Gamertell

Title: Imagine Teacher
Price: $29.99
System(s): DS
Release Date: August 12, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Ubisoft (Magic Pockets)
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Pros: Interesting concept, nice blend of educational gaming and simulation, multiplayer option
Cons: Incredibly easy, auto save only, short main adventure, no real replay value.
Overall Score: Two thumbs sideways, 70/100, C-, ** out of 5

Occasionally, Ubisoft’s Imagine line of games for girls will result in a game that isn’t half bad. Imagine Chef and Imagine Figure Skater are two of these titles and Imagine Teacher easily joins their ranks. It’s a decent game and, if more effort had been put in, it could have become a solid title that helped redeem the Imagine line of games.

Instead, Ubisoft and Magic Pocket copped-out with Imagine Teacher. It created an admirable classroom simulation, with an inventive presentation, then decided to slack off when it came to the storyline and replay value. Instead of being a game to buy, Imagine Teacher is an adequate game to rent…

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Title: Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble!
Price: $20
System(s): PC and Mac
Release Date: July 29, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Mousechief (Mousechief)
TIGRS Rating: “Teen” for mild language, cartoon violence, suggestive themes, crass humor, alcohol reference, tobacco reference and drug reference
Pros: Innovative story, colorful characters, beautiful ambiance, intuitive controls and fun mini-games, auto save and multiple save slots.
Cons: Best played in short bursts, some boyfriends are hard to win over and new taunts can be difficult to come by.
Overall Score: Two thumbs up, 95/100, A, ****1/2 out of 5.

Dangeous High School Girls in Trouble (DHSGiT) is simply an amazing game. It is a delightful, empowering, entertaining and captivating adventure that you can play for 15 minutes or for hours. The two areas where this casual game from Mousechief really shines are the vibrant characters and the witty script, but the whole game is really just phenomenal…

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Check out the gallery: Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble

Title: Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes
Price: $4.99
System(s): iPod Nano 3G, iPod Classic and 5G iPod
Release Date: July 8, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Square Enix (Square Enix)
ESRB Rating: N/A
Pros: Multiple user profiles, uses your songs to create Tune Troopers, easy controls, auto save feature, handy tutorial
Cons: battery hog, loads of loading, small images
Overall Score: One thump up, one sideways; 80/100; B-; *** out of 5

When I first started seeing iPod games, I figured there would never be anything available beyond casual titles or puzzle games. And I was okay with that - I bought Tetris and Phase and figured I was set. And then Square Enix released Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes, a GBA quality RPG for a selection of iPods.

Song Summoner is easily the best iPod video game available through iTunes. Not only that, it shows that more advanced genres can run on this portable platform. If someone had told me a year ago that I’d be playing an affordable, strategic RPG on my iPod, I’d have called them crazy. And yet here I am and I’m loving it. 

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Title: Mass Effect
Price: $49.99
System(s): PC (Xbox 360)
Release Date: May, 28, 2007
Publisher (Developer): Microsoft (BioWare)
ESRB Rating: Mature for Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Violence
Pros: Great storyline, interactive dialogue, good character customization, great graphics, deep game play, fixed console technical issues, great interface
Cons: Too short, game play a bit slow, repeating locations, no expansion episode
Overall Score: Two Thumbs Up, 98/100, A, * * * * 1/2 Stars

With most, if not all of the major technical issues now resolved, Mass Effect for the PC is a more enjoyable experience than its Xbox 360 counterpart. While there hasn’t been much new added to the general game content, PC gamers who are new to the series will certainly want to see what last year’s hype was all about.

Click through for the full review…

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Title: Anguna: Warriors of Virtue v0.94
Price: Free ($10~15 on a cartridge)
System(s): Gameboy Advance
Release Date: July 9, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Game by Nathan Tolbert, art by Chris Hildenbrand
ESRB Rating: N/A
Pros: It’s a free, well-executed action RPG for a system which is no longer receiving commercial releases
Cons: There are no towns to visit and only five dungeons to explore.
Overall Score: One thumb up, one thumb down, 75/100, C, ** 1/2 out of 5

Anguna: Warriors of Virtue is a Legend of Zelda style RPG that simply offers an enjoyable, dungeon crawling experience. Some amazing homebrew GBA games exist on the internet and Anguna is one of them. It may not have all of the features of a full-fledged action RPG, but Nathan Tolbert has put together an extraordinary game that deserves a play-through. 

