Want to know how to make some solid money? Trademark something, make a movie or two, create some toys out of it, then slap that trademark on a million items and you’re set! Or, maybe it’s not always that easy. It has been for Star Wars though. It’s one of the easiest brands to market. So it likely took half a second to realize there would be a Star Wars game for Kinect. And with some lengthy delays, Kinect Star ..read more

Ah, trilogies. There’s something about a three game series that will almost always guarantee that the third game will throw out all the stops. Refinements are at all time highs; what doesn’t work has been figured out. And it allows a developer to end their story and leave their gamers with a sense of satisfaction. Does BioWare give us all of that with Mass Effect 3? Well, let’s see.

Mass Effect 3 sees the final stance in the ongoing ..read more

Time to get a little bit personal.

Calling me a jaded gamer might be the most accurate assessment possible. I don’t think too much of the current state of the gaming industry. I’ve long railed against the west’s influence on things, stepping away from the diversity and direction that gaming had in the 90s and replacing it with an endless parade of soldiers, gangsters, jocks, and enough rust to give the entire global population Tetanus. In just the last few years ..read more

Developed by Housemarque in 2007, Super Stardust HD was one of the most innovative sci-fi shooting games and one of the best overall games made available in the PlayStation Network.  The game didn’t waste any time trying to tell some intergalactic nonsensical story. Instead it was simply about getting the high score and having fun doing it, and that’s what Super Stardust Delta is all about.

Super Stardust is a free roaming sci-fi shooter that plays conventionally with a ..read more

DrinkBox Studios’ blob platforming series arrived on the scene early last year with the puzzle platform Tales From Space: About a Blob. The follow-up brings the series to the Vita just in time for its launch.

Starring a new gelatinous blob, DrinkBox Studios’ Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack greatly tones down the puzzle elements that were a big part of their last game on the PS3. The puzzles that you will run into are mainly focused ..read more

Namco’s Soul franchise has developed quite a history for itself since its 1996 debut with SoulEdge. It has been an underrated PlayStation title (Soul Blade), a smash hit on the Dreamcast launch (SoulCalibur), a highly-divisive multiplatform release (SoulCalibur II), and much more. Throughout its run thus far, it has made honest efforts at allowing players to create their own fighting game characters effectively, guest-starred a range of characters from Link to KOS-MOS to Darth Vader for broader appeal, and played ..read more

The Lumines franchise has certainly established itself at this point, despite only arriving on the gaming scene relatively recently as part of the 2005 PlayStation Portable launch. It was an unlikely headliner for the system’s inaugural lineup, but it ended up winning the hearts and minds of the gaming public as a game tailor-made for what the PSP was supposed to be at the core. In the minds of many players it is the natural successor to Tetris. Although many ..read more

As long-running and robust as the Final Fantasy series has become, it certainly is fair that Square-Enix has explicitly come to consider each installment as a franchise unto itself. This way of thinking has already been put into practice numerous times, starting with Final Fantasy X-2 and the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, but also more recent examples like Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. What makes Final Fantasy XIII-2 such a different case is that XIII was built to ..read more

The King of Fighters franchise arrived in the fighting genre not long after Street Fighter II started a full-scale movement. Since then, it has represented some of the best of SNK’s fighting offerings, but long held a reputation for being “married” to the NeoGeo hardware, maintaining its 90s appearance even as franchise installments landed on other platforms like the Atomiswave. Finally, 2010 brought us The King of Fighters XII in HD for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the Taito ..read more

The release of a new gaming system on the market means a splurge of both interesting and uninteresting titles to choose from.  Little Deviants is a zany game that showcases the many features of the PlayStation Vita and is a whole lot of fun for a few hours, but after those few hours, the experiences become all too familiar.

For those fortunate few who chose to pre-order Sony’s first-edition bundle, Little Deviants was packaged in with the Vita.

The deviants ..read more

This week, BioWare provided a small treat with a taste of Mass Effect 3. We got some quality hands-on time last year during Comic Con International, but the recently released demo for Xbox 360 and PC (soon for PlayStation 3) provides a better look at what we’ll be seeing when the game releases next month.

The Mass Effect 3 demo packages together the beginning of the game and the Salarian level we previously saw at Comic Con. Feel free to pop over ..read more

With 2012 off to a good start, it’s time for us to take a look back at 2011 with our annual The Year in Screenshots feature that highlights our favorite games of the year. Rather than argue about awarding a single game as our game of the year, we here at SmashPad prefer to just tell you our 25 most favorite games of the year and give each game equal billing.

If you want a glimpse of the numbers ..read more

The vast  majority of games won’t mean much 10 years after they’ve been released. Sure, you can conjure up little used memories for a chuckle. Chances are, though, you won’t remember much. But then there are those games that are forever burned into your gaming memories. The first time you were Mario. Your first Doom kill. In this case, the time you spent blasting Covenant in Halo. Of course, Halo still resonates today because the game turned into an insanely ..read more

The Battlefield series has become one of EA’s most popular franchises, providing some of the most explosive and addictive multiplayer experiences in any shooter on the market today, rivaling even that of Call of Duty.  Battlefield 3 is no exception; marking the best entry in the series to date, DICE has gone all out to deliver a polished, one-of-a-kind multiplayer experience that you will have a hard time putting down.

Battlefield 3 is known first and foremost ..read more

Just when you think a game can’t possibly be topped, Rocksteady Studios rockets through the roof and takes off into the stars with Batman: Arkham City. The sequel to the award-winning title, Batman: Arkham Asylum, thrusts the player back into the cowl of the Dark Knight as the story continues beyond the massive destruction of the asylum. So for those who thought they actually were Batman, let’s get you out of those silly pajamas and into ..read more

Developer Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series has become Sony’s flagship franchise for its PlayStation brand of gaming entertainment systems. ”Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” received a monumental amount of success following its release in 2009, becoming Metacritic’s most critically acclaimed game of the year.  Anticipation quickly grew for the inevitable sequel.  These expectations were not in vain — Uncharted 3 is just as good, if not better, than its predecessor.

“Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception” once again puts players in the shoes ..read more

Microsoft launched their Kinect peripheral last year in hopes of broadening their user base and taking a chunk out of the Wii in sales. Though it’s debatable that the Kinect even had an impact with the year’s dip in Wii sales, what’s undeniable is the fact that the Kinect hasn’t really taken off since its release.

Dance Central has been the best game that made use of the accessory.  Harmonix has come out with the inevitable sequel, and it has replaced ..read more

Lately, there has been a great deal of rebooting, both in movies and games, and our favorite pink mascot is in no way exempt. Nintendo gave the hero a shiny new gloss and a few friends in his newest adventure on the Wii.

Kirby’s Return to Dream Land brings the puffy hero to crystal clarity on the Wii and into the hearts of generations both new and old. This title tells ..read more