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Dragon Quest VI Review [NDS]

2011-03-23T05:40:00.000-07:00

Absorbing gameplay and an epic plot make this Dragon Quest remake worth the wait.

The Good

Lovely dual-screen presentation
Captivating town scenarios and great dialogue
Two huge worlds to explore
Pleasingly deep job system
Plenty of replay value.

The Bad

Annoying save system
Disappointing multicard wireless feature.

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Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation marks the first time this role-playing classic has reached American shores. Developer Arte Piazza has skillfully enhanced this Super Famicom giant, adding an impressive dual-screen presentation and immersive dialogue to flesh out the game's plot. A job system provides depth, while other series hallmarks--optional content and a challenging bonus dungeon--return to boost replayability. Though it hardly redefines the Dragon Quest experience, the game's extensive exploration and nostalgic atmosphere are sure to satisfy.

New 3D environments make exploration a treat.

A surprising storyline draws you in with frequent twists. You're cast as a young warrior protecting a small mountain village from the Dread Fiend, a sinister illusionist who is summoning monsters to attack humanity. You soon embark on an epic quest to save the world, only to discover that you're living within a dream--a mirror realm created by the denizens of the real world to live out their fantasies in peace. You traverse both huge worlds in search of the Dread Fiend, unveiling secrets and recruiting allies along the way. You meet many outlandish characters on your journey--fortune tellers and invisible amnesiacs among them--and their eccentricity adds charm. Great dialogue also hooks you in, highlighting a smooth translation with colorful accents and puns.

Like its predecessors, Dragon Quest VI boasts an expansive world full of brainteasers. You encounter more than 30 unique towns, each with its own distinct scenario that enriches the story while unlocking new areas and conundrums. Most of these scripted events are highly creative. For example, in one town, you climb a cliffside dungeon to solve the mystery of a flying bed; in another, you escort mermaids across the high seas. Completing scenarios in one realm affects events in the other, and it's thrilling to travel back and forth to explore your impact. Though the game's many pathways make it a little confusing to navigate, helpful maps and party dialogue usually keep you on track. The wagon also returns to make travel easier; this series staple lets you exchange party members midcombat whenever you're on the world map, and it shares experience points so that even your benched characters advance.

The game's combat system is similar to Dragon Quest V's, with job classes and greater skill variety enriching the experience. The random, turn-based battles present character information on the top screen to reduce clutter, while enemies and colorful battlefields are relegated to the bottom. Full tactical controls let you issue commands individually or across the board, which speeds up battles while the AI focuses on healing or aggressive skills. The job system introduced in Dragon Quest III finally returns, featuring 18 jobs--including two unlockables--and a bevy of skills to unleash. Multiple hybrid jobs keep combat enticing by blending skill sets, so you can craft a stalwart warrior wielding recovery magic or an advanced mage that uses both healing and offensive spells. Characters retain their unlocked skills even as they change jobs, which motivates you to master multiple jobs to create the ultimate personalized team.

Updated enemy animations and vivid backdrops spruce up battling.

Good enemy selection and wide attack variety keep combat lively. Enemy types vary by region and terrain, prompting you to adjust your strategy as you travel from one continent to the next. Updated attack animations increase excitement by achieving a striking 3D effect, which is enhanced by camera movements whenever enemies lurch forward. Foes challenge you by wielding the same powerful spells you have, including sizzling fireballs and swirling icicles that attack the entire party. Monsters also resurrect allies in the midst of combat and often interrupt your battle tactics by casting sleep spells or tricking you into a disco fever.

There are only a few minor design issues in Dragon Quest VI. Talkative priests still force you to swim through pages of dialogue to save your game, while the franchise's addictive monster-taming system has been toned down, leaving you with only a giant lizard and a handful of slimes to recruit. The game's most disappointing element is its multicard wireless feature, which lets you exchange player data with friends for a crummy reward. Its lack of Wi-Fi support also stings, making it unlikely that you'll use the feature at all.
The attractive dual-screen presentation really catches the eye, highlighting the game's 3D environments with vibrant colors. Soft light filters down upon charming towns and bustling castles, while birds soar overhead through swirling clouds. Maneuvering the camera lets you appreciate a town's detailed architecture from every angle, and colorful sprites clutter the streets. A powerful orchestral soundtrack sets a nostalgic tone for series fans, which provides cheerful town music and boisterous battle tunes that intensify key moments. Sound effects receive the same attention to detail, increasing immersion with clear sword swipes and the crack of ferocious spells.

Rule this slime-tacular battle arena and other minigames to score special gear.

Optional content keeps this lengthy adventure exciting. You might spend 50 hours completing the main quest line alone, and exploring the game's two vast worlds really boosts that amount of time. Mini-medals return, which item collectors can trade for fantastic gear. Enthusiastic explorers will enjoy scouring the ocean bottom for hidden treasure, while battle veterans may delve into an intense bonus dungeon to face a secret foe. Fun minigames also abound, including a fashion show and an adorable slime coliseum, where the lively blobs battle for prizes. You can find high-stakes casinos and a curling minigame with multiple stages as well. Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation feels much like its predecessors, but that's because it focuses on what the series does best: blending absorbing gameplay with an ambitious plot. Though it might not revolutionize the franchise, this massive adventure is well worth its 16-year wait.

By Shiva Stella, GameSpot

Amazon.com Widgets

Okamiden [NDS]

2011-03-22T03:56:00.000-07:00

Okamiden doesn't distinguish itself from its revered predecessor, but great visual design and well-developed characters make it engaging nonetheless.

The Good

Gorgeous artistic design
Sympathetic, well-written characters
Engaging boss fights
Lots of hidden secrets.

The Bad

Ho-hum combat and puzzles
Reuses most of Okami's abilities
Touch-screen controls aren't always responsive.

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As the son of a wolf goddess, Chibiterasu was born with extraordinary powers. With a few splashes of ink from his celestial paintbrush, he can summon a bomb out of thin air, slice a boulder in half, or conjure a barrage of fire. Having such powerful tools at your disposal makes it sound as if Okamiden is another game that focuses on death and destruction, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Okamiden is a game about breathing life into a corrupted land, and as you chase away the evil demons populating this haunted world, it's hard not to be struck by the beauty bursting forth all around you. That beauty serves as the strongest incentive to explore every cove and copse, and it has to carry the load because the unimaginative gameplay fails to deliver the same enchanting pull. Forgettable puzzles and mundane combat lack the vibrancy that could have made Okamiden something special, and the clumsy controls often get in the way of your peaceful travels. Despite the prosaic backbone propping up this ethereal adventure, Okamiden exhibits such a gorgeous and enticing world that it's easy to be sucked into Chibiterasu's plight.

Who's afraid of a skeleton?

Okamiden is the sequel to the beloved PlayStation 2 classic Okami, which puts it in a difficult position. A divine wolf curing the ails of a dying world has already been done, so the uniqueness that separated Okami from its peers no longer exists. But what's fascinating is how this game's struggle to stand out from the shadow of its predecessor mirrors the problems the main characters face. Chibiterasu is just a wolf cub. And though his powers echo those that his mother, Amaterasu, had when she saved Nippon, they are not as diverse or powerful. Kuni, one of a few companions you team up with along the way, is in a similar position. He is the son of Okami's legendary hero, Susano, and wrestles with the lofty expectations he inherited. Forging your own path through life and creating an identity of your own is one of the major themes of Okamiden, and through smart dialogue that vacillates between humorous and touching moments, the story keeps you invested in the characters and the fate of the world.

Okamiden is a sprawling adventure that takes place in a world populated by villages, dungeons, forests, and all manner of lovely vistas. You control Chibiterasu, though the citizens you meet along the way have no idea who you truly are. They air out their problems to the human companions who accompany you on the journey, and they don't realize their prayers have been answered by the furry little pup right in front of their eyes. Your powers come from the celestial brush you carry with you. You freeze time by tapping either shoulder button and use the touch screen to draw whatever tool you desire. A horizontal slash cuts boulders in half, outlining a broken object makes it whole, and drawing a circle in the sky beckons the sun. You learn more powers as you get deeper into the journey and transforming the land is an empowering feeling. However, almost every one of your abilities has been culled from the same pool as Okami's, giving Okamiden a serious case of deja vu. And to make matters worse, the touch-screen controls don't always respond properly, so you often have to draw the same symbol multiple times before it registers. Restoring dying trees to their living glory is a simple pleasure that keeps on giving, but too many of your drawing activities fall back on the old ideas that sprung forth from Okami.

Chibiterasu has fans wherever he goes.

You use your powers to overcome obstacles that stand in your way. Once you learn how to draw a bomb, you can get through any wall with a crack in it, and the steady pace in which new abilities are handed out means you have to backtrack to uncover every secret. There are tons of nooks and crannies to uncover in Okamiden, and running through the world to find hidden treasures is a reward in its own right. This is a gorgeous game with a visual treat around every corner. The delicate artistic design uses pastels to give everything a soft touch, and the striking contrast between the dark corrupted areas and the bright cleansed sections gives you a worthy incentive to ensure every place is brought back to life. Chibiterasu is absolutely adorable, with a basket of cute mannerisms that make him immediately endearing. When Kuni calls him "Mutt" toward the beginning of the game, the lovable wolf looks forlornly down but accepts his new nickname. When you defeat a boss, Kuni grabs Chibi by the forepaws and dances with him in a circle.
Okamiden elicits a heartfelt "awww" with surprising regularity, and you can always count on something new to make you smile.

There are dungeons spread out across the land that you must clear if you want to cure this sickly world. Each labyrinth you enter does a good job of mixing up the abilities you need to use so you don't get into the rut of using the same technique over and over again. You may need to summon a bomb in one room and then latch on to a far-away plant in the next, and the diversity makes you face each new obstacle with an open mind. However, despite the variety on offer, the difficulty is disappointingly low. Because it's obvious what power you need to use to pass each danger, you rarely have to think too hard before the path to success opens up. Seeing what awaits you in each room brings with it a sense of expectancy, but the puzzles are too tame to stump you for very long.

A god's favorite tree is a cherry blossom.

The combat has a similar pitfall. Although it's fun to take down the evil demons standing in your way, they don't pose much of a threat. Slamming on the attack button while tossing out an occasional celestial slash is enough to dispatch most enemies, and you rarely feel as if your life is in danger. The bosses are at least more interesting than the demonic goons who are such pushovers. Each boss has a specific weakness you must exploit, and though it isn't too difficult to figure out what to do, they can at least put up a fight for a little while. What they lack in challenge, they more than make up for in spectacle. The bosses are oversized demons, after all, and they do everything they can to avoid relinquishing the stronghold they have on Nippon. A treacherous catfish is the most stubborn of all your foes. He absolutely refuses to die, and the extreme methods you have to go through to finally win make it a fight that's not only memorable, but exhilarating as well.

Okamiden sets out to rise above the shadow of Okami, but it never achieves that goal. It's just too similar to the PlayStation 2 original, so it struggles to establish an identity of its own. But despite the familiar ground it travels, this is still a good game that captures the unmitigated pleasure of bringing life to a dying land. Okamiden is a beautiful game, and it uses its artful setting to lure you into this world and care about the events and characters as if they were real. The shallow gameplay lacks the imagination that could have made it stand on par with the gorgeous sights, and some touch-screen annoyances get in the way of your carefree creation. But despite Okamiden's few missteps, it's a pleasure to explore this fanciful world and uncover every secret it has hidden. Okamiden doesn't make a name for itself, but this is still a joyful game that is easy to lose yourself in.

By Tom Mc Shea, GameSpot

Trackmania: Build to Race Review [Wii]

2011-03-21T07:47:00.000-07:00

This huge, time trial-based driving game is let down by budget production values and frustrating difficulty spikes.

The Good

Fast, challenging driving
Stunt-based, roller-coaster-style tracks
Plenty of content between single-player, multiplayer, and editor modes.

The Bad

Off-puttingly frustrating at times
Underwhelming visuals.

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If you weren't familiar with the TrackMania series, you might expect a conventional racing game in TrackMania Wii. In fact, this is a generously sized set of time trials on increasingly tricky tracks, and boasts a comprehensive track creator, a stunt-heavy platforming mode, plus a nifty puzzle mode that combines building and driving. The point of TrackMania Wii (known as Trackmania: Build to Race in the US) is to navigate twisting stunt tracks at top speed, shaving fractions of seconds from your record; your "racing" rivals are only ever ghost cars. The most advanced of the 200-plus courses feature boost strips, loops, enormous jumps, and tilting stretches of elevated road; these are equal parts exhilaration and aggravation, with the balance occasionally tipped towards the latter. At TrackMania's lightning speeds, the difference between triumph and disaster is an infinitesimal steering nudge. Subpar music and so-so visuals diminish this substantial, challenging bundle, as do the occasional spikes of frustration; on the hardest tracks the times set by the bronze, silver, and gold medal ghost cars are excessively tough.

In single-player Race mode, there are dozens of tracks to unlock and master, ranging from practice difficulty to extreme. The tracks are divided across six environments (stadium, coast, island, desert, snow, and rally), with each offering a single car type--a racing car for the stadium, a pickup for snow driving, and so on. Tracks are unlocked by earning medals, one of the game's currencies. The other currency, coppers, is used to buy further tracks, as well as car skins and building blocks for the track creation mode. Race mode alone will keep even skilful drivers occupied for a long time, and you can expect countless restarts on the most challenging tracks (an instant restart button does go some way to mitigate frustration). These tracks offer the biggest thrills, too; if you've got the resolve to try and try again, the eventual flawless corner, a soaring jump, or sailing through the finish line just ahead of the gold medal ghost car is elating.
The six car models are skinnable but not tunable, and each has a distinct handling type--an unsubtle but appropriate caricature of what you might expect from the real thing. The racer sticks like glue to the stadium tracks, the pickup chugs up snowy slopes, and the finicky handling on the desert's bulky muscle vehicle compounds the difficulty on complex sandy tracks. Of the control options (tilt, directional pad, or nunchuk), the remote and nunchuk scheme works best, with the analog stick providing the smoothest steer. The single-player offering's Platform mode puts a nice twist on the time-trial race format: success on the dedicated, stunt-based tracks (with plentiful tricky jumps) is determined not by how fast they are completed but by how many times you need to restart at a checkpoint.
The frustration of a problematic track isn't eased by the music. The repeating loops of cheery, samey tunes are forgettable at best. At worst, on a track you've failed and restarted more times than you'd care to mention, they are the exasperating soundtrack to your grind of failure. The visuals are likewise disappointing. Plain textures and jaggy edges spoil the view throughout. Low frame rates are especially noticeable in the split-screen mode, and the low-detail car models don't entice you to spend coins dolling them up with new skins.
For the third single-player mode, Puzzle, you need to get to grips with the track editor: an admirably complete toolkit for creating custom tracks, the hallmark of the TrackMania series. The nunchuk's analog stick is used for positioning the camera, with the remote's pointer used to select tools and place the various building blocks of track and scenery. It works fine, though you won't be whizzing through track creation with the same speed and precision that you might be able to with a mouse. Puzzle mode has you connect a start and finish point with a limited number of track blocks and then drive it in the shortest time possible--a neat mix of the game's two key components. Puzzle challenges start trivially easy and become genuine brainteasers, though the whole mode is a much smaller offering than the centrepiece Race mode. Sharing player-made content was at the heart of TrackMania's earlier PC titles, but it is more restricted here; you can share tracks only with registered friends. There is free DLC to be had, at least--extra tracks created by the developer are available for download from within the game.

A loop-the-loop in TrackMania Wii's single-player Race mode.

The multiplayer suite is more open. Besides the local split-screen for up to four players, and the pass-the-controller hotseat mode, the online multiplayer allows both quick matches and friend matches against up to six other people. Online, there are two variants of multiplayer action: a time attack mode, in which you aim to beat each other's fastest time on a shared track, and a rounds mode, in which you aim to finish a track in first place through multiple attempts. "Racing" other drivers who appear only as ghost cars on your track is purely competitive rather than combative. Being able to shunt and otherwise harass rivals might have made for a cheeky change of pace, but might equally have made the twisty, concentration-demanding stunt tracks impossible to complete. The multiplayer menu also offers up global leaderboards, with world and friend rankings, plus record times.
TrackMania Wii's underwhelming music and visuals belie a strong, expansive driving game, with masses of tracks to master and medals to win, and a flexible, intuitive track editor. The mismatch in quality will turn off plenty of players, and others may balk at the forbidding upper reaches of Race mode. Complex stunt tracks, particular handling, and demanding target times can occasionally conspire to edge the game into frustrating, obstructive difficulty, but tenacious and skilful drivers should enjoy rising to the challenge.

By Jane Douglas, GameSpot UK

Mario Sports Mix [Wii]

2011-03-06T04:54:00.000-08:00

The Good

* Contains the Mario charm you would expect.

The Bad

* Every sport is tedious and shallow
* Computer opponents are too easy or too cheap
* Requires very little skill
* Too much chaos in the competitions
* None of the sports offer anything new or unique.
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Mario has a difficult life. After a busy day of bopping goombas on the head and throwing fireballs at sentient cacti, the last thing he wants to think about on his off days is the trials and tribulations that go along with platforming. So he has taken up a few sports in his free time. Mario Sports Mix isn't the first time the mustachioed mascot has dabbled in the athletic arena, and it's far from his best effort. The four sports included in this compilation are a poor blend of real-life rules and the off-the-wall flair common in the Mushroom Kingdom, and the result is a shallow and often boring competition that lacks any sort of compelling hook. Stripped-down versions of basketball and hockey are so random and sluggish that it's harder to stifle a yawn than it is to score, and volleyball is so simple that it takes all your energy just to stay focused for an entire point. Dodgeball is the worst of these uninspired events, failing to muster a smile even during its best moments. Mario Sports Mix controls well enough and packs the cartoony charm you would expect from a mascot game, but it's hard to care about such trivialities when the core package is so utterly lacking in the most important facet: fun.

The progression in Mario Sports Mix borrows the tournament idea that has appeared in many other Nintendo sports games. Mushroom, flower, and star cups let you take on the incompetent computer-controlled players while you come to grips with the rules, travel to a variety of unique courts, and unlock a few characters. It's a predictable structure that's made tedious by your toothless opponents. It's incredibly easy to run up the score in all four of the sports, and though you do unlock a harder difficulty setting when you raise that trophy at the end, more challenge does not equal more entertainment. The computer opponents play as cheap as they can when the difficulty is ratcheted up, so even though you can still come out on top more often than not, it's a grind because you rarely feel in control of your fate. Luckily, you can remove the annoying computer completely by squaring off against a few friends instead. It's certainly more fun to take on your buddies than the AI, but the shallow mechanics sap any long-term appeal.

Basketball is the strongest offering in Mario Sports Mix, though that isn't saying much. Most of the rules have been stripped away, so once you choose your favorite Mario characters, you can jump into a match without worrying too much about the intricacies of the game. The focus is placed clearly on the defensive side of the court. Blocking a shot or dunk attempt is a cinch because it takes so long for an offensive player to take a shot, and since there's no penalty for goaltending, you can stand near the hoop and swat away anything that flies toward the basket. Because of your overpowering defensive presence, playing offense often feels like a game of chance. You can call for (or go up to catch) an alley-oop at any time, and this is the quickest way to score if the defense is napping. If they're hounding you, a quick spin move can shake you free for a moment, but the pace of the game is so sluggish that it's all too easy for a defender to catch up even after he has been beaten. There is certainly a thrill when you dunk in your friend's face or nail a three-pointer at the buzzer, but because it's so easy to reject almost every shot, basketball is often a frustrating and grueling affair.

If you get Waluigi really mad he might wave his stick at you.

Hockey follows closely in basketball's footsteps, mimicking the back-and-forth action, but you don't even have the thrill of a satisfying defensive effort here. Luck plays a much larger part in hockey because of the random efforts from the goalies. You have the ability to aim your shot with a handy onscreen arrow, but you have to hope your shot goes in because it's ultimately up to the goaltender if he's going to block it or let it snap the twine. This whole process is random. The computer falls asleep for long stretches at a time, letting even the weakest attempts zoom right on by, but it can turn into a brick wall at the most inopportune times, without any way to reliably get a shot past. On offense, your best strategy is to pull off a quick one-timer, and it can be fun to fight for position in front of the net for an ideal scoring angle. On defense, you need to check early and often to stymie your opponent's advances. You even get in a fight occasionally, though it's not as interesting as it sounds. The characters don't make any contact, and you just shake the controller as rapidly as possible to win. Fighting is a neat idea, but it's poorly implemented here.

It's a shame that basketball and hockey are the two best offerings in this mix since they aren't all that fun. Volleyball is the most accurate representation of the real thing, though that's not exactly a winning formula. When the ball is hit to your side, a giant circle shows you where to stand. You then tap the ball to your teammate, wait for the return volley, and then spike it back to the other side. The process is repeated a half-dozen times until one team makes a mistake. And that's how the volleyball matches play out. There isn't a lot of skill because it's so obvious where you need to go next, and the game automatically ensures you hit the ball as long as you're in the right position. It's incredibly tedious to go through the set-volley-spike routine over and over again, and that predictability saps any chance of excitement.

Dodgeball brings a faster, more intense pace compared to volleyball, but it too is mired in problems. The goal in dodgeball is to hit your opponent with the ball and it's a dull ordeal in Mario Sports Mix. On the defensive side, if you tap the catch button at the right moment, you can avoid being hit. And that's pretty much the entire strategy. Stand still, face your opponent, and get your finger ready to catch that ball. Usually, you make a successful catch by employing this strategy, and then you turn into the offensive player and cross your fingers that your strike somehow connects. More likely than not, tedium turns the tide of battle to one player's side. The dull rhythm is boring, so you have to hope your opponent is lulled to sleep when you attack so you can deliver a clean blow. There are some team-up moves thrown in for variety, such as a jumping combo attack, but they all come to the same end. If you're quick with the catch button, it turns the match into a mundane trial of boredom.

Yoshi abides by the axiom that the best defense is sticking your tongue out.

To spice things up, there are special items and fancy courts in every sport. The items add a dose of unpredictability to the proceedings. Turtle shells and bombs can clear a path in a jiffy, and hoarding precious items and unleashing them at the perfect moment can shift the balance of power. Granted, the randomness of items does make victory feel cheap at times. Still, knocking your friend down with a well-placed banana peel can lead to a few laughs. There are also a variety of courts to unlock that add to the chaos. You may have to deal with a train running down the middle of a volleyball court or a swaying basketball hoop attached to a chandelier, and these events at least distract you from the banal action. The items and courts do inject some energy, and though they never raise the fun to what you would expect from a Mario sports game, they allow for some disposable entertainment for a little while.

Mario Sports Mix is rarely outright bad, but the whole experience is so utterly flat that it's hard to find the excitement. All of the sports control well and have their moments of fun, but they're ultimately so predictable that any sense of thrill is gone within the first few games. Mario sports games usually offer a goofy take on an established idea, but there's no such hook in his latest athletic attempt. This game lacks the depth of a more skillful sports outing and the joyful tug of anything-goes arcade action. Mario deserves a vacation for his hard work, but this is not the way to go about it.

credit:By Tom Mc Shea, GameSpot.com

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light Review

2010-10-17T22:23:00.000-07:00

It takes some time to get off the ground, but this traditional-style role-playing game is an enjoyable flight of fancy and fantasy.

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The Good

Charming, compact world is easily explored via hints from helpful townsfolk
Crowns allow party composition changes on a dime
Lots of element and class-based gear swaps for any occasion.

The Bad

Initial hours are disjointed and full of backtracking and grinding
Menus are clunky.

Getting an adventure off the ground is hard work. There's the recruitment of stalwart companions, much roaming of the world, unsightly explosions of evil, and that magical moment when it all kicks into high gear and you ride off to a shining victory. Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light labors a bit while getting all the pieces into place but finally manages to bring home a solid, satisfying jaunt through yet another land of swords and sorcery. There's plenty of character customization, an endless stream of townspeople to learn from and trade with, and a number of nasty monsters to challenge you.

The 4 Heroes of Light are pumped and ready to grind through some levels!

