force you to trudge through hours of ho-hum content before you reach the good parts. However, changing these aspects would require a complete overhaul of the tried-and-true formula, and it could ruffle the feathers of those who seek familiarity. What's a gamemaker to do? In the case of Skyward Sword, Nintendo has kept the elements that have hung like an acidic cloud over past iterations while crafting a new control system to keep it from feeling like the same old game. Unfortunately, the combination is not successful. Inconsistent controls continually torment poor Link, and the predictable structure does little to distract you from these faults. Thankfully, other staples, such as exquisite dungeon design and enticing collectibles, are also present, and the clever storytelling keeps you invested. Ultimately, Skyward Sword commits many of the same mistakes that its predecessors have made, but it still provides enough engrossing content to keep you hooked.

Link gets in all manner of wacky predicaments.

In the opening moments of Skyward Sword, Zelda is seen penning a letter to Link. However, this is not a plea to rescue her from the clutches of evil. Rather, it's a wake-up note for a boy who relishes sleep above all other activities. Zelda and Link spend time together in Skyward Sword where they enjoy the sights of Skyloft, the peaceful city in the clouds they call home. Although Link is his usual mute self, the two have an endearing rapport that makes you hope things work out for these two kids. When a twister plucks Zelda out of the sky, events are set in motion that only Link has the power to rise up against, but this is not your typical Zelda story. There is no damsel in distress here. Zelda is every bit Link's equal, and as the pieces of her own quest slowly come into focus, you appreciate the stirring sacrifice that both of these characters make. The supporting cast members--made up of an absurdly evil villain and one-note citizens--don't resonate in quite the same way. But this is still a well-written story that calls forth a variety of emotions on your quest to free the world from evil.
It's only when you enter your first combat scenario that things begin to falter. Link's sword mirrors your hand movement, so whether you thrust forward or swing horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, you see your actions play out onscreen. In theory, this should open the door to a wealth of exciting possibilities, but in practice, there are enough noticeable issues to keep you from enjoying the sword-swinging fun. The most pressing of these problems has to do with the fact that the game doesn't force you to move with precision. The first time you face a lizalfos, you may circle around until you see an opening and then unleash a horizontal strike when it lets its guard down. Once it recovers from being dazed, the lizalfos charges toward you; once again you circle and dodge until it reveals a weakness. There is some satisfaction in a battle cleanly won, but going through this elaborate charade is both time consuming and ultimately pointless. Instead, you can parry its opening attack and then flail away at its prone body until it's vanquished. By either using a shield parry or landing one sword strike against most enemies, you can stun them and then proceed to waggle your way to victory.
If you decide to be slow and precise rather than quick and efficient, new problems arise that ensure combat does not go smoothly. The Wii Remote has trouble recognizing your different swings. Often, you thrust forward in real life only to watch Link swing feebly in the game or just stand completely motionless. The sensitivity varies wildly so you're never quite sure how much force you need before the game recognizes your actions. As in the aforementioned situation, you may swing your arm while Link ignores you. Other times, you might adjust your grip so you go from holding on your left side to your right, only to see Link lash out at an enemy when you didn't want to do so. Most troubling of all is how the aiming works. There are certain items that require you to aim at the screen. However, the calibration is frequently wrong, forcing you to tap down on the D-pad to recenter. This happens with alarming frequency, and when you find yourself in a heated battle looking directly at the ground, you'll curse the game for damning you with such a cumbersome control scheme.

Good thing Link isn't afraid of heights. Or birds.

The control issues don't end with the combat, either. When Nintendo released the first 3D adventure in the series in 1998, Ocarina of Time set a number of standards (such as Z targeting) that are still used in a variety of games today. But that was 13 years ago, and many ideas that worked back then feel downright clunky now. For instance, your camera control is very limited. You can tap Z to center your view or lock on to an enemy, but this is a poor solution because you can't freely scan the environment without switching to a first-person perspective. There are times when you square off against giant foes but your view is almost completely blocked, placing you in a frustrating situation that could have been avoided. Automatically jumping when you run toward a ledge is also included in Skyward Sword, and combined with the troubled camera, you may find yourself accidentally jumping off of a cliff or taking inadvisable angles.
It's a shame that you spend so much time fighting the controls in Skyward Sword because the content is quite enjoyable. Dungeon design is particularly impressive. Recent entries in the series got into the predictable habit of introducing a new item in each dungeon that you would subsequently use to solve most of the puzzles and defeat the boss. Thankfully, that's no longer the case in Skyward Sword, and the experience is much better for it. Now, you need to dip into your bag of tools to figure out the best way to advance. You may need to use your beetle to scout the environment or roll a bomb into a hole, and the unpredictability of the obstacles forces you to carefully consider each scenario. Though you rarely die in combat, there are more than a few situations where you might find yourself stumped. You can solicit advice from Fi, the companion who travels with you, and this advice is usually vague enough to point you in the right direction without spelling out exactly what needs to be done.

