Who needs Geometry when you have spaceships?

Super Stardust HD, released on June 15, 2007 in North America, is one of many games in the twin-stick shooter genre that was more or less created by Geometry Wars. Stardust wasn’t the first twin-stick shooter on the PSN, but it’s easily the best. This game hits in all areas, from its gorgeous graphics and driving sci-fi soundtrack to it’s tight controls. When you add expanded game modes through downloadable add-ons and trophy support, this is one of the strongest titles the PSN has to offer.

The premise of the game, like most other games in the genre is simple: as you traverse five planets you must control your spaceship, destroy any asteroids and space creatures you encounter picking up point tokens along the way to build your score. As you stay alive, a score multiplier continually builds, which is the true key to boosting your score. Take a hit from an enemy destroys your ship, and more importantly, drops your multiplier back down to nothing. Shield tokens will occasionally appear for you to pick up which will allow your ship to take damage without destroying it. Learning the subtle strategies in the game will be what puts your name towards the top of the leaderboards, because like other games in the genre, Stardust‘s challenge doesn’t come from simply learning the gameplay, but from mastering it.

The controls make it easy to pick up and play. The left analog stick moves your spaceship around, while the right analog stick fires your weapon in whatever direction you are aiming. You have a boost attack which recharges after you use it, and bombs, which you have a limited supply of, that destroy everything in your general vicinity mapped to your trigger buttons. The L1 and R1 buttons cycle through your ships three weapons, one each for rock, gold and ice asteroids. That’s it. They are incredibly responsive, which is very necessary, because when the asteroid/enemy hordes start really raining down on you (and they will), you need to be able to make quite a few hairpin turns and subtle moves to keep your ship (and your score) going.

The graphics, much like the gameplay, are very simplistic. But man, are they pretty. As the name of the game implies, the best graphical experience will be achieved on an HD display. The explosions and effects seem to pop in HD in a way that doesn’t come through when you play the game on a standard display. The soundtrack is the game’s strongest trait, as the futuristic themes do well to immerse you in the frantic action going on in front of you. Just in case you aren’t a fan of the sci-fi sounds, Stardust has you covered, as you can use a custom soundtrack off of your PS3′s music playlist. Nothing beats blasting space rocks while Rage Against the Machine is pumping in the background.

The arcade game is more than enough to keep most gamers occupied for hours on end. For those who tire of the regular game, or for those who are just looking to expand their Stardust experience, you can get two downloadable track packs that have appeared since the game’s release. The first is a solo player pack that offers four new single player game modes: Endless, Survivor, Bomber, and Time Attack. Endless is probably the strongest of the new modes, as you face unbelievable enemy swarms doing your best to stay alive and build an amazing score. All of the modes are fun though, despite lacking the depth of arcade mode. The second add-on is a team pack with split screen co-op modes. Both packs also contain extra content in the form of remixed soundtracks and, in the team pack, a ship editor. Unfortunately the ship editor offers no strategic advantages, it’s purely there for aesthetic purposes. Stardust also has the distinction of being the first PS3 game to offer trophy support. The trophies range from being relatively easy (gain a bronze the first time you complete each planet), to pretty tough (acquire 15 bombs in Bomber? And it’s only a silver?).

The game is, of course, not without it’s flaws. It is pretty limited with only five planets to play. It would’ve been nice to see an extra planet or two with one of the game’s updates. For a game where the play sessions get longer and longer every time you play, the planet repetition gets a little old eventually. And while it is awesome that there are trophies in the game, some of them have to be acquired in game modes that you have to buy the downloadable add-ons to unlock. While the new modes are pretty cool, they are optional. I shouldn’t have to spend an extra $10 on the game to earn all the trophies in it. Fortunately, none of these issues take away from the core game.

Super Stardust HD is hands-down one of the best titles not only on the PSN, but for the PlayStation 3 overall. For those who don’t own a 360 and are therefore not able to play Geometry Wars, Stardust provides an experience that is not only on par, but better in many ways. It’s an amazing value at $9.99 USD that will keep fans of arcade shooters occupied for hours on end, and will make fans out of those not familiar with the genre. It’s simply a title that shouldn’t be missed by casual and hardcore player alike.