It all begins with a sleepy village, a kidnapped princess, and a curse. When a witch spirits away Aire, the only daughter of the regent of the kingdom of Horne, it's not enough for him to send troops to investigate. Because he's the impatient sort, he also sends Brandt, a local youth who fortuitously came of age at just the right moment to get drafted, and Jusqua, who's not exactly keen about his new mission. They soon join forces with the loyal Yunita, a palace knight with an overwrought sense of duty, and manage to save Aire, who is ungrateful and miffed about the whole thing. They defeat the witch and return to town only to find that everyone in Horne has been turned to stone. Some sort of curse has been activated, and they'll need to set out on a journey to make things right again.
This kicks off a whole mess of events that fragments your party as members head out into the world, repeatedly abandon each other for no apparent reason, have numerous visions of a talking crystal, and meet helpful allies who stay for a time (and then leave suddenly with all the items you gave them). They eventually regroup, discover that they've somehow cured their respective character flaws while leaving each other to rot in isolated lands and then join forces to smite darkness. It's a common convention in role-playing games to have these separate threads that tie your merry band of adventurers together, but here, it feels particularly contrived because your party splits up multiple times and you have to grind through a good deal of initial content solo. Leveling comes slowly, especially in those early hours, and you're likely to have to backtrack through dungeons a few times as you find your footing. But once your party finally comes together and things begin in earnest, the game starts to show off its true appeal.
You meet all manner of monsters as you traverse the world and trudge through its dungeons, and combat here is a twist on the turn-based system where you cannot select the target of your actions. You can choose to attack, and weapons attack the front or rear rows of opponents based on type (bows hit the back line, swords the front, and so on), but you cannot choose which individual monster to slay. It's the same if you're using a healing item or a beneficial spell--you can't choose who gets healed first, who gets buffed first, or who has a status ailment removed first. Attacks generally focus the same target in a given row (so you'll still efficiently take down foes), and healing spells top off whoever has the lowest percentage of health, but this broad stroke sort of approach means you want to play conservatively and heal often against tougher challenges. There isn't a set order of actions that allows you to predict when a particular attack will occur or when a spell will be cast. On the one hand, it keeps things exciting, but on the other, it means that your people can get wiped out before that awesome group cure gets cast.
Each action--whether it's a magic spell, weapon attack, or special ability--costs action points to use. You accrue one action point naturally per turn, or you can select the boost option and the character will defend and accrue two. Each character can store up to five action points at a time, and your more potent spells and attacks cost more action points to use. Combat is mastered when you manage the flow of incoming action points to your needs and are careful not to overextend yourself and spend all your points. It's a constantly renewable resource, but because you want more than one action point to perform most useful actions, you'll have to make the time to boost regularly while keeping your party safe. The action points you have carry over when you leave battle, and you can heal and cure status ailments outside of fights if you have the points saved. Managing action points intelligently means that if you're careful, you can wander the wilds as long as you like to pick off assailants without having to constantly visit towns to rest and recuperate--a great feature. This is especially true because enemies don't drop currency--only items and gems--and you need both goodies and cash. Items can be used or sold, and gems are good money but also an important resource. They allow you to upgrade weapons and armor at a special shop, and they let you upgrade your wonderful crowns.

Crowns aren't just fabulous hats, they're a way of life.

Crowns are pieces of headwear in a wide variety of designs that enable characters to change their classes, and they become available as you progress through the story, defeat certain bosses, and perform certain actions. When you put on the bandit mask, you can not only steal from enemies but your strength and health also increase. If you decide to become a white mage, all white magic becomes cheaper to use while your spirit stat goes up to increase the power of your healing. These effects are immediate and built into each crown, and you can change crowns any time you're not in battle by opening up the menu. It's an instant character-class swap, and each individual class has a specific advantage that makes it useful--whether you need to collect more items and gems or you'd like to bring a particular sort of attack to bear against a strong foe. Each crown can be upgraded via gems to offer even more powerful advantages in the form of new abilities, such as the ability to halve elemental damage or protect your white mage from enemy attacks. There are three upgrades available for each crown, with the final upgrade costing you a hefty number of gems, but the edge you gain is worth the investment. While there are certain abilities and crown distributions that provide optimal balance for certain encounters, the game is good about leaving the particulars up to you. As vital and cool as crowns are, however, they're matched in importance by your gear choices.

Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars

2010-07-06T08:08:00.000-07:00

Lego Star Wars companies into a new area with a visual presentation, with a few buttons, and adds to the cooperative action-puzzle game that you know and love.
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Having released two live-action trilogy of Star Wars, Lego Star Wars Clone Wars is being developed under the animated series of his performance. Lego Star Wars III is the arc of the series Clone Wars. Visit LucasArts E3 to see a demo of the game and I saw Yoda and a clone of a team of soldiers, some Lego enemies defeat. In addition impressed with the new capabilities and new enemies that we were through the graphical user interface offers a more realistic and detection of Lego people and give them a strong and vibrant. Adding the possibility of large-scale battles with hundreds of Clone Trooper seems, and Lego Star Wars III on track to defend his series of reputation.

Yoda fights underneath the looming coraline growths on Rugosa.

The character tries in our demo was Yoda, who was real with a different appearance depending on the new set of Legos. He also showed some of the new movements of the troops, like throwing his saber like a rocket and a few enemies. Grip strength has also made an appearance, and Yoda in a moment an enemy robot, and lifted him, he goes away on its own allies. But Yoda was not the only one with new moves, because the clone troopers is shaped by different weapons, each with different applications. The jug has a capacity for destruction, of course, and 6 Rotary Blaster cannons Z (pronounced laser-gun) was not only used to send groups of enemies, but it also has the weapon of choice for the heating was more Lego bricks darkened . Under fire lasting parts and eventually explode, shower tray with blocks of Lego glowed oh-so collection.

The growth of the black Legos, in this case seemed to be a strong growth of coral. This similarity was reinforced by the environment, with its tall, colorful coral is closer to real life. Although there is a clear difference between the elements of realistic elements and Lego, the visual aesthetic has remained largely constant. When the two styles complement each other, it seems an easy task, but it seems that LucasArts and Traveller's Tales did a good job. Light seems to play an important role in achieving that objective to play, to unify the visual elements in conflict with the attractive constant sunlight and shadow.

Are as soon as the villains defeated and the world have invited us to a rehearsal of the comedy series of the Company (a soldier with a broken right arm to ward off enemy attacks and kill), led our demonstration outside the planet from the taste of the space battles Lego Star Wars III. The sequence begins with what seems to be an A wing player who has fought against the enemies, dodging lasers, and attacked targets of opportunity, the flagship of the massive, General Grievous is sick. We have seen a shed open ground combat commander and a missile battery and has opened a whole new hidden side of the ship and destroy enemies inside. It just seems too easy transfer between the air and ground combat in this section, and again, stars twinkling in the vessel walls and realistic contrasts with ships and soldiers ran Lego ..

Meet Gor. You guys aren't friends.

The last part of the event was held at the end of the hunt for General Grievous. Instead of various branches of the monster, the face of our heroes roggwart your pet, Gor. This table summarizes the duality of the animal Lego Star Wars III, brown skin, scaly lizard has embraced his major muscle, while the targets at risk of skin appendages Lego and armor more and more. Linking animal with ropes were cut, the Clone Trooper in a position, a window of Yoda threatens to open. While our demo exploits the fast switching between characters, Lego Star Wars III is again the full cooperative campaign. If the reception is by a terrible monster in itself is satisfied, should be even more fun with two players.

There is not much in terms of the action in our demo, which will see many strange details of the oil we put on the next sample. With 20 missions to explore the history, Lego Star Wars III, 16 different leading Anakin Skywalker, the Resolute. In addition, some of the great battles of the Clone Wars series, which puts him in the role of a Jedi Director General of the legions of clones in conflict with hundreds of soldiers. With the game and sharp eyes, we are curious as to the steps, to represent these conflicts mass. Make sure you keep an eye on GameSpot for more information about this mass slaughter in the coming months ..

credit : Gamespot.com

Puzzle Quest 2 Minigames [NDS]

2010-06-04T04:21:00.000-07:00

The minigames are optional, but they're definitely worth checking out if you're looking for a challenge and some variety.
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At the Game Developers Conference earlier this year, we saw this Puzzle Quest 2 has to offer. He returns to the roots of fantasy art nouveau style and mechanics twisted a little, but one thing remains the same, it's still very addictive. There's Something About three-game mechanic to keep you in suspense, and in this case, the game on hold trap for dozens of hours without problems.

Optional minigames are available for you to tackle at every turn.

For an overview on how Puzzle Quest 2 works, you can preview the show here. The pre-E3 event in Santa Monica, we were able to review the six mini-games that are included in Puzzle Quest 2, mean that a compromise between many different enemies and exploring dungeons. Mini-game, even to continue to follow the match-three formula, but they are variations and takes a little more thought, that during the approximation of the corresponding beads.

All mini-games are optional and can be ignored if you do not want to keep the original game mechanics. As you explore the many layers of Dungeon, you'll go eventually lost in the main path and find something new. Can there be a locked door or a specialist to investigate, resulting in a mini-game that something is related to the task. To open the locked door, play mini-games designed to Bash, you can do much to show enough damage to the door. How do you remove the colored beads, remove the key network. Targeting of the keys to the door until it is damaged. It is essentially the same game mechanics is the most important game, but with a different objective, the way you approach the game change.

Treasure Grab your mini-game is a fun. The grid is filled with a variety of pieces that you delete both lines. A number of coins you have removed cuts, keystrokes, and the adaptation of the three keys at the same time, you can open the treasure chest at the end of the mini-game new elements. There is no penalty or lose any game, but you can not lose on Treasure grave anyway, it's one of those games that make you feel better about themselves at the end.

There are some games that are harder than the Open, if you force a certain color from February, to waive a portion of the specific unit. We must channel and you have a limited number of rounds, but it is really testing three types of skills. Pick is a difficult game. There are two icons below the grid, which can not be transferred, is when you mix the pieces on the board in the row of icons in the vertical direction must.

The new camera view lets you actually see your character.

The last two mini-games are for research and destruction. Find belongs to the whole network to cover as much space as possible. There are five levels of difficulty, if you are normal play, for example, you have 40 machines in the network meet. Weapons have a list of all symbols that are collected, but you must also avoid compensation skulls. Almost all of these mini-games you been prescribed number of rounds so that they become more difficult, you need to make more moves.

For more information about Puzzle Quest 2 is available on our demo here. Find a game when it was released 22nd June and Nintendo DS later this summer on Xbox Live Arcade.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands [Wii]

2010-05-27T05:42:00.000-07:00

against the threat of Boring spoil your fun, but exciting artistic design and solid platform to Prince's last adventure worth playing.
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Prince of Persia: The Sands The sister just forgot the great 2003 edition of Les Sables du Temps, but not the focus of recent incidents of mechanics fascinating era backbone is otherwise this game, now Prince has the option of creating handles, air bridges, and other tools to move around in the environment, and the skills to open the door for challenges to grow during the play Unfortunately, the apartment will take to combat movement platform. Duel this dull you need to swing your arms frantically to inflict damage, and is the arduous task of disposing of your abuser if you can return to the funny moments. It's a shame the fights are so boring, but at the level of smart design and strong artistic direction of Les Sables also lost another entry in the franchise long term.

Nature can be cruel, but he is making at least have the decency toxic red leaves.

A prince called his own city without a very sad thing. A playful genius warrior nomads because the wealth and power, to fight for the title is great, but found success only through notices in place. Instead, the Prince must fight for his birthright, won a witch and a mystical minions swarming control of the abandoned city, which would take all. The story is one of the most interesting aspects of the game, transforming a simple training ground for the prince to power in a great story that desire to give more specific questions than answers. It takes time for action to take shape, but the quiet strength to fights, which represents more than something you deep in your journey. Although the sarcastic humor that so often mark the Prince where latest adventure, now the Chief, you get over the road to meet his or her absence.

The levels are arranged in a linear and set up the barriers and mysteries slowly on a cool experience to create instances. Like most of Prince Of Persia, you can run along the walls and utility poles to swing, but a new movement in the sand spice forget the default action. new powers unlocked a few hours, and add a few wrinkles of this classic formula. The first of these, you can activate power units on the walls and floor of the spread, if you cross gaps for the freedom of flying or climbing walls. The wind lifts serving handles or promotion and requiring repeated before a big event can provide a hurry. The powers that you unlock later even more interesting. They deserve the ability to manage both set up on the bare walls, to call on the scales of the wind field, and even balls that you can swim in air. These tools are used in a particular way, forcing you to plan how you will go through a difficult obstacle, not only by throwing himself headlong and improvising on the fly.

The machine is designed smartly in the sand shows you forget the direction you should go, if you get lost themselves rarely. But it can cause some problems made the frustrating moments. If you make your way through narrow spaces, the camera sometimes depends on the object, it is difficult to see where you go. And it is far too zoomed in the fight, it can leave the light circle behind enemies, and attack when you do not know. You can get expert in camera mode, you pass control over your opinion, but it is too bulky for use in fast action sequences. These small problems, but. In most cases, you can run through levels with ease, more worried about how you go the other obstacle than trying to maneuver the camera in place longer.

Platforming is exciting, but fighting the enemy is so boring as counting sand in the hourglass. The fighting in the movement almost completely absent based, and the type of energy that would be an exciting fight. Each step is frantically shaking the Remote, Nunchuk, or both together, and always necessary to achieve victory stirring almost boring. you earn new moves on the road, but the camera and controls combine to make the new powers to access the chore. For example, you can freeze enemies in place by participating in the press and B. However, it is difficult to align with precise shot into the battle, when he was attacked by opponents as aggressive and the equipment you will not give you a good insight into your enemies. And the shots based on the movement does not work at all times. Very often, you'll soon shake your arms and see that much, and Prince, it is stupid, not swing a sword, even if you are dead. 'S Not many fights in the sand mistake, but what but something exciting departure section.

The meshes can not fly all of the world for fighting.

As ugly as the fighting, the sites where you fight the sight to behold. Forget the Sands is highly artistic design, painting each new area you visit a new look, the more sure. During the early times, you need the vine in the hunt for the hungry, thwarting your progress, and allows you to make your way through the organic feeling seldom that Prince of Persia. This lethal claws open the way to dimly light the temple ruins, and asylum under water. The most significant of great places to visit are late in your face, if the walls were stuck in depression and replacing the infinite expanse of space. There is this section involves more Super Mario Galaxy as the other Prince of Persia, and we are happy to walk beside the swimming blocks Marvel at how big vacuum around you.

Forgotten Sands play through takes about 10 hours, and there is much to entertain you will unlock long after the credits roll. Is most interesting with additional levels, you earn the achievement of specific tasks during the main adventure, 2-D levels, which emphasizes focusing on the best aspects of this game Fortunately, the main quest as much fun is the bonus levels. Jump raises the very exciting new ideas for you to put you on your toes, art and excellent design makes each section to see the benefit. It is disappointing that the struggle is fun, because they expressed their fun taken out of the play, but if you can make the deaf tussles, a lot of love for the Prince's adventure date.

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony [PSP]

2010-05-19T05:19:00.000-07:00

This is a great remake of a classic role-playing game offers classic luxury treatment.

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Epic fights dragons, witches, demons, warriors and never got old, right? The first entry in the Lunar Series - a game that combines all the above factors might be delicious - a lot of love in recent decades. comes after the debut of the Sega CD very early '90s, he quickly grew into one best-selling games system. It has already been renewed several times for different consoles, but for many years have passed since last year to take a knife and continue the magic of powerful emperors in their battle for the world made famous Dragon Master. Game Arts and XSeed appropriate to amend the original adventure by TLC car. In fact, the Moon: Silver Star Harmony PSP is a re-remake of Lunar at the forefront of all the versions.

Trimming shrubbery takes on a whole new meaning with this unusual bestiary.

Currently, the moon told the story several times in slightly different ways. It follows a young boy named Alex, who dreams of one day, a great warrior and noble as his idol, the legendary Dragon Master Dyne, who disappeared mysteriously years. In his absence, a shadow has spread and more and more began to flourish. And in these uncertain times, which collects a lot of friends Alex naive and defines a large quests adventure travel in over the safe borders of their village. Walking the right path risk, as soon as they encounter the world's steady decline in the hands of evil. Harmony Gold Star is faithful to the original story and provide an excellent additional scenes and dialogue, the more light cast on the one hand, and develop relationships with characters. Series prologue, which offers significant new behind the scenes is one of several bonuses to be distributed throughout the game. If you are a beginner, these cartoons will help complete the story well, but series fans will appreciate the story develops.

Anyone who has had an older version, since the news of the new enhanced graphics experience a surprise. Although you can still find the same scenes of anime remake the past, all the graphics of the game complete with crispy hand-drawn 2D art again. New cities are particularly smooth isometries. Members of you nothing, and they face hundreds of enemies have been boiled, live entertainment, give them a decent life. Enemies have reached a number of different models of a unique and very creative. It runs counter to all Elf Yeti hairs found and replaced by drops of saliva contains a fish creature open the eyes of beasts mermaid Goop poison spewing his lips purple dual circles decorated spacious. Bestiary, the game is still one of the strange round.

It is almost impossible to avoid adjustment in most role-playing games, Star Silver and harmony, does not hide his feeling of old-school to avoid in this regard. There are only so many times you can actually dodge monsters you wander around the prison, because every time to enter and leave one area - something you do not pass the common in some regions. Good news is, the game is so boring and traditional elements with an intelligent, flexible, turn-based combat and it can be a wide range of control of the situation. If you want, you can choose activities carefully outline your party turn by turn, and ordered them to borrow to attack dual-use items, spells, or give him special skills in the cooling system SuperPowerful Lunar Legend Arts. Enhanced micro-necessity, if they require hard bosses, attention, and they are constantly changing tactics. But if you level up, or simply to plow fields, with the creatures, which have been shown to continue to try to breathe, you can overdrive AI characters or one of the game and the same button to enter every corner, all the defined behavior is selected. It hides most of the pangs of churning through a number of recurring battles.

No time for existential pondering. There's a world out there to save!

Harmony Gold star wide plot sends you wandering around the world, where you encounter a significant increase in our towns and communities in remote areas to investigate. Dungeon and hiking through the monster receiving countries, cities, settlements, new equipment, because they often contain evidence of the progress of history. This forum is a very popular activity to speak to the public and to explore interesting corners. Game, many non-player character interactions are particularly amusing, because people are sometimes hard to your ear about the substance, accidental and dark, which appear to exceed the weight of his head. Entry into the house, and she met some amazing facts yields and often humorous dialogue. In addition, a lot of fun to debate the text, the game is filled with excellent sound quality. Her voice is sometimes alternately very good and very annoyed, but is well suited to anime characters and scenes. In addition, the quality factor of the original PSP and scattered new songs have been mixed.

Lunar debut was a courageous person who was able to shine again in the past. Fans can be sure that the traditions are very stylish and the country is still a great classic to revive your PSP. Not only all that extends the original adventure begins a fascinating journey, intact, but significantly improve all the new changes in this remake final. Lunar: Silver Star Harmony works well on many levels. As it is a pleasure to your gourmet RPG.

MySims Agents [Wii]

2009-09-11T03:20:00.000-07:00

We use our detective skills to foil the sinister plans of the nefarious Morcubus.

There's more to MySims than just waving wands and building furniture. In Electronic Arts' upcoming adventure, MySims Agents, you get to play as a superspy with sleek hair, a snazzy suit, and access to your very own chopper. We had a chance to play with a near-final preview build and were easily caught up in all the mysteries surrounding the evil Morcubus of MorcuCorp. From what we've played, MySims Agents has improved upon the formula that made the previous games so successful by bringing back familiar faces and including a variety of clever puzzles that are fun to solve but not a chore to play

We've already gone in-depth with the game a couple of times at prior EA events, so for more details on the story and gameplay see here and here. This time, we were able to play from the beginning to see how the game starts off. The graphic novel-like opening is narrated by Buddy, who is not only your bumbling sidekick, but also an up-and-coming comic book artist. As you rise within the special agent ranks, Buddy is always by your side to help or, at the very least, provide comic relief. As always, you create your character and have the ability to customize your hair, face paint, clothes, and voice. Throughout the game, you'll unlock various costumes and other cool gear so that you can always stay in style or wear the appropriate outfits, depending on your location.

When you initially start out, you'll be solving smaller cases, such as finding out who left flowers on Shirley's doorstep or who stole Gino's precious maps. The larger story begins to unravel as you go through each case, and you'll quickly be recruited to become a real special agent so that you can explore exotic locales to find out more about Morcubus. The game does a great job of guiding you through the initial steps, and you always have access to your notebook, which will help you keep track of your cases. Armed with a magnifying glass, wrench, and crowbar, you'll scour the city streets and dumpsters to find clues and evidence that lead you to the truth. Once you've collected enough evidence, your case is solved and you can move onto your next objective.

The MySims series is already known to be cute and kid-friendly, but the small details and funny animations throughout the game add to the overall charm. As you examine all the bizarre items in your environment, you can always stop to grab a snow cone, jump in the hot tub, or juggle fruit from a nearby stand. None of these actions are pertinent to the story, but they allow you to mess around for a while and enjoy the world of MySims. The humorous and cheerful dialogue maintains the game's lighthearted and fun atmosphere. We really liked wandering around and talking to people, if only to see what kind of quirky lines would come out of their mouths.

Find clues to help you crack the case!

MySims Agents isn't connected to the previous games, other than the fact that you'll bump into some familiar characters. If you've been having a blast in the world of MySims, then Agents is worth looking into because it seems to have a lot more content and more things for you to do. There's less of a focus on the building portion of the game, which is fine because you can always mess around with your headquarters. The camera has been fixed so that you don't need to worry about controlling it anymore. It will always be fixed on the best viewpoint, so the world has been built with this in mind.

We're having fun with our build of the game and like how incredibly easy it is to get into the game. It's a laid-back adventure where you can explore the areas carefully, talk to the locals, and pick up a clue or two in the process. MySims Agents is catered to a younger audience, but that doesn't mean grown-ups won't enjoy solving a good mystery or two. Look for MySims Agents when it is released on September 29.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen [Wii]

2009-07-01T04:41:00.000-07:00

This bland, uninspired adventure will probably make your wrist hurt. Fortunately, it's over quickly.
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Transformers are pretty cool, though you wouldn't know it from playing Revenge of the Fallen. While the game does star the iconic alien robots and loosely follows the plot of the movie, the gameplay is generic and dull. For most of the game, you plod through linear levels in your humanoid form, blasting and punching other humanoid robots. There are a few vehicle-form levels, but they do little to break up the monotony of the short campaign. The cooperative assistance and fight-wave-after-wave-of-enemies modes aren't enough to flesh out this paltry package. Fans desperate for Transformers action may find some fun here, but even they won't be satisfied.

The single campaign switches between Autobot and Decepticon missions as it runs its course parallel to the movie. You can play as one specific Transformer on each level, and the shiny, detailed character models from the movie are well represented, though the same can't be said for the blandly functional scenery. Cutscenes do a reasonably good job of telling the story, and the game is filled with campy writing ("Let's bust some Decepti-chumps!") that will make you laugh or cringe or possibly both.

The campaign lasts only about four hours, but it will probably feel significantly longer thanks to the repetitive (and repetitive stress-inducing) gameplay. Walking through levels as a bipedal bot, you move with the analog stick and point the remote to target enemies. You can shoot your primary weapon with the B button, or use the Z button to draw on your energy reserves for a more powerful shot. You gain energy from defeating enemies, and it can also be used to refill your health bar or unleash a powerful special attack. This attack does big damage to anyone in the area, and it's one of the only times you get to see your character transform. Controlling your character in vehicle form is restricted to specific levels. These levels allow you to briefly transform into humanoid form to attack your enemies, but they aren't exciting, just different.

No matter what form you are in, you spend your time following a linear path, with the exception of a few boss battles. Your guns are powerful enough to dispatch weaker foes without too much trouble. You can stand and blast away at them, repair the damage they did with the energy you gain from their deaths, and move on to the next encounter. Defeated enemies glow blue and then vanish with a small explosion, unless you force them off the edge of a building. Then they simply disappear, even if they are jet Transformers that could conceivably save themselves with flight. Waves of enemies appear regularly throughout levels, and you dispatch them in the same repetitive fashion, though you do take some time to traverse rudimentary jumping puzzles that beg the question, can Transformers really wall-jump?

Optimus punches his way through the streets of Shanghai.

As you progress, you'll encounter tougher foes and need to maneuver a bit more to stay healthy. You'll also come to rely more on your melee attack, which is powerful and keeps your enemies from shooting you. Dodging and punching are executed by shaking the nunchuk and remote, respectively, which makes for a lot of waggling in the latter half of the campaign. There are a number of different melee attacks and combos, but performing them all is tricky because of the not-so-great motion recognition and the ease with which enemies can interrupt your combos. This results in a lot of endurance waggling. It's an effective way to vanquish foes, but it's also boring and (eventually) painful.

Even if you take breaks often to avoid wrist pains, the campaign is over quickly. For variety's sake you can play through it cooperatively, but the second player plays as a floating attack drone with the remote only. The drone can shoot enemies and put up a shield to protect the Transformer and reflect enemy fire. This can be helpful, but it's also mildly distracting and can clutter up the screen, exacerbating the irregular and sometimes awkward camera. There is also an Arena mode in which two players (both real Transformers this time!) can fight relentless waves of enemies. As if the game needed more repetitive combat.

Revenge of the Fallen does include an unlockable episode of the original Transformers cartoon, but this is one of the few Transformer-y things the game gets right. The action seems designed around the idea that the coolest thing Transformers do is lumber around and punch other Transformers. The presentation is serviceable, but the campaign is painfully short (and kind of painful to boot). While Revenge of the Fallen isn't a criminally bad game, it definitely does a disservice to Wii owners and Transformers fans alike.

SBK-09 [PSP]

2009-06-26T03:47:00.000-07:00

We put our superbike skills to the test in a hands-on session with Black Bean's upcoming simulation racer.
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Black Bean Games is due to release its latest instalment in the world superbike series, SBK-09 Superbike World Championship, on June 25. Fans of the official series will be happy to know that the title has acquired the licence for all tracks, teams, and riders from the official World Superbike Championship, as well as new 3D environments, teams, tracks, and game modes. We recently had a chance to check out SBK-09’s revamped features in a hands-on session.

Like previous games in the series, SBK-09 is a simulation racer. This means it’s not a good idea to launch into the single-player Championship or Challenge modes without visiting the tutorials first. The game’s training mode sees you in a variety of sessions that involve mainly free practice (just you on a track), qualifying sessions (timed), warm-up, and a couple of races to introduce you to the competition element. We won’t lie to you: staying on track is a lot harder than it looks, especially when taking corners or misjudging the distance needed to properly slow down. But after a few practice sessions, we could pretend we were ready to race.

