Village Gamer

This week British Columbia is celebrating the multiple sectors that make up B.C.’s vibrant and flourishing creative industry, which develops international markets, produces highly skilled and valued jobs, and attracts some of the country’s most talented workforce. Read the rest of this entry »

I freely admit that I have never played a Professor Layton title, outside of preview events held at Nintendo Canada. How ironic that the first title that I played from this popular franchise is apparently its last, and the third part of a prequel trilogy. While this may cause me to lose some of the benefits of knowing how the puzzle system has kept players engaged over the years, or how the story got to the point where it is now, it did not stop me from enjoying the game, its story or the 100+ puzzles awaiting solution. The back story is easily picked up, but I do caution that Azran Legacy is reading-intensive, so I would not recommend this title for younger children, unless they have a very good command of the written word and a penchant for solving puzzles. Read the rest of this entry »

Releasing today, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze returns fans to a world full of familiar challenges and rewards with new enemies and new abilities – and a reminder that in DK’s world, timing truly is everything. In fact, some levels in this latest iteration of the franchise bring a stark truism to the adage “he who hesitates is lost” because in some levels there really isn’t any time to look around. It took me more than a few lives to get through some levels, as the difficulty at times seemed to ramp up rather quickly – sometimes frustratingly so – but it’s also easy to rack up a healthy store of “back-up lives” in this game, so it’s all good. Read the rest of this entry »

As we head towards a new year of exciting game titles, I felt that the time has come to reveal the game that earned top spot among my favourites from 2013. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, developed by Vancouver’s Next Level Games is without any inkling of a doubt the best game I’ve put in my Nintendo 3DS to date. It literally lived in my 3DS from the day I got it until the day I had to take it out to review Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. This is one game that takes full advantage of the 3DS’ features and abilities – from beginning to end, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon is incredibly detailed, drawing the player right into the mansion. Not once did I need – or want – to turn down the 3D intensity – the game environment is simply that beautiful. Read the rest of this entry »

One of my all-time favourite game franchises is, without a doubt, The Legend of Zelda. Every new title has provided hours upon hours of digital adventure, and the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD is no different. Nintendo’s Wii U is a perfect fit for this title, and an excellent example of why the Wii U is my favourite current-gen console. Aside from the huge improvements in game graphics, audio and mechanics, there are a few subtle differences between this updated version over the original GameCube version, but that in no way detracts from the enjoyment I got in playing the HD version. Read the rest of this entry »

For such a potentially awesome game, I had a really difficult time playing The Wonderful 101, a recent release from Platinum Games and Nintendo for the Wii U.The game’s environment is very colourful and full of hiding spots for treasures, enemies and puzzles, a typical Nintendo formula. The premise of the game is that a band of unlikely heroes must save Earth and its citizens from an onslaught of giant mechanical aliens, whose name, by the way, is an acronym puzzle. Teamwork is a necessity for our heroes, as it takes their combined effort to formulate weapons and tools in order to move through the game world. True to form, each hero has his or her own super power, mundane identity and colour, a la Power Rangers – enabling our valiant fighters to form fists, bridges, swords, guns and more. Read the rest of this entry »

As veteran crime reporters, the trials and tragedy of murder, rape, and robbery are what consume Barb Pacholik and Ryan Cormier. They have come to learn what motivates criminals as well as all the grisly details that most people experience second hand on TV. New from the University of Regina Press are two new books that chronicle some of the prairie’s most notorious killers and crimes spanning the last century. From back alleys to bedrooms to the gallows, these accounts cover everything from Alberta’s largest mass execution to chilling cold cases that have dominated recent headlines. Read the rest of this entry »

In this latest Nintendo 3DS adventure, we travel along with the famous sibling plumbers on a vacation to Pi’illo Island, which of course is not the simple pleasure trip it appears to be. There are new characters and villains (along with the long-familiar ones) to chat up and combat, and as you can expect from a Mario title, there’s a healthy helping of puzzles to solve. Mario & Luigi: Dream Team is a combination of colourful 3D levels and classic 2D side-scrolling action, and in this aspect the game really does shine. There was obviously much time spent in development perfecting this new world into a place that it seems only Nintendo can produce while making full use of the 3DS’ abilities. Read the rest of this entry »

After being fired from McDonald’s as a teenager, Bruce Poon Tip decided that, to succeed in life, he would need to be self-employed. So, in 1990 he maxed-out his credit cards and started G Adventures, which he has since nurtured into the largest adventure travel company in the world, operating in more than 100 countries on all seven continents and serving more than 100,000 customers every year. In hi new book, LoopTail: How One Company Changed the World by Reinventing Busines, Bruce recounts how entrepreneurship became his own adventure and gave him the opportunity to reimagine how business is done so it would provide the same sense of fulfillment as a backpack hike through the Himalayas. Read the rest of this entry »

I have spent several “minutes” (or hours) playing the latest Nintendo title for Wii U over the past few weeks. I was given an advance copy by Nintendo – and to be completely truthful, I never played the first two titles in the franchise so I had no idea what to expect, or what improvements (if any) have advanced the game’s play and features over the previous iterations. I also had absolutely no idea how Pikmin 3 worked or what the premise was. I was also very ill-prepared for the “daily” time limit on exploration and task completion. Adding to that the fact is that we have not had a Wii U for very long, so new game, new platform – should be interesting. Read the rest of this entry »