Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 - Review

Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 – Review

Magic Casts Quite the Spell

Let's start off with some full disclosure: I'm not a Magic: the Gathering player. I had never played Magic before playing Duels of the Planeswalkers, and, in fact, I've still never touched a single one of its colorful and beautiful cards. Taking all of this into consideration, however, I come to the game with an open mind and a complete lack of understanding with the fleeting hope that I might discover (as millions of others already have) a deep and intriguing strategy card game experience. Let's just say that I was not disappointed.

For those out there who are as in the dark now as I was then, Magic: the Gathering is a collectable card game, one of the first, released in 1993 and competitively played in the nearly 20 years since. Notable not only for its longevity, Magic is known for its level of complex strategy and for its innovations in the then new market of collectible trading card games. I vaguely remember a dim awareness of Magic when I was dabbling with derivative and inferior games, years ago, but I had no formal introduction to the game until a day or two ago, when I discovered Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012. Magic has been adapted into a number of video games in the past, Duels 2012 is a follow up to a similarly named 2009 game.

Cards in Magic: the Gathering are divided into 5 colors: White, Black, Red, Blue, and Green. These distinctions are vitally important because blue spells may only be cast if you have played blue land cards. Land cards limit the number of other cards you can play, so it's very important to have the right amount and right type of land cards in your deck. Starting off, with no knowledge of these mechanics, I was grateful that building a deck wasn't required to start off with. The game provides you with a variety of different sets of cards, mostly based off of one or two types of land. When you become more familiar with the game, though, you can tweak certain elements of each deck, adding and removing cards, including the 16 unlockable cards that every deck has to offer. This isn't an amazing level of customization, granted, but it at least gives you some control over how your deck will play.

The game's interface is smooth, and the card designs are, without exception, beautiful. It would be a bit of a stretch to call the game a graphical wonder: the animations are limited and there's certainly nothing here to stress out your graphics card, but the game is nonetheless appealing. I'm a bit of a sucker for high fantasy, and if that's your thing too, the game's artwork certainly won't disappoint. While the motifs may tred the well-worn and familiar grounds of dragons, knights, and mages, it's all high quality and there's nothing appreciably out of place in the nicely drawn menus and loading screens.

The game provides several gameplay modes with just about any combination of team sizes you could reasonably hope for. The campaign mode features a host of opponents and battles, and even if you've beaten every battle with each deck, there are countless hours to be had in the fully featured online multiplayer. There's certainly enough here, if you enjoy playing the game, there's a lot here to keep you busy. After working your way up through the three levels of AI difficulty, there's a world full of challengers out there on the internet, and while it's impossible to tell how many people are going to continue to play the game for long periods after its release, there are currently thousands of players online.

If I were to make one serious complaint against Duels 2012, it would have to be the game's difficulty. Granted, once you learn how to play, you're probably safe against most of the challengers, but whether you win or lose often seems to be determined mainly by chance. All the powerful cards in the world aren't going to help you if you can't get the land cards out to power them. Most decks have a handful of really powerful cards that whose attack and defense values are increased exponentially, but you're pretty much sunk if you can't get those cards into play while an opponent can. Additionally, the 3 vs 1 “Archenemy Mode” introduces scheme cards that drastically change the way the game is played. A scheme may allow a player to destroy cards, steal cards, and perform a litany of other moves that completely imbalance the game.

All things considered, though, Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 is a solid virtual card game, and can easily support hours and hours of repeated play. If you're a fan of Magic, it's an obvious choice, but even if you're not familiar with the game, Duels can still be enjoyed. The game is available on Xbox Live, Playstation Network, and PC (via Steam). A demo is also available for download on Steam, and if you're not quite sure about whether you should purchase or not, the demo is very nicely featured. I heartily recommend that you take a look.

--Tom

Images courtesy of Valve.

Nier Review

Game: Nier
Platform(s): Xbox 360 (played on), Playstation 3
Nier, a game named after the noise you make when you can't make up your mind on something minor like what flavour of ice cream to get, actually turned out to be a pretty decent game.

It's April 2010, everybody has just been whacked in the face by the substantially dull Final Fantasy 13. They have no trust in Square Enix whatsoever, as their running total of games that don't meet up to the standards of previous efforts continues to grow. Now, if you were at this point in time, would you purchase the next Square Enix epic that looks dramatically inferior to Final Fantasy and is not already part of the franchise? I guess not, because i don't think Nier sold too well. I cant say I helped the situation at all, purchasing the game pre-owned for £10 a month ago, but God Damn, Cavia, the team behind the Drakengrad have done a great job on this one! Being published by Square Enix could only of hindered how this game was recieved, as it is one of the most refreshing J-RPG's in years.

Let's deal with the Narrative first of all, now I don't want to let too much slip, as it's a narrative with many subtleties. I have played the western version, for those that don't know, there are two versions of the game, Replicant and Geshtalt. I believe Geshtalt is the western one, and the main difference i can see is that the main character within it is a father, rather than a brother in Replicant to a character called Yonah. The tale in a nutshell in this version is one of fatherhood, as the protagonist tries to do whats best for his daughter as she has some sort of fatal disease.

I have to admit, the story doesn't really pick up until about half-way through because the
narrative sets itself up for you to explore the world before sending you all over the place quickly for narrative purposes. Either way, the narrative is thoroughly entertaining, if a bit cheesey at times. But hey, it's a J-RPG, what are you expecting? It not to have melodrama? Not gonna happen here unfortunately. Luckily these momments are short lived. An interesting point to bring up is that once the player has finished the central story, you can play through the game from around the half-way point 3 more times to uncover more story and lore behind the characters, and unlock the games final boss. Essentially, you could be playing this thing for months getting a constant influx of new content.


But no game can live on it's story alone, how's the gameplay? Well, it's an odd mix of different things, but what i really want to address is the feel of the game. When wondering around the world i got a distinct Zelda vibe, hell, when you leave most area's is does the same fade to white as your character runs into the light thing Zelda did. But this is not in a way that screams stolen, no, they've taken just enough influence to make the world a joy to be in, and to explore, with landmarks of previous civilisations laying ruined around the landscape, the world is full of mysterious things just waiting to be uncovered, and it's a joy to explore using the mechanics available. At the beginning you have the means of travelling on foot, as always in a 3rd person action adventure... Rpg, there is a roll button which comes in hands when travelling long distances as you move slightly faster. You're also equipped with a double jump, which is odd for a game that feels like Zelda, but welcome nontheless.

Later on, through sidequests you can unlock a horn that lets you travel using boars found around the world. The boars are easy to control after messing around a bit, they don't turn like a car would, but can be turned with the use of the triggers as a drift function, and it's fun to drift around splattering any enemies you can find. Sadly, finding the quest that gives you the horn is not the most obvious thing, so just make sure you speak to all the villagers in town once the opportunity to do sidequests arises. The quest is to kill a boar, and it's also pretty damn challenging. But totally worth it.

