Game Preview: Big Bang Mini (DS)

December 13th, 2008, 23:26 Posted By: souLLy

So, quirky-fireworks-based-touch-screen-puzzle-shoot-em-ups then, not a genre that has overpopulated the DS to date, but Southpeak Games is set to change all that with their latest release; Big Bang Mini.

The aim of the game is, unsurprisingly, to do your best not to get blown into thousands of little pieces. Using your touch-screen you direct your ship around; a seemingly simple task, but there's a twist, you must also use the stylus to shoot fireworks up to the top screen to dispatch the enemies. The trick then, is finding a good balance between attack and defence, under a flurry of bullets it can be hard enough just avoiding being blown up.

What really makes Big Bang Mini stand out are the fantastic graphics and sense of humour; for those who've grown jaded from years of shooters with generic spaceships it's a real breath of fresh air. It's not unusual to defeat a crowd of floating clowns only to come up against a giant floating lizard (think the Pop and Twinbee series and you're somewhere on the way to knowing what to expect).

Big Bang Mini boasts over 90 levels, a high-score challenge mode with online leaderboards, multiplay with a single cartridge and a raft of other unlockables- so there's plenty to keep even the most hardcore shooter fans busy.



Stay tuned to DCEmu Games Reviews for a full review
Big Bang Mini will be released exclusively on the Nintendo DS in Spring 2008

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Game Review: Disgaea DS (DS)

December 10th, 2008, 21:00 Posted By: skynes



Platform: Nintendo DS
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: Square Enix
Ratings: Not yet rated by PEGI

ESRB:


Disgaea DS is not a new game. The original Disgaea was released on the PS2 in 2004. Disgaea DS is a port of the PS2 version, albeit with some changes suitable to the DS such as stylus support and less shiny graphics.

The main character is Laharl, a demon prince of the Netherworld. He has slept for the past 2 years, during which his father, the king, has died and his throne is under contest. Laharl naturally believes that the throne is his inheritance, so he sets off to become King of the Netherworld. He is joined by a variety of different characters, including an angel and a team of earth defenders, to assist him with his goal. Main story events are recounted with voice-acting for the main characters, and it's very good voice acting too.

The game takes a very light hearted approach to the story, many character are amusing, even Laharl's servants such as dragons and chimeras come off as comical and lazy. This is a diversion from most RPG's which take a very serious story, but it's a welcome change. What it doesn't change however, is the genre's other notable aspect: deep mechanics.

The battle system is an isometric, turn-based strategy system. Your team will spawn, one at a time in the order you choose, from a starting tile. You may then move them and attack with them as you see fit. A couple of twists to this grant the player more control and strategy. One of these is the team attack system. By placing characters next to each other and having one attack, there is a chance that those in base contact with gang up on the enemy, with each of them letting off an attack. While each attack is slightly less powerful than a normal blow, the total damage is greater than any individual attack. The other change is that movement can be canceled unless an action is taken. This allows a smart player to move his units to a team attack formation, let off one attack, then cancel the movements of the team to allow those who didn't attack a chance to move elsewhere, and possible take part in another team attack!



Each level may also contain pyramids known as geo-effects. These geo-effects grant a bonus or penalty onto any colour of tile which they sit on. For example if a geo-effect with the bonus of “+50 defense” is placed on a red tile anyone, friend or foe, who stands on a red tile will gain that bonus. Furthermore destroying a geo-effect will cause all tiles of the colour its on to change to the colour of the geo-effect damaging anyone who stands on those tiles, should a different coloured geo-effect be destroyed in the process all of the new tiles will change colour also. This gives the potential for huge damage combos and is possible to wipe out an entire map of enemies in a single turn by smart positioning and destruction of geo-effects.

Regarding the skill system of the game, Disgaea takes a very in-depth approach. Everything in the game can be leveled up. Items, spells, skills and characters. Characters are leveled up by defeating enemies. Skills and spells are leveled up by using them. Items however require a different approach.

Each item in the game has its own world with 'inhabitants'. There inhabitants provide bonuses to stats when that item is equipped. It is possible through the use of an NPC to enter the item's dimension known as an Item World. If you do this you fight through randomly generated levels back to back filled with enemies, defeating the inhabitants subdues them and allows you to move them to other items. Also each level you defeat increases the natural bonuses of the item. This item world allows you to take even the starter weapons of the game and turn them into very powerful items.

