Dark Void on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC was terrible. The only interesting element about it was this, Dark Void Zero. An NES style game that came out on the DSi as a downloadable game. The idea of releasing it on DSi was kinda random, considering the actual game wasn’t on a Nintendo console, and I couldn’t play it since I don’t have a DSi… So when the game finally came out on PC and iPhone I downloaded it as soon as it came out (the PC version that is).

This is going to be quite short as there’s really not too much to say about the game.

So read on, and see if Dark Void Zero is better than its horrible console counterpart!

Developer: Other Ocean Interactive
Publisher: Capcom
Date of Release: April 12th 2010 (came out January 18th on the DS)
Platforms: iPhone, PC and DSiWare

Genre: Beat ‘em up
Players: 1-2 (online compatibility)
Rated E for Everyone

Presentation
The game uses 8-bit style graphics. The look good, but not incredible. Nothing looks out of place, everything is easy to see, bullets don’t blend in to the backgrounds and the areas look pretty nice. The enemy design is fine too, though there’s not a huge variety of enemy types. There’s not much to say about the graphics here. They look like classic NES graphics, but there’s nothing really unique about the game’s look, it’s a bit on the generic side (much like its console counterpart… but better-looking).

The sound though is really good. The music is perfect. Sadly there’s not too many tracks, but each level has amazing music. Mostly reminiscent of the Mega Man games on NES. The music is fast paced and very nicely composed.  The rest of the sounds are 8-bit sounds as well and aren’t too bad, but nothing special.

Story
Okay, I have almost nothing to say about this (heck, I could skip this section and the review wouldn’t change at all). It actually uses pretty much the same storyline as the console version, except this time it’s actually a lot better, because there’s no characters, no plot twists and… pretty much no plot at all! The plot is pretty much all explained in the very beginning: The Watchers opened a portal to our world, and you, as Rusty (a human soldier from the Watchers’ world) is going to pick up the portal codes to close the portal and stop the Watchers’ advance in the human world. And that’s it. It’s simple and to the point, just like a video game story should be.

It’s strange how the more developed story in the console version with tons of cutscenes is worse than this story, which is not developed whatsoever and mostly comprised of a short 2 minute slideshow you see at the beginning of the game. Simple=better.

Gameplay
The controls are incredibly simple. You have one jump button, one attack button and you move with the arrow buttons (or d-pad on the DSiWare version). The attack button shoots, and you can use the d-pad to aim your shot in 8 directions. When standing, aiming diagonally makes you stop moving. In the air, Rusty holds the direction of his shot as long as you don’t move. When you pick up the jetpack item, you can double-tap the jump button to start hovering, and that way you can move however you want in the air, and you can stop hovering by double-tapping the jump button again time. If you’re not hovering, you can also hold the jump button to quickly move vertically with the jetpack.

The level design is sort of reminiscent of Metroid. There are 3 levels, and for each of them you have one big map that you can freely explore. Just like in Metroid, you can only go through certain parts of the map when you get certain items to open doors, or certain weapons to open up areas you couldn’t access before. Each level is fairly simple. You’ll be given the location of a card key, find it, open the corresponding door, rinse and repeat until you find the portal code, go to the end of the level and fight the boss. In addition to key cards, some areas can only be opened by rocket launchers, and other areas can only be accessed using the jetpack.

There’s a few interesting elements here. For one, you don’t always have access to the jetpack, as some barriers destroy it(so you have to pick it up again), and you can’t just waltz through the game constantly using the same powerful weapon as some areas give you your old weapons back before you enter. So this forces you to constantly adapt to the situation at hand. And each level has collectibles to find. Most of which are relatively easy to find since they’re out in the open, but there’s hidden areas that have a few of them, and finding those areas will be pretty tough.

Overall
This is a very fun game. The gameplay is really fun, the controls are solid, the graphics are okay, the music is pure badass.

But the game is needlessly short. It easily could have done with an extra level or 3. 3 levels total is really not a lot, especially when they can be finished in less than 10 minutes each. But at least it offers a good challenge the first time through each level and will most likely last you for a short while. And if you’ve already finished the game, there’s more difficulty levels and maybe you didn’t complete each level 100% by finding the collectibles in it, so there’s at least some replay value here.