Hitman: Codename 47

Even if you like the basic premise and action of the game, a number of very serious flaws quickly sap its entertainment value.

Hitman: Codename 47 is a game in which you strangle a man as he urinates in a storm grate. And that's only the beginning of the dark, adult subject matter. The game puts you in control of a trained killer who uses stealth and firepower to murder various thugs and criminals. Even if you like the basic premise and action of the game, a number of very serious flaws quickly sap its entertainment value.
The frame story, such as it is, owes a large debt to the movie La Femme Nikita, or its Americanized version, Point of No Return. Your alter ego, the bald and nameless hit man, begins the game restrained to a bed in padded room. You're then greeted by a disembodied, Russian-sounding voice that orders you through a training course tutorial. Here, with melodramatic camp, he'll instruct you on how to use a garrote to strangle a dummy, drone on about the origins and technical specs of the AK-47, and largely annoy you. Oddly, your character never once stops to ask where he is, why he has a bar code on the back of his head, or who this talkative Russian is who's ordering him about. The main hint about the hit man's origins is a vague, uninformed, and potentially insulting introduction in the manual that compares science and religion and hints at Frankenstein-like attempts to outdo nature. The predictable truth about the hit man's origins is eventually revealed as you progress through the game.
As you immediately learn in the tutorial mission, controlling the hit man can be a real chore. Your crosshair changes based on the weapon type you're holding, and it also changes when you move it over an object you can manipulate. When you right-click on the object, a pop-up menu lists your available options. So, with a dead body, for instance, you can drag it away from the scene to prevent suspicion, or you can don its clothes for a disguise. This system is clever in theory but annoying in practice, since you'll often click on an object and nothing will happen. But then you'll move the crosshair slightly, and then it suddenly works. Another control problem is actually in the lack of control on certain occasions. Instead of manually climbing or jumping at particular times, the hit man will automatically carry out those actions when at a junction that allows it, though you can only guess which those are. At other occasions, you'll inexplicably be able to climb ladders manually. What's even more surprising, given that the game emphasizes stealth, is that you can't go prone to hide or snipe. You'll also get frustrated at the frequency with which the hit man gets snagged on doors, chairs, and other objects.
What really impedes control is the use of a third-person view. You can switch between two external camera views, but both are jerky and awkward. In the default view, movement and exploration inside buildings can be very frustrating as ceilings and walls sometimes partially block your view. A third-person view such as this doesn't work well in a game that requires situational awareness, stealth, and accurate aiming. The only time you get a first-person view is when sniping or using binoculars.
Once done with the tutorial, you begin the main missions, in which you carry out hits for "The Agency." Succeed, and you'll earn more money with which to buy new weapons and gear, though it's unclear why this agency that dictates your fate can't afford to just give you the weapons you need. You'll typically earn more than enough money to buy whatever you need regardless, which makes it a moot point. Then again, without the money there's no initial motivation to actually follow your orders. You don't know whom you're working for, why, or what would happen if you didn't obey - though you eventually do find out.
The game is divided into chapters of multiple, related missions. These take place in exotic locales across the globe: You'll instigate a war between Chinese Triad gangs in Hong Kong; take out a drug lord deep in the rainforests of Columbia; stop a terrorist who plans to detonate a bomb at a world-peace conference in Budapest; and prevent a Russian gunrunner from selling nuclear weapons secrets in Rotterdam. Unfortunately, the gameplay is more frustrating than fun. In addition to the awkward controls and the camera's tendency of getting in the way, scripted cutscenes will begin at seemingly random moments, more often than not at the worst junctures, such as in the middle of a firefight. Your heads-up display constantly updates you with messages about enemies' status, so you'll know when one of them has discovered the body of a friend and is now alerted to something suspicious. How you can know the status of multiple enemies who are out of view is also never justified.
For a game that lavishes so much attention on weapons in the training mission, this lack of realism is surprising. A sniper rifle can kill with one shot, but it can take five or six hits from a pistol or submachine gun to knock someone down. The hit man can also lug around two submachine guns, with one in his hand and one hidden in his suit coat, along with multiple pistols, ammo, and other assorted gear. He's more of a one-man army than he is a sly assassin. Although, in some missions, you'll definitely need all the firepower, as you'll have to take on a score or more of guards. You'll get the sense that the game can't decide whether it's a shooter or a more tactical "sneaker," reminiscent of Thief: The Dark Project.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Covert Ops Essentials

