Because Dungeon Siege is a title more widely known to PC gamers, odds are you’ve never heard of this series.  The Dungeon Siege games are known to consistently push the envelope when it comes to hack-and-slash, dungeon-crawling gameplay, and the third installment of the epic series makes a valiant attempt to bring the loot-hoarding fun to the HD console generation.  However, in doing so, the series has lost its PC identity while becoming a mediocre loot-fest on the consoles.

Not since its debut in the early 90s has the Bust-a-Move series ever released an anticipated entry.  A version of the popular puzzle series has come out on virtually every major game system since then, but the result has been the same; there hasn’t been an effort to take the game to the next level.

Starring the popular blue and green dragons Bubble and Bobble, Bust-a-Move is a puzzle game that requires players to rid the board of its ..read more

Developed by feelplus, this addition to Square Enix’s growing DLC library has received a fair amount of attention namely for being dubbed the “Strider of the 21st century.”  After quite a bit of time with the game, such a statement might need some revising even with Strider’s great Koichi Yotsui at the director’s chair.

Originally known as Necromachina, Moon Diver is an action-packed sidescrolling beat-em-up that is just about as forgiving as a dictator enforcing stupid rules.  The ..read more

When Kane & Lynch was first released a couple years ago, it was met with disappointing reviews and an onslaught of controversy.  Despite its shortcomings, IO Interactive has chosen to revisit the lives of these two mad men–this time in China.

Dog Days takes place a good amount of time after the events of Mad Men.  Kane and Lynch have parted ways, and Lynch has been living with his girlfriend Xiu in China.  Working as a vigilante, Lynch finds ..read more

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is a marvel of a game and perhaps one of the best entries in the already long-running series.  As a standalone title,  Birth By Sleep excels in giving players a glance at events leading up to the original Kingdom Hearts, as well as shed some light on various events that were only briefly talked about in each of the games.  There is something about Birth By Sleep that really sticks with you, as the three ..read more

The Dragon Quest series has been a raging hit on the Japanese shores for quite sometime.  The series is considered to be the format that most stereotypical RPG’s, Final Fantasy included, have been following to a tee.  When the much-anticipated 9th entry to the series was announced for release on the Nintendo DS, fans had mixed reactions.  Would a handheld Dragon Quest be a step down from the critically acclaimed 8th game on the PS2?

Luckily for Square Enix, the Dragon ..read more

Amidst all the hype surrounding E3 2010 are huge first party announcements.  At Microsoft, we have the Kinect along with the new and improved Xbox 360.  With Sony, we have their interesting PlayStation Move, insane exclusive content, and their new premium online service.  And with Nintendo, we got the 3DS.

But while Iwata seemed to go on and on about all the support the 3DS is getting, he didn’t seem to get in-depth with the games worth mentioning, so feast your ..read more

The Final Fantasy series is a franchise that is widely known for taking chances.  The first game in the series was essentially a last attempt at a dream to make it big in the gaming industry, hence the name Final Fantasy.  In the mid 90s, Square left Nintendo in favor of Sony’s disc-based platform, the PlayStation, and revolutionized the genre again with Final Fantasy VII, a much darker Final Fantasy title that featured 3D graphics.  Then, years later on the ..read more

Welcome to the first entry of PadSmashing, a feature on SmashPad that features our staff heading to release parties and gaming conferences across the United States for one thing and one thing only–getting down with the get down.

Our first event?  The Final Fantasy XIII Release Party at the Regency Center in San Francisco!

Just a little while ago, the highly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII arrived in western shores.  Developed and published by the RPG masters at Square Enix, the game is ..read more

We are just hours away from the release of what is probably the biggest RPG this year.  RPG enthusiasts are expecting Final Fantasy XIII to revolutionize the genre for this era.  But while reviews, including our very own, are still coming in, the fact remains that hype for this title is high.

The hype is so high that Square Enix Public Relations officials have been doing as much as they can to feed off this attention… literally.

You may have seen it ..read more

Since we are not in San Francisco for the big Nintendo Media Summit event that is going on right now, we will at least try to give you a quick summary of all of the news that is coming out of the event so you can better grasp why your spring and summer just got a lot busier.

Let’s start with third party news, shall we?

Capcom’s Monster Hunter Tri will be coming out for the Wii on April 20 ..read more

Death by Cube is yet another in a growing genre of two-stick arcade shooters in the vein of Geometry Wars. Early sneak peeks had us excited to experience more depth and story than other titles in the category, and the fact that Square Enix was the publisher behind it just made fans’ mouths water a little more in anticipation. So, is Death by Cube a resounding success worthy of its publisher’s pedigree or simply a miscarried me-too that ..read more

PopCap Games is known for making easy to pick up and play games that are very difficult to stop playing. Square Enix is a company known for making long character-driven RPGs with epic albeit somewhat clichéd storylines. Putting these two companies together on a project could yield one of the most addicting games ever created, or a muddled mess of blandness. In the case of Gyromancer the latter turns out to be the case.

At its heart Gyromancer ..read more

One of the more surprising titles released last year was an update to a timeless classic.  Space Invaders Extreme gave the old game some new life with symphonic techno beats to go along with an abstract look in order to freshen the game up for a lively and hectic experience.  With the success it had, it’s no wonder Taito has come out with a sequel so quickly, but unless you’ve never played last year’s entry—this game falls short of really ..read more