Whilst there are story characters which join you, these don't comprise your entire team. There exists a Senate, through which any of your characters can make propositions, these can include more expensive items in the store, unlocking a secret world, but the main use is to create characters.
Now every time a character defeats an enemy, they gain mana equal to the level of that enemy. The higher the mana, the more powerful a new character they can create. What kind of character can you make? Any monster you have defeated, yes including dragons, or any humanoid with classes such as cleric, mage, warrior, ninja etc. More classes get unlocked as you progress in the game. In addition to this the new character will be the pupil of the one who created him. When a master and pupil are in base contact, the master can cast any spells the pupil can. If the master levels up that spell, he learns it permanently. This grants huge control over the skills and spells of your characters, allowing even your cleric to cast very high level fire and ice spells.

Now all this sounds very complicated, and it is. However the main story of the game is well balanced and even if you only create characters with no care for master/pupil or learning spells, you can still complete the game with the bare bone basics.

My only problem with the game is that it gives you too many options too quickly. From your first chapter of the story you are able to enter the item world, approach the senate, create new characters and learn all manner of skills. Whilst more hardcore RPG players or Disgaea veterans won't be bothered by this, it could be off-putting to a new player.

Sounds: Very good voice acting, though the battle cries in combat become annoyingly repetitive. Music is varied and fits the scenes well. Also includes the option to buy tracks to have as the music for the Item World

Graphics: Anime style characters allow for easy showing of emotion. Animations of combat and special abilities are all very good. However the graphics are a downgrade from the PS2 version.

Gameplay: Fantastic in-depth RPG. Many many options and near infinite team combinations available. Weapon and Armour use isn't restricted by class allowing a wide variation of equipment. Inclusion of top screen mini-map and camera rotation allows easy location of hard to see enemies and tiles.

Overall: Great game. It can be overwhelming in the beginning, but none of the advanced functions are necessary to beat the game, allowing for as casual or hardcore a game as you choose to make it. If you enjoy RPGs and never had the chance to play Disgaea before, pick this up and you won't be disappointed.

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New Nintendo Wii board with no drivechip

December 8th, 2008, 21:21 Posted By: bandit

It seems there is a new motherboard for the Nintendo Wii. Whats different is that there is no more drivechip. No drivechip means you can not add a modchip. Here is a translation from CNGBA...

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Game Review: LittleBigPlanet (PS3)

December 5th, 2008, 00:59 Posted By: fg-54


________________________
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Media Molecule
Genre: Platformer
Players: 1-4
Price: $59.99

Video Review:

Overview: When LittleBigPlanet was first announced everyone became curious about what this little sack people were all about, as more and more information was released about this ambitious game the more people seemed to get hyped for it. A few weeks after its release I finally get to put my slimy hands all over this one of a kind platformer to calm my own hype for it, is it really as fun as it seems? find out NOW!

Gameplay: LittleBigPlanet is a platfomer like no other in almost every single way and there is alot to be said about it so I am going to separate it into different sections.
I am going to go ahead and start with the main story. After about a good ten minutes of tutorials and explanations you will be able to head on straight to the story mode, actually, until you complete the first three levels or so, that is the ONLY thing you will be able to do, no matter tho, they are short and off course, fun. The whole story consists of you being a sack boy or girl, and you pretty much just travel the world helping out friends with all sorts of problems, towards the end, a nemesis shows up and you have to save everyone but that is all I can say without spoiling too much.
The main story takes place on a world where all dreams go to, here you will get to play through levels from all over the world, each being as stereotypical as they can be, you will fight ninjas in Asia, explore Mayan ruins in Mexico, ect, this makes each world completely unique and non repetitive. The way levels are spread out is each continent has one or two buttons you can click on, once you click on of of them, all levels within that area will pop up, each area also has a few challenges outside of the main story that can be unlocked ether by beating levels, or by finding hidden keys within levels, these challenges are well varied from bull riding to rope jumping and can as well be played with friends.
Now allow me to go on with gameplay. There are three different lanes of the map in which you can be at during the game, this is new in the world of 2D platforming, you can change lanes at any time by pressing up or down on the left joystick, this works well, but can be frustrating when you are at a crucial moment and it decides it wants to rebel, luckily, the game changes lanes for you whenever it thinks it needs to, and again, this works fine most of the time, but sometimes it will change into a lane that you want to get out of over and over again just because it thinks you WANT to go to that lane, I wish there was a way to turn this off.
Aside from that, another new thing that LittleBigPlanet wanted to do was make their game physics based, now this opens up the game to new platforming opportunities such as launching yourself from a spinning wheel onto another, or picking up momentum while swinging to land further, but this also restricts the level of control that you have over your character while it is in mid air, as well as once it lands, this lead up to a few frustrating moments for me when I landed on a small platform, only to walk off of it because I didn't want to slide off.