Despite the game being short, it’s cheap and fun enough to be worth playing. Not only is it fun, but it’s actually a lot higher-quality that the console version, and is a lot more worth playing.

Pros/Cons
Pros
- Great gameplay
- Awesome music

Cons
- Only 3 levels

The Save Factor
The game is $5 on the PC, while it’s $3 on both the iPhone and DSiWare. If you can get the DSiWare version, definitely get that. It’s cheaper and I’m guessing the controls are very good on it . The iPhone version, like any games that would require buttons and a proper d-pad, probably isn’t worth the money because the controls probably suck on it. So if you can’t get the DSiWare version, the PC version at $5 is the best option. And it’s really not expensive whichever version you get, so it’s worth it either way.

So the Save Factor for this one is $4! Most people will probably find it too short for getting it full price (which is not really high anyways), but 3-4$ is more than fair.

Just a few notes here:
1. This is using knowledge we have as of the writing of this post (December 27th 2009). We obviously can’t see in the future, so we can’t predict delays, or unnanounced releases.
2. We will not update this list as the year goes by, unless there’s lots of demand for it.
3.  This only includes “interesting” games, so no shovelware and such.
4. We also include games that might not come out in 2010, but that there might be a remote chance of them coming…
5. If we’re missing something don’t hesitate to tell us.

So let’s do this! Read on and see what interesting games are coming out in 2010!

3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)

This could be one of the best games of 2010. 8-bit style using 3D models with blocks instead of pixels, gameplay that’s a combination of the first and third Zelda games, leveling, powerful swords, a bunch of items… What kind of gamer can say it DOESN’T look awesome? A stupid one, that’s who.

The 3rd Birthday (PSP)

There’s… really nothing I can say about this here, because I’ve never played a Parasite Eve game. But it looks like it could be really good.

Alan Wake (360, PC)

This has been hyped and hyped for a long time. I have no idea how it’s gonna end. But it definitely looks interesting.

Aliens vs. Predator (360, PC, PS3)

An FPS with Aliens, Predators, and Marines. Yay.

Army of Two: The 40th Day (360, PSP, PS3)

The first one was pretty popular. This one features… exactly the same gameplay as the first. So if you like the first, you’ll like this one for sure.

Bayonetta (360, PS3)

We might as well say this right away: This was a candidate for GotY 2009. But we decided to wait since it wasn’t out here yet (despite both Dave and I having played the japanese version). And it would be unreasonable having the same game winning in 2 GotY awards in 2 different years, right? This is the best Action game since DMC3, and nothing will even come close to touching it in a while. The PS3 version is just a bit inferior, but it’s great nonetheless, no doubt just as good as the 360 version. It’s worth buying no matter which console you have.

Brink (360, PC, PS3)

This looks like a generic FPS. I really have nothing to say about this. It’s getting tons of hype, but I can’t help but feel it’s not gonna be anything special. There’s some interesting ideas, like different objectives depending on the class you choose, but it’s probably not gonna be anything really special.

Bioshock 2 (360, PC, PS3)

The first Bioshock was an amazing game… apparently. I’ve only played a bit of it and it seemed solid. This time you play the role of a Big Daddy, which could end up being really cool.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (360, PS3)

A third-person action Castlevania… They failed with the idea around 4 times already, maybe this will be the time where they’ll get it right. And with Kojima on board, they could be hitting gold here.

Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight (PC)

C&C games are usually really good RTS, so this one should be no exception.

Crackdown 2 (360)

I don’t know what to say about this one… I played a bit of the first and found it to be a bit boring… Like inFamous but nowhere near as good.

Crysis 2 (360, PC, PS3)

Crysis finally gets a sequel. Maybe the developers will learn to optimize their game instead of making it such a ressource hog this time.

Diablo 3 (PC)

It probably won’t come in 2010, but we can still wish, right? Diablo 2 is still a great game after TEN YEARS(seriously, has it already been 10 years?). I’ve been playing Diablo 2 a lot in the last few years and I definitely can’t wait for the sequel.

Dante’s Inferno (360, PS3)

Dante’s Inferno is God of War done right. It does have some of the problems GoW has, but it feels a lot better than GoW both in combat and in the story. It’s based on the famous poem, but it probably doesn’t have much to do with it outside of the title and the basic premise.

