When Kinect launched in Australia, it didn’t come packing the same voice recognition that our American counterparts have been enjoying [citation needed] since November 2010. Why? Essentially, it couldn’t understand our funny little accents. It’s been taking a few lessons in local larrikinism, though, and Microsoft Australia have just announced that Kinect voice recognition will finally be available Down Under around the middle of December.
At least they’re delivering on their vague promises. Microsoft’s local product marketing manager Steve Blackburn did say we’d be getting the update “before December 31st” this year, and here it comes. Thing is, I don’t know anyone with a Kinect. Sure the price dropped off by about $50 in September, but there seems to be a distinct lack of decent gaming on offer for the fancy all-body motion device. I thought Rise of Nightmares looked alright, but our own Matt Williams put paid to those girlish hopes and dreams.
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn top games. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn top games. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Thứ Tư, 26 tháng 10, 2011
Virtual Vinyl: World of Goo
Look, I’m going to be honest with you: Your cologne smells like pure gasoline. Also, I’ve never played World of Goo. I just think it has a funny name. Yes, yes, I’m wildly immature and I should know better, but come on: I was raised in the digital wilds by the internet, a perverse maternal guide if ever there was one. Pleasingly, World of Goo has quite the quirky little soundtrack – and it’s free. That’s pretty goo-d. Haha, you like that one? No? Okay.
Thứ Bảy, 22 tháng 10, 2011
4 unfair reasons people will take your bubbles.
N4G has a great system to reward people who make good comments and punish people who troll and make bad comments. This bubble system for the most part works well but when bias and spit come into the picture, the bubble system becomes corrupted.
4.Personal grudge.
Sometimes someone will hit the bubble down button on you just because they can. You made a simple comment to them that was pure blasphemy in their eyes and now they put you closer to a bubble down in rank. How often does this happen? Hard to say but it does happen. Sometimes people dont need a reason to bubble someone down. They just need to take out their anger on someone and you just happened to be in their way at the wrong time.
3.You commented first.
No matter how objective or politically correct your post was, if it was first, it will get attacked with disagrees, which is a pretty good indicator that people are taking bubbles from you too. You see, n4g is a big congregation of gamers with many different views on gaming, and some people here are more reasonable than others. Putting up a first comment might was well be like painting a bullseye on your chest. No matter what you posted, someone will hit disagree and possibly take your bubble. Sad? Yes. Common? Sadly yes.
2.You have an opinion (that differs from the other guy).
So lets say there is a really hyped game coming out. Everyone thinks it will be great but you have your doubts and you go to post why you think this game may not be as good as its hyped up to be. All of a sudden, you are bombarded with hate comments about how wrong you are and you have been slammed with disagrees and bubble losses. On N4G, if your opinion does not match the majority, you are on the majority's shit list. Nothing you ever do will get you bubbles and you will be shunned from the comments just because they want their subjective views to be law.
1.You are not a Sony fanboy.
Look at any first comment that has to do with praising PS3. Now look at any fist comment that has to do with praising Xbox 360. You will notice that in popular news, each comment has 100 agrees to about 40 disagrees for the positive Sony comment and vice- versa for the positive 360 comment. That means that Sony fanboys make up the greatest majority of N4G and like I mentioned in #2, majority rules. If you don't like Sony, you better not get too attached to your bubbles because posting anything Sony negative, even if its just an opinion and you are not trying to troll will be the fastest and most unfair way to lose your bubbles.
4.Personal grudge.
Sometimes someone will hit the bubble down button on you just because they can. You made a simple comment to them that was pure blasphemy in their eyes and now they put you closer to a bubble down in rank. How often does this happen? Hard to say but it does happen. Sometimes people dont need a reason to bubble someone down. They just need to take out their anger on someone and you just happened to be in their way at the wrong time.
3.You commented first.
No matter how objective or politically correct your post was, if it was first, it will get attacked with disagrees, which is a pretty good indicator that people are taking bubbles from you too. You see, n4g is a big congregation of gamers with many different views on gaming, and some people here are more reasonable than others. Putting up a first comment might was well be like painting a bullseye on your chest. No matter what you posted, someone will hit disagree and possibly take your bubble. Sad? Yes. Common? Sadly yes.
2.You have an opinion (that differs from the other guy).
So lets say there is a really hyped game coming out. Everyone thinks it will be great but you have your doubts and you go to post why you think this game may not be as good as its hyped up to be. All of a sudden, you are bombarded with hate comments about how wrong you are and you have been slammed with disagrees and bubble losses. On N4G, if your opinion does not match the majority, you are on the majority's shit list. Nothing you ever do will get you bubbles and you will be shunned from the comments just because they want their subjective views to be law.
1.You are not a Sony fanboy.
Look at any first comment that has to do with praising PS3. Now look at any fist comment that has to do with praising Xbox 360. You will notice that in popular news, each comment has 100 agrees to about 40 disagrees for the positive Sony comment and vice- versa for the positive 360 comment. That means that Sony fanboys make up the greatest majority of N4G and like I mentioned in #2, majority rules. If you don't like Sony, you better not get too attached to your bubbles because posting anything Sony negative, even if its just an opinion and you are not trying to troll will be the fastest and most unfair way to lose your bubbles.
Thứ Năm, 20 tháng 10, 2011
Explosive New LittleBigPlanet 2 Level
Hi im new to N4G.com and to start with i would like to review a new amazing and explosive level i was granted access to over the weekend, the name of the level is The Side Stories 4 Sack Edition BY F&K Productions. The level will be published with a normal edition on fromhell5's planet, it will include a freaky but fun zombie co-op mode with 4 maps to destroy endless amounts of zombies, an explosive single player campaign where you will be placed behind enemy lines with one objective, to stop the Vietnamese taking leadership in the cold east of Russia and an amazing and beautiful multiplayer mode packed with 4 maps featured in the campaign.
The normal edition of the level will not have zombies as it is a sack edition exclusive. To receive the sack edition you must send a message on PSN to fromhell5 or kamran-96.
Important Info:
The Side Stories 4 Open Beta out now!
If you are chosen for the sack edition of the game you will be automatically entered into the beta faze of the game.
Developers -
fromhell5,
kamran-96,
FxKproductions and
The-Skill-Virus
Publisher -
F&K Productions
Music By -
Lil' Wayne,
Usher and over publishers from LittleBigPlanet and LittleBigPlanet 2.
Normal Edition Release Date - TBA (Expected around the start of April).
Sack Edition Release Date - March 25th (Possible Delay)
open Beta (Sack Edition) Release Date - OUT NOW
Sack Edition Includes -
Beta level link for upcoming level Super Heroes 1,
A box full of goodies so you can create your own war inspired game or level,
A chance to join one of the best creating groups on LittleBigPlanet 2 (F&K Productions).
And much, much more.
The normal edition of the level will not have zombies as it is a sack edition exclusive. To receive the sack edition you must send a message on PSN to fromhell5 or kamran-96.
Important Info:
The Side Stories 4 Open Beta out now!
If you are chosen for the sack edition of the game you will be automatically entered into the beta faze of the game.
Developers -
fromhell5,
kamran-96,
FxKproductions and
The-Skill-Virus
Publisher -
F&K Productions
Music By -
Lil' Wayne,
Usher and over publishers from LittleBigPlanet and LittleBigPlanet 2.
Normal Edition Release Date - TBA (Expected around the start of April).
Sack Edition Release Date - March 25th (Possible Delay)
open Beta (Sack Edition) Release Date - OUT NOW
Sack Edition Includes -
Beta level link for upcoming level Super Heroes 1,
A box full of goodies so you can create your own war inspired game or level,
A chance to join one of the best creating groups on LittleBigPlanet 2 (F&K Productions).
And much, much more.
Thứ Bảy, 15 tháng 10, 2011
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron Demo is as Awesome as its Title is Long.
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is an action platformer whose visuals are reminiscent of Okami and whose gameplay is reminiscent of Devil May Cry. This is not surprising considering Sawaki Takeyasu, the art director for both, is the mastermind behind El Shaddai.
According to the official site, the main character, Enoch, is a scribe from heaven trying to prevent a great flood by capturing renegade, probably corrupted angels. Enoch narrates a bit to himself at the beginning, but the rest of the dialog of the demo is taken by an archangel named Lucifel (Lucifer), who speaks on the phone as you pass and is not afraid to break the fourth wall to introduce a boss to you (though you do not get to fight the boss in the demo). It is a rather Clover/Platinum Games-esque narrative, and considering their track record, I am one-hundred percent okay with this.
One can tell from the first playable moment that this game is some kind of art—the whole world looks like a negative, with black surrounding and a white protagonist surrounded by trees made of flame-like clouds or cloud-like flame. Take a few steps forward and a drawn face floats across the screen accompanied by a laughing voice. The world shifts and changes around the character and it never gets boring just to look at. I found myself wanting to rush forward just to see how the environment would shift or just to see what the next screen looked like, since despite the dark silhouette motif everything remains interesting to look at. The demo goes back and forth between 3D eight-way movement and 2D side-scrolling. Platforming exists in both, but the 3D scenes tend to be more combat-focused while the 2D were entirely jumping and moving. It is the side-scrolling segments in which the environment changes the most drastically, in some cases having swirling, wave-like clouds rise from the bottom of the screen to act as solid ground for platforming. It is nothing short of cool to look at, and makes the simple task of walking forward something more than just a way to get from one in-game event to the next. Few times during the demo did I find myself staring at a static world—there is almost always some kind of movement.
Combat is smooth and fluid, and much like the environment, is fun just to look at and explore. There are really only four button commands in the demo: jump (x), attack ([_]), block (R1), and disarm/charge (L1). Though there is only one attack button, or perhaps because there is only one attack button, stringing combos together is smooth, fluid, and simple. The different attacks and strings of attacks are based on the timing of the button presses, such as how long of a pause is taken between attacks and how long the button is held down. There is a sort of rhythm to making strong combos. Enoch's attacks are fun to explore and watch, for despite the one-button system there are all kinds of cool things you can do, and discovering a new attack was always satisfying. You start off unarmed, but once you wound an enemy enough you can disarm it with L1, which permanently takes their weapon. You can hold on to it as long as you want, or you can switch it out with another one, but weapons get weaker with use, and every so often must be “charged” by holding L1, leaving Enoch vulnerable for a bit. It forces players to think a bit before just spamming the basic attack combo over and over, as it will exhaust the weapon quickly, and encourages them to find more efficient ways to use the weapons. At first I thought it might get annoying to have to charge the weapon, but since you can still attack enemies with a worn weapon to knock them away and deal a little damage, it just made combat more tense. Hopefully this affect will not be lost in the full game. There are only two weapoins in the demo: a sort of arched blade thing and a halo with eight floating arrowheads. Both are nothing short of awesome, but I fell in love with the halo weapon almost as soon as I saw it. Its attacks are all beautiful projectiles that you can whip around and fling and spin all over the place. Everything they do leaves a glowing trail behind, and I doubt I will ever get bored with it.