Combat gameplay is my favorite portion of the game, there's the standard button mashing sword attack, a charged heavy sword attack, blocks and dodges. You can also equip a large selection of different weapons like greatswords and spears that don't dramatically alter gameplay, but offer some variety. The other half of combat is delievered through the games magic system, which is made up of many offensive spells, most of which are projectile based. You'll collect more and more powerful spells as you go through the game, each with it's own perks like range and damage. You can only equip up to two of these at a time, four if you want to remove the ability to block and dodge, but i don't recommend that. I found myself sticking with a high powered low ranged magic, and a low powered long range projectile throughout the game, but the combat remained fun throughout. A large amount of this is owed to the ability to jump. There's nothing funner than being up in a massive bosses face hacking away at him with all you've got whilst jumping and rolling out of the way of his attacks just in time. Yes, you could sit far away from the boss and just fire projectiles at him, but that would be boring, and i think that's why people think the combat is boring. The game rewards you for being in the fray simply by making it more fun. Most bosses can cut chunks of your health bar out at a time, but there are healing items, health increasing herbs and even a cleric companion later on to help with this.

Which brings me to the companions. You'll be seeing four other characters that join your party in the game, each with their own AI and perks. You have a book that likes to think it's an English gentleman and provides you with your magic abilities, a sword swinging badass who swears like a Tourette's victim, a small shy boy who has the medusa like talent of turning enemies to stone, and a powerful mage whose favorite past-time is to break down and make long speeches. You can command them through the commands menu, but you don't get any substantial control over them, hell, i used the command menu to summon random animals to come up to me than to control my companions. They function well enough on their own though, so it's all good.

The Graphics... They aren't the best graphics around, for sure. But i gotta say, the idea's behind them are beautiful in themself. The world is stunning to look at, and had a feel of a wondorous place that i wanted to explore, the graphics are no worse than star ocean, and certainly aren't so bad that it could be on the previous generation of consoles. One thing that i've noticed people complain about in this department is the protagonist (wether he's called Nier or not i don't know if you were wondering), apparently he's much too ugly. All i can say is... Good. Everyone looks much to perfect in videogames anyway, besides, it's not exactly distracting, you'll be looking at the back of his head for more than 90% of the game. All the character models look great in the graphics style too. Perhaps an interesting point to mention, is one area in the game is entirely black and white. I'm sure this is to represent something, i didn't get the message, but it's nice to see the developers try and move things about. Oh, and an honourable mention to the game for just how good the massive bosses look, alot of them seem to fashion tenticles, but there's a really nice sense of scale without a sacrifice of graphic prowess of performance.


One of the best things about Nier is it's Sound. The soundtrack, composed by Keiichi Okabe, Kakeru Ishihama, Keigo Hoashi and Takafumi Nishimura is just simply amazing. Each bit of music suits it's purpose and the area perfectly. You get a sense of adventure from the sounds of this that can only be compared to the Pirates of the carribean theme. The music is a mix of upbeat composistions and others that tug at the heartstings. Even some melodramatic momments come to frution beacuse of the amazing music. In alot of the tracks, there is a singer, i don't know what she is singing, but it really helps to give the track a very fantastic feel, and you'll come out of the game wanting to listen again. I'd recommend giving the soundtrack a listen, especially the song "Hills of Radiant winds". The whole feel of the game can be felt through this song. Best soundtrack i've heard in a game for years and years, masterful.

On the voice acting side of things, I had no problems, all the English voice acting suited the characters in question, and Liam O'Brien, the voice actor for Grimwoire Weiss, the aformentioned book companion, is halarious. He delivers his lines with great confidence, and the voice suits the role perfectly. He was the character i enjoyed the most because of the brilliant voice behind him. The others aren't bad, they're great. But O'Briens performance blows them out of the water.

Overall, i thought this game was brilliant, it was long and kept me interested enough for a second playthrough, perhaps even the thrid or fourth in the future. It's definitly worth checking out if you like third person action games, and sports one of the most realised and interesting worlds coupled with one of the best soundtracks in a game.

Score:
Narrative: 15/25 - starts slow but picks up massively halfway through.
Gameplay: 22/25 - exciting and fun as hell, but some fights can cause frustration
Graphics: 20/25 - not the best, but present what they set out to wondefully
Sound: 25/25 - there is simply nothing wrong with the sound.

Total: 82/100

Advised stance: Buy it! Even if it was full price it's worth it!

-serde out.

image credit (2nd image onward): Kotaku.com, i.telegraph.co.uk

Why Mirror's Edge is in fact, the best thing since sliced bread.

Just take a deep breath...

Mirror's Edge is DICE's 2008 foray into the unkown. Mirror's Edge is a First Person Shooter, but it breaks the mould, it extends beyond the constraints that the genre has created. In your everyday FPS, you are "soldier" trying to get from point "A" to point "B" to win a war. You'll be shooting some enemies along the way, and testing out various weapons throughout. Thats fine, i mean, if it ain't broken, don't fix it, right? So the easiest way to explain Mirror's Edge is... They broke it.

You are Faith, a "runner" in this game. A "runner" is a profession in which someone will deliver something to another person discretely. Why does this need to be done? Is Faith just a glorified drug runner? No, this is a PC gone mad world where the book "1984" really caught on. Big Brother will in fact, be watching you in Mirror's Edge land. The aim of the game is to save Faith's sister, who has apparently killed a man. But Faith, having spent 2 seconds at the crime scene, decides that her sister is innocent, and off we go! Okay, the story isn't the best story ever told, it's not even close. But i don't remember sliced bread having a story, nor do i remember pac man having a complex story, so let's just say this story is there only to set the scene. It's a light tale with which the gameplay can move around freely in.

Which brings me to the gameplay of Mirror's Edge... Contained within 10 levels, Mirror's Edge has Faith run, jump, wall run, balance on beams and use various other degree's of movement to naviagte the world, all in first person. On a console, rb, or r1 are your devices for jumping, and lb or l1 are your devices for ducking, it's as simple as that. If you jump towards a wall head on, Faith will run up the wall. If you jump towards a wall sideways, Faith will run along the wall. It's all in getting the correct execution of these moves that make the game what it is. If you don't jump at a fair angle, Faith won't do the move, so there is a learning curve here. The platforming mechanics carry over to the "trials" mode of the game where you must run Faith from one location to another, flagging down various checkpoints on the way, to beat a time. These are extremely addictive, and ultimately make the game infinitely playable because there will always be a time to beat. This mode of the game is where the men are seperated from the boys, as you'll have to know each run like the back of your hand to stand a chance of getting a good time, it's a never ending battle with the clock. Within the game's story mode you'll also encounter cops who want nothing more than for you to die, quite painfully. Thus Faith is kitted out with some combat capabilities, punches, kicks, flying kicks etc... These are all easy to pull off, again with use of triggers on the consoles, and there are just enough moves to provide a diverse fight each and every time. Faith can also disarm cops if need be, and then you have the power of a gun in your hands. The great thing about having this within the game is that you don't want the gun. The gun slows Faith down to a snails pace and takes away all your free running abilities, so whilst you may be able to take a guy down in two shots rather promptly, it's going to take a while to find him. No, it's much more satisfying to play like some sort of cargo pants wearing ninja. Pouncing out from the shadows at each unsuspecting cop and beating them down with your karate fists!

The graphics in Mirror's Edge i think to this day are superb. Each character you come into contact with in first person looks amazing, their face rendered with time and care. This really shows off the lighting engine which works wonders in this game too. The environment of this city Faith explore's is just so sleek. All the buildings will be white and possibly have one other colour to accentuate themselves, this gives each level a colour scheme, somehow also making an urban scene quite beautiful to look at. Another important thing to mention within the graphics is that there is a setting called "runner vision" which will be on by default that makes anything Faith can clamber up, or any door's she can smash through red to give the player some direction.

