D+PAD Magazine's Scores

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For 571 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 36% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 60% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Game review score: 72
Highest review score: 100 The ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection
Lowest review score: 20 The Lord of the Rings: Conquest
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 282 out of 571
  2. Mixed: 240 out of 571
  3. Negative: 49 out of 571
571 game reviews
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    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Cave
    To its credit, The Cave has amusing writing and a neat visual style – but charm alone cannot make up for its many technical flaws.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Gotham City Impostors
    The most damning aspect of Gotham City Impostors is that the tutorials and the NPCs stand out as the main highlight, which for a multiplayer focused title is a considerable problem. Add to this the slightly whorish way in which DLC is pushed to the fore, and you have a game that sadly lives up to its title; in other words…it feels like something of an imposter.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Earth Defense Force 2025
    As a pitch, EDF2025 sounds like buckets of fun. But once the novelty inherent to the concept wears off, EDF2025 is boring, and it long outstays its welcome.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Liberation Maiden
    If you're a Suda-51 enthusiast or if it's on sale, then it'll be worth it, but other than that, it's a tiny distraction that provides a little entertainment, closer to an app game than something you'd play on a proper console, even a handheld one.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Thief
    Bugs which do not impact gameplay can be forgiven – when they work against the core aspects of the game, they are far more egregious.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Carnival Island
    Overall Carnival Island is something of a disappointment. Its position as a budget game does go some way to excusing the rather thin content within, but its biggest problem is that the content that it does have just isn't very compelling or interesting.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Need for Speed Undercover
    It's not just that Need for Speed Undercover is a bad game; it's that it's a bad game with an incredibly erratic engine. The flaws, problems and issues that exist in NFS Undercover are virtually inexcusable for a popular franchise from such an affluent publisher.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Revenge of the Wounded Dragons
    If you’re looking to kill a few hours with a mate, then this would do the job; if you want any more than that, steer clear.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Fracture
    The orchestral score is decent, the physics are impressive if not revelatory, and the whole affair is certainly competent, if utterly uninvolving. Is that really good enough though? No, of course not. The one attempt at uniqueness – the Entrencher – is a flop, and the whole enterprise lacks any finesse or charm to transcend influence.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Blacklight: Tango Down
    Overall, it's not that Blacklight can't be enjoyed on its own merits, because it can in the most basic sense. But when held up to scrutiny and measured against those gunning for the same lucrative audience, it's hard to recommend Blacklight: Tango Down with an absolute guarantee that you'll be completely entertained.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga
    The King of Fighters deserves better than this sloppy port.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Final Exam
    In total, it is an ugly game which misuses its aesthetic, feels archaic and unfinished in its execution. Final Exam sits as a poor relation within a genre which has already given quality titles like Guardian Heroes, Metal Slug and Viewtiful Joe.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Hydrophobia
    Tragic in unused potential and perplexing in design, Hydrophobia never becomes more than the sum of its parts.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll
    If anything Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll is the simplest in the series if played with a Wii Remote and possibly the most difficult if using the Board, for all the wrong reasons.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Guitar Hero: Van Halen
    As a self-contained music game then, Guitar Hero: Van Halen really isn’t substantial or appealing enough to warrant extended play.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Pokedex 3D Pro
    As a whole, Pokédex 3D Pro is a nice little device, however the biggest problem with it is the expense. At £13.49 (or $15), it's at least twice as much as it should be. This isn't a game, despite the quiz elements. It's a 3D viewer at best, and all the useful information is more accessible in Bulbapedia or Serebii or one of dozens of free (or cheap) Pokédex apps on mobile devices.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Hotel Giant 2
    The pros of Hotel Giant 2 are outweighed by some of its cons, most notably the repetitive and non-engaging nature of the gameplay.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The King of Fighters XII
    There’s little here to recommend, even for the most loyal of fans. Instead, don your best shell-suit, hook up your mum’s old telly to the SNES in the loft and play out your childhood battles with the original. It’s far better.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Pokemon Rumble Blast
    Though Pokemon Rumble's simplicity may have been easier to overlook when it was released as a Nintendo WiiWare title, this full price follow up should be seen as little more than a stop-gap that fails to advance the series in any meaningful way while delivering a gameplay experience that is forgettable as it is monotonous.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Way of the Samurai 3
    Unfortunately, Way of the Samurai 3 left us bored, uninspired and desperate to play something or, rather, anything else. The game fails to live up to even the most basic standard of quality, offering an archaic play style that falls short of even the most charmless of current-gen titles.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Sonic and the Black Knight
    As a package Black Knight is competent: the frame rate is consistent while the visuals, taking their cue from Secret Rings, suggest that Sonic Team’s capability with squeezing results from the modest hardware is more successful than their understanding of how Sonic should feel as a game.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    The Lord of the Rings: Conquest
    Amazingly, EA are still surprising us, but for all of the wrong reasons. Who knew that they still had the capacity to deliver such awful, creaky, shoddily-constructed software? Once a seemingly forgotten page in EA's coloured history, we can only hope that this disgrace to the near-legendary universe that Tolkien crafted is simply an anomaly.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    FaceBreaker
    By removing any sense of strategy and skill EA has broken the two most fundamental rules of a fighter. Instead, FaceBreaker is nothing more than a mere exercise in button-bashing.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Planet 51 The Game
    Deathly dull and completely without purpose, it’s an alien piece of software that appears to have crash-landed in from another, entirely more forgiving era.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard
    Ultimately, it’s a shame to see a game with such an intriguing concept go to ruin.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
    It's not enough to save Operation Raccoon City though, which ultimately is a title that feels too rushed to warrant any great investment on the part of the player. That it's sold in such high numbers (at time of writing it's number one in Japan) says a lot about the strength of the Resident Evil brand which, if ORC is anything to go by, is in danger of being fatally diluted.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Duke Nukem Forever
    Duke Nukem Forever is a strange enough novelty all on its own, but when all is said and done, it is a vastly aged shooter that is left trailing in the dust of its modern contemporaries.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Bodycount
    With a short, linear and derivative campaign plus a multiplayer offering unlikely to distract for long, Bodycount just doesn't have enough going for it to warrant a purchase, even at a bargain bin price.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Start the Party! Save the World
    In fairness, there is some fun to be had here, and Supermassive Games do show a degree of competency in utilizing the PlayStation Move, but sadly competency really isn't enough to get a party jumping.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Adrenalin Misfits
    From its tired mid-1990s 'cool kid' chic and offensively putrid design; to the slipshod quality of control that consistently fails to map proper movements into the game's on-screen action, it's fair to say that Crossboard 7 is not the 'system seller' show-piece for Microsoft's intensively technical Kinect hardware, but more of a case study for developers to learn exactly what not to do with it.
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