Featured Game: Street Fighter X Mega Man

A disappointing resource hog

Year: 2012

Genre: Action + Platform

Recommend: Depends

Ah, nostalgia. Both the Street Fighter and Mega Man series have let their marks in gaming history. Now these two classics have come together with the collaboration of fans and Capcom. It's too bad that the game overloads most netbooks, even with its NES-style 2D graphics. On my netbook, the game runs at about 2 fps. Fortunately, higher-end netbooks can handle the game.

What you'll need

Reviews and Awards

While not the groundbreaking game of the century, by any imaginable means, the game has enjoyed largely positive reviews. IGN and Destructoid rated it a 7/10, saying the game is "solid" and "fun," but lacks replay value and a save system (version 2 of the game implemented a password system). GameRankings and Metacritic both give SFXMM a rating of approximately 71%. On the other hand, Edge magazine gave the game a 5/10, saying the level design is inconsistent and functionality is limited.

Tips

It's a little hard to give any tips when the game won't run at a tolerable speed. If you have a subpar netbook, don't bother with this game.

A pain to run in more ways than one.

Featured Game: Icy Tower

Fun little time waster

Year: 2001

Genre: Action, Platform

Recommend: YES

 

 

 

At first, I didn't really see the point of Icy Tower. "What's so fun about hopping up platforms?" Then I read the instructions, and, "Oh, if you run fast, you jump high!" Suddenly, it became a challenge to land on a platform at high speed and make sure Harold the Homeboy got to the next platform. Icy Tower has a small footprint, charming music and graphical style, and a very simple concept. This game'll stay on my hard drive for the foreseeable future.

 

 

What you'll need

 

Icy Tower can run on PC's from the AT motherboard days. I don't think you need to worry.

 

 

Review and Awards

 

This game can't be judged by its reviews, but by its popularity. The game makes the "Most Popular" list for PC games at Download.com, and has an estimated 11 million downloads as of 2008. There are some sites devoted to Icy Tower from the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland.

 

 

Tips

 

If getting a higher rank is important to you, just view your profile to see what you have to do to reach the next one. (I just can't get to the 300th floor!)

 



Boing!



Featured Game: Portal

No Intel graphics for newbies

Year: 2007

Genre: Puzzle + Platform

Recommend: Depends

If you're a daring soul who loves to tweak and mod your netbook to get any game to work, you can probably get Portal up and running. If you're not, Intel's graphics won't cut it. Fortunately, Nvidia and AMD have made netbooks excellent Portal machines.

What you'll need

Reviews and Awards

Portal received excellent ratings all around the board, plus a big ol' list of awards, some of which are for GLaDOS's epic villianness (is that a word?). GameSpy stated "What Portal lacks in length, it more than makes up for in exhilaration." Metacritic ratings average 90/100, with GameRankings' rates very slightly different at 89.15%.

Tips

Go here for advice on Portal for Intel's graphics processors. Do it. It's in the description.