Mirror's Edge has no real soundtrack, the two things that define it are the Lisa Miskovsky song: Still Alive, constructed for the game, everyone should give it a listen. Then there is the sound of Faith breathing constantly surrounding you. It really is amazing that something so obvious could be so effective in immersing you within the game, but you really feel like faith is just a human within this game because of it. An easily broken person. Essentially the sound is brilliant.

Mirror's Edge breaks the mould of the FPS and creates the First Person Platformer genre, executing it brilliantly too. There is no excuse for not buying this game as it's been out for two years and is so cheap you could probably buy it instead of a coffee, and who needs an excuse anyway? This is a pinnace of innovative game design that should be admired and commended. The only thing we need to ask DICE is: "Are you going to make a Mirror's Edge 2?"

I sure as hell hope they do.

image credit: Kotaku and Zombie gamer respectively

mario gets artsy: mario paint

Ah, Mario. Everyone's favourite plumber, who also saves princesses, stomps goombas, races carts, plays just about every popular sport, and was in the Olympics. But i guess all that didn't appeal to the emo kid, drawing and composing screamo lyrics in the corner. Mario needed a more sensitive and artsy look. And so Mario paint was born.

First off it looks like an old version of that kids painting thing that was on the old Macintosh, and that's very close to it. at first any ways. You see Mario paint is the kind of game that if your really talented it's amazing what you can do. but if your not well....

the painting is nothing to special at first, stranded brushes, shape and filler tools, letters, some Mario themed stamps, stuff you would expect but under that it has to interesting things to it. The first is the stamp maker, its basicly a mini spriteing thing. I remember as a little kid trying to make desktop icons, looking back that was a bit strange. The other is the animation maker, its amazing but i never got the hang of it

the other end of the gameplay and the most popular is the music composer, now this is hard one to explain. Its like a bit of sheet music on screen and the stamps are instruments and when you but them on the sheet music its a note... ok, maybe you should just see for yourself because its just to had to tell you how it works.

Now your going “ok this is all well and good but you gotta use the snes controller for this?” no it has a mouse,and a training game, where you swat flys, its actually pretty fun. The strategy guide for the game is also one of the best ever written just needed a place to put that.

Now this game has one big problem to it there is no way to share or save your creations. But with the release of Mario paint composer for the pc only the painting part has this problem. (unless your using an emulator not that I'm saying you should ;) overall this game is fun as hell,it kept me occupied for hours and made the "research" for this way to long. If your the creative type check it out.

Alan Wake- a psychological piece of hype.

When I bought my brand new Xbox 360, I had the choice of either a Kinect, or a package with 2 free games. The Kinect was too expensive, so I bought the games. The games were Forza Motorsport 3, and Alan Wake.
I downloaded Alan, and after beating it, let's see how it holds up.

STORY

Often times I had to put my controller down and ask, "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?". The story is a convoluted mess, but this is where the "psychological" aspect of the game comes into play. The story revolves around Alan Wake, a world famous writer going to a small town to help cure his writer's block. His wife gets kidnapped and Alan has to save her yeah yeah yeah. Now, stop me if you've heard this, A magical evil causing terror to a white man in small town America. Yeah. Stephen King. Infact, Stephen King is the first word in the game. No joke. So, it's pretty much a playable Stephen King book. Alan can also collect manuscripts from a book he doesn't remember writing, that often give hints at what's to come next.

GAME PLAY

The combat of Alan Wake, while fun at first, is very, very dull. Shine a flashlight at your enemies, two shots. You can collect new weapons, but rare is it that you can keep them inbetween levels (called "Episodes" ingame). The Episodes themeselves are rather dull and samey, with Alan most of the time in a forest. The episodes always start like this, Very short, non combat section mostly reserved for story, VERY long combat/puzzle section, the meat of the game, and finally "extraction", get to the exit. Along the way you can collect manuscripts dropped by a man in an old style deep sea diver suit. I wish I was making this up. Another collectible is coffee thermoses. Yeah, wut. Oh, but you know what enemy I REALLY hate? The birds. The are impossible to dodge, do fucktons of damage, and are REALLY hard to kill. I remember one instance, I had to push a cart off a hill, jump a big gap (the jumping in this game is awful), and run like hell with birds high on my heels. I died so many times, not even funny.

GRAPHICS
The graphics are nothing to right home about, the atmosphere is great, but the character faces are so awful...

REPLAY VALUE
Aside from achievements, and the manuscripts and coffee thermoses, there's nothing really to go back for. The game offers no reward for collecting them, and it feels like a waste of time.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Alan Wake is a bad game with good moments, the atmpsphere rocks, everything else is shit. A solid rental piece, but not a good purchase. A 5/10.

Thank goodness Forza was great.

San Francisco Rush 2049 - Review

Careening Through The Future

What Constitutes “Good” Anyway?

When I think of San Francisco, I don't usually think of fast cars and explosions. Apparently, though, in the year 2049, the citizens of the Southern California city well known for its Castro neighborhood and flamboyant gay community have all decided to buy ridiculous cars and catapult themselves across the skyline. Released in 2000 for the Nintendo 64, San Francisco Rush 2049 is an arcade racing game set in the future, which gives it the excuse to play fast and loose with things like architecture, physics, and, apparently, the fundamentals of logic. I quite enjoy a dash of fast-paced arcade racing, but it is important to stress that not every game in that genre is created equally well. That said, sometimes first impressions are deceiving. A juicy tidbit, eh? Read on, dear listener.

As one of the first 3-D consoles, it's hard to say a lot about the graphics in comparison to other games. The first generation of a new technology is always an awkward adjustment, and the graphics of 2049 reflect the Nintendo 64's primitive visuals, but, that said, I don't think that the graphics detract from the game in any way. In general, you're not going to be going around the tracking thinking to yourself, Oh, these graphics are god awful, I wish I were playing Gran Turismo 5. If you're going to play a ten-year-old game, you know what you're in for, and 2049's graphics are no worse than other games on the N64, but if things like that bother you, this might not be the best game to play.

Graphics may not make the game, but gameplay certainly does, and 2049 delivers an unusual brand of racing. I'm used to games that are easy to learn and difficult to master, but this game almost flips that hackneyed saying on its head. The controls are standard, but are complicated by the flawed physics system that the game uses. Cornering, breaking, jumping, these are all fairly standard mechanics for over the top racing games, but these are all handled in way that isn't much like any other I've played. Once you can get around the tracks without blowing up, you'll have to spend a lot of time getting to know the courses. Unlike a lot of racing games you may have played, you won't be able to breeze through the tracks on your first play through. To get ahead, you've got to cheat, and that means scouring the road for shortcuts and secrets to launch yourself into first place.

Given the strangeness of the way the gameplay works, I was about ready to give up on San Francisco Rush after my first couple of hours with the game. In that time, my car exploded a few hundred times, I spun out every few seconds, and I never placed higher than fourth. It would be an understatement to say that I was vexed by my complete lack of success with the game. I even started to write this review, completing the first couple of paragraphs before deciding to go back and play the game for a little while longer. When I returned, with a clear head and a fresh mindset, I found that I liked the game much better. This is the sort of game that you've got to play for a while before you're even close to being good. Once you know how to get yourself around the tracks and once you've got the shortcuts memorized you've got a fair shot at gold, but you might not have a lot of fun up until that point.

