Ken Urben, GiN Staff

Recent Posts

WWF Attitude is a wrestling fans dream

WWF Attitude, simply put, lays the smackdown on all other roody-poo candy-ass wrestling games out on the market. The other pretender wrestling games, have no chance in hell in standing up to this game, and that’s the bottom line because Ken Urben said so and I’m one bad Mamma Jamma. If you understood all of the WWF wrestling references in the preceding paragraph, you’ll absolutely adore WWF Attitude. If you were left scratching your head in bewilderment, you’ll find yourself with an average game that you should think twice about buying. I’ll admit right off the bat something that my … Continue reading WWF Attitude is a wrestling fans dream

Evil Zone suffers from been there

I must start out this review by immediately making it clear that I’m not the biggest fan of fighting games in general. Now, some good ones have come along, like Tekken 3 and Marvel Super Heroes, but for the most part, it is very difficult to do anything in a fighting game that hasn’t been done before. While there is some freshness to it, the inevitable fact above is what Evil Zone primarily suffers from. </p><p> First off, let’s start off with the name — Evil Zone. What?!? What kind of name is that? Who got paid to come up … Continue reading Evil Zone suffers from been there

Final Fantasy VIII is good, but not great

I so wanted Final Fantasy VIII to be the be-all-end-all of gaming experiences. I so wanted to be able to say that this was the greastest game I’ve ever played. Unfortunately, after all the hype, all the hope, and almost 60 hours of playing and completing Square’s latest offering in the signature series of RPG’s, I’m almost heartbroken to say that the game doesn’t bring home the goods. To be fair, I, much like the rest of the gaming world, had enormous expectations. I half expected the characters in the game to jump out of my television and finish doing … Continue reading Final Fantasy VIII is good, but not great

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is a reality panic button

Back in 1993, a game was released on the Sega CD system that was the rage of all RPGers everywhere. It was hailed for its characters, story and gameplay. Unfortunately for myself, Nintendo had successfully indoctrinated me to despise all things Sega and I never got to play the game known as Lunar: The Silver Star. Now, thanks to the wonder that is PlayStation, I can see what was behind the hype oh so many years ago. The first thing you’ll notice about the game is obvious when you buy it. The packaging is the biggest I’ve ever seen. Four … Continue reading Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is a reality panic button

Driver brakes just short of a classic game

While Driver has a top notch concept, good gameplay/replay value and other intangibles going for it, its utter failure to deliver on several other fronts leads to only a moderately successful game. In the game your name is Tanner…you carry a badge. That is you do until the fuzz decides they could use your former race car driving skills (yeah, I know lots of former race car drivers that became cops) to infiltrate the feared Castaldi crime family as a driver. Any game where you’re an undercover cop posing as a mobster starts off with a few extra points in … Continue reading Driver brakes just short of a classic game

NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC is a brick

Now I love basketball as much as the next gamer. But what I don’t love is a completely re-hashed, re-done, re-packaged version of a game we’ve seen a thousand times before. Everyone wants to be like NBA Jam. NBA Showtime: NBA On NBC represents one of the worst trends in console gaming today — take a successful idea (NBA Jam and arcade-style basketball play), make a game that looks, feels, and plays just like it, slap a famous name to it (does NBC and Shaq ring a bell), produce it on every game system you can (the game will be … Continue reading NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC is a brick