So what makes this game so great compared to the others? Well I think the main thing has to be that it’s so unique. When LEGO Star Wars first came out it was brilliant because the concept of going around a venue blowing things up and collecting studs was new. However as the years progressed the concept gradually became duller until many people found it simply aggravating. Not much had been done to improve this feature in previous games which is why many people including me found games such as LEGO Indiana Jones boring, up to the point where when LEGO Batman came out I couldn’t even face purchasing it. Of course a huge factor is whether you like what the game is based on. I could play LEGO Star Wars for a long time as I like it whereas some people who don’t like Star Wars wouldn’t be able to play it.

The Harry Potter series however is one of the most successful and highly rated series of the decade. But if the game is just about blowing lego up again then surely it couldn’t be very interesting could it? Well actually it could! You see what Traveller’s Tales have done is continue the series from a new angle. Yes you have to blow up lego pieces to be a “True Wizard” but the number of different ways you can choose to blow them up is large.

Lego Studs are unsurprisingly a massive part of the game and return in the usual silver, gold, blue and purple colours. You can collect studs by blowing objects up with your wand by using different spells. This is where things get interesting. There are a huge amount of spells in the game such as Wingardium Leviosa, Expelliarmus, Stupefy and even Avada Kedavra. You see much like how not all objects could be destroyed using the force in LEGO Star Wars (Shiny objects) not all can be in LEGO Harry Potter by using the standard spell. Some must be targeting them and using Wingardium Leviosa while some such as plants can be removed by simply shining Lumos as them! The game may be a lot more technical than previous ones in the series but for this it is a lot more fun.

Making a new addition to the series out Hogwarts Crests: just as Hogwarts School is split into four houses (Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin) there are four crest pieces to be collected in each level. But unlike Minikits in previous games which you could just find laying around these crests are much harder to find, most crests can only be found in free play mode. Another new feature to the series are the “Students in Peril”. You’ll find a student in “peril” in every level and if you manage to save them you are rewarded with a gold brick.

As with previous games gold bricks are used to unlock rewards and bonus content with a total of 120 possible gold brick to be found throughout the game. Red bricks can also be found throughout the game but are much tougher to get. Not only do you have to find a red brick you then have to post it using the nearest owl post. This can be of a certain benefit however because if you see an owl post on your travels you can take a well educated guess that there is a red brick somewhere to be found.

Unlike the other games in the series this game is not just made up of chapters for you to play in. In fact a large proportion of the game is spent in the Hogwarts grounds themselves. Between chapters you participate in lessons. Although these may seem pointless at first they are infect very significant as in these lessons you learn new spells and magical abilities which without you wouldn’t be able to progress throughout the game. For example remember the scene in the second film with all of the pixies? Perfect time to learn the new spell Immobulus wouldn’t you agree?

Diagon Alley also plays an important role in the game. Think of it as the Cantina in LEGO Star Wars or as the University in LEGO Indiana Jones. It basically contains all of the shops you need to purchase new spells, costumes, characters and even the opportunity to build your own level. You may remember the lego builder from LEGO Indiana Jones 2, its great fun for a while but it’s puzzling why the developers are still including this feature without any option to upload them to a server and to download other players’ creations.

One final thing that should be mentioned is the lego building capacity of the game. No longer do you need to use your hands to build lego bricks where you can instead use magic. That’s not all though. There are a few puzzles where you have to actually move lego bricks around and stack them to be able to reach higher levels. These puzzles are both challenging and fun which makes the game that much more different.

Overall although the amount of spells can be a bit alarming once you get used to it you’ve got a heck of a game in your hands! I would give it a rating of 85%.

Before I go on to that part of the game however lets focus on the other more familiar points of the game. Starting with controls it’s nice to see the game has gone back to using the four strong grapple routine which hasn’t been seen since Smackdown Vs Raw 2007. No more annoying ultimate control moves that don’t work … although there are a couple still there – but it’s nice to have a few included. I find that the controls are altogether more fluent and there are some new ones as well such as a strong strike for superstars with that ability.