Another weakness of is the way that the game allows you to unlock items. You don't get anything by winning races, and, to be honest, I'm not really sure how you unlock things. There are coins tucked in out of the way corners of the tracks, but collecting them doesn't seem to correlate to getting new items any more than other factors. For all I know, it might just be random, the game certainly doesn't do a good job of explaining how to progress. You start off with four tracks unlocked, and I haven't been able to attain any more than that. As far as I can tell, though, there are supposed to be two more, but I've spent a good four or five hours without getting them, so I think it's safe to say that the path to them is well hidden.

It may not be the most fully featured, and it may not be best racing game to be had on the Nintendo 64, but it has character and it's quite fun. If you're willing to get used to it and allow yourself to get good, I would recommend it, but if you just want to sit down, turn it on and have a good time, I would have to point you to some other game. All in all, it's solid, but not spectacular. I'm really not sure how I feel about this one: in technical terms, it's not good, on paper it doesn't work, but the more I play it, the more I'm hooked. It is, unfortunately, not one of the cheapest games you'll ever see: you can have it for around $10, and for that price, there might not be enough to warrant a purchase, but if you find it for a smaller price, I don't have many hesitations recommending San Francisco Rush 2049: a shoddy but lovable game for the Nintendo 64.

--Tom

Xbox 360 S review (250 gig version, no Kinect)

December 26, 2010. I walk in to Best Buy, all my giftcards in hand. I waltz over to the Xbox isle, pick up a copy of Black Ops, and a brand new 250 gigabyte console. Now that I've had it for a few weeks, we shall see if it's the shit, or if it's shit.

DESIGN AND HARDWARE

The design of the Xbox 360 S (We're going to call the old one "White" and this one "Black") is very similar to Xbox white, but just a tidbit smaller, and with various hardware moved around. There are 2 vents on both sides, and 2 vents on the top. It can be set up in either horizontally or vertically.If you want to switch sides, just be sure however, to power off and remove whatever disk inside BECAUSE IT WILL SCRATCH THE DISK! Black Ops learned this lesson the hard way (I got a new copy, no biggy). The 4 gig version of Xbox Black is a flat, matte black, while the 250 version is a very shiny black. Almost looks as if Xbox white had a baby with a PS3. The buttons are all touch sensitive, so no need worrying if your disk ejector is stuck (like my Wii). The buttons emit a chirping sound when touched, so you'll know if you did it right. The harddrive is removable, but I haven't taken it out for fear of breaking it. Of note is the fact that it has built in WiFi connectivity, so no need to shell out cash for the adapter. Also included are 5 USB.20 ports, an HDMI output, and a jack to plug in your Kinect, if you're the type of loser who has one. The Xbox comes packaged with one controller, and a headset. The headset plugs into the controller, in the bottom. The controller is very nice, almost identical to the PS/PS2/PS3 one, except that the right analog stick has switched positions with the D-Pad, and I like this a lot.

SOFTWARE AND XBOX LIVE

The OS on the Xbox is fairly slick, with menus and stuff. Very user friendly, but it seems more geared towards families and children. C'mon Microsoft, Wii's are for little kids and families, Xbox's are for grown ups! So recognize your demographic! Now lets talk about Xbox live. I think Gabe Newell, president and CEO of Valve said it best, "It's a train wreck". First, when you create your XBL account, you have to create a Mii Avatar. These are your little representations of you to the XBL community, which you can then spend real world money on dressing them up and giving them toys. You can give them lightsabers, dogs, a friggin boat. Whatever you wish. You also have to spend real world money on PAYING to play online, as a Gold membership is required. Xbox Live includes the Xbox Live Arcade, a collection of downloadable games, which includes Shadow Complex, Portal: Still Alive, Sonic Adventure, etc. All these games are reasonably priced, and besides the last one, are generally good.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Xbox 360 Slim improved where the previous failed, with new internals (Less RRoD's! :D), more features, and a reasonable price point. Of course, the PS3 is about the same, and that has a Blue Ray player, but I don't own a PS3 and can't tell if it's any better.

Pros:
Good controller
Good games
Sleek design
VERY quiet (Only makes a little "vrrrr" when playing a game, but I would be kind of worried if it didn't)
Nice interface
Built in WiFi
More USB ports, an HDMI outlet, and a Kinect outlet (lolkinect)

Cons:
Xbox Live sucks (Well, that's more of a con in general, but Playstation Network allows you to play multiplayer for free)
Gets fingerprints easy
Feels VERY breakable, like glass.
Can scratch disks if you move it.


EDIT: Also of note, it literally CAN'T RRoD you. If a fatal error occurs, you'll get a Red DOT of Death on the power button!

Alienators: Evolution Continues - Review

 Naturally Select Away From This Evolution
The Strong Survive and This Game Perishes

I'm not familiar with the 2001 film Evolution, but we have it to thank -or blame- for Alienators: Evolution Continues. Actually, Alienators is based on a short lived, animated, kids' TV show that was based on the movie, and we all know the quality of product that is churned out when a kids' show is adapted into a video game. In this case, though, Alienators is playable, and that's more than I could say for most games of this sort. The game puts you in control of Ira, a scientist/mercenary/soldier character who fills the typical hero role. The story is told in blocks of text between each of the levels, and it really doesn't matter all that much. The game could just as easily started with a message that read “There are monsters and stuff; go blow them up.” the game wouldn't have lost anything important and it would have gained style points, in my eyes, at least.

Gameplay is what you might expect: there's some shooting, there's some jumping, and there's a fair bit of collecting. As you progress through the game, you'll have to explore each of levels, collecting items as you go, before finally finding the exit and moving on. What can I say; it's a tried and true formula, and there's a reason why it's often used: it just works. There are times, though, when Alienators feels like it's a bit worn thin, especially when you stop and realize that other games have done the same things, only better. It may not be a fair comparison, but games like Mega Man ZX, Metroid: Zero Mission, and even Star Wars: Apprentice of the Force feel similar and superior to this game. Also, the controls feel loose to me, but that's a subjective gripe, so I won't dwell on it.

What is less subjective is the atrocity of the game's password feature. There is no save option in the game, if you want to put the game down for a while and then pick it back up later, you'll have to write down an eight digit password before you leave. Then, when you come back to the game, you'll have to input that password to return to your location. While it may sound like it wouldn't be a big deal, there's just no excuse for a Gameboy Advance game to not have a cartridge save feature. The only reason why a company would release a game without a save feature is to avoid having to put a battery in the cartridge, and therefore cutting the cost of each copy created. It's a penny pinching move that doesn't reflect well on the production values of the game. It wouldn't be so bad, it could even be overlooked, if the game allowed you to continue when you die, but as it is, you'll have to re-input the password every time you die: more often than you might think considering the fact that enemies respawn while health items do not.

While I might not call the graphics beautiful, I must say that I have a soft spot for sprites, and the game provides passable visuals. The enemies might not have the most original designs, but they're all good looking, and the backgrounds aren't bad either. The music is fine, if a little repetitive on the menus, but the music on the levels ranges from alright and repetitive to mind numbingly annoying and repetitive. Sound effects aren't anything to write home about: just about typical.

Come to think of it, if I were to use one word to describe this game, it would probably be “typical.” There's not a lot here that you haven't seen before in other, better games. I don't think there's anything here that needs to be played unless the Alienators TV show holds some sort of nostalgic appeal to you. If you want to prove me wrong, though, you won't have to break the bank to get your hands on a copy of the game. If you shop around a bit, you can find Alienators: Evolution Continues for around $5, but if you take my advice, you'll steer clear of this game.

