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The Best of 1UP 2011: Reviews

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 07:05 PM PST

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The Best of 1UP 2011: Reviews

Check out some of our best reviews from the year gone by.

By: 1UP Staff December 30, 2011

1UP's long-standing goal to provide the most in-depth and thoughtful reviews on the web was thoroughly tested in 2011 by a number of big releases. This year, gamers were treated to the mature subject matter of Catherine, the seemingly never ending boundaries of Skyrim's open-ended quest system, and a barrage of HD remakes that caused us to question our rose-tinted feelings of nostalgia. Regardless of the challenge, 1UP's reviews held true to that credo, bringing you a steady stream of timely, interesting critiques. Check out our 10 best below.


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  • Jurassic Park Offers the Interactivity of a DVD Menu Screen

    This demonstrates that perhaps the biggest fans can be the harshest critics. While there are certainly incidents of a fanboy's positive bias making everything seem rosy no matter what, sometimes your love of something means that what it does wrong just hurts even more. So even though Bob Mackey is an avowed fan of developer Telltale Games, the misstep they had with Jurassic Park was big enough that even he had to warn others to pass on it.

  • Mario Kart 7 Comfortably Settles For Silver

    Given Mario Kart's multiplayer focus, we got all cute with our review format and had five staff members tackle the game. Not only did it make for one of our longest reviews of the year, but it earned hugely varied comments from readers.

  • The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword Soars, But Struggles With Its Past

    After five years without a proper console Zelda game, fans couldn't possibly rein in their anticipation over Skyward Sword. So after a half-decade of waiting and mystery, what did Nintendo give us? A flawed (though still great) game that doesn't quite meet the series' quality standard. 1UP's Jose Otero examines why this latest Zelda isn't quite up to snuff in his thoughtful review.

  • Catherine Reminds Us That Mature Content Can Sometimes Be Sincerely Mature

    The build-up leading into Catherine signaled that it was clearly a game with adults in mind. In his review, 1UP's Jeremy Parish carefully examines Atlus's puzzle game and celebrates its mature angle.

  • Aliens Infestation isn't Perfect, but It's an Essential DS Game Regardless

    1UP's Jeremy Parish examines all the reasons why Aliens Infestation is the best video game interpretation of the Alien source material yet and an essential purchase for the aging Nintendo DS.

  • Skyrim Spans 16 Square Miles of RPG Excellence

    Pehaps the most talked-about game of 2011, Skyrim surprised fans and haters alike with it's revamped quest and character class systems. In their tag-team review, 1UP's Jeremy Parish and Theirry Nguyen discuss the open-ended structure of the latest Elder Scrolls game and how it contributes to one of the most engrossing video game experiences of the year. After spending a combined total of 125 hours with Betheda's latest game, the two had plenty to say.

  • Batman: Arkham City Reaffirms Itself as The Best Superhero Game

    2011 gave us what may be the greatest superhero game of all time in Batman: Arkham City. The sentiments expressed in our review were echoed by pretty much every other gamer fortunate enough to experience Rocksteady's masterpiece. A great story, amazing combat, and copious amounts of fan-service combined to give us the game we deserve. As 1UP's Thierry Nguyen points out in his slug, it does what a great sequel should by trumping its predecessor in every way imaginable.

  • Shogun 2: Total War Makes Amends for Its Predecessor's War Crimes

    The Total War series fell on tough times a few years ago, and reviewer Tom Chick went into this game bracing himself for another disappointment. Instead, Creative Assembly surprised him and Chick makes the case in this review for what just might be the best RTS game this year.

Sonic 4's Physics "Reworked" for Episode II

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 12:51 PM PST

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II has been officially announced and is coming sometime in 2012, Sega revealed today.

In what will be a fairly lengthy wait for an episodic series (as long as we don't use Half-Life as the benchmark), Episode II will be coming more than a year after release of Episode I in 2010. Today's announcement mentions that the physics are being "completely reworked" in this new game, which is very welcome news for those who felt that particular problem plagued Episode I. The game will also see the return of Tails, as the trailer above teases in not-very-subtle fashion.

Review: Mighty Switch Force Proves the Value of Superb Level Design

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 12:19 PM PST

Six months after the launch of the Nintendo eShop, only a trickle of 3DSWare titles populate the storefront's digital shelves. I guess that's better than taking the same approach as DSiWare; Nintendo's first misstep into the world of downloadable games consisting mostly of poorly ported cell phone games and meager applications. For better or worse, the current drought of 3D downloadable games doesn't hurt the eShop thanks to the sheer variety of what's available -- gamers can choose from a selection of Virtual Console games, a few 3D Classics, DSiWare gems like Shantae: Risky's Revenge, or get their early 3DS buyer's compensation via 20 free games gifted to members of Nintendo's Ambassador program. While there's plenty to download and play, I find the limited number of games specifically designed for 3DS disturbing.

Then again, If more titles of Mighty Switch Force's caliber are the reward for patiently waiting on 3DSWare releases, consider me a changed man who's learned the value of waiting. The latest entry in developer WayForward's downloadable series of Mighty titles -- following DSiWare-only games Mighty Flip Champs and Mighty Milky Way -- Mighty Switch Force is a puzzle platformer that tasks the player with rounding up escape criminals known as the Hooligan Sisters through 16 stages (referred to in the game as "incidents"). Each level requires finding the location of all five hidden Sisters through exploration, platforming, and the use of a special switch ability: A mechanic that's signaled by a siren on protagonist Officer Patricia Wagon's hat and allows the player to switch specific blocks between the foreground and background of the stage -- creating makeshift platforms or even launch pads to help her hop to out-of-reach areas.

Avenger PR Man Becomes Cooperative After Holding Twitter, Email Accounts Hostage

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 11:43 AM PST

Paul Christoforo

The saga of the Avenger Controller and Paul Christoforo continues, although it appears to be finally headed toward a final resolution.

For those who may have missed this seemingly unbelievable story that has unfolded over the course of this final week of the year, an email chain between someone who purchased two Avenger Controllers and Paul Christoforo (pictured above), the product's now former marketing/sales/PR/customer service man, was published on Penny Arcade. In the emails Christoforo can be seen being rude, unprofessional, and unhelpful to the customer, listing off the many connections he allegedly has in the games industry and the press, and saying things like, "You just got told bitch." Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik became involved and was also the target of Christoforo's typo-laden emails at one point before Krahulik revealed himself to be the real-life version of Gabe from the comic. In other words, someone influential whom Christoforo couldn't bully.

Katamari's Vita Debut Continues to Miss the Point

Posted: 30 Dec 2011 10:00 AM PST

Remember Katamari Damacy? Remember how it caught our attention and earned our affection by being like nothing else we'd ever played? Remember how original and fresh it felt? Me, I'm having a tough time recalling. I've just spent five or six hours with Touch My Katamari for PS Vita, and suddenly those days of invention and newness feel like another lifetime.

Don't get me wrong; I still like Katamari Damacy a lot. The fundamental concept of rolling around cluttered homes and cities, agglomerating everything in sight into a massive ball of stuff to satisfy the whims of a callous cosmic monarch, is still fun. My complaint isn't with the concept at all; it's with the way Namco has done practically nothing to expand on that premise since the game's first sequel, almost seven years ago.

Posted by Shri Krishna

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