Essentials is a stand-alone Rainbow Six product that's half Rogue Spear mission pack and half civil service test simulator.

As soon as Red Storm announced that it was working on a new entry in its Rainbow Six series, the Internet was abuzz with speculation. Could the game's title possibly be longer than the one used for Red Storm's last product, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear Mission Pack: Urban Operations? Sadly, the answer is no. Compared to that game, Red Storm's newest product, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Covert Ops Essentials, is downright tongue-tied. Unfortunately, it has more serious problems than its title. Essentials is a stand-alone Rainbow Six product that's half Rogue Spear mission pack and half civil service test simulator.
In case you think you misread the last part of that last sentence, here it is again: one half of Essentials is a simulation of taking a civil service test. If you're the type of person who wants his Rainbow Six performance tests to take the form of shooting Tangos and not actually, say, taking a test, feel free to skip down a few paragraphs. For all the rest, it seems like kind of a waste to review this part of the game. If you're aching for the heartbreak and triumph of participating in a civil service exam but lack the courage to actually take one, you don't have a whole lot of other choices. In fact, you don't have any other choices. You should run - in a snake pattern - to your local software store and buy Covert Ops Essentials.
But read this first. Essentials includes a CD full of information about the history of counterterrorist agencies, operations, and equipment. After studying it all, you can play the role of any of the Rainbow Six agents and take a series of fictional multiple-choice Rainbow Six entry exams. In some sense, it's not a horrible idea. There's a lot of information included, and most of it is well written. The problem is that Red Storm decided to create its own interface for the project. What it came up with looks like a "futuristic" interface as envisioned by a Hollywood special effects person in 1980. It includes plenty of arcane, unlabeled icons, menus shaped like rotating spheres, and lots and lots of scrolling green text on a black background - just the way people who have never actually used a computer often imagine computer interfaces will someday look like. It's neither attractive nor functional.
Interface enhancements that exist in the real world are simply ignored in the informational segment of Covert Ops Essentials. For instance, even though there's a huge amount of information to wade through, the developers neglected to include any kind of hyperlink feature. If you see a topic that you'd like to read more about, or if you remember seeing something you want to get back to, you'll have tough luck finding it. While there is a search feature, it's useless to the point of being absurd. Every article appears to have only a handful of keywords associated with it, and the multimedia clips don't have any. For example, the disc includes footage of a 1970 airline hijacking in Amman, Jordan, but neither "Amman" nor "Jordan" will jog the program's memory enough to make it cough up a link to the clip. It should also be mentioned that the escape key, kind of the cornerstone of modern interface design, does absolutely nothing in Essentials. Add in some periodic crashes, and you end up with some potentially interesting information organized and presented so poorly that it's rendered useless.
That leaves the second disc, which, according to the box, includes nine new missions. This is only technically true. What's actually included are three new single-player missions and six very small training missions. The three single-player missions are all of high quality. The first one takes place in a jungle. It is the hardest of the three and is made harder by the fact that camouflage hides the terrorists but grants you no reciprocal benefit - they can pick you off as if you're wearing neon-orange hunting gear. The next two missions take place in an Arctic research station and a missile silo in North Dakota. Both are also well done, though much easier than the jungle level.
No new weapons are included, the enemy artificial intelligence has not been improved, and the Rogue Spear graphics engine has not been enhanced. The only feature carried over from the Urban Operations mission pack is the excellent defend mode, but it's available on only three of the nine maps.
Red Storm announced recently that it would finally release the Rogue Spear map-making tools this November. This means that in the coming months, the active Rogue Spear mod community will start distributing custom maps free of charge, thereby significantly lessening the value of new, officially released Rogue Spear levels. Red Storm's newest Rainbow Six game is a full-priced product, but it contains little more than three decent maps and a mess of unusable information. Therefore, Essentials is anything but.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Rogue Spear: Black Thorn

It's a solid but unremarkable addition to the aging tactical shooter.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Rogue Spear: Black Thorn Review

It's a solid but unremarkable addition to the aging tactical shooter.