Darksiders (360, PS3)

This looks like a mix of Devil May Cry (basic combat), Gears of War (shooting) and GoW (crappy QTEs). It looks interesting enough, but I’ll give this a rent before actually trying it out.

Dark Void (360, PC, PS3)

The first “Vertical Third-Person Shooter”. Videos I’ve seen makes it look pretty boring, but there’s some interesting ideas here, so I’ll definitely try it out.

Dark Void Zero (DSiWare)

If there’s something ACTUALLY interesting about Dark Void, it’s this “demake”. An 8-bit side-scrolling action prequel of the game which looks really fun. I don’t really care about Dark Void, but I’m pretty hyped for this version at least. Only problem? It’s going to FUCKING DSiware. Good job limiting the number of people who will be able to play this Capcom… I’m not getting a DSi for this. Put it on WiiWare dammit!

Dead Rising 2 (360, PC, PS3)

More zombie-killing madness, while removing the boring picture-taking element from the first. Should be really fun.

Dead Space 2 (360, PC, PS3)

The first Dead Space had a nice mix of third-person action and horror elements and made for a really fun experience. The second one should be as good.

Deus Ex 3(360, PC, PS3)

I haven’t played the first 2 games, so I really have nothing to say here… Sorry.

Duke Nukem Trilogy (PSP, DS)

Not sure about this. It’s supposed to come out both on PSP and DS, but nothing is really known about it. Other than this.

Estpolis: The Lands Cursed by the Gods (Lufia 2 Remake) (DS)

Hopefully there’s gonna be an English release for this. A remake of the best games in a great RPG series, with completely new gameplay (3D action game instead of 2D turn-based RPG), revamped character designs, re-written story… Should be badass if the gameplay works well.

EA Sports MMA(360, PS3)

Well… I’m not a huge fan of the UFC, and UFC Undisputed 2009 was pretty boring. But this is made by EA Sports, who made the awesome Fight Night Round 4 (well, not the exact same team…), so maybe it won’t end up being as boring. The ground game will probably make or break this game, so hopefully it’ll be well done here compared to the clusterfuck that was the ground game in UFC Undisputed 2009.

Epic Mickey (Wii)

Not much was shown about the game. So I really don’t know what it will play like. But from the info we’ve seen, it looks like it might be interesting.

Fable III (360)

I didn’t really like Fable 2 at all. All I really expect for this is Molyneux promising a ton of crap that won’t be in the final game, just like before.

Fallout: New Vegas(360, PC, PS3)

A new Fallout game. Yay. Probably not gonna be a lot deeper than a Fallout 3 expansion, but whatever, should be fun anyways.

Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, 360)

It’s Final Fantasy 13! Of course it’s gonna be a quality game. It’s been in development for a while too, so like most people I have high expectations for this.

Final Fantasy XIV (PS3, PC)

The latest in MMORPGs, basically a sequel to 11. Should be interesting for fans of the genre. If I get chosen for the beta I’ll be sure to give it a good try.

Game 3 (360)

The Behemoth’s third game. No name yet, and the gameplay hasn’t been given a proper explanation yet either. But it could be pretty interesting.

Golden Sun DS (DS, duh)

After being teased and rumored for years, finally we’ll get to play a sequel to the GBA’s popular RPG series. Should be badass.

Gran Turismo 5 (PS3)

The fifth in the popular simulation racer series, taking years to actually come out. Will it surpass its competition? Can’t wait to try it out, if not only to see the FT-86.

Green Day: Rock Band (360, Wii, PS3)

Yeah, Green Day getting their own band-centric Rock Band… A completely random choice, but with proper care it could at least get an interesting setlist. And it can get imported to Rock Band 2, so it could at least have SOME use.

God of War 3 (PS3)

The demo is terrible, showing us that the developers don’t want to do anything more than “God of War with better graphics”, instead of actually using all the potential the series has. God of War could really be a great series, but the crappy combat, massive amounts of badly done QTEs and uninteresting characters just makes this a really lame action game. But it’s on here nonetheless since it’s gonna be stupidly popular for no good reason.

Guild Wars 2 (PC)

Hum… No idea what to say about this one, since I didn’t even touch the first one….