Every family has a black sheep, sack boys have four.

Aside from the story there are two other things you can do, one is create levels with amazingly powerful tools, and two, is play user made levels, both great choices.
Starting with making your own levels, this is probably where LittleBigPlanet shines the most, at first, you will be bored with a good 40 minutes of tutorials, on the bright side, most of the things they tell you are things you will want to know, so pay attention! plus, you get a trophy for going through all the tutorials after that you are pretty much left alone to do what you wish on the level creator and what a creator it is, stickers, textures, figures, even buttons and hidden action events are at your disposal and even tho they are great at doing the things they were meant to do, it feels even better to do things they weren't meant to do, to use items in ways that no one ever though of before.
Even tho it is very easy to make levels, it takes up alot of your time, it took me a good two days to make my first level and it was just a boss fight with a giant alien, and it wasn't all fun, I had to test my level over and over again, then go back and fix whatever it is that needed to be fixed, and seance it is physics based, you need to give anything you make extra thought.
A big let down for LittleBigPlanet was the fact that it is very easy to completely mess up your level, during my first attempt at making a giant boss, I made a dragon, after I thought I was done I tested him to see if he would disappear when you hit his weak spot, so I did and he DID disappear and all the point bubbles came falling from the sky like I had programed it to, right after this event I saved the level, exited out of edit mode I went into "play" mode where you get to play the level you made as it will be once you publish it, to my surprise, the level started as I had saved it, the dragon was destroyed and the ground was covered with points, I tried to get my level back but it was all in vain, my level had been ruined and there was no way to get it back. Another thing that should be pointed out is that you can't undo actions, you can only reset time to a the moment of the last action, this is just like an undo button except it can take a good 10 seconds or so at random times, still, despite all of this issues, once you become familiar with the way things work, you will get used to them and won't bother you as much.
Once you are finally done with a level and publish it, you can see how many people have played it, and how many people have hearted it, once this is done you can't update it anymore, but you CAN go back to the level editor, fix it up, delete the already published and outdated level, and replace it with the new and improved one.

One last thing you will be able to do, and probably the mode you will spend about half your time with is playing levels that other people made. You can go straight to "cool levels" which will show you bunch of the most played levels, you could also look at "recent levels" which shows you the latest levels you have played, and lastly you can search for levels yourself. The amazing thing about LittleBigPlanet is that games that are dependent on a community to make awesome levels normally fail to succeed, but LittleBigPlanet seems to slap all those other games on the face with already plenty of great and imaginative levels to play. You can "heart" any level you see, this allows you to look at a list of "hearted" levels and play them whenever you wish without having to search for them, you can also heart people, so if there is a single person who has made multiple levels that you like, instead of hearting all of his levels you can just heart the creator himself. It seems like LittleBigPlanet has great potential to be even better as time goes on, you would not believe the creativity that some people have and have been able to bring to life with LittleBigPlanet.

You can turn your creations into prize bubbles and give them to others during or at the end of a level as a reward for beating it.

Graphics: In one word: "OUTSTANDING!" I have never stared at character models the way I have been at the sack boys ever seance I first played gears of war. The character animations are as smooth as you can get without sacrificing the control over it and the fact that you can control their emotions during gameplay is genius and IS be constantly used by users, this is not only a great way to express yourself online when you don't feel like typing or don't have a mic, but mostly it is plain hilarious! as I was driving an unstoppable car while the road behind me exploded, the fact that my sack boy was making an incredibly scared face actually made me laugh out loud, small moments like these make the game even more fun, and they pop up constantly. Smoke effects are top notch and the environments are non repetitive and well made, everything in LittleBigPlanet looks like it came out of a kid's fairy tale book, everything is bright, colorful, and overall has a very nice and attractive look to it that brings me back to my kinder garden days. The game has an amazing and unique new visual style never before seen in video games as far as I am concerned, seriously, everything looks so good in this game it may at first distract you from gameplay, then again I AM graphics freak. (Insert Nintendo fanboy comment about that being the reason I hate the wii here)
And then we have the double edged sword of the fact that it is physics based, on one side, everything looks and acts natural adding to the great animations and making it feel like you are actually interacting with things, and on the other side, because it is physics based, poor little sack boy gets his limbs stretched as far as the whole screen every now and then because of some strange error and even tho this could potentially be fixed with future updates, it is not fixed now and it DOES happen enough times to the point where I have to point it out, this will off course, not interfere with the overall experience.

