GRcade

EDIT: Thanks to RetroEd, who posted these scores on rllmuk

Stupidly early this month.

Cover - 2009 Nintendo spectacular; the 100+ games for the year ahead

DSi mega playtest

Scores - Wii

Sonic Unleashed - 58
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World - 81
Skate It - 46
Hasbro Family Game Night - 54
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa - 52
Castlevania Judgement - 28
Brothers in Arms: Double Time - 49
Facebreaker - 57
TNA Impact! - 23

DS

Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon - 83
Real Football 2009 - 72
Tony Hawk's Motion/Hue Pixel Painter - 35
Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades - 75

WiiWare

World of Goo - 5
Alien Crush Returns - 2
Brain Challenge - 1
Art Style Cubello - 4

Reviews Roundup

Need for Speed Undercover (DS) - 54
Zoo Hospital (Wii/DS) - 57
Baby Life (DS) - 42
101 in 1: Explosive Megamix (DS) - 60
Star Wars The Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance (DS) - 54
Skate It (DS) - 75
Professor Heinz Wolff's Gravity (DS) - 50
Igor: The Game (DS) - 35

The Golden Mario Awards

Multiplayer Game of the Year - Mario Kart Wii
Best Box Art Design - Wii Music
Most Odious 'Casual' Game - Action Girlz Racing
Best Use of Nintendo Technology - Boom Blox
One to Watch for 2009 - MadWorld
Best Storyline - Phonix Wright: Trials & Tribulations
Most Offensive Game Character - Funky Kong
Best Game Character - Travis Touchdown
Best Supporting Character - The Gods from Okami
Best Soundtrack - Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Best Voice Acting - Bully: Scholarship Edition
Best Graphics - Wario Land: The Shake Dimension
Virtual Console GotY - Super Mario RPG
WiiWare Goty - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
Wii Import GotY - Fatal Frame IV
DS Import GotY - Rhythm Tengoku Gold
Best Licensed Game - Lego Batman
Worst Licensed Game - The Incredible Hulk DS
NGamer Forumite's Wii GotY - Super Smash Bros. Brawl
NGamer Forumite's DS GotY - The World Ends With You
Biggest Disappointment - Samba De Amigo
Shoddiest DS GotY - Road to Vegas
Shoddiest Wii GotY - Ninja Reflex

Ultimate DS Game of the Year (followed by five highly recommended) - Professor Layton & The Curious Village

Civ Revolution
Advance Wars: Dark COnflict
The World Ends With You
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
Bangai-O Spirits

Ultimate Wii Game of the Year (followed by five highly recommended) - Mario Kart Wii

Okami
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Boom Blox
Zack & Wiki
No More Heroes

It's a weird one. It seems people were expecting different things. It's had two (well, three, with the GamesTM one) very positive reviews and quite a few bad ones. Clearly a bit Marmite.

Even Nintendo's own magazines think their games are gooseberry fool

I came on here to put this thread up, but notice that Canton has already pasted my thread from RLLMUK. Why you little...

A fairly packed issue this month. This months gift is another glow in the dark Wiimote cover for those interested, next month is a stress relief mushroom keyring.

TNA Impact! - 23

OMG, the Wii version manages to be even worse than the already terrible next gen versions! Christ. Midway, be gone with you.

To be fair though, EVERYTHING third party seems to be gooseberry fool on Wii. This month.

NickSCFC wrote:Even Nintendo's own magazines think their games are gooseberry fool

Except NGamer is an independent magazine and not owned by Nintendo in any form, so it isn't really their 'own' magazine.

RetroEd wrote:I came on here to put this thread up, but notice that Canton has already pasted my thread from RLLMUK. Why you little...

Shame on you, canton

NickSCFC wrote:Even Nintendo's own magazines think their games are gooseberry fool

Except there are no Nintendo games reviewed this month, apart from Art Style Cubello and that gets 4/5. And it's an independent publication, too. Well done, though, for such a breathtakingly thoughtful and erudite post.

RetroEd wrote:I came on here to put this thread up, but notice that Canton has already pasted my thread from RLLMUK. Why you little...

In my defence, I added the score for Real Football 2009 and emboldened some bits. And I did actually post the scores on rllmuk myself, then deleted my thread immediately when I saw you'd done the same. Because you already had the info down, I copy-pasted yours because in between deleting that thread and coming on GRCade I cut some text from a blog post I was making and so couldn't copy-paste my own version.

But yeah, I'll edit the first post accordingly.

HoHoHo of Canton wrote:Most Odious 'Casual' Game - Action Girlz Racing

I can't be the only one who thinks that the inclusion of this award is genius.

What's the other format versions of Sonic Unleashed get (score-wise?)

I thought it was widely acceptable as above average game? Or is it just for the Wii version?

I've never thought that Sega would actually get worse...

The best award is the 'Hitler Mii Award for Most Offensive Game Character'.

Or the 'Crikey, Gary Oldman's Doing a Lot of Games These Days Award for Best Voice Acting'.

Is Nick Ellis still editor? Probably secretly wishes he was still on Xbox World playing decent games.

Or on OPS2. Playing...Medal of Honor Rising Sun.

What? It was one of those 'specialist' jokes only about 2 people understand...

Yeah, Ellis is still Editor.

I was only jesting, Canton. Notice the smilies? Don't take it to heart. But yeah, the original thread is here.

The 2009 preview is decent, 28 pages of new stuff. A lot of which looks pretty good.

HoHoHo of Canton wrote:The best award is the 'Hitler Mii Award for Most Offensive Game Character'.

Or the 'Crikey, Gary Oldman's Doing a Lot of Games These Days Award for Best Voice Acting'.

Who won those?

KKLEIN wrote:Is Nick Ellis still editor? Probably secretly wishes he was still on Xbox World playing decent games.

Or on OPS2. Playing...Medal of Honor Rising Sun.

What? It was one of those 'specialist' jokes only about 2 people understand...

And it depresses me that I'm one of them.

Could someone explain why these games are rated out of...5 (I'm guessing here, they can't all be rubbish) yet everything else is in percentages?

World of Goo - 5
Alien Crush Returns - 2
Brain Challenge - 1
Art Style Cubello - 4

As a fine publication once wrote (about 50 times...):

Why on earth does the videogames industry use a percentage as its standard grading system? It's ludicrous to encumber yourself with a rating of such magnitude that it seems impossible to award the ultimate mark of 100 per cent to any game you ever come across, no matter how good it is. We'll happily award Final Fantasy & Half Life the 10/10 they deserve, because they are games you must play.

A percentage gives the impression of an exact science, but you can't tell us that when a mag awards Croc 83 per cent for sound, it's because the staff writer has sat in a sound-proof booth ticking through a list of 300 questions before applying some complex mathematical formula. We mark games out of 10. It isn't an exact science, but then it doesn't pretend to be. And it enables us to award games a perfect mark without too much heartache.

RetroEd wrote:I was only jesting, Canton. Notice the smilies? Don't take it to heart.

Wasn't, chap. Just 'splaining meself, like. I probably went into more detail than necessary so you thought I had the hump, but really I've got more important things to concern myself with than that. Besides, I'm happy to give you credit, as it saved me a fair bit more typing.