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The original rivalry has been revived and it’s up to the player to help Mario save Pauline from the clutches of Donkey Kong once again. The mustachioed plumber usually has played the role of the hero in the past and once again takes the spotlight with his army of mini-Marios. In my case, I’d rather play the role of Donkey Kong snatching the damsel away and keeping Mario away, but alas, that isn’t what is offered in Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem.

What Mini-Land Mayhem does well is continue to introduce new puzzle-solving elements in succession throughout the stages. Starting out with the red girders and eventually learning how to implement blue ladders, the obstacles are often easy to solve and overcome. At the very least, they are satisfying, so figuring out that one green pipe needed to be deactivated while another needed to be active for mini-Toad to reach his exit door was a worthwhile experience.

In total, there are eight levels with eight levels within them before a boss battle (against Donkey Kong, of course) is met. Each level has collectibles such as letters that spell out mini-Mario to unlock a mini-game, gold coins, and a few useable items such as hammers to hit Circus Kong (toy Donkey Kong) and other gorilla robots out of the way. Once the Normal Mode is complete and Donkey Kong is defeated at the top of an observation wheel, the Plus Mode is unlocked and players will play through the same levels again but this time they must have the mini-characters (Mario, Toad, Pauline, Donkey Kong, Princess Peach) enter the exit door in the correct order.

It’s safe to say that Mini-Land Mayhem has replay value in surplus. Special and Expert Levels can be unlocked with 10 more stages each to play and players are eligible to create their own levels through Construction Mode. The Normal Mode takes anywhere from 4-5 hours to complete depending on the skill level of the player, but it’s nowhere near as challenging as the Plus Mode or the Special and Expert Levels. It’s required to earn trophies to unlock the Expert Levels and to earn the trophies, players earn points in each stage based on the game score, time bonus and collection bonus. If players reach the goal score, they’ll earn themselves a trophy. Simple, but it’ll take a good 10 hours to earn all the trophies.

Thankfully, the controls are intuitive due to how basic they are. Tap a mini-Mario to kick-start him on his path towards the exit, drag a line between two red rivets to create a red girder or two blue rivets for a blue ladder. There’s nothing too complicated that mucks up the overall experience, but then again, it never goes above and beyond conventional puzzle standards to stand out. Want a purple conveyor to go in a different direction? Tap the arrow and, voila, it’s done.  Need to clear the path of a shy guy that stands in the way? Grab the hammer and get a whacking.

The most attractive feature of Mini-Land Mayhem happens to be the online sharing of levels. The single-player campaign does a serviceable job, but the online is where the game exceeds expectations. While it does take some time to understand what’s possible and what isn’t, the Construction Zone elevates the title to a worthy recommendation for players who want to try out their hand at creating levels. Players are eligible to save up to 160 levels to their game card, so Nintendo has provided a great chance to share expertly crafted levels with friends.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem is a quality puzzler, especially when considering the lackluster year the genre is having. The more challenging aspects take a bit to get to, but when players do reach the Plus Mode and Special Levels, it’s worth every second.

The hardships never seem to end for Kratos, an afflicted Spartan soldier turned god, who must live with the vivid memory of killing his wife and daughter. In all prior God of War titles, revenge has been the driving force, be it against Ares, the gods of Olympus, or anyone who stands in Kratos’ path. Getting on the ghost of Sparta’s bad side is a death sentence.

Ghost of Sparta takes a wildly different turn for the story. Instead of searching for a path to undue his past, Kratos learns from his mother in her dying breath that his aptly named brother, Deimos, is still alive. As usual, the gods attempt to steer Kratos away from his goal, and his unstoppable might proves too much for mortal and god alike.

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Like Bayonetta and MadWorld before it, Vanquish weaves an experience so wickedly over-the-top that if Michael Bay, John Woo, and Robert Rodriguez were melted down and rebuilt as a single sentient being, their collective minds would still be blown before the opening credits had even finished rolling. Well, perhaps not by the opening sequence as Vanquish’s story and cinematics are surprisingly dull. They border between comic book-esque absurdity and the most boring and cliched exposition on par with Hideo Kojima’s worst, and as with Bayonetta they drag on far longer than they should. As a vehicle for the action the story does a barely passable job, but you could literally interchange any character or plot point with those of a random Saturday morning cartoon, sprinkle copious amounts of the F-bomb on top, and still end up with roughly the same outcome.