Halo: Reach (360)

It’s Halo…

Heavy Rain (PS3)

This is a game I’ll just rent and play through once (if it’s interesting enough). There’s some interesting story-telling ideas, but the gameplay itself looks really boring.

Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! 2: Time To Tighten Up Security!

Almost forgot this one in the list. The first game was one of the winners in our GotY awards, and this one looks even better. Awesome.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (PSP)

A prequel to all the Kingdom Hearts series, taking place 10 years before the first, featuring Keyblade Masters other than Sora of course, and Xehanort. Should be interesting.

Just Cause 2 (360, PC, PS3)

All I’ve seen is a weapons trailer for this. Not really sure what it’s about, but it’s been getting some hype at least.

The Last Guardian (PS3)

The latest title by Team ICO. No idea if it’s actually coming in 2010, but whatever, it’s on this list since it might. Should be pretty good.

Lost Planet 2 (360, PS3)

The demo was pretty terrible, so I have no hype for this. But the first one was popular, so maybe it’s just the demo that was bad.

Mega Man 10(360, Wii, PS3)

FUCK YEAH! CAN’T WAIT TO PLAY THIS! I’m always in for more 8-bit Megaman awesomeness.

Mass Effect 2 (360, PC)

The first game was really good, and the second one looks awesome as well, maybe even better. Can’t wait to check it out.

MAG (PS3)

This looks pretty boring. Just look at the crappy  boxart, it couldn’t scream GENERIC any louder than it does now. The gameplay looks like a total mess since no one will really bother to work as a team despite that being the main idea of the game. The 128 vs 128 idea is good by concept, but the execution… Lame. But maybe that’s just how it goes in the beta, and that in the final game people will actually play it properly? We’ll see.

Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond (360, PS3)

Maybe side-scrolling action shooter action in the style of Contra is a much better fit for the character than a sub-par third-person shooter. We’ll see.

Max Payne 3 (360, PC, PS3)

More Max Payne is always a good thing, right?

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PSP)

It’s Metal Gear, on the PSP. It looks pretty good, though from what I’ve played of the TGS demo it felt more like a shooter than a stealth game. But that might just be the TGS demo.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising (360, PS3)

Nothing is really known about this game. But it should be interesting. Though we’re not completely sure that it’s coming in 2010.

Metroid: Other M (Wii)

A Metroid game made by Team Ninja? That’s enough to pike my interest. It looks to have multiple play styles, with some third-person, some side-scrolling and some third-person. U definitely can’t wait to play this.

ModNation Racers (PS3)

This could be the LittleBigPlanet of racing games. If the track building tools are good and if the racing itself is well done it could be really fun.

Monster Rancher DS (DS)

OH SHIT! Finally! This is the second Monster Rancher game on the DS in japan, but the first one to reach the DS in America. Definitely can’t wait to try it out.

Microsoft’s Natal and Sony’s Wands

Hopefully we’ll get to see how those 2 are shaping up this year.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 (360, PS3)

A sequel to what was a pretty fun and AWESOME-looking Naruto game, if this corrects the issues in the first(especially balancing, Itachi was way too strong), it could be pretty fun.

Nier (360, PS3)

I have no idea what those games are about. Both Nier Replicant and Nier Gestalt will come on 1 system each, and each seems to share multiple similarities… But that’s really all i know about it.

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Wii)

Nice, more No More Heroes. The first one was pretty good, though it lacked polish. Maybe this one will correct this?

Okamiden: Chiisaki Taiyo (DS)

Finally Okami on the system it always felt it was meant for. Should be good. No US release announced yet, but it should come someday.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (360, PC, PS3, Wii, DS, PSP, Cake)

A sequel to the Sands of Time trilogy. Hopefully they don’t make it boring like their pathetic attempt at a “reboot”.

Project Needlemouse (Unknown)

There’s no actual name for this game yet, but it’s a new side-scrolling Sonic game on console… PLEASE SEGA DON’T SCREW THIS UP!!!!!

Pokémon HeartGold and Pokémon SoulSilver (DS)

Remakes of the most beloved games in the series. Nothing more to say.

Puzzle Quest 2 (DS, PC, probably everything else)
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I guess Galactrix didn’t count as a sequel. Should be pretty fun.

