Χ-Play (2003)

Samurai Legend Musashi, Pokemon Dash, Sims 2: University Pack and more! (3x37)

Air date: Apr 19, 2005

On tonight's episode of X-Play, we review Samurai Legend Musashi. If you like Kingdom Hearts--the Disney-based RPG from Square-Enix from a couple years back--you should dig Samurai Legend Musashi. It features a lot of similarities, not the least of which is the rather effeminate character design. Musashi looks less like a bad-ass samurai and more like he should be club-hopping. The problem with being so similar to Kingdom Hearts is that, well, Kingdom Hearts had a few issues. And most of those problems have carried over to Musashi as well. Hot on the heels of The Sims 2 comes University, the first in what will probably be hundreds of expansion packs for Maxis’ latest version of digital crack. Now that sim children can grow up and lead productive lives of their own, it’s only natural to give them four years to live, love, party, and maybe even learn a thing or two before entering the rat race of adult life. And that’s just what University offers. Pokemon Dash is one of the few games that truly takes advantage of the unique abilities of the Nintendo DS, but that doesn’t mean that eager DS owners should rush to the stores for it. This strangely discombobulated rush of Pikachu worship was developed by Ambrella, the same folks over in Japan who brought Nintendo 64 owners that classic, Hey You, Pikachu! You remember that one, right? The voice recognition game designed to make you insane by screaming at a small, yellow, cooing freaky rat thing? Rainbow Studios loves to ride on the wild side. Check its resume, which includes extreme sports smashes like Splashdown and Motocross Madness. But with gamers’ interest in the subject waning, the outfit finds itself faced with a tough choice: figure out a means of cleverly rehashing existing themes or steer the public in a different direction. Luckily, as we at X-Play discover, the developer’s done both, finding a happy medium in MX vs. ATV Unleashed, a bizarre hybrid of off-road racing and arcade-style play.