Author: Frederick Badlissi

  • Review: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD (Sony PlayStation 3)

    Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD Genre: Arcade-sports Developer: Robomodo Publisher: Activision Release Date: 08/28/2012 For anybody that hasn’t played any of the original four Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater titles, the following paragraphs might read with a shinier veneer of nostalgia than expected for a ‘modern’ video game review. For this reviewer, commenting on Tony Hawk’s…

  • Ikari III: The Rescue (Sony PS3/PSP)

    Ikari III: The Rescue Developer: G1M2 Publisher: SNK Playmore Genre: Action Release Date: 04/23/2012 First, let it be known that the internet is a truly wondrous invention. Without it, we wouldn’t have many of the modern conveniences we take for granted today. Whereas one would have to talk to an actual human being at a…

  • Review: Cubixx HD (Sony PS3)

    Can cubes in HD really comprise a good puzzle game?

  • Review: Samurai Shodown Anthology (PS2)

    Samurai Shodown Anthology (PS2) Developer: SNK (Parts 1 through 4), Yuki Enterprise (5) and SNK Playmore (6). Opening sequence and navigation shell by SNK Playmore. Publisher: SNK Playmore Genre: 2D Fighting Release Date: 3/24/2009

  • Review: M&Ms Adventure (Nintendo Wii)

    M&Ms Adventure Genre: Platformer Developer: Nikitova Games Publisher: Zoo Games Release Date: 11/12/2008

  • Review: Puzzler Collection (Nintendo Wii)

    Puzzler Collection Genre: Puzzle Developer: Route 1 Games Publisher: Zoo Interactive Release Date: 08/05/2008

  • Review: World War 2: Road to Victory (PC)

    World War 2: Road to Victory Genre: Turn-based Strategy Developer: IQ Software Publisher: Matrix Publishing, LLC Release Date: 07/24/08 After spending some time with the strategy behemoth that is World War 2: Road to Victory (henceforth referenced as RtV), I find myself walking away from the game with a mix of emotions for a remarkably…

  • Staff Bio Week 9: Frederick Badlissi

    Name: Fred Badlissi Nicknames: …they exist. Inquire within. Location: Austin, TX Three Favorite Genres: At the moment… 2D Fighters Light Gun games. Anything with RPG elements outside of traditional RPGs Three Favorite Games Samurai Shodown 2 (Neo Geo) Dr. Mario (NES) Legacy of Kain: Defiance (XBOX) Favorite Console: Sega Saturn Other Places Writing Can be…

  • Review: Microsoft Solitaire (PC)

    One day, a Microsoft intern by the name of Wes Cherry was in a deadlock with other Microsoft programmers and designers. Mr. Cherry, who had been an avid fan of things like “logic” and “compensation,” was commissioned to create a game that would be marketed along Minesweeper and a promising new game called Microsoft Excel.…

  • Interview: Genesis Rising (DreamCatcher Games and Metamorf Studios)

    Wowzers. Upon reading that response to the final question, you could imagine the skepticism running through my mind. “…the single greatest contribution to the good of mankind since HR GEIGER played Starcraft.” That’s a hell of a mountain to surmount. In a world where people contend with broken promises left and right, you might be…

  • Review: Rise of the Kasai (PS2)

    Rise of the Kasai Platform: PS2 Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Developer: Bottlerocket Entertainment Rating: Mature Release Date: 4/5/2005 OK. So, first off the bat, I’ve got to apologize for quite possibly getting that asinine commercial for Coke with Lime stuck in your head. At this very moment, I’m mustering every neuron in my head to…

  • Review: Fight Night Round 2 (PS2)

    Fight Night Round 2 Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: EA Chicago Genre: Sports/Fighting Release Date: 03-01-2005 Once upon a time, there was a barbaric sport that was enjoyed the small and rich elite of society. Entrepreneurs, who operated as either single persons or collaboratively in syndicates, did their best to recruit the strong and the gullible…

  • Review: Star Wars: Republic Commando (XB, PC)

    Star Wars: Republic Commando Developer: LucasArts Publisher: LucasArts Genre: First Person Shooter Release Date: 2/25/2005 Well, if you look at Dictionary.com’s 2nd definition of ‘synergism,’ you might almost think that LucasArts tried to do: “The doctrine that individual salvation is achieved through a combination of human will and divine grace.” Taking one part ‘human will’…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 02.09.04

    Dateline: Some random place on the West coast that I call home. (Hint: it’s namesake is that of the high school that calls Charlie Sheen alumni!) In the midst of organized chaos that endlessly placates itself across the urban sprawling condo wasteland, there sat three gamers. In the daytime, their dispositions are varied: an entrepreneur…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 02.03.04

    Ha ha! the ‘big game’! Be it the specter of responsibly, or my utter disdain for ethnic-food shaped balls, the semi-conscious abdication of my cultural duties as a US citizen felt good. Yeah- that’s right. Rather than watching Janet Jackson get exposed via Mr. Timberlake’s slick moves, I spent my day translating Arabic paragraphs having…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 01.26.04

    “Da, da, da, da-daaaa da-da, do-Do DO-DO(?) Do-DO!” Hell- I was thinking of making that the teaser of the column, but after careful and lengthily thought (read: 2-3 seconds), I realized that the propensity for a visual transcription would have been futile. You know, futile! Like trying to take Rob Schneider seriously in a role…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 01.19.04

    And to think! you nearly pulled one over me, Namco. So infinitely close, yet a decade later and no cigar! Kudos to you indeed. Took me a while, it did- more than ten years to be exact! But your quirky opus involving your, mine, and Jay Sherman’s favorite video game mascot Pac-Man held within it’s…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 01.05.03

    Damnit Eidos, it could have been perfect. So perfect, in fact, that I wouldn’t have to spend an entire column on the mixed blessing that has been Legacy of Kain: Defiance. “Mixed, you say? But why, LOK devotee?” Well you see, respective heads of Eidos and Crystal Dynamics, over my precious winter break, even before…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 12.15.03

    Oh man, is my head gonna roll for this one! But before I open the proverbial floodgates, leaving my feeble academia-inflicted mind open to the barrage of madness that will no doubt soon run the gamut, I must say this: outside of biological vices both chemical and bi-partite, there is no greater feeling of relief…

  • The Gamer’s Conscience 12.01.03

    Endorphins! still! in! effect! ugh! But not in nearly enough force to keep the Conscience down! Let me tell ya- when you take two sloth-breeding elements like “Thanksgiving” and a “6 Day Weekend” in a compound dose, all elements of work become non-existent. In the face of such lethargy, finals are within a mere two…