Another thing that has dramatically changed for the first time in the series (including the Smackdown! series before that) is the HUD. Instead of the familiar display in the top left hand corner (if your player 1) you instead get a ring around your superstars feet. There is I feel advantages and disadvantages to this. The disadvantage is you lose the image of your opponent’s body saying if his head if red, orange, yellow etc however I suppose this makes the game more life like. The great advantage comes with the Royal Rumble. Before you could only have six superstars at a time because only six could fit on the screen. However now because the HUD is on the floor you can have more than six making the Royal Rumble seem more real. You can also unfortunately no longer store finishers (except in the Royal Rumble) but this is only a minor fault.

Onto the game modes the popular ‘Road to Wrestlemania’ mode is back with 6 new superstars. You can play as Shawn Michaels, Edge, Randy Orton, Mickie James or even your created superstar! There’s also a special co-op one (which can be done singularly) with John Cena and Triple H. Each of the 6 options offer the final 13 weeks before Wrestlemania. In the co-op mode you even get to play more than 13 matches, sometimes having to do a match at Raw and one at Smackdown in the same week.

Another thing that has grown since Smackdown Vs Raw 2009 is the abilities. There are now more than ever and nearly all of them have been revamped. There are a total of 21 abilities including some familiar ones such as: Kip-Up, Referee Shield and Possum Pin. There are also some new ones such as: Ring Escape, Fired Up and Exploder TB Attack.

The most impressive thing in the game which will give it a lifetime of playing has to be the WWE Story Designer. Well there is a slight lie. The main part of the infinite lifetime is being able to upload it online and then download other peoples and play them. Unfortunately this is only available on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. Anyway as you can imagine you design stories. Think of it as creating a show for Raw, Smackdown or ECW. There are set moments in which you can change the superstars involved, add music, change the camera and even input the text. Unfortunately the superstars don’t read aloud the text but that would be impossible anyway. Maybe in a couple of year’s time it will be possible, but not yet. Regardless of that the story designer is still brilliant. You could re-enact the ‘Monday Night Wars’ between WCW and WWF, you could re-enact DX ruining Mr.McMahon’s life. You could even create something completely different such as … DX taking over WWE – well that wouldn’t be new but it would be funny.

With the set moments you can also add matches. When you play the story you play the matches as well. As designer of the story though you get to choose who the player will play as. Who will win, how one superstar will lose etc. Basically you control everything. There is a slight downside to the owners of the PS3 and Xbox 360 as there always is on brilliant ideas. If you were thinking of making a story with your created wrestler I would advise strongly against because it’s just not possible. There is a limit to how many scenes your CAW can be in and the answer is a pathetic 10. You can’t even make a decent rivalry with that many scenes. If you thinking why not make 10 identical CAWS don’t think you can have them in 100 scenes. It’s not 10 scenes per CAW it’s 10 scenes overall which means you could only have a maximum of 10 different CAWS in 1 scene each.

Another new create mode is that you can create up to 3 different attires for your wrestlers. Even for the normal wrestlers. On top of this there are more moves in the create a finisher mode and of course the popular highlight reel is back. You can even use it create a entrance movie for your superstar (you even get a trophy/achievement for doing it).

One last thing that should be said is the new matches available. The Royal Rumble although not a new match has been upgraded. Instead of only having the annoying button mashing mini game there are now two extra ones. It all depends on where you have the superstar you want to chuck out. If they are lying on the apron you have to press any button to try and stop the moving gauge in the ever shrinking blue area twice before the blue area vanishes. If they are groggy against the ropes you must rapidly press buttons but there is a skill involved. You press certain buttons at certain times. Lastly if there in the corner then you mist press three buttons that appear on the screen quicker than your opponent in a row to eliminate them. The other new match in the game is the Championship Scramble match which has the same concept as the elimination chamber (except without the chamber and the elimination), basically whoever pinned a superstar last at the end of the time limit wins the championship.

Overall this game rates well above its predecessor. I would give it 94%.

Now the fourth Harry Potter game was completely rubbish. It was a totally different gameplay to the other games and the age rating (7+) probably should have been more like 7, because it seemed like the game was made for seven year olds. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on the other hand is a lot better. It’s a 7+ again but in this game it doesn’t matter what age you are, you will still enjoy … unless of course you utterly despise Harry Potter but why would you be reading this if you did?