Music is always hard to do justice with words. Put simply, the music fits. It is not some swelling orchestra, nor any sort of instrument, nor is it chip-noises. It is made up entirely of sounds, some of them sound choir-like, but they can not really be described as anything but sounds, and they are always appropriate. Ambient is the best way to categorize it. While platforming between fights, the ambient sound is calm and subtle. During combat, it of course picks up, but it stood out to me because it was not loud or distracting. I cannot stress enough how important that is. Despite the connection and resemblance to Devil May Cry, El Shaddai's music is exactly the opposite of the music of DMC.
Overall, the demo kept me engaged the whole way through (as demos are wont to do), and I would strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys action games, pretty games, or generally awesome things. As a final note, when this game hits shelves I hope there is an option to turn on Japanese voices, because the main character's voice in the demo is exactly what I expected it to be.
According to the official site, the main character, Enoch, is a scribe from heaven trying to prevent a great flood by capturing renegade, probably corrupted angels. Enoch narrates a bit to himself at the beginning, but the rest of the dialog of the demo is taken by an archangel named Lucifel (Lucifer), who speaks on the phone as you pass and is not afraid to break the fourth wall to introduce a boss to you (though you do not get to fight the boss in the demo). It is a rather Clover/Platinum Games-esque narrative, and considering their track record, I am one-hundred percent okay with this.
One can tell from the first playable moment that this game is some kind of art—the whole world looks like a negative, with black surrounding and a white protagonist surrounded by trees made of flame-like clouds or cloud-like flame. Take a few steps forward and a drawn face floats across the screen accompanied by a laughing voice. The world shifts and changes around the character and it never gets boring just to look at. I found myself wanting to rush forward just to see how the environment would shift or just to see what the next screen looked like, since despite the dark silhouette motif everything remains interesting to look at. The demo goes back and forth between 3D eight-way movement and 2D side-scrolling. Platforming exists in both, but the 3D scenes tend to be more combat-focused while the 2D were entirely jumping and moving. It is the side-scrolling segments in which the environment changes the most drastically, in some cases having swirling, wave-like clouds rise from the bottom of the screen to act as solid ground for platforming. It is nothing short of cool to look at, and makes the simple task of walking forward something more than just a way to get from one in-game event to the next. Few times during the demo did I find myself staring at a static world—there is almost always some kind of movement.
Combat is smooth and fluid, and much like the environment, is fun just to look at and explore. There are really only four button commands in the demo: jump (x), attack ([_]), block (R1), and disarm/charge (L1). Though there is only one attack button, or perhaps because there is only one attack button, stringing combos together is smooth, fluid, and simple. The different attacks and strings of attacks are based on the timing of the button presses, such as how long of a pause is taken between attacks and how long the button is held down. There is a sort of rhythm to making strong combos. Enoch's attacks are fun to explore and watch, for despite the one-button system there are all kinds of cool things you can do, and discovering a new attack was always satisfying. You start off unarmed, but once you wound an enemy enough you can disarm it with L1, which permanently takes their weapon. You can hold on to it as long as you want, or you can switch it out with another one, but weapons get weaker with use, and every so often must be “charged” by holding L1, leaving Enoch vulnerable for a bit. It forces players to think a bit before just spamming the basic attack combo over and over, as it will exhaust the weapon quickly, and encourages them to find more efficient ways to use the weapons. At first I thought it might get annoying to have to charge the weapon, but since you can still attack enemies with a worn weapon to knock them away and deal a little damage, it just made combat more tense. Hopefully this affect will not be lost in the full game. There are only two weapoins in the demo: a sort of arched blade thing and a halo with eight floating arrowheads. Both are nothing short of awesome, but I fell in love with the halo weapon almost as soon as I saw it. Its attacks are all beautiful projectiles that you can whip around and fling and spin all over the place. Everything they do leaves a glowing trail behind, and I doubt I will ever get bored with it.
Music is always hard to do justice with words. Put simply, the music fits. It is not some swelling orchestra, nor any sort of instrument, nor is it chip-noises. It is made up entirely of sounds, some of them sound choir-like, but they can not really be described as anything but sounds, and they are always appropriate. Ambient is the best way to categorize it. While platforming between fights, the ambient sound is calm and subtle. During combat, it of course picks up, but it stood out to me because it was not loud or distracting. I cannot stress enough how important that is. Despite the connection and resemblance to Devil May Cry, El Shaddai's music is exactly the opposite of the music of DMC.
Overall, the demo kept me engaged the whole way through (as demos are wont to do), and I would strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys action games, pretty games, or generally awesome things. As a final note, when this game hits shelves I hope there is an option to turn on Japanese voices, because the main character's voice in the demo is exactly what I expected it to be.
Used Games - Win the battle. Lose the war?
A fable 3 developer recently stated that "secondhand sales cost us more in the long run than piracy these days."
While no further explanation was given, the focus on used games has much to do with the fact that despite the best of efforts, piracy cannot be stopped. The sale of used games seems a more attractive battle to developers, one that they may actually be
able to win. While i understand the frustration surrounding the gamestop economics of selling used games for $5 less than a new one, the fight against used sales may be a bit short-sighted.
These are a few things that may be worth considering.
PAY IT FORWARD
When i was younger, used games were all that i could afford. Without this market, i would not be the gamer i am today. A gamer that spends hundreds of dollars a year on my favorite hobby. While used sales may not be good for the
individual publisher at times, it may be good for the industry as a whole. Without these bargain bin items, we may lose the youth of today to the vices of reading and physical exercise.
FREE MARKETING
A few years back, i skipped on purchasing Assassins Creed at launch as reviews from friends were less than stellar. A month before the sequel, i picked it up for cheap, and while i agreed with what was said of the game, i enjoyed it. One month later, i bought the sequel at full price, which i would not have done without that cheap used predecessor.
TRICKLE UP ECONOMICS
This one is simple. i can buy say 4 new games per year. My friend can't afford gaming as a hobby at $60 a pop (utters some incoherent rubbish about a social life). He buys my games, and i buy more new ones. Publishers are trying to apply the same logic of piracy induced lost sales to used games. In their minds, every used game represents lost income. They like to reason that every downloaded game represents lost income. The fact of the matter is, that without used sales, a lot of people would have to simply find another way to pass time. Not everyone agrees that $60 for a game is a good use for their cash. Don't let them confuse you with their reason and logic. Just run.
ITS A KEEPER
Ever notice how the games Nintendo make rarely decline much in price? Price fixing allegations aside, there are other good reasons for this. They make a quality product, something that you want to keep even though you may never play it again. Why? The same reason people collect and display books. It says something about you as a gamer, about your tastes and style. So instead of making "generic space marine shooter #55", you may want to produce something of worth. My copy of ICO is not going anywhere.
While no further explanation was given, the focus on used games has much to do with the fact that despite the best of efforts, piracy cannot be stopped. The sale of used games seems a more attractive battle to developers, one that they may actually be
able to win. While i understand the frustration surrounding the gamestop economics of selling used games for $5 less than a new one, the fight against used sales may be a bit short-sighted.
These are a few things that may be worth considering.
PAY IT FORWARD
When i was younger, used games were all that i could afford. Without this market, i would not be the gamer i am today. A gamer that spends hundreds of dollars a year on my favorite hobby. While used sales may not be good for the
individual publisher at times, it may be good for the industry as a whole. Without these bargain bin items, we may lose the youth of today to the vices of reading and physical exercise.
FREE MARKETING
A few years back, i skipped on purchasing Assassins Creed at launch as reviews from friends were less than stellar. A month before the sequel, i picked it up for cheap, and while i agreed with what was said of the game, i enjoyed it. One month later, i bought the sequel at full price, which i would not have done without that cheap used predecessor.
TRICKLE UP ECONOMICS
This one is simple. i can buy say 4 new games per year. My friend can't afford gaming as a hobby at $60 a pop (utters some incoherent rubbish about a social life). He buys my games, and i buy more new ones. Publishers are trying to apply the same logic of piracy induced lost sales to used games. In their minds, every used game represents lost income. They like to reason that every downloaded game represents lost income. The fact of the matter is, that without used sales, a lot of people would have to simply find another way to pass time. Not everyone agrees that $60 for a game is a good use for their cash. Don't let them confuse you with their reason and logic. Just run.
ITS A KEEPER
Ever notice how the games Nintendo make rarely decline much in price? Price fixing allegations aside, there are other good reasons for this. They make a quality product, something that you want to keep even though you may never play it again. Why? The same reason people collect and display books. It says something about you as a gamer, about your tastes and style. So instead of making "generic space marine shooter #55", you may want to produce something of worth. My copy of ICO is not going anywhere.
N4G Quality Control?
User blog
N4G have to started advertising external Hard drives bundled with PS3 pirated games.
It seems a little hypocritical considering the communities stance of piracy. Of course I know N4G is website run by massive hypocrites profiting from the "console wars" and generally just helping to create a horrible gaming culture.
But is that a step to far, they're now bringing in advertisement revenue from piracy websites. I know many of you feel very strongly about Piracy ain't it about time N4G starts worrying about it's quality control?
Instead of just leeching off the fanboy gaming culture to squeeze as much profit from it's users as possible, you decide.
N4G have to started advertising external Hard drives bundled with PS3 pirated games.
It seems a little hypocritical considering the communities stance of piracy. Of course I know N4G is website run by massive hypocrites profiting from the "console wars" and generally just helping to create a horrible gaming culture.
But is that a step to far, they're now bringing in advertisement revenue from piracy websites. I know many of you feel very strongly about Piracy ain't it about time N4G starts worrying about it's quality control?
Instead of just leeching off the fanboy gaming culture to squeeze as much profit from it's users as possible, you decide.
Thứ Hai, 19 tháng 9, 2011
Sony publishing president Shuhei Yoshida confirms new handheld will not be content-restricted by location.
Sony devoted nearly all of its Tokyo Game Show press conference to the PlayStation Vita, but one omitted bit of news concerning the device was revealed today in 140 characters or less. In a post to his Twitter feed, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida confirmed that the PS Vita will not be region locked.
After a Twitter user asked Yoshida whether it had been confirmed that the PS Vita would be region free, the Sony executive replied with a simple, "Yes, it is." Yoshida did not indicate whether the PS Vita will be open through just physical media, or also digital content. Sony had not responded to GameSpot's request for clarification as of press time.
Currently, with the PlayStation 3 and PSP, physical media is released region-free, allowing games published in one country to be played without hassle in another. However, Sony's digital strategy restricts content to the region in which it is released, with access being determined by the region of a user's PlayStation Network profile.
As announced earlier this week, the PS Vita will launch alongside 26 games in Japan on December 17. Sony expects to release its newest gaming hardware in Europe and North America sometime in early 2012. For more information, check out GameSpot's previous coverage of the PS Vita.
The PS Vita won't be region-locked.
Currently, with the PlayStation 3 and PSP, physical media is released region-free, allowing games published in one country to be played without hassle in another. However, Sony's digital strategy restricts content to the region in which it is released, with access being determined by the region of a user's PlayStation Network profile.