When everyone finally shuts up, though, Platinum proves that awesome action and tight gameplay are truly its expertise. I can best sum up Vanquish as “Gears of War meets God Hand at x5 speed… in space”. You play some utterly forgettable tough guy doing his best (or worst?) Wolverine impression. The real star of the game is Not Wolverine’s Augmented Reality Suit, which comes equipped with jet thrusters and a shape-shifting armory of robotic death deliverance. The jets will allow you to quickly slide from cover to cover while shooting enemies in slow motion or dodging incoming rockets, and is what most differentiates Vanquish from being just another Gears of War clone (which is actually just another Kill.Switch clone, for the record).

The DARPA-developed experimental weapon system (aka “BLADE”) allows the player to carry three different guns in addition to explosive and EMP grenades. Nothing special there really, but any time one of the weapons has full ammo and the player picks up another one, that specific weapon is automatically upgraded. Unfortunately, it’s not a system that facilitates effective usage of your full arsenal; instead, I spent the entire game running around exclusively wielding my trusty HMG while never even touching my other two slots so that the respective weapons would be continuously leveled up. Annoyingly, all your hard work is erased if you replay a mission or start a new game, so it’s best to just focus on the three weapons you truly care about and completely ignore the rest.

Aside from the solid and exciting gameplay, what I really loved about Vanquish was the sense of an intense, ongoing battle between two factions. Most of the enemies are human-sized robots who will utilize the same cover you and your military comrades do but are easily felled by a quick headshot, yet there are plenty of increasingly large boss machines to contend with as well. The fact that it all takes places in an impressive space station just makes the illusion of an epic war saga that much more potent. Again, too bad the plot and canned dialogue can’t complete the package.

There’s been a lot of drama surrounding Vanquish’s alleged short play time. My first playthrough, in which I racked up 1039 kills and died seven times (as opposed to Eurogamer’s ridiculously newbish 54), took 3:52:01, according to Vanquish’s own end-game stats tracker. I doubt this tracks cutscenes, but when individual chapters can take as little as one to two minutes to complete, it’s not at all unheard of. All of this while looking for hidden statuettes and maxing out every weapon, too.

Some would look at the brevity of the experience as a negative, but Vanquish is a genuine breath of fresh air in a world choked to death by games like Fallout: New Vegas wear out their welcome long before the 50+ hours required to complete them have been met, and titles like Quantum Theory artificially expand their playtime by including one too many waves of enemies every possible chance the developers get. It’s fast, furious, and most importantly, fun. So much so that immediately after I finished the game, I started over again on a harder difficulty. Whether you rent or buy, there’s no denying that Vanquish is simply worth playing.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 is a massive leap forward for the anime-based game series, though I am not talking strictly about technology. Keeping all the variations straight can be difficult with entries from numerous developers and publishers spanning the spectrum of systems. More frustrating is that each game covers the same tired ground. Ninja Storm 2 provides the most comprehensive Naruto Shippuden experience, taking players from Naruto’s return to the end of the Pain arc.

Most Naruto games, if not all, feature a story mode. They boast of free-roaming modes, three-dimensional recreations of Konohagakure, and engaging dialogues, but such aspects are rarely more than time-killing padding between bouts. Some story modes don’t even make sense without prior knowledge of the series. Like its predecessor, which focused on the original series, Ninja Storm 2 makes a valiant effort to offer a deeper and more interactive story mode than expected. It almost succeeds.

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Games that lack challenge are often shunned and looked down upon by most gamers. These games are short, easy, and not very fun. Kirby’s Epic Yarn for the Nintendo Wii is short and easy, but don’t let those attributes fool you; this game is impressively entertaining. Despite not posing a big challenge, Kirby’s Epic Yarn manages to offer an engaging, highly delightful gameplay experience thanks to its great level design, adorable aesthetics, and Kirby’s transformations, which are now more a part of the gameplay experience than ever before.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn starts out with the titular hero minding his own business when out of nowhere he spots a Metamato. Mistaking it for a Maxim Tomato, Kirby gulps down the mystical fruit, only to discover that it belonged to Yin-Yarn, an evil sorcerer from another land. At this point, Yin-Yarn works his magic, turns Kirby into a yarn-based form of himself, and sends the vacuum-like hero to Patch Land, a world made of yarn, cloth, and patches. Here he meets Prince Fluff, who enlists Kirby’s help in restoring the land, which has been literally torn at the seams.

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