--Tom

Alien Hominid - Review

 Short and Sweet
Intergalactic Crash Landing: Fun Ensues

Newgrounds is a website well known for games, but the games that populate its servers are typically of the flash variety, nothing like commercial products of any sort. It was, therefor, quite a surprise for me when I noticed the Newgrounds logo slapped onto the charming shooter for the Gameboy Advance, Alien Hominid. Had I been more familiar with the Alien Hominid brand, I would have known that the game debuted as a flash game that was featured on the aforementioned site and racked up over 19 million plays. The developers, an ironically small company known as The Behemoth, adapted and improved their successful flash game and released Alien Hominid for the Xbox, Playstation 2, and Gamecube in the latter part of 2004. Another small game developer, Tuna Technologies, was hired to port the game to the GBA, and the result is the game whose review you now happen to be reading.

Usually, I'm rather hard on commercially released sequels or adaptations of flash games, but in this case I think that the game was improved enough to warrant the cost. The game plays as what I'm tempted to call a “typical” side-scrolling shooter, but, really, there aren't enough games in this genre to dismiss the mechanics as typical. I should say that the control in Alien Hominid is very tight, reminiscent of games like Metal Slug or Gunstar Heroes. You should have no trouble maneuvering your little yellow alien through the game world, blowing the heads off of FBI agents and Soviet soldiers as you go. If there's one thing this game is not afraid to do, it's make a spectacle: clever boss battles range from giant sand monsters to an assortment of large robots, and copious amounts of blood burst from every grunt you take down. The gore can be turned off, but honestly: why would you? It might not quite fit the definition of epic, but it's certainly reaching toward that goal.

What may not be quite so epic is the game's story mode. Every once in a while, you'll watch a couple of still frames and get the general gist of what's going on, but the story really only exists to fit the segments together. Nuclear war, Area 51, Yeti, and, of course, Aliens are all crammed in to the mixture without a whole lot of explanation, but you probably won't need it either. In a title like this that is all about the gameplay, I found that the disparate elements that are introduced without ceremony, flow together to create a game that doesn't seem to be taking itself seriously. There are no moral quandaries to be considered in Alien Hominid, there is no time to stop and think about the wives and children of the endless waves of FBI agents that you'll be murdering, there is only nonstop action, and for that, I've got to commend the game.

What I can't commend the game for is its length. It took me less than two hours to see everything that Alien Hominid has to offer, and a playthrough of the main game itself will take less than an hour. Shelf life is somewhat extended by the inclusion of three minigames, but even these are a bit of a let-down. Coming off as little more than simplistic flash-esque games themselves, the minigames probably won't occupy you for very long. If you're going to reap continued enjoyment from this game, you'll have to be willing to put in multiple playthroughs, a possibility that is nicely enhanced by the well-implemented difficulty settings which do a good job of making the game accessible without compromising the rest of the game. You'll have to play on medium or hard if you want to see all of the levels the game has to offer.

The music is somewhat forgettable, and I could go on with nit-picky details like my hatred of the way you're forced to hide in level 3-1, or the awkward spaceship levels at the end of the first two worlds, but those are forgivable faults. The important thing is that the game is fun, and if you're willing to put up with the fact that there are only 12 levels, there's no real reason why you should pass this game up. The only difficulty might be the availability of the cartridge: the game was only released for the Gameboy Advance in Europe, so you might have to do some looking around before you're able to dig up a copy. Used copies do occasionally show up on Ebay and Amazon, though, and the prices are typically in the mid range of around $10. It may have its flaws, but if what I've said here doesn't sway you, feast your eyes on some gameplay footage and tell me what you think in the comment section below.

Alien Hominid Gameplay
More Alien Hominid Gameplay

--Tom

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger - Review

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger for the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube.
The Low-Down On the Finest Game From the Land Down Under

Every era has it's genre, and for the the early part of this millennium, the favored game type was the 3-D action platformer. Just a few years after the innovation that Nintendo showed gamers with 1996's Super Mario 64, other companies caught on to the particular gameplay mechanics required and ran with them, creating a long list of high-quality franchises. Most will be familiar to gamers: Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, and Sly Cooper, just to name the some of the more popular titles, but lurking in the background, there was always the B-list of mascot games, and most prominent among the also-rans was a little game called Ty the Tasmanian Tiger. Perhaps it's not fair to call it an also-ran, though: when released in 2000, Ty, while not a media sensation, did manage to sell over a million copies and become a greatest hit on both Playstation 2 and Xbox, but it also singlehandedly put its developer, Krome Studios, on the map, a company whose previous “greatest accomplishment” had been Sunny Garcia Surfing. Krome went on to develop two more Ty games for the major consoles before shutting its doors just a few months ago. Ty was their only original intellectual property, and aside from a few movie-based games and Wii versions of cross-platform games, their greatest accomplishment, but what does the game look like today?

Krome was an Australian developer, and the Ty series plays on the many stereotypes associated with the land down under. If this game were your only source of knowledge on the culture and society of Australia, you might think that the country would be a strange mixture of the Wild West and the rocky surface of Mars, populated by a group of people with strange accents and frequently used supposed slang words that might even put the Crocodile Hunter to shame. Yes, the world depicted in Ty is a complete exaggeration, but whether you see it as glibly ironic or deliberately obtuse will be up to you. As you might have gathered from the title, the main character, and, indeed, all of the other characters, are anthropomorphic animals, an idea which, though normally overused, is somewhat revitalized by the species used. The menagerie here consists of Kangaroos, Koalas, Platypuses, and a variety of other Aussie animals that don't see much play in other games of this sort. The aesthetic and atmosphere, too, are quite well done: alternately desolate and vibrant, the game does a good job of conveying the beauty of the land without employing the powerful graphics that today's consoles command.

If I were to complain about anything, I suppose that it would have to be the graphics. I am a firm believer in the slogan “The graphics don't make the game,” but I realize that decade-old polygons can be off-putting for some gamers. The game isn't ugly by any means, but the early days of the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube don't hold a candle to the processing power of today. Ty has all the hallmarks of the era: rough textures, limited draw distance, and bland will make appearances over the course of your adventure. If these are the sorts of issues that bother you, it would be best to keep that in mind when considering Ty. Another possible downside to the game are the long load times, it's not unusual to have to wait from ten to thirty seconds seconds before entering a level. Once you enter, however, there are no obvious loads while playing.

The game consists of nine main levels, four boss battles, two deathcourse levels, and one bonus level. In the main levels, you'll be tasked with assisting NPCs and gathering items to earn “Thunder Eggs.” When you earn enough of these geode-like stones, a boss portal will open and allow you the chance to move on the next area. In addition to the Thunder Eggs, you can search out additional collectibles like invisible boxes that contain concept art from the game, or gold gears (called Golden Cogs) that may be traded in for new variations on Ty's signature weapon: the boomerang. The boss levels are actually fairly innovative, with designs that surpass the typical “attack weak point for massive damage” sorts of bosses that are typically used. Each boss is well designed and distinct from the others, and the strategy you'll use to take them out won't necessarily come to you immediately. What I'm calling the deathcourses are the two final levels before the final boss battle, and unlike the main levels of the game, they contain no collectibles, and are instead focused solely on giving you a hard time. I'll talk a little bit more about the bonus in just a bit.