The style of the game is what people call a “sandbox”. Just like games such as GTA it basically means you can go pretty much anyone and do things in your own order, within a certain boundary. An example of this in the game is when you have to collect all of the members of Dumbledore’s Army. The game doesn’t tell you what order you must collect them, so you can go in any order you wish. Another brilliant thing in this game which we have just seen recently in the Sims 3 is that there are no loading screens. The whole of the Hogwarts School and grounds are loaded all the time. You don’t even get a slight pause as you go from one area to the next, it runs very smoothly.

One of the main features of this game is the spells. Owners of a Wii will have more fun casting spells in the game as they simply swish the wii remote in a certain direction to cast that spell. However don’t think if you own a Playstation 3 you are missing out on much, because you also do it on the PS3. You have two options … you can either cast spells by using the right analog stick or you can enable the motion sensitivity function and move the whole Playstation 3 controller to cast the spell. So really with the Playstation 3 version you are getting better graphics than the Wii and also the same motion control. If you’re lucky enough to own both the Wii and Playstation 3 you’ll probably better buying on the PS3.

As you walk around the grounds you will notice that there are quite a few things not quite right: such as paintings on the floor and statues covered up by curtains. You can use your spells on these objects and earn discovery points which in turn make your spells stronger. Another thing in the game is the portraits. As with the film and book versions all portraits need passwords and you need to find out what they are. It’s no use searching for them on the internet because you can’t type them in. The portraits give you clues as to what they are … some even just tell you the password straight away.

One of the unfortunate disadvantages of this game is that is quite short. Although saying that if you don’t rush through it you will find it will take quite a while to get 100% on the game. Many people say they complete this game within an hour. I can tell you that it is completely impossible to do that even if you’re on the easiest difficulty. If you’re on normal difficulty and play it at a steady pace this game should last you at least for over 10 hours … and that for a game is actually quite reasonable.

I think overall this game is very good … although non Harry Potter fans wouldn’t think it was as good as I’m saying. In conclusion buy this game only if you’re either a Harry Potter fan or you like a good RPG game because it is very good. I would rate it 88%

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This year this has been dropped which makes the matches a bit fairer and certainly more challenging which is a good thing, unless your rubbish at it! Instead of the diving this has been replaced by the staggering option which to be honest isn’t that good either. Basically your person just hits the ball with the racquet and then staggers for what seems like eternity. During that time all the other person has to do is hit the ball the other side and there will be a small chance you will hit it – if you do you will simply stagger again and then the match will probably be over. Although it may be a bit better than the diving option it is still horrible. Maybe if there was a little stagger that would be fine but it lasts for so long that as soon as you’ve done it you already know you’ve lost.

Anyway now for some positive points about the game! This game involves the new world tour and online ranking system. Which is good, quite an improvement over the last game. What happens is that you start ranked 100 in the amateur league and you have to work your way up by winning tournaments. Quite simple enough and also as you play people with a lower rank their skill is increased so you’ll eventually face tougher opponents. You can also go online and vs other people which can be fun, especially if you win!

The game features over 20 of the worlds top players including three legends. As well as that there are some new minigames as well as some of the previous ones from Virtua Tennis 3. There are many new courts and you have more control over how your player looks.

I think this game is mainly for tennis fans and quite obviously people who don’t like tennis are not going to be very interested. Also if you get the Wii version you can play it with the new Wii MotionPlus which gives you more control over your swings.

A good game overall although one that will only appeal to tennis fans. I would give it a ranking of 8.4

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This game has more matches, more special features and more … moves than any of the previous wrestling games and I’m talking about that on all consoles not just the Wii. 24/7 mode in the previous game is replaced by the “Road to Wrestlemania” mode which is outstanding. The only downside is that there are only 7 superstars you can choose from: Triple H; John Cena; CM Punk; The Undertaker, Batista, Rey Mysterio and Chris Jericho. However each superstar has a unique story mode which has cut scenes and storylines made especially for the superstar. For the first time ever there is a co-op story mode with Mysterio and Batista so you can play two players.