As announced earlier this week, the PS Vita will launch alongside 26 games in Japan on December 17. Sony expects to release its newest gaming hardware in Europe and North America sometime in early 2012. For more information, check out GameSpot's previous coverage of the PS Vita.
* Uninteresting story * Making good monsters requires grinding * Some elements aren't explained well.
You assume the role of the game's nameless protagonist, a young ruffian and would-be monster scout (a person with the ability to subdue and command monsters) who stows away on a flying vessel headed toward a major monster-scout tournament. As fate would have it, the ship encounters a patch of turbulence and crash-lands on an uncharted island seemingly devoid of human life. It's up to you to develop your monster-scouting skills to command the beasts that rule this island and find the ship's missing passengers. But there's more to this strange island than meets the eye, and you soon discover secret tomes and treasures of legendary monster scouts of yore. Perhaps you were sent to this place for a reason. It's not a particularly interesting or original story, but Joker 2's saga still manages to charm thanks to superb localization. Dialogue is consistently amusing, laden with silly puns and odd little speech tics that make the various characters and critters you meet during your quest a memorable bunch. The visual element of the game is also strong, with surprisingly detailed environments and amusing character and enemy animations that help bring the island and its denizens to life.
Dragon Quest is known for its staunch adherence to traditional RPG elements, and while Joker 2 maintains the old-school feel of its forefathers, it also takes the formula in some different directions. Instead of progressing on an overworld map from hub town to dungeon to point of interest, you move from one monster-riddled area to another via a simplified map menu, with new places to explore opening as you complete various story goals. You won't find much in the way of towns, either. Instead, the wrecked ship acts as a hub, with functions like a vending machine, an automated bank, and a monster holding pen becoming available as the game progresses and more shipwrecked non-player characters are rescued.
Combat in Joker 2, as in its sibling games, is old-fashioned. Commands are given to your party through text menu selections, and your crew and the enemy take turns bashing each other until someone emerges victorious. The big difference this time is that instead of a crew of armored warriors, you're commanding a monster squad that you have personally recruited and trained. Your party consists of up to six monsters at a time: three in combat, three in reserve (though bigger beasties require multiple spaces in your roster). You can switch your monsters in and out of combat at any time, even replacing fallen fauna with a full-health unit from your reserve crew if need be. Each monster breed has numerous distinct characteristics, and as they gain levels from fighting, you earn skill points that you can use to give them new attack skills and stat boosts from a species-specific selection. You also have the ability to attempt to scout almost any foe you encounter, which involves having your on-field team show its strength by attacking a monster as a group (but not dealing any damage). If you hit hard enough, you might get a new teammate, but if you fail, you could lose a turn--or worse, make your foe even more aggressive.
Capturing and building your monster posse is a lot of fun, but what makes things even more interesting is the monster synthesis feature, which opens a few hours into the game. You can fuse two monsters of a high-enough level into a brand-new beast, complete with otherwise unobtainable skills inherited from its "parents." Not only do these fused monsters have access to a wider skillset, but they also gain levels more quickly and have better stat sets than creatures captured on the field. While synthesis itself is great fun, the preparation and aftermath are considerably less exciting. You often need to build up one or both of the monsters for your desired fusion to a certain level--and possibly well beyond that if you want their offspring to come into the world with a huge pool of skill points off the bat. Fused monsters also start at a very low level, requiring you to fight and grind for experience points to make them as strong as the rest of your crew. Since combat can be a bit slow, this can become a source of some irritation. At least you have the option to let the monsters in your party use their own AI instead of giving them direct commands, but even so, you still have to watch combat animations and dialogue play out every single turn. Making things worse is that several nuances to combat and fusion aren't explained well in-game--you need to consult your easy-to-overlook Scout Guide to figure out that maybe you need to run away from that giant flying lynx that can kill you instantly instead of trying to fight it.
It may not be an all-time classic like some of the other Dragon Quest installments, but Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 is still a solid entry in one of the most storied RPG franchises around. It's challenging, endearing, not overly complicated, and plenty of fun, and and a good bet for RPG fans looking for a new beast to tame.
Dragon Quest is known for its staunch adherence to traditional RPG elements, and while Joker 2 maintains the old-school feel of its forefathers, it also takes the formula in some different directions. Instead of progressing on an overworld map from hub town to dungeon to point of interest, you move from one monster-riddled area to another via a simplified map menu, with new places to explore opening as you complete various story goals. You won't find much in the way of towns, either. Instead, the wrecked ship acts as a hub, with functions like a vending machine, an automated bank, and a monster holding pen becoming available as the game progresses and more shipwrecked non-player characters are rescued.
Combat in Joker 2, as in its sibling games, is old-fashioned. Commands are given to your party through text menu selections, and your crew and the enemy take turns bashing each other until someone emerges victorious. The big difference this time is that instead of a crew of armored warriors, you're commanding a monster squad that you have personally recruited and trained. Your party consists of up to six monsters at a time: three in combat, three in reserve (though bigger beasties require multiple spaces in your roster). You can switch your monsters in and out of combat at any time, even replacing fallen fauna with a full-health unit from your reserve crew if need be. Each monster breed has numerous distinct characteristics, and as they gain levels from fighting, you earn skill points that you can use to give them new attack skills and stat boosts from a species-specific selection. You also have the ability to attempt to scout almost any foe you encounter, which involves having your on-field team show its strength by attacking a monster as a group (but not dealing any damage). If you hit hard enough, you might get a new teammate, but if you fail, you could lose a turn--or worse, make your foe even more aggressive.
Capturing and building your monster posse is a lot of fun, but what makes things even more interesting is the monster synthesis feature, which opens a few hours into the game. You can fuse two monsters of a high-enough level into a brand-new beast, complete with otherwise unobtainable skills inherited from its "parents." Not only do these fused monsters have access to a wider skillset, but they also gain levels more quickly and have better stat sets than creatures captured on the field. While synthesis itself is great fun, the preparation and aftermath are considerably less exciting. You often need to build up one or both of the monsters for your desired fusion to a certain level--and possibly well beyond that if you want their offspring to come into the world with a huge pool of skill points off the bat. Fused monsters also start at a very low level, requiring you to fight and grind for experience points to make them as strong as the rest of your crew. Since combat can be a bit slow, this can become a source of some irritation. At least you have the option to let the monsters in your party use their own AI instead of giving them direct commands, but even so, you still have to watch combat animations and dialogue play out every single turn. Making things worse is that several nuances to combat and fusion aren't explained well in-game--you need to consult your easy-to-overlook Scout Guide to figure out that maybe you need to run away from that giant flying lynx that can kill you instantly instead of trying to fight it.
It may not be an all-time classic like some of the other Dragon Quest installments, but Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 is still a solid entry in one of the most storied RPG franchises around. It's challenging, endearing, not overly complicated, and plenty of fun, and and a good bet for RPG fans looking for a new beast to tame.
Radiant Silvergun proves that great core mechanics stand the test of time, though its severe difficulty could derail the unprepared.
Time marches on, technology continually improves, but one thing remains constant: Radiant Silvergun is really difficult. This Xbox Live Arcade shoot-'em-up proudly carries the mantle of its genre peers, staunching your enthusiasm with its relentless swarm of enemies gunning for your fragile ship. Death is fast and furious for the unprepared. One minute, you're smiling with confidence as you gleefully vanquish a persistent boss; the next, you're cursing your inattention as you slam full steam into an inflexible wall. Radiant Silvergun offers a clever tweak to the shoot-die-repeat formula, which turns out to be its biggest strength and most glaring weakness. A persistent upgrade system lets you carry your powered-up weapons through each story mode run so that you're slightly stronger than you were the previous time. All but the most skilled players will need to use this feature as a crutch, grinding for hours until they're strong enough to make serious headway. However, it is immensely rewarding to watch your ship grow more powerful with every effort. Radiant Silvergun deftly balances punishment with reward, so though frustration comes early and often, the moments of glory make your commitment worth it.
For the uninitiated, Radiant Silvergun is absolutely daunting the first time you start things up. The right side of the screen displays all of the weapons you currently have access to, as well as the buttons that they're mapped to. Your eyes stare at the screen, trying to comprehend how you're going to manage seven separate guns at once. Do you unlock them as you go? Maybe grab power-ups from destroyed enemies? Nope! The weapons you begin Radiant Silvergun with are the ones you keep for the entire game. There are three base weapons that continually upgrade as you use them. Homing missiles, explosive diagonal blasts, and a deadly frontal ray offer good diversity in your killing powers. The four secondary weapons have more specific uses. Lock-on missiles, a sweeping laser, and rear assault fit right in with what you'd expect, but the final weapon is quite different from the norm. A short-range sword can be used to defeat enemies, as well as gobble up certain attacks, and figuring out how to use this bad boy is the key to mastering the game.
There are many shoot-'em-ups where enemies flood the screen with so many bullets that the games have become known as "bullet hell." Radiant Silvergun is not one of those games. Challenge comes from managing your guns so you can efficiently dispose of the vast assortment of enemies you encounter. The radar strike, for instance, is the only weapon that can pass through barriers, so using it to clear out foes in front of you is a great way to win a battle before your life is even threatened. At other times, your best bet is to fly toward the top of the screen and use your rear cannon, so you're safely out of harm's way while your enemies fire their worthless guns toward the bottom. But you have to play levels many times before you understand these methods. Furthermore, your guns are so weak in the early going that it takes an awfully long time to take down simple enemies. Because of these two elements, you have to spend hours upgrading your weapons and learning patterns before you're adept enough to triumph.
There's no use sugar coating the experience of playing Radiant Silvergun during its first few hours. Unless you're an expert in this genre, you will die repeatedly, and you will be forced to replay the first level over and over again. It's exhausting. If you aren't prepared for this onslaught, it's easy to lose faith and move on to a less demanding game. And because Radiant Silvergun is so challenging, there's no reason to feel bad for admitting you're just not good enough. But if you have the dedication to see things through, Radiant Silvergun is richly rewarding. Every minute you spend playing makes you that much stronger, and it's empowering to cleave through enemies that stoically stood in your path when you were weaker. Every hour you spend fighting waves of enemies adds another life onto your total, so even those who aren't proficient in shoot-'em-ups should be able to amass a large enough collection to succeed.
Radiant Silvergun is never cheap. When you die, it's because you messed up. You misjudged an enemy's attack pattern or flew too close to a barrier. This knowledge gives you the strength to push on because if you stay attentive, you won't make careless mistakes that cost you dearly. Precise controls ensure you're completely in command of your craft. Whether you're weaving in and out of bullets, circling bosses to find their weak points, or wielding your sword like a dragon slayer, everything feels just as it should. Age has been extremely kind to Radiant Silvergun because the core mechanics are so well implemented. The visuals have been updated slightly from the Saturn original, and though it's clear this is a game that was first released more than a decade ago, it still looks sharp. It's easy to discern the background from the foreground, as well as identify enemies, and that instant communication is the most vital aspect of a shoot-em-up's visual design.
