Stories by Aaron Koehn

Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood!

To the inhabitants of the Disgaea universe, the Prinny isn't a creature held in high regard. And why would it be? According to the series' mythology, these highly-combustible penguin-like creatures are what evil-doers become once they die and pass on...

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

The Legend of Zelda franchise has been a gaming staple for decades, starting with Link's glorious debut on the NES, and though the culture of gaming has undergone dramatic changes over the years, it has managed to remain relevant by staying true to i...

Cooking Mama 3: Shop and Chop

Here's a recipe for all you crazy Cooking Mama fanatics: Add one part Mama who speaks ridiculously poor English, combine with banal WarioWare-esque mini-games, add a hint of uninspired new content, and you'll make one bland serving of Cooking Mama 3:...

Rabbids Go Home

Rabbids Go Home is a very special game, and when I say special, I mean special like that kid in your second grade class who frequently took his pants off and was always eating paste. It's a game that, much like the creatures who star in it, is very d...

C.O.P. The Recruit

It's common knowledge that ex-criminals make the best cops (or C.O.P.s, which is an acronym never totally explained by the game). So when street racer Dan Miles gets arrested for, you guessed it, racing in the streets, the local police force makes a ...

Astro Boy: The Video Game

For those of you unfamiliar with the character whose name graces this video game tie-in, Astro Boy is a robot who has been imbued with the soul of a child, and who then longs to be a flesh-and-blood youth. If you're thinking that sounds awfully simil...

Deca Sports 2

More of a tech demo than a fully finished sports simulation compilation, reviewer Aaron Koehn saw Hudson's Deca Sports 2 as an excuse for the publisher to make a quick buck on the back of Nintendo's insanely popular Wii Sports franchise. Still, if yo...

Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes

If there's one gaming area where the DS's technology lends itself well, it's the puzzle genre. Due to Nintendo's touch-sensitive handheld, the genre has seen a massive resurgence, and no longer are gamers exclusively forced to listen to a Russian fol...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Arcade Attack

There are few grizzled, old gamers who don't look back fondly at the beat-'em-ups of yore. If you cite classics such as Streets of Rage and Double Dragon as favourites, you shouldn't be any stranger to roaming the streets as the Teenage Mutant Ninja ...

A Boy and His Blob

A Boy and His Blob is widely considered to be a classic but there's no denying that the gameplay was a little unwieldy and disjointed. The concept had tantalising potential though and though it took almost twenty years, it's finally being realized wi...

Beaterator

At some point in our lives, the majority of us have flirted with the fantasy of being a rock star or musician, and when our TVs show us the low calibre of contemporary musicians, it only serves to embolden our misplaced delusions (I mean, if this guy...

Spyborgs

Putting your finger on the Wii's most substantial demographic can be a difficult task. Is it mainly preferred by young children, the elderly, parents, or that often-referenced and mysterious "casual gamer"? It's this conundrum that seemed to give the...

Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny

However, the portable console with the big screen (and big heart), means to change that by bringing one of Namco's most popular fighters to its sleek and slender self. Yes, Soulcalibur returns, and this time it has left the Jedi and ex-Jedi at home i...

Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming

When you think of farming, probably the last adjective that comes to mind is frantic; but when you combine farming with Harvesting-Elves (aka Sprites), crops made of solid gold, and cowboys who pull up vegetables with lassos, the term "frantic" almos...

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite

While it's relatively unknown franchise to US gamers, the Monster Hunter series is a beast in Japan, regularly selling hundreds of thousands of copies. Freedom Unite is the latest chapter to be released here and it retains the complexity and depth th...