Released 10th May, in the year 2007 Calling All Cars is Sony`s first major venture into PSN only downloadable gaming and as one might expect being such an early title, it cant compete against some of the PSN`s more recent titles. Saying that, this is a very enjoyable title and at time of release was extremely popular, and you can understand why.

The game is excitingly simple meaning you, your friends and even your parents will find it hard not to grasp the concept and controls within only a few quick sessions. You play as a “the law”, the objective is to capture an escaped “crook” and transport him to the local lock-up, which in itself is simple, but you are up against three others in what can easily turn into an all out war of cat and mouse. You are able to obtain various weapons and power-ups which are comparable to the MicroMachine games of yesteryear. The weapons include a giant mallet, a magnet that sucks the crook straight from the seat of your opponent’s vehicle into your own, and of course a missile.

Calling All Cars is a good example of a title that was always going to be multiplayer from its conception. With the ability to have four way split screen, four player online and two player split screen whilst online you can instantly appreciate having friends if just to beat, and a headset to voice your opinions to those at the other end of your broadband connection (and secretly hope they don’t know who you are in “real life”). Calling All Cars isn’t an online only title as there is a tournament option with AI in place of real people, but going from real people to AI you soon lose a lot of the fun (and a lot of patience at the super-skilled AI) and with there being only four different maps you quickly find yourself bored, frustrated and quickly switching back to hammering abuse at your fellow bipeds.

Graphically it is pleasing. By using a technique referred to as cell shading the devs have kept in feel with the games cartoonie and not so serious feel. The game is very rich in colours and looks nice on a big screen TV, but beware those of you with plasma screens susceptible to burn in as these rich colours can soon become every day viewing, whether you like it or not!

In conclusion, at the time of release the game was fun, but that was about it. It was never meant to be ground breaking and for that reason this title has simply drifted away into Sony`s back catalogue. Unfortunately not so many people are online these days, which is a shame as this game really is good fun online.

Released on August the 28th 2007, Warhawk remains one of the PSN`s flag ship releases, and I say quite rightly so. Based on the original Playstation 1 title, the PS3 version expands in every way possible to produce what is still a fun packed and graphically pleasing title.

On its release day I can only assume Sony underestimated the amount of interest surrounding this game, and I say this because the first month after release the game or the network couldn’t cope. People, including myself were unable to connect and it could take quite literally twenty minutes to get to play online. What made this situation furiously frustrating however, was that Warhawk was and still is an online only title, meaning if you couldn’t establish a connection you couldn’t play. But lets not live in the past, as with any new title there are nearly always teething problems.

With such a shaky review to Warhawk so far I think it’s only fair to now heap on some much deserved praise. I take my 1960`s retro style Bowler hat off to Ingocnito for one of the best supported titles to date on the PSN. On top of three reasonably priced update packs (which included new features requested and discussed in various forums by us civilians) there have been several free updates, with the most recent adding what is considered to be the Holy Grail amongst PS3 owners, Achievements and custom soundtracks. This on top of regular Q&A online has set the standard very high in terms of Developer/Consumer relations, and just a quick browse around the internet will turn up heaps of praise. Bravo Incognito.

Considering this is an early title the game looks and feels very fresh. The water effects are by far my favourite, and with the sun hitting it just right I would often find myself paying more attention to that rather than the imminent Swarm Missile attack. I soon learnt my lesson. Graphically everything looks crisp and well rendered, and even with fifteen Warhawks in the air, ground support and several missiles flying in your general direction, I have never experienced slow down, stuttering or screen tare. The more you play the more you begin to realise there is a lot of attention to detail, little extras that didn’t have to be there but are, making Warhawk feel even more complete. For example, should an explosion take place just over the hill from where you stand, you will see a visible but subtle shockwave bubble out and disperse.

Complementing the visuals, the audio is of very high quality. The title is built from the ground up in Dolby Digital 5.1, and they have taken advantage of this by producing some gut wrenching explosions and fill your pants fly-bys. The Warhawks sound as if they have actually just flown over your left shoulder, darted from left to right in front of you and then looped the looped back behind you. It is, to say the least, very submersive. More than a nice sound effect, this helps you locate one of the thirty one remaining enemies firing at you.