SBK-09’s game modes have been given a slight overhaul since SBK-08. The game offers five single-player gameplay modes, including Quick Race, Training, Race Weekend, Championship, and Challenges, and three online multiplayer modes, including Quick Race, Championship, and Team Championship. We had a look at each of the single-player modes to compare.

Quick Race lets you pick your own team and rider from a selection of celebrated real-life champions--such as Michel Fabrizio and Noriyuki Haga--and teams like Suzuki, Yamaha, Ducati, Kawasaki, and Honda. There are also 13 real-life tracks, including Australia’s well-known Phillip Island, and tracks in Spain, Qatar, Italy, France, South Africa, and the USA. You can also customise the number of laps in a race, the weather conditions (sunny, wet, cloudy, and so on), and even the skill of the AI opponents, which ranges from rookie to professional.

Racing in SBK-09 proved somewhat challenging. Even though turns are well accentuated by the arrival of a green arrow above the track, it was hard work learning to brake at the right time in order to turn without veering off the track (which happened a lot). Suffice it to say, we crashed more times than we care to admit, at least during the first couple of races.

The real challenge was in the Championship and Race Weekend modes, which offer the bona fide superbike fan something to indulge in. You can begin by asking an engineer for advice on the best bikes to use in the different sessions, but if advice is not your thing, you can kick straight into the game’s lavish customisation options. You can change your bike’s settings, tweaking each aspect to your heart’s content. You can pretty much tweak anything and everything, such as suspension, steering, gears, chains, balance, and tyres, as well as get hints on how to perfect each one of these changes.

We also had a quick look at the Challenge mode, which lets you complete a few time trials before moving on to the tricky part of performing special scenarios and tricks. For example, you will be asked to perform a skid, wheelie, or burnout in the highlighted part of the track while still finishing within the set time limit. The scenarios are all variations of the normal Quick Race mode, where you will be asked to beat a number of different riders to the finish line.

Overall, the game’s 3D environments look sharp and detailed, and small things like the bike gears and tyres really stand out. While there was not much scenery to speak of, the little amount we saw looked great.

SBK-09 improves on its predecessors but still needs a bit of polish--the loading times proved a bit too long and the game froze completely during one of the races. However, the game is visually impressive and pays a lot of attention to detail in the customisation options. We hope the other issues will be resolved before the game’s launch later this month.

SBK-09 Superbike World Championship is scheduled for release on June 25 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PSP, and PC. Stay tuned for more GameSpot previews.

Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do to Deserve This? [PSP]

2009-05-19T05:08:00.000-07:00

As the God of Destruction, we wield our mighty pickaxe to cultivate the deadliest dungeon imaginable.
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NIS America certainly knows how to pick them. We had the opportunity to play around with this dungeon-digging game, originally known as Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida Or 2, at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show and enjoyed it immensely. The retro visuals and simple gameplay were incredibly addictive, and now that we have a translated version with a tutorial, we've realized that it's a lot harder than we originally thought. The demos we played with at TGS weren't nearly this mind-boggling, so be prepared for a tough 8-bit challenge.

The Story mode is broken up into stages, and there are also separate tutorials and short challenges that you can play through. You're not going to last long without acing the tutorials, so you're better off learning the intricacies of dungeon digging before you jump into the Story mode. You play as the God of Destruction, and with your mighty pickaxe, you must help the evil overlord excavate different types of monsters to create a nasty dungeon in order to ward off the do-gooders from the land above. The game takes place on a grid of dirt, and your job is basically to dig. How and where you dig is crucial, because this is a lot more complicated than it looks. You are given a limited amount of time to set up your dungeon, and then you must place the overlord in a safe place, ensuring that there are enough monsters to keep the heroes at bay.

Besides knowing where to dig, learning how the monster food chain works will help. There's a food pyramid in the almanac section of the menu that serves as a good reference tool. Dirt that is tinged with green will yield slimemosses, which are green blobs that will walk around the dungeon in a line, sucking out nutrients and distributing them elsewhere--like mobile fertilizer. Nutrient-rich sections of the dungeon will begin to change color, and once they do, you dig at them to uncover new types of monsters, which will then eat whatever is beneath them in the food chain. There are mana tiles as well, which will uncover more monsters that feed off the magic-related creatures rather than the blobs. Your goal is to manage this ecosystem of monsters and food source carefully so that you can create an army large enough to ward off the heroes that will come from above to take the evil overlord away.

After each stage, you are given points to upgrade your creatures. Points are based on how much digging you did, so it's better to be on the more conservative side. You are given a limited amount of dig power, so randomly digging won't help you create the optimum dungeon, and you'll lose out on upgrading your monsters later. There's a surprising amount of strategy and depth to this game, which might take a while to get the hang of, but it's fun and rewarding to beat a stage. There are no save points, so if the overlord is taken and the heroes make it out of the dungeon, you have to start over from the very beginning. It's merciless, but it's perfect for those who love a tough challenge. Once you've mastered the tutorials, there are also short challenges you can complete to hone your dungeon-digging abilities. It's probably best to go through the challenges first before attempting the Story mode.

The monsters have taken over...the way it should be.

Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do to Deserve This? has a simple but appealing style with its retro look. The zany overlord also has some hilarious over-the-top lines, and he makes a ton of random references that will make you chuckle. The music is pleasant to listen to and gives the game some medieval flair to go along with the assortment of knights and mages that venture into the dungeon. The game is set to be released in July, but in the meantime, we're definitely looking forward to using our God of Destruction powers for more digging.

The Legendary Starfy [NDS]

2009-05-14T05:11:00.000-07:00

We tag along in Starfy's underwater adventures in this upcoming platformer for the Nintendo DS.
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Nintendo has another insatiably cute leading character in The Legendary Starfy, a platformer about a star-shaped prince who lives in Pufftop. Starfy isn't new to the video game world; this is developer TOSE's fifth game in the series known as Densetsu no Starfy in Japan. This rosy-cheeked and gregarious star is sure to win over the same crowd that adores 2D Nintendo platformers, and we were easily taken by Starfy and his band of merry underwater crustaceans.

Fight against a variety of sea creatures.

The game starts off in Pufftop, a kingdom nestled among the clouds, where the prince, our hero Starfy, is napping soundly until a rabbit in a spacesuit comes crashing out of the sky and lands in his room. The bunny is being pursued by shadow goons, but Starfy chases them away with his legendary spin attack. His best friend, a clamshell named Moe, shows up asking about the commotion, and once they realize that the space bunny has leapt off the clouds into the ocean, Starfy jumps in right after him, determined to help.

As the story unfolds, you'll explore this traditional 2D platformer that's set in the water and on land. As Starfy travels to different areas to track down the bunny, he also comes across various creatures whom he befriends and helps along the way. When you hold down the B button, Starfy can zip through the underwater area. The Y button is used for his spin attack, except that you have to monitor his spinning or else he'll get dizzy. When on land, you can use the Y button to make Starfy pick up the pace and run. You can jump on enemies, wall-jump, and glide with the B button. Starfy has a huge list of abilities that he'll learn along the way, so you're not limited to just a few moves--this little guy is quite talented. When he does eventually find the rabbit, named Bunston, they can team up and Starfy magically transforms into a walking, fire-breathing monster. Not bad for a starfish.

There's an overworld map that keeps track of your progress through the different areas. There are secret levels to discover, side quests to pick up, and a slew of items to collect along the way, like diary entries and clothes for Starfy. Pearls and other treasures are littered throughout, so you can always save your well-earned pearls to buy some cool outfits later. At this point, our Starfy was sporting some beach wear and aviator shades.

Most of the time, the action takes place in the top screen, but you can call on your friends to help you on the bottom screen. For example, Moe has an eye for treasure, so if you select him, his eyes will light up if you're closing in on something good. The game does take advantage of the Nintendo DS's dual screen when it can, which we saw during a chase sequence in which we were running away from a giant octopus that spanned across both screens. We'd see the feisty creature in the bottom screen while his tentacles came after us in the top screen.

Run away from big bad monsters.

Your sister, Starly, shows up at some point to offer her assistance, and she'll appear on the map if you can play that particular level with a friend. The best part is that you can grab someone who doesn't even own a copy of the game and play through the level together. A collection of minigames will also unlock as you progress, some of which can be played with up to four players locally, with or without another cartridge. The two that we tried are quite fun; one involves tapping as many coins as you can of the same color, and the other is a cooking minigame in which you make octopus dumplings.

There is a lot going on in this adorable platformer, and from what we played, it may not be difficult, especially when you have a health meter and frequent save points, but it's incredibly fun in terms of taking your time to explore each level. The comic-book-like storytelling and overall presentation are extremely well done. As you're gliding effortlessly underwater, the background is what you'd expect to see in the ocean: schools of fish swimming around and seaweed swaying with the current. If you leave your DS idle for a bit, you'll come back and find Starfy dozing in a tiny bed, so there's a lot of personality and charm to the game. The prince doesn't say much beyond his high-pitched "heeeeeey!" but he's a happy-go-lucky guy and could easily become the next big star.

From what we've played, The Legendary Starfy is shaping up to be a solid platformer for Nintendo's handheld. It has great presentation, solid controls, and an endearing story. The multiplayer component and minigames are a nice touch and are not just tacked on for the sake of adding new features. Look for our full review when the game is released June 8.

Dawn of Discovery [Wii]

2009-04-24T05:37:00.000-07:00

We set sail in search of new land in Ubisoft's upcoming strategy game. Dawn of Discovery allows gamers to take the civilization-building experience to the next level of fun and interactivity.
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Dawn of Discovery takes place in the year 1404, when King George's land is suffering from severe droughts and brutal famine.

Aware of his people's distress, the king calls on his two sons, William and Edward, to acquire new territories in order to produce enough goods to satisfy the needs of his empire's inhabitants.

Whereas Edward suggests aggressive means to collect the precious resources, his brother William offers a peaceful solution, proposing to explore new and unsettled lands in the south of the kingdom. With his Father's blessing, William heads south to the mysterious Orient and returns with valuable new technologies such as the water pump that allows dry lands to be cultivated in order to produce enough food for the people. But there are still many unmet needs within the king's empire, and players are tasked with the mission of fulfilling those needs while both expanding and sustaining the vast society.

Features

• Explore the beautifully detailed world and discover new places to create your civilization
• Set up trade posts in the spice mines of the Orient and explore new trade routes to keep your nation growing
• Learn from other nearby cultures to expand your horizons and master the challenges of establishing a prosperous society
• Unique art style and clever integration of the Wii Remote and DS stylus makes building your empire more fun and interactive than ever before
• All new scalable 3-D engine ensures unmatched visuals, optimized for all PC's – from high-end to low-end desktops
• Seamless user interface delivers multiple gameplay modes and faster player rewards for both long or short play sessions
• Exclusive multiplayer modes across platforms
• Build your civilization and make history along with a friend in the 2-player co-op mode for Wii
• Integration with Ubi.com allows PC players to track achievements, climb leaderboards and challenge others online
• Accessible for everyone from beginners to pros
• Intelligent help system offers contextual hints for any situation
• In-game encyclopedia includes illustrated tutorial filled with tips and strategies for building your civilization

William is always eager to please.

We enjoyed our time with Dawn of Discovery since it's a relatively slow-paced, casual strategy game. There is no combat or excessive natural disasters to ruin all your hard work, so instead, you can focus on keeping your inhabitants healthy, happy, and productive. The story is told through cartoon still images with voice acting, which is a nice touch. The Wii version gives you more flexibility to zoom in and out when compared to the DS version, and the presentation is more elaborate. There's a co-op mode as well, so that a friend can jump in and help. Look for Dawn of Discovery when it is released in June.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor [DS]

2009-04-20T07:13:00.000-07:00

Atlus U.S.A., Inc. today announced that Shin Megami Tensei - Devil Survivor for Nintendo DS, a new RPG/SRPG hybrid in the award-winning Shin Megami Tensei franchise, is coming to North America this summer.

This may be the first Shin Megami Tensei epic to land on Nintendo DS, but no aspect of the experience-story, visuals, music, or gameplay-has been shrunk in the process.

In fact, Devil Survivor invigorates the series with an unprecedented RPG/SRPG combat system and more character customization options than ever before, all wrapped within a compelling, branching narrative.

In typical fashion, Atlus has released the first English screenshots for Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor to their faithful members. The game looks like it is shaping up to be a premier title and excellent edition to Atlus' flagship series with great sprite detail and absolutely gorgeous background design

Devil Survivor's battle system is an intriguing one. Once a fight begins, you'll have to determine where you want to place your characters on the grid, like in a SRPG. You and your friends Atsuro and Yuzu can each have up to two demons cohorts, so when you're setting your characters down, you're actually determining where to put a team of three. Once you move next to an enemy and initiate an attack (get attacked), you switch to a first-person turn-based system and get one shot before the round is over. Extra turns are given to those who attack first, but you can lose this advantage if the battle doesn't go well. For example, if you exploit the enemy's weakness and it attacked you first, it could lose its extra turn. Your enemies also come in groups of three, and if you take out the ringleader in the middle, that fight is over; the same goes for you

Zubo [DS]

2009-04-18T03:48:00.000-07:00

Not Boring combat and excited visuals make this kid-friendly role-playing game , despite some flaws.
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Zubo is an attempt to bring the grand-scale adventure of role-playing games to a younger audience. The vibrant visuals, colorful cast of characters, and action-oriented combat make the adventure immediate and satisfying, coaxing you to see what new environment lies before you or what strange character you might befriend along the way. The long and expansive journey affords you a good opportunity to explore the exotic world that you travel through, but this breadth is also one of the game's greatest hindrances. The pacing is compromised by too much backtracking and ill-defined objectives, which can make the adventure drag at times. Despite this uneven momentum, the unique combat and playful presentation make Zubo an enjoyable introduction to role-playing.

Before we discuss that, we should perhaps explain that Zubos are little cartoony creatures which you, as the archetypal human kid sucked in to help, encounter while traversing a typical fantasy world. Think of them as a cross between LEGO men and those little 'C'MON!' creatures from the Vauxhall ads. In addition, these Zubos reflect the zones they inhabit, so the initial music-themed hub houses a punky character called Pinky, while the subsequent horror zone plays host to an assortment of hunchbacks and mummys.

As mentioned, though, these turn-based battles are played out using rhythm-based inputs. As your gang of three Zubos line up against the enemy Zombos, you select your fighter and the move you wish to execute (all using the stylus – no need for buttons in this game) before attempting to tap along with a series of shrinking circles surrounding your character. These circles in turn correspond loosely to the music playing in the background.

Resistance: Retribution [PSP]

2009-04-16T22:28:00.000-07:00

Resistance: Retribution successfully migrates the series' exciting action to the portable platform, with only a few bumps along the way.
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Resistance: Retribution is the first portable outing for Sony's grim alternate-history franchise. The Resistance series, like many other shooters, has thrived on the dual analog-stick controller of the PlayStation 3, and at first glance the leap to the PSP's single analog stick and face-button control scheme may seem a bit daunting. However, from the first moments of Resistance: Retribution, it is clear that the fast-paced, intense action of the Resistance series is well represented here thanks to clever controls, a powerful arsenal, and vibrant levels. Despite being less epic in scale than its forerunners and having a few rough edges, Resistance: Retribution is a remarkably successful shooter that looks great and is a lot of fun to play.

The bigger they are, the more bullets they absorb.

The key to Retribution's success is the control scheme. You use the analog stick to move, the face buttons to aim, the shoulder buttons to fire, and the D pad for miscellaneous actions. Aiming precisely with four separate buttons is an unwieldy task, so to smooth things out, Retribution features an aim-assist window. This is a bracketed targeting area in the middle of the screen. If you frame your enemies within the brackets, your reticle will automatically target them and you can blast away without having to constantly tweak your aim. You can easily switch between bracketed targets with a tap of the face button, and your reticle will stay locked-on as you strafe back and forth as long as you keep your enemy in the window. It is an elegant and intuitive solution to the aiming problem, and though it may sound like aim assist would make the game too easy, there are a number of factors that keep everything in balance.

The first factor is your relentless enemies. They fill the air with projectiles and advance on you aggressively. Many can be vanquished with a steady stream of aim-assisted bullets, but others require you to look down your sights (temporarily removing aim assist) and shoot them in their big, nasty heads. Some of the larger enemies are much tougher, so you'll need to use your weapon's powerful secondary attack or, better yet, use a bigger weapon. The second factor that keeps the action tense is that these secondary attacks, as well as big guns such as the rocket launcher, do not use the aim assist. This requires that you toggle your zoom (using the slightly awkward D pad up button) and work a bit harder to get your aim right. Fortunately, the large groups of enemies or towering monstrosities that you'll be firing at present a sizable target. There's a great balance to the combat: The aim assist does enough to keep the action going at a good clip, but it doesn't do so much that it takes away the challenge or the fun.

Of course, the action isn't all about aiming and pulling the trigger. Maneuvering around the levels is just as crucial to your survival. If you run up to a low barrier or a protruding wall, you'll slide into cover and (hopefully) out of the range of most Chimeran weapons. Sometimes you can accidentally slide into cover when you don't want to, and then the magnetic pull that was once your savior becomes your bane. Slowed and exposed, you have to quickly pop out if you want to survive. This can be aggravating if you are just shy of a checkpoint, but for the most part Retribution takes the Resistance series into the realm of third-person action successfully. There are even some swimming and mech-piloting sequences that provide an exciting, though generally easier, change of pace.
Retribution also breaks new ground for the Resistance series with its brash protagonist, James Grayson. This British soldier is court-martialed by his countrymen and fights alongside the French for much of the campaign, giving him an excuse to lob obscenities and vulgar epithets at characters of both nationalities. His quips oscillate between cliched and hilarious, but it is nice that, unlike Nathan Hale and the cast of the two previous games, Grayson and the supporting characters from Retribution have actual personalities and motivations. The story, told through competent cutscenes and serviceable (but occasionally spotty) voice acting, focuses as much on their relationships as it does on their struggle against the Chimera. The plot twists are often predictable, and the scope of the characters' struggle feels less epic, but the intriguing conclusion and Grayson's loutish attitude make it a worthwhile chapter in the Resistance saga.

Like shooting fish in a barrel. With a Gatling gun.

Taking Retribution online lets you fight in battles with up to seven other players through an ad hoc or infrastructure connection. The five game types cover the multiplayer basics: Free-for-All, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Containment (territory control), and Assimilation (one team converts opponents to their side by killing them). These are filled out by a good feature set, including a ranking system, clan support, and chat capability for those with an appropriate headset. Games generally run smoothly and, though there's nothing particularly unique here, Retribution's multiplayer is still rock-solid fun.

What is unique is Retribution's ability to connect to Resistance 2. With both games fired up and both systems connected via USB cable, you can "infect" your PSP. This gives Grayson the glowing eyes and black uniform sported by Nathan Hale in Resistance 2, and endows him with regenerative health and the awesome magnum that shoots exploding rounds. This novelty lasts as long as your PSP is powered on and makes you a bit tougher without significantly changing the difficulty level. The other feature lets you play Retribution with your PS3 controller. This makes playing the game more comfortable, and nixes the aim-assist window in favor of a reticle. Some may prefer this traditional setup, but it's practical only if you have the video-out cables to play your PSP on your TV. Even if you do, Retribution looks so good that it is a shame to blow up the image and stretch it out. The different environments that you travel through are uniquely designed and feature a rich color palette, and the dramatic lighting and smooth animation let the action shine brilliantly.

Allowing the action to shine is what Resistance: Retribution does best. The slick controls perform admirably with only a few minor stumbles, letting you flex your impressive arsenal as you battle through hordes of fiendish enemies. The scope of your journey is a bit narrow, and Grayson may very well offend gamers with ties to France (or England, for that matter), but the excitement and intensity packed into Resistance: Retribution are undeniable.

Major Minor's Majestic March [Wii]

2009-04-09T05:30:00.000-07:00

• Imprecise, inconsistent controls • The seven performances can be completed in less than an hour • Frustrating tempo drops and missed gestures • Unpleasant Wii Remote speaker sounds.
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In Major Minor's Majestic March, you use a magical baton that houses the spirit of your great great grandmother to lead a band of dogs, dolphins, flamingos, and flowers. By moving the Wii Remote up and down to a steady tempo, you lead your marching menagerie through a variety of brightly colored locales. The unique concept and whimsical art style are appealing, but alas, the game is hamstrung by inconsistency and troublesome controls. Sometimes the tempo will drop completely even though your steady motion hasn't changed, and at other times your gestures to recruit new members or pick up items simply won't register. It's also entirely possible to make it through a level without keeping tempo for the majority of the time. This makes the game accessible to less rhythmically inclined players, but even they will easily complete the tutorials and all seven performances in about an hour. With so little content and such problematic controls, Major Minor never lives up to the majesty that its name promises.

Playing as Major Minor, you come from a long ling of excellent bandleaders that stretches back to your Great Great Grandma Gladiola. GGGG's spirit lives inside a magical baton (yes, it's weird; just go with it), and she coaches you on how to follow in her footsteps. To lead your band, you hold the remote vertically in front of you, and then move it up and down in a regular rhythm. It generally works fine if you're rigidly adhering to form, but trying to add any style or flourish to your motions will cause you to stumble. Worse, you'll have to listen to GGGG's strident voice yell admonitions like, "Are you holding me properly??" from your tiny Wii Remote speaker. Once you stumble, it's hard to get back on track. Your band's music will falter and make it harder to recover; the audio metronome coming out of the remote speaker can also derail, leaving you fumbling to find the beat. There's a small meter onscreen that tells you how well you're doing and visually displays the tempo you should be hitting. However, this display is poorly designed and hard to read, so it isn't much help either.

When you lose the tempo, it's wisest to just plow ahead with your best guess. Sometimes things will just sort themselves out, and occasionally one of the aforementioned cues might actually help. Items offer a more reliable way to get back on track. Sun and cake immediately help straighten things out, and tempo-steadying jellybeans can be stored away and deployed with the B button. To collect items (and recruit new band members), you wave the remote to the left or right side, depending on where they are positioned. There are harmful items, but the helpful ones occur so often that, once you set the initial tempo, it is possible to stop keeping time completely, move the remote only to gather items and band members, and still complete the level. Of course, it's also possible to lose the rhythm when you try to grab items, at which point you're completely derailed. If that happens, you'll either rewind a short distance or have to restart the level entirely.

That hitchhiking cactus will lay down some mean xylophone riffs if you recruit him.

So what exactly is fun about Major Minor's Majestic March? Well, the novelty of leading a marching band is entertaining for a bit. Stepping in place and governing the tempo with snappy up-and-down movements makes you feel like a goofy pretend bandleader, and the vibrant environments that you march through are littered with oddly amusing characters. Your band members themselves are also oddly amusing, waiting patiently by the side of the road for you to come by and scoop them up. Seeing a crocodile in a business suit jump excitedly when you recruit him is humorous, and the more members you recruit, the richer your music will get. Watching rows and rows of wacky creatures march in step behind you is funny and satisfying (despite the unhelpful icons floating over their heads), and it all works nicely when you get in the groove. It's just too bad that the groove is so easy to lose.

There is some cooperative multiplayer action in which one player controls the tempo while the other recruits and grabs items, as well as a competitive mode in which players swap duties on the fly and try to get the most band members. The former is well suited for kids who might like the vibrant art style but have trouble keeping a tempo, whereas the latter isn't very engaging at all. The appeal of Major Minor's Majestic March is based almost completely on novelty, and it is pretty fun for a short while. Unfortunately, there's barely an hour's worth of levels, and replaying them for high scores isn't fun because of the imprecise controls. Major Minor might have a bit of replay value for folks looking to play a cooperative game with young children, but for anyone else it's just too shallow and flawed to justify purchase at even the slightly discounted price.

Don King Boxing [Wii]

2009-04-07T05:20:00.000-07:00

With Don King's multisyllabic faux-cabulary and towering hairdo, it often seems like he's not a real person. The video game that his name adorns, though, tries very hard to offer a realistic depiction of the sport. There are licensed boxers from both this era and years long past, as well as famous arenas where classic fights were held. The slow-paced, defensive-oriented matches also mirror the real sport, rewarding well-timed blows rather than chaotic punches. However, this realism is marred by a severe lack of impact. Punching someone in the face should fuel the uncouth barbarian buried far below the average person's surface, but in Don King Boxing, it carries no weight. This sanitization makes the matches feel sluggish and bland, and even with a bevy of classic boxers to control, the game gets knocked out in the first round.

The controls in Don King Boxing are entirely motion based, and for the most part, they work well. You can throw three different types of punches--jabs, hooks, and uppercuts--by swinging your arms in the appropriate direction, and the game does a good job of differentiating between your movements. There are times when it will mistake your attempted hook for an uppercut, but it doesn't affect the in-ring action, so it's not much of a detriment. The defensive controls also work admirably. You hold A to put up your gloves, and then tilt the controller to dodge and duck. Timing your feints can be difficult when a heavyweight is bearing down on you, but usually it's only your dull reflexes that will be exposed.

However, even though the controls in Don King Boxing do a fine job of replicating the sport, their success is quickly forgotten because the action lacks intensity. You view matches directly behind your silhouetted boxer, and initially this does a good job of sucking you into the battle. But the advantage of being in the middle of the action quickly dissipates as the harsh reality sets in. You have no depth perception. It's incredibly difficult to know how far away your opponent is, so you'll often swing wildly and miss when he's a hair out of reach or take a shot to the chin when you thought he was too far away to do damage. Because you can't properly judge your distance, the controls are also severely compromised, making it difficult to plan a strategic combo or sway away from a punch.