As Rogue Spear expansion packs go, Black Thorn isn't quite as good as last year's Urban Operations. It offers neither as many new features nor as many maps. On the other hand--and ignoring for a second the clear measuring implications of GameSpot's ten-point rating system--it's immeasurably better than last year's other Rogue Spear expansion pack/civil service test simulator, the utterly misguided Covert Operations. If you've been waiting for that one extra element to finally draw you in to the Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear experience, Black Thorn isn't it. It's a solid but unremarkable addition to the aging tactical shooter.

The new levels in Black Thorn are good enough, but nothing special.

Like Covert Operations, Black Thorn is a stand-alone product priced as an expansion. It can be played either by itself or as an Urban Operations mod. The best feature of Urban Operations, its custom mission generator, has been included in Black Thorn. Though it offers no new game types, the six standards--assault, lone wolf, terrorist hunt, hostage rescue, recon, and the very tense and fun defend--are all there. And unlike in Urban Ops, each of the 15 maps in Black Thorn supports all six gameplay modes.
Unless you were paying a lot of attention to the manual and the opening movie, the previous installments of Rogue Spear all shared the same story: something about you rescuing hostages from various exotic locations such as, say, Belize. Black Thorn continues the tradition of having an irrelevant plot that's buried deep in the mission-briefing subscreens. The story is completely optional, and you can successfully navigate the single-player campaign without having any real idea what exactly is motivating your squad at any given moment.
Ten missions were originally planned for Black Thorn, but one that took place on a hijacked jet was cut at the last minute in deference to the September 11 attacks. At this point, Rogue Spear levels have settled into a pleasant groove, and the nine included in Black Thorn are all professional but generally unsurprising. Here's a list of the environments, in case one setting really strikes your fancy: Japanese embassy, cruise ship, African village, jungle camp, hospital, train station, bus station, convention center, hotel.
In the campaign mode, eight of the nine missions are pretty straightforward hostage rescues. The African village mission breaks form a little and involves your having to reach an elevated position to destroy a bus before it leaves the city. The entire campaign can be finished in a few hours, especially if you don't try a lot of different plans. The custom mission generator, however, gives the single-player game a lot of longevity.
Ten new real-world weapons have been added to the Rogue Spear arsenal, but, seriously, who cares? That was a test: If you're mad about the "who cares" part and appreciate the differences between the 9mm MP5 PDW SMG, the 9mm TMP SMG, and the 9mm M12 SMG, you should probably get your car keys right now and just go buy Black Thorn. No other series models weapons as accurately as Rogue Spear, but it's often at the cost of making the weapons virtually indistinguishable from one another to anyone but hard-core enthusiasts.

Only hard-core Rogue Spear players should apply.

Six multiplayer-only maps are packaged with Black Thorn: an Alaskan depot, a junkyard, a city street, a terrorist camp, an office complex, and a Japanese pagoda. As usual, the single-player maps can be used in multiplayer as well. A new multiplayer version of lone wolf has also been implemented. In it, one player is "it," and the rest of the players must hunt him. The player who kills the lone wolf then takes his place. Even though it's a gameplay mode that's been available for a while as a mod, it's a lot of fun, and formalizing it means there'll be more people playing it online. Playing over Microsoft's Zone is still an option, though the default server browser is now Ubi Soft's own free player-matching service, Ubi.com. The new service is slick and appears to work well, and there are already a lot of people playing Black Thorn, which means you shouldn't have a hard time finding a game.
There isn't much to say about the graphics. The flat look of the outdoor environments and the very obvious, very square skyboxes tend to give the impression that you're rescuing hostages from a museum diorama. Like the methods of team Rainbow Six itself, the graphics may not be pretty, but they get the job done. In fact, the same can be said of Black Thorn in general. It's a well-made but entirely prosaic map pack.