The control system is simple in practise, but to explain it now in detail will just induce a moderately sized brain tumour (probably). Each mode of transport has its individual control system, whether it be Tank, Jeep, Warhawk, running, Homing Missile turret, Cannon turret or Personnel carrier. They are, of course, similar enough to jump in and control straight away, but variances in weapons and abilities make a difference. Then on top of this the Warhawks have two control settings, normal flight or pro flight. The differences between the two are significant, the benefits, however are not. With normal flight settings the pitch, yaw and roll of your Warhawk is controlled purely by the two analogue sticks. With Pro-flight you are in the mercy of SIXAXIS controls, your pitch, roll and yaw is controlled entirely by your hand movements. On release of Warhawk the Pro-Flight feature was written off as pointlessly hard and nobody used it, but after a short break to fix my car (play COD4) I have returned to find all the big scorers using Pro-Flight with an amazing degree of move ability. The controls as a whole are tricky to pick up, and as a beginner you will constantly find yourself being out manoeuvred by the regulars, but all I can say is stick with it and definitely attend the training option that was included in the August 28th update (Once completed it will award you an Achievement as well)

Even without a story mode to play through this game is still entertaining after one year from its release date. It’s been well received by consumers and well supported by the developers. I should also mention at this point that the game is available both as download and Blu-ray, but if you want to save a bit of cash the PSN download costs significantly less but is locked to the PSN user ID that was used to download the game, so I suggest if you share your PS3 with others get the Blu-ray version, otherwise the PSN version is your friend.

The Penny Arcade games are what I call mini-RPGs, and episode two is obviously the sequel to episode one. In the game you take control of a character crafted by you, and then proceed to adventure with Gabe and Tycho of the famous Penny Arcade comic strip. If you haven’t heard of them, you should go check it out. The game is available on XBLA, PSN, Windows, MAC and Linux. For this review we will be focusing on the XBLA version, and I have not played the other version (although they are all the same game).

Before we continue with the review proper, I feel I need to make a clear disclaimer. Yes, I am a big fan of the comic strip and website. I read PA three times a week, every week, without fail. I also read every news post that accompanies the comic (or does the comic accompany the news post?) and enjoy them, thoroughly. Secondly, I did not like the first game, in fact I hated it. More on that later.

OK so with that out of the way we can move on.

I’ll start by saying I really enjoyed PA EP2, it has it’s flaws, but despite them the game is very fun and addictive. Some people may be concerned that they need to play the previous game to gain full enjoyment from this title, but rest assured it is not so. There are a few references to the first game, but they are small and of little consequence. Most of the games jokes can be understood with no knowledge of the first game. And there are jokes a-plenty, this is a humorous game. Still, it would have been nice to include a short summary of what happened in the first episode, but this little feature is sadly missing.

Let’s talk about some of the games flaws I mentioned. Firstly, the graphics are what I would call adequate. You won’t see anything special here…move along. The game’s areas are all very monotonous, they are all dark and share a similar colour palette. I know it’s called the On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, but still, does all the areas have to be so dark? While the 2D cut scenes look great and work very well, the game play takes place in a 3D world which I feel is lacking in art direction and is quite mundane. I wish the whole game was in hand drawn 2D…I love hand drawn 2D!

Moving on to the what is arguably the most important part of the game, the battle system. It is turn based which is a great thing, and is fun to play. The battles are fast paced and can also be challenging. The worst part of the battle system is the interface, which is what made me hate the first game. You see, I played the first game on PC, with a mouse. Do yourself a favour, and do not play this game with a mouse…you’ll be constantly clicking from one side of the screen to the other, and you won’t be able to do it fast enough. The battle interface is simply too clunky, even with a controller, something more like a traditional Final Fantasy interface would have worked much better. Because the battles are so fast paced, and because the enemies don’t wait for you before they attack, you have to quickly select actions. With a controller it is manageable, but with a mouse it is game-breaking. It could have been a lot better in either case. So, to sum up, the battle system is quite good, so long as you’re using a controller.

