Puzzle/Arcade

Don’t make any fucking plans.

Rich

After a week of heavy play of FIFA 12‘s horribly addictive Ultimate Team mode, going through the chore of playing yet another match three puzzler on Xbox Live Arcade wasn’t something I was looking forward to, especially as I thought Bejeweled Blitz was a load of old bollocks and I wasn’t convinced that the Bejeweled series works on anything but a touchscreen.  Add to that the prohibitively expensive asking price (1200M$P) and this is the kind of game that I imagine most of you will be ignoring without giving it a second thought.  Well stick with it because, amazingly, Bejeweled 3 is ace as tits. 

Some jewels.

For those of you who’ve never seen a gaming-capable phone or any kind of website, Bejeweled is the bazillion-selling match-three puzzler from PopCap, the guys who brought you the maddeningly addictive Peggle and the brilliantly charming Plants Vs. Zombies.  The original game saw you swapping over pairs of jewels in order to make a line of three, at which point they disappear and more drop in from above in the tradition of Columns or, to a degree, Tetris. 

The last game in the series, Bejeweled Blitz, was a lightning fast effort that saw you playing one minute matches of either the Classic mode or Twist (a mode where you rotate groups of jewels rather than swapping pairs) but control issues combined with a huge luck requirement made it a little disappointing and the one minute time limit meant you could never really settle into a groove with it.

Thankfully, any concerns I had with that game (or any other in the series) have been dealt with.  Firstly, there are a choice of eight modes (some of which you have to unlock but there’s not too much difficulty involved in doing that) that all give distinct flavours of the Bejeweled formula.  These mostly do away with the one minute time limit thankfully and have their own set of in-game badges that are awarded for various feats.  The great thing the badges, and associated achievements, are that their targets are focused on skill rather than chore or luck, definitely a first for the series.

It’s worth mentioning the various modes as the game borrows from plenty of other games while always keeping true to the series’ roots.

Classic

The basic flavour of Bejeweled that sees you swapping pairs of jewels until there are no more moves left.  A simple match three puzzler.

Zen

An endless version of the above but with a bizarre ‘biofeedback’ system that is supposed to chill you out by playing certain frequencies at you and moderating your breathing.  The jury is out on if it works but if you want a quick chill out and have played a little too much Chime, this will suffice.

Lightning

This is a one-minute mode, similar to Blitz but with the chance of earning additional time from making special gems.  That ability makes this mode far more enjoyable than Blitz and is perfect for a quick bash.

Butterflies

One of the best modes in the game, this plays like Classic Mode but with ‘butterflies’ – special pieces that can be manipulated and destroyed like regular jewels – that climb up the board from the bottom with each move.  If they get to the top, it’s game over.  A good degree of strategy is required if you want to get the big scores on this. 

Poker

Another excellent mode, this mode gives you a jewel for each move you make.  Clear a set of red jewels and you’ll get a red one in your hand.  The idea is to make a ‘hand’ of five jewels.  The harder the hand, the more you’ll score.  So three reds and two yellows (a full house) scores higher than a pair for example.  It’s a little bit like the XBLA title Poker Smash but not horribly hateful.

Diamond Mine

Taking its cues from the dreadful Mr. Driller, this mode has you destroying the ground beneath you by making matches next to any soil pieces.  Destroy a whole horizontal row of soil and you’ll drop down to the next depth.  Tactical thinking is key here and the time limit keeps things suitably frantic as you look to get the next row clear as that’ll give you a thirty second time bonus.

Ice Storm

Possibly the most frantic mode of all, Ice Storm seems your game board filling with water as you play.  Once the water reaches the top, it starts to freeze.  If a column freezes, it’s game over.  Making horizontal matches will stem the tide a little but you really need to make vertical matches as this will clear entire columns of ice.

Quest

A set of tailored levels that use the other modes in the game (and a few extra ones) but have specific challenges associated.  These range from easy to maddeningly tough but this is a very enjoyable mode with plenty of variation.   

Some more jewels.

Although I have favourites, none of the modes disappoint and the twin-stick controls (something that Blitz really needed) make playing any of them almost as effortless as the formats the game was really intended for.  With the incentive of getting all the badges, there’s plenty of reason to keep coming back before you even start thinking about the online leaderboards, although those are likely to hot up in a few months time when this game inevitably becomes an Xbox ‘deal of the week’ title.  However, despite this being a free review copy, knowing what I know now, I’d buy this.  It’s a great game, perfectly polished (with the clean, bright look you associate with all PopCap titles) and is ideal for quick plays.  Even if those quick plays are likely to stretch out for hours.

As one of literally dozens of similar games on the system, Bejeweled 3 is a little bit hamstrung by its price, especially as it’s probably 90% cheaper on the various iDevices, but it is second only to Chime in the genre, effortlessly outdoing the other match-three puzzlers on Xbox Live and more than living up to the PopCap brand.  

 Rating: 9 out of 10 stars 9/10

Puzzle

PSP puzzler comes to XBLA.  Gets boring review tagline.

Danny

I have always had a little bit of a soft spot for the Mercury games. They pretty much play like your Marble Madnesses or your Monkey Balls in that you must get your little glob to the goal as quickly as possible while collecting as many bonus items as you can and you have to do all of this without spilling a drop of mercury.

The things that set the Mercury games apart from your standard indie game of the same ilk is the great minimalistic style the game has (comparable to the test chambers from Portal) and the level design which will really make you scratch your head in parts because the level designers have included some very cleaver tricks and traps for the player to overcome.

The spiritual successor to Spindizzy (retro points!).

Then there is the fact that you are controlling a glob of mercury which I maintain while being an inanimate object still has more personality than your average first person shooter protagonist these days.  Anyway the fact that the player is controlling a glob of mercury allows the level designers to do a lot more than the average ‘roll the ball in the goal’ kind of games.  The mercury acts as you might imagine a glob of metallic goo would. You can split it by pressing it against pointed objects and parts of it will drip out of bounds if your mercury strays to near a boundary-less edge.

Sometimes the levels will require you to change the colour of your glob to gain access to certain areas by going in to respray areas. Couple this mechanic and the mercury splitting mechanic from earlier and you’ve got some clever solutions at hand to the various challenges Mercury Hg throws at you.  This all sounds super complex but it’s not and that is the best thing about the game.  It explains everything in a great set of tutorials, making the game very easy to pick up.