Another new mode which replaces the highly criticised GM mode is the Career Mode. In this mode you selected your chosen superstar (even created ones) and play matches to get to the championships. It is very strategy based because you have to try to get a good rating from each of your matches. To achieve a high rating you have to complete little mini-missions such as “use your finisher 4 times” or “taunt 8 times” etc.

One of the best features about this game has to be the “Create-A-Finisher” mode where you go really in-depth into the making of a move. However unfortunately this is not available on the Wii or DS versions of the game.

But the Wii version makes up for that a lot! New to any wrestling game made and exclusive to the Wii version is the entrance. As your superstar is waking in you can get him to raise his arm, taunt the crowd etc while walking in to the ring. A good point for this is that it’s not just a part of the game that means nothing, the more taunts you do the higher momentum you start off with when the match begins. The best part though is the ending of the match. You can pick the person up and go to shake his hand and then knock him out. You can get the referee to lift your arm up and then hit him as well!

The new matches available in the game are great. Inferno matches, gauntlet matches and for the Wii … well normal matches! The wii has over 4 times as many matches as it did last year which seems a lot but remember it only had like 7 matches. Some matches have been readjusted, especially the tag team ones. The main focus for the game is on tag-teams and so the matches have been re-done. New things such as “hot-tags” and even new strategies for the computer players have made the tag team matches brilliant.

Online play is also available for the PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii version as well as voice chat being enabled on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. The best thing about this is that there will be plenty of downloadable content available which will keep the game from being out-dated.

Overall I think that this game has thoroughly improved on the last version, especially for the Wii console. Which is why I’m giving it a 91% overall rating.

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The concept of the game is based around the World War II period and you will be fighting a lot of Japanese fighters. The main story is split in to two parts. The first part is focusing on the Marine Raiders which are the Americans in which you face the Japanese at the end of the Second World War The second part of the story is you playing as the Red Army which are the Russians. In this story you face against Nazi Germany set in the same time period as the previous story.

That however is what is in the single player mode. Another mode which I will mention first is that of co-op mode which is offline. The difference between multiplayer mode and co-op mode is that you play multiplayer mode with people on different consoles, while on co-op mode you play with people on the same console. So in co-op mode you and your friends can play through missions or other types of games which are really fun. There’s capture the flag, free for all and team death match just to name a few. However one bad thing about this game which I was really let down with is the same thing that I was disappointed with on Call of Duty 4. The fact that there is no online co-op mode. So if you want to play online with your friends its one player only which is too bad, if this was an option then this game could score maximum points.

The multiplayer mode is also really good in the game but like I pointed out earlier is a let down because there is no co-op online mode. In multiplayer mode you can do pretty much all the stuff you can do in co-op mode except that it’s online with other people instead of people on your console. My experience of multiplayer mode is okay but in my opinion it’s not brilliant. To be honest in some cases I found co-op mode being better. It’s good to get a microphone so you can talk to other people online which is cool … if it worked brilliantly. Unfortunately for me it did not, not because I can’t install anything or it was faulty because it wasn’t. The problem is Call of Duty is quite a noisy game and so when you’re concentrating hard on the game and you can faintly hear the other players talking … even when your headphones are turned right up. A brilliant game that uses online speaking greatly has to be Halo 3. The words other people speak are so clear you can hear them fine. I wish I could say the same for this game.

I’d like to point out that although many places point out there is online co-op mode it is not that which I am talking about. They are talking about 4 players on different consoles playing online which is what I have said about as multiplayer. The 4 player co-op mode I am talking about is actually 4 people on the same console playing online together with other people on different consoles in a match.

I would also like to say that the Playstation 2 version is slightly different from the other versions in the fact that it also features an additional story line which involves you taking control of the British.

Overall I think that this is still a brilliant game it’s just a shame about the co-op. 9.4 rating!