There are also lots of small, but very noticeable improvements over the last game. You get into the main story a lot faster, the start of the first game was rather boring, and thankfully this game doesn’t suffer from that. The disembodied narrator doesn’t talk so damn much, which is also another great improvement. The games story is enjoyable and very funny in place, and the characters and dialog are entertaining, to say the least.

Despite some of the complaints I have, PA EP2 is a great game. It is advertised as a RPG, but if you go in expecting a small slice of Final Fantasy or something like that, you might be disappointed. Instead it is more what I would call a mini-RPG, which is not at all a bad thing. Your characters are not as configurable as a fully fledged RPG, and the world is not as big or detailed. It may sound like a bad thing, but it works quite well; like being delivered a small, but concentrated dose of RPG. The story and dialog remind me more of Monkey Island than any J-RPG, it has the same kind of quirky humour. In fact, think of it as a cross between Monkey Island and a J-RPG.

Penny Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode Two goes for 1200 Microsoft points on XBLA, which I believe equates to about $15 USD. For that price the game is great value, and I wholeheartedly recommend you go get it.

Xbox Live Arcade has, in my opinion, always put out some quality strategy board games. Catan and Carcassorone are two of the best examples. With Capcom behind the publishing duties and some of former Bungie developers, this newly formed developer being Certain Affinity, doing the honors of creating Age of Booty to fans of the genre were eagerly anticipating the game would be putting it mildly. I am very happy to report that they delivered and then some.

On the surface the game is very simplistic. You control a pirate ship in real time moving across a hex “game board” where the point of the game is to take over and control a certain amount of port towns by laying siege. Along the way you can upgrade your ship and ports you take over with better cannons, armor and speed each giving distinct advantages or disadvantages according to what everyone else is doing. While you are in the process of taking ports for your own here are merchant ships that drop little nasties to muddle the opponent with teleporting whirlpools, armor destroying bombs and a devilish little monkey (you’ll just have to hear him for yourself to know his pain).

The single player experience offers 21 different scenarios where you can test your meddle against the AI and fighting alongside your own computer controller ships. They are separated into your common easy, medium and hard modes. Sometimes you’ll find the most testing part of the single player game is hoping your AI partners will do what you want them to do which all too often isn’t the case. It’s a minor complaint though as it seems adequate enough. If anything, you can look at it as a challenge in itself.

While the single player game is fun enough it is really just a warm up to where the real fun is in Age of Booty, the multiplayer. Everyone who has been gaming for the past decade knows that Bungie is legendary in their ability to make a smooth and engaging online experience. AoB is certainly no exception.

First of all, the game runs as smooth online as any online arcade game I have ever played. It is very refreshing as recently a lot of more high profile arcade games (I didn’t make you think Castle Crashers don’t blame me for your own ideas). They have 4 versus 4, 2 vs. 2 and a wild Battle Royale that is 2 vs. 2 vs. 2 vs. 2. The games are hectic and take a lot of skill and the need to really work together for a win. The lobby and matchmaking are as easy at it gets where you rarely have to wait long to get in your 15 minute match.

On top of all of this Certain Affinity added a very robust map editor that you can invite your friends to join in on the fun. It is limited by nothing but your imagination and desire for more plunder.

As bold as this may sound, considering 2008 had some of the best arcade releases since the 360’s release, I believe that Age of Booty is the year’s finest original title. It has everything. Graphics, sound, game modes and most importantly solid gameplay. I can’t say anything else except that every 360 owner should pick this one up and play incessantly. Lastly I would like to add…while playing the game talking like a pirate is not optional.

Braid has generated a lot of buzz over the past couple of years. I’ve been dying to play it ever since I first heard previews almost three years ago. Heck, it even won an award for innovation in design from the 2006 Independent Games Festival, despite not coming out until 2008. If ever an independent game has been hyped, it has been Braid. Of course, as with any hyped and long-awaited game, the question everyone is asking is “Was it worth the wait?”

Short version: If you haven’t already bought it, and you have even the slightest enjoyment for thinking games, stop reading this now and go buy it. It’s probably the best 1200 points you could spend on the XBOX (only possible exception – Portal: Still Alive, which you also need to buy).