Sound: There are a bunch of different sound tracks and each of them is completely different from the last specially seance they come from all over the world. You can unlock them to use in your own levels the same way you unlock everything else, by ether collecting the sometimes hidden prize bubbles, or by beating a level with a certain condition. Sound effects are wacky but often easily ignored, the two main sound effects you will hear are the "woosh" from the character jumping and the "bloop" and "pop" whenever you collect a point bubble. Overall they fit well with the whole visual style of the game as they are mostly the kind of sound effects you would expect from a happy Nintendo game.

Replay Value: The story mode literally has HUNDREDS of unlockable prize bubbles, some can be found easily, but some are well hidden, and you will need the assistance of one or more sack person in order to get to them. New levels will keep on coming from the community for a good few months if not years, not to mention that alot of them are really fun, and with the ability to create your own levels like no other game allows you to including the fact that you can make a level with friends which is rarely seen, I would say that the replay value of this game is probably about as good as it gets.

Conclusion: There are some things that need to be tweaked here and there and I specifically have to complain about not being able to copy and paste props without converting them into objects which will remain on your prop menu until you delete it. specially the online play, but nothing that will affect your final decision on whether or not to buy this game, this is seriously a must buy for all ps3 users this holiday, and for those of you platformer haters, you might want to try this one out, there is enough non-platforming levels online for you to enjoy it even if you end up not liking the story mode. Also, if you want to get someone started in gaming, this is one great friendly game that can attract many people due to its simplicity in control (left, right, jump, grab).

The game looks WAY better on a T.V.

Overall Score:
.:Amazing Game!:.

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Game Review: Portal: Still Alive (XBLA)

December 3rd, 2008, 14:25 Posted By: Bratman Du

Portal: Still Alive
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Valve
Genre: Action
System: XBLA
Price:1200 MS Points

The first iteration of Portal we saw was attached to the sweet-as-a-nut deal The Orange Box. At the time I paid 60 quid for the Orange Box, and I was noted for saying that I'd have paid that for Portal alone. This was of course a lie, that would be mad, but Portal's quality and uniqueness stood out from the other parts of the Orange Box (Half Life 2 and it's episodes, and Team Fortress 2. The Orange Box as a whole was great, Half Life 2 and it's episodes are a fantastic play, they age well and converted to the 360 nicely. Team Fortress 2 has a big following even today. The 'Box was full of Diamonds, and Portal was like a, Golden Diamond.

A number of things set it apart - for one it wasn't a First Person Shooter, it was an FPP (first person puzzler). Puzzle games until then had largely been restricted to 2D, with no real story to speak of. Portal showed us unique puzzle situations with a deep and often darkly humorous story, and a good game mechanic which was well realised. The way the game plays is simple enough, one trigger puts up one portal, the other trigger, a second portal. You can travel between the two. And that's it, but I can't explain in words how intricate this game mechanic makes Portal. It sounds simple, but when you take into account that you can use portals to redirect missiles, take objects through to use elsewhere, and that momentum and gravity are unaffected by portals, then the game becomes much more rich and rewarding.

Portal: Still Alive, is a hard one to figure out. To be brutally honest, it's a mutilated version of the original. There are puzzles I remember that are cut out (perhaps to fit the XBox Live Arcade maximum size limit). So you get the feel for what the game is, and you get a good taste for the puzzle element, and most of the story is here in tact. There are no new story bits that I noticed, but some of the puzzles themselves seemed to have small additions or twists I don't remember from first time around.

There are extra and new test chambers (puzzles) to be done individually (i.e. not featuring any of the classic Glados chatter or story). These are simply puzzles and that's it. So I found myself asking - what is this? It's not a prequel or a sequel, and it's not a remake, because a remake would warrant extra and updated content. It's more like a dowloadable content pack for Portal. But it included most of the original game so the only real extras if this were classed as DLC, would be the 20 or so extra puzzles, and if I paid over 5 quid for 20 short enough puzzles, even for what was and is one of the greatest games of all time, I'd cry blood. I'd want more than that for DLC!

