Toronto Sun's Scores

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For 36 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 38% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 60% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.5 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Game review score: 73
Highest review score:
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Critic Score 100
Lowest review score:
Power Rangers Super Samurai
Critic Score 20
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 36
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 36
  3. Negative: 2 out of 36
36 game reviews
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    • Metascore: 90
    • Critic Score 100
    XCOM: Enemy Unknown
    By virtue of how it stokes more parts of my brain than any game of the past decade, I’m inclined to consider XCOM: Enemy Unknown one of the most important titles of this generation. This game will test your disaster-management skills, levy you with suffocatingly difficult choices on how to spend your resources and cause you to grow so fond of your chess pieces that each skirmish takes on the flavour of a Whedonesque drama.
    • Metascore: 94
    • Critic Score 100
    BioShock Infinite
    It’s the kind of game you’ll immediately want to replay again from the beginning, not just to experiment with new vigors and weapons and tactics, or to find the backstory-expanding Voxophones and Kinetoscopes you missed on the first run-through, but to see the little bits of foreshadowing, the subtle design choices, the dropped hints that build up to the game’s brain-bending denouement.
    • Metascore: 85
    • Critic Score 90
    Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
    Wrath of the White Witch combines the innocence of an anime feature film with a well-known “get up and try again” attitude. The game is light-handed with its morals, and not overly melodramatic in its story. It exists as a perfect balance between two drastically different forms of storytelling: a film and role-playing game.
    • Metascore: 91
    • Critic Score 90
    Far Cry 3
    Almost everything about Far Cry 3 speaks to the game’s skilled, confident and tightly interwoven design, and players are free to seek their specific flavour of gratification and victory as Jason becomes the most dangerous animal on the island.
    • Metascore: 80
    • Critic Score 90
    LEGO City Undercover
    Lego City Undercover nails the best aspects of open world games in its own way, and with the inclusion of Lego building mechanics, it feels enough like its own thing rather than a sanitized version of an existing thing.
    • Metascore: 87
    • Critic Score 90
    MLB 13: The Show
    The eighth instalment of The Show series pulls no squeeze plays on quality and realism when it comes to the game of baseball.
    • Metascore: 84
    • Critic Score 90
    Guacamelee!
    As with food, video games are all about the freshness of the ingredients and the care taken in preparation and presentation. And when everything is just right, the result can be something like Guacamelee!
    • Metascore: 86
    • Critic Score 80
    Tomb Raider
    It’s a fine return to form for the heroine whose comically conical boobs once fuelled a thousand adolescent quests for mythical nude codes. Lara Croft’s a real girl now, with real motivations, fears and feelings. And this is one reboot we hope will stick.
    • Metascore: 79
    • Critic Score 80
    Little Inferno
    Yet it’s Little Inferno’s weird, dark, off-kilter tone that makes it so refreshing and intriguing. You’ll come for the pyromania puzzles, but you’ll want to see what happens when the smoke finally clears.
    • Metascore: 86
    • Critic Score 80
    DmC: Devil May Cry
    Beyond the near-perfect controls and satisfying combat, Ninja Theory has clearly sweated the game's atmosphere and visuals.
    • Metascore: 90
    • Critic Score 80
    Okami HD
    Still, for every demon slain, more beauty is restored to the land, as gorgeously rendered-flowers and wildlife spring up from the scenes of battle. And the wildlife that roams Nippon not to be feared, but rather fed, in sickeningly cute cutscenes.
    • Metascore: 82
    • Critic Score 80
    LEGO The Lord of the Rings
    In addition to the excellent musical score from Jackson’s trilogy playing while you smash stone as Gimli or conjure blocks as Gandalf, LEGO LOTR is the first of the LEGO games to use the voices and acting from the films.
    • Metascore: 79
    • Critic Score 80
    Hitman: Absolution
    Ultimately, Hitman: Absolution marks a faithful, gorgeous and only occasionally maddening return for a series that’s been gone far too long. It may have trouble finding fans among twitchy gamers with short attention spans, but guns and brains should never be mutually exclusive. And those kids can get off my damn lawn.
    • Metascore: 72
    • Critic Score 80
    Wonderbook: Book of Spells
    The technology works consistently well, assuming you’re sitting on the floor in a reasonably well-lit room. But just as importantly, Book of Spells has clearly been crafted with the Potter fan in mind, featuring incantations, settings and characters taken straight from the books.
    • Metascore: 84
    • Critic Score 80
    Mass Effect 3: Citadel
    Unlike the previous downloadable content, though, Citadel seems designed very much as a send-off for the Mass Effect crew, a final chapter that shoots mainly for the heart with some collateral damage to the funnybone.
    • Metascore: 79
    • Critic Score 80
    Gears of War: Judgment
    For all its larger than life swagger and cartoonish bravado, it’s actually kind of refreshing to see Gears of War take a less-is-more approach with this game. Size certainly matters, but what you do with what you’ve got counts even more.