In general, the game plays a lot like the aforementioned Super Mario 64: the Thunder Egg system is very similar, if not completely copied from the stars collected by the fat plumber, but Ty's outback is far from a re-skinned Mushroom kingdom. While the hardware limitations of the Nintendo 64 left Mario with an unadorned and abstract world, Ty was afforded the luxury of both structure and logic. Levels in Ty are usually very linear with a definite start and ending marked by a spawn point and a portal back to the hub world, that said, I don't think that this linearity cheapens the experience. Yes, there are typically arrows pointing you in the direction that you should probably go, but this comes off not as hand-holding but as more of a guided tour. You'll probably need to visit each of the sprawling levels several times in order to find all the collectibles, and if your first time through is just from start to finish, your second time will allow you to do a more thorough exploration of all the nooks and crannies that hide countless goodies just waiting to be found. There too, the NPC mission structure will force you to backtrack and take alternate routes that will help to relieve any repetitions, and, in addition, each area features a more open level that will have you trading the focus of the other levels for a marvelously captured sense of scale. Swimming through large swaths of the Great Barrier Reef and driving through the Outback, make for excellent changes of pace.

The story of the game isn't really anything special. Ty is out to save his family from the clutches of an evil Cassowary, and in the process, thwart the bird-brained villain's plot to take over the world with giant robots, or an alternate dimension, or something. It's not remarkably clear why any of this is happening, and if you really want to know what's going on, it would probably be best to read the instruction manual, which does a much better job of telling the back-story than does the game. At the heart of it, it's another “orphan saves the world” sort of story that's more common in Japanese Role-Playing Games than anything else, but it's serviceable here. The cut-scenes are primarily done with in-game elements and their finest feature is probably the outlandish slang and unfamiliar accents that I've mentioned before.

The true challenge of the game is not whether or not you are going to finish the game. Honestly, almost anyone with a moderate degree of skill can reach the conclusion of Ty the Tasmanian Tiger. Even the deathcourses don't hold much of a challenge for a competent player. What may stump all but the most dedicated is 100% completion. If you want to get every Thunder Egg, every Golden Cog, help every NPC, and discover the life-increasing Rainbow Scales, you've got quite a job ahead of you. Still more time consuming is collecting each one of the 150 concept art pictures, which are so deviously placed in nearly transparent boxes. It took me over eleven hours to complete the game 100% without using any sort of guide, and I'm still lacking one of the concept art collectibles (which don't count toward your percentage). I'm afraid that I lack the strength of character to search through each of the levels all over again for that last practically invisible box.  (For an idea of how hard they are to catch, see if you can find the box hidden in one of the pictures in this article.) Even that rather lengthy amount of time might not tell the whole story: that was after having played the game several times. If I had attempted a similar feat with no prior knowledge of item locations and strategies, I have no idea how long it would have taken me. The reward for getting 100% is the somewhat disappointing bonus level, which isn't really a level so much as it is a place to put an inordinate amount of picture frames. The reward for a perfect game will have to the satisfaction of job well done, because the bonus level isn't much.

One of the nicest elements that I have yet to mention is the soundtrack. Each level features a beautiful or tense piece of music that sets the mood perfectly for the game. Not only is each track sufficiently unique, but they are all strikingly catchy. Weeks after setting the game aside, you may find yourself humming Mangroves at Night, the theme to the Bridge Over the River Ty level. In the end, I was forced to download some of the songs for my listening pleasure. The music strikes a balance between resting in the background and drawing your attention, enhancing the experience to the fullest extent.

Perhaps you can tell that I like this game quite a bit, and for that reason I might not be the most objective person to offer my opinion of this game. Be that as it may, I think that the information I've provided in this article is sufficient to allow you to form your own opinion of the game, and you already know if this is the sort of game that appeals to your sensibilities. Granted, it does lean toward a younger audience, but the game can provide a challenge for anyone regardless of skill level or age. I especially recommend this game for children graduating to “real” games. You may have to get them through the tougher bits, but it will provide them with knowledge that will hold true for a lot of the games that they may move on to after finishing. Among the candidates for a game they might try after this one is the sequel, Ty 2: Bush Rescue, which I will be reviewing shortly, be sure to check back for that review in a couple of weeks.

--Tom

Image Sources: Krome Studios

Metroid Prime: Why it's the best thing since sliced bread.

If there's ONE thing, ONE thing I like better than Portal, it's Metroid Prime. Retro Studios's 2002 title is not only the best Metroid games, not only the best Gamecube game, not only the best Nintendo game, but the best damn game in the history of platformers. Weapons, gameplay, music, even story!


THE STORY

The story begins with Samus intercepting a distress signal from the Frigate Orpheon, a space pirate research ship. She soon finds all of it's crew dead, or seriously injured. Further exploration finds the Parasite Queen, a giant bug thing hanging above the core. She soon dispatches it, and it falls into the core, causing a countdown timer to start. As Samus is leaving, she comes across Meta Ridley, a reincarnation of her old foe. Meta Ridley escapes, and as Samus is pursing him, a blast of electrical energy knocks Samus's powerups offline. She chases Meta Ridley to Tallon IV, a planet which has been impacted by a meteor containing Phazon, a deadly blue substance with incredible destructive properties. She lands on Tallon IV, and sets out to discover the Pirates' true intention.

THE GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is a lot different from most First Person games, and it bears lots of similarities to Half Life, except it's not as combat oriented, and the puzzles are a lot shorter. To jump, you hit B, and to fire, you hit A. Missiles are fired with the Y (Or D-Pad up, if you're playing the Wii version), Morph Ball is X (Or C if you're on the Wii), L (Or Z) locks on, and R allows freeview (GC only). All the controls feel natural, and are very quick and responsive. A lot of reviewers don't like the lack of dual sticks, but who cares? It plays like a dream. The power ups are the basic Metroid stuff, Varia suit, Ice beam, bombs, missiles, etc. All of them control like they do in the 2D games. Only thing is, they don't stack, so you have to choose them individually.
The biggest addition is visors, with a main visor, scan visor (Which allows you to scan enemies and computers for information), a thermal visor, an X ray visor, etc.

THE MUSIC

Holy mother of crap is it awesome. Just listen to the music on the right! It's fricken amazing! It mostly consists of remixes from old games, Lower Norfair being the Magmoor Caverns theme, Brinstar being the first Tallon Overworld theme (It switches to some other track when you acquire the Spider Ball) All of the tracks are beautifully made, and sometimes I had paused the game just to listen to it! It's that well done!






THE FINAL WORD

Buy it. NOW. It's the best damn game on the Wii/Gamecube. Final score, 9000 out of 10.

Pac-Man Pinball Advance - Review

Pac-Man Plays Pinball
Not Quite Amazing

Few of the Arcade greats had easy transitions to modern gaming. The video game industry was forced to make a huge departure from the primarily coin-operated market of the late 70's and early 80's, moving to the home console-driven market of the late 80's to the present day. Some stars of the arcade days, like Donkey Kong, went into the new market almost seamlessly with high-profile games like Donkey Kong Country that established them in the modern era as viable mascots, and for a while there, it seemed like if anyone were to succeed, Namco's Pac-Man would. Pac-Man's enormous popularity allowed him to overcome missteps like Pac-Man on the 2600 or Pac-Man 2 on the SNES and Genesis, and the lovable yellow dot even managed to successfully cross over the 2D-3D divide in 1999's Pac-Man World. However, the last decade hasn't been very kind to Namco's hungry, hungry spheroid, and after a long parade of spin-off titles, Pac's reputation isn't quite what it used to be. While the recent Pac-Man Championship Edition DX has been receiving rave reviews, we're not talking about that game today. Instead, we've got one of those dreaded spin-offs: Pac-Man Pinball Advance.