But as it stands, Portal: Still Alive is not DLC, it's standalone Arcade game. So where does that leave my opinion? I love the original Portal, but for this review, I just had to play a bastardized version of the game I love. Why would I play this game? For the extra puzzles? I want more of the excellent story! For the achievements? It's a bit lame to be buying something you already completed just to get extra points (or just to be able to say "rub it up ye, Paddy, I gots more points than u!") There are also modes where you have to do each test using only a set amount of portals or footsteps but really, could you be arsed if you've already done them?

I seem to be giving this game a bollocking so far, but the best way I would recommend this game, and this is the important part of this review, this is what I want you to remember - If, AND ONLY IF, you have never played, and have no intention of ever paying for and playing, the full Orange Box package, Portal included, then you owe it to yourself to get this. This will probably be the case if you don't like first person shooters much. And that's fair enough, but Portal is not a first person shooter, not at all. The rest of the Orage Box however, is. And if indeed you are that small minority that doesn't like shooting the christ out of anything that moves, then you should opt for Portal: Still Alive on the Arcade.

It is a great game, even in this slimmed down arcade version, and if you are not a FPS fan, there's no point going for the full Orange Box, take this and enjoy it, because although it's not a complete version, it's enough to show you how awesome the world of Portal is, and you will get almost as much as enjoyment out of this version as the original.

Scores:

if you have the Orange Box
if you haven't

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Acekard 2i for Nintendo DSi

December 3rd, 2008, 01:59 Posted By: bandit

YES! Acekard has provided a video of their flashcart known as Acekard 2i that works with Nintendo's new DS, DSi.

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TouchCharge Aims to Remove Clutter from Your Gaming Rig

December 1st, 2008, 22:24 Posted By: bandit

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Game Review: LittleBigPlanet

November 27th, 2008, 18:15 Posted By: fg-54


________________________
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Media Molecule
Genre: Platformer
Players: 1-4
Price: $59.99

Video Review:

Overview: When LittleBigPlanet was first announced everyone became curious about what this little sack people were all about, as more and more information was released about this ambitious game the more people seemed to get hyped for it. A few weeks after its release I finally get to put my slimy hands all over this one of a kind platformer to calm my own hype for it, is it really as fun as it seems? find out NOW!

Gameplay: LittleBigPlanet is a platfomer like no other in almost every single way and there is alot to be said about it so I am going to separate it into different sections.
I am going to go ahead and start with the main story. After about a good ten minutes of tutorials and explanations you will be able to head on straight to the story mode, actually, until you complete the first three levels or so, that is the ONLY thing you will be able to do, no matter tho, they are short and off course, fun. The whole story consists of you being a sack boy or girl, and you pretty much just travel the world helping out friends with all sorts of problems, towards the end, a nemesis shows up and you have to save everyone but that is all I can say without spoiling too much.
The main story takes place on a world where all dreams go to, here you will get to play through levels from all over the world, each being as stereotypical as they can be, you will fight ninjas in Asia, explore Mayan ruins in Mexico, ect, this makes each world completely unique and non repetitive. The way levels are spread out is each continent has one or two buttons you can click on, once you click on of of them, all levels within that area will pop up, each area also has a few challenges outside of the main story that can be unlocked ether by beating levels, or by finding hidden keys within levels, these challenges are well varied from bull riding to rope jumping and can as well be played with friends.
Now allow me to go on with gameplay. There are three different lanes of the map in which you can be at during the game, this is new in the world of 2D platforming, you can change lanes at any time by pressing up or down on the left joystick, this works well, but can be frustrating when you are at a crucial moment and it decides it wants to rebel, luckily, the game changes lanes for you whenever it thinks it needs to, and again, this works fine most of the time, but sometimes it will change into a lane that you want to get out of over and over again just because it thinks you WANT to go to that lane, I wish there was a way to turn this off.
Aside from that, another new thing that LittleBigPlanet wanted to do was make their game physics based, now this opens up the game to new platforming opportunities such as launching yourself from a spinning wheel onto another, or picking up momentum while swinging to land further, but this also restricts the level of control that you have over your character while it is in mid air, as well as once it lands, this lead up to a few frustrating moments for me when I landed on a small platform, only to walk off of it because I didn't want to slide off.

Every family has a black sheep, sack boys have four.