But in my opinion ONM couldn’t be more wrong. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is one of the best games to come out on the Wii (I haven’t played it on any other console yet so I can’t say its better on it). The major downside on the Wii is the graphics are a lot worse than the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3’s graphics. On top of that from pictures taken they looked like they would be rubbish. I don’t where they took those pictures from but this game has the best graphics I have seen for any game on the Nintendo Wii. 10/10 for what the Wii is capable of.

So why buy the Nintendo Wii version if you have multiple consoles. I’ll tell you why because the game’s duel mode is exclusive to the wii. The only two player option of the game and it is only on the Nintendo Wii. You get to be well over 20 different characters which you will know from the 6 episodes (and some that aren’t in the episodes); there are characters such as Darth Maul, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Luke Skywalker and others such as Darth Vader. Each character has 4 “abilities”: Lightsaber power, Force Lightning, Force Grip and Force Push. Each character then has either very high, high, medium or low for each ability. So the secret apprentice for example has medium on all 4 abilities.

Is the game good? Yes! A lot of people say that the story is a bit short. So? Maybe it is shorter than other games but it still goes on for hours and hours. Besides you can replay the story again and again and again, well you will get bored eventually but repeating once or twice is fun. There is a very controversial part of this game. If you are a hardcore game you will not like it, if however you’re just playing the game to have fun then you won’t mind, and if you are rubbish at the game then you will think of it as a lifesaver. When you die you start when you died and everyone you had killed are still dead! This is a bit of a let down but it is very handy at times. So you could just go charging into a room wipe half of the people out, die and then go back in a kill everyone else. But what is the point in doing that, would you do in a game where if you die you start again? No, so pretend you do that and don’t take advantage of the games “It doesn’t matter if I die”.

On top of that you can pick up lightsaber colour crystals lightsaber technique crystals and lightsaber hilts in every mission. This is quite a challenge and as well as that you can find all of the holocrons scattered around each level. Although all the holocrons do is unlock concept art for the game it still isn’t as bad as people make it out to be. It’s quite fun trying to hunt for all the holocrons.

The game plot takes place between episodes 3 and 4 after order 66 has been given. You are Darth Vader’s secret apprentice and together you will defeat the emperor and rule the galaxy! Well that’s what Darth Vader wants anyway you however will get the choice to decide throughout the game. The games levels and storyline are truly excellent. I mean Star Wars Battlefront II was brilliant but I think this game might be even better.

If that isn’t enough already for you to get this game (if you don’t already have it) then all you have to do is think of the Wii Remote. You get to control your lightsaber in your right hand with the wii remote and the force in your left hand with the nunchuk. It is spectacular swinging your remote down and killing a stormtrooper and then turning around and electrocuting them with bolts of lightning. So as you may have guessed when you swing the wii remote down your lightsaber goes down etc. With the nunchuk you can control lightning by pressing “c”, choking by pressing “z” and you can even force push by simply pushing the nunchuk forward like you are actually doing it.

One of the most difficult things in the game is probably learning all of the cool new moves you can master when killing enemies. That is why one of the most handiest things in the game is having the tutorial for all the moves. In the tutorial you don’t just get told how to do the move, you actually do the move (and the game won’t move on unless you complete the move!).

I can’t believe that reviews such as IGN and ONM have rated the game so low than what it is actually worth to be honest; I’m giving it a rating of 9.5/10

Mario & Sonic at the Olympics game is a brilliant game but I wanted to buy a less cartoon approach just like what they have done in Beijing 2008. So I searched everywhere and I finally found a game which I believed had it. Summer Athletics which is for the Nintendo Wii, (it’s also on the Xbox 360 which annoyed me as the Xbox already has an Olympic game). Well when I said I found a game I mean a game. Just one …no more. The trailer looked good so I thought I would give it a shot.

After playing it for 10 minutes I realised that I had wasted my £25. Although don’t take that the wrong way, this game is reasonably good …. it’s not rubbish … but it’s not great. I’ve carried on playing it for a couple of days and I still have the same opinion as I had before. This game is no where near as good as Mario and Sonic which really annoys me because that means that there will not be a proper Olympic game on the Nintendo Wii.

This game has quite a lot of the events that are on at the real Olympics and I was very excited because the Mario and Sonic game really made sure that athletic games on the Wii are brilliant. This game is just a massive let down. Some of the controls don’t even work and some will break your controller. I start with the good points though.