There is literally no point trying to explain this.

There are 60 well designed levels (with two DLC packs already confirmed) and there are also bonus levels and challenge modes that the player can play too and all of these come with online leaderboards. You can also add your own music if you don’t like the in-game selections and you get an achievement for doing it. 

For 400 Microsoft Points this game is pretty much a must as it provides more value than a lot of the games that cost the standard 1200 Microsoft Points these days. It’s got some minor technical issues like sometimes the game slows down to a crawl if you rest the level too much (problem is solved by resetting again) but other than that this is a great little leaderboard-oriented puzzle game that at least deserves enough of your attention to check out the demo.

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars 9/10

Flying/Racing

Fly the unfriendly skies.

Rich

One of the neat things about running the UK’s premier games site that nobody knows about is that occasionally, when we can be bothered talking to them, PR people send us games like this review.  Another XBLA curiosity, released to die at a price point that’ll stop most sane gamers from even having a go on the trial.  At 1200M$P SkyDrift can most definitely fly off into the sunset as far from our wallets as possible, but as a minor distraction from our Dead Island obsession we’re happy to sit down with a freebie and give it our attention.

We’re glad we did.  SkyDrift is a plane-based power-up racer, a bit like Diddy Kong Racing (apparently), that follows the usual conventions of the genre without falling victim to them.  That is to say that the power-ups themselves are a nice mix of offensive and defensive skills that won’t see you losing a race on the finish line but will reward a little bit of bravery over those opponents who are content to simply race to the finish line.  Also, the mix of game areas, with their bold graphics and occasional shortcuts, echo long-time PEOWW favourite Hydro Thunder.  That’s never a bad thing.

Catching some of that Hydro Thunder appeal with a water-based level.

With no plot to worry about, the game is a basic, arcade-styled affair with a mix of regular races, speed races (where you maintain speed by flying through hoops) and survivor races (where the last placed plane is eliminated at set intervals until only one is left).  On the default Normal difficulty and above, SkyDrift represents a fairly substantial challenge (although achievement whores will be glad to know you can max the game on Easy) although it is quite a short game with a campaign mode that can be finished in just a few hours.

The best thing about the game is the boost system which gives you precious boost for flying dangerously low and shooting enemies.  It introduces an element of risk vs. reward which is still our favourite aspect of any arcade styled game.   This mechanic, combined with the solid game engine, sees you taking more chances than you would in a car or kart-based game of this type and it often sees you crashing hopelessly into the scenery.  Thankfully, the penalties for crashing are less severe than other racing games and you’ll be back on track (so to speak) quicker than usual.

At a lower price point, this would be a nice little arcade hidden gem.  God knows that if it had been released on the Dreamcast, we’d have loved the arse off of it (a lot more than that Propellor Arena bullshit) but at 1200M$P, it just doesn’t have the chops to justify the price.  Sure, it’s polished with the dynamic levels all looking suitably exciting and everything moving along at a decent rate but with no real pre-release hype, and the silly price, this game is already fairly dead online.

Other problems are that the game is always wrestling you to keep you on the invisible ‘correct’ path, even if that means shoving you directly into an obstacle.  It becomes a constant irritation until you learn the tracks, which is fair enough when you can see what you’re learning, but a bit a of twat here when you have clear line of sight between where you are and what you can see.  Also, the sluggish controls aren’t particularly well thought-out.  Especially the power turning which requires you to use both sticks.  That just feels wrong.

Overall though, I’ve already had a lot of fun with the game.  It’s accessible, arcadey and it looks and sounds good.  It’s an obvious choice for a quick ‘deal of the week’ appearance and if they drop it to less than 800M$P (a price that would still seem a little much), grab it.  It’s a good game.  Just one that’s being sold by greedy fools.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars 6/10

Fighting

Fighting klassics ruined by kunts.

Rich

After the much-hyped, but ultimately disappointing Mortal Kombat (2011), dropped during the summer drought, we’d pretty much decided that we were done with Mortal Kombat as a series.  It’s heyday was a long fucking time ago if we’re being honest and since then MK fans have been shat on even more than Aliens fans have.  However, NetherRealm studios decided that the early 2D titles needed a fresh airing and we’re still suckers for a bit of 2D gore.

Taking the place of Midway’s delisted-on-XBLA Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, the Mortal Kombat Kollection kom.. combines the first three games in one handy package.  This isn’t Mortal Kombat Trilogy either, all three games are seperate parts of this compilation.  Each game is a straight port of the arcade game albeit with a sprinkling of achievements and a tagged-on online component.

Prepare to hate this game.

First up is the original Mortal Kombat, a game that arrived kicking and uppercutting in 1992 to a baying crowd.  With its digitised kombatants, vicious moveset and outrageous gore, Mortal Kombat was more flashy and spectacular than its main competitor Streetfighter II whilst being a less balanced and competent fighting game, but where Streetfighter II was slow, methodical and tactical, Mortal Kombat was fast-paced, exciting and brutal.  In the cold light of 2011, it’s obviously showing its age and it lacks some of the much-needed tweaks introduced in the next two games but dammit, Mortal Kombat still has it.  The original, and best, cast of characters all have their own style and the combat (yeah fuck the K thing) still feels pretty solid.  Sure, Goro (the fucking four-armed fucker) spoils the party a bit but the game is still very enjoyable.  Certainly a lot more fun than the XBLA port of Streetfighter II anyway.

Of course, Mortal Kombat II is next.  This is the game that made me buy a SNES and has long since been the highpoint of the series for me.  Well no longer.  Mortal Kombat II can quite literally fuck itself with Scorpion’s spear.  Even on ‘Very Easy’ the game clearly thinks you’ve selected ‘Balls Hard’ because it is astonishingly difficult and not in a good way.  14 fights await you and all but the first three or four are relentlessly cheap and hateful.  The AI simply reacts to your button presses in the cheapest possible ways, especially the last three boss characters, and in the end you’ll need to resort to cheapness to beat them.  I’ve always loved MK2 but it can seriously go fuck itself right about now.  Pad reading, zoning, projectile-spamming enemies do not make for an enjoyable game.