Quantum Theory (360, PS3)

So this is japan’s Gears of War clone, but with a more Fantasy tone to it? Looks okay, we’ll see.

RUSE (360, PC, PS3)

Ah, now this might be really cool. Not sure if I’ll play it, but it has a lot of new and interesting concepts for an RTS.

Red Dead Redemption (360, PC, PS3)

Looks quite interesting. Haven’t played the first game so I have nothing to compare it to though.

Red Steel 2 (Wii)

This was supposed to come out in November 2009, but didn’t. It’s supposed to take advantage of the Wii Motion Plus, but gameplay demonstrations didn’t show anything that couldn’t be done without it. So I really have no idea how this will end up. It definitely looks better than the first one though.

Rocket Knight (360, PC, PS3)

ZOMG, a new Rocket Knight Adventures! Awesome! Should be really fun.

Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love (Wii, PS2, though the Wii version will apparently be a bit better)

The first Sakura Wars game to come to the US. I have no idea what the series is about, but it might be worth looking at.

Sin and Punishment 2 (Wii)

The first never came out in the US until recently with the Virtual Console (I really should check that out…). The sequel looks like massive fun.

Starcraft 2 (PC)

So this is finally coming out? Cool. Too bad they went for that stupid “1 campaign a year” idea. But it’s obviously gonna be a great game.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope International (PS3)

It’s finally coming to the PS3, with more stuff than in the 360 version. The 360 version is pretty good, so this one should be fun as well.

Singularity (360, PC, PS3)

A first-person shooter… You can control time for combat and puzzles, which could be really interesting.  It’s probably the only FPS I’m interested in in 2010.

Splatterhouse (360, PC, PS3)

It’s been a while since a new Splatterhouse game came out. And… considering it’s a modern take on an old game I have low expectations for this. But I might be wrong.

Star Wars:The Old Republic (PC)

A new Star Wars MMO and it looks pretty fun. Star Wars fans will have something really cool to play together.

Star Trek Online (360, PC)

To counter the new Star Wars MMO, there’s a new Star Trek MMO as well. So Trekies will also have something to play as well. OH and Leonard Nimoy is in it.

Tatsunoko VS Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars (Wii)

We didn’t think this would come to America, but it is coming. With new characters, including Zero! Awesome.

Tales of Vesperia (PS3)

No idea if it’s actually gonna come to the US, but hopefully it will. Not that I really care since I already have it on my 360, but it’s a pretty fun game so more people should experience it.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction (360, PC)

I’m not very familiar with Splinter Cell, but what I’ve seen from this one is really interesting. I’m really interested in playing this.

Split Second (360, PC, PS3)

A racing game with things constantly crashing and exploding and changing the track every lap. I think you have control over those things but I’m not 100% sure. It definitely looks interesting.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)

The first one was great, this one looks just as good. And Yoshi is here! Can’t wait to try this game out.

Super Street Fighter IV (360, PS3)

So from what I understand there’s 10 extra characters compared to SFIV, or so teases tell us. So it could be well worth checking out for fans of the series.

Trauma Team (Wii)

A new Trauma Center game. Looks fun.

Ushiro (PSP)

An RPG where you posses people to advance through the game, and when fights come by you control the ghost itself and fight other ghosts. The graphical style is really nice japanese horror-ish anime-ish look.

White Knight Chronicles (PS3)

Oh, it’s finally coming? Nice. Not too sure about the gameplay and such since it’s been a long time since I’ve checked anything about this game. But it looks quite fun from what I remember.

Valkyria Chronicles 2 (PSP)

It’s strange that the sequel is coming to PSP. But if it keeps the same gameplay as the first, it should be pretty good.

Yakuza 3 (PS3)

It’s finally getting released in the US, just before the fourth comes out in Japan. Took them a while.

Might and Magic is a huge RPG series, which actually has multiple mini-series spanning multiple genres. There are Might and Magic strategy games, first-person RPGs, first-person shooters, action-RPGs, top-down action games ala Zelda… It’s a pretty varied series.

The latest addition to the series takes on a completely new genre. Or at least a really weird combination of genres to make something completely unique.

Is this new “genre” any good, or should M&M stick with normal RPGs?