People who want their legs to be as active as their arms during matches can use the balance board, but it doesn't make the fighting any more impactful. You can stand on the board to sway away from attacks, and though it does respond well to your movement, it's a little too sensitive. You have to hold yourself poised and motionless if you want to stay still; if you accidentally shift your weight at any point, your boxer will mirror your movement, so it actually makes the fighting worse than it normally is. The balance board is also used during the training program, letting you perform an impromptu dance-off with your trainer. It works well enough, but the training routine lacks energy, making it feel flat before the first session has ended.

Like the matches, the training mode controls well but lacks the impact that would make it compelling. You can punch bags and jump rope with ease, but there is a severe feeling of disconnect. The training menu is separate from the story mode, so you can't easily mix in a bit of exercise between matches. With only four different training programs to choose from, the modes quickly get repetitive. Even if you do get sucked into the regimen, the game presents an artificial barrier that prevents you from enjoying it. You are limited to partaking in just one of the minigames per calendar day. Although you can jump into free mode whenever you feel like it, if you want to get credit for your hard work, you have to wait a full 24 hours or artificially move your Wii clock a day forward.

If you ever wanted to send Andrew Golota back to the 1930s, now's your chance.

The action may quickly become monotonous, but the story is really well told. Don King and his boxing pals narrate the career of your character, dubbed The Kid, as he rises from ordinary gym rat to world champion. The live-action footage has these boxing fans recounting your career, which adds a bit of personality to the otherwise bland experience. In between their tales of your conquests are teary-eyed memories of real bouts long since past. These forays into the past recount the heartbreak of many classic fights, and in a novel twist, you can go back to relive history or change it. The gameplay doesn't change much in these flashbacks compared to your current brawls other than a black and white filter that makes everything harder to see, but it is an interesting diversion from the predictable quest to become champion.

With a bunch of real fighters and motion controls that accurately replicate real-life boxing, it seems as though Don King Boxing would be a smashing success. But the action is just too dull. The punches lack any impact, making it seem like you're punching through a cloud instead of an angry man's face, and the close-up view makes it difficult to judge the distance to your opponent. Even the addition of the balance board can't make the fights engaging, because it's just too sensitive to be a worthwhile alternative to the standard control scheme. If Don King Boxing had the energy of its outrageous spokesman, it could have been a contender, but in its sluggish current form, it's just another glass-jawed bum.

Knights in the Nightmare [NDS]

2009-04-04T21:56:00.000-07:00

After many rounds of lengthy tutorials, we explore this unique and fascinating role-playing game.
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The role-playing games on the Nintendo DS just keep on coming, and next on the horizon is Knights in the Nightmare, from Sting, the maker of Yggdra Union. This game is in a class of its own, and if you thought Yggdra was confusing and a bit of a mess onscreen, you should be warned that Knights in the Nightmare looks like a disaster--at least until you've spent enough time poring over the never-ending tutorials so that you have a clue about how to proceed.

In between all the madness, there's a captivating story.

Knights in the Nightmare could be considered a strategy RPG, mostly because there is some planning needed before you enter a fight and story-driven sequences are sandwiched between battles. You play as a wisp, a floating white light used to recruit and guide soldiers in battle. Like the gameplay, the story isn't easy to follow at first. We know that trouble is brewing in the kingdom, a valkyrie is on the run, and there has been a theft that has everyone on edge, but each scene is from a different viewpoint, and with flashbacks thrown in, it's hard to immediately get a grasp on things. It's all very confusing and frustrating at first, but you can't help but get swept away in its mystery once you've invested some time in the game. To ease yourself into the game, we suggest that you study up on the battle mechanics thoroughly beforehand, because once you start, you won't get any explanations.

Similar to in a strategy RPG, the field is divided into a grid, but you're not really moving your troops around the field. Instead, you're rooted to one spot, and your weapon determines how much of an area you can attack. Monsters on the top screen will move back and forth, so you wait patiently for them to fall in your line of sight. The enemy's walking pattern as well as your zone will be highlighted on the touch screen, which displays a bare-bones grid without all the graphics and effects that will distract you in the upper screen. The field is small, so your foes are generally in range. If not, you have 26 turns get the right weapon or recruit the character with the best weapon to get it done. Each turn is timed, but the clock doesn't count down with each passing second; instead, it counts down only when you're charging up for an attack or if you get hit. Once you clear the enemies onscreen, you can select whom you want to face next via a monster slot machine. A matrix below marks how many monsters you've killed, and the goal is to wipe out enough to fill a line, whether it be vertical, horizontal, or diagonal, to win the battle.

Before battle, you pick the soldiers you want and then select the appropriate class-based weapons that they can use. These items are placed on the right-hand side of the top screen for you to choose when you fight. The entire battle is stylus-driven, so to attack, you need to hold the stylus down on your character and charge up your meter. This is when things get hectic, because after you hit an enemy, it will drop gems that you need to grab quickly for magic points. Once you have MP, you can equip the weapon that you have on standby and unleash a much more powerful skill attack. While you're doing all this, enemies will launch their own offensive, and since you are the bright ball of light onscreen, you need to dodge bullets as though you're playing a fast-paced shoot-'em-up. There's so much going on that this will seem incredibly intimidating at first. But once you get over that hurdle and finally figure out how this game works, you'll appreciate the unique setup because it feels a lot more engaging than lining up your fighters and telling them to simply attack.

It takes a few tries to adjust to the new battle system.

So if you're completely lost by this point but are still intrigued, Knights in the Nightmare is worth a closer look--if you're willing to spend a good hour sifting through the tutorial, tips, and demonstration sections and then revisit them again later for a refresher. The tutorials are a bit tedious, but like any game with a steep learning curve, once you get it, it's easy. When you're not busting your brains trying to figure out what to do, take a step back to absorb the visuals and the music, because they are fantastic. Even though we didn't get too far in, we came across quite a few amazing melodies that we'd love to listen to on a separate soundtrack. The art style is great and is easier to appreciate once you're off the battlefield.

This game won't be easily accessible and will take a lot of patience in the beginning. It is, however, perfect for those who enjoy the challenge of a more complicated RPG and are willing to learn something new. Chances are you've never seen anything like this, and there is so much more than what we've already covered. Look for Knights in the Nightmare when it is released June 2.

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite [PSP]

2009-03-26T05:14:00.000-07:00

Capcom brings to North America the incredibly popular monster hunting series on the PlayStation Portable.
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While everyone else was busy getting ready for the Game Developer's Choice Awards, Capcom held a Monster Hunter Freedom Unite event in San Francisco so that we may get hands-on time with one of Japan's hottest selling games. Staying true to the series but adding new features to make it more single-player friendly, Freedom Unite adds a helpful cat as a sidekick, so that you don't have to go on your monster hunting missions alone. Our hands-on session primarily focused on the multiplayer portion, but after tracking down a giant crab and eventually carving out its parts, it's not hard to see why this game is so popular.

A well-done steak after a well-fought battle.

Like the previous games, Freedom Unite is like a mini massive multiplayer online game on your PlayStation Portable. By mini, we still refer to an endless amount of quests and content that is available for you in single player mode and even more in multiplayer. For those who really enjoy working together with friends (or have friends with PSPs since you can only play ad-hoc), this game has plenty of multiplayer missions that will yield better items so that you can upgrade weapons and armor for your single player game.

The series may be light on the story, but this Freedom Unite is connected and takes place after the previous Monster Hunter Freedom 2, so your character will be recognized as the hero that saved the village in the last game. Once again, you'll be given quests but there are missions that will require you to fetch items, carry eggs back to town, or capture a monster instead of killing it. In our play session, we were after a monster that was lurking in a colder region, so we had to prepare ourselves by grabbing a hot drink before we wandered off. Our character was named Gin, who looked like a warrior princess with her furry outfit, head full of feathers and dual swords. She was quick with her blades but her range was pathetic so we really had to get in under the crab to do any sort of damage. Once her blades lost their edge, it was time to pull out the whetstone to sharpen them and before we knew it, we were back in full swing. Each member of our party had a different weapon type, which balanced our team and made the challenge easier. Since character stats are completely dependent on armor and weapons, the beefed up gear probably had something to do with it too.

The multiplayer component is really what stands out in the game. It's infinitely more interesting to be searching for dangerous creatures with your friends in tow, than to be wandering the groves alone. Rare item drops are more likely when you select a quest in the gathering hall, which are design for four players. However, if you do end up playing solo, Freedom Unite has included a well-fed cat that will fight alongside of you, so you won't be all alone. We were told that the learning curve is not as difficult this time around because of the feline addition--which we saw dressed in a samurai outfit wielding a giant hammer. Another addition is mid-tiered weapons, so you no longer have to pinch and save for that ultra powerful weapon without anything to use in the meantime. These transition weapons can't be upgraded though, but their requirements are much lower than the high-tiered stuff.

Victory is yours, especially with the help of the feline sidekick.

Our time with Monster Hunter Freedom Unite was nothing compared to the 800 hours that the Capcom representative had logged. It truly is an MMO with a never-ending amount of things to keep you occupied. In our quick run through, we liked what we saw. There seemed to be a decent variety in the environments and each of our character outfits were very elaborate and detailed. The monsters we encountered were menacing and intimidating, which made the carving very satisfying once the major battle was won. There's more to be explored for sure, but that's going to have to wait. Trackers be on the lookout because the hunt begins sometime this summer.

Steal Princess [NDS]

2009-03-23T04:40:00.000-07:00

By Sophia Tong, GameSpot
No pretty dresses and tea parties for this princess; we use our womanly wiles to get ahead in this puzzling platformer.
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Atlus is hard at work bringing over games that we normally wouldn't see in North America. The publisher's latest addition to the Nintendo DS library is an action puzzle platformer game that is intended to put your mushy brain to the test. An endless stream of increasingly complex levels requires some basic platforming skills as well as your keen problem-solving abilities to reach the end goal. You play as the young thief Anise, a sassy girl with long tresses and an eye patch, who is mistaken for the next up-and-coming legendary hero and must traverse through intricate and often dangerous areas to save a kidnapped prince. There are more than 150 stages, and we've only been able to skim the surface. The game is preset with ample tricky obstacles to overcome, but you can also create your own levels and share them with other players over Nintendo Wi-Fi or local wireless.

It looks easy, once you know what to do.

After a bizarre but stylish and flashy opening sequence, you watch as Anise sneaks around a dungeon only to spring an Indiana Jones rolling-boulder trap by accident, fall off a ledge, and get swept away by a strong current. She then wakes up at the king's castle, where she meets Kukri, a buglike fairy who at first thinks the girl is dead but then insists that Anise is the "great hero" who is supposed to defeat the demon lord with Kukri's infinite wisdom and guidance. Insisting that this is a case of mistaken identity, Anise--who is actually a master thief--does eventually agree to help the king find his kidnapped son (who is supposed to be a descendent of the last legendary hero), if only to avoid punishment because of her dubious history.

The game is broken down into several areas with multiple levels within. The first few levels introduce the different elements of the game, which is a nice way of easing you into the puzzles because the difficulty will ramp up as you go. The victory condition must be met in order to continue, which generally involves getting rid of all the enemies so that they drop a key for you to unlock the door to the next stage. You'll pick up color-coded weapons and explosive items, and you'll use Anise's trusty whip to hit switches, but as you make your way through the levels, finding that key becomes tricky. Hazards in the area will hinder your progress, and you'll need to figure out how to dispose of your enemies in a specific order or make use of your limited items carefully to meet the goals that are set. Your accomplishments are tracked, and depending on how long it took you to complete the stage, you'll earn a gold, silver, or bronze medal. The levels don't take more than a minute or two once you figure out what you're supposed to be doing, and restarting is quick and painless. The option to replay the levels is always there for those who have the competitive drive, and if that doesn't motivate you, knowing that your performance will also affect the ending might encourage you to perfect your skills. The ability to save after each map makes this an easy game to take on the go, especially given that each level is so short.

There's a map maker available from the start, which allows you to create your own custom levels to share with friends via Wi-Fi or local wireless. More map templates, enemies, objects, and items become available as you make your way through the game, or you can purchase them with gems that you pick up. Since you choose a template when you create your own level, most of your customization involves placing hazards and other goodies around the map instead of building a level entirely from scratch. Being able to share your devious stages is a great way for people with a thirst for puzzles to have access to a never-ending amount of content.

Solve puzzles and platform your way to the finish line.

This 3D action puzzle platformer is by developer Climax, as well as Marvelous, the maker of Rune Factory, so you'll find that the quality of the visuals is similar, from the animated opening to the in-game graphics. The dialogue is funny too, although Kukri the purple fairy can be a little long-winded and you might find yourself skipping through the text to get on with the puzzles. While at times Steal Princess might feel like a role-playing game, its progression is linear as you move from level to level with storyline and dialogue peppered in along the way.

Steal Princess looks to be another solid entry in Atlus' lengthy 2009 lineup, with goofy humor and challenging puzzles for anyone to enjoy. There are gameplay videos to check out, so be sure to take a look. Put your thieving skills to the test when Steal Princess is released on April 21.

Phantom Brave [Wii]

2009-03-20T04:47:00.000-07:00

Has Nippon Ichi done it again? Or has its third attempt at strategy brilliance finally worn out its welcome?

August 31, 2004 - Who would have thought that a year ago when Atlus released Disgaea: Hour of Darkness that it would have created such a stir for the dormant strategy/RPG market here in America? Quickly ascending as one of the hottest new cult genres for the PlayStation 2, the tactical sub-category is at its highest level of acceptance since the days of Final Fantasy Tactics and the Ogre Battle remakes -- with plenty of different companies legitimately researching similar types of games for stateside release.This windfall has particularly benefited Disgaea's developer Nippon Ichi; which has now seen all three of its favorite PS2 children published in the United States over a 12 month period. And while Hour of Darkness is still considered to be the stronger product when compared to its older brother La Pucelle, there is still an army of hopefuls out there that are bent on the notion that it can make something even better. That optimism now lies at the doorstep of the company's latest incarnation of the series, Phantom Brave; a uniquely different, yet strangely familiar interpretation of a franchise that has captured the hearts and minds of an underground fan base for quite some time.With such a large amount of product hitting the stores in such a small amount of time, however, there's certainly the danger of wearing out its welcome. Because as massive, involving, and strategic as the previous two titles have been, it seems like overkill to give the third installment a chance so soon. But Nippon Ichi has so much confidence in Phantom Brave that it has started an all-new American office specifically so that it can publish the game here in the United States (Atlus and Mastiff published the previous two). Definitely considered the flagship title for what NIS America hopes will be a long and productive future, Phantom Brave's success in the marketplace has a lot riding on it. Luckily, it appears as though Nippon Ichi's gamble is going to pay off.

Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars Q&A [NDS]

2009-03-18T05:03:00.000-07:00

By Staff, GameSpot
We talk to Rockstar Leeds about bringing GTA to the DS.
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Rockstar's upcoming Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is sure to make a splash when it hits the Nintendo DS later this month. The game is arguably the most ambitious to hit Nintendo's handheld to date, aiming to offer a genuine GTA experience on a cartridge. As insane or impossible as that might sound, our previous looks at the game have shown that Rockstar is doing just that. With the game's release fast approaching, we reached out to Gordon Hall, president and founder of Rockstar Leeds, the developer of this impressive game, to find out how it's come together.

GameSpot: The GTA series has a strong lineage on the PSP; why has it taken so long to bring it to the DS?

Gordon Hall: The lineage of GTA is long and runs across nearly every platform Rockstar has ever wanted to make games for. From the early days on PC, PS1, and Dreamcast, to the current console offerings on Xbox 360 and PS3, Rockstar has always set out to make the games that we want to see on every piece of hardware that we enjoy working on. For us over at Leeds, however, we focus on taking everything we love about our console offerings and working nonstop until we can deliver an experience on our favorite handheld systems that stands toe-to-toe with the best there is on consoles.

The PSP "Stories" games were designed as an exercise in delivering a fully realized GTA experience for the hardware, which we've always felt has been more of a "portable console" in some ways. Their production was no easy task, and we feel we truly broke through the idea of what kind of console-like experiences you can take with you.

The Grand Theft Auto series is debuting on the DS with Chinatown Wars.

For the DS, however, we're working with something that feels less-so like a portable console. Thus, the thinking would have to be a bit different behind the design of the game, and since the hardware obviously has some very different capabilities in terms of what it can do, the amount of work that would have to go into building a fully realized GTA experience that could stand up to what we've done on consoles would have to be incredible. This is essentially the reason why we've moved onto DS, it was the challenge that we knew it would be. After learning everything we had learned from VCS and LCS, we finally felt like it was time to step up and push ourselves even harder with this game, using a team that nearly doubles the size of anything we've worked on before.

GS: Did you know what kind of game you were going to make on the DS or did you experiment and iterate?

GH: We don't ever want to make anything that isn't going to stop the audience in their tracks and have them rethink what kind of games are possible on the hardware. Part of the ambition of this project came with the idea for the setting and story. We knew we were going to be working with the same massive world of Liberty City that fans have come to know so well from GTA III, LCS, VCS, and GTAIV (with the same massive topography, minus one borough, of GTAIV), and we knew we wanted to build it in 3D from the ground up.

Thus, we knew that this would have to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, games ever built for the system, so we knew that we had our work cut out for us. For nearly two years, our guys worked day and night figuring out how it was going to happen, how we were going to build this massive city in a way that it would fit onto the DS with its own unique sense of style. We worked like lunatics, referencing nearly every corner of the boroughs of Liberty City until we had something that was going to be familiar to players from the other GTA games. But beyond that, it wasn't just the setting by any means that we wanted to feel familiar to players, it was the feel of the game itself. Moving over to this hardware for the first time, the first GTA that our studio has done on a Nintendo system in fact, we knew that we had to build something that was instantly familiar to anyone who's played GTA before, yet also something that couldn't really be done on any other piece of hardware.

GS: What do you think makes a good DS game? What do you think makes a good GTA game?

GH: As far as DS games go, we aren't big fans of seeing some titles with these deep roots in gaming that just get so rethought for the market to the point where the game loses sight of its own roots, and loses interest from the players that enjoyed these games so much in the first place. The games that actually do something fun and unique without alienating a part of the DS's wide audience of gamers, those are the best ones.

For GTA, we're in the rare position where we have over 10 years' worth of design and evolution that has gone into the series to pull from and build upon here. When we started on the project, we asked ourselves the same question you've asked us. What are some of the things we like the best about this series? With that, we knew that we loved the fast-paced, arcade-like action of GTA 1 & 2 with things like barreling down a sidewalk at 90mph taking out rows of gang members. When the series leapt into 3D with GTAIII, it changed the playing field with its innovative mission structure, expansive settings, deep narrative, and unparalleled depth to the gameplay. Then at the next phase with GTAIV, the world just became that much more massive, modern, and it really just changed the way the player could interact with the characters through the storytelling and the technology in the gameworld.

So it's parts of all of those things and much more that we feel make GTA what it is, but as far as what was going to make GTA great on the DS, we knew we had to pull from all of it. We also knew that with the DS, we were working with a much different device that people would be playing on. We weren't going to have that captive audience on a couch in front of an HDTV like you have with the console games; so we wanted to create something that would wow the player with as much intense action as possible on the screen. It's something that builds on the arcade-like action of GTA 1 and GTA 2, but something that will feel so much more familiar to players of GTAIII and beyond.

GS: Why have you introduced a new wanted system for this game?

GH: This is in line with the thinking of how we had to keep the player involved with the action as much as possible. In the previous games, we were trying to escape the police or lay low as much as possible, and that just wasn't something that was going to play into the experience we were trying to build. We wanted players engaged in the action as much as possible, and this meant having them actively engaging the police as much as possible.

We wanted it to feel like a cop chase in movie. Cars rushing down the street at top speed and flying over curbs and corners, then flipping into walls, buildings, and other cars until the police cruisers were disabled just enough that they couldn't continue on with the chase! That's exactly how it works as well. Two or more stars, and you have to escape or smash, ram, and crash into the fuzz until they can't move their cars anymore. It gets fast, fun, intense, and ultimately, we just wanted something that would give us the opportunity to laugh as we get away and onto the next mission.

As your wanted level increases, so too will the pressure from the fuzz.

GS: Can you walk us through the role the touch screen will play in GTA:CW both from a gameplay and control standpoint? Was it an easy decision to make, or did you experiment with different ways to incorporate it? Did you feel you had to take advantage of every feature on the system (online, microphone, touch screen, et cetera)?

GH: As I had mentioned earlier, we wanted to make a game that players could pick up and instantly recognize as GTA. No tapping on the screen to move Huang in the direction of where he needs to go, and no sliding a wheel on the bottom screen to steer a car foolishly down a street at 100mph. That's not GTA, and that just leaves too much of an emotional disconnect between the player and the character. You'll be using the D pad to move around and the same familiar control setup on the face buttons that you're used to working with.

As far as what we did want to do with the touch screen, we decided to use it only where it made sense creatively, but never did we do something just for the sake of doing it because the DS had the capability. The wireless PDA certainly speaks to that. For the whole of the game, players will be using this device to interact with nearly everything going on in the gameworld. E-mails, chatting with friends connected online, plotting points on the GPS, and more--this is the main hub of communication for all things in Chinatown Wars.

For the other elements, though, all of that needed to be contextual. The touch screen represented this unique opportunity to get up close and see what the player is doing in certain situations we might not get to see in a console game. Things like hot-wiring cars, filling gas to make Molotovs, or scratching off lottery tickets in the corner store. This was a way for us to integrate everything into the experience seamlessly in a way that was fun and never took away from the core GTA experience. No, players won't be hot-wiring every car in the city--this is an action game, after all--but this did give us the opportunity to add more depth to the experience. Some cars might need a quick shank in the ignition with a screwdriver, while others, like say an exotic car parked in a wealthy Algonquin neighborhood, might need you to disarm the electronic security sequence. This of course requires skill, and if you're on the run and need to move fast, it allows the player to make the decision and try to do it as fast as they can, or maybe just steal another car that's already being driven down the street before they get busted by the cops.

Grand Slam Tennis [Wii]

2009-03-16T03:23:00.000-07:00

By Brian Ekberg, GameSpotT
We go hands-on with the upcoming Wii tennis game, which will make use of the Wii MotionPlus add-on.
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Bjorn Borg isn't playing with a wooden racket with a tiny little head, but other than that, this feels pretty much like tennis. He's running all over the court, making devastating backhand and forehand shots, and driving toward the net exactly like you'd expect the legendary Swede to play. Sure, EA Sports' upcoming Grand Slam Tennis for the Nintendo Wii isn't a sim in terms of its visuals, but when it comes to swinging the racket, you won't find a more accurate representation of the sport on the Wii. Or, perhaps, anywhere else.

As explained in our recent interview with Grand Slam producer Thomas Singleton, the tennis game will use the Wii MotionPlus add-on, which Nintendo will be releasing this year. The idea is that by snapping the MotionPlus add-on to the bottom of your Wii Remote, you'll be able to enjoy even more responsive controls for your games. For Grand Slam Tennis, that translates to a near one-to-one movement between what you're doing with the Wii Remote and what your onscreen player is doing with his racket. In fact, the controls are so sensitive that you can roll the Wii Remote in your hands and the player will roll the racket in sync. As a result, you'll need to be mindful of how level your racket is when you're swinging, because angling the face up or down will make a difference in how the shot comes off the racket's face.

While a great deal of control sensitivity is great for the virtual tennis experts out there, Grand Slam Tennis is meant to appeal to a wide range of skill levels. We played the game without the Wii MotionPlus controls and found the player swing very responsive; we were able to hit a variety of shots with relative ease, and with a little more practice, top spin, lob, and drop shots would have been well within our reach. In fact, as producers explained to us, when playing the game with the Wii Remote alone your shot placement will depend soley on the timing of the swing. By contrast, playing with Wii MotionPlus controls, your success will depend on a mixture of your timing, your player position, and exactly how you move the racket. So if you're looking to take a shot cross-court from right to left, you'll want to make sure you swing early and swing the racket across your body to maximize the angle.

In a nod toward tennis newbs, you can choose to play Grand Slam Tennis with just a Wii Remote, giving up player movement control to the CPU. At first we were put off by the system, but after some time with the game, we came around to it, at least a little. Players move quickly and change direction in a realistic manner, and provided you're smart with your shot selection, you can keep a ralley going for a while. The game's physics base so much of your success on the timing of your swing--whether using the Wii MotionPlus controls or the Wii Remote by itself--that you need to be smart about how and when you swing the racket. How hard you swing counts too; the quicker your swing, the harder your shot. As a result, it's possible to mess up more subtle shots (like the drop shot) by simply hitting it too hard.

While you can plug in a nunchuk and control player movement yourself, when playing with the Wii Remote alone, you still have minimal control over your player's positioning. By pressing up on the directional pad you can move your player toward the net; by pressing down on the D pad you can move your player to the baseline.

The Grand Slam events make up the core experience in Grand Slam Tennis, with the quartet of tennis slams being the ultimate goal. As you've probably heard, this is the first tennis game that features Wimbledon. The different stadiums all look great, but more importantly, their different surface types will have a very discernible effect on your game. The clay surface at Roland-Garros (home of the French Open) will cause slower play, with players sliding on the clay and having a more difficult time changing direction. That is, unless you're playing as Rafael Nadal, who excels on clay--as producers told us, the tennis players who will make up the roster of Grand Slam Tennis will all have specific strengths and weaknesses. Pete Sampras will have a devastating serve; Nadal will be deadly on clay; and Bjorn Borg will be an aggressive, net-minded player. Playing to these strengths will help you find success in matches--the game will even give you specific tips before a match begins, detailing the weaknesses of your opponent.