Last up is Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, a smoother, more balanced game than the previous two.  UMK3 looks great, plays well and offers more scope when it comes to difficulty.  Of course, Shao Khan is still a complete bastard but he’s marginally easier to handle than his MK2 incarnation.  The additional cast and associated fatalities are also worth exploring.

You heard the man...

So, one very good game, one very unfair one and one aged classic that’s still worth a play.  Not bad for 800M$P.  However, everything that is good about this game was created in the ’90s.  Everything we don’t like about the game is pure 2011.  First up, whilst the visuals are accurately presented, some of the visual filters are terrible, especially the ‘Arcade’ view which has clumsily-grouped scanlines that look awful.  Still, some of the smoothing filters are okay.  Then you’ve got some missing background textures from UMK3 that just show up as black expanses.  The sound is also incredibly poor, sounding like low-quality samples of the original games.

Then you’ve got the online play which is extraordinarily laggy.  The previous XBLA title,  UMK3, was much smoother than this.  Very poor indeed and there aren’t even that many people playing this so Goro only knows what’s blocking all the bandwidth.  So if you’re thinking of buying this for the online larks, don’t.

A really disappointing aspect of this game comes from the achievements.  On first glance they seem much fairer, and more sensible, than recent efforts (MK vs DC in particular) but that counts for little when they don’t actually unlock when they are meant to.  We spent a good few hours beating the various titles on here but the associated achievements seem to have a 50/50 chance of unlocking.  Hearing our forumer, Dean, get cheated out of his MK2 completion achievement after battling that bullshit for four hours makes us feel grateful that only MK1 glitched out on us.  NetherRealm need to patch this shit.  Like, hardcore.

The ridiculous difficulty, terrible online play and glitched achievements really hurt this game and give the impression of complete laziness.  There are no unlockables either which is odd given how they’ll usually shove in a tedious Krypt mode every fucking chance they get.

Your mileage may vary but for us we welcomed back an old classic, learned to hate an old favourite and ultimately realised UMK3 is the best of the early MK games.  But we already owned that before it got delisted so what’s the point of this compilation exactly?  To make us shut up about Mortal Kombat II probably…

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars 5/10

Platformer

How about some action?

Gareth

Ah, Twisted Pixel. I’m not 100% sure what to think of you. The Maw had good feedback but I only personally played the trial. Splosion Man was fun and very rewarding in co-op. I have Comic Jumper on my hard drive waiting to be played after mixed views from friends. Now you release Ms. Splosion Man, a direct sequel to Splosion Man. You have a fun sense of humour and some good ideas but can the Splosion Man formula support another full game?

Released two years ago, Splosion Man was a puzzle platformer but with a difference. Instead of jumping your character ‘sploded’. This ‘splosion’ launched you off the ground much like a jump but you could then splode another two times in mid air to propel yourself further or to interact with objects such as explosive barrels. This concept allowed for many interesting scenarios and it had a co-op mode to boot where you could splode off one another to gain more height and distance.

Let's just nuke the entire site from orbit.

Ms. Splosion Man (MSM), as you might expect, is more of the same. Twisted Pixel seem to have drawn inspiration from Super Mario World when thinking about where to go with the series, introducing a world map with branching paths, hidden exits in levels and even (according to the achievements, I have yet to find it) a ‘Star Road’. The world map doesn’t necessarily add much other than the possibility to avoid levels marked as hard (with a skull) but it doesn’t detract from the game either. The secret exits add to the replayability of the levels, on top of the collectible shoes in each level and leaderboards (including ghosts you can race against) and unlockables which means you won’t be besting MSM too soon. And that’s just the single player.

There are just as many multiplayer levels, all designed specifically for co-op. You can have up to four people playing at once but only two are required to complete each level. MSM (and Splosion Man before it) actually requires true co-operation, with levels being impossible to complete without both players being of an adequate skill level and fully in tune with one another. Quite often timing has to be perfect and an in game timer you can set off with the left trigger helps with this but ideally you need a good friend to help you through this. If one of those isn’t at hand one of the unlockables is called ’2 girls 1 pad’ and has you controlling two Ms. Splosion Mans with one pad, one on the left stick and bumper and one on the right stick and bumper. Playing in this mode seems to require some amazing ‘rub your belly, tap your head’ style skills but it is absolutely doable and an interesting way to approach the game.

The overall gameplay has been improved in MSM as well. Straight off the bat in level one you will see more variety in environments than you did in the entirety of Splosion Man with her quickly breaking free of the laboratory in which she is created (be accident). It is very nice to see more of the zany world the Splosion Man games are set in as before you only had the human scientists you were murdering giving you any sense of life in the world, now you see a whole city stretching out in the background including flying cars, and leaping whales.

Twisted Pixel also haven’t rested on their laurels when it comes to gameplay ideas either, with loads more puzzle elements and ways to traverse the stages from rails you can slide along at speed to trampolines to energy balls you can push around to infinite splosion grids to name but a few. I was very impressed with the amount of new ideas bouncing around and it certainly stops that feeling of deja vu arriving the instant you start the game up.

However, it doesn’t solve all Splosion Man’s problems. Sploding isn’t as accurate as jumping, so there will be times when you curse the controls which shouldn’t be the case in a platformer, you want full control at all times. Sometimes you have to die in order to progress. Something will happen that you have no way of predicting so you have to take the hit and then continue from the previous checkpoint and remember what is coming up. I mentioned they’ve made a valiant effort to add variety, but the game can still get a little repetitive before you reach the final levels and I imagine the high difficulty, forcing you to repeat sections over and over, doesn’t help this. I’d actually recommend people who didn’t try Splosion Man to buy that first before MSM as the learning curve here is much steeper, Twisted Pixel seemingly expecting some prior knowledge of the game mechanics.

There's probably a PMT joke in here somewhere but we're too lazy to be sexist right now.

Also, Ms. Splosion Man herself is one of the most irritating characters in gaming, spouting quotes from film or lines from pop songs what feels like every three seconds. Splosion Man was kind of annoying but MSM takes it to a whole new level.