Long version: Braid is an amazing game. As soon as it came out, I happily dropped my 1200 M$ Points and loaded the game up with a couple of friends. We were absolutely floored. This game oozes quality. The sound design is simple yet effective. The music is beautiful, engaging, and even somewhat interactive. The visuals consist of gorgeous hand-drawn landscapes and enemies, combined with some nifty special effects. And the puzzles…oh, the puzzles. Prepare to be tested.

From a gameplay perspective, Braid is an old-school 2D platformer, very similar to the original Mario Bros. game (a game which Braid constantly references and even borrows from). However, the platform elements really aren’t the important part – anyone who’s played Mario will have no trouble with the “bounce on a guy’s head to kill him and don’t fall in pits” gameplay. What makes Braid stand out from nearly every other video game is the manipulation of time.

Yes, time-travel games have been done before. Timebot and the simple though clever Cursor*10 both made great use of cloning and restarting in time. Braid takes this to a new level though, giving the player a number of ways to mess with time – I won’t detail them, because half the fun is discovering the new things each level has to offer. Really, I keep coming back to Portal when I think of Braid – they both represent a high quality, simple, and amazing puzzle experience that completely changes the way you see the world. If you like either of them, you really need to get the other, no questions asked.

Braid should offer a solid 4 or 5 hours of gameplay the first time through (I didn’t time it, but it was at least that long). It’s actually an excellent group game – I played it along with three of my college friends. We’d all sit around the TV, taking turns with the controller, and shouting out solutions as we figured out the puzzles. A word on the puzzles: this game is devious. It will make you think and your brain will hurt (by the way, if you use a walkthrough, shame on you – you’ve robbed yourself of a fantastic experience and don’t even deserve to play Braid). Some of the puzzles will have you banging your head against the wall, and if you’re not a somewhat masochistic gamer, this might be frustrating (I on the other hand found myself laughing maniacally). For those who love a good puzzle, and love exploring new ways to look at your world, this game delivers in spades.

As a side note, one criticism that Yahtzee makes in his Zero Punctuation review is that a lot of the levels start to recycle. While true, I completely disagree with his criticism – I love the fact that the familiar levels are brought back with new twists and extra challenges – it’s like the game saying “So, you thought you solved this puzzle, eh? Try it now that you have no ladder, biatch!”

The game’s not perfect though. It is arguably a bit on the short side, and doesn’t offer too much replayability (outside of a lone “Speed Run” option) once you’ve beaten it. Then there’s the “story”. I’m honestly still a bit undecided on the story. To describe it in one word, I’d say “dense”. I feel I need to read it two or three more times to determine if it’s brilliant art or overly-pretentious prose – right now it is the Finnegan’s Wake of video games (which I suppose isn’t saying much, but still…). It also follows the stop-and-go approach to story telling, where a little story is given between levels and really has nothing to do with what you’re doing in the game. That said, the final sequence is absolutely brilliant – and I will say no more than that.

Minor quibbles aside, this game is easily the best game available on the XBLA marketplace (once again, along with Portal), and is a shining example of why independent gaming and flash gaming are where most of the true innovation in games is coming from these days.

Get equipped…with retro greatness!

In anticipation of Megaman 9’s release, I blew through MM2 and MM3 the week before.  Despite the fact that I hadn’t played them in years, I completed them without much effort.  Shocking for me, since when I was younger, they both caused me great angst, cursing, and controller throwing.  And yet, here I am, crushing both of them with the expertise of a speed runner.  I was worried; was Megaman truly not the great challenge I once thought it to be?  And will the same translate into the 9th edition?  My fears really became heightened when I first began playing Megaman 9.  I began with Galaxy Man’s stage, since I had heard through the grapevine that he was the “first” boss that should be conquered.  I sped through the stage and downed Galaxy Man on the first try.  Without losing a single life.  Now I had real doubts about the “challenge” that MM9 was going to deliver.

And then…the game knocked me right on my ass.

No, Megaman 9 is not easy by any means.  As a matter of fact, it may just be the most difficult entry in the series.  And fans of the series wouldn’t want it any other way.  It is Megaman in it’s truest form: 8-bit graphics, a funky classic soundtrack, challenging (and on occasion downright brutal) level design, and the usual “rock-paper-scissors” boss structure.  There’s cheap deaths, frustrating mini-bosses, and the Megaman “Game Over” screen.  Lots and lots of game over screens.  Capcom did fans a great service with this game.