Read on!

Developer: Capybara Games
Publisher: Ubisoft
Date of Release: December 1 2009
Platforms: Nintendo DS

Genre: RPG? Puzzle? Strategy RPG? Well, a combination of those.
Players: 1-2

Looks and sounds
The first thing that struck me is that fact that the game went from a realistic look to anime style. That’s…. really weird. It looks good and all, no problem there, but you’d think it would still go for a more realistic look. Overall though it does look pretty good. Character sprites are nice and detailed, core unit sprites and simple but easily recognizable, champion and elite units are a bit more detailed and pretty good-looking. The environments look pretty much like you’d expect from a Might and Magic game. Ruins, cemeteries, castles, arenas, woods, and they all look pretty good, if not a bit too basic.

The game sounds pretty good. The music is quite fantasy-ish, as it should be, and most of the tracks are actually very nice to listen to. The sound effects are really simplistic though, and lots of sounds are repeated for various things. But it does sound quite good anyways.

Story
One night a bunch of demons appear and kill a few humans and elves who are having a meeting in the elvish forest. Though there is no sign of demons left, which leads both the humans and elves to go to war with each other. It’s a relatively basic story of demons trying to take over the world. Here you play as 5 different characters, each having their part in the overall story. You play as an elf trying to find a magic item, a human trying to clear his family’s name, a human who somehow died and became a ghost which gives her powers of a necromancer, a demon-controlling human and a wizard. There’s nothing really surprising or original in the story, but the characters aren’t too bad, the multiple antagonists are pretty good and there’s a few twists here and there. There’s a few links with other M&M games as well, with some of the playable characters coming from Heroes of Might and Magic, and the unit types being the same type of things you’d find in the HoMM games.

Gameplay
The game features a completely unique style of play. I can’t think of any other games that play like this. So let’s go into it in details.

Fighting
The most important aspect of the game. The fighting takes place on 2 grids(8 squares long by 6 squares wide): one for you on the bottom screen, and one for the opponent on the top screen. Your units will place themselves randomly in the grid. You’ll have 3 different colors of units, called Core units, which take 1 space in the grid. Each color will only be of one type, depending on how you equip them. You can also have Elite and Champion units. Elite units take 2 spaces, and Champion units take 4, so they take more place, but they’re a LOT stronger as well. And most of them have a special effect too. Elite and Champion units can be of any color.

You and your opponent take turn making moves on your grid. If you get the first turn you start with 2 moves, otherwise every other turn gives you 3 moves. A move can be one of 2 things: picking up a unit and placing it in another space, or removing a unit from play. Placing 3 units of the same colorand type) in a line will do one of 2 things: vertical lines will make those units charge up their attack, which will be launched in the number of turns written on them (each unit type has his own charging time) and horizontal lines (at least 3 units but can be more) will remove the units and replace them by walls which can be used to defend from enemy attacks. When you make a line, the line will go to the top of your screen, unless there’s a wall or units charging in front of them, and anything in front of them will move behind them. On this note, Elite units must have 2 Core units of the same color placed behind them to charge their attacks (they can’t become walls), and Champion units need 4 Core units place in a 2×2 square behind them to charge their attacks (also can’t become walls). Oh, what’s the point of removing units you ask? Well, sometimes some units might be in the way of making lines, but there’s a use beyond that. If there’s one unit between what could be a line, removing that unit will make the line complete itself, but in addition to that you get an extra move for this turn. So you can use this to charge up more attacks, or create more walls, without having to actually spend a move on it. And any wall or attack charge-up that is made from moving units. Also, 2 lines of the same color (doesn’t matter if they’re Core, Elite of Champion) that have an attack that launch at the same time are “linked”, so they’ll deal extra damage. And finally if you do a line just above another line of the same color, the 2 lines will fuse, making for a much stronger attack.