Despite these negatives, for 800MSP you cannot complain about the package you get with Ms. Splosion Man. There’s lots of content from the single player to the co-op, the competition from the leaderboards, the hidden extras and the unlockables and they definitely have improved upon the previous game. All the negatives I mentioned were present in Splosion Man so if you’re already a fan then there’s not much here to put you off enjoying this one. Twisted Pixel will struggle to make another Splosion Man game without changing the formula more dramatically to attract old and new fans a like but maybe some where down the line we’ll see a Splosion Man CE DX which will prove me wrong.

8/10

FPS

The long-awaited sequel to Section 7: Bigotry.

Colin

Most people labelled the original Section 8 as ‘Big Dumb Space Marine Shooter #3C15’ which is exactly how it looked on the surface. Peel away at the outward layers however and you’ll find so much more than just the standard death-matching game. The original was met with praise and detraction in equal measure but even the developers – Timegate Studios knew they took a risk with a game that was heavily focused on its online combat modes, so what did they do? the sensible thing of course (a rarity in these days). They released it in such a manner as to make it more attainable to people as a downloadable arcade title and they slashed the price from roughly 4000 space points to only 1200, it’s cheaper but certainly not a cheap game.

You’d instantly be wrong in comparing this to a Halo clone when infact it’s got more in common with a game like Team Fortress, your space marine comes with a set of pre selected class options (engineer, scout, assault etc) but most people will want to make their own for each occasion. Two weapons from the usual selection (assault rifle, machine gun, pistol, missile launcher etc), two accessories (repair tools, jammers, mortars, knifes etc) and then 10 points to spend on improving various aspects of your suit (shield capacity, armour recharge, repair tool speed, bullet damage etc) effectively allow you to create anything from your own bullet sponge to a fast moving flying ninja. Weapons are also customised with upgrades you obtain for completing different feats or by rising up through the ranks. Upgrades to drain shields, burn armour, slow enemy movement and so on effectively mean the same weapon on the battlefield will rarely kill you in the game twice.

Jetpacks improve any game.

Your space marine has a few extra tricks up his sleeves in the form of a jetpack, the ability to ‘overdrive’ or sprint at massive speeds across the battlefield and also to ‘lock-on’ to fast moving enemies for a few seconds, these abilities need time to recharge but can be enhanced with the afore mentioned suit points, obviously at the cost of armour and other abilities. Everyone will find their own class and style to play and the best part being that these mods, upgrades and points are actually useful and don’t just add a shiny tint to your gun. The most unique difference about Section 8 has to be the way you spawn on the map; rather than just appearing, you are fired from a orbiting dropship like an “express elevator to hell – going down” in a pod, thus removing the opportunity for camping gits and their oh so cheap kills. Active anti air guns prevent you from dropping directly into the enemy base during tea time but so long as their defences are down you can drop pretty much anywhere on the map – even aim your landing mid air. Leave it too late to slam on the breaks and you forcefully thud into the ground requiring you some time to regain your balance and even recharge your shields.

The single player is slightly meatier than the original but it’s not going to blow you away with any kind of immersive environment and set pieces. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away two groups of space marines decide to knock the shit out of each other ~ Fin. Here is where you’re most constricted in how you play, no dropping in, a slower pace and you don’t have to ability to spawn turrets whenever you want, completely understandable of course because much like the original the focus is still heavily on the online modes and this is just an introduction to the basic mechanics of the world, all be it slightly better paced this time round.

Oh my god... an promo screenshot that's from actual gameplay!

Multiplayer comes in two distinct flavours, Conquest mode and the now standard Swarm (read: horde/firefight) mode. Most gamers are probably getting fed up with fighting waves and waves of enemies but the difference here is that you can loose without ever dying and you can win even though you died hundreds of times. Waves of enemies of increasing strength try to rush your base and capture your control point all the while you shoot, drop turrets and vehicles like a 3D version of Desktop Tower Defence, they do the killing, you earn the bucks and you buy some more. Saving up for vehicles makes good sense as the mechsuit and very beefy tank make a welcome return, with a new arrival in the form of the hoverbike. Of course there are limits to prevent you abusing this advantage as each play can drop only so many vehicles, turrets, sensors, supply depots etc on the map at any one time so you are going to have to do a fair amount of shooting yourself.

Danny Secondary Review Section 8: Prejudice is something of a weird game to review. I know that there have been a lot of direct to download budget FPS games on the consoles recently but Section 8 once a upon a time was actually a disc based game and one can only assume that the developers used those resources to make this quite frankly excellent downloadble FPS with a standard five hour single player mode and what might be one of the best Multiplayer components I have played on a shooter on the Xbox 360 to date. First of all I would like to say that yeah this game has some problems. It’s design of sorts is a mixture between Warhammer 40k and Halo with a little bit of Tribes thrown in which is both odd and a little unsettling at the same time. The single player levels are also a little generic design wise with an ice world and a fire world, at one point I was expecting a minecart world. Joking aside though the biggest problem with me at the moment is that this game does hard lock my machine from time to time which is annoying. No other game has done this on my Xbox 360 slim yet and I have heard reports from other fellow peowwsters that they have had crashes due to playing this game too. Other than that though this is a mainly multiplayer focused game and the co-op Swarm mode is fantastic but the real star is the main Vs. Multiplayer which forces two teams for sixteen people (thirty-two players) to duke it out complete with base and vehicle building. Know what to build and when is important and unlike 95% of online shooters these days Section 8 actually requires some tactics to win and you will have to work together to achieve your goals. For this I highly recommend you pick this game up, for 1200 Microsoft Points this is easily one of the best XBLA games released this year and there are plenty of people who are playing it so check it out now and try the demo! Secondary Score: 8/10

Conquest is my personal favourite mode, not because of the fairly standard ‘capture the base’ mechanic (which I love), or the deployables (which I love) or the unique characters and skills you can create (which I love) but rather the Dynamic Combat Missions (DCMs) that occur mid-battle. After a team meets certain conditions during the match one of several DCM’s will automatically start, you may hear the call to protect your AI VIP who is dropping in, drive a convoy to its destination, eliminate marked members of the enemy team, jump in a powered suit and capture a specific enemy outpost, secure a landing site for your own portable outpost or several others. You are time restricted to complete the task and of course the opposing team will try and stop you (and you during their DCM’s) but complete these (or prevent theirs) to receive a sizable point boost thus furthering you closer to the score limit of 1000. Literally dropping whatever you’re doing and heading straight to the objective is often the best advice. Points withstanding, there’s usually an extra benefit of completion be it, keeping the armoured convoy truck, having the AI VIP help you or getting to stroll around in your powered infiltrator suit for the rest of the game. The DCMs are excellently implemented and keep the game fast paced and frantic. Much like every other aspect, non-compliance to work as a team for the greater goal will result in failure – this game is not for the loan wolf, certainly not when they’re up against a well oiled ‘goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus’ of a team.