I would like to think of myself as an open minded guy, and I was willing to enjoy Pac-Man pinball as nonthreatening, kid-friendly pinball game for the younger-skewing Gameboy Advance, but sometimes games don't even give you the chance to like them. The game starts off with a none-too-pretty cut-scene that seems to be comprised of low-resolution, 2D elements from Pac-Man World 2. The story is the same kidnapped family tale that was told in the first Pac-Man World, but, really, a story isn't necessary in a pinball game. The point of pinball is to play the game, and you'll be supplied with two different boards to do just that. Each board includes alternate a night version that is essentially a new skin of the same board with a blue color scheme.

As is so often my complaint with cheaply made pinball games, the physics of Pac-Man Pinball Advance just don't seem like they've been refined. The flippers aren't able to get the ball up to speed half the time and the speed of the ball doesn't seem to be correctly fitted to the rest of the gameplay. The boards, too, seem like they weren't well designed for the way the game is played, with many of the objectives purely luck based and deadly gutters that are diabolically placed in a such a way that you're only ever a couple of bumpers away from loosing. These factors add up to make the game seem like it's less about the core skills of pinball and more about just hitting the ball around and hoping that something will happen.

I can speak positively about the music, though. Taking inspiration from the sound-tracks of the first two Pac-Man World games, the music is suitable different but comfortably similar to what we've heard before, never overstated, but not noticeably enjoyable either. It is, to some extent, just there, but it's not bad. The game also has some nice features like multi-ball, functional store system, and he nice touch of a ghost eating mode, but these are outweighed by the almost unforgivable lack of a high-score table.

I don't think there are any hard-core Pac-Man fans to whom I can recommend this game, but if there are, I have to wonder how they explain the last ten years of Namco trying to use Pac-Man as a cash cow for mediocre games like this one. The game can be found for five to ten dollars, but I can think of no good reason why you need to search out a copy. If you find yourself feeling the need for a power-pellet or two, stick with the classics, there's no need to turn to Pac-Man Pinball Advance.

Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire - Review

How to Learn From the Past: Pokemon Pinball
What a Difference a Bit of Polish Can Make

After the critical acclaim garnered by the first Pokemon Pinball game, it was only natural that Nintendo would want to release a second game in the spin-off series. Four years after the release of the first game, and after an upgrade in hardware, Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire was released in 2004 for the Gameboy Advance. If you've read my review of the first game, you know that I have several issues with that title, but going into this game with an open mind, I was surprised by what I found.

One of the major faults of the original Pokemon Pinball game was the poor physics and overall unrealistic feeling of movement. It's almost amazing to note how much has been done to correct this in Ruby and Sapphire: the control is tight and the physics of movement, the way the ball rolls seamlessly down the table, stands in stark contrast to the loose and awkward controls of the previous installment. The game requires a lot of precision, so these better controls mean that players are able to develop a greater degree or proficiency and skill when aiming for certain targets or attempting to trigger particular events. Whereas the older game had a certain element of hit the ball and pray something will happen, this game makes you feel like you're actually in control, like you're really earning your score.

This is the game that proves the concept of the original game. The developer, Jupiter, didn't make any changes to the two-board structure that I complained about in my other review, but with competent objectives and proper gameplay, you never feel like you're at a loss for something to do. One of the improvements to the game was the addition of a second method of capturing Pokemon. Unlike the first game, where you could only capture by triggering the Catch Mode and hitting bumpers to reveal the monster, Ruby and Sapphire adds a Hatch mode where repeating a certain action several times will eventually cause an egg to hatch and the Pokemon inside the egg to walk around on the playing field. Players can then complete the capture by hitting the Pokemon twice. Variety is also added by small bonus stages similar to the stages in the first game, but seem to happen more frequently due to how comparatively easy catching Pokemon is.

Everything seems more intuitive in Ruby and Sapphire, the boards are well balanced, and I was able to rack up similar scores on both Ruby and Sapphire boards. It's also fairly easy to catch and evolve on both boards. This balance means that the player feels less like they have to play one board more than the other, and leads to a more enjoyable experience. The game is easier, perhaps, but that doesn't cheapen the experience, if anything, it encourages the player to try to do more in the game. Looking at the Pokedex, I actually felt confident in the possibility of completing it, given enough time. The difficulties that had to be overcome in order to evolve in the first game, meant that completion seemed like an impossible task, not so in Ruby and Sapphire.

Another new feature is the Pokemart, which allows you purchase items like additional lives, multipliers, or instant transport to one of the bonus stages. These upgrades are paid for with coins that are gathered by taking certain routes on each table. Though the idea is a fairly good one, I didn't find the Pokemart to be especially useful. Saving up the coins necessary for the useful items takes quite a while, and you never know if you'll have the right number when you happen to open up store option.

Things I would have liked to have seen, would have been a multiball feature or a multi-level component to one or both of the boards. These are fairly standard things for pinball table to have, and I feel that their exclusion is somewhat unfortunate. That said, what is there is quite impressive.

Looking at both games side by side, it's almost hard to believe that they were separated by a mere four years. Clearly, the developers had a lot more processing power and graphical capability to work with while creating the Gameboy Advance game. The graphics are crisp and sharp, suitably modern, but retaining a certain quality of hand-drawn old-school character. The game features a good number of beautiful pixel art pieces, the sort of quality work that won't age like the jagged polygons that might be splashed over the game if re-made for the DS. Perhaps the GBA was the last classic portable system, and, if so, Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire is the last classic portable pinball game.  You can get your hands on a copy of the game for anywhere from five to fifteen dollars, and, if you're a fan of pinball or a diehard Pokemaster, I wholeheartedly recommend that you do.

--Tom

Pokemon Pinball - Review

Pokemon and Pinball: A Match Made in Heaven?
Setting Off the Tilt.

In the late 1990's and early 2000's, putting the name Pokemon on a game was almost a guaranteed sales strategy for Nintendo. Despite the marketing gold that they had on their hands, the Big “N” did a fairly good job of resisting the urge to flood the marketplace with shovel-fulls of below-average games. That' not to say that they limited their output; no, throughout the later part of the millennium, there was a steady stream of Pokemon titles, but the vast majority of those games were of the quality we would expect from a company as preeminent as Nintendo. You can't win them all, though, and after churning out the high quality RPGs that form the main portion of the game, sometimes the spin-offs suffered from unfortunate issues. Pokemon Pinball is, unfortunately, one of those games.

That's not to say that Pokemon Pinball is a bad game: it's not. The game does what it can with the hardware of the Gameboy Color, and it was certainly one of the better pinball games on a portable system. When it was released in 1997, critics received it positively, but a lot of things have happened in the years that followed. The level of advancement in portable gaming in the last thirteen years has left Pokemon Pinball in the dust. Whereas games like Pokemon Red and Blue are still enjoyable years after the technology they used was outdated, Pokemon Pinball hasn't aged well.

