Official Nintendo Magazine - review scores (GTA: Chinatown Wars review)

March 9th, 2009

GTA Chinatown Wars: 94%
+ Enormous game map
+ Fantastic visuals
+ Classic GTA gameplay
+ Quality multiplayer modes
- Dangerously additive

Madworld: 85%
+ Top-notch presentation
+ All-out arcade action
+ Laugh out loud funny
+ Fantastic character design
- Gets repetitive quickly

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009: 93%
+ Defensive controls are fixed!
+ Classic controller support
+ Master leagure inluded
+ Improved champions road
- Not enough licensed teams

Sonic & The Black Knight: 78%
+ Graphics are fantastic
+ Non-sword controls are great
+ Excellent soundtrack
- Sword combat is horrible
- Multiplayer is weak

Don King’s Boxing: 85%
+ Control system works great
+ Fun Balance Board support
+ Enjoyable mini-games
+ Great in multiplayer
- Basic visuals

NPC Mario Power Tennis: 77%
+ Excellent graphics
+ Loads of game variations
+ Top-notch range of characters
- Imprecise motion controls
- Frustratingly tough to learn

Henry Hatsworth Puzzling Adventure: 74%
+ Original concept
+ Engaging characters
+ Plenty of game for the price
+ Packs a real challenge
- Some irritating mechanics

Blue Dragon Plus: 76%
+ Breakneck pace to battles
+ Developed strategy system
+ Huge rewards on offer
- …but these affect balance
- Preachy story-telling

Bikini Zombie Slayer: 71%
+ Brilliantly gruesome
+ Solid trashy fun
+ Knowing sense of humour
- Very, very straight forward
- Dodgy camera

Dragon Quest THOTHB: 90%
+ Massive, intelligent story
+ Countless clever innovations
+ Excitement at every turn
+ Best Dragon Quest around
- Losing favorite charaters

SNK Arcade Classics vol1: 84%
+ Wide selection of games
+ Much cheaper than VC
+ Great fun with two players
+ Clever achievement system
- A couple of stinkers in here

Moto Racer: 79%
+ Classy stylus control system
+ Excellent visuals
+ Impressive array of modes
+ Great multiplayer
- Inconsistent gameplay

Broken Sword DX: 86%
+ Superb hand drawn graphics
+ Great voice acting
+ Hint mode is a nice touch
+ New scenes and puzzles
- Video scenes are quite fuzzy

Job Island: 78%
+ 50 wide-ranging mini games
+ It’s genuinely funny
+ Adds strategy to a bland genre
- A lot of repetition
- Weak multiplayer

Big Bang Mini: 84%
+ Clever, additive set-up
+ Gorgeous Visuals
+ Heap of content
+ Packs a serious challenge
- Occasional control glitches

I guess Rockstar delivered on the 'biggest GTA to date' thing. I'm not a big GTA fan but it's nice to see a new AAA DS game.

great score for PES 2009, it is good to hear they fixed the defense problems, it was almost impossible to defend in PES 2008.

good score for madworld and GTA too.

Their score are quite high aren't they? sonic and the black knight 78 % while the avarage metacritic score is 56.

bah, I expected more from Henry Hatsworth

I always believed in GTA though, and Don King Boxing (if it's actually that good) is a surprise

Man, I hate seeing these thing prior to getting my copy of Nintendo Power but anyway

GTA Chinatown Wars: 94% - Definitely getting

Madworld: 85% - Definitely getting

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009: 93% - Not a soccer fan, but might rent or pick up cheap

Sonic & The Black Knight: 78% - rent or buy cheap

Don King’s Boxing: 85% - Definitely getting, very excited about this one

NPC Mario Power Tennis: 77% - Pass, better is coming out soon enough

Henry Hatsworth Puzzling Adventure: 74% - Not interested

Blue Dragon Plus: 76% - not interested

Bikini Zombie Slayer: 71% - Definitely get - but may wait for a price drop or lul

Dragon Quest THOTHB: 90% - Not interested but maybe I should be...

SNK Arcade Classics vol1: 84% - Not into fighters

Moto Racer: 79% - Hmmm... better than expected... I'll consider it.

Broken Sword DX: 86% - Definitely getting but not paying full price for a port of a 13 year old game. Come on... what is with that?

Job Island: 78% - Meh

Big Bang Mini: 84% - Not interested

Damn, this is going to be an expensive year...

There's only 3 reviews so far on Metacritic and IGN's 39 is really dragging it down.   I expect everyone else will give it in the 70-80's and IGN will be the odd man out there.

Odd, Metacritic has it at 56, while GamesRankings has it at 62.25. What's really strange is that they both use the same 4 reviews.

Nintendo Power 8

GameDaily 7

Gamervision 6

IGN 3.9

Very excited for the Don King score. There's gonna be a whole lot of boxing going on at my house in the next few months.

It looks that IGN's opinion is the single extreme one of them all.