The Settlers Online starts out familiarly for anyone who’s played a Settlers PC game. You begin with an untouched, newly found piece of land. The Mayor’s House has already been built, presumably with resources brought across on the boats. The first thing you need is wood, so you build a fir wood cutter to start cutting down trees. Next you build a sawmill to convert the logs into planks that can be used to build with. You’ll also need to build a forester to ensure you don’t completely use up the forest without replanting. Each of these buildings takes a few minutes to build so you can do quite a bit of waiting around as they complete. If you want to you can pay 2 crystal to complete each building instantaneously. Crystal can be bought with real currency, so this is how the free-to-play game is intending to extract revenue from players.

Continue reading El33tonline’s hands-on preview of The Settlers Online.

Pokémon Rumble was a game released on WiiWare in November 2009, a very simple action-RPG where your toy Pokémon brawled other toy Pokémon and was criticised for being short on content. Super Pokémon Rumble for the 3DS addresses this, but the main gameplay mechanics are too thin to last any reasonable length of time. The game is fun for a few hours but soon becomes tedious.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Super Pokémon Rumble.

The fourth and final game in the Professor Layton series for the Nintendo DS maintains the same high quality of the previous three. They’ve almost become an end-of-year institution, and I for one really enjoy my annual Layton adventure with brain-tickling puzzles.

The story of the Spectre’s Call takes place a number of years before the story of the Curious Village, in the days before Luke became Layton’s apprentice. So this time we are treated to a new apprentice character, the light-hearted Emmy Altava. She joins him as his apprentice just as he’s on his way to Misthallery after a mysterious letter from an old friend.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Professor Layton and the Spectre’s Call.

Although every one is different and some will appeal to you more than others, it is almost a given that console based The Legend of Zelda games will be a contender for Game of the Year. Skyward Sword is no different in that. It is different to other 3D Zelda games in many ways, but not in fundamental formula, gameplay quality and that elusive atmosphere factor.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

The first thing you notice about Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Wireless Speed Wheel is the build quality and aesthetics. This is a controller that looks stylish and feels great in your hands. Putting in the batteries is another reminder of the attention to detail that went into the design: press in a little switch and out pops a cover for a compartment that holds two batteries at 90 degrees to each other. This is a bit strange but it works exceptionally well. Everything slots back into place and you wouldn’t even know the battery compartment is there without looking very closely.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of the Xbox 360 Wireless Speed Wheel.

With the Nintendo DS library winding up there’s only a few recent games to recommend, so I’ve combined the DS and 3DS buyer’s guide. If you only own a 3DS don’t forget that you have access to the massive DS library!

Other than the games mentioned here I don’t think the 3DS has built up enough must-have titles to warrant a list for it so I’ve only listed some must-have DS titles.

Continue reading this El33tonline editorial, El33tonline’s 3DS and DS Buyer’s Guide for Holiday 2011.

Another Nintendo console, another Mario Kart. Ever since the SNES this has been one of the most anticipated series every time Nintendo release a new console. Why is this? Perhaps because there is only one game in the series for each console, perhaps because the quality of the series is kept very high, perhaps because it’s one of the best multiplayer titles Nintendo make. But mostly because it is fun. Like the Mario games it’s inspired by, Mario Kart is as light-hearted as gaming can get and reminds us that games are all about fun. Jesse Schell in “The Art of Game Design” proposed a definition of fun as “pleasure with surprises.” By that definition Mario Kart 7, like all the Mario Kart games before it, is above all else, fun.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Mario Kart 7.

I’m going to limit this list to just six games because the Wii just doesn’t get that many top-notch titles these days. For the budget conscious I recommend the Wii’s Select Range – a set of great games for R250 each.

For those looking for something new, here are my recommendations.

Continue reading this El33tonline Editorial, El33tonline’s Wii Buyer’s Guide for Holiday 2011.

What’s better than one Kirby, the pink ball-shaped character we know and love? 10 Kirby’s of course! The Kirby and Donkey Kong series seem to be Nintendo’s testing grounds for new gameplay ideas and the recent Kirby experiments, Kirby Power Paintbrush and Kirby’s Epic Yarn, have both been a huge success in my eyes. Kirby Mass Attack is equally as fun, if not quite as sizeable as those two games, and if you like the character, or if you like puzzle platforming games and don’t mind (or revel in) cuteness and charming sprite animation, you will find entertainment here.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Kirby Mass Attack.

James Noir’s Hollywood Crimes 3D is an enjoyable puzzle game a la Professor Layton in an unfortunately B-grade wrapping. With enough budget and a few more unique puzzle types it might give the Layton series some competition. As is it may provide fun puzzle solving challenges, but the poor production values take the whole experience down a notch.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of James Noir’s Hollywood Crimes 3D.

If you have a Tetris-shaped whole in your 3DS library then this game will fit it perfectly. It’s a high-quality Tetris game with lots of modes, robust online play and eight player local wireless play with a single cart. It doesn’t have the great puzzle modes that Tetris DS had or the fun Nintendo mascot stylings, but it does have a varied selection of modes including local download play and, of course, 3D eye-candy.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Tetris.

It’s surprising it took this long for a game like Go Vacation to come out for the Wii, but I’m glad it finally has. At last a third party studio, Namco Bandai in this case, has created a game that is aimed squarely at the Wii Sports/Wii Sports Resort market with a budget somewhere near what Nintendo puts into their family games. The result is a mini-game collection with impressive scope, a lot of content and superb packaging holding all the activities together.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Go Vacation.

It is a fact of the videogaming world that the worst Mario games are still top tier games when compared to everything else. And fortunately Super Mario 3D Land is not one of the worst Mario games, it’s one of the better ones. Which is to say it’s one of the most fun games I’ve played this year. Ever inventive and laser-focused on providing fun and surprises for the player, Super Mario 3D Land is a must-own title for the 3DS.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Super Mario 3D Land.

I have very fond memories of university holidays playing Heroes of Might and Magic II and III, and whenever a new game comes out in the series I take note because perhaps this time they will hit that formula again in a fresh way with a game that involves exploration, strategy and awesome fantasy battles.

Black Hole Entertainment seems to have done this with Might & Magic: Heroes VI. It’s not perfect. There aren’t enough factions, no town screens, not enough skirmish maps and more than a few bugs, but it’s a very entertaining strategy RPG. Just, as before, be prepared to put aside entire weeks to play through it. Like Civilization, this is one time-sink of a game series.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Might & Magic Heroes VI.

Forza Motorsport 4 is superb - if you like racing simulators you should go out and buy it the minute you can afford it. It has all the bells and whistles you might want to tweak your car’s parts and settings, but they’re well hidden so as a person who just loves the on-the-track part of racing you’ll simply enjoy yourself without all that technical stuff.

Top quality graphics, lots of content, tight controls (depending on your car of course) and lots of difficulty settings make Forza Motorsport 4 great value for your money and a racing game worth investing your time into.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Forza Motorsport 4.