The persistent Story mode is the most interesting way to play Radiant Silvergun, but if steep difficulty is too much to handle, you can dive into Arcade mode for a breather. Here, you can tweak how many lives you have, and that cushion gives you a chance to experiment without the fear that constantly hounds you in Story mode. If you're still stuck, Practice mode gives you a chance to test out the best strategy in a specific portion before you make a legitimate run for it. Here, you can tweak the speed settings, which gives you a chance to understand everything unfolding before you crank things up full blast. There's also a cooperative mode (online or offline) if you crave help from a more adept player or want to take a novice under your wing. Finally, you can tweak the difficulty, even in Story mode, so beginners have a chance to succeed. Turning things down to easy lowers the hit points of your enemies, so you can spend less time focusing on leveling up and more time having fun.
Radiant Silvergun has stood the test of time. The core mechanics are so well implemented that you can never blame the game for your mistakes, which goes a long way toward lessening the frustration. But it's impossible to completely eliminate the feeling of helplessness in a game this difficult. You will need to sink in many hours before you're strong enough to expertly gun down enemies, and it's hard to deny the tedium of repeatedly playing the first levels until things finally click. Those easily intimidated need not apply, but anyone craving a serious challenge should look no further, and the novel persistent upgrade system offers a healthy change from other shoot-'em-ups. When you throw in modern amenities, such as leaderboards and downloadable replays, this turns into an addictive challenge for anyone who loves chasing high scores. Radiant Silvergun is unkind to beginners but offers a satisfying experience to those who are willing to invest themselves in it.
For the uninitiated, Radiant Silvergun is absolutely daunting the first time you start things up. The right side of the screen displays all of the weapons you currently have access to, as well as the buttons that they're mapped to. Your eyes stare at the screen, trying to comprehend how you're going to manage seven separate guns at once. Do you unlock them as you go? Maybe grab power-ups from destroyed enemies? Nope! The weapons you begin Radiant Silvergun with are the ones you keep for the entire game. There are three base weapons that continually upgrade as you use them. Homing missiles, explosive diagonal blasts, and a deadly frontal ray offer good diversity in your killing powers. The four secondary weapons have more specific uses. Lock-on missiles, a sweeping laser, and rear assault fit right in with what you'd expect, but the final weapon is quite different from the norm. A short-range sword can be used to defeat enemies, as well as gobble up certain attacks, and figuring out how to use this bad boy is the key to mastering the game.
There are many shoot-'em-ups where enemies flood the screen with so many bullets that the games have become known as "bullet hell." Radiant Silvergun is not one of those games. Challenge comes from managing your guns so you can efficiently dispose of the vast assortment of enemies you encounter. The radar strike, for instance, is the only weapon that can pass through barriers, so using it to clear out foes in front of you is a great way to win a battle before your life is even threatened. At other times, your best bet is to fly toward the top of the screen and use your rear cannon, so you're safely out of harm's way while your enemies fire their worthless guns toward the bottom. But you have to play levels many times before you understand these methods. Furthermore, your guns are so weak in the early going that it takes an awfully long time to take down simple enemies. Because of these two elements, you have to spend hours upgrading your weapons and learning patterns before you're adept enough to triumph.
Those happy pink balls spell your doom.
Radiant Silvergun is never cheap. When you die, it's because you messed up. You misjudged an enemy's attack pattern or flew too close to a barrier. This knowledge gives you the strength to push on because if you stay attentive, you won't make careless mistakes that cost you dearly. Precise controls ensure you're completely in command of your craft. Whether you're weaving in and out of bullets, circling bosses to find their weak points, or wielding your sword like a dragon slayer, everything feels just as it should. Age has been extremely kind to Radiant Silvergun because the core mechanics are so well implemented. The visuals have been updated slightly from the Saturn original, and though it's clear this is a game that was first released more than a decade ago, it still looks sharp. It's easy to discern the background from the foreground, as well as identify enemies, and that instant communication is the most vital aspect of a shoot-em-up's visual design.
The persistent Story mode is the most interesting way to play Radiant Silvergun, but if steep difficulty is too much to handle, you can dive into Arcade mode for a breather. Here, you can tweak how many lives you have, and that cushion gives you a chance to experiment without the fear that constantly hounds you in Story mode. If you're still stuck, Practice mode gives you a chance to test out the best strategy in a specific portion before you make a legitimate run for it. Here, you can tweak the speed settings, which gives you a chance to understand everything unfolding before you crank things up full blast. There's also a cooperative mode (online or offline) if you crave help from a more adept player or want to take a novice under your wing. Finally, you can tweak the difficulty, even in Story mode, so beginners have a chance to succeed. Turning things down to easy lowers the hit points of your enemies, so you can spend less time focusing on leveling up and more time having fun.
Radiant Silvergun has stood the test of time. The core mechanics are so well implemented that you can never blame the game for your mistakes, which goes a long way toward lessening the frustration. But it's impossible to completely eliminate the feeling of helplessness in a game this difficult. You will need to sink in many hours before you're strong enough to expertly gun down enemies, and it's hard to deny the tedium of repeatedly playing the first levels until things finally click. Those easily intimidated need not apply, but anyone craving a serious challenge should look no further, and the novel persistent upgrade system offers a healthy change from other shoot-'em-ups. When you throw in modern amenities, such as leaderboards and downloadable replays, this turns into an addictive challenge for anyone who loves chasing high scores. Radiant Silvergun is unkind to beginners but offers a satisfying experience to those who are willing to invest themselves in it.
Epic Games' trilogy capper joined by Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2, Kirby Mass Attack at retail; Black Ops: Rezurrection comes to PS3, PC.
Gears of War 3 marks the end of Epic Games' current story arc starring Marcus Fenix and his merry band of cogs, and early reviews indicate the trilogy is going out with a bang. However, Epic's sci-fi shooter isn't marching to the front lines alone, as the third week of September also marks the arrival of two DS exclusives from Nintendo as well as a stockpile of downloadable fair.
As for Gears of War 3, the game begins with the last human city having been obliterated and series hero Marcus Fenix trying to protect the remaining humans from the Locust horde, as well as from the newer, deadlier foe, the mutating Lambent. The game is available in a standard ($60), Limited ($80), and Epic ($150) edition, and a $30 season pass for four upcoming add-on packs is also available.
On to Nintendo's platforms, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 plays out much like other games in the Square Enix-owned franchise, where turn-based battles offer players the option to fight or flee. More than 300 different monsters are available in Joker 2, though about 50 can be gained only through the correct merging of two other species.
The turn-based role-playing game will be accompanied by Kirby: Mass Attack. Biilled as a side-scrolling real-time strategy game, Kirby: Mass Attack challenges players with guiding an amassed army of Kirbys to safety. Gamers can complement their purchase of the pink puffball's latest outing by picking up a new $170 metallic rose DSi XL, which hits store shelves on Sunday.
Switching to the downloadable sector, Bethesda Softworks will be releasing Lonesome Road as a free add-on for Fallout: New Vegas. The week also sees the release of the PlayStation 3 and PC version of the Call of Duty: Black Ops' Rezurrection map pack, which is already available for the Xbox 360 edition of the game.
Also this week, EA will be releasing Burnout Crash through Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. A top-down take on the Burnout series' signature crash mode, the game sports three modes across six locations and boasts 18 crash junctions. Additionally, Burnout Crash supports the Autolog feature, an online social infrastructure that was first introduced in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and lets players measure their performance against their friends.
Capcom has a pair of Resident Evil HD remakes en route for XBLA and the PSN this month, the first of which debuts this week. Resident Evil 4 HD signifies the first time the critically acclaimed installment in Capcom's long-running survival horror series releases for Microsoft's and Sony's high-def platforms.
For further details on the week's games, visit GameSpot's New Releases page. The full list of downloadable games on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Wii Shop Channel will be revealed later this week. Release dates are based on retailer listings and are subject to change.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18
Metallic Rose DSi XL hardware
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2--DS--Nintendo
Kirby Mass Attack--DS--Nintendo
Time of Fury--PC--Slitherine
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
Barbie: Jet, Set & Style!--WII, DS--THQ
Brunswick Pro Bowling--3DS--Crave
Burnout Crash!--PS3--EA
Casino Chaos with Las Vegas Players Collection--PC--THQ
Challenge Me: Word Puzzles--DS--O-Games
Cubixx HD--PS3--Laughing Jackal
Drakensang: Complete Saga--PC--ValuSoft
Emily The Strange: Strangerous--DS--Tri Synergy
F1 2011--X360, PS3--THQ
Fallout: New Vegas - Lonesome Road--X360, PS3, PC--Bethesda Softworks
Frogger 3D--3DS--Konami
Gears of War 3--X360--Microsoft
Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns--DS--Natsume
Jewel Time Deluxe--DS--O-Games
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection--3DS--Crave
Resident Evil 4 HD--X360, PS3--Capcom
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2 - Innocent Sin--PSP--Atlus
Supremacy MMA--X360, PS3--505 Games
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
Burnout Crash!--X360--EA
Rotastic--X360--Focus Home Interactive
Worms Ultimate Mayhem--PC--Team 17
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22
Aya and the Cubes of Light--WII--Object Vision Software
Break Tactics--DS--Agetec
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Rezurrection--PS3, PC--Activision
Hector: Badge of Carnage - Episode 3: Beyond Reasonable Doom--PC--Telltale Games
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
As for Gears of War 3, the game begins with the last human city having been obliterated and series hero Marcus Fenix trying to protect the remaining humans from the Locust horde, as well as from the newer, deadlier foe, the mutating Lambent. The game is available in a standard ($60), Limited ($80), and Epic ($150) edition, and a $30 season pass for four upcoming add-on packs is also available.
On to Nintendo's platforms, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 plays out much like other games in the Square Enix-owned franchise, where turn-based battles offer players the option to fight or flee. More than 300 different monsters are available in Joker 2, though about 50 can be gained only through the correct merging of two other species.
The turn-based role-playing game will be accompanied by Kirby: Mass Attack. Biilled as a side-scrolling real-time strategy game, Kirby: Mass Attack challenges players with guiding an amassed army of Kirbys to safety. Gamers can complement their purchase of the pink puffball's latest outing by picking up a new $170 metallic rose DSi XL, which hits store shelves on Sunday.
Switching to the downloadable sector, Bethesda Softworks will be releasing Lonesome Road as a free add-on for Fallout: New Vegas. The week also sees the release of the PlayStation 3 and PC version of the Call of Duty: Black Ops' Rezurrection map pack, which is already available for the Xbox 360 edition of the game.
Also this week, EA will be releasing Burnout Crash through Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. A top-down take on the Burnout series' signature crash mode, the game sports three modes across six locations and boasts 18 crash junctions. Additionally, Burnout Crash supports the Autolog feature, an online social infrastructure that was first introduced in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and lets players measure their performance against their friends.
Capcom has a pair of Resident Evil HD remakes en route for XBLA and the PSN this month, the first of which debuts this week. Resident Evil 4 HD signifies the first time the critically acclaimed installment in Capcom's long-running survival horror series releases for Microsoft's and Sony's high-def platforms.