Aside from the story there are two other things you can do, one is create levels with amazingly powerful tools, and two, is play user made levels, both great choices.
Starting with making your own levels, this is probably where LittleBigPlanet shines the most, at first, you will be bored with a good 40 minutes of tutorials, on the bright side, most of the things they tell you are things you will want to know, so pay attention! plus, you get a trophy for going through all the tutorials after that you are pretty much left alone to do what you wish on the level creator and what a creator it is, stickers, textures, figures, even buttons and hidden action events are at your disposal and even tho they are great at doing the things they were meant to do, it feels even better to do things they weren't meant to do, to use items in ways that no one ever though of before.
Even tho it is very easy to make levels, it takes up alot of your time, it took me a good two days to make my first level and it was just a boss fight with a giant alien, and it wasn't all fun, I had to test my level over and over again, then go back and fix whatever it is that needed to be fixed, and seance it is physics based, you need to give anything you make extra thought.
A big let down for LittleBigPlanet was the fact that it is very easy to completely mess up your level, during my first attempt at making a giant boss, I made a dragon, after I thought I was done I tested him to see if he would disappear when you hit his weak spot, so I did and he DID disappear and all the point bubbles came falling from the sky like I had programed it to, right after this event I saved the level, exited out of edit mode I went into "play" mode where you get to play the level you made as it will be once you publish it, to my surprise, the level started as I had saved it, the dragon was destroyed and the ground was covered with points, I tried to get my level back but it was all in vain, my level had been ruined and there was no way to get it back. Another thing that should be pointed out is that you can't undo actions, you can only reset time to a the moment of the last action, this is just like an undo button except it can take a good 10 seconds or so at random times, still, despite all of this issues, once you become familiar with the way things work, you will get used to them and won't bother you as much.
Once you are finally done with a level and publish it, you can see how many people have played it, and how many people have hearted it, once this is done you can't update it anymore, but you CAN go back to the level editor, fix it up, delete the already published and outdated level, and replace it with the new and improved one.

One last thing you will be able to do, and probably the mode you will spend about half your time with is playing levels that other people made. You can go straight to "cool levels" which will show you bunch of the most played levels, you could also look at "recent levels" which off course shows you the latest published levels, and lastly you can search for levels yourself. The amazing thing about LittleBigPlanet is that games that are dependent on a community to make awesome levels normally fail to succeed, but LittleBigPlanet seems to slap all those other games on the face with already plenty of great and imaginative levels to play. You can "heart" any level you see, this allows you to look at a list of "hearted" levels and play them whenever you wish without having to search for them, you can also heart people, so if there is a single person who has made multiple levels that you like, instead of hearting all of his levels you can just heart the creator himself. It seems like LittleBigPlanet has great potential to be even better as time goes on, you would not believe the creativity that some people have and have been able to bring to life with LittleBigPlanet.

You can turn your creations into prize bubbles and give them to others during or at the end of a level as a reward for beating it.

Graphics: In one word: "OUTSTANDING!" I have never stared at character models the way I have been at the sack boys ever seance I first played gears of war. The character animations are as smooth as you can get without sacrificing the control over it and the fact that you can control their emotions during gameplay is genius and IS be constantly used by users, this is not only a great way to express yourself online when you don't feel like typing or don't have a mic, but mostly it is plain hilarious! as I was driving an unstoppable car while the road behind me exploded, the fact that my sack boy was making an incredibly scared face actually made me laugh out loud, small moments like these make the game even more fun, and they pop up constantly. Smoke effects are top notch and the environments are non repetitive and well made, everything in LittleBigPlanet looks like it came out of a kid's fairy tale book, everything is bright, colorful, and overall has a very nice and attractive look to it that brings me back to my kinder garden days. The game has an amazing and unique new visual style never before seen in video games as far as I am concerned, seriously, everything looks so good in this game it may at first distract you from gameplay, then again I AM graphics freak. (Insert Nintendo fanboy comment about that being the reason I hate the wii here)
And then we have the double edged sword of the fact that it is physics based, on one side, everything looks and acts natural adding to the great animations and making it feel like you are actually interacting with things, and on the other side, because it is physics based, poor little sack boy gets his limbs stretched as far as the whole screen every now and then because of some strange error and even tho this could potentially be fixed with future updates, it is not fixed now and it DOES happen enough times to the point where I have to point it out, this will off course, not interfere with the overall experience.

Sound: There are a bunch of different sound tracks and each of them is completely different from the last specially seance they come from all over the world. You can unlock them to use in your own levels the same way you unlock everything else, by ether collecting the sometimes hidden prize bubbles, or by beating a level with a certain condition. Sound effects are wacky but often easily ignored, the two main sound effects you will hear are the "woosh" from the character jumping and the "bloop" and "pop" whenever you collect a point bubble. Overall they fit well with the whole visual style of the game as they are mostly the kind of sound effects you would expect from a happy Nintendo game.