Stadiums like Wimbledon and Roland-Garros have a bright and colorful look to them, and the player model designs might best be described as caricature, with tall, lanky physiques and enough facial accuracy to be instantly recognizable. You'll recognize Nadal from his long hair and his sleeveless shirts, and if Sampras' in-game model has a bit more hair than the tennis great is rocking these days, his distinctive facial features are well intact. We didn't get a chance to check out the ladies in action, but players like Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic were playable in the demo we saw.

Certainly there's plenty to like about Grand Slam Tennis--the easy-to-learn controls, the fast pace of play, and exclusive access to Wimbledon. What remains to be seen is if the game will truly appeal to the Wii Sports crowd, while still being able to satisfy tennis junkies yearning for a more in-depth tennis experience on the Wii. That Nintendo hasn't announced a solid release date for the Wii MotionPlus add-on is another thing to keep in mind--as the peripheral will give hardcore tennis fans the most long-term bang for their buck when the game is released in mid-June. Look for more on Grand Slam Tennis in the coming weeks.

Klonoa [Wii]

2009-03-13T04:26:00.000-07:00

By Shaun McInnis, GameSpot
We take one more look at Namco's cult favorite platformer before it completes the transition from the PlayStation to the Wii.
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You'll often hear a groan when the subject of porting a game to the Wii comes up, but that's mostly when publishers take a game developed for more powerful hardware and strip it down to run on Nintendo's ultrapopular console. What's cause for far less concern is when a publisher takes a cult favorite from several generations prior and spruces it up for a new generation of players. Such is the case with Klonoa, Namco Bandai's cutesy platformer based on a 1997 PlayStation game. At the time of its release, the original was regarded by critics as a platforming classic, but its sales didn't quite match the praise. So here we are, 12 years later, with Namco Bandai set to release a remake of this cult favorite for North American Wii owners, and we've just had our most extensive look at the game yet.

Welcome to the world of Phantomile.

What sets Klonoa apart from the platforming competition of the era is the way it plays with so many of the genre's conventions. On the surface, you have a side-scrolling platformer with saccharine visuals, twinkling music, and a mascot of indeterminate animal origins. Those parts are fairly standard, but the rest is much less so. Everything plays out on what appears to be a 2D plane, but with a camera that frequently swoops and pans when your path bends around a curved surface, giving you the impression of moving across a much more fluid landscape. In addition, you'll need to pay attention to objects in the background, because triggers are frequently buried behind you, forcing you to consider not just the X and Y axes, but also the Z axis. All you ever really do is move up and down, left and right in traditional platform style, but the way Klonoa plays with your conception of space is quite rare for a 2D game.

The way you interact with enemies is also much different from most platformers. Here, baddies are less of a threat and more of a tool to help propel you past certain obstacles. Grabbing hold of an enemy and throwing him down while you're in the air allows for a double jump; distant triggers can be switched with a precise enemy lob; and armored enemies can be weakened only by having an unarmored one thrown at them. Most levels become some combination of precise jumping, darting past unnecessary bad guys, and figuring out how to use the enemies that are necessary for progressing. It's a simple control scheme that uses only two buttons--one for jumping, the other for grabbing--but allows for a pleasing level of variety with the way these various feats are combined.

The Wii version of the game sports a few new features not seen in the original release. It's very light on motion control and even gives you the option to turn it off altogether, though if you have it on you can let out a whirlwind attack by shaking the nunchuk, thereby unleashing a storm of wind that takes out all bad guys within the immediate vicinity. (That's about all you'll see of Wii-specific features; it's a game that stays true to the source material.) Other new features include touched-up visuals (most noticeably 3D character models replacing sprites), English voice acting, challenge rooms within story levels, and the ability to unlock mirrored versions of each stage to play through them backward.

Boss fights cap off every other stage and give you a chance to put your skills to use.

Altogether, Klonoa should offer a lot for platforming fans to look forward to. Wii owners who are new to the series should be pleased with the charming look and surprisingly distinct gameplay, while those who have played the original ought to be pleased to find that the original Klonoa hasn't been filled to the brim with unnecessary motion controls. You can expect the game to be released on May 5.

Pokemon Platinum Q&A: Giratina, Anti-Matter, and E=MC2

2009-03-10T03:11:00.000-07:00

By Staff, GameSpot

We chat with a Takeshi Kawachimaru and Junichi Masuda about the upcoming Pokemon game for Nintendo DS
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The Pokemon phenomenon continues to roll on. Eleven years after the U.S. release of Pokemon Red & Blue on the original Game Boy, the series is stronger than ever. Pokemon Platinum is the upcoming release on the Nintendo DS platform after a string of hits that included Diamond, Pearl, and the two Pokemon Dungeon games. Still, with so many Pokemon games out there, it might be tough for the developers to find new directions for the series, right? We put that question, and a few others, to two of the main forces behind Pokemon Platinum: game director Junichi Masuda and game designer Takeshi Kawachimaru.

GameSpot: How did you approach this entry in the series? How does the team decide on what upgrades and enhancements will be featured in a new game?

Takeshi Kawachimaru: When we first started work on Platinum, we all had lots of opinions ("I want to change this," "How about changing that?"). We would have lost the connection to Diamond and Pearl if we made too many changes, so I decided to focus on what we most wanted to change. If you compare Diamond and Pearl to Platinum, you'll notice big changes in the area map as well as the heroes. I'll be happy if fans who played Diamond and Pearl have fun finding the changes.

Junichi Masuda: We produced Diamond and Pearl as the ultimate Pokemon titles. From the get-go, I felt Platinum had to be even stronger than its prequels. One of the ways we enhanced Platinum was with Giratina's Forme change (we eventually chose to feature its new Origin Forme on the package). When designing Giratina's Origin Forme, we paid meticulous attention to the character's details. Our designer redrew Giratina's image again and again to make the Pokemon significantly different than its Altered Forme (seen in Diamond and Pearl) and change its shape. We decided on the concept that Giratina Origin Forme is a Pokemon from an "antimatter" world.

The Distortion World seems like a dangerous place for Pokemon hunters.

GS: Can you tell us about the new features in Platinum and the thinking behind each of the additions?

TK: The most significant new feature would be Distortion World. When we started developing Platinum, Masuda explained some key concepts, such as "antimatter," "E=MC²," and "There's an antimatter world, a paradox of time and space that exists in relation to Dialga and Palkia." Among the flood of concepts he gave me was a term called "Reversed Mt. Fuji" ("Sakasa Fuji"). Masuda explained that Sakasa Fuji refers to the reflection of Mt. Fuji on the lake, which embodies the antimatter world. I thought of how I could incorporate all the concepts into Platinum and did extensive research. I didn't really understand what antimatter meant at first, but I think I was able to grasp the concept eventually and conveyed it in the game.

JM: Thanks to Kawachimaru's deep understanding of the themes, antimatter effectively became the core concept of Platinum (in the Distortion World). In addition to the core concept, we created the new Wi-Fi Plaza and Battle Frontier. We included these new features because we wanted our fans to be able to play and share information with many friends. Pokemon Platinum is packed with new exciting features beyond what was in Diamond and Pearl.

GS: Pokemon Platinum broke sales records in Japan, selling over 1 million copies in the first three days of its release. Were you surprised that it broke this sales record?

TK: I was very surprised and excited! I just want to say thank you very much to all the Pokemon fans who waited for Platinum so patiently!

JM: It's fantastic! I was moved and surprised because our goal is to create games that will be loved by fans. I felt our players' love from the games selling so quickly.

GS: How would you describe the core Pokemon formula? What game elements did you feel Platinum had to have?

TK: It makes you feel like the Pokemon are really living in the game screen. I think that's the core element of Pokemon. I hope that fans love their Pokemon as though they are their friends.

I wanted fans who have already played Diamond or Pearl to enjoy the newness and change in Platinum. I think the Distortion World symbolizes both. I would be very happy if players discover the newness and change in the many features, like the changes in the area map, play control enhancements, and the expanded Pokemon world.

JM: What's always in my mind when I create the concept of the Pokemon world is the idea of an ideal world--a fantasy world in a video game that humans in our world would want to live in. Also, what makes the Pokemon unique is their relationship with humans; the relationships aren't merely that of an owner and his or her pet--it goes beyond that.

If I were to describe the game elements of Pokemon Platinum in one word, it would be "change."

GS: Were there any features/concepts you thought about while you were making Pokemon Platinum that you got in to the game? Are there any ideas that you came up with but are saving for a future title?

TK: There were two concepts that I personally wanted to take on--external and internal connectivity. First, (for the external), I wanted to give fans playing from their own homes the sense that there are millions of Pokemon fans all over the world. To achieve this goal, I created the Global Terminal and Wi-Fi Plaza (that allow users from all over the world to connect together).

Another concept I wanted to include (for internal connectivity) was something that would allow players to communicate more with their parents, brothers, sisters, and friends about their strategies. I think that the concept is realized well in Platinum with the Battle Frontier. Now, two players can take on battles together at all the facilities in the Battle Frontier. There's only one thing that worries me, though: I hope that friends don't get into disagreements about each other's choices while they take on the Battle Frontier together!

I do have ideas for a future title, but I can't tell you right now! But when I tell you, everybody will be surprised. That's for sure.

JM: We come up with a lot of new ideas every day, and we think about how to make the ideas more fun and exciting. We want to create games that will surprise, thrill, and excite you. So be sure to look forward to that!

With Platinum, the developers at Game Freak are looking to create the

GS: Are there any new features or ideas in Pokemon Platinum that were inspired by Pokemon fans? What kinds of enhancements do you make based on fans' reactions to Pokemon games?

TK: There's a hardcore Pokemon fan who collects Clefairy from around the world--he's a member of the development staff at Game Freak, actually. For fans like him, we made a small change to the search abilities in the Global Trade Station (GTS).

JM: I feel it's my job to surprise our fans with new ideas! So in that sense, I am inspired by them [laughs].

GS: Thanks for your time.

Harvest Moon Creator Doesn't Like Sequels

2009-03-07T03:45:00.000-08:00

And he’s one to talk. According to Wikipedia, the venerable Harvest Moon franchise is now on its 20th title, with the upcoming Sugar Village headed for the PSP later in 2009. What’s worse, the game hasn’t really changed substantially from one installment to the next. Harvest Moon games still revolve around the core elements of planting crops, harvesting vegetables, making money, and eventually marrying hotties from the village. Sure, Innocent Life threw some futuristic robotic trappings into the mix, and Rune Factory even added some light RPG combat, but by and large, the Harvest Moon of 2009 is the same as it was more than a dozen installments ago. It is hard to think of a game franchise – bar the Madden series – that suffers from ‘sequelitis’ quite as badly as the Harvest Moon games do.

In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Natsume boss Yasuhiro Wada said that game companies need to come up with some new ideas in order to keep gamers interested. "I think new IPs must keep coming, not only to give more variety to the gamer but also to keep the creative people creative. What is the point of having creative developers if they are just making existing games better and not thinking of new ideas?"

Despite the hypocrisy of his statement, we wonder whether he is unfairly singling out the sequel for hurting the game industry. After all, some of the best games ever made have been sequels: Metal Gear Solid 2, Super Mario Brothers 3, Call of Duty 4, Dragon Quest VIII, and so on. Sometimes it is better to improve on an existing idea, rather than come up with a totally unique game that may or may not work successfully. What do you think? Are sequels as big of a problem as Wada believes?

Harvest Moon: Sugar Village features many of the same gameplay elements from previous Harvest Moon titles.

credit : pspworld.com

Hammerin' Hero [PSP]

2009-03-05T03:53:00.000-08:00

By Shaun McInnis, GameSpot
We smash the living daylights out of pretty much anything that moves in this wacky side-scroller.
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As a title for a game in which you can unlock a variety of new occupations, Hammerin' Hero isn't entirely accurate. Yes, you'll begin this action-heavy side-scroller as a hammer-wielding carpenter on a quest to literally smash corporate greed, but the game's main draw is that you'll soon be crushing evil industrialists under such guises as a sushi chef, a professional baseball player, and a deep-sea diver. If that all sounds a little strange, it's because Hammerin' Hero is precisely that. But fear not: We've been spending some time with Hammerin' Hero in an effort to clear things up a bit before this PSP game's April 7 release.

Smash enemies to bits with your boombox while playing as a DJ.

The eccentric storyline goes like this: You play as a carpenter named Gen, a young man whose trade allows him to craft buildings with a ludicrously huge hammer. But when an evil corporation led by a man named Kuromoku comes rolling into town threatening to smash Gen's residential neighborhood in order to build more profitable structures, Gen takes justice into his own hands--by running and jumping from left to right smashing every bad guy he can. The Japanese neighborhoods that make up the game's environments are filled with all manner of evil construction workers, evil bulldozers, evil corporate helicopters, and so on. And your job is to smash them using a simple control scheme that allows you to jump, light attack, and heavy attack.

Every few levels, you'll unlock a new occupation that lets you do that job in a slightly different way. As a deep-sea diver, you can take out enemies from afar using an anchor on a chain, for example, while a DJ can toss records at people. More up-close-and-personal options include taking a full home-run swing with a baseball bat as a ballplayer or slapping enemies with a giant fish as a sushi chef. You commit to one occupation before the level starts, but you can visit your girlfriend and have her make you a magical bento box that gives you the ability to transform into another occupation midlevel, but only if you've picked up the necessary ingredients (for example, a tuna or a salmon) throughout previous levels.

The action in Hammerin' Hero is quick and challenging. The levels are short but are packed with a number of bosses for you to take on. And the environments are delightfully absurd, too. They start out ordinary enough, with levels taking place in Japanese residential neighborhoods and amusement parks, but eventually you'll get to a place like a live baseball game that requires you to fight your way through a demonic pitching machine and a spike-covered catcher who shoots missiles from his chest. Making things even more hectic is that you'll almost always see frantic civilians attempting to run from harm's way. The overall look of the game is chaotic, quirky, and thoroughly Japanese.

Hammerin' Hero is being brought to North America by Atlus. It may not fall into the strategic role-playing genre most people know the publisher for, but it's every bit as eccentric as their previous work. You can expect to see Hammerin' Hero released for the PSP on April 7.

Tenchu: Shadow Assassins [Wii]

2009-03-01T22:12:00.000-08:00

Tenchu: Shadow Assassins attempts to sneak in the footsteps of its stealthy predecessors but ends up a stumbling, bungling mess.
The Good
• Violent instant kills • Stirring music • Impressive cutscenes.

The Bad
• Awkward movement controls • Broken stealth gameplay • Aggravating first-person swordfights • Flawed enemy AI.
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The best games in the Tenchu series earned their black belts with engaging stealth action that challenged players to think creatively and use a variety of cool ninja tactics. Although Tenchu: Shadow Assassins mimics the format of its betters reasonably well, it never actually gets it right. The stilted controls and broken stealth logic not only make it hard to feel like a ninja, they also make it hard to have any fun. The solid visuals and stylish music can't mask the fact that Shadow Assassins is an exercise in frustration.

One of these guys won't need to pay his taxes this year.

Tenchu: Shadow Assassins takes place in feudal Japan and brings back two protagonists that fans of the series will recognize instantly: Rikimaru and Ayame. The familiar kidnapped princess/kingdom in peril story unfolds twice, once from each ninja's perspective, and dovetails into a bizarre and surprisingly morbid ending. The cutscenes that tell the story are impressive, and you'll enjoy watching the detailed, fluidly animated characters play their parts in the serviceable narrative. There are some weird spots, notably the melodramatic voice acting and the Japanese merchant who speaks with a Cockney accent, but on the whole these cutscenes are a pillar of the generally impressive presentation. Environments are well detailed, and the musical score is an enjoyably modern interpretation of traditional Japanese themes.

Though you play as two different ninja, their abilities are identical. The gameplay consists primarily of sneaking through levels while killing or evading guards. Hiding in the clearly marked shadow areas will totally conceal you from view and let you instantly kill any enemy who comes within your reach. These quick kills, called hissatsu, require you to follow onscreen prompts and perform the corresponding remote motions or button presses. The satisfyingly brutal hissatsu are fun to perform and include such classic kills as snapping an enemy's neck and eviscerating him with his own sword. The cleverly designed stealth meter will help you stay hidden; it's an image of the moon that will shine brightly when you're exposed, cloud over if you're hidden, and is surrounded by stars that represent the positions of your enemies.

Staying in cover is crucial, so it's aggravating when the awkward controls hinder your movements. Both ninja move at a sneaking pace, which means that you'll do a lot of slowly walking between shadows (running will always attract the guards). Unfortunately, it's often unclear which environmental elements you can easily move through and which will impede your progress, which makes for some frustrating hang-ups. If you are close to cover or get spotted, you can shake the remote quickly to roll into cover or away from your enemy. This is usually a helpful move, but sometimes you may end up inadvertently rolling sideways into a fire or backward off of a cliff. You can also jump, which is useful for getting up into the rafters or onto a roof, especially given that the grappling hook from earlier Tenchu games is not available. However, the jumping motion is so jerky that it's best to rely on the onscreen prompts that tell you when there is a ledge overhead. Any attempt to jump around the environment is likely to meet with invisible walls or alerted guards, and the few times you have to jump over gaps are downright treacherous.

Ayame's Mind's Eye reveals an enemy just waiting to get his neck snapped.

You can use your Mind's Eye ability to spot guards, pinpoint shadow areas, and even see the guards' line of sight. If you are discovered and fail to dodge away quickly, you will be forced into a confrontation. If you don't have a sword in your inventory, you will vanish in a cloud of smoke and crow feathers, and then restart at the beginning of the area. If you have a sword, you will switch into a first-person view and fight the guard. You and your opponent switch off attacking and defending. You swing the Wii Remote to attack, and defend by positioning the remote according to the onscreen prompts. If you lose (which you often will), you'll return to the beginning of the area; win, and you'll deliver a death blow and go on your merry way. The remote is not very responsive in these encounters, and blocking enemy attacks is prohibitively difficult. Oddly, Tenchu: Shadow Assassins seems to want you to win swordfights only when it is required, so beating a boss in a duel is much easier than defeating an average foot soldier during the course of a level.

Shadow Assassins begins to reveal its fatal flaws when you vanish back to the beginning of an area. When you disappear, the guards all return to normal status, regardless of the fact that they just watched a ninja murder their buddy. The dead bodies remain on the ground while other guards resume their patrol, walking right by corpses without blinking. You could conceivably kill a guard, get discovered, vanish, and do it all again until no one is left standing, and only your end-of-level ranking would be adversely affected. This fundamentally undermines the stealth gameplay and makes the whole game feel kind of broken.

Other flaws serve only to reinforce this feeling: How is it that a guard wearing an elaborate helmet and mask with two eyeholes has better peripheral vision than an unmasked guard? And then there was the guard that we killed by hitting him into an open flame with a shuriken (admittedly cool). As his dead body lay burning on the ground, another guard came over to investigate, caught fire, and died. This happened on multiple occasions. If only the second guard had been standing a few feet further away, he wouldn't have noticed his screaming, burning compatriot and would have gone about his business unperturbed. These extreme examples are symptomatic of the general shoddiness that plagues Tenchu: Shadow Assassins.

Swordfighting: You're doing it wrong.

Items provide another example of how Shadow Assassins just doesn't get it right. You can use a throwing knife to outright kill an enemy ninja in hiding, but patrolling guards will shake off the deadly weapon and go into alert mode. There are helpful items, such as two different explosives and a bamboo water container that lets you snuff out fires, but none is more enjoyable (and outright bizarre) than the Shinobi Cat. This adorable fellow can be found standing like a statue around levels, waiting to be picked up. When you use this "item," you actually control the cat. You can pick up other items in his mouth and bring them back to your character, or you can jump all over guards to send them into alert mode. Guards have the same reaction to being attacked by a berserk housecat as to being stuck in the ear with a shuriken: "Huh? Is someone there?"

Tenchu: Shadow Assassins can be called a lot of things, but short isn't one of them. The main campaign will take upwards of ten hours to finish. It's a tough game, and completing missions will give you a sense of satisfaction. Unfortunately, this satisfaction is evenly split between the thrill of victory and the relief of successfully working around the game's various technical hang-ups. If you finish levels with a good ranking, you can unlock extra assignments, which are bonus stand-alone missions with specific challenges that take place in areas that you've already traversed. Acing many levels requires using items only found elsewhere, so you have to revisit a level in order to earn a good ranking just so you can revisit that level again. This would be fine if the levels were fun the first time through, but they usually aren't.

Unfortunately, most of the fun there is to be had in Tenchu: Shadow Assassins is overshadowed by the game's pervasive flaws. You're always struggling against the awkward controls to puzzle your way through the pseudostealth missions. Players who like a stiff challenge and don't mind working through a bevy of gameplay issues might find some enjoyment here, but for most folks, it just isn't worth the hassle.

By Chris Watters, GameSpot

Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers Review

2009-02-27T01:56:00.000-08:00

Onechanbara makes zombie-slaying women boring.

The Good
•You can dismember zombies.

The Bad
•Combat is mindless and repetitive • Every level feels exactly the same • Story does not make any sense • Little difference between

As you may have been able to figure out from the title, Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers is more concerned with parading an endless stream of undead monsters and women in revealing clothing than delivering a meaty and thought-provoking experience. And that is not necessarily a bad thing. But Onechanbara is so mindless, the combat so repetitive, the levels so monotonous, that even the inherent joy of dicing legions of zombies into tiny cubes does not conjure even a tiny flash of excitement. You might think that an array of scantily clad heroines dismembering an endless horde of creatures would elicit some thrill, possibly on a primal level, but you would be mistaken. The excessive gore and extreme objectification in Onechanbara are not able to mask the simple gameplay for even a few minutes, which makes this a boring and repetitive hack-and-slash with no redeeming qualities.

What a precious prom photo.

A story is buried beneath the layers of zombie blood, but it is so inexpertly told that it's impossible to make out what is actually happening. Before each level, a wall of text against a darkened background will attempt to convey your motivations for chopping up hundreds of enemies, but it serves only to muddle what should be a basic quest fueled by bloodlust. Instead of using a conventional narrative to reveal the tale, the story segments resemble poorly composed poems with a choppy structure that makes it extremely difficult to understand the purpose of your journey. Obviously, people should not expect the story of a zombie-murder simulator to change their worldview, but these interludes in Onechanbara suck the personality from an already boring action game.

However, the action is the real source for your boredom. You will be able to plow through the vast majority of the game by lazily shaking the Wii Remote to unleash your sword strike. Without exaggeration, you can tear through wave after wave of enemies by walking around the levels and shaking your arm like a madman as you cut a legion of zombies into tiny bits. A couple of enemy types will require a more restrained approach, but the level of strategy needed to conquer even these higher-level foes is insultingly low. For example, mudmen require a more rhythmic method, forcing you to time three consecutive attacks to rip their hearts from their filthy bodies. Zombie cops will hold up their hands to block, making you wait a beat before you can cut them apart. And that is the extent of the resistance that you'll face from your apathetic attackers.

The levels are just as bland as the combat. You'll travel from sparse city streets to indistinct office buildings without any landmarks to make these locations memorable. When you complete the story mode (which takes not much longer than an hour), you'll unlock one of the four characters and have the option to play through the same set of levels with a different persona. These characters have slightly different attacks--Misery has an extendable sword and Saki can throw her foes--but your strategy will never vary. Even the option to upgrade your abilities at the end of each section does nothing to make this game more compelling. Putting more points into your strength or weapon reach has little effect on the action, so the combat feels identical from the moment you first start playing until you're finished and throw down the controller in disgust. There isn't any gameplay variety thrown in to mix things up, either. Every level has you walking around, chopping up zombies indiscriminately, until you mercifully reach the end.

That zombie cop sure is indifferent to his impending demise.

You'll encounter bosses from time to time, but while these enemies offer more challenge than the standard swarm, the battles are still excruciatingly bland. There are four heroines total in the game, and the bosses are whichever three characters you are not controlling. They have the same attacks as you do and will employ the same strategy as well. Get ready for thrilling battles between two barely clothed women mindlessly swinging their oversized swords until one of them dies. Given that your counterpart will slash away with her sword as if the Wii is frantically shaking a controller of its own, you'll have to use defensive rolls to win these battles. There isn't much depth to these encounters, but having to employ a few defensive techniques in addition to rapidly swinging the remote makes them slightly more tolerable than the usual combat.

Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers is a lousy game. It isn't aggravating or frustrating, it's just boring. The story is incomprehensible, the levels all feel the same, and the simplistic combat never evolves. With so much wanton dismemberment onscreen, it's hard to imagine that it could be so utterly bland, but Onechanbara is never able to make this exceedingly simple experience the least bit engaging. Even at a budget price, Onechanbara is not worth your money or time.

Phantasy Star Portable: UK Trailer

2009-02-24T02:40:00.000-08:00

You can hold it all the time. If you play it phantasy star portable.Phantasy Star Portable is essentially a port of the recent online game, Phantasy Star just before this. Let to see the trailer.

The game has been out in Japan since July, but North American gamers will be able to pick it up on March 24, 2009.

Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume [DS]

2009-02-24T02:28:00.000-08:00

Valkyrie Lenneth becomes the hunted in Tri-Ace's upcoming role-playing game.