There’s so much to like from this game from the amusingly named achievements (there’s always money in the banana stand) to most importantly it’s affordability. I honestly can’t say that last time a game has felt like true value for money, like the original I will continue to dip in and out whenever the skirmish notion takes me and with more game options on the way I’ll gladly drop more cash into this one.

Negatives could come in the form of the poor story and design of the campaign but frankly I’d gladly give this game 10/10 just for the amount of fun the game provides me and many others from the thriving community. Any negatives can easily be brushed aside with all of the positives that have already been listed.

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars 10/10

Survival Horror

So West,what kind of medicine are you involved in?  Death.

Adam

Apparently the sequel did, in fact, retain almost all the things that were right/wrong about the first. Everything except Frank. So I passed on it – I’m that petty. So if, like me, you eschewed the exploits of some Canuck getting drugs for his daughter and just want to find out what happened to Frank, after he was last seen screaming on a tank surrounded by zombies, then Dead Rising: Case West – a £7 downloadable, online co-op-enabled, expansion pack – should be like a sweet, sweet dose of Zombrex.

And then he threw a fire extinguisher into the crowd.

Come out west, we’ll kill some zombies, have a few laughs…

The game picks up after one of the endings of Dead Rising 2, and sees protagonist Chuck Greene being rescued in the nick of time by the sudden appearance of everyone’s favourite photojournalist and Dan Aykroyd-lookalike, Frank West. Together they escape Fortune City and head to an Umbrella Phenotrams facility, chasing a tip from an anonymous source. It’s this source who’ll be providing you with missions throughout the game.

There is no zombie outbreak this time, with the facility operating like a zombie enclosure or petting zoo. Any humans you encounter are either heavily armed and armoured zombie handlers or stray Phentoram’s employees who presumably got ambushed on the way to the bathroom.

Similar to World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, this expansion starts you at a high level, so you can enjoy some of the fun of grinding, but none of the hassle that accompanies starting out with low health and a small inventory. As someone who spent a lot of time in the original game killing zombies purely for experience, I appreciate this feature. Unfortunately, the developers have failed to provide an adequate challenge for one high level character, let alone two.

You’re a little high-strung for a guy who’s covered wars.

Case West shares PEOWW’s primary complaint against Dead Rising 2: it’s too damn easy compared to the first game. While I was downed a few times in co-op, the eon of bleed-out time combined with the resuscitative powers of a packet of crisps meant death was never the threat it should’ve been. Nor was the time-limit, and without the need for multiple playthroughs to get the good ending, the replayability goes out the window.

Death by candyfloss.

You’ll still require a second playthrough to hit the level cap, but considering that one of the new combo-combo weapons gives you about a thousand experience points when fired into a dense enough herd of zombies, you’ll reach it in no time – which is incidentally about the amount of time it takes to finish the game. It’s a shame that Dead Rising‘s Infinity Mode, in which you have to survive for as long as possible, while requiring constant food, wasn’t included, as the game could certainly use some extra challenge and longevity, while the addition of a second player would’ve created an interesting dynamic.

As for the location, if you thought Vegas was a dull place for a zombie apocalypse, wait until you get of load of the underground pharmaceutical facility. Although it does at least give the game a Day of the Dead vibe. In fact the game appears to take almost as many cues from that film as Dead Rising took from Dawn of the Dead. (aka ALL OF THEM) Zombies are so unthreatening as to be almost sympathetic, while human opponents are much more aggressive and dangerous. Especially the ones with jack-hammers for arms.

Gareth Secondary Review In I enjoyed Dead Rising 2. It gets a lot of grief from people who loved the original Dead Rising because what little it does change isn’t necessarily for the better and the major new features don’t live up to expectations (co-op is too unnecessary and the Gladiators style online mode’s matchmaking simply doesn’t work), but I still enjoyed it. Killing zombies is fun and Case West is a stand alone XBLA game which is banking on that. Whereas DR2 failed to make the co-op anything special, here it is the most important aspect. Frank West is back to join Chuck Whatever on this adventure and whether you’re playing in co-op or not is there constantly. Luckily he finds his own weapons and is invincible so there’s no need to worry about him at all. If a co-op partner joins in then they will take control of Frank (‘Player 1′ only ever gets to be Chuck) and then you must share weapons and food but there is so much of both that this is no problem. In fact, nothing in Case West is a problem. This is a problem. Like its retail release cousin Case West is just too easy. Now you don’t even escort powerful survivors around, you just complete whatever task they ask of you and then they leave. There is no safe room to return them to and very little juggling of tasks which was one of the things which made Dead Rising so tense and unique. You start at level fifty so you’re already pretty tough and those ten levels you can gain are incredibly easy to get but actually make little difference to your play style. Still, as I said at the beginning, killing zombies is fun and if you were holding out on DR2 but fancy a bit of co-op zombie killing then this is more fun and focused than its full price cousin in that respect. However that is mostly because there is so little else to do other than killing to fill the time between missions. Blue Castle has yet to find the right balance of difficulty or activities and I’m beginning to question whether it’ll actually be possible to improve on the original without a major makeover, Resident Evil 4 style. Secondary Score: 6/10

I’m the Punjabi Juggernaut, bitch!

The saving grace of the game is definitely the co-op, allowing a second player to drop in at any time and take control of Frank. That person will save any PP they earn and gain access to a few exclusive combo weapons. Unfortunately only the co-op client will be able to play as Frank. If you’re on your own, he makes up for it by being a surprisingly competent, not to mention invincible, NPC.