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Title: Pump It Up Exceed Portable
Price: $12.90 (on sale at Play-Asia - retails for $49.90)
System(s): PSP
Release Date: November 30, 2006
Publisher (Developer): Andamiro (Studio 9)
ESRB Rating: N/A
Pros: Very nice song selection, Korean or English language options, cool background videos playing while you play, online ranking and a video mode where you can just listen to the music and watch the videos.
Cons: The cool background videos are too cool, and often distracting. Also the control scheme takes getting used to and there is no auto-save function.
Overall Score: 7/10

Not too long ago, Play-Asia had a deal on a special Pump It Up bundle, where you’d receive both Pump It Up: Exceed Portable and Pump It Up: Zero Portable for $19.99. Of course I jumped on the deal, and upon receiving my shipment decided I’d dedicate a column to reviewing one of the games.

The Pump It Up games are similar to Dance Dance Revolution, except they have five markers to hit instead of four. This makes the PSP version a bit more difficult, as you would imagine. It also requires a bit of an inventive control scheme to make the whole thing work, as the game involves diagonal arrows facing UP+LEFT, UP+RIGHT, DOWN+LEFT, DOWN+RIGHT, along with a center square/circle thing…

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Title: Rondo of Swords
Price: $29.99
System(s): Nintendo DS
Release Date: April, 15, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Atlus (Success)
ESRB Rating: “Everyone 10+” for animated blood, fantasy violence, language and mild suggestive themes.
Pros: Good graphics, extremely challenging and great touch screen controls.
Cons: Incredibly difficult, cliched plot elements and characters and too few healing opportunities.
Overall Score: Two thumbs sideways; 70/100; C-; * * out of 5.

Rondo of Swords left me feeling sad and disappointed. I love Atlus games, and religiously purchase most of the company’s titles. I was excited for Rondo when I stumbled on announcements online. However the finished product doesn’t live up to the imagined glory. I thought it was going to be a fresh approach to strategic rpgs, with new battle systems and elements. Instead I embarked on a quest like countless others, with characters I had seen before in Fire Emblem and Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones…

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Dr. Tanya Byron, a clinical psychologist, who is heading an independent review into the ill effects of games and internet on kids, published a report on Thursday (March 27, 2008). In the report titled “Safer Children in a Digital World” she has made several recommendations regarding children’s safety in cyberspace and ways to keep them away from adult content.

She has recommended greater cohesion between the UK government, game industry and parents, and also prescribed a greater role for the British Board of Film Classification in assigning ratings to the game. She wants BBFC to assign rating to all games 12 and above…

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Title: Soma Bringer
Price: $48.90
System(s): Nintendo DS
Release Date: 2/28/08
Publisher (Developer): Nintendo (Monolith Soft)
ESRB Rating: N/A

Soma Bringer is an interesting effort from Nintendo and Monolith Soft. It basically is everything that people wanted Children of Mana for the DS to be. Its a fairly straightforward action/rpg/dungeon crawler with the primary focus on customizing characters and providing an effortless battle experience.

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Title: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Price: $39.99
System(s): PSP
Release Date: 3/25/08
Publisher (Developer): Square Enix (Square Enix)
ESRB Rating: “T” for blood, mild language, mild suggestive themes and violence
Pros: Interesting storyline, gorgeous graphics, great FMVs, lots of character cameos, bonus missions for fun and profit, lots of spiffy summons, smooth battle commands and short loading times.
Cons: For the first 2-3 hrs the path is too straightforward and the fixed camera in battle can screw you up.
Overall Score: 9/10

Many people are of the mind that a classic video game shouldn’t have spin-offs which tarnish the memory of the original. These people might avoid Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII for fear that it can not compete with the original. The thing is, Crisis Core can stand on its own as an individual. It certainly helps if you played and loved the original Final Fantasy VII, but it isn’t necessary to enjoy this incredible PSP game.

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