At the beginning of every turn, the countdown for a unit to attack goes down their HP goes up(until it reaches their final attack power, unless they get attacked on the way), and when the countdown reaches 0 they attack. During attack, all units will rush towards the enemy, or shoot a projectile. Any enemy or wall they(or their projectiles) encounter on the way will deal some damage to your attack unit. If the enemy is charging an attack, their HP will be deduced from your units’ HP. If it’s an idle unit, it has an “endurance” stat and will deduce that number from your units’ HP (all idle units die in one hit if they are attacked). If they have no HP left, their attack stops. If they pass through all of their obstacles and reach the back of the enemy lines, it does a direct attack to your opponent. The damage they do will equal the HP they have left when their attack hits. You win when your opponent has no HP left, and vice-versa.

Doing all those attacks and unit removals will reduce your unit numbers drastically, and FAST. Each time your units are removed or an attack is done, the number of units involved goes into a storage number. So when you feel you want more units on the grid, you can press the L button. This will take that number of units you have in storage and make that number of units randomly appear on the grid. Those units that come to the field will be randomly chosen and randomly placed, placing a lot of the game’s strategy on luck.

In addition to unit attacks, you always have a spell at your disposal. Each hero has a different spell. Your MP charges up as you do combos for extra moves, attack and get attacked. Particularly strong attacks done to you will almost instantly fill up your MP. Pressing X will launch the spell, activating any effect it might have. Some just shoot projectiles, some will affect your units in different ways, some will transform your walls or units into projectiles… There’s lots of variety here(just a note: most opponents in the campaign don’t have spells). Speaking of different heroes, each of them has a special wall effect (shared between characters of the same faction) and occasionally other fun effects (like Necromancers’ idle units becoming walls if they get destroyed). Each hero plays a bit differently and different strategies will be applied depending on the magic spells and which units you have equipped.

In addition to normal fighting, the campaign includes some really fun special fights or boss fights which really differ from their original gameplay. Not gonna spoil those though.

Leveling
There’s a few leveling elements. Each battle in the campaign gives you experience. The experience goes to both your hero and your units (the ones that were in the battle). Units can go up to level 5. Not sure how high heroes can get, but in Quick Battle your opponents go up to level 15 (while you are at level 10). Leveling units gives them more attack power and endurance. Leveling the hero is crucial though. It gives the hero more HP, makes his walls stronger (and, if their wall has a special effect, it can boost that effect as well) and it increases the number of units you can have on the field at once. I THINK it also boosts the hero’s spell power, but I’m, not 100% sure on that one.

In addition to that, you can find artifacts. Those give you stat boosts, most of the time, but sometimes special effects like boosting certain unit’s attacks, or adding effects to attacks. You can only have 1 artifact equipped at a time.

Game flow
During the campaign, you move around on a map. there’s certain points on each map you can stop at. If the spots are red, it means you can enter mini dungeons, or that there’s something you can interact with. On the maps you’ll find NPCs, resources, treasures and creature dwellings. NPCs sometimes speak to you, or sometimes they’ll challenge you to battles. Each story has a bounty hunter NPC, who you can talk to for some side-missions. NPCs with silver swords over their heads are side-quest NPCs, and those with golden swords above their heads are your next objective in the story(you can do just those and finish the game). Some areas also have random encounters that are completely optional. Creature dwellings are an important part. This is where you’ll spend your resources. During battle, if a Champion or Elite unit dies while charging an attack, or while idle, they get removed from your stock of that particular unit. If you have no more left in your stock, you won’t be able to use them in battle anymore. That’s when you have to buy some more in dwellings. It’s actually a bit annoying, but I guess they needed something to use resources on.

Overall
The gameplay is really something unlike just about anything that has been done before. The weird blend of strategy and puzzle for battles is really fun. The leveling up makes it so that you can’t just breeze through the game without trouble.

The different heroes definitely add variety to the gameplay and prevent the game from getting stale. Being able to equip whichever units and artifacts you want help in that sense too,

And Might and Magic fans will definitely find things to love here despite the complete change in visual style.

If you’re done with the campaign, doing quick battles is always fun, and here you can use characters you couldn’t in the campaign which is quite cool.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- Completely original gameplay
- Addictive
- Really fun
- Gameplay varies from character to character
- Good difficulty curve
- Touch controls optional (which is great because the touch controls SUCK)

Cons
- The story is an afterthought
- AI is a bit stupid at times

The Save Factor
The game has a starting price of $35. I feel it’s worth the price of admission, but I’d say the Save Factor for this one is $30, since the new style of gameplay might not appeal to everyone.