Whether you’re accidentally repeatedly running over your partner with a Segway, spraying them suggestively with whipped cream, or simply throwing stuff at each other faces while waiting for the next mission to begin, having an audience makes this already silly series that much sillier. Even when playing solo, the bitchy banter between competing protagonists, Chuck and Frank, is great to listen to and I hope future instalments maintain the pairing.

In terms of new additions, the game’s sole Psychopath now feels like a proper boss, as opposed to a regular enemy with lots of health. (don’t worry, there are plenty of those, too) Survivors no longer require escorting, presumably because they know their way around their workplace. This removes the annoyance of having to depend on brain-dead A.I., but also takes away one of the few mid-mission distractions. Photography has returned, but the lack of grading system makes it a bit pointless. There are much easier (and gorier) ways of earning PP.

The world needs a Frank West.

If you’ve already completed Dead Rising 2, you’ve probably exhausted your enthusiasm for zombie genocide. The small, uninteresting location, paltry few fetch-quests missions and single boss (who is, admittedly, amazing) barely justifies the 800 Microsoft Point price-tag. It appears Capcom are banking on the fact that there’s a large contingent of Frank West fans out there on Xbox Live, and as one of those people/suckers, I can’t say I entirely regret my purchase. I just hope the inevitable Dead Rising 3 is an experience more worthy of the man.

]]> http://www.peoww.co.uk/dead-rising-case-west-xbla/feed/ 1 http://www.peoww.co.uk/super-meat-boy-xbox-live-arcade/ http://www.peoww.co.uk/super-meat-boy-xbox-live-arcade/#comments Fri, 29 Oct 2010 08:58:04 +0000 Gareth http://www.peoww.co.uk/?p=5288 Review – Super Meat Boy

Platformer

An N+ by any other name is just as meaty.

Gareth

Ah, Meat Boy. Those were good times weren’t they? No? You never played Meat Boy? The Flash game? No? Me neither. But Super Meat Boy (SMB for short, not to be confused with the little known Super Mario Bros.) is a sequel and now they have the audacity to charge for it. It’s been released on XBLA and will be coming to PC, Mac and WiiWare soon-ish, but should you care?

Death is everywhere.

Yep. Review over. Priced at 1200 MSP, if you buy it before November you can get it for 800 and it is definitely worth it. Not that this game is for everybody. In SMB you control Meat Boy. The evil Dr. Fetus has kidnapped your girlfriend, Bandage Girl, and you have to rescue her. This is achieved by completing short levels in as quick a time as possible before unlocking a boss level and moving on to the next world. SMB is strictly a platforming game, requiring you to traverse stages of increasing difficulty by leaping, wall jumping and avoiding deadly obstacles on your way to Bandage Girl.

Things start off simple enough with some wall jumping to get you warmed up, but before long you’ll be introduced to buzz saws, homing missiles and frickin’ laser beams. SMB does a good job of introducing these things slowly but you’ll be dying plenty from the off and it’s only going to get harder from there. Dying in SMB is as much a part of the game as jumping. You have infinite lives, and when you die the game fades out and back in again instantly allowing you to get straight back into the action. This keeps the pace of the game high whilst the punishment for dying is low. Most levels can be completed in under twenty seconds so when you die, learn from it and move on. If the levels were larger or the game was slightly slower to respawn you then dying would be a massive hindrance, but as it is it’s pitched perfectly.

In fact the whole game is crafted brilliantly. The level design is superb throughout, forcing you to become better to overcome the obstacles in front of you whilst never being unfair or impossible. The amount of times I’ve played a level and thought to myself, “That is so clever…” as I’ve found what seems to be the only way through a rather complex level is untrue. Like an expertly crafted machine everything fits together perfectly, and when there a moving parts even more so. Timing becomes incredibly important and hesitating for even a second can make things much more troublesome.

Right from the golden age of arcade when punching women was the done thing.

The controls are tight and predictable, rewarding speed and accuracy as platformers should. The music also deserves a mention. When you start a level the music starts, when you die it continues without stopping, and when you progress to the next level it doesn’t stop either. You’ll be hearing a lot of the same tunes throughout the game, looped over and over as you die for the hundredth time, yet they never get irritating or old, in fact the opposite is true. The fact that the music never stops helps with the pacing of the game as well.

The visuals probably deserve the least praise. They’re Flash based, have charm and are simple enough so that you don’t get confused when moving at high speeds but they aren’t brilliant by any means. No reason to mark the game down, but I feel I should cover it for the sake of being thorough. The animated cutscenes can be quite amusing however, with their references to 8-bit gaming and they add an extra layer of personality to the game.

Not only is SMB a well crafted game, but it’s also a generous one. You get five full sized worlds to progress through before a smaller sixth one for the finale. Completing levels in a par time will unlock a Dark World version of that level. Basically a harder version of that level. Every level has a Dark World variant which effectively doubles the game size.

Grizzly Secondary Review Why do indie developers insist on bringing up the past for their games? It seems that whenever there is a new big release for XBLA its either a top down shooter with a screen full of enemies or, like Super Meat Boy its a side scrolling platformer with charming graphics, colourful characters and a shit ton of levels you will never likely see unless you are able to complete the early Mega Man games with nothing but your cock. I don’t normally take the bait with games like these. Difficulty for difficulties sake is most definitely not my bag, and some of the levels in SMB are simply over the threshold of fairness. Early on you are greeted with the simple how to play mechanics which seem fine, but later on you will be dodging razorblades, monsters and just about everything else that the game has in store for you, which is fine of course if you(r autistic.) like this sort of challenge. There is a fair amount of content in Super Meat Boy but unless you’re skilled enough you will only see a third of it. The animations are sound and offer a good incentive to carry on. But when you finish the main story you will most probably be just shutting the game off as there is only more frustration that awaits you. Secondary Score: 6/10

On top of that there are hidden levels in each world. Sometimes the game will seem to glitch out as you save Bandage Girl, but you are actually being transported to a hidden stage. Also in certain stages are portals which will teleport you to extra stages. Some of these will give you control of unlockable characters. Complete the stage and you can then use that character in all levels. The unlockable characters have been borrowed from other indie games such as Braid and Alien Hominid and each have a unique ability, such as a double jump. There are also bandages scattered around each world, which usually require a bit more skill to acquire, these also unlock new characters to play with.