Pinball is a fun game; the design and gameplay of the game we know as pinball have been honed for over a hundred years, and Pokemon Pinball doesn't do much to change that formula. There's a reason why we like these games, though, and while everything may look right on paper and in theory, it's not perfect in the end. Pinball relies on proper, or at least consistent, physics, but that's not exactly what you'll find if you play this game. The ball rarely does what you expect it to: speed, direction, and deflection seem to be fairly plastic, and you'll often the game running in a way that you can immediately recognize as unrealistic and impossible. This is especially prevalent on the Blue board.

Evolution in Action.

And there inlies my other complaint with the game: the boards. While there's nothing specifically wrong with either board, no matter which way you count them, there are still only two boards. The two boards, might keep you occupied for a while, but it's hard to play the game for any length of time because of this lack of variety. There are occasional mini-boards that will provide objective-based challenges, but these are few and far between. The game will tell you that you're moving from location to location in the Pokemon world, but these changes do nothing to effect the way the game plays. The issue is further compounded by the fact that, due to the previously mentioned physics issues that crop up heavily in the Blue board, you'll have to play on the red board if you want to play anything close to an actual game of pinball. This can be problematic, though, because it's much easier to catch and evolve Pokemon on the blue board.

Another possible downside to the game is the attached rumble pack, which I found more annoying than helpful. Maybe it was cool thirteen years ago, but with rumble built into most controllers nowadays, there's nothing special about this feature.

I love old games, but I can't review this game based on how it fits into historical context. Based solely on how fun this game is to play right now, I've got to recommend against picking up an old copy of Pokemon Pinball. It's not bad if you just want to play for a few minutes and catch a couple of Pokemon, but ultimately, time hasn't been kind to this game. However, if you are a Pokemon fanatic who requires Pokemon Pinball to complete your Pokemon collection, this game will only set you back a couple of dollars. Just don't expect the same level of quality that you find in the main series.

--Tom

Picross 3D - Review

Picross 3D
An Extra Dimension and Another Success

The DS has always had a strong stable of puzzle games in its library, and featuring prominently in that pantheon since its release in 2007, has been a little game called Picross DS. Based on a from of logic puzzle known as nonograms and striking a balance between Sudoku and Minesweeper, Picross DS was hailed as innovative and addictive by the video game press, but puzzle games are not particularly prone to spawning sequels that make changes in gameplay, which makes the recent release of Picross 3D somewhat surprising. As might be deduced from the title, Picross 3D shakes up the gameplay by adding depth to the height and width in the original Picross formula. The new, 3D puzzles not only look more intricate and daunting, but makes an interesting new twist to the game.

I didn't start off appreciating the additions, though. After the first couple hours of gameplay, I found myself losing interest in the game and wishing that I could just go back and play the original. There's always the possibility that a puzzle game will become tiring, and I'm afraid that this holds true for Picross 3D. You may pick it up for a little while, complete a few puzzles, and then put it down again. It's much better in small doses. Of course, this means that you might not be able to rely on Picross 3D holding your attention for a long plane ride or car trip.

The game is a slow burner: gradually, as I played more and more, I started to realize that I was liking the game more and more. The controls work well, moving and rotating the camera with the stylus and then using the X and Y buttons to mark and destroy blocks as you slowly reveal the shape in the center of each puzzle. The music wont blow you away, but it sports a fairly competent variety. In the end, I just turned down the volume and listened to the radio. There's nothing wrong with the sound effects or music, but you won't miss them if they go away.

If you're worried about content, let me put your fears to rest: Picross 3D boast hundreds of puzzles that will take you quite a while to complete. You might be able to easily complete the first few difficulties, but the puzzles to increase in difficulty, and you'll have quite a job to do if you want to get a perfect score on all the puzzles. A star system that rates your performance on each puzzle encourages you to play through each one two or three times to get the maximum possible score. In addition, even if you're able to make it through all of the challenges offered with this game, you can download additional puzzles through the Nintendo WiFi Connection. You can also create and share your own puzzles and share them with friends or upload them to the internet for other players to download. The puzzle creation tool is remarkably easy to use, and you'll have no difficulty making complicated challenges in no time.

As previously mentioned, the game takes a while to get into, and this is partially the fault of the fact that you have to play through all the tutorial levels before you can get on to anything remotely challenging. This is not to say that the tutorials aren't helpful, you will probably need to use them to get a grasp of the basic changes that have been made in the Picross formula, but forcing you to go through all the learning levels and then through all of the ridiculously easy beginner levels, just adds more time to the experience, not more enjoyment.

Overall, Picross isn't the sort of game that pulls you in for hours on end, but over the course of the last week, I've found that I've played it quite a bit. A minute here and a minute there really starts to add up, and looking back on the time I've spent with it, I've got to say that I did enjoy playing. So, despite first impressions to the contrary, I can find no reason not to recommend Picross 3D as one of the best puzzle games for the DS. Give the game some time and you might find that you'll come to agree with me.

--Tom

Rad Racer - Review

High Speed Fun
Rad Racer on the NES

Square-Enix is primarily known for their role-playing games, and rightfully so. After more than two decades of Final Fantasy games, it's difficult to dispute their impressive track record for fantasy RPGs. However, mastery in one genre doesn't mean that a developer has to make only games of that description, but all of that was yet to come. In the summer of 1987, Final Fantasy was still months away, and even though the young company was flailing financially, it managed to release Rad Racer on August 7th in Japan and October 1st in North America.

History is all well and good, but video games are all about the gameplay: if the game isn't fun, it's not fun. Thankfully, however, Rad Racer remains an amazing game and one of the finest driving games on the NES. Given the hardware, developers had to keep things simple in those days, but Rad Racer's arcade style and exhilarating sense of speed keep Rad Racer remains enjoyable and excellent. Lest I lavish on the praise too thickly, let's talk about the game in a little more detail.

The first thing you're likely to notice when looking at Rad Racer is the graphics. The Super Nintendo with its “Mode-7” capabilities was still years away, but this game presents a very competent 3D illusion within the narrow bounds of the NES processing power. Compared to the sometimes tacky use of Mode-7 in SNES games, Rad Racer has a beautifully old school look because, of course, this game is old school, and with that title comes a certain level of difficulty. This is not an easy game, and you'll have to master the gas, brake, and boost mechanics before you can advance to the later levels. Aiding you in this effort are the wonderfully tight controls. In stark contrast to the too-much or too-little brakes of so many racing games, Rad Racer feels just right in the controls.

Uh-Oh...

My one complaint with Rad Racer would have to be the way your car interacts with the other cars on the road. You're not really racing with anyone in the sense that there are no positions and you don't have to pass any cars to win, per se, but if you don't pass cars, you'll run out of time and face a game over. The other cars move much more slowly than you do, so you'll come up to cars fairly often, but when you do come upon cars, you'll know it. Hitting another car squarely from the rear will slow you down, but if you touch another car from the side, you'll go flying off to the side of the screen where you'll likely crash and burn. Needless to say, it can be frustrating to be tossed off the screen by a car that continues on unfazed, and at times the game can seem more like bumper cars than anything close to driving a real car.

However, any shortcomings are more than made up for by the sheer joy of playing the game. There isn't really a better way to say it: this game simply appeals to me, as I'm sure you've gathered. You've probably heard good things about the game, and, while I hesitate to gush too much, I highly recommend that you pick this game up. There's really no reason not to have this game in your collection, especially given the fact that it can be purchased for just a dollar or two.

--Tom