For those of you who have never played a Megaman game (and if you’ve been born since like 1990, why haven’t you?), here’s the gist of what to expect.  Megaman is a good old action platformer.  You run, you jump, and you shoot.  The game is divided into eight different stages, playable in any order you choose.  Each one is designed in the theme of the evil Robot Master who serves as the stage boss.  As you defeat each of the Robot Masters, you acquire their special weapon to use for yourself.  Each of the Robot Masters is weak against a particular weapon, so the trick to the game is figuring out the correct order to progress through the levels.  When the dust settles, your final challenge awaits in the person of the main villain throughout the whole series, Dr. Wily (and no complaining about spoilers, did you really expect it to be anyone else?).

Let’s get the graphics talk out of the way.  The biggest source of contoversy leading up to the game’s release was the fact that the Megaman development team elected to go back to the old 8-bit NES graphical style.  Some gamers adored the choice, some thought that Capcom felt like being lazy, wanting to make the game for cheap so they could profit heavily on it.  Whether or not you are a fan of the design choice is something that’s going to be in the eye of the beholder.  I personally think that this is truly how Megaman should look.  I never got into the series after it left the NES, becuase the Super Nintendo iterations just didn’t look or feel right.  This is a return to form, and one that I believe will be welcomed by most.

The difficult level design is probably the most distingushing charactersitic of the series, and Megaman 9 does nothing to fall short of the standard set by the previous games.  There’s a ton of the usual fare to test your platforming skills: bottomless pits, instant-death spike traps, dissappearing block puzzles, and well-placed enemy spawns.  There’s even some new wrinkles added, like the rotating cylinders in Tornado Man’s stage.  And as usual, there are only two stage checkpoints: one in the middle, and one right before the boss room.  The bottom line is, before you even reach the boss chambers, you’re going to die, you’re going get game overs, and your going to burn through continues.  The saving grace is that there is no more archaic password grid in the game, the game has save files like any new game on the market.

The other defining aspect of a Megamn stage is the awesome music playing over the gameplay.  MM9’s soundtrack doesn’t quite reach the stratosphere of Megaman 2’s, considered by many to be the greatest gaming soundtrack ever, but it has it’s share of classic tracks.  So much so that I wait with baited breath for The Megas to jump all over it.  Quick aside, if you love Megaman and have never heard of The Megas, check this out.

Roll, Rush, Eddie, and the rest of your support team are back to help you on your quest.  While traversing the levels, you’ll come across bolts that you can collect and trade in at a between-stage item shop where you can purchase things from extra lives and energy tanks to an extra costume that lets you play the game helmet-less.  The game progresses the background story through many rendered 8-bit cutscenes.  The cutscenes were pretty slick at first, but got quite repetitive as the game went along; the story has never been an important component of the Megaman series.

The other big new feature that was added to the game presumably to extend the replay value is the 50 in-game challenges.  Like in most games, the easy challenges will be achieved just by playing through the adventure (kill 100 enemies, fire your Mega Buster X amount of times, etc).  The challenges ramp up to crazy in a hurry, my favorite one being the “Gamer’s Day” challenge: achieved by beating the game five times in one day.  To put it simply the most hardcore of Megaman players will likely beat 50-60% of these challenges.  I’m not sure I want to meet the person that beats all 50 of them (and that person is out there somewhere).

There have also been a few downloadable add-ons announced for purchase at a later date.  The biggest one allows you to play as Protoman (Megaman’s cape-wearing brother), the other ones allow for some online leaderboard positon jockeying, like seeing how far you can make it in the “endless level.”

The bottom line is that this is a great Megaman game, one that will be argued by some to the best in the series.  If you were a fan of the Blue Bomber in the NES days, you are going to love this game for sure.  If you hated the Megaman games back in the day, nothing in Megaman 9 is going to make you change your mind about them.  If you are one of the unfortunate souls who have never played a true Megaman adventure, and you enjoy games that push your skills to the limit, this one may just be worth your $10.  Megaman 9 was created for the gamers that have held the torch for the series throughout the years, and it’s as good as we could have ever hoped it would be.