For further details on the week's games, visit GameSpot's New Releases page. The full list of downloadable games on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Wii Shop Channel will be revealed later this week. Release dates are based on retailer listings and are subject to change.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18
Metallic Rose DSi XL hardware
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2--DS--Nintendo
Kirby Mass Attack--DS--Nintendo
Time of Fury--PC--Slitherine
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
Barbie: Jet, Set & Style!--WII, DS--THQ
Brunswick Pro Bowling--3DS--Crave
Burnout Crash!--PS3--EA
Casino Chaos with Las Vegas Players Collection--PC--THQ
Challenge Me: Word Puzzles--DS--O-Games
Cubixx HD--PS3--Laughing Jackal
Drakensang: Complete Saga--PC--ValuSoft
Emily The Strange: Strangerous--DS--Tri Synergy
F1 2011--X360, PS3--THQ
Fallout: New Vegas - Lonesome Road--X360, PS3, PC--Bethesda Softworks
Frogger 3D--3DS--Konami
Gears of War 3--X360--Microsoft
Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns--DS--Natsume
Jewel Time Deluxe--DS--O-Games
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection--3DS--Crave
Resident Evil 4 HD--X360, PS3--Capcom
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2 - Innocent Sin--PSP--Atlus
Supremacy MMA--X360, PS3--505 Games
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
Burnout Crash!--X360--EA
Rotastic--X360--Focus Home Interactive
Worms Ultimate Mayhem--PC--Team 17
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22
Aya and the Cubes of Light--WII--Object Vision Software
Break Tactics--DS--Agetec
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Rezurrection--PS3, PC--Activision
Hector: Badge of Carnage - Episode 3: Beyond Reasonable Doom--PC--Telltale Games
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
TGS 2011: Kingdom Hearts 3D hands-on preview
Have a care for the poor Kingdom Hearts fan. All they want is a true third entry in the series and all they get is a series of spin-offs and half-sequels on portable systems. That seems again to be the case with 3DS title Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, which takes place after KHII and stars Sora and Riku teaming up on a quest from wise mage Yen Sid to prepare for battle with returning Hearts baddie Xehahort. The demo build at TGS 2011 had one level each for the two leads of the game, and while the stages were brief, this felt more like a fuller KH experience than some side game.
Above: Sadly, Square-Enix has been very stingy with new screens, so you'll have to make due with older stuff like this trailer We started with Sora in a stage that seemed early in the game as he awakes in Traverse Town in some new clothes thanks to Yen Sid’s magic. Just as he’s wondering how he returned to the famous hub city and was shouting for his missing pal Riku, the most surprising moment of the demo happens as Neku from the DS RPG World Ends With You appears. It’s a pretty funny meeting, as Neku’s dour, fatalistic ennui can’t defeat Sora’s helpful nature. As Neku talks of “The Game,” meaning the life or death challenge he faced in WEWY, Sora immediately offers to help him and tries to start a friendship with the emo headphones wearer, though Neku tells him he’s odd for wanting to help total strangers. Neku then disappeared as fast as he showed up, leaving Sora to explore Traverse on his own.
Well not totally alone, as Sora is accompanied by two animal companions that are nearly as helpful, though not half as fun to be around as Donald and Goofy. One was a bouncy dog-like creature, the other a large panda-esque animal, and throughout the stage we found enemy versions of those guys, which tells us that there must be some system for making enemies team members, though our Square-Enix US representatives had few details on just how that system would work. Though your cute friends didn’t seem as deep as some of your previous partners, once you tapped their icon on the touchscreen they unleashed powerful co-op attacks with Sora, as Sora rode the dog as it bounced off the ground, hitting enemies in waves with each drop, while the panda swung Sora by his legs in a spin attack before launching him head first at enemies.
As we hopped around Traverse Town we ran into new KH baddies the Dream Eaters, beating the crap out of them for the green orbs KH fans hunger for. The combat used A to attack, B to jump, and X for magic, while the Y button unleashed flashier attacks dependent on where the character is in the stage. We saw Sora do a mid-air combo, bounce of walls to hit multiple enemies, and even swing around a light post when we used this command. Additionally, most areas had a special box that when you pressed X and A at the same time nearby, Sora jumped inside, initiating the Sling Shot attack as you directed where in the immediate area you wanted to fling Sora using the touchscreen.
After a short exploration of the world, we quickly ran into Sora’s lead enemy of the demo, a giant wolf creature. We had an involved battle on the glass roof of one of Traverse Town’s bigger buildings, as we put our team attacks to good use against the big bad. After crashing through the roof and with one last helpful toss from our panda pal, the villain was no more. In a flash of light that portion of the demo was over and it was time to explore with Riku.
Above: Japanese magazine Famitsu got to record their time with the Sora half of the demo Things start off a bit worse for Riku, as the white-haired youngster arrives in the troubled world based on Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame film from the mid-90s. The normally populated area in front of the famous structure is in disarray, with several buildings on fire, and a distraught Quasimodo holding a barely conscious Esmerelda (think they’ll get Demi Moore to reprise that role for the US localization?). They were just attacked by a giant, flying, demonic creature, one Riku intends to stop. The Hunchback world is hopefully the first of many new Disney-themed areas to be introduced in Kingdom Hearts 3D, though we’re a little surprised they chose one of the darker and less popular films of Disney’s 90s releases.
As Riku explored the famous cathedral to face the boss at the top, we noticed that his combat was a little more visceral than Sora’s, with his special Y attacks a tad fiercer. Riku’s two sidekicks were a bat monster and something akin to a deer, and their team-up moves were less playful, as both just seemed to enhance Riku’s Keyblade attacks instead of him working directly with the creatures. Also, Riku’s X+A attack on the touchscreen, Holy Rope, was more serious, as you drew a line between different points as Riku unleashed an attack when flying between them.
Once we began our boss battle at the top of the cathedral, we thought we’d had trouble as the enemy mostly just flew in the air and sent projectiles our way, though we soon found out Riku could fly with ease, so we engaged the baddie in a floaty airborne battle. It was fun, though at times we were wishing we had the new Slide Pad for the 3DS which is compatible with KH3D, as continually resituating the camera with the shoulder buttons to chase after the enemy wasn’t all that awesome.
Just as with the other half of the demo, once Riku’s boss was dispatched the gameplay slice was complete and we were left wanting more. Though the game has yet to be officially made official for a US release, we would be VERY surprised if we didn’t see it sometime next year after its Spring 2012 Japanese release. Though we aren’t sure just how long it will be, it certainly felt like a fuller KH experience, and one we can’t wait to see more of.
Above: Sadly, Square-Enix has been very stingy with new screens, so you'll have to make due with older stuff like this trailer We started with Sora in a stage that seemed early in the game as he awakes in Traverse Town in some new clothes thanks to Yen Sid’s magic. Just as he’s wondering how he returned to the famous hub city and was shouting for his missing pal Riku, the most surprising moment of the demo happens as Neku from the DS RPG World Ends With You appears. It’s a pretty funny meeting, as Neku’s dour, fatalistic ennui can’t defeat Sora’s helpful nature. As Neku talks of “The Game,” meaning the life or death challenge he faced in WEWY, Sora immediately offers to help him and tries to start a friendship with the emo headphones wearer, though Neku tells him he’s odd for wanting to help total strangers. Neku then disappeared as fast as he showed up, leaving Sora to explore Traverse on his own.
Well not totally alone, as Sora is accompanied by two animal companions that are nearly as helpful, though not half as fun to be around as Donald and Goofy. One was a bouncy dog-like creature, the other a large panda-esque animal, and throughout the stage we found enemy versions of those guys, which tells us that there must be some system for making enemies team members, though our Square-Enix US representatives had few details on just how that system would work. Though your cute friends didn’t seem as deep as some of your previous partners, once you tapped their icon on the touchscreen they unleashed powerful co-op attacks with Sora, as Sora rode the dog as it bounced off the ground, hitting enemies in waves with each drop, while the panda swung Sora by his legs in a spin attack before launching him head first at enemies.
As we hopped around Traverse Town we ran into new KH baddies the Dream Eaters, beating the crap out of them for the green orbs KH fans hunger for. The combat used A to attack, B to jump, and X for magic, while the Y button unleashed flashier attacks dependent on where the character is in the stage. We saw Sora do a mid-air combo, bounce of walls to hit multiple enemies, and even swing around a light post when we used this command. Additionally, most areas had a special box that when you pressed X and A at the same time nearby, Sora jumped inside, initiating the Sling Shot attack as you directed where in the immediate area you wanted to fling Sora using the touchscreen.
After a short exploration of the world, we quickly ran into Sora’s lead enemy of the demo, a giant wolf creature. We had an involved battle on the glass roof of one of Traverse Town’s bigger buildings, as we put our team attacks to good use against the big bad. After crashing through the roof and with one last helpful toss from our panda pal, the villain was no more. In a flash of light that portion of the demo was over and it was time to explore with Riku.
Above: Japanese magazine Famitsu got to record their time with the Sora half of the demo Things start off a bit worse for Riku, as the white-haired youngster arrives in the troubled world based on Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame film from the mid-90s. The normally populated area in front of the famous structure is in disarray, with several buildings on fire, and a distraught Quasimodo holding a barely conscious Esmerelda (think they’ll get Demi Moore to reprise that role for the US localization?). They were just attacked by a giant, flying, demonic creature, one Riku intends to stop. The Hunchback world is hopefully the first of many new Disney-themed areas to be introduced in Kingdom Hearts 3D, though we’re a little surprised they chose one of the darker and less popular films of Disney’s 90s releases.
As Riku explored the famous cathedral to face the boss at the top, we noticed that his combat was a little more visceral than Sora’s, with his special Y attacks a tad fiercer. Riku’s two sidekicks were a bat monster and something akin to a deer, and their team-up moves were less playful, as both just seemed to enhance Riku’s Keyblade attacks instead of him working directly with the creatures. Also, Riku’s X+A attack on the touchscreen, Holy Rope, was more serious, as you drew a line between different points as Riku unleashed an attack when flying between them.
Once we began our boss battle at the top of the cathedral, we thought we’d had trouble as the enemy mostly just flew in the air and sent projectiles our way, though we soon found out Riku could fly with ease, so we engaged the baddie in a floaty airborne battle. It was fun, though at times we were wishing we had the new Slide Pad for the 3DS which is compatible with KH3D, as continually resituating the camera with the shoulder buttons to chase after the enemy wasn’t all that awesome.
Just as with the other half of the demo, once Riku’s boss was dispatched the gameplay slice was complete and we were left wanting more. Though the game has yet to be officially made official for a US release, we would be VERY surprised if we didn’t see it sometime next year after its Spring 2012 Japanese release. Though we aren’t sure just how long it will be, it certainly felt like a fuller KH experience, and one we can’t wait to see more of.