There are online leaderboards but already they are filled with people completing levels in 0.00 seconds so are effectively useless. Even without this feature though you can’t deny that there is a lot of game here. There are more levels on top of the ones I’ve mentioned as well, including an area where new, free levels will be released in time. True, most levels can be completed in a matter of seconds, but I believe my record for playing a level was about forty minutes, so depending on your skill level this game could last you a very, very long time.

As I said at the beginning of the review though, this isn’t for everyone. If you liked Trials, N+ or a similar game which is high on difficulty and relies on trial and error then you could find a lot of fun with SMB. If that sounds like hell to you then I’m not going to try and force you to think otherwise. I have personally enjoyed every second I’ve played of SMB, even those seconds where I’ve been squeezing the controller so tight for so long that my hand cramps up and I have imprints on my palms. I haven’t found a level yet that I can’t beat with time and patience and the feeling once you’ve done so is fantastic.

At first glance it is easy to dismiss Super Meat Boy because of its simple gameplay and visuals, but I do honestly believe that a lot of full priced games could learn a thing or two from this well crafted XBLA game. It pays homage to many of the old school classics and time will tell if it truly deserves to be considered among them, but I feel it is a real possibility.

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars8/10

]]> http://www.peoww.co.uk/super-meat-boy-xbox-live-arcade/feed/ 4 http://www.peoww.co.uk/dead-rising-2-case-zero-xbox-live-arcade/ http://www.peoww.co.uk/dead-rising-2-case-zero-xbox-live-arcade/#comments Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:00:35 +0000 Richie http://www.peoww.co.uk/?p=5141 Review – Dead Rising 2: Case Zero

Action/Adventure

A taste of things to come.

Rich

We never had the chance to review the original Dead Rising as it arrived long before PEOWW came together, but it with no hesitation that I say it would have scored a ten.  Sure, people can criticise various aspects of the game and are probably right to, but the reason the game deserved accolades was because it got so much right.  When you put together the elements – the great story, the tense gameplay, the brilliant touches of humour and the powerhouse game engine - there was an embarassment of riches that far outweighed any percieved flaws.  Dead Rising didn’t get everything right, but it got more right that any other game released at that time.  So you can knock a couple of points off, as long as you start from twelve out of ten.

Leave your limbs. They belong to me now.

However, recent events – namely Crackdown 2 – have taught us that games developers are more than happy to rework classics into piss-poor sequels for a quick buck.  So it was with much trepidation that I downloaded Case Zero.  Indeed it took me two days to fire it up.  After all, on paper this is basically a demo for Dead Rising 2 but with a twist.  It’ll cost you 400M$P.  To paraphrase Gunnery Sgt Hartman “why are you not stomping Case Zero‘s guts out?”

Well firstly, this isn’t exactly a demo.  It’s a prologue to the full game featuring a level (if level is the right word) that isn’t in Dead Rising 2 (although clearly it could have been).  It tells the story of Chuck Greene, a famous motorcross champion, and his zombie-infected daughter as they make their way to Las Vegas (the setting for Dead Rising 2).  After a fairly ropey looking cutscene, Chuck is tasked with finding some Zombrex (a drug that gives bitten people an extra twelve hours before zombism sets in) for Katey as well as a way out of the middle-of-nowhere town they have ended up in.  To complicate matters, government soldiers are coming to quarantine the town which won’t be good news for the kid.

Crossing attendant OF THE DEAD.

The town of Still Creek is very small with just a handful of buildings to enter.  It’s a little like Silent Hill but minus the fog and weirdness.  You’ll learn the layout pretty quickly and given that you are only given twelve hours (which is an hour in realtime) to complete your objectives, Capcom have done the smart thing and kept the layout simple.

That said, the game is packed with things to do.  Well, things to kill zombies with.  Each building offers its own death-dealing opportunities.  From the chainsaws and pitchforks of the hardware store to the swords, bows and guns of the hunting shack.  Even the poker chips in the casino can be used as a weapon, albeit a very inefficient one.

Mark Secondary Review Prior to playing this I was totally nonplussed about Dead Rising 2 given the recent rash of sequels to first wave software like Lost Planet and Crackdown(s) being even worse than their predecessors so it’s no small miracle that Blue Castle have managed to take the Dead Rising template and improved it so much. All those annoyances that bugged us in Dead Rising, like the dodgy survivor AI, limited save system and general lack of mobility, have gone and the small but vital improvements like being able to strafe with firearms have raised my expectation levels well above other new sequels like CoD: Black Ops and Fallout: New Vegas. Sure you can lap it in less than three hours and ignoring the bonuses it gives you for the full game it doesn’t look like good value for your M$Ps on paper. However for the sheer amount of fun you can have just going all Ed Hacken on hordes of zombies you won’t feel short changed give the amount of shit you could spend your 400 M$P on like Root Beer Tapper or even worse games that are twice the price. Extended demo or not this is the best value game to come out on XBLA for a long time. Secondary Score: 8/10

Aside from the case file missions (give Katie her Zombrex, find and assemble the motorcycle parts) you also get survivors to rescue and, if you’re bothered about achievement, weapon combo cards to earn.  These are earned by completing objectives and combining items.  For example, a canoe paddle and a chainsaw makes an ultra-violent puglestick.  I’ll leave you to find the other combinations but suffice to say, the imagination and humour of the first game are present and correct when it comes to creative ways to dispatch a zombie.

The best thing about Case Zero is the potential it shows when it comes to Dead Rising 2.  Firstly, for better or worse, the save system is now a lot friendlier.  Three saves slots and the option to save after key mission points will definitely win over some people.  Also, the survivor AI seems to be much better.  Once they’ve joined you really don’t need to worry about the survivors as they are all capable of following you with mininal supervision.  This might dumb down the game a bit but it will certainly make it a lot more accessible.

Add to that proper strafing controls and text that doesn’t require a hi-def telly and you can rest assured that Capcom have listened to the criticism.  On the less tasty side, the graphics seem to be of the same standard as the original game which isn’t really on for 2010.  That said, this may be because of the download-only nature of the game, maybe they’ll be better on the full retail version.  We’ll let you know.

