Geek Culture Reviews

Mario takes the fight to Bowser in the skies above the Mushroom Kingdom... Much like the vast majority of the places visited in the Super Mario video games - Bowser's Airship is pretty memorable. From its first appearance within Super Mario Bros. 3 , Bowser has often taken the kidnapped Princess Peach for a ride across the skies on this gargantuan sky-boat as Mario tackles the Koopalings - in their miniature airships below. Now, this fearsome sight has arrived in the world of LEGO Super Mario as the already expansive LEGO experience gets a whole new expansion.  Unlike traditional LEGO sets, the Super Mario range all features a modular design. This is so you can customise your Mario experience in any way that you see fit. While other sets such as 'Mario's house & Yoshi aim to expand your experience, there are others - like ' Bowser's Castle Boss Battle ' that act as an endpoint. When it comes to ' Bowser's Airship ' it's neith...

Star Fox...or is it Starwing? Star Fox   or Starwing as it's known in the UK was Nintendo's answer to having a 16-bit shooter... in 3D! Utilising a fancy named graphics chip - Super FX - Star Fox was not only the second 3D Nintendo title (the first being  X on the Game Boy) - but also the first to use polygonal graphics. While Star Fox may have been groundbreaking in 1993, does its graphics and gameplay still hold up 29-years later?  Straight from its title scrawl, you know that Star Fox is going to be unique. Set to the beat of an incredible 16-bit ensemble, a trio of starfighters scream across the darkness. No sooner have they made their appearance, they're soon destroyed by a gorgeous array of lasers as an ominous polygonal shape looms into view. It's from this point that you know this currently unknown enemy means business.  While the opening introduction plays homage to that scene in Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope , for Star Fox...

Re:play - Episode #2 - Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition... Xenoblade Chronicles originally came out on the Nintendo Wii way back in 2011. This humble open-world JRPG pushed the Wii to its limits and made great use of the consoles motion controls. Fast-forward to 2015 and the title was re-released onto the Nintendo New 3DS as Xenoblade Chronicles 3D . Not willing to let sleeping God's lie, Nintendo has ported the game once again. This time onto its hybrid handheld as  Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.  What makes this version of the game different is that it runs at a higher resolution than the Wii and 3DS could ever handle, and also features an extra campaign that takes place after the main story. The core experience of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition  is identical to the Wii and 3DS versions in terms of story and gameplay. The story is of two warring races fighting on the bodies of two gigantic beings – locked in place after their ba...

Rob reviews Metroid Dread on Nintendo Switch... MercurySteam is no stranger when it comes to intergalactic bounty hunter - Samus Arran. Back in 2017, the development team gave us the sublime 3DS Metroid II remake - Metroid: Samus Returns , and after nailing that adventure, Nintendo have given the team another shot of that Metroid glory. This time around things take a more "original" approach as we catch up with Samus at the end of the journey that she started on back in 1986. There's a lot of that traditional gameplay here, with a few new (and risky) surprises. But does Metroid Dread retain the charm that originally made the series so well-loved?  Before we begin diving into the nitty-gritty, Metroid Dread is a gorgeous looking game. Considering that the game was also released at the same time as the OLED Switch, then it probably comes as no surprise. While I can't personally vouch for how the game looks on the new OLED screen - it looks great on a ...