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From the maker of Star Ocean, developer Tri-Ace's Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume is the third game in this series, which is based loosely on Norse mythology. The original game, Valkyrie Profile, was rereleased as Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth in 2006, followed by Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria later in the year. Covenant of the Plume on the Nintendo DS takes a different approach in terms of gameplay and story. Instead of taking on the role of one of the beautiful angels reporting to Odin, this time you play from the perspective of a mortal, fueled by anger over the loss of his father.

Surround your enemies in battle for an advantage.

A fantastic cinematic opening introduces you to Wylfred, a silver-haired boy who is out for revenge. Lenneth, also known as the Battle Maiden, stands solemnly next to a dead soldier whom she has chosen to become an Einherjar. For a soldier, there is no greater honor than to be picked by a valkyrie, but from the perspective of the family who has been left behind, death brings nothing but pain and emptiness. You play as the young man Wyl, whose sole purpose is to find the valkyrie that claimed his father's brave soul, which left his mother stricken with grief. While he's on his quest, you have control over his decisions, which can alter his personality as well as change the outcome of the game. The story is dark and deals with morbid themes, but that's to be expected when the material is based on Norse mythology.

Instead of 2D platforming, Covenant of the Plume is set up like a strategy role-playing game in which you move from one battle to the next, with pit stops in between to stock up on items and upgrade equipment. Once you're on the battlefield, the gameplay becomes turn-based, and your characters have limited movement each turn, indicated by colored squares. Your attack range is also marked by squares, which can change depending on what you're wielding. How you approach your enemy is crucial, though, because these battles can be incredibly tough. Surrounding your enemies or pinning them in between two characters will yield greater drops and increase your damage. Once you've engaged an enemy, you'll enter another screen in which you press the face buttons that correspond with a particular character--similar to the previous games. By having your party members attack together, you'll be able to land more hits in succession, and when the attack is timed correctly, you can unleash a powerful Soul Crush that can easily take out an enemy. Dealing additional damage, even after the target's hit points have reached zero, will let you accumulate sin. There's a certain amount of sin you need to collect for each battle, and it is vital that you hit or exceed this target or else your subsequent battles will become harder, to the point that they're virtually impossible to win. We found this out the hard way, so bear in mind that you not only need to plan strategically how to approach your foes, but you also need to find the best way to whittle their hit points down and then pound on them with all you've got so you can go into overkill and rack up as much sin as possible. The reasoning behind this is that Wyl struck a deal with Queen Hel, and to please her, he must meet these goals.

Another unique feature is the ability for Wyl to use the Destiny Plume, which he receives early on in the game when he forges a covenant with the queen. This mysterious feather can be used only on an ally and only when the bond between the ally and Wyl is strong. This grants allies an unimaginable amount of power, letting them single-handedly plow through the entire battle solo. Wyl will also inherit special abilities each time you decide to use this ability. The catch is that after a battle is over, your friend's life is forfeited. That's a heavy price to pay to make your life easier for one fight and learn a new skill, but that's your decision to make, and it will ultimately affect the ending of the game.

Wyl can't hide his true feelings.

Although battles will take up most of your time, the in-between cutscenes and character portraits are extremely well done and give the game a more serious and realistic look and feel. Voice acting adds another dimension to the characters, who would otherwise be nothing but text and lightly animated portraits. The vivid melodies and rock themes will sound familiar and conjure up memories if you've played Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth. Motoi Sakuraba does an excellent job of providing a musical score that is haunting and memorable, making the soundtrack worth hunting down.

Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume looks to be another great addition to this series. An unlockable bonus dungeon and more than 20 allies to recruit give it plenty of replay value if you want to see all the endings. Strategic and challenging battles give the game more depth, which will be a perk for strategy role-playing fans. Help Wyl on his tortured journey when Covenant of the Plume is released on March 17.

By Sophia Tong, GameSpot

My Pet Shop [DS]

2009-02-21T03:08:00.000-08:00

By Sophia Tong, GameSpot

Finally, we can fulfill our dreams of having a pet penguin.

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There is a relatively high percentage of pet owners in the United States, but those who live in homes where animals have been banned for whatever reason can look to My Pet Shop, in which you can find animals in the wild and take them home with you. Animal lovers of all ages can tend to a variety of friendly and adorable creatures, ranging from dogs and cats to penguins and pandas. That's right; you can have your very own pet panda. As you tend to your fuzzy companions through easy-to-learn minigames, My Pet Shop will keep you occupied whenever you feel like you need a dose of cuteness to brighten up your day.

Go into the wild and snag your very own pet.

In My Pet Shop, your mom has decided to leave behind the bustling city life in Gold City and move you to the quiet and family-friendly suburbs. Green Town is where you unpack and get settled in, but your mom notices that no one in the area owns a pet. Without further ado, your mom decides to open a pet shop, and it's your job to go out into the great outdoors and catch your own pets. This is definitely not recommended in real life, but in the safe neighborhood of Green Town, you'll use treats and careful planning to befriend different breeds of domesticated critters. After we were able to secure our own pet, a cuddly shiba inu, everyone in town began to stop by with pet requests.

Each day you're given a certain amount of actions before your mom makes you go to bed. You can help people by walking, brushing, and shampooing their pet, or you can use this time to go out and catch as many animals as you can. New areas with new species of cuddliness to procure will open up to you as you progress. After entering an area with a potential catch, you slide the stylus around the screen to try to find hidden items or animals. Once in a while you'll stumble across a beehive, a snake, or even a bomb, but by using the stylus you can pick up the coins that you drop after being startled by the bees, tap on the snake to scare it away, and even snuff out the fuse on the bomb to reveal a treat.

Catching an animal requires patience, and to make life easier, you can buy treats at the local store. The way it works is that once you've scared an animal out of hiding, it stands several paces away from you and you need to decide whether you want to approach, stay where you are, step back, or offer a treat. Approaching too quickly will cause the animal to run away, but if you do a careful balance between standing still and stepping backward, eventually you'll be nose to nose with it and be able to pick it up and take it back to the shop with you. Once you give it a name, it'll stay in your shop until you decide to give it to someone who wants a particular pet, or you can trade with real-life friends over a wireless connection.

A clean dog is a less smelly dog.

There's plenty to do when running a pet shop, but you should also spend time playing and teaching your own pet new tricks. Whether you're training, brushing, or shampooing, short interactive minigames accompany each of these activities to keep you engaged. For example, brushing involves a minigame in which you just need to follow the direction of the arrows. To shampoo your pet, all you need to do is scrub within the red circle that appears and then use the showerhead to rinse it off. It's very easy and quick, even though it can become repetitive if all you decide to do is give baths all day. The nice part is that you don't have to; you can always pass over tasks that you don't feel like taking on, and play as you please until the sun goes down. As each day goes by, your mom will give you a modest allowance, with bonus cash if you helped a lot of customers that day. Using this hard-earned cash, you can buy treats and accessories for your beloved feline or canine.

Later in the game you'll be able to enter your pet in contests, during which you can see how your pet ranks in terms of strength, stamina, and overall cuteness. You'll make your poor pet race, carry weights, and even dress up in front of the camera. The game is set up for you to play at your leisure, so you can go at your own pace and focus on the things that you like doing.

My Pet Shop is a delightful game for younger players who are fond of animals and enjoy a simple, colorful environment that exudes plenty of charm. There's a lot to keep you occupied, and the layout and interface are very straightforward and easy to get the hang of. Your mom is always encouraging and positive, looking very much like Mama in the Cooking Mama series, which isn't a surprise, considering that this game is developed by Taito. You can care for your own little bunny or kitty when My Pet Shop is released on March 10.

Air Conflicts [PSP]

2009-02-18T02:29:00.000-08:00

By Brian Ekberg, GameSpot
The long drought of WWII air combat sims on the PSP has finally come to an end. We go hands on with Air Conflicts.
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When you think of World War II air combat games, Sony's PSP might not be the first gaming platform that pops into your head. After all, flight combat games have long been the dominion of the PC (and to a lesser degree, consoles). Still, that hasn't stopped developer Graffiti Entertainment from bringing the upcoming Air Conflicts: Aces of World War II to the handheld. We had a chance to try this game out recently to get a feel for how the genre translates to the small screen.

Off we go into the wide blue yonder!

The core of Air Conflict's modes is a campaign mode, where you can join one of four World War II forces: Germany, Britain, USA, and USSR. Each of the 13 campaigns is composed of a number of missions (240 total in the game) that are inspired by actual WWII combat actions, but all revolve around showing your worth behind the flight stick.

Campaign missions typically start out with a quick tutorial--the USAAF campaign we played first had us piloting our plane through a series of in-air waypoints. Soon enough, however, the action picks up and you'll be engaging the enemy in toe-to-toe dogfights. Right out of the box, Air Conflicts is a very difficult game, even on the novice difficulty setting. Part of the problem is the small screen size, and the even smaller aiming reticle that indicates where your bullets will strike. Compounding that is the very difficult nature of dogfights in general--you've got to lead your opponent, anticipating where the bullets will strike him when they reach his position. The aiming cursor helps a bit here by glowing red when you have an opponent correctly lined up, but it's very small, and the enemy AI is tenacious enough to put up a good fight even at the lowest difficulty level.

Mission varieties include escort missions, which have you protecting bombers as they look to destroy strategic targets; patrols, where you're looking to blast any enemy aircraft out of the skies; and bombing runs, where you're piloting the bomber and looking to take out targets yourself.

The game's varied missions demand a big roster of planes to pilot, and that's one aspect where Air Conflicts delivers, with 17 historically authentic planes. Sample aircraft include the Spitfire, the P-51 Mustang, the B-17 "Flying Fortress," the Ju-87 Stuka, and many more. Many of these planes have their specific uses--for instance, the B-17 is a bomber--but they all have strengths and weaknesses. For instance, while the aforementioned B-17 isn't very agile, its multiple machine-gun postings (front and rear) make it a formidable opponent against enemy fighters. Different planes have different weapon loadouts as well, and because you'll often have a choice of aircraft before beginning a mission, you'll want to make sure you choose the right plane for the job.

To its credit, Air Conflicts' realistic settings are counterbalanced by relatively simplistic controls. The left and right triggers control throttle, the analog stick is used to steer your plane, and the face buttons are used to fire various weapons (X for machine gun, triangle for missiles, square for bombs). Still, the game's AI is formidable, so don't be surprised if you're shot out of the sky multiple times in the early goings of the game. Interestingly, a failed mission doesn't necessarily mean the end of a campaign--sometimes you'll just move on to the next mission, even if you failed the previous mission. The game will also include multiplayer, with support for up to eight players to connect and battle it out.

Graphically, Air Conflicts holds up decently. The plane models are consistently nice, and some of the explosions in the game, particularly those of damaged planes crashing to the ground, are well done. We just wish that a game that's already presented on a small screen would take pity on folks with bad eyes--the miniscule aiming reticle and barely legible mission text might have you reaching for your glasses (or considering a prescription). Still, if you're upset over the WWII-flight-combat-game hole in your PSP library, Air Conflicts just might be your thing. Look for more on the game in the coming weeks.

Lux-Pain [DS]

2009-02-16T02:22:00.000-08:00

By Sophia Tong, GameSpot
With our golden eye and Lux-Pain, we peer into the minds of criminals in this dark and eerie adventure game.
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Although technically classified under the genre of adventure, Lux-Pain is more than just pointing and tapping. You're using your powers of telepathy, aka your stylus, to uncover people's "shinen," their deepest and darkest thoughts. Based on what we've played, Lux-Pain draws you into its creepy atmosphere and chilling mysteries through a ton of dialogue. If you don't like to read, then this game isn't for you, but for those who do, you'll be introduced to the intriguing citizens of Kisaragi City.

Scribble away at the touch screen in order to find a person's shinen.

The game doesn't waste any time by having you immediately investigate a disturbing incident and discover some twisted shinen. If we hadn't read the fact sheet that came with the game, we would have no idea why we had this mind-reading power in the first place. You play as Atsuki, a young man who is a member of FORT (Force for Obliteration of the Rising Terrors), an organization that is out to destroy something called "silent." Silent is a worm that infects humans and causes them to commit heinous crimes. Atsuki lost his parents because of this infection, so he's dedicated himself, with the power of Lux-Pain in his arm, to hunt down the original source of silent and end it. He has the ability to access shinen, which appear as fragmented phrases in the top screen to reveal that person's thoughts. It's all very bizarre, and if you can get past the initial stages and not feel totally lost, you'll get used to how the game flows and the story becomes quite fascinating.

Instead of wandering around aimlessly, the game limits your selection when it comes to locations so that ultimately you'll advance the story without wasting a lot of time. It's like reading a mystery novel and waiting to see what happens in the next chapter. In the first few hours of the game, there isn't a lot in terms of gameplay. When gameplay does come up, there's no tutorial to guide you, but you'll quickly figure out what it is that you need to do. Most of the time you're exploring different areas of the historical Kisaragi City by selecting which locations you want to visit, talking to locals, and trying to find out if they have any useful information to offer. It seems that when a person is agitated enough, or showing some kind of strong emotion, they leave behind shinen, which you can then research more closely by scribbling with the stylus. You enter what's called Sigma mode, which lets you wipe away at the touch screen until you find floating blobs that are supposed to be worms. Keeping your stylus on these worms, they'll eventually disappear and leave behind memories and feelings of the person they belonged to. You're on a timer when you're swiping, and it's game over if you fail, but most of the time you should be able to uncover the worms and get rid of them before you're out of time.

The game relies heavily on its story and visuals to keep you engaged, and the locations that you visit are varied enough so that even though you're only moving from one still screen to another, you can still find yourself immersed in the city and eventually becoming familiar with all of its locations. The music also does a fantastic job of sucking you in and setting the mood, especially while you're peering into the minds of disturbed individuals. Chilling melodies will change the atmosphere entirely, but you'll also hear a lot of beautiful and poignant themes show up when you've come across someone who's experiencing emotional pain. A wide range of emotions are represented in the game, so there's a good mix of tracks to keep your aural senses stimulated. There's also a fair amount of voice acting as well, which is a nice touch.

Meet an interesting cast of characters to help you with your investigation.

Lux-Pain may require very little skill to play, but it's really about the story and how it unfolds. It can be morbid at times, but there are touching moments as well when you'll find yourself sympathizing with the characters that you meet--while totally violating their privacy by reading their thoughts. If you're looking for something different on the Nintendo DS, keep an eye out for Lux-Pain when it is released on March 27.

Resistance: Retribution [PSP]

2009-02-12T03:31:00.000-08:00

For PS3 owners, Sony’s Resistance franchise has been one of the glowing standouts in the system’s library. The series, which provides an alternate history approach to WWII (where hostile aliens dropped down in the middle of the war, forcing us to advance in certain ways technologically to deal with the new threat), has been an intriguing and fun series for shooter fans, as well as one that has done well critically. Now, Sony is looking to bring the franchise to the PSP with their upcoming third-person action entry, Resistance: Retribution.

With development in the very capable hands of Sony’s Bend Studio (who also have the acclaimed Syphon Filter games for the PSP to their credit), there’s very little that can go wrong in Retribution’s development, an assertion even more solidified by some hands on time with the game’s demo. The demo took us through one level of the game, with the hero James Grayson infiltrating a Chimera conversion facility, taking out a host of enemies and taking on a boss at the end of the section. The brief demo showcased the game’s intensity, which is just as action-packed as the PS3 iterations of the series, as well as the solid control scheme.

As controls are often a sore spot for many PSP games (largely due to the single and somewhat overly-sensitive analog nub), Sony’s Bend Studio has done a lot to try to keep this issue from bogging down the gameplay in Retribution. The default control option lets you control Grayson’s movement with the analog nub and aim with the face buttons (par for the course for most PSP action games). What sets Retribution apart from other PSP titles is the fact that the game also blends in a handy auto-aim function that will automatically single out enemies within your targeting box, saving you from trying to focus in on a certain enemy and allowing you to take them out a lot easier. While only certain weapons allow you to do this (you’ll still be required to manually aim for sniper rifles and grenade launchers), this is a great improvement to an often overlooked issue with the system. Additionally, Grayson will take cover automatically should cover present itself, which is also a nice move to streamline the controls.

One big feature is the new PSP Plus element, which actually allows you to interface your PSP with your PS3 and play the game using a DualShock 3 controller (this requires a copy of Resistance 2 for PS3, as well). Although this sounds like a great touch, it was unfortunately not available in the demo.

One of the most striking things in Resistance: Retribution is the graphics, which are phenomenal. The character models are sharp and detailed, and the environments featured in the demo were atmospheric and captured the overall mood of the action. The lighting effects were superb as well, pulling off things that haven’t ever been done on the PSP’s hardware before. All in all, this stands to be the best looking title on the system to date.

Resistance: Retribution is shaping up to be a very worthy entry in the franchise, standing not only as a fine handheld entry, but also one that stands tall with the PS3 titles. After some time with the demo, it’s safe to say that Retribution will definitely be a title that PSP owners should be excited for.

Source : psp.gamezone.com

Deadly Creatures [Wii]

2009-02-10T03:08:00.000-08:00

By Sophia Tong, GameSpot
We explore the arachnid-infested underground labyrinths where only the strongest survive.
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Nature can be cruel, but at the same time it can be downright fascinating. You don't have to be a fan of creepy crawlers to at least be curious about whether a tarantula would survive against a scorpion, or a rattlesnake. If you find yourself drawn to nature shows in which you watch aggressive critters with six or more legs wrestle to the bitter end, then Deadly Creatures should have plenty of fights for you to feast your eyes on. Like a nature documentary, the game follows a nimble tarantula and a deadly scorpion as they travel through dangerous subterranean channels beneath the desert to a man-made wasteland. But on top of the day in the life of two arachnids, there is also an overarching story about two men (voiced by Dennis Hopper and Billy Bob Thornton) told in a film noir Coen Brothers style, who are searching for something--or someone--in the arid desert.

That tarantula has a spring in its step.

In our previous hands-on experiences early last year and at E3, we were able to get a quick feel for the combat. This time, lead designer Jordan Itkowitz came by to show us multiple levels of the near-final build, and we are impressed and intrigued by this arthropod-filled action thriller. The idea from the team at Rainbow Studios originally began with a snake, but soon they realized its limitations and decided to go with these two eight-legged bundles of joy. However, the snake idea was not lost; within a few minutes of starting the game, we came face to face with a hissing and pissed-off looking rattlesnake who could clearly take us out with ease. But with some deft movements and well-timed attacks, our tarantula protagonist would live to see another day. As we watched our furry friend skitter through the underground, every now and then we'd hear voices overhead as the two men passed by, causing a minor earthquake below. The back-and-forth chatter between the men is intriguing because you're trying to uncover a mystery from a completely different perspective.

The story is divided into 10 chapters, and you switch off between playing as a tarantula and a scorpion. The switch in roles will tie into the game, in which you get to see the events unfold from a scorpion's point of view in the next chapter. Due to the different skill set, you'll be able to access areas that a tarantula can't, and vice versa. The combat differs completely as well. The tarantula has the ability to jump out of the way and dodge attacks, whereas the scorpion is a more lumbering creature, relying mostly on blocking to defend enemy attacks. The scorpion seems much harder to handle, given that you must time your attacks or you'll miss completely. For example, the scorpion has a burrow strike that lets you dig beneath the sand and then pop up to attack. The tarantula has abilities that also need to be timed, but it is quicker and more maneuverable so that you can set yourself up in a more advantageous position. You also have a web shot with which you can fire the white sticky substance to launch yourself onto existing cobwebs, letting you "Spider-Man" your way to higher ground. When aimed at an opponent, the web can stun them long enough for you to body slam them. The scorpion may not be as nimble, but what is very cool about this arachnid is that it has some stylish skills. Although it may be slower, it can do some painful-looking cinematic finishing moves, executed by quick-time events that will make you squirm. To get a better idea, check out this video. Itkowitz told us that the team watched King Kong and Jurassic Park to get a feel of the battle between beasts. Pulling wings off of a tarantula hawk, skewering a lizard or ripping off the limbs of a spider may be mean, but they most likely deserved it.

One of the levels that we explored was a narrow path through a mesh of thorns and other unpleasant obstacles. Crawling through brambles isn't something that we do every day, so it is interesting to see it from a tarantula's perspective. This elaborate underworld is a perilous place, filled with insects, rodents, reptiles, and other unfriendly creatures that are ready to pull off your legs. We also jumped to a later level in a pile of junk lying in the middle of a desert. The level design is worth checking out more closely because everything flows together nicely in one cohesive area. Beyond the gnarly roots of trees and the intertwining branches, the well-put-together mound of garbage also created a fun and tricky terrain to explore, from bullet-hole-ridden water heaters to old arcade systems, from dirty mattresses to the dingy bed of a truck. Although not exactly the kind of place you'd go to for fun, it is attractive in its own way, enhanced by the rays of the harsh setting sun filtering in through the cracks.

Not sure which is creepier: scorpion or one-eyed baby doll head.

Visually, the game is quite impressive, and it has the detail and textures needed to create a realistic-looking environment to explore and subsequently clear out. Watching bug squatters come out of old shoes, or coming face to face with a garden gnome, are just some of the nuances that make the experience worthwhile. The sound and music are done in-house and set a dark and often chilling atmosphere as you make your way through the game. Some leeway was given in terms of giving creatures a mixture of animal sounds so that your tarantula can sound deadlier when it strikes.

Deadly Creatures may not cater directly to the casual market, but it relies on relatively simple movements for combat so that newer gamers can always jump in and not feel overwhelmed. There are three difficulty settings to choose from, and considering what we've experienced, normal isn't exactly a breeze. We were told that the game will last about 10 to 12 hours if you fully explore your surroundings, or eight if you decide to rush through. Be sure to take a closer look at the latest screens as well as exciting new gameplay footage. You can step into the many shoes of these arachnids when Deadly Creatures is released on February 9.

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride [NDS]

2009-02-10T03:03:00.000-08:00

By Sophia Tong, GameSpot
We embark on another slime-infested journey to fulfill our destiny--whatever that may be.
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Originally released in 1992 for the Super Famicom in Japan, and again as a Japan-only PlayStation 2 remake in 2004, this will mark the first time that Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride is seen in North America. Feeling and looking very much like last year's remake of Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen, Hand of the Heavenly Bride follows the story of an adventurous young boy tagging along with his father as he grows into a brave hero with the ability to befriend monsters in the field. The entire journey will span the course of three generations, and at some point, you will be faced with a life-altering decision that will affect the outcome of the story. We didn't quite get that far yet, but from what we've seen, it looks like our little hero will become a strapping young man soon enough and take destiny into his own hands.

It would be nice to have the ability to slap certain people.

After a curious flashback about a king and his newborn son (that's you), you begin the game as an adorable and innocent boy who isn't old enough to read, traveling with his father Pankraz, a seasoned warrior. In-between him dragging you from one place to another, you'll have the opportunity to go on a few adventures on your own, accompanied by your chipper friend Bianca. We can't go too deep into the story without giving away spoilers, but we've enjoyed what we've played so far and are curious to see how the story unfolds.

Between random turn-based battles, you'll travel around the world, taking in strays with your undeniable charm and devilish good looks. There's just something about you that connects with monsters--not a bad skill to have. Later in the game, once you've acquired a wagon, you'll be able to have up to eight companions in tow (human and nonhuman alike), and you can create a party with up to four members. This will let you swap and customize your own group, and there's always a backup in case the battle goes sour. Like in the previous game, you can either set tactics for your party members so that they prioritize based on your decisions or have them take your orders directly. Nevertheless, there are some who will act on their own accord, so you'll just have to hope for the best. The game generally isn't very hard because it consists of straightforward turn-based battles, so you should have fun and play around with the setup.

There are some features worth mentioning even though we didn't get a chance to fully explore them yet, such as minigames to take your mind off of adventuring. They include Bruise the Ooze, T 'n' T, the Slurpodrome, and the Tombola. There are also knickknacks to collect and customize so you can have your own personalized Knick-knackatory (we didn't make that one up). Through the Nintendo DS's wireless, you can exchange with friends to expand your collection of knickknacks.

It's Whack-a-Slime!

If you're already played Dragon Quest IV, the visuals are very similar. The areas that you'll visit span both screens, and everything has a vibrant, painterly feel. It's easy to forget, but the L and R buttons can be used to rotate the camera, which is essential if you want to locate doors or other entrances that can't be seen in the standard view. As soon as you pop in the game, you'll be greeted by the rousing opening theme, a new composition by Koichi Sugiyama and performed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. The rest of Sugiyama's score is delightful and catchy, making your frequent random encounters and endless exploration more enjoyable.

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride will let North American fans play for the first time yet another classic role-playing game from this endearing and well-respected franchise. Given that the story isn't linked to the previous game, it won't matter if this is your first entry into the series. Those who have been following the remakes will be pleased to know that Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie has also been announced, but we're still waiting on a release date. In the meantime, check out Hand of the Heavenly Bride when it ships on February 17, 2009.

Avalon Code [NDS]

2009-02-09T02:44:00.000-08:00

By Sophia Tong, GameSpot

From the creative minds behind Rune Factory and Harvest Moon comes a new role-playing game in which you slam a book over people's heads.

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There definitely isn't a shortage of role-playing games on the Nintendo DS, and it looks like there will be quite a few on the horizon in the coming months. One of them is Marvelous Entertainment/Xseed Games' Avalon Code, developed by Matrix, the same group who remade Final Fantasy III and IV for the DS. This action RPG takes a unique approach to the usual hack-and-slash formula by introducing a special book, one that you slam--with full force--over people's heads. Japanese RPGs always seem to have some bizarre twist, and Avalon Code is no exception. We liked what we saw though, because the book concept is definitely original and is implemented in a peculiar way.