TGS 2011: Lumines Electronic Symphony hands-on preview
With PS Vitas in short supply at this year's TGS, we were pleased to be able to sit down in a quiet spot off the show floor and play the TGS demo of Lumines: Electronic Symphony. From our brief time with the game, it looks like Electronic Symphony is poised to be the puzzle game for Vita as the original Lumines was for PSP.
Creating a follow-up to such a simple, well-designed, well-balanced block puzzle is tough. Besides updating the visuals and sound, what do you do? Well, Electronic Symphony obviously has upped the ante on the overall presentation, but it adds a few elements to the gameplay without disrupting the core mechanics or the flow of the game.
A quick primer on Lumines: it's a falling block puzzle where squares of four blocks fall one at a time from the top of the screen, and you must match same-colored squares of four or more (there are only two colors of blocks on any given level). Blocks clear each time the sweeper line passes over them, and you get more points the more blocks you can clear in a single sweep. It's from Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi though, so you know it's more than just a falling block puzzle – there's a music and rhythm element too. The sweeper line, called the timeline, moves to the tempo of the music in each level (so it moves slower during a slow song), and of course the visuals also pulsate and change in rhythm with the music too, the intensity of which escalates as your score climbs higher and higher.
So what's new in Electronic Symphony? For starters, it adds two new special blocks, called the chain block and the shuffle block. The chain block clears all blocks of the same color that it touches and any other blocks that are adjacent to those blocks within the same cluster. So if you have a long snaking line of blocks that touch but don't form any squares, it will clear them all. The shuffle block does exactly what it sounds like it does – it randomly shuffles all the blocks within a cluster (clusters are any group of blocks that all touch each other on the field). This might sound bad, but in a pinch it can actually be a lifesaver. If your screen is almost full and you're in danger of a game over, a shuffle can potentially create a bunch of matches and clear more room on the screen.
Avatars also play a bigger role this time too, and the avatar you choose determines what kind of special power-up you get. As you play, a meter fills that allows you to use an avatar power by tapping the icon in the lower left corner – in the demo, using the avatar power gave us a random special block. You can fill up the meter faster by tapping your fingers against the Vita's back touch pad, which totally works, but feels a bit silly and seems like an unnecessary use of the hardware's features. At the very least, you can ignore it if you'd like.
From the brief demo alone, it's clear that Electronic Symphony takes full advantage of the new hardware, and the newly 3D visuals look absolutely amazing on the Vita screen. As our score grew and the visuals got more and more intense, it was impossible not to slow down and admire how gorgeous it looks in motion. Like Mizuguchi's other works, it really plays with different visual aspects creatively, like opacities and textures, dynamic lighting, and particle effects (we're told there's a skin with a popcorn popping theme, which sounds like a satisfying visual). And with over 50 skins confirmed for the game, there's a lot more to look forward to. Expect tons of great music too, with licensed tracks "Hey Boy Hey Girl" by The Chemical Brothers and "4 AM" by Kaskade.
Lumines: Electronic Symphony is planned as a launch title for North America and Europe, so look for more info in the coming months.
Creating a follow-up to such a simple, well-designed, well-balanced block puzzle is tough. Besides updating the visuals and sound, what do you do? Well, Electronic Symphony obviously has upped the ante on the overall presentation, but it adds a few elements to the gameplay without disrupting the core mechanics or the flow of the game.
A quick primer on Lumines: it's a falling block puzzle where squares of four blocks fall one at a time from the top of the screen, and you must match same-colored squares of four or more (there are only two colors of blocks on any given level). Blocks clear each time the sweeper line passes over them, and you get more points the more blocks you can clear in a single sweep. It's from Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi though, so you know it's more than just a falling block puzzle – there's a music and rhythm element too. The sweeper line, called the timeline, moves to the tempo of the music in each level (so it moves slower during a slow song), and of course the visuals also pulsate and change in rhythm with the music too, the intensity of which escalates as your score climbs higher and higher.
So what's new in Electronic Symphony? For starters, it adds two new special blocks, called the chain block and the shuffle block. The chain block clears all blocks of the same color that it touches and any other blocks that are adjacent to those blocks within the same cluster. So if you have a long snaking line of blocks that touch but don't form any squares, it will clear them all. The shuffle block does exactly what it sounds like it does – it randomly shuffles all the blocks within a cluster (clusters are any group of blocks that all touch each other on the field). This might sound bad, but in a pinch it can actually be a lifesaver. If your screen is almost full and you're in danger of a game over, a shuffle can potentially create a bunch of matches and clear more room on the screen.
Avatars also play a bigger role this time too, and the avatar you choose determines what kind of special power-up you get. As you play, a meter fills that allows you to use an avatar power by tapping the icon in the lower left corner – in the demo, using the avatar power gave us a random special block. You can fill up the meter faster by tapping your fingers against the Vita's back touch pad, which totally works, but feels a bit silly and seems like an unnecessary use of the hardware's features. At the very least, you can ignore it if you'd like.
From the brief demo alone, it's clear that Electronic Symphony takes full advantage of the new hardware, and the newly 3D visuals look absolutely amazing on the Vita screen. As our score grew and the visuals got more and more intense, it was impossible not to slow down and admire how gorgeous it looks in motion. Like Mizuguchi's other works, it really plays with different visual aspects creatively, like opacities and textures, dynamic lighting, and particle effects (we're told there's a skin with a popcorn popping theme, which sounds like a satisfying visual). And with over 50 skins confirmed for the game, there's a lot more to look forward to. Expect tons of great music too, with licensed tracks "Hey Boy Hey Girl" by The Chemical Brothers and "4 AM" by Kaskade.
Lumines: Electronic Symphony is planned as a launch title for North America and Europe, so look for more info in the coming months.
TGS 2011: Army Corps of Hell (PS Vita) first hands-on preview
On the show floor of Tokyo Game Show, space is at a premium, with crowds all over the place, and based on the gigantic lines for most titles, it seems the PS Vita is most popular with attendees. That’s no surprise as this is its public debut in Japan, but it makes getting your hands on a Vita title incredibly difficult. Fortunately, one of the first titles we finally got a shot at was Square-Enix’s just revealed Army Corps of Hell. With over-the-top violence and a heavy metal aesthetic, you might not think it would remind you of Nintendo classic Pikmin, but the similarly light RTS gameplay style quickly made this one of our early favorites planned for the Vita launch.
We began the game as the skeletal lord of demons entered the Underworld with his tribe of 99 smaller minions surrounding him. As our first enemy appeared, a monster that mostly consisted of a giant, purple-lidded eye, we approached him on the circular platform with our brigade of testy demons and began tossing our angry army at the giant. As our team equipped with swords got on top of the beast and stabbed it to death, it eventually exploded into a shower of blood, leaving only its eyeball, which the titular Army Corps of Hell quickly consumed.
Soon enough we learned that our squad was made of three factions: the previously mentioned swordsmen, a group that used spears, and a team of magic users. Each made up a third of your forces and you switched on the fly between them depending on what the situation called for. A couple baddies were more susceptible to spears than swords, and there were a few times we needed to strategically pull back and use the magical ranged attacks of our squad. It struck a nice balance as we took out hellspawn after hellspawn with our team.
Still, we have to admit that the small amount we played was a tad linear, as each encounter followed thusly: find a few enemies on a circular platform, kill them all, wait for a bridge of bones to appear, then cross to the next platform. There was a health-restoring minigame that used the back touchpad to liven things up, but unfortunately it wasn’t really working in our demo build. But even if it started to grind a little, our spirits were kept up by the hilariously silly heavy metal soundtrack in the background and just how excitedly violent the title was. Though the game hasn’t been announced for an English language release, the style and design just screams Western announcement, so hopefully it’ll be ready in time for the early 2012 US/UK launch.
As we reached the boss of stage, the strategy got a little deeper as we ran around the platform avoiding his powerful stomp attacks then circling back around to fling our swordsmen at his knees to bring him down. By the way, Army Corps gameplay demands makes the direct camera control a necessity, giving us renewed appreciation for the Vita’s right thumb stick. Once we brought the boss to the ground, our spearmen were all over his face and eventually ripped off his head, which sailed across the stage in a bloody arc. As our satisfied team fed on the spoils of battle (aka the severed head), we were also satisfied with the pretty fun time we had with Army Corps of Hell. As long as Pikmin 3 is stuck in development hell, we may as well have fun in the meantime with this hellish tribute on the Vita.
We began the game as the skeletal lord of demons entered the Underworld with his tribe of 99 smaller minions surrounding him. As our first enemy appeared, a monster that mostly consisted of a giant, purple-lidded eye, we approached him on the circular platform with our brigade of testy demons and began tossing our angry army at the giant. As our team equipped with swords got on top of the beast and stabbed it to death, it eventually exploded into a shower of blood, leaving only its eyeball, which the titular Army Corps of Hell quickly consumed.
Soon enough we learned that our squad was made of three factions: the previously mentioned swordsmen, a group that used spears, and a team of magic users. Each made up a third of your forces and you switched on the fly between them depending on what the situation called for. A couple baddies were more susceptible to spears than swords, and there were a few times we needed to strategically pull back and use the magical ranged attacks of our squad. It struck a nice balance as we took out hellspawn after hellspawn with our team.
Still, we have to admit that the small amount we played was a tad linear, as each encounter followed thusly: find a few enemies on a circular platform, kill them all, wait for a bridge of bones to appear, then cross to the next platform. There was a health-restoring minigame that used the back touchpad to liven things up, but unfortunately it wasn’t really working in our demo build. But even if it started to grind a little, our spirits were kept up by the hilariously silly heavy metal soundtrack in the background and just how excitedly violent the title was. Though the game hasn’t been announced for an English language release, the style and design just screams Western announcement, so hopefully it’ll be ready in time for the early 2012 US/UK launch.
As we reached the boss of stage, the strategy got a little deeper as we ran around the platform avoiding his powerful stomp attacks then circling back around to fling our swordsmen at his knees to bring him down. By the way, Army Corps gameplay demands makes the direct camera control a necessity, giving us renewed appreciation for the Vita’s right thumb stick. Once we brought the boss to the ground, our spearmen were all over his face and eventually ripped off his head, which sailed across the stage in a bloody arc. As our satisfied team fed on the spoils of battle (aka the severed head), we were also satisfied with the pretty fun time we had with Army Corps of Hell. As long as Pikmin 3 is stuck in development hell, we may as well have fun in the meantime with this hellish tribute on the Vita.
GR’s weekend giveaway: Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition download codes
Welcome to GamesRadar’s weekend giveaway! This week, we’d like to bring you the gift of game with a chance to win an XBLA or PSN download code for Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition. Entering is easy. Trust us. Just read a few more words and you'll see what we mean.
To enter, just leave a comment on this article by 9:00 am (Pacific Time) on Monday, Sep 19. In your comment, make sure to tell us if you’d prefer an XBLA or PSN code if you win. You can read our official contest rules here. US and Canada residents only please. Our apologies to readers from other countries.
Winners will be selected at random and can expect a PM from one of our administrators early next week. Don’t forget to check your inbox to see if you’ve won!