Hmmm … the games graphics are actually pretty good for the Wii; I think that is one of the games strong points. The multiplayer mode is probably the best part of the game but again that isn’t great. I can’t really think of anymore brilliant points about the game except for the fact that you’re giving your arms a lot of exercise.

Now for the bad points … where can I begin? One thing that really annoys me is the fact that sometimes after an event when you have to press “A” to move on it doesn’t work. You’ll spend 30 seconds repeatedly pressing the “A” button before it actually works. One event that will break the controller is swimming. The developers of this game haven’t really thought about the controls at all. For example backstroke; you have to move the nunchuk and wii remote backwards in a circular motion, easy right? Wrong! It won’t work which means you’ll try faster and faster, then because the nunchuk has a wire you’ll find yourself getting wrapped around the wire and if you don’t stop I suspect you’ll break the wire.

Another bad point is the cycling event. If you can actually win this please tell me because I can’t! The stamina runs out too quickly and before you know it your well behind the rest of the group. Many events such as the long jump have rubbish instructions, it says: “Move the wii remote and nunchuk slowly at first and then speed up gradually until you get to the fastest speed” Does it think the long jump is going to consist of you running up for two minutes or something? So you start of slowly and then speed up, then you go as fast as you can, how far does the speed go up? About 4/20 of the way. So you decide to go as fast as you can straight from the beginning, now how far? 2/20, this game gets 4/10 for control.

The game is okay the diving is an excellent part of the game which I enjoy so if you’re not that worried about buying a game that isn’t brilliant give it a go. However if you are then I would recommend that instead you buy Mario & Sonic at the Olympic games (unless you already have it) or even buy a new game that’s coming out such as Star Wars: The Force Unleashed which comes out in September. To be honest 5 words DO NOT BUY THIS GAME it really is rubbish when I think about it. A very poor 3.5/10

Battalion Wars II (The Sequel to Battalion Wars – which was on the Nintendo Gamecube) is bigger and better than the previous game in many different ways. This game is by far a third person shooter game and a definite must by for all the strategist people out there. I myself love strategy games and this one has to be one of the best out there. If you new to the whole Nintendo Wars Series (like me) then you won’t have a clue what this game is about, except for the slight hint at the name suggesting its to do with a “war”.

For everyone who doesn’t know, and for a reminder for the people who do, this game is a all out strategy war game which you, the commanding officer, take control of your team and neutralise/defeat the other team in a series of attacks. This game is not like some war games (for example Battleships) where you take turns in attacking, no this game is a real time game so everything happens at the pace you would expect it to happen. A lot of real-time games are exceedingly difficult because you have to think of your feet and one decision could mean victory or certain defeat. Battalion Wars II is no different but it is for this reason why Battalion Wars II is such a great game!

I myself had never played this game before until a few days ago and I must admit that although the instruction booklet shows you the controls very well it is still difficult to understand them if you have never played the game before. So how can you learn how to play? Easy, a tutorial. In my opinion a game is a lot easier and better to play if it has a tutorial (with a few exceptions). So the first mission in the game and you moving around with a handy person telling you what to do and when to do it.

The game consists of 6 nations who are at war and you take it in turns to control each one. When I first bought this game I was entirely sure whether it would be great or not. A lot of strategy war games consist of you having a birds-eye view of the game and telling each person to do this and do that. With respect that is a good game to play and is enjoyable. However the most exciting type of game you can play is when you actually control a person and any person yourself. This is exactly what this game does, and it does it brilliantly.

So instead of telling your fighter planes to move this way you can actually control a fighter plane and dodge the incoming missiles by doing a barrel roll using the wii remote and nunchuk. This is the type of game that the Nintendo Wii really brings the best of as you can’t get as much into the action as this on another console. Would you rather swing the wii remote and nunchuk to dodge missiles or would you rather press a button to do it for you? I know which one I would prefer.

