Ted from Apple Valley returns, with two mini reviews for recent XBLA releases:

Marvel vs. Capcom 2: This is a fantastic port to an amazing arcade/Dreamcast beat-em-up. A roster of fighters that will make your inner nerd cheer with glee, this great mash-up of video game and comic book icons is a ton of fun by yourself or with friends. The game looks and plays fantastic in its HD glory, and is certainly worth the $15 to download.

Score: 9 out of 10

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled: Sometimes next-gen upgrades hurt a game more than they help, and this game is a prime example of that. It takes away from the nostalgia of the classic arcade game (the cartoony looks of the original are replaced with the updated “extreme” renditions of the Turtles), and in a game formula that is reliant on that nostalgia, the repetition of the game becomes tedious. It’s very unfortunate that the original version/skin wasn’t included with this game. If you have an old SNES, you’d be better off finding this title in its 16-bit glory at a used game store.

Score: 6 out of 10

Kevin "The Franchise" from Cologne returns, with this review for UFC 2009: Undisputed:



Being a big UFC fan, and having horrid flashbacks of the original Xbox releases of UFC: Tapout, I came into this with mixed expectations. Will it be a button-masher?  Will they make the ground game work?  Will the motions and graphics look the part?  Thanks to THQ, they hit the trifecta of "YES".  The controls are very well done, and dont take to terribly long to get down, the ground game is almost as fluid as the standup, and the graphics are beautifully done.  The career mode is very well done, especially in the customizations, and its cool that once you get one fight style down, you get to master a whole new skill set.  This is a great solid start to a new franchise (no pun intended). A solid 8.75 out of 10.