Case Zero isn’t a particularly long experience and you’ll probably have it done and dusted – achievements and all – in a day or two but it’s well worth playing though and is priced just right at £3.80.  The best thing is that it’s got us all moist for Dead Rising 2 and thanks to Case Zero we’ll be carrying over a level 5 Chuck Greene into the full game.  A nice touch indeed.  Dead Rising 2? Bring it on.

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

8/10

]]> http://www.peoww.co.uk/dead-rising-2-case-zero-xbox-live-arcade/feed/ 2 http://www.peoww.co.uk/castlevania-harmony-of-despair-xbla/ http://www.peoww.co.uk/castlevania-harmony-of-despair-xbla/#comments Fri, 20 Aug 2010 08:00:20 +0000 Gareth http://www.peoww.co.uk/?p=5048 Review – Castlevania: Harmony of Despair

Platformer/Looting

You shouldn’t lose your temper, Charley. It isn’t polite.

Gareth

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, to be referred to as Castlevania: HD from now on (get it?) is a brand new Castlevania title for download from Xbox Live for 1200 MSP. Well, actually it’s not totally brand new and for that matter it’s not particularly HD either, but we’ll get to that.

The bloodsucking Brady Bunch!

People who have previously played Castlevania games may be surprised to see that Harmony of Despair isn’t directly comparable to any of them. It doesn’t have the simple level structure and platforming of the originals or the Metroid-style skill advancement of Symphony of the Night but is instead focused around multiplayer. You can play the game in single player, but it is infinitely less fun and the levels were designed with co-operation in mind.

As you progress you’ll unlock six levels in total and an extra difficulty setting once you’ve completed them all. Each level is made up of multiple sections which are populated by enemies, chests and a boss. The regular enemies shouldn’t cause you too much bother and just act as speed bumps to stop you getting to the loot and boss. Chests contain random items, from food to armour to weapons. As you’d expect the further you progress the better the items you’ll find, but the tougher the enemies will be standing in your way.

Each player (up to six in total) starts at a different point on the map and work together or alone in order to collect all the chests (everyone receives an item from an open chest, not just the person who opened it) and work their way to the boss. There are five different characters to choose, all from previous Castlevania games. There’s Alucard (Symphony of the Night), Charlotte and Jonathan (Portrait of Ruin), Shanoa (Order of Ecclesia) and Soma (Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow). Each has a selection of colour palettes to choose from so that things do not get confusing if multiple people are playing as the same character.

Its not like they're a bunch of fuckin' fags hoppin' around in rented formal wear and seducing everybody in sight with cheesy Euro-trash accents, all right?

As in their respective games, each character plays differently. Shanoa can absorb enemy’s spells to use as her own for example, whilst Jonathan can only use a whip as his primary weapon but has a wide variety of sub-weapons to use. There is no levelling up in the traditional sense in Castlevania: HD, but you can power up your characters in different ways. Obviously you can start off by equipping better armour or weapons, but to truly become powerful you have to grind. When Jonathan uses his sub-weapons they will slowly become stronger and so will Jonathan, Soma must collect multiple of the same soul from enemies to boost his strength, whilst Charlotte gets stronger through absorbing spells fired at her.

The variety this provides is excellent. You can easily find a character that suits your style of play and then once you’re bored you can move on to someone else and start from scratch. Well almost – any equipment you’ve collected with one character can be shared across everyone so you won’t be totally back to square one. When playing in co-op the different play styles also combine well to overcome different obstacles, though obviously if one player is much more powerful than everyone else then that person will be doing most of the heavy lifting.

Mark Secondary Review I’m a long time fan of the ‘Vania series going all the way back to Haunted Castle in the arcades so when they announced CV: HD I was champing at the bit to get me some online vampire hunting but despite the obvious fun to be had with you and a bunch of mates rampaging through one of Drac’s castles it’s a far from perfect experience. Playing the game solo is more or less pointless not to mention dull as hell and almost impossible without friends on hand to resurrect you during the tougher boss fights. The item grinding is so long winded it makes WOW look positively straightforward and as for all the reused assets it just screams of a quick cash-in made for monetary reasons rather than any love of the series. That’s not to say it’s all bad though, if you can get a good group of players together you can have some epic boss fights chasing them around the map or setting up elaborate deathtraps to kill them but with only six chapters to play for your 1200M$P it won’t be long before you’ll just left with an overwhelming sense of been there, done that. Sure there’s more to be had from the game but only if you stump up MORE shekels for the inevitable DLC… But enough talk, have at you! Secondary Score: 7/10

Visually the game isn’t ugly, but it’s not as HD as the abbreviated title might imply. Sure, it’s quite crisp, but the sprites used have been copied and pasted straight from their respective PS1/DS games and as such are much lower resolution than you’d expect from an XBLA game. Little environmental effects are very nice to see however, paper flying up as you run across books or flames dropping to the floor from a broken light bulb. Bosses can be dauntingly large and the ability to zoom out to see the entire map (and continue to play from this view) is rather impressive. It’s just a shame a little time wasn’t spend updating the sprites for HD gaming.

The audio also seems to have been pulled straight from previous games, though this is less obvious. The music is very good (assuming you like guitars) as Castlevania fans would expect, which is lucky as you’ll be playing the same levels over and over so you’ll be hearing a lot of it. In general the presentation is a bit bare bones which does make you wonder how much effort has gone into this game on Konami’s end. And the loading screen annoys the hell out of me.

As I mentioned there are only six levels in total and it won’t take you too long depending who you’re playing with to complete those. You’ll then unlock Hard mode and will play the same levels again for better rewards. It might not sound great but in co-op the difficulty knocks up a notch and it really is a lot of fun and as I’m sure many people will be aware, collecting loot and powering up is an addictive process. Unfortunately that is pretty much all this game depends on. The levels never change and there will be a point where you are powerful enough to complete the levels in a matter of minutes. If you are looking for a particularly deep game then Castlevania: HD will disappoint.

Ultimately how much value you find in Castlevania HD will depend on what type of gamer you are. If you complete Level 6 on Normal with one character and feel you’ve experienced all you want to experience then this game is not for you. If however you enjoy the quest for loot and strength, even if it means grinding, then you may have found yourself a keeper.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars

6/10

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