Anyway back to the game there are overall 22 units that you can control, unless there are any secret ones that I don’t know about. There are 6 infantry units, 6 ground vehicle units, 5 air units and 5 naval units. I will go more into the different types of units in a later review. Each unit has its strong points and its weak points. For example Anti-Air veterans are very effective against enemy aircraft while they are not very effective against ground targets. So your not going to use them to shoot at tanks you leave that to the Bazooka veterans.

This is really where the game using your strategy skills to the limit. One wrong move and your dead, you failed the mission. While landing the right move at the right turn will result in certain victory. At the end of each mission you will receive a grade. A “S” a “A” a “B” or a “C”. “S” being for Superb, meaning that you have “Extraordinary valour and strategic genius”. “A” means “You have demonstrated top flight commanding skills”. “B” is “Awarded for solid, respectable performance in the field”. While “C” is for “Success, but at what price? Consider using Tactics”.

To get these ranks there are 3 criteria which you get a mark out of 100 for. Those 3 are power, speed and technique. Power is how many enemies you have destroyed and how many secondary objectives you have completed. So if you did all of it you would get 100%. Speed is how swiftly you completed the mission objectives. Each mission has a certain time which you must beat to get 100% if you go over it you score will start to decrease, you might even get 0%! Technique is how well you protected/preserved your units. So if no-one on your team was killed you could get 100%.

After you have completed story mode the game is not over! There is an online play as well which means you can play with friends and other people in co-op games, assault games and skirmish games. Co-op games involve you with your friend/other person working together to complete objectives. Assault is when you have to complete objectives on your own, while skirmish is basically killing everything and everyone in sight! I expect most people will be favoured by that last option.

Overall this game is a must buy for …. anyone really! I rate this game 9.5!

For more reviews on Battalion Wars II visit Test Freaks

This game features all of the previous 3 Indiana Jones films, and of course like the previous 3 lego games this game adds a sense of comedy to the 3 films. You can control a number of characters which are all made out of lego! The main character of course being Indiana Jones himself.

With the 3 films in the game all of them are split into 6 chapters. In each chapter you have to progress the end while along the way finding Lego Studs, Artifact Pieces, Parcels and various other equipment ranging from guns to spades. The Lego Studs are just the same as in the other games where silver studs are worth 10 studs, gold studs are worth 100 studs, blue studs are worth 1,000 studs and purple studs are worth 10,000 studs. You must find a certain number of studs to get “True Adventurer” in each level. Artifact Pieces are just like Lego Canisters/Minikits in the previous games. There are 10 in each level which you have to find and some will be in hard-to-reach places where only certain characters can get to. Parcels on the other hand and much rarer than artifact pieces and are similar to the red power bricks in other games. There is only 1 in each level, once found you then have to find a post-box to mail it back to Barnett College.

There are over 80 characters in Lego Indiana Jones and most of them have some type of special ability, of course some have none. There are a total of 9 types of special abilities, which I will go into in another review. However I will tell you all 9 of them. They are: The Academic Ability, The Enemy Disguise Ability, The Excavate Ability, The Explosion Ability, The Glass-Shattering Ability, The Repair Ability, The Super Jump Ability, The Tiny Size Ability and the Thuggee Chant Ability.

However unfortunately some characters also have fears. These fears will stop the character from advancing any further. Indiana Jones for example has a fear of snakes. So when ever he comes across a snake (which you will) he stops dead and won’t get any closer. You have to get another character to hit the snake before you can advance any further, unless you want to leave Indiana Jones there on his own. Other characters have fears of spiders etc.

The game play in Indiana Jones is very fulfilling and very enjoyable. This is the type of game where it is quite difficult to get bored (unless you have a small attention span). Each area is unique to each other so you will never find yourself in the same area twice (unless you play in the same area for free play).

Just like the previous lego games you first have to do story mode for each chapter. Then after you have done story mode for that chapter you can advance to free play, In free play you will be able to go back and get things you missed as you can also play as any character you wish. There are no more limitations and there is likely to be many artifact pieces that you have missed along your journey, you must collect them to get 100% in the game.

I think that overall this is a well balanced game and that a score of 8.9 should be awarded to it.

For more reviews on Lego Indiana Jones visit Test Freaks