Good luck!
To enter, just leave a comment on this article by 9:00 am (Pacific Time) on Monday, Sep 19. In your comment, make sure to tell us if you’d prefer an XBLA or PSN code if you win. You can read our official contest rules here. US and Canada residents only please. Our apologies to readers from other countries.
Winners will be selected at random and can expect a PM from one of our administrators early next week. Don’t forget to check your inbox to see if you’ve won!
Good luck!
iPad reviews of the week: VidRhythm, Radballs, DrawRace 2, Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack!
We're checking out the latest offerings from a couple recognizable names in the world of console gaming this week: VidRhythm, the wacky video creation from Rock Band developer Harmonix, as well as DrawRace 2 HD, a touchscreen-oriented racer from Trials HD creator RedLynx. Elsewhere, we're tackling an alluring music-addled puzzle game called Radballs, as well as checking out the second in the series of Serious Sam-inspired indie games, Kamikaze Attack! Most of these are universal apps – aside from DrawRace 2, which has separate iPad and iPhone apps – so one download will let you play on any compatible iOS device. Check 'em out!
Game: VidRhythm
Price: $1.99/£1.49
Size: 12.8MB
Buy it now from the iTunes store: US / UK
VidRhythm is not a game, which makes it a curious anomaly in the history of this weekly feature, as well as the long and impressive background of creator Harmonix – you know, the studio that spawned Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Dance Central, and Karaoke Revolution. Harmonix has an amazing knack for creating innovative and exciting music-related products, and VidRhythm continues that theme on the much smaller scale of a two-dollar universal iPad and iPhone app. Is the developer's first commercial non-game as notable as those aforementioned experiences? Not in the slightest. But for all that the studio has served up over the years, we'll happily check out their other ventures if it'll keep 'em rocking out for years to come.
Depending on how you choose to wield VidRhythm’s abilities, it's either a force for amusement or annoyance. The app grabs quick video clips of whatever's in view – your face, a pet, etc. – along with a brief voice clip as detailed, whether it's a drum-like sound or a hummed note. You'll choose one of 20 featured songs, including sped-up classical tunes and original compositions from within Harmonix, as well as a visual theme, with options inspired by past studio releases and other general themes like cats and colorful icons. Then simply press a button and watch the app transform your various choices into one goofy video that can be uploaded and shared online.
If you'd like to see some nightmarish examples of what happens when you mix the feline theme with human facial reactions, don't hesitate to search for "VidRhythm" on YouTube. It's hard not to admire the app’s ability to immediately translate bite-sized recordings into something lightly amusing you'll want inflict upon friends and family. Before iPhones (and later iPads) were so widely owned, it was easier to be wowed by the things these touchscreen wonders could do. VidRhythm is a welcome throwback to that time, so don't overthink its long-term worth; just drop a couple bucks and get weird with us already.
Game: Radballs
Price: $2.99/£1.99
Size: 165MB
Buy it now from the iTunes store: US / UK
"Radballs" is an awesome term, and Radballs also happens to be a neat iOS puzzle game. The game is all about matching like-colored balls and clearing them from the screen, but this superbly presented app takes its cues from a variety of sources, especially Bejeweled and Lumines. The latter favorite comes to mind due to the inclusion of a moving line (set to the beat of the music) that clears bunched-up balls – but it's also a notable influence on how damn slick the audio and visuals are in this iPad and iPhone offering.
This hodgepodge of familiar elements from top genre entries may not feel quite as polished, balanced, or addictive as its influences, it's definitely intriguing. Colored balls drop onto the playing field, where you shift balls around (one at a time) to pair up four or more like colors into squares or rectangles. Such blocks are cleared when the moving line passes through, which earns you points to fill your Radness meter and clear the stage, but Radballs adds in a fresh mechanic where you can grab the line and scratch it like a record to earn extra points. With power-ups that detonate or electrically clear large chunks of balls, you'll encounter several ways to earn enough Radness to clear each stage.
Born from '80s-inspired design flash, Radballs looks like a million bucks thanks to its eight distinct skins which toss up uniquely styled and colored balls, as well as themed iconography like palm trees and shutter shades. The soundtrack includes some fabulously thumping remixes of recent OK Go singles and other original electronic tracks from Neil Voss, who composed the Tetrisphere and The New Tetris OSTs way back when. Better yet, you can use your own DRM-free music to propel the puzzle action, which adds a new twist to the on-screen antics. Radballs may be like a Frankenstein's monster of existing puzzle ideas, but we can't help but be hooked by the excellent aesthetics.
Game: VidRhythm
Price: $1.99/£1.49
Size: 12.8MB
Buy it now from the iTunes store: US / UK
VidRhythm is not a game, which makes it a curious anomaly in the history of this weekly feature, as well as the long and impressive background of creator Harmonix – you know, the studio that spawned Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Dance Central, and Karaoke Revolution. Harmonix has an amazing knack for creating innovative and exciting music-related products, and VidRhythm continues that theme on the much smaller scale of a two-dollar universal iPad and iPhone app. Is the developer's first commercial non-game as notable as those aforementioned experiences? Not in the slightest. But for all that the studio has served up over the years, we'll happily check out their other ventures if it'll keep 'em rocking out for years to come.
Depending on how you choose to wield VidRhythm’s abilities, it's either a force for amusement or annoyance. The app grabs quick video clips of whatever's in view – your face, a pet, etc. – along with a brief voice clip as detailed, whether it's a drum-like sound or a hummed note. You'll choose one of 20 featured songs, including sped-up classical tunes and original compositions from within Harmonix, as well as a visual theme, with options inspired by past studio releases and other general themes like cats and colorful icons. Then simply press a button and watch the app transform your various choices into one goofy video that can be uploaded and shared online.
If you'd like to see some nightmarish examples of what happens when you mix the feline theme with human facial reactions, don't hesitate to search for "VidRhythm" on YouTube. It's hard not to admire the app’s ability to immediately translate bite-sized recordings into something lightly amusing you'll want inflict upon friends and family. Before iPhones (and later iPads) were so widely owned, it was easier to be wowed by the things these touchscreen wonders could do. VidRhythm is a welcome throwback to that time, so don't overthink its long-term worth; just drop a couple bucks and get weird with us already.
Game: Radballs
Price: $2.99/£1.99
Size: 165MB
Buy it now from the iTunes store: US / UK
"Radballs" is an awesome term, and Radballs also happens to be a neat iOS puzzle game. The game is all about matching like-colored balls and clearing them from the screen, but this superbly presented app takes its cues from a variety of sources, especially Bejeweled and Lumines. The latter favorite comes to mind due to the inclusion of a moving line (set to the beat of the music) that clears bunched-up balls – but it's also a notable influence on how damn slick the audio and visuals are in this iPad and iPhone offering.
This hodgepodge of familiar elements from top genre entries may not feel quite as polished, balanced, or addictive as its influences, it's definitely intriguing. Colored balls drop onto the playing field, where you shift balls around (one at a time) to pair up four or more like colors into squares or rectangles. Such blocks are cleared when the moving line passes through, which earns you points to fill your Radness meter and clear the stage, but Radballs adds in a fresh mechanic where you can grab the line and scratch it like a record to earn extra points. With power-ups that detonate or electrically clear large chunks of balls, you'll encounter several ways to earn enough Radness to clear each stage.
Born from '80s-inspired design flash, Radballs looks like a million bucks thanks to its eight distinct skins which toss up uniquely styled and colored balls, as well as themed iconography like palm trees and shutter shades. The soundtrack includes some fabulously thumping remixes of recent OK Go singles and other original electronic tracks from Neil Voss, who composed the Tetrisphere and The New Tetris OSTs way back when. Better yet, you can use your own DRM-free music to propel the puzzle action, which adds a new twist to the on-screen antics. Radballs may be like a Frankenstein's monster of existing puzzle ideas, but we can't help but be hooked by the excellent aesthetics.
TGS 2011: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy hands-on preview
The Final Fantasy series as whole has one of the best music catalogs in all of gaming, so the idea to make a rhythm game featuring all the classics from the franchise's history is about as solid as it gets. With awesome rhythm games on the DS like Elite Beat Agents and Rhythm Heaven already setting a strong standard, our expectations were high as we picked up Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy for the very first time. After playing through all the tracks available on the TGS demo, it looks like the Final Fantasy rhythm game is right on track.
First, let's talk about the basic mechanics. Like many rhythm games, Theatrhythm features several kinds of notes that you must hit in time to the music in a specific way. Basic notes require a simple tap, arrow notes require a quick flick in the indicated direction, and hold notes require you to hold the stylus to the screen for the indicated duration. Accuracy is graded on each note, with "critical" appropriately being the highest grade possible. Similar to DDR, your character has a life bar and you HP goes up and down depending on how many notes you hit/miss, failing you out of the song if it hits zero.
From the start, it's clear that Theatrhythm isn't just a generic rhythm game with a Final Fantasy skin. First, there are three types of levels that correspond with the three major sections of an FF game – battles, exploration, and cutscenes. Battles are quite similar in format to DDR, where notes move in a straight line across the screen. The set-up looks like an FF battle, with a monster on the left and four party members on the right. As the notes scroll across the top screen, you can tap anywhere on the bottom screen to hit them. Once we got a good streak going on our first battle (the battle theme for the original FF), we automatically triggered a summon, which felt a lot like activating star power in rock band.
Field exploration levels switch things up a bit. Whereas the hold notes in battles are all just a straight line where you don't have to move the stylus at all, the field sections we played had lots of hold notes with wavy lines where we had to move our stylus on the bottom screen to keep it lined up with each note's twisting path. And whereas the battle and exploration levels are side-scrolling, the cutscenes present a fixed screen where the scene plays in the background and the notes circle around in place.
While the highly stylized, over-the-top chibi-size adorableness of the art won't appeal to everyone, we absolutely love it. It fits well for this type of game too – it's a spinoff, not a serious Final Fantasy game, and as such it shouldn't look like one (and if the sprites look familiar, it's because they're from the Japan-only Kingdom Hearts Mobile game). Plus, there's just something fun about seeing characters we've known and loved for so long in a completely different light than we're used to.
The music too, is obviously fantastic. The final game will have over 50 tracks, with three songs each for each game in the numbered series, from the first Final Fantasy through FFXIII (our favorite track from the demo was probably Tina's theme from FFVI, but it's tough to choose).
We're eagerly anticipating an official announcement that Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy will be localized outside of Japan, so look for more news as soon as that happens.
First, let's talk about the basic mechanics. Like many rhythm games, Theatrhythm features several kinds of notes that you must hit in time to the music in a specific way. Basic notes require a simple tap, arrow notes require a quick flick in the indicated direction, and hold notes require you to hold the stylus to the screen for the indicated duration. Accuracy is graded on each note, with "critical" appropriately being the highest grade possible. Similar to DDR, your character has a life bar and you HP goes up and down depending on how many notes you hit/miss, failing you out of the song if it hits zero.