    • Metascore: 86
    • Critic Score 80
    Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
    Luigi may be a little bit clumsy, and sucking up a ghost with a glorified vacuum may not be quite as satisfying as unloading a clip of bullets into an expletive-screaming terrorist, but the newest adventure starring Nintendo’s second-most-popular brother is still a heck of a lot of fun. It’s even head-and-shoulders above Mario’s latest handheld title, New Super Mario Bros. 2.
    • Metascore: 81
    • Critic Score 80
    Terraria
    Don’t be deceived by the simplistic 2D presentation – Terraria is one of the deepest games currently available on PSN or Xbox Live Arcade.
    • Metascore: 81
    • Critic Score 80
    Injustice: Gods Among Us
    But aside from the solid and deep fighting game mechanics, my biggest kick came simply from taking control of these familiar heroes and villains and seeing how their unique and iconic abilities had been translated into game form.
    • Metascore: 80
    • Critic Score 80
    Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
    It’s bizarre and funny and quite unlike anything that’s been done before by a major video game studio. And for the most part, it works.
    • Metascore: 73
    • Critic Score 80
    Pandora's Tower
    It’s rare to see a compelling hack-and-slash dungeon crawler work as well as Pandora’s Tower, but this game needs to wear its accomplishments proudly. You very well may never go back to your Wii after this transition between console generations.
    • Metascore: 82
    • Critic Score 70
    Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
    Rising is a great game that needed more time and effort to achieve perfection.
    • Metascore: 74
    • Critic Score 70
    Hawken
    If you're a fan of battling bots, Hawken is definitely worth checking out, and you should certainly have some free, fleeting fun with it right off the bat. But as the game lumbers towards an official release, I really hope they dial down the mechanized money magnets.
    • Metascore: 74
    • Critic Score 70
    PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
    It adds that element of strategizing, especially in online play, where a player can knock out all three of their opponents in fell swoop. Plus, much to my amazement, a character I had no experience using won me my first online match – thank you, Jak.
    • Metascore: 80
    • Critic Score 70
    God of War: Ascension
    It’s not that the Spartan warrior’s step has lost its spring – it’s as lively and bloody as ever. The exhaustion comes from familiarity, that bitter breeder of contempt. Aside from a few rough patches, Ascension is a reasonably competent God of War game. But it’s undermined by an unshakable sense of déjà vu.
    • Metascore: 62
    • Critic Score 70
    LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins
    The Chase Begins might have too many imperfections to be the standout masterwork its console big brother was, and given the choice, you should play that one rather than this one. But it’s still worth picking up and playing, especially if you love Lego, have younger children who need something to keep them busy in the car, or generally lean towards cute rather than blood-soaked.
    • Metascore: 77
    • Critic Score 70
    Don't Starve
    For its art style, deceptively dark vibe and experimental approach, Don’t Starve is certainly worth a look. But for every playthrough that leads to eye-opening adventure, there will be another that’s a bit of a tedious slog. It won’t leave you hungry, but it may not fill you up.
    • Metascore: 63
    • Critic Score 60
    Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires
    For those who love the Dynasty Warriors game franchise, the latest instalment may leave them feeling as hollow as the terracotta warriors of the Qin dynasty.
    • Metascore: 69
    • Critic Score 60
    Clear Vision 2
    Clear Vision 2 almost feels unfinished. The large city map and hugely expanded stock of rifles available suggest you’re in for a much longer experience this time around, but it all ends with a weirdly shoehorned-in first-person shootout, after which the plot is tied up and credits roll.
    • Metascore: 82
    • Critic Score 60
    Antichamber
    As an experimental bit of game design full of intriguing puzzles that defy earthly geometry, Antichamber is a success. Yet given a choice, I’d much rather spend my time with a more conventional first-person puzzler like Portal 2, Quantum Conundrum or Q.U.B.E. Maybe Antichamber is a little too clever for its own good. Or maybe I’m just dumb.
    • Metascore: 79
    • Critic Score 60
    Temple Run 2
    Is it so weird that I’d rather pay $5 up front for a game based on fun, addictive core design principles than a “freemium” game that ends up feeling like an interactive advertisement for bundles of coins or gems or Smurfberries or whatever the currency of the moment is?
    • Metascore: 41
    • Critic Score 60
    Seduce Me
    Seduce Me might be a way to ease us into the notion that sex in games isn’t necessarily harmful. But next time, it wouldn’t hurt if it was a little more fun, too.
    • Metascore: 85
    • Critic Score 60
    Assassin's Creed III
    The Assassin’s Creed formula of fighting and parkour is starting to get old, even with the ability to climb trees now. Maybe it’s the repetitiveness of the series, or maybe it’s just less interesting to toss crates of tea into the harbour than to hunt and kill corrupt bishops.
    • Metascore: 54
    • Critic Score 50
    Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel
    The Army of Two games have always been overshadowed by Call of Duty and Gears of War and the other shooter juggernauts, but they had unique co-op gameplay elements and a goofy charm that set them apart. Both of these things are mostly missing in The Devil’s Cartel, and that’s a damn shame.
    • Metascore: 44
    • Critic Score 40
    Aliens: Colonial Marines
    The characters, for instance, are equal parts annoying and forgettable, and the writing is genuinely laughable.

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