While enjoying elementary school recess in the late 80′s, my friends and I played various games of the imagination, from X-Men to G.I. Joe, and from Super Heroes to Street Fighter. You have never known joy if you didn’t spend 30 minutes a day running around shouting, “HADOUKEN! NO… NO! SNAKE EYES CAN’T BLOCK A HADOUKEN WITH HIS NINJA POWERS, YOU BIG BUTTHEAD!” Now, Ubisoft’s PowerUp Heroes lets me combine my childhood imagination of Super Heroes and Street Fighter into something with tangible, visible results, and it does it splendidly. Read the full story

Do you want to know how I knew this would be a great game within minutes of starting the campaign? Allow me to paint a picture for you: it was a Monday afternoon, and the sun was bright in the sky. My wife sat on our couch with the laptop in front of her, while I was on the living room chair getting everything prepared for my first game of Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure. The Portal was set, my three Skylanders stood at attention, and voila, the game started. Mere moments into the opening scenes leading up to the first level, my wife and I suddenly turned to each other and simultaneously yelled, “SPOON!” This is how I knew that this would be a great game. Read the full story

I have a bit of a love-love relationship with NinjaBee’s games. When we first got our current Xbox 360, I was browsing through the XBL Marketplace and decided to look through the avatar games, where I found A Kingdom for Keflings. I showed my wife, we took a risk and bought some points, and had a blast. When we first heard that a sequel was being developed in A World of Keflings, our excitement was palpable, and we experienced a game improved in every way. When we saw Akimi Village at E3, my wife almost skipped other appointments to continue sitting there playing, and when we got our hands on it to review, we found that it had some really innovative advancements over the Keflings series (that hopefully will make their way into a third Keflings game one day). Now, I get to return to my World of Keflings with the newly released It Came From Outer Space DLC, and I couldn’t be happier. Well, I could be a little happier, but we’ll talk about that in a few paragraphs. Read the full story

I’ve got moves. You may hear otherwise from certain parties, but that’s just sheer jealousy and envy talking. My moves are mad dope fly, yo, and anyone who steps to me best be ready to get served, old school. I’ve got moves like Jagger. I’m too legit to quit. You ready to step up? Well, bring it on! It’s time for Dance Central 2: Electric Boogaloo, and my moves are so funky fresh they’ll make you want to slap your momma. BREAK IT DOWN. Read the full story

I am the kind of person who appreciates a good headset, especially during the peak of my work year. During the busiest time of the year for my job, I generally have to be out of bed by 5:30 in the morning so that I can get to work by 6:30. I must be quiet as a doormouse to keep from waking my wife, who generally tends to wake up grumpy (sorry, love). On occasion, I get “sick,” and have to work from home. I’ll sleep in until 6:00, then get cleaned up and head into the living room to remotely access my work computer and run my morning analyses. When I’m done, the Xbox comes on, and the gaming begins…on mute. The Tritton Detonator, an officially licensed Xbox 360 headset from MadCatz, lets me play at any volume I like without waking she-who-must-not-be-awakened. Read the full story

I am quite the dancing machine. One might even go so far as to say that I am a master…nay, LORD…of dance (just ask my wife, I’m sure she would TOTALLY confirm my claims). I like the nightlife…I like to boogie…in my living room. I have employed my vast dancing skills on various dancing games, and was very excited to hear about Just Dance 3 and the track list. Since watching the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (new, not re-runs; yeah, I liked it BEFORE syndication) back in the day, I’ve always wanted a chance to perform Sugarhill Gang’s Apache for a reason other than spontaneity. Now, with Just Dance 3, I can. Read the full story

Rugby is a hell of a sport. Whether you like it or not, you can’t help but acknowledge the sheer physical ability and talent that is required for a world-class rugby player. New Zealand based game studio Sidhe, in collaboration with rugby legend Jonah Lomu, have put their passion and effort into creating a game that helps translate the experience of rugby into a virtual world. They succeeded. Read the full story

WINNER ANNOUNCED: Robert Boyd has won the Batman: Arkham Asylum/Arkham City combo pack! Thank you all for participating, and keep your eyes open for more contests!

Today marks the release of Batman: Arkham City, the highly anticipated sequel to what some consider the best superhero game of all time (not me, but some), Arkham Asylum. Are you looking forward to getting your hands on a copy of Arkham City? How about getting your hands on a copy of Arkham City AND its predecessor, Arkham Asylum? Thanks to one of our writers, Sean, we have both games on the Xbox 360 console to give away. Winning is easy. Read the full story

Etheria’s heroes have captured the Old Ones within Etheria Cores, preventing them from spreading their evil across the lands. With the kingdom at peace, the adventurers have set off to confront other dangers, leaving their younger siblings behind to guard the realm. Through unfortunate accident, the evil hordes become aware of the Etheria Cores and begin a merciless onslaught bent on freeing the Old Ones and raining death and destruction across the world. All that stands in their way…is a group of four young adventurers-in-training, the Dungeon Defenders. Read the full story

Treasure is responsible for some of the greatest genre-defining ‘em-up games I have ever had the pleasure of playing. Radiant Silvergun was sublime. Ikaruga was a sweet, hellish nightmare…in a fantastic way. Before both of those classics became the classics they are, however, there was Guardian Heroes on the SEGA Saturn. Easily the most fun I had on a Saturn, and one of the best beat’em-ups I can recall playing in general, it has made its way to XBLA with some extra weight. Read the full story