Monthly Game Smackdown: January 2010
Welcome to the first Monthly Game Smackdown! The MGS is a battle between four games that we have either started and not felt like finishing, aren’t shiny new anymore, or for some other reason, are laying about waiting to be played. In the first week of the MGS, each of our contending games will be played for an hour. On every Monday I’ll eliminate and discuss the least fun of the previous week until only one stands victorious (or at least interesting and fun enough to play for 4 hours in a month).
Game #1
- HISTORY Great Empires: Rome (DS)
- Reviewer Bias: neutral
“Conquer the World! History™ – Great Empires: Rome is a classic, turn-based strategy game for the Nintendo DS™. Take on the role of an Emperor, and guide your fledgling nation to greatness. You are destined to become the ruler of the known world, but you’ll have to employ subtle diplomacy, economic might, and the sword to topple competing governments and tribes. Capture cities, build buildings, and collect resources strategically to raise the strongest army. Oversee battles with hundreds of troops, like the famed legionnaires.”
Game #2
- Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters (PSP)
- Reviewer Bias: neutral
“While on a much needed vacation, Ratchet and Clank’s rest and relaxation time is suddenly cut short as they soon find themselves lured into a mysterious quest. Following the trail of a kidnapped girl, Ratchet and Clank rediscover a forgotten race of genius inventors known as the Technomites. They soon uncover a plot more dangerous than they could have imagined.”
Game #3
- Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships (PC)
- Reviewer Bias: neutral
“Fortune and glory awaits you! Destiny awaits you, but destiny though is what you make it…! Start your buccaneering career by choosing to go it alone and become the most feared pirate on the seven seas or prove your loyalty and take the coin of one of four different navies; French, English, Spanish or Dutch. Sail the high seas as a swashbuckling dread pirate or as a dashing naval captain. Explore strange new countries and undiscovered civilizations, raid and plunder merchant ships, fortified ports and cities. But beware, the dead do not sleep easy, and in the dark South American jungles myth and reality intertwine. Solve the ancient mysteries of a vanishing tribe, cross swords with the most notorious swashbucklers ever to sail the ocean blue and make sure that no foe ever sets foot on land again.”
Game #4
- Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising (PC)
- Reviewer Bias: neutral
“What happened in the aftermath of Red Alert 3? Find out in FOUR all-new campaigns in Red Alert 3: Uprising. With the Allies triumphant at the end of Red Alert 3, the occupation of their former enemies territories has begun. But how will the defeated Soviets react to this occupation and the presence of FutureTech, the mysterious company contracted by the Allies to develop new technologies in the Soviets homeland? How will the humiliated Empire of the Rising Sun rise up and defend itself against the former Soviet commanders who have invaded their territory in a post-war land grab? How will the Allied occupational forces quash the uprising of the former Imperial commanders? And who is the mysterious Yuriko Omega? What events led her to become the telekinetic, psychic school girl?”