Meet a cast of colorful and delightful characters.

You begin by choosing the gender of your protagonist. Regardless of whom you decide to go with, they play the part of the silent hero or heroine. We went with the girl and were treated with an ominous opening, which talked about the end of the world and other depressing things. Soon we zoomed in on our heroine, lying in a field by a large monument as a red bookmark floated down from the sky. In the events that follow, you'll learn that you have been chosen to hold the Book of Prophecy and it's your duty to record anything and everything to save or doom the world. To help you is Rempo, a powerful fire spirit who has quite a personality and is shackled to the book. Rempo acts as your guide and guardian as you explore the world and collect valuable information with your book.

Every time you bring the giant Book of Prophecy down on someone, whether it is an enemy, a non-player character, a flower, or another random object, the information is automatically recorded in the book and you will be able to see its code. It's like the genetic makeup for that person represented by small puzzle pieces laid out on a grid that can be removed. Fortunately, no one is hurt in the process since they can't even see that you're dropping a whopping textbook on them. For example, after thumping the book down on a particular flower, you might learn that it has fire in its code. You can remove the fire code and put it on your sword instead so that your weapon has fire properties. You can even heal the wounded by finding specific codes that will enable you to remove the wounded code from them. If an enemy is too strong, whap them with the book and remove their properties so that their hit points go down. This creates an elaborate customizing system because you manipulate virtually everything. The touch screen is where your book lies, and you can look up everything you've come across in the index as well as use it as a map. There's also a good balance between button and stylus controls so that you're not relying too heavily on one and not the other.

Battles are fought in the upper screen and in real time. You can equip a sword in each hand and swing using the X and Y buttons, and you can perform a spinning attack by holding X or Y. B is to bookslam, and the shoulder buttons are used to evade attacks. Once you learn how to do a judgment link, you can use the A button to toss your enemies in the air and then, in minigame fashion, see how long you can keep them up. What's also very interesting is that when you explore dungeons, you aren't just navigating from one screen to the next. You enter what seems like an arena of minigames, in which you need to clear each screen before moving on to the next. You are scored based on the time it takes to complete the objective, which could involve flipping switches or clearing enemies.

Fight in real-time and then whap enemies with the book.

Visually, Avalon Code looks very much like Final Fantasy III with detailed characters and similar textures when it comes to the environment. The opening sequence is lovely--the artwork looks hand-drawn and is accompanied by a beautiful Japanese ballad sung by a female vocalist. There is also a surprising amount of voice work, which is nice. The music serves its purpose and provides a good backdrop for this story. Other than the opening song, we haven't come across any tracks that stand out, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

This action RPG looks very promising, and it's nice to see Matrix try something new and original on the DS. Bookworms should keep an eye out for this one when it is released in early March.

Rygar: The Battle of Argus Review [Wii]

2009-02-06T21:54:00.000-08:00

By Tom Mc Shea, GameSpot

Rygar feels every bit as old as you'd expect from a six-year-old game, but it still has some really fun moments.

The Good
Fighting mythical creatures is fun • Levels are varied and interesting • Freaky-looking bosses.

The Bad
Lame story • Combat is too simple • Gladiator mode is tedious.

Rygar: The Battle of Argus feels like it belongs in a museum. It's a dusty-looking 3D action game that was originally released more than 6 years ago for the PlayStation 2. In that time, Ninja Gaiden and God of War, among other games, have elevated the genre to new heights. Compared to more recent releases, many elements of Rygar feel outdated now. The combat is far too simplistic, relying more on button mashing than strategic movement and defense, and the story is almost laughable, presenting a predictable tale of good versus evil with overdramatic music and high-school-drama-club-caliber voice acting. However, there is still a solid experience beneath the layers of sediment. The level design is varied and exhilarating, quickly whisking you from Icarus' fortress in the sky to the fiery bowels of Hades, and the bosses are truly nasty-looking. Rygar feels like a relic from a forgotten era, but the joy of decapitating minotaurs is a pastime that never gets old.

Gladiator mode lets you tear down an army of insects.

The story in Rygar is convoluted and pointless. Rygar may be the one stricken with amnesia, but you'll be the one who is hard pressed to remember the various plot points. It isn't really explained how Cleopatra somehow got mixed up in this tale of Greek mythology, why you have to fight Icarus, or why Harmonia spontaneously bursts into song. The characters are all bland archetypes, filling their roles of hero, villain, or distressed damsel without personality. The story thankfully stays in the background, popping onscreen only before big battles, and it can be skipped without missing a thing. Nevertheless, slaying a cyclops would have been even more engaging if you were given worthwhile motivation.

The level design makes up for the awful story segments. You'll travel all over the Mediterranean, from the Colosseum to Tartarus and many other fantastical lands, so you don't have to worry about slogging through the same bland environments over and over. The levels have some light platforming and puzzle interludes, making you open locked doors with a specific type of element or shove large blocks out of the way, but the relative ease of the puzzles means that you won't be stumped by one section for long. There is some backtracking later in the game when you unlock new abilities, but this is handled in a very streamlined manner. When you warp back to a previous land, you are immediately presented with an obstacle that you couldn't get past previously, so instead of going over the same ground repeatedly, you are able to explore new sections almost continually. The intelligently laid-out levels keep the game moving at a brisk pace, letting you see a steady stream of new creatures and environments.

Your main weapon in Rygar is the diskarmor, which is pretty much a spiked shield on a string. Combat feels like a stripped-down version of God of War because of the similarities between the main weapons in both games. Rygar's diskarmor feels an awful lot like Kratos' blades of chaos, letting you attack enemies from both far away and up close, as well as toss them around caverns. You're given three different types of diskarmors, of varying speed and power, and each have a bunch of different combos to play around with. However, the focus is clearly on offense, and this makes the combat feel overly simplistic. Your only two defensive moves are a block, which is ineffective against many attacks, and a slide, which is used more for getting into small places than for battle evasion. Without fancy acrobatic dodges or clever counters, the combat relies too heavily on barbaric button mashing. Even though the combat is still fun, it lacks the weight of the better games in the genre.

The biggest addition in the Wii version is Gladiator mode. This strips away the cool bosses and varied level design of the main campaign and simply places Rygar on a small platform against a never-ending stream of enemies. What is interesting about this mode is how your attacks are handled. In the main game, you rely mostly on traditional controls, using motion-based moves only for more powerful combos that you unlock late in the game. In Gladiator mode, all of your attacks require motion, which becomes tedious before long. Furthermore, the combat engine in Rygar isn't diverse enough to warrant a separate gameplay mode. Mindlessly hacking away at giant centipedes and centaurs is entertaining only for a few minutes before the bland repetition sets in.

That is one hideous fish.

The visuals are the most glaring evidence that this game is virtually unchanged from the PlayStation 2 version released toward the beginning of the last generation of consoles. This game looks musty and old. The enemies and even the main characters lack detail, and the cool environments are overrun with poorly detailed textures and shoddy lighting. Even amid all of the lousy technology, though, there are some truly memorable boss battles. These are creepy, repulsive monstrosities, and it is a pleasure to pelt them with your diskarmor. It's a shame that the graphics are largely unchanged from the original game, given that the disturbing bosses and moody environments are so well designed.
Make no mistake about it: Rygar: The Battle of Argus is a six-year-old game, and time has made many of its components feel outdated. But even though the story is a joke and the combat focuses too much on the offensive side of things, there is still a fun experience here. Dueling minotaurs and other mythical beats is still fun, and the clever level design makes exploration engaging. This game does belong in a museum, but it can still be fun to play around with the exhibits from time to time.

Let's Tap Updated [Wii]

2009-02-06T05:24:00.000-08:00

By Guy Cocker, GameSpot
Yuji Naka's new Wii game is a novel take on the party genre in which you don't even have to hold a controller.

Wii party games may be 10-a-penny, but when Yuji Naka gets involved, it's time to take notice. The legendary creator of Sonic, Nights, and Phantasy Star Online split off from Sega to form his own independent company called Prope in 2006, based on the Latin word for "beside" or "near." It's this meaning that Naka-san holds as the mantra for his upcoming game Let's Tap, which he claims will bring players closer to the game experience than ever before.

Place your Wii Remote on a cardboard box and get to tapping--it's Yuji Naka's latest intriguing game.

Let's Tap is played by placing the Wii Remote on a cardboard box--such as a box of tissues-- and then tapping the edge of the box to play. The vibrations are interpreted by the motion sensor inside the remote, letting you tap at different speeds and at different pressures for various actions in the game. It's a novel but fun way to interact with the Wii, and though our arms were slightly sore after prolonged play, we found it to be relaxing, almost like playing the bongos.

The finished game will feature five game modes, and we got to play two of them during our preview. The first is called Tap Runner, a game in which up to four people each guide a running man through an obstacle course. The idea is to alternate taps between your left and right index finger to make your guy run, with faster taps unleashing short bursts of speed. You can also jump by making a quick, sharp tap, which lets you clear obstacles such as hurdles and electric balls, as well as grab swinging ropes. The control system works well for this minigame, although the jumping can feel a bit imprecise.

The second game that we played was called Tower Blocks, and we liked it even more. It's essentially a cross between Jenga and a puzzle game such as Columns; you have to pull out red- and blue-coloured blocks without toppling the pile, and lining up three of the same colour creates special pieces. For example, you line up three standard colours for a bronze piece, then three bronze pieces for a silver, and so on, with higher difficulty levels requiring ever more combinations of precious materials. The game automatically moves a cursor up or down to select blocks, and you tap on the tissue box to stop on the block. From there, you tap again to choose the angle you want to knock it out on, and then tap again a few times to knock it out.

Tower Blocks is incredibly addictive, even if you sometimes struggle to do what you actually want. We frequently missed the block that we wanted to select, or hit it out at the wrong angle, or simply misjudged how much our tower was leaning. If anything, though, this is what makes the game so competitive, especially when you're up against someone struggling to do exactly the same thing next to you. Trying to combine the gold medals at the highest difficult level is incredibly tough, especially because toppling your tower resets you back to nothing--which we managed to do twice with only one piece to go.

In addition to the games that we played, we got to see two more in video form. Visualiser does exactly what it says on the tin, offering you the chance to play around with basic interactive screen savers such as fish tanks filled with clown fish. The other, called Bubble Voyager, looks like a side-scrolling action game, although we were unable to tell from Sega's presentation how it was controlled. The whole package is gifted with a great visual aesthetic, and Tap Runner in particular wowed us with its Tron-esque design.

Naka-san says that he's tried to make the game as accessible as possible for a younger market, but it's clear that there's a lot here for more-seasoned gamers to enjoy. We only had the chance to play the game in two-player mode during our preview, but the full game will offer four-player support as long as you have four Wii Remotes (and four tissue boxes, too). The Japanese release will come with the requisite boxes, though Naka-san believes that the US and European ones will not. We'll be readying our boxes of Kleenex in preparation for the game's release later in the year.

My World My Way Review [NDS]

2009-02-03T20:20:00.000-08:00

By Shiva Stella, GameSpot

My World, My Way needs more than a charming exterior to sweep you off your feet.
The Good
Pout system grants you greater control of your adventure • Never takes itself too seriously
•It's cute.
The Bad
Mundane, tedious quests bog you down in filler •Bare-bones battle system is outdated •Low enemy variety, even for bosses •Flat characters and a boring plot •Second-rate presentation.
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There are plenty of role-playing games that capitalize on cuteness in order to attract a younger, more feminine crowd, and My World, My Way openly embraces this category. It also attempts to be more than just another pretty face by introducing a unique ability that lets you personalize your adventure; you can tweak nearly every aspect of the game, from monster levels to cash flow, by pouting. Though this level of freedom is a pleasant, convenient twist, the game is still extraordinarily bland and full of tedious filler, resulting in an ultimately unsatisfying journey.
You're cast as Elise, a pampered princess enjoying a life of luxury. Eventually Elise realizes that she has everything except a boyfriend and immediately throws a party in an attempt to find one. When she tries to charm a handsome adventurer, however, the unthinkable happens: He rejects her. Humiliated, Elise embarks on a quest to win him over by slaying monsters. The plot is extremely dull and fails to provide much in the way of progression, hinging on Elise's hope to impress her adventurer. If either Elise or her intended were likable, the plot might be worth muddling through, but as both are spoiled children, the game lacks a key motivating factor. There are very few interesting storyline developments, and the flat, cliché characters swamp your screen with annoying, redundant dialogue.

Grab your gear and prep your best pout for battle.

Navigating through Elise's world is very straightforward. You select the nearest town from the world map presented on the top screen and then maneuver through a panel-based map that replaces it. Each panel holds a terrain type, such as a snowy field or a volcano, as well as monsters, and conveniently lists enemy level ranges. Both the stylus and the regular button control options function comfortably, letting you quickly cycle through a plain menu-based battle system. Battles initiate randomly or as you search for enemies on your panel, with 3D enemies crowding the top screen and a bare-bones party menu with character icons aligned on the bottom screen that makes the battle system feel somewhat outdated. Your arsenal includes the standard attack, item, defend, or magic options and usually results in poor attack animations and limited tactics, but you also have access to Elise's special abilities. Learning new spells is another boring endeavor because you can acquire new magic only after an enemy's spell has hit you, so expect to waste a lot of time repeating fights if you want to advance your repertoire. The game's lack of enemy variety is another irritant, as you're forced to trudge through numerous weaklings to find a decent foe. The battle system's one redeeming feature is that you can speed through spell and attack animations--something the big-budget competition often overlooks.

Elise's fairly comprehensive pout system serves as the game's sole intriguing aspect because it gives you total control of your adventure. Pouting uses pout points and enables you to perform a multitude of impressive feats, from raising the amount of experience you get from battles to forcing enemies to drop more gold or items, though an option to lower the enemy encounter rate is strangely missing. Pouting is also useful during battles, especially boss fights, when stunning or silencing enemies with your pout abilities marginally increases your tactical control to almost make battles too easy. Though pouting is a great concept, the game seems built around the feature to the point that every other element, from story to general gameplay, is tossed aside to keep it at the forefront.

Quests are typically included to provide a challenge and help you score powerful rewards, but Elise's odd jobs operate as boring, arduous filler that reveals the game's shallowness and really tests your patience. Most quests are mundane and involve creating a specific terrain type to collect a certain amount of an item or kill a number of enemies of a particular type, and usually you have to wade through numerous enemies before you reach a single target monster. A lot of these jobs are repeated and a complete waste of your time unless you permanently sacrifice pout points to skip them, and while that might seem tempting, pout points are practically required for bosses. A handful of quests free you from the panel-based field map by sending you into dungeons for some refreshing variety; in these you guide a tiny 3D Elise through a child's maze as purple blobs representing monsters throw themselves at you. A random encounter system might have been more appropriate for dungeon segments, as it can get annoying to have to fend off foes in set locations if you're not willing to squander valuable pout points to avoid them.

Use your pouting abilities to adjust terrain type, locate enemies, or score extra cash.

The game uses very crude 3D environments and mediocre character modeling, with bland, primitively designed monsters and boring dungeons differentiated from each other by swapped color palettes. Spell effects, enemy attacks, and environmental textures are all lackluster but bearable, though Elise could easily be confused with a blonde scarecrow whenever she's on the field. Fortunately the dungeon overhead view makes her a bit easier on the eyes, but it's still difficult to pinpoint any intricate details on her character model. You'll run into colorful anime headshots during cutscenes, however, supported by quirky but cheery music that closely mirrors the action, though there is no voice acting.

Elise's journey can easily take you more than 40 hours to complete, but unfortunately there isn't much in the way of secondary features or objectives to add some much-needed depth. Most of your time will be wasted on mind-numbing quests and frustrating filler, which act as a pitiful backdrop for Elise's pouting mechanic. The irony of My World, My Way is that the unique feature the game struggles to focus on is eventually overshadowed by its feeble mediocrity. There are just too many better, more captivating games on the market to make this princess adventure worth more than a glance.

LocoRoco 2 Review

2009-02-02T20:48:00.000-08:00

Read more
Still hands-down the cutest franchise on the PSP, LocoRoco 2 adds enough new ideas to its already unique gameplay to make it a great improvement on the original game.
The Good
Cute as ever • LocoRocos have some neat new abilities • Great level design • Lots to collect in all levels.
The Bad
Easy boss fights.

AU REVIEW--The first LocoRoco was like an injection of sugar syrup directly to the brain, and its cute design and catchy soundtrack made it a tough game to dislike even if you found faults with its unique but ultimately repetitive gameplay. LocoRoco 2 improves on its predecessor in almost every aspect, with new play mechanics and even more minigames wrapped around the same blob-bouncing interior. It's still a game best played in short bursts, but when you do spend time in the shiny, squishy world that the LocoRocos inhabit, it's hard not to get swept along by its infectious cheeriness.

You can now take your little LocoRocos underwater.

It's that cheeriness that sets LocoRoco 2 apart. Its colorful style and immensely hummable tunes make it the game equivalent of a baby panda stuffed with kittens. You'd have to have a heart made of stone (or a fringe made of emo) not to fall in love with the round, amorphous blobs of goo that are the LocoRocos as they fight to rid their planet of the evil Mojas, who are back with their king Banmucho after being driven off in the original LocoRoco. Narrative isn't what this game is about, though, given that the story is told in mostly nonsensical cutscenes that only roughly convey what's happening in the plot.
LocoRoco 2 retains all of the key gameplay elements of the original, which in itself is not a bad thing, considering that the game's simple-to-grasp yet tough-to-master gameplay still remains unique among its platforming competitors. You control the LocoRocos as they roll around the surface of the planet, using the shoulder buttons of the PlayStation Portable to tilt the playing field left and right. LocoRocos can be made to bounce by pressing both shoulder buttons at once, which is also their main method of attack against any enemy creatures. As they navigate through the world, LocoRocos "grow" by collecting fruit, which increases the number of units under your control at once. Pressing and holding down the circle button will cause all of your creatures to join together to create one blob, whereas a quick tap of the same button will cause them to separate. Just like in the first game, it's preferable to travel as one blob for most of LocoRoco 2, with breaking up recommended only for getting them through the occasional tight space.
Although rolling and jumping will take up most of your time, the game gives the LocoRocos a few interesting new abilities. For example, your units can now swim through several underwater levels in which you navigate by holding down the circle button to sink and tapping it to rise. Occasionally, you'll also find creatures whose shells the LocoRoco can climb into, allowing them to roll around the environment and smash through obstacles. LocoRocos will also learn new moves as the game progresses, such as the ability to bite onto little tufts of grass to shake out hidden objects and a more powerful jump attack. There are also some minigames thrown into the mix, some of which are more compelling than others. These range from a basic race in which you bet on which LocoRoco will navigate an obstacle course the quickest (this section is completely hands-off) to a whack-a-mole variant in which you use the D pad and four face buttons to hit creatures as they pop up from holes. The best of these is a fun little 2D side-scrolling shooter, which sees you piloting a small MuiMui ship to take on fleet after fleet of enemies.
Music, which has always been an integral if passive part of the LocoRoco experience, actually has a gameplay role in the sequel thanks to a basic rhythm minigame that can be found in most levels. These minigames aren't any more complex than tapping the circle button in time to a simple melody, but it does let you collect the new in-game collectible of musical notes. If you collect enough musical notes in a level, it will give you bonuses, such as items being placed in easier-to-reach locations or even more abilities for your LocoRoco.
All of these additions result in a LocoRoco experience that is more fun than the first game thanks to its increased variety. This is further helped by some great level design. One standout sees you travelling inside a gigantic penguin, with the orientation of the playfield changing as the penguin decides to get up from its horizontal position halfway through the level. Another is set on a series of bouncy platforms that send the LocoRocos flying with every touch. Levels like these--along with the new LocoRoco abilities--means that feeling of repetitiveness isn't as much of an issue in this game as it was in the first one. There's also a fair bit of replay value, particularly if you're mad about collecting. With 20 LocoRocos hidden in each level, as well as hundreds of musical notes, picories (little flies that act as currency to play minigames), items such as stickers, and more, there's the potential to sink plenty of hours into this game to unlock all it has to offer. Nevertheless, there are also some downsides. Boss fights aren't that challenging, with even the end boss offering only a smidgen of resistance. And though you have the opportunity to reclaim LocoRocos that separate from the pack if you collide with stray spikes or hungry Mojas, there's only a small window of opportunity in which to do so, which makes it extremely frustrating to lose them when you're going for the holy grail of a full LocoRoco count at the end of each level.

Losing LocoRocos can be frustrating.

Of course, frustration never stays too long when you're in this gameworld, and LocoRoco 2's upbeat presentation is sure to constantly wring a smile out of you. The round LocoRocos themselves are as cute as ever, with the supporting cast of creatures such as the hedgehog-like Olmee to the angry little BuiBui all appealing in their own strange and varied ways. The music is another highlight, made up of catchy ditties all sung in a nonsense language that changes in pitch and tone depending on which color of LocoRoco you're currently controlling. Some songs are recycled from the first game, but there are a few new tracks here that are darn near impossible to get out of your head once you've heard them a few times.
Just like its music, LocoRoco 2 does recycle plenty of ideas from the first game, but its new additions are enough to make it an easy game to recommend for any PSP owner. With boundless charm, improved gameplay, and plenty of replayability, LocoRoco 2 is a definite bounce in the right direction for the cheery series.

MySims Party [Wii]

2009-02-02T20:33:00.000-08:00

By Sophia Tong, GameSpot

We pick our favorite MySim and compete for points, lemons, new accessories, and glory.
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The Sims is heading in a new direction with the spin-off MySims Party, a compilation of four-player minigames to play with friends from the comfort of your own couch. Those who have been following this budding franchise should know that even though you aren't running around doing quests and helping the needy locals, you still have the ability to explore this quaint little town and do some light customization. There are more than 40 minigames to enjoy, and as you play through Dream Festival mode, you'll unlock special items, new minigames, accessories, and familiar characters.

The goal is to find the sushi without the wasabi. Tamago, yum!

The Dream Festival mode lets you create your own MySim, the same way you do in the previous games. You'll get to change your hairstyle, clothes, facial features, and voice, but if you'd rather go random, you can do that too and come up with some wacky characters that way. In the beginning you can choose how you want to allocate your character's statistics, which will give you the upper hand when you start playing those minigames. For example, some minigames rely entirely on luck, so having a character with a lot of luck will give you an advantage over the others. A bit of strategy comes into play when putting together a team. You want one that is balanced, but some characters have their own specialties that could come in handy. The Dream Festival is a collection of 12 individual festivals, each hosted by a different member of the MySims community. Each festival comes with its own set of minigames. Once you complete one, you'll earn items and unlock more characters, such as Gino, Buddy, and DJ Candy, who can then join your winning team.

Eventually you'll build a team of four, which will give you some options when it comes to choosing a MySim to play a particular game. The game will indicate which stats are needed for a particular minigame. There's a fairly good selection of games, and we haven't even unlocked all of them yet. There are a few that are based completely on guessing, but the ones that require some thinking or puzzle-solving are incredibly fun. A Wii party game wouldn't be complete without a rhythm game, and there's a trivia minigame in which you need to answer questions by selecting the right answer. You'll run from crazy, out-of-control robots, pull off snowboarding tricks as you fly down the snowy slopes, and pick out colorful clothes and delightful toys for little girls. Between rounds, there are special events that could yield items that boost your stats. We aren't sure how much of an advantage a lucky lemon can give you, but it's a nice bonus all the same. All of this is bundled into a well-presented package of cuteness; MySims is full of bubbly, sweet, and friendly characters that will leave a smile on your face.

Part of the reason why the series is so charming is because of the adorable cast of characters. They're placed in a pastel, kid-friendly world in which all they seem to do is play all day long--how nice is that? MySims Party keeps the tradition of customization alive by letting you decorate some of the town with monuments that you can win by playing in the festival. However, the amount of customatization is limited, given that it seems you can change only the exterior of your house and a few key locations. It's possible that whoever is running the place doesn't want your lousy landscaping skills blemishing the perfect little town. The bulk of your time is spent playing the minigames, which can be accessed in the Minigame mode if you don't feel like participating in the Dream Festival. This mode won't earn you any special items, but it's a quick way to play because you avoid the loading times and fanfare whenever a round is finished. There's also a Ranking mode that you unlock early on so that you can compete online against other players.

Dance the night away in this rhythm-based minigame.

MySims Party has the same feel as the previous games, and you should be able to find your favorite MySim in town once everything is unlocked. It looks to be a fun party game for a younger audience or parents who like to play with their kids, given that the games are relatively simple and fairly easy--although there were a few moments when the AI put up quite a fight. MySims Party will also be heading to the Nintendo DS, with its own catalogue of multiplayer party games, so keep a lookout for that. The MySims party starts in spring of 2009 on the Nintendo Wii.

Syberia Review [NDS]

2009-02-02T20:24:00.000-08:00

By Brett Todd, GameSpot

This DS port of the classic PC adventure game is a pale shadow of its original self.
The Good
Syberia fanatics can now take the surreal adventure on commutes.
The Bad
Tedious pixel-hunt gameplay • Interface leaves a lot to be desired • Obtuse, poorly told storyline • Blurry graphics.

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If you had to make a list of all the adventure games you could pick to be ported to the Nintendo DS, Syberia would probably land at the very bottom. The 2002 PC point-and-clicker from Microids and Belgian graphic novelist Benoit Sokal was a superb game in its day, but it was also loaded with the kind of extravagant graphical detail that just can't be adapted to a handheld system very well without a complete overhaul. Unfortunately, developer Tetraedge Games has moved the game to its new platform with few changes, which results in a clunky pixel hunt featuring none of the surreal magic of the original game.