From the start, it's clear that Theatrhythm isn't just a generic rhythm game with a Final Fantasy skin. First, there are three types of levels that correspond with the three major sections of an FF game – battles, exploration, and cutscenes. Battles are quite similar in format to DDR, where notes move in a straight line across the screen. The set-up looks like an FF battle, with a monster on the left and four party members on the right. As the notes scroll across the top screen, you can tap anywhere on the bottom screen to hit them. Once we got a good streak going on our first battle (the battle theme for the original FF), we automatically triggered a summon, which felt a lot like activating star power in rock band.
Field exploration levels switch things up a bit. Whereas the hold notes in battles are all just a straight line where you don't have to move the stylus at all, the field sections we played had lots of hold notes with wavy lines where we had to move our stylus on the bottom screen to keep it lined up with each note's twisting path. And whereas the battle and exploration levels are side-scrolling, the cutscenes present a fixed screen where the scene plays in the background and the notes circle around in place.
While the highly stylized, over-the-top chibi-size adorableness of the art won't appeal to everyone, we absolutely love it. It fits well for this type of game too – it's a spinoff, not a serious Final Fantasy game, and as such it shouldn't look like one (and if the sprites look familiar, it's because they're from the Japan-only Kingdom Hearts Mobile game). Plus, there's just something fun about seeing characters we've known and loved for so long in a completely different light than we're used to.
The music too, is obviously fantastic. The final game will have over 50 tracks, with three songs each for each game in the numbered series, from the first Final Fantasy through FFXIII (our favorite track from the demo was probably Tina's theme from FFVI, but it's tough to choose).
We're eagerly anticipating an official announcement that Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy will be localized outside of Japan, so look for more news as soon as that happens.
TGS 2011: Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor (Kinect) preview
Announced last year at Tokyo Game Show before Kinect hit stores, the idea of a new Steel Battalion game for a controller-free hardware d-on seemed almost comical. The original Steel Battalion is remembered by hardcore collectors for being packed in with one of the most complicated console controllers of all time. Now the series is back with Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor as Capcom gives development responsibilities to From Software, and in the place of two control sticks, three pedals, and 40 buttons, you’re left with motion controls to fill the gap. Could that possibly work? After seeing it in action, we think it just might.
During our hands-off, developer controlled demo, we quickly understood that Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor’s greatest strength is its use of Kinect and the standard controller in unison. The fact that a controller is involved came as a relief to us, since a mech combat game like this one demands precision that waving your arms about can’t really do on its own. For the core mechanic of pointing you weapons at stuff and blowing it to smithereens, it’s all on the controller, but there’s a myriad of things happening around that central experience that can only be done with Kinect.
Taking place in a future where a virus caused technology to basically be set back to the 1920s, humanity has had to to quickly get back in the swing of things now that computers are gone. In that turmoil America was invaded by a country that sounds like some sort of Communist conglomeration, and in 2082 America is slowly taking back their states, one bloody, mech-filled battle at a time. In this war you pilot a VT or Vertical Tank, the walking war machines central to the conflict.
From inside the VT a team of soldiers run the contraption, with you manning the main controls. In the background your support team is reloading the canons, checking diagnostics, and talking plainly yet poetically about the nature of war. From standard view inside the cockpit, which is seen when sitting and having the controller in a resting position on your lap, you can turn around and check on your squad mates with a quick sweep of your hand in the direction of the corner of the tank you want to check.
As we were introduced to the motion controls they came off as a mix of useful and gimmicky. Pratical tricks included turning a knob to switch your main weapon, pulling down your camera array to view the battlefield from different angles, and standing up to exit the top of the tank to get an unobstructed view of the battlefield. The more gimmicky uses included shaking a squad member’s hand, putting your hands up to your eyes to use binoculars while standing, and in one of the funnier moments of the demo, punching a hysterical teammate. As the battle gets too intense for one member of the support team, he tries to run out of the tank and, after pulling him back in with a quick overhead grab with your right hand, you then punch him in the face multiple times to get him to calm down, which works for some reason.
That brief exchange of therapeutic punches was peppered with obscenities highlights another important thing about the game: it seems heavily aimed at the western, mature market. The battles are incredibly bloody, with VT machinegun fire hitting human infantry and exploding them into bloody messes on impact. Additionally, the soldiers have swear-heavy conversations about how effed up a particular battle is, and how they don’t need this shit. The overall look also seems more Western, with character designs and settings taking a much more American flavor.
Though the start of the demo was frontloaded with Kinect-based actions, the deeper we got in, the more the controller took center stage. With a quick push forward of both hands and the controller, the pilot enters the standard action view, as the VT slowly walked forward, blasting enemies both human and mech to bits. While standard munitions just bounce off the exterior, heavy blasts from opposing VTs cast about the cockpit and its inhabitants violently. After taking down a particularly heavily armored VT and some guard towers, the day was won and the soldiers had taken back Manhattan.
After the brief demo we were impressed with how the controller and Kinect were able to work together for a richer-looking experience that could be something special when its 2012 release rolls around. Though we don’t think all the Kinect uses we saw were wholly necessary, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor could be the first Kinect game that successfully caters to hardcore players instead of dancing grandmas and excitable children. However, with all the different ways you use Kinect controls in the cockpit, we bet this will have one hell of a tutorial.
During our hands-off, developer controlled demo, we quickly understood that Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor’s greatest strength is its use of Kinect and the standard controller in unison. The fact that a controller is involved came as a relief to us, since a mech combat game like this one demands precision that waving your arms about can’t really do on its own. For the core mechanic of pointing you weapons at stuff and blowing it to smithereens, it’s all on the controller, but there’s a myriad of things happening around that central experience that can only be done with Kinect.
Taking place in a future where a virus caused technology to basically be set back to the 1920s, humanity has had to to quickly get back in the swing of things now that computers are gone. In that turmoil America was invaded by a country that sounds like some sort of Communist conglomeration, and in 2082 America is slowly taking back their states, one bloody, mech-filled battle at a time. In this war you pilot a VT or Vertical Tank, the walking war machines central to the conflict.
From inside the VT a team of soldiers run the contraption, with you manning the main controls. In the background your support team is reloading the canons, checking diagnostics, and talking plainly yet poetically about the nature of war. From standard view inside the cockpit, which is seen when sitting and having the controller in a resting position on your lap, you can turn around and check on your squad mates with a quick sweep of your hand in the direction of the corner of the tank you want to check.
As we were introduced to the motion controls they came off as a mix of useful and gimmicky. Pratical tricks included turning a knob to switch your main weapon, pulling down your camera array to view the battlefield from different angles, and standing up to exit the top of the tank to get an unobstructed view of the battlefield. The more gimmicky uses included shaking a squad member’s hand, putting your hands up to your eyes to use binoculars while standing, and in one of the funnier moments of the demo, punching a hysterical teammate. As the battle gets too intense for one member of the support team, he tries to run out of the tank and, after pulling him back in with a quick overhead grab with your right hand, you then punch him in the face multiple times to get him to calm down, which works for some reason.
That brief exchange of therapeutic punches was peppered with obscenities highlights another important thing about the game: it seems heavily aimed at the western, mature market. The battles are incredibly bloody, with VT machinegun fire hitting human infantry and exploding them into bloody messes on impact. Additionally, the soldiers have swear-heavy conversations about how effed up a particular battle is, and how they don’t need this shit. The overall look also seems more Western, with character designs and settings taking a much more American flavor.
Though the start of the demo was frontloaded with Kinect-based actions, the deeper we got in, the more the controller took center stage. With a quick push forward of both hands and the controller, the pilot enters the standard action view, as the VT slowly walked forward, blasting enemies both human and mech to bits. While standard munitions just bounce off the exterior, heavy blasts from opposing VTs cast about the cockpit and its inhabitants violently. After taking down a particularly heavily armored VT and some guard towers, the day was won and the soldiers had taken back Manhattan.
After the brief demo we were impressed with how the controller and Kinect were able to work together for a richer-looking experience that could be something special when its 2012 release rolls around. Though we don’t think all the Kinect uses we saw were wholly necessary, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor could be the first Kinect game that successfully caters to hardcore players instead of dancing grandmas and excitable children. However, with all the different ways you use Kinect controls in the cockpit, we bet this will have one hell of a tutorial.
TGS 2011: Clan of Champions announced for PS3, 360 and PC
NIS America recently announced at TGS that it plans to publish the fantasy action game Clan of Champions in North America and Europe for PS3, 360 and PC. The multi-platform title is quite a departure for the publisher, best known for niche Japanese titles like the hardcore tactical RPG series Disgaea and lovely Ar Tonelico JRPGs.
Clan of Champions is being developed by Acquire, best known for the Tenchu series. The developer has also worked with NIS before on the PSP titles What Did I Do To Deserve This, My Lord? and Class of Heroes, but this type of multi-platform project is new territory. Multiplayer will be a huge component too, with both three player co-op and three-on-three competitive modes. Character customization will allow players to choose among human, elf or orc, and although it's primarily an action game, it appears to have some RPG elements like weapon leveling.
Set for a Spring 2012 release in both North America and Europe, Clan of Champions is definitely one we'll be keeping our eye on in the coming months.
Set for a Spring 2012 release in both North America and Europe, Clan of Champions is definitely one we'll be keeping our eye on in the coming months.
TGS 2011: Comical Tekken 3D Prime Edition trailer fires new shot in the Street Fighter/Tekken war
Since the announcement of Street Fighter X Tekken the heads of their respective franchises, Yoshinori Ono of Street Fighter and Katsuhiro Harada of Tekken, have appeared in a series of silly videos for that game. Still, most of them have been for the Capcom side of things, as SFXT is being developed by Capcom and Tekken X Street Fighter has yet to be shown in any real capacity, but that changed with the new trailer for Tekken 3D Prime Edition for 3DS. Despite this being a Namco title, this awesome video starts at Capcom’s offices and features a scene-stealing turn by Ono. Watch!
We love this trailer for so many reasons, most of which involve Ono’s theatrical laughter, and it was cool to see Namco use this comical developer rivalry to hype their new game. And you have to give credit to Capcom for participating in an ad for something they aren’t involved in at all. Though we suppose it’s possible that this indirectly advertises SFXT, so Capcom gets some bonus.
Tekken has been all over the place lately, with a new CG film, a Tekken Tag HD remake and the planned Tekken Tag 2 on top of all the Street Fighter crossover talk, so seeing it spread to the 3DS isn’t much of a shock. When we briefly saw the game in action we thought, “Yup, that’s totally Tekken in 3D,” as it seems like a capable, no frills version of the series for the new handheld. And the fact that you get the 3D CG film Tekken Blood Vengeance with your standard Tekken fix of 40 playable characters on the 3DS sounds like a pretty good deal. Now if they could just make Ono and Harada playable characters…
We love this trailer for so many reasons, most of which involve Ono’s theatrical laughter, and it was cool to see Namco use this comical developer rivalry to hype their new game. And you have to give credit to Capcom for participating in an ad for something they aren’t involved in at all. Though we suppose it’s possible that this indirectly advertises SFXT, so Capcom gets some bonus.
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