Replay Value: The story mode literally has HUNDREDS of unlockable prize bubbles, some can be found easily, but some are well hidden, and you will need the assistance of one or more sack person in order to get to them. New levels will keep on coming from the community for a good few months if not years, not to mention that alot of them are really fun, and with the ability to create your own levels like no other game allows you to including the fact that you can make a level with friends which is rarely seen, I would say that the replay value of this game is probably about as good as it gets.

Conclusion: There are some things that need to be tweaked here and there and I specifically have to complain about not being able to copy and paste props without converting them into objects which will remain on your prop menu until you delete it. specially the online play, but nothing that will affect your final decision on whether or not to buy this game, this is seriously a must buy for all ps3 users this holiday, and for those of you platformer haters, you might want to try this one out, there is enough non-platforming levels online for you to enjoy it even if you end up not liking the story mode. Also, if you want to get someone started in gaming, this is one great friendly game that can attract many people due to its simplicity in control (left, right, jump, grab).

The game looks WAY better on a T.V.

Overall Score:
.:Amazing Game!:.

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Game Review: Weapon Of Choice (XBLA)

November 26th, 2008, 00:20 Posted By: fg-54


_____________________________
Developer: MommysBest
Genre: Side Scrolling Shooter
Players: 1
Price: 400
Rating By Community:
Violence=3/3
Sex=2/3
Mature Content=2/3
_____________________________________

Overview: The new Xbox experience is out along with a hand full of XNA or "Community" games, there are many to pick from and after playing all the demo's on a $5 budget this one seemed like the clear winner, does it live up to its name? or is this just another one of those games that are thrown out there to make a quick buck?

Gameplay: Tho ridiculously short, this game brings a new fresh twist to side scrolling shooters with a good deal of characters to choose from each with their own weapon, special double jump AND secondary fire for each, plus, they all hold one extra weapon in common that you will be completely ignoring throughout the game but is still nice to have.
A problem I have with XNA games is that you MUST be connected to Xbox live in order to play them, I found this out when I went to play it as I was just starting this review (I like to have the games on while I write about it in case I have to double check anything) this off course became an instant frustration for me. Off course no points will be taken off for this as ALL games are the same, but this is one thing to have in mind for any future purchase of an XNA game.

Another problem that I wish Microsoft would fix is the lack of achievements on these XNA games, it was fun playing them, but would be even funner if I knew that all my hard work would be rewarded, plus, it adds value. Now that I have listed the problems of ALL XNA games, allow me to continue by listing the problems of this particular one, the frame drops at least once per level, this is not consistent but very noticeable, also, it takes about fifteen minutes to get through the story once, you have the option to complete each level through different paths which adds a bit of replay value but not much. All the characters can be unlocked within half an hour which is about how long it takes to beat the whole game seance you have three different paths to choose from starting from the first level and each path takes ten to fifteen minutes to complete.
Each character also has a strange gadget that will grab on to walls and roofs for you, this not only looks cool but once you get used to it can be very helpful as well.
One last feature of this game that needs to be mentioned is the automatic "bullet time" effect that activates when you are near death, this looks and feels cool, plus gives you a second chance at avoiding mortal hazards near you, this makes the game very forgiving, but the fact that this game revolves around the hone hit kill philosophy sort of evens things out. Once you die you will be taken to the character selection menu and after you choose one, you will be blasted back to action, once all of the players die, the game is over.

There are various enemies and terrains in this game.

Graphics: The game has a visual style unlike any other, monsters are imaginative and colorful, the backgrounds and environment are well detailed, and bullets in weapons are distinct. Opponents are animated strangely, their bodies are often stretched and my best guess is that its part of the style they are trying to pull of.

Sound: This seems like a game made for the stereotypical gamer male, there are big buns, chicks (you don't really get to see them up close tho) explosions, monsters, and aliens.....the sound is no different, it is very squishy and crunchy at times mostly when an enemy is killed, and there is rock on the background, could this possibly get more manly?

Replay Value: If you have been ether reading or paying attention to my review so far, you will know that there are not many reasons to come back to this game, no multilayer support, only about seven levels, and even tho it has three different endings, it only takes about thirty minutes to get there, on the bright side, there are seven unique characters. For 400 I would really have liked to get at least one hour of fun, overall whether or not you should buy this game comes down to how much is 400 worth to YOU, and how much you are willing to pay for a fun, but VERY short experience.