Kate Walker, at least, has survived the transition to the DS intact.

Even Syberia's compellingly bizarre story has taken some lumps here. Although you still play as Kate Walker, a New York attorney trying to unravel the many mysteries around a French toy company and its automaton-creating heir, presentation issues interfere with the tale-telling so much that it can be very hard to figure out what exactly is going on. All of the voice samples from the original game have been stripped away, and the music has been dropped to a single fraction of the original score that annoyingly plays over and over again. This gives the game a silent-movie vibe in which Kate never gives any tips or makes any observations about her surroundings. She speaks up only through brief blurbs of text when you are blocked from proceeding into a new area because you haven't wrapped up everything in your present location. So you get the odd "Hey, I can't do that yet!" comment and pretty much nothing else.

This is a real drawback because more direction is desperately needed to make heads or tails out of Syberia. The graphics of the PC version of the game have simply been shrunk down and pixelated to fit onto the DS screens, which makes it very tough to solve puzzles. Some of the objects that you need to pick up are incredibly tiny in their new handheld format, no more than a couple of pixels wide. Visuals are quite blurry as well, making everything so indistinct that you can rarely tell what it is that you're supposed to be looking at, let alone what you might be able to do with it. No effort has been made to ensure that such Lilliputian objects stand out from the backgrounds, either. If you aren't looking for a specific item such as a key on a desk, for instance, chances are awfully good that you won't spot it.

The diminutive DS screen struggles to do Syberia's visuals justice.

The stylus-dependent interface fails to compensate for these visual issues. The stylus stands in for a mouse cursor and lets you move Kate around on the lower touch screen and open the inventory that is also displayed on the upper screen. You can also select an eye icon that can be scrolled around to see which areas light up with gears, a pick-up hand, or lips indicating that a conversation can be initiated. The control scheme works rather poorly, though, because it is inaccurate. For example, you’ll find yourself accidentally entering a doorway on the top of the screen when you tap a roadway down at the bottom. Movement mistakes are costly, too, given that Kate ambles across every screen at a slow walk and there are no shortcuts when trying to exit an area. Dragging the stylus over every square millimeter of the screen to find objects that you can barely see with the naked eye also isn't a great deal of fun. Using the stylus in this way seems like a cheap dodge to get around the graphical problems inherent in porting a game directly from the PC to a tiny handheld. This choice let the developer avoid the total redesign that would have properly scaled down the visuals for the new platform, but at the cost of turning the entire game into a spectacularly tedious pixel hunt.

The bottom line is that there are much better adventure choices available on the DS than Syberia. This once-impressive PC game has been awkwardly crammed into a tiny cartridge with little attention to how the transition would affect playability, and the results are exactly as bad as you might expect.

We Ski & Snowboard Hands-On [Wii]

2009-02-01T02:33:00.000-08:00

By Shaun McInnis, GameSpot

In this snowy sequel, you'll be using the Wii Balance Board to snowboard down a pair of all-new mountains.

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If We Ski was a simple title for a simple game, its upcoming sequel We Ski & Snowboard follows that naming convention with admirable diligence. The core of the wii game will remain very much intact; the cutesy visuals, reliable control scheme, and diverse but straightforward challenges all make their return. But despite the relatively brief turnaround time--We Ski & Snowboard will be released in March, just 10 months after its predecessor--a handful of new additions ought to give fans of the original game several reasons to return to Namco Bandai's budding winter-sports franchise.

You’re your pick: skis or snowboard.

The big, title-worthy addition is your newfound ability to hit the slopes on a snowboard. Like with skiing in the original, you can control your snowboard either by using just the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, or by using both in combination with the Wii Balance Board. The primary function of the balance board is for steering. Leaning left or right will produce a similar effort from your onscreen character, but you can also crouch down and quickly stand up to make your boarder catch air, whether off of a jump or simply on flat land. With your hands, you'll waggle the remote and Nunchuk to push for speed, wave them in various gestures for midair tricks, and twist them to crouch during downhill races. It's a bare-bones system that relies only on button inputs for a few optional techniques such as hard turns and quick 180s.

Just as the number of available transportation methods has jumped from one to two, so has the number of mountains available to ski. The original We Ski kept you confined to Happy Ski Resort, a rigidly designed mountain influenced by traditional Japanese snow resorts. That meant that there wasn't a lot of room for exploration or shortcuts, but that's not the case now. The first of your two options in We Ski & Snowboard is Jamboree Snow Resort, a North American-style mountain with a good balance of open tracks, moguls, jumps, and trick obstacles such as grind rails. The tracks tend to be quite wide and open to creative route-taking if you so choose. And with plenty of chairlifts, you'll have no problem getting where you need to go

The other new mountain is even less restricting. Known as Mt. Angrio, this towering chunk of earth feels like a barely explored South American slope--maybe some remote peak in Chile whose name translates to "Great Hill of Death." But no matter the name or location, it couldn't be any more different from Happy Ski Resort. Giant cliff drops are the name of the game here, but you'll also find steep powder runs and the occasional crevasse to avoid falling into. It's an intimidating slope, to be sure, but the opportunity to go big and squeeze four or five different tricks into a single jump is an exciting one. Like with Jamboree Snow Resort, you can choose to ride Mt. Angrio either during the day or night. Making you feel even tougher than night riding, though, is the fact that you'll need to take a helicopter to get anywhere on this peak; there are no chairlifts.

So snowboards and the new mountains are easily the big new additions to We Ski & Snowboard. The rest of the game should feel comfortably familiar to fans of the original. You can hit the slopes at your own pace, taking on optional quests that you find along the way, such as food deliveries and spontaneous break-dancing photo ops. But you can also take part in proper events, such as slaloms, downhill races, and a halfpipe competition. As you complete more of these events, you'll unlock more gear for your custom rider. The number of available articles of clothing has been bumped up quite a bit, and they vary wildly from respectable skiing attire to however you'd describe a giant penguin costume.

The untracked terrain of Mt. Angrio couldn't feel any more different from Happy Ski Resort.

If you want to marvel at your past accomplishments, you can hit up the instant-replay feature, which is available from the pause menu at all times. This tool saves your most recent exploits on the slope and lets you go back to watch them over again using an automated camera system that switches up the angles in cinematic style. You can also visit the main menu to go back to your old photos taken on the slopes and view them in slide-show format. In our experience, this was an interesting time capsule that detailed our custom rider's progression from the normal gear available at the beginning of the game to the more ridiculous attire you get later on, one photo at a time. Whether or not your skier becomes the same fashion disaster that ours did is something you can find out when We Ski & Snowboard is released in March.

Legacy of Ys: Books I & II Hands-On [NDS]

2009-01-29T22:23:00.000-08:00

By Sophia Tong, GameSpot

The legendary story of Ys returns after almost 20 years.

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Once upon a time there was a system called the TurboGrafx-CD, which gave you the ability to play Ys: Books I & II, a well-respected series of action role-playing games from the developer Falcom. If you are old enough to remember Ys, then here's your chance to relive some of those fond memories with an updated version. However, if you weren't born when the original games came out, here's your opportunity to take a step back in time and play an RPG before the days of flashy cutscenes and lengthy dialogue, with a few perks thrown in. Ys was an important piece of action RPG history that many of us missed out on, and if you haven't played last year's release on the Virtual Console, Atlus has brought over Books I & II with a brand new script

Run or slash through enemies to level.

Legacy of Ys: Books I & II was remade in Japan in early 2008 and now comes to the Nintendo DS in one cartridge with updated graphics, new localization, touch-screen controls, and multiplayer. The story of Books I & II follows Adol Christin, a young man who has a tendency to get himself knocked out and then wake up in some strange new place. In Book I, he is in search of the legendary land of Ys, once a powerful country with incredible wealth, knowledge, and prosperity. Ys was lost to history, and no one alive knows what happened to this nation. So, Adol decides to set out and see the world and find out what he can about the magical land. His adventure flows into Book II, so it's like one big game split into two digestible pieces.

Similar to action-based games like Zelda (except you gain experience points per kill), Legacy of Ys was originally even simpler than mashing a button to swing your sword. You would run into enemies to hurt them, and as long as you didn't run into them head-on, you'd be fine. This version allows you to equip weapons and actually use them, if you find charging recklessly into enemies a bit unorthodox. There are also different difficulty settings, which will determine how much health the enemies have. Your health also regenerates as you stand still; however, that doesn't always work in dungeons, so you need to watch your health closely because it's incredibly easy to get that game-over screen if you're not paying attention. There are no obnoxious sounds to let you know you're about two hit points away from starting over. The story unfolds as you talk to the locals, and the way everything is presented, as well as the music, brings back excellent memories of gaming in the early '90s.

Stylus controls are available, but you can only use one or the other. Both D pad and stylus options work well depending on what you're used to and can be changed at any time. There is a time attack mode as well as a multiplayer feature that lets you play with three of your friends.

Talk to the locals for information on what to do next.

The visuals may be on the simple side, especially when it comes to the grassy overworld and similar-looking cities. But there is an incredible amount of detail in some of the backgrounds as well as the character portraits when you engage in conversation. The soundtrack stands out the most, and considering how old this game is, the original music holds up very well with the newly arranged material. Lively tunes and enchanting melodies help keep you focused as you explore mazelike dungeons and visit neighboring towns.

Legacy of Ys: Books I & II is essentially two games in one, and Atlus has also announced that it will be bundling a bonus soundtrack CD if you preorder at participating retailers. Ys is surprisingly easy to get into, and since you can save at any time, you never have to worry about putting it down before a save point. Delve into the history of Ys when the game is released on February 10, 2009.

Zill O'll Infinite Plus [PSP]

2009-01-29T22:08:00.000-08:00

Here are some new screens of Koei's PSP RPG Zill O'll Infinite Plus, the game is based on the PS2 version of Zill O'll Infinite with new playable characters, stories and events. The game will be available in Japan on January 22, 2009.

The so called “Free Scenario System” got me really interested in Zill O’ll Infinite Plus, one of the new PSP games Koei announced for the PSP recently. The game is a port of Zill O’ll Infinite (released 2005) on the PS2 which in turn is a port of Zill O’ll (1999) on the original PlayStation. In short, Infinite Plus will have a couple of new characters, their event scenes and an extra 20 scenarios being added. The game will be out on Christmas Day in Japan, same day as Shirokishi Monogatari (aka White Knight Chronicles). Read on for more details and screens.
Source: Gpara, Game Watch & GNN.

The game takes place in the world of Biasion, you are an adventurer in an uncertain world.

Jun Suemi, the illustrator who also provides artworks for Wizardry and the two Rengoku games on the PSP, is the character designer for the game. Besides the inclusion of the three additional characters in the PS2 version, a couple of new original characters are being designed specifically for the Infinite Plus. Check out the rest of the characters at the bottom of this post.

The two new characters also mean 20 additional storyline and 120 new events for the game. The “Free Scenario System” allows each of the characters to have their own storyline and events. Unlockable items like wallpapers await those who get the most endings.

The House of the Dead: Overkill Updated Hands-On

2009-01-28T03:08:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's another House of the Dead game. No, it's not "just another" House of the Dead game.

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We know what you're thinking. The second you read the title of this story you considered moving on to another page, or even shutting down your browser altogether, right? Another House of the Dead game? How could that be interesting to anyone? We hear you, but trust us when we say that despite some similarities to previous series entries, Sega's upcoming The House of the Dead: Overkill is a fun-filled retro reboot of the long-running zombie-blasting series that looks to be one of the early highlights on the Wii in 2009. And if you don't believe us, you can just $&@# our &#*@.

OK, sorry about that outburst. You see, it's this Isaac Washington guy. He's one of the heroes of Overkill who, along with the mysterious and handsome Agent G, does his best to rid the world of infected mutants (read: zombies) one bullet at a time. He's also got one of the foulest mouths we've ever seen in a video game--or at least on the Wii--and his racy commentary is just one of the highlights in Overkill. Toss in a grainy film look and an entirely cheesy grindhouse feel to the cutscenes that bookend each of the levels in Overkill, and you've got a charming package that's equal parts zombie-blasting action and chuckle-worthy one-liners.

Mutant zombies? Scary. Mutant zombie back-flipping clowns? Friggin' terrifying.

The back-and-forth between Washington and Agent G is always engaging, but of course it's the gameplay that means the most in Overkill. While the game's look and feel might be decidedly retro, the nuts and bolts of blasting zombies by the bushel are still intact. This is still rail shooting at its heart, with a constantly changing first-person perspective and zombies coming at you from every angle. Your goal is to blast anything that moves by aiming with the Wii Remote and pulling the B button to let loose with your weapon of choice (and reloading with the A button).
Power-ups in Overkill will help you along in your two-man battle against the horde of infected zombies. These include basic health packs, grenade pickups that come in handy when things get crowded, a power-up that lets you temporarily slow down time, and a brain-shaped power-up that acts as a points multiplier. Points play a particularly important part in Overkill's gameplay; when you die, you'll spend a chunk of the points you've earned along the way to resurrect yourself. If you run out of points, you'll run out of lives.

Nearly as helpful as points is the cash you'll earn for completing levels. In between each mission, you can head to the gun shop where you can spend money on upgrades for your current weapon (such as increased damage or a larger clip) or buy an entirely new weapon. You start off with a standard pistol but can upgrade to a submachine gun, shotgun, assault rifle, and more.
The missions we played in Overkill seem to follow an overarching plot of sorts, with Agent G and Detective Washington on the heels of a bad guy known as Papa Caesar. The duo start off in an abandoned house before taking the fight to a hospital overrun with zombies and, later, to a circus complete with a bevy of undead backflipping clowns, which, coincidentally, happen to be the scariest things our minds can conjure. Each mission ended with a boss fight, including one boss that seemed remarkably similar in design to the witch in Left 4 Dead. Presumably the game will feature a big showdown between the duo and Papa Caesar, and the game gives you the option to add extra mutant enemies to a level, which should give it some replay value.

Three minigames will find their way into Overkill, two of which are mildly amusing. Stayin' Alive is a survival-type game that challenges you to defeat wave after wave of zombies. Victim Support challenges you to protect fleeing civilians from mutant freaks; the more civvies that escape, the more points you'll earn. The final, and least inspired, minigame is called Money Shot II and is a standard carny shooting game, with moving targets and a time limit--shoot as many targets as you can within the time limit. If time runs out, it's game over.

So, there are a few things to take away from our time with The House of the Dead: Overkill. First, Isaac Washington is in the early lead for best new character of 2009. Second, the game's '70s feel and outrageous dialogue will keep you giggling in between the gameplay that feels pretty much exactly like the House of the Dead games of the past. Finally, the game is due out in less than a month, so get ready to lock and load.

Nintendo DSi Gets Priced, Dated For U.S. Launch

2009-01-28T02:58:00.001-08:00

The next Nintendo DS, dubbed the DSi, is rumored to be launched in the United States in April of this year, according to a report from IGN which cites "multiple sources close to Nintendo."

According to the report, the follow up to the tremendously successful Nintendo DS Lite will land on U.S. shores on April 4 and for a premium price of $179.99. That's $50 more than the cost of the current model and in line with Japanese pricing.

With the Nintendo DS Lite still selling at an impressive rate in the United States — it moved over 1.5 million units in November — Nintendo may want to keep the price higher in an attempt to prevent cannibalization of its still popular handheld, as it doesn't consider the new model a replacement for the old.

The DSi, which was announced in October 2008 and launched a month later in Japan, features larger display screens, dual 0.3 megapixel digital cameras, SD card support and internal storage. It drops the original DS's Game Boy Advance port, making the device incompatible with some DS games.

IGN's independent sources don't appear to have revealed any details on the U.S. launch of the DSi Ware service, which kicked off in Japan at the end of 2008.
Rumor: DSi U.S. Launch Date, Price Revealed [IGN]

Read More: Nintendo, DSI, Nintendo DSi, nintendo of america, Rumor, Top

PSP Carnival Colors Announced

2009-01-28T02:48:00.001-08:00

First there was the white PS3, now PSP owners in America have something to be jealous about. Sony has announced that it will release four new color variations of the PSP 3000 in Japan in March. The colors are Vibrant Blue, Radiant Red, Bright Yellow, and Spirited Green. The Red and Blue PSP models will appear on March 5th, while those looking to grab the yellow or geen variant will have to wait until March 19th. Each of the four new PSP colors will cost ¥19,800 ($222 USD) for the core pack, and ¥24,800 ($270 USD) for a "value" bundle. The more expensive value pack will include a 4GB Memory stick Pro Duo, a hand strap and a matching colored protective case.

Right now there is no suggestion that Sony is planning to release these colors in North America or Europe. That news has us particularly bummed, because the new yellow PSP (pictured below) is a thing of beauty.

[New Screenshots] FFCC: Echoes of Time (NDS)

2009-01-27T03:00:00.000-08:00

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles : Echoes of Time

release 29 Jan 09 at Japan

Square Enix has released some new information about the gameplay of its upcoming Wii and DS-based Action RPG Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time. After playing through the game once, the developers are offering the player plenty of modes to toy around with. In Free Play mode, the entire world including the final dungeon can be freely explored. In addition to collecting items, players will also be able to take on powerful enemies waiting in a bonus dungeon. Those who want to play through Echoes of Time again from the beginning, are obviously free to do so as well. In fact, multiple play-throughs are recommended, because half of the equipment will only become available during play-throughs 2 and 3. Last but not least, there is a Game Plus option. Players will begin a new game with all the experience, equipment and items they have gathered during their first play through. Additionally, they can choose which character they want to control. One can either pick an existing character from the first play through or create an entirely new character.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time will hit Japanese retail store shelves later this week, on the 29th. Square Enix will bring the game to this side of the Pacific sometime in spring.

Elebits: The Adventures of Kai & Zero Review

2009-01-27T02:46:00.000-08:00

The second Elebits makes its way to a new platform with a new focus, but it still makes for a very fun adventure.

The Good
Interesting puzzle design A multitude of different abilities to take advantage of Fun boss battles.

The Bad
Weak evolution system Uninspired visual design.

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The original Elebits was released shortly after the Wii hit retail shelves and was a showcase for the new functionality offered by the Wii Remote. Playing from a first-person perspective, you scoured the environment in search of elusive electrically charged creatures, using the controller as a virtual wand to overturn kitchen appliances and shake down trees in an elaborate game of hide and seek. The sequel makes the leap to the Nintendo DS with the same basic capturing mechanics but shifts the vantage to a top-down viewpoint. The emphasis is now placed on clever puzzle design rather than over-the-top physics, which makes for a satisfying experience. The pointless evolutionary system and unimaginative visual design put a slight damper on the fun, but interesting levels and varied puzzles make this an engrossing, and surprisingly challenging, adventure.

You once again play as Kai, a small boy with large problems. While exploring with your Elebit pal Zero, you happen upon an old bus that doubles as a time machine. Sadly, this talking bus does not have the best sense of direction, so you find yourself lost in time, desperately trying to make your way home. Kai is a weak protagonist, meekly following orders from the various people he runs into, showing not even the slightest hint of his own personality. But the characters are not the star of this adventure--the message is. The lands you visit have been hurt in some way by overly ambitious citizens intent on expanding their society without any regard to preserving the environment. The message can be a little heavy-handed, but the smooth manner in which these pro-environment ideals are woven into this otherwise fantastical journey is commendable. Having a likable character restoring order would have carried more weight, though.
While both the original Elebits and its sequel emphasize catching the little creatures desperately trying to escape your clutches, the DS iteration puts your captives to good use. You befriend various Omega Elebits--elemental beings you control to solve puzzles--and use ordinary Elebits to power them. There are trees, rocks, and other obvious hiding places scattered everywhere for these common Elebits to take refuge in, ensuring you never have a shortage of energy at your fingertips. To nab these walking power pellets, simply tap on them with the stylus and then tap on one of your Omega friends to scoop them up. The more you collect in one swipe, the higher your combo bonus, so it's wise to shake out every nearby bush before rounding them up. While building up a reserve of energy is easy, making your way through the levels can be quite difficult. Obstacles will block your every turn, and you'll have to overcome them all to nab the hidden Omega Elebits and find the map to the next world.
Each Omega Elebit has its own abilities, so you'll have to discover for yourself how you can take advantage of them to get past obstacles. You'll be able to destroy heavy rocks, burrow underground, freeze lakes, and control giant metal balls, among other things, and knowing when and where to call forth these actions is not always obvious. The later levels are particularly devious, stringing a number of puzzles together that force you to combine your Omegas' abilities in clever new ways. The boss fights are also quite impressive, making you quickly switch between creatures to take advantage of weaknesses when they present themselves. There are certain instances when your only way through is by trial and error (why would a rock creature be susceptible only to wind?), but the majority of the solutions are grounded in reality. The puzzles are strong throughout the adventure, continually placing seemingly insurmountable walls in your path before you figure out how to progress.
The common Elebits you collect not only refuel the Omegas, they evolve them as well. This changes their appearance and enhances their powers, but does so in such a limited way that there's little tangible incentive for it. Each evolution imbues your Omegas with the same bonus tweaks--a longer time bar to capture Elebits, which makes large combos easier to pull off, and more efficient energy consumption, which lets you use their abilities with less power. But that's all you get. Your fire-breathing Elebit cannot develop a stronger flame. Instead, you unlock X Omegas along the way, which render your ordinary Omegas worthless. The lame evolutionary system takes the appeal of the hunt away, giving you little reason to grab every Elebit in sight. Evolution also throws a wrench in the multiplayer mode. Players race to collect the most Elebits in a set time, but anyone utilizing the evolved forms will be able to pull off larger combos. Even without that imbalance, the multiplayer mode is forgettable, highlighting the weakest point of the main game (collecting), without offering any puzzles or combat options to make it fun.

The visuals are bright and cheery, giving the environments a welcoming feel, even in their chaotic state. The design of the Elebits is derivative though, drawing all-too-obvious inspirations from Pokemon. The similarities are even more striking when the Elebits are in their evolved state, where they sprout gaudy feathers and other adornments, making them look like dead ringers for various members of Nintendo's team of fighting monsters. The music stays firmly in the background, never getting in the way but rarely enhancing the experience. Unfortunately, playing without sound isn't an option. You have a Melody Elebit in your repertoire that can open up paths, but you'll have to listen for music cues to know when to use it.
Despite the watered-down evolution aspect and some uninspired visual design, Elebits: The Adventures of Kai and Zero is a well-crafted and very enjoyable adventure game. With combat relegated to the exciting boss encounters, you'll spend most of your journey focused on the clever puzzles blocking your path. Your quest may not be particularly long--most players will be able to finish in less than 10 hours--but the adventure is well paced and provides a good challenge. Even though it offers a drastic change of pace from the Wii original, the second Elebits is a rewarding and wholesomely fun adventure.

Tales of The World: Radiant Mythology 2 Happening

2009-01-24T22:09:00.000-08:00

Say hello again, and again, and again to your favorite Tales characters.
By Kevin Gifford, 09/17/2008

Namco Bandai Games let it slip this week that a sequel to Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology, the PSP RPG that itself starred characters from all across the vast range of Tales RPGs, is in the works. This may be a bit too meta for many role-playing nuts to wrap their heads around, but try to work it all out in your mind before the game makes its Japanese debut this winter. (No US plans have been announced yet.)

As before, this is an original RPG that just happens to include cameos (and sometimes major roles filled) by famous NPCs from past Tales games. Characters confirmed to appear in Radiant Mythology 2 so far include: Suzu (Tales of Phantasia), Farah Oersted (Tales of Eternia), Zelos Wilder (Tales of Symphonia), Iria Animi (Tales of Innocence), Anise Tatlin (Tales of the Abyss), and Mighty Kongman (Tales of Destiny). Dang, that's a lot. Kanonno, the main heroine from Radiant Mythology 1, is back herself, as is the (freshly upgraded and expanded) character class system.

Release Dates : January 29th, 2009

DS goes on Dragon Quest IV, V, VI

2009-01-24T21:57:00.000-08:00

By Tom Magrino

Screenshots surface out of Japanese magazine Shonen Jump revealing revamped editions of Square Enix's other fantasy role-playing franchise for Nintendo's handheld.

Square Enix has begun to make a regular habit out of updating past installments in its globally acclaimed Final Fantasy series. Celebrating the role-playing game franchise's 20th anniversary this year, the Japanese publisher rereleased Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy II for the PlayStation Portable in June and July, respectively. On the Nintendo DS, Square Enix late last year released a graphically revamped version of Final Fantasy III, with a similarly overhauled Final Fantasy IV also planned for release some time in the future.
Apparently not satisfied with revisiting just one of its best-selling RPG franchises, it now appears Square Enix has its sights set on Dragon Quest as well. Leaked screenshots from the latest issue of Japanese magazine Shonen Jump purportedly announce that remakes of Dragon Quest IV, V, and VI are under way for the Nintendo DS. As per the screenshots, the Dragon Quest redux will feature revamped graphics in a vein similar to last year's Final Fantasy III on the DS.
Whether or not these new installments in the Dragon Quest series will make it stateside is yet to be seen. While extremely popular in Japan, the Dragon Quest series has been widely eclipsed elsewhere in the world by the Final Fantasy series, so much so that Dragon Quest V and VI were never released in North America. Square Enix currently has two other DS-exclusive Dragon Quest projects in waiting, Dragon Quest IX and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker.
Responding to a request for comment, a Square Enix rep would only state that no official announcements have been made regarding Dragon Quest IV, V, and VI in North America.