Conclusion: It seems like almost every single game that does something new or cool for the first time is very short, take portal for example, it was a completely new and awesome puzzle game but only lasted about two hours and it always ends up coming down to how much you are willing to pay for a very short but awesome experience. There IS a surprisingly alright story, and this is how the three endings are broken up, whoever you choose to serve will determine where you will go next, but be careful, you die in two out of the three endings.

It is easy to ignore backgrounds while in the heat of battle...don't.

_____________________________________

Final Score:
.:AVERAGE:.

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Game Review: Weapon Of Choice

November 25th, 2008, 20:35 Posted By: fg-54


_____________________________
Developer: MommysBest
Genre: Side Scrolling Shooter
Players: 1
Price: 400
Rating By Community:
Violence=3/3
Sex=2/3
Mature Content=2/3
_____________________________________

Overview: The new Xbox experience is out along with a hand full of XNA or "Community" games, there are many to pick from and after playing all the demo's on a $5 budget this one seemed like the clear winner, does it live up to its name? or is this just another one of those games that are thrown out there to make a quick buck?

Gameplay: Tho ridiculously short, this game brings a new fresh twist to side scrolling shooters with a good deal of characters to choose from each with their own weapon, special double jump AND secondary fire for each, plus, they all hold one extra weapon in common that you will be completely ignoring throughout the game but is still nice to have.
A problem I have with XNA games is that you MUST be connected to Xbox live in order to play them, I found this out when I went to play it as I was just starting this review (I like to have the games on while I write about it in case I have to double check anything) this off course became an instant frustration for me. Off course no points will be taken off for this as ALL games are the same, but this is one thing to have in mind for any future purchase of an XNA game.

Another problem that I wish Microsoft would fix is the lack of achievements on these XNA games, it was fun playing them, but would be even funner if I knew that all my hard work would be rewarded, plus, it adds value. Now that I have listed the problems of ALL XNA games, allow me to continue by listing the problems of this particular one, the frame drops at least once per level, this is not consistent but very noticeable, also, it takes about fifteen minutes to get through the story once, you have the option to complete each level through different paths which adds a bit of replay value but not much. All the characters can be unlocked within half an hour which is about how long it takes to beat the whole game seance you have three different paths to choose from starting from the first level and each path takes ten to fifteen minutes to complete.
Each character also has a strange gadget that will grab on to walls and roofs for you, this not only looks cool but once you get used to it can be very helpful as well.
One last feature of this game that needs to be mentioned is the automatic "bullet time" effect that activates when you are near death, this looks and feels cool, plus gives you a second chance at avoiding mortal hazards near you, this makes the game very forgiving, but the fact that this game revolves around the hone hit kill philosophy sort of evens things out. Once you die you will be taken to the character selection menu and after you choose one, you will be blasted back to action, once all of the players die, the game is over.

There are various enemies and terrains in this game.

Graphics: The game has a visual style unlike any other, monsters are imaginative and colorful, the backgrounds and environment are well detailed, and bullets in weapons are distinct. Opponents are animated strangely, their bodies are often stretched and my best guess is that its part of the style they are trying to pull of.

Sound: This seems like a game made for the stereotypical gamer male, there are big buns, chicks (you don't really get to see them up close tho) explosions, monsters, and aliens.....the sound is no different, it is very squishy and crunchy at times mostly when an enemy is killed, and there is rock on the background, could this possibly get more manly?

Replay Value: If you have been ether reading or paying attention to my review so far, you will know that there are not many reasons to come back to this game, no multilayer support, only about seven levels, and even tho it has three different endings, it only takes about thirty minutes to get there, on the bright side, there are seven unique characters. For 400 I would really have liked to get at least one hour of fun, overall whether or not you should buy this game comes down to how much is 400 worth to YOU, and how much you are willing to pay for a fun, but VERY short experience.

Conclusion: It seems like almost every single game that does something new or cool for the first time is very short, take portal for example, it was a completely new and awesome puzzle game but only lasted about two hours and it always ends up coming down to how much you are willing to pay for a very short but awesome experience. There IS a surprisingly alright story, and this is how the three endings are broken up, whoever you choose to serve will determine where you will go next, but be careful, you die in two out of the three endings.

It is easy to ignore backgrounds while in the heat of battle...don't.

_____________________________________

Final Score:
.:AVERAGE:.

Join In and Discuss Here

Submit News and Releases Here and Contact Us for Reviews and Advertising Here