Now november is coming with a few big guns as well, but seemingly a less fun experience in general. Also, no noteworthy 360 exclusive releases. Let’s see what November has for us!

Read on for the list! And be sure to comment if I forgot anything.

MULTI-PLATFORM RELEASES
Rabbids Go Home (DS, Wii) 11/01

This will most likely suck. I hate those fucking Rabbids, and how they (partly) ruined the roster in the last TMNT game. I have no expectations for this and won’t touch it with a ten-foot pole. But I know it’s gonna sell and that’s why it’s on this list.

Need for Speed: Nitro (DS, Wii) 11/02

After the really good Need for Speed Shift, they bring us another NFS game. It looks a lot more arcadey than Shift, so it goes back to older style NFS. Might be good, but I reserve judgment until i actually play it.

Lego Rock Band (DS, 360, PS3, Wii) 11/03

I want someone to honestly come at me and tell me this doesn’t sound like a super stupid idea. The setlist is really short and doesn’t have anything great either… and couldn’t they choose ANY other Queen song? Seriously? Not that “We are the champions” and “We will rock you” aren’t good but… there are so many other/better choices. Anyway… no hype for this at all.

Dragon Age: Origins (PC, 360, PS3) 11/03

I’ll be frank and say I’m not a huge Bioware fan(not that I think their games are bad, of course, I know they’re good, but just not my style), and I will not be getting this game. But I also know it’s going to be a really good RPG and fans of the genre/company should definitely check this out.

Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron (DS, PSP) 11/03

The only Battlefront game I played is the second one on PSP, and I frankly got no enjoyment out of it. But there’s lots of fans of this particular SW game series, so it’s on the list. Expect the DS version to suck compared to the PSP version

Band Hero (PC, 360, PS3, Wii, DS) 11/10

I guess they’re making this to “counter” Lego Rock Band… They might as well call it “Pop Hero”, since the soundtrack is mostly comprised of crappy pop music. There’s ZERO great songs on this, maybe a few that will be okay… lame.

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast (PS3, 360) 11/10

Well, the graphics and animations look good, but otherwise it just looks like the Budokai Tenkaichi games. And half the roster is probably different versions of Goku anyways. I’ll rent that one.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PC, 360, PS3) 11/10

Do I really need to say anything about this? Oh, I do? okay then… Sequel to one of the most popular generic FPS games of the generation. And it’s just gonna be another generic FPS. A really good one, of course, but it won’t ACTUALLY be anything special. It will no doubt be great, but it won’t be any different from just about any FPS released in the last 5 years.

Left 4 Dead 2 (360, PC) 11/17

It’s Left 4 Dead. Again. New campaigns and such, should be as good as before.

Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues (PC, 360, PS3, PSP, DS) 11/17

People are super hyped for this. I’m not. Meh.

Tony Hawk Ride (360, PS3) 11/17

I really want to see how well this works. But that’s about it for me. To me, the Tony Hawk series stopped being fun after 3.

Assassin’s Creed II (360, PS3) 11/19

It does look a bit better than the first, but again I’ll reserve judgment until I actually play it/if I’m convinced they corrected all the problems from the first.

Playstation 3 RELEASES
3D Dot Game Heroes (Japanese release) 11/05

This looks awesome. A tribute to old-school Zelda games with badass swords. Can’t wait for an American release.

Record of Agarest War 11/09

That’s the “Soul Breeding” game they talked about on Kotaku quite a few times. Not exactly sure what it’s like, but it’s getting a lot of suggestive art attached to it… Ill rent it since I have no idea what it’s about really.

God of War Collection 11/17

I hate God of War. Button-mashing and QTE fest of suck. It started many annoying gameplay elements that games just can’t stop using anymore. Mashing buttons to open doors, adding stupid QTE segments in boss battles when they don’t need them, and just overall not being very good. But the series is incredibly popular anyways, and this is a noteworthy release for sure(being the first PS2 titles enhanced for the PS3), so it’s on the list.

Nintendo Wii RELEASES
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex 11/10

COD4 with tacked-on wii controls. Yay?

New Super Mario Bros. Wii 11/15

This looks really fun. The platforming itself looks interesting, and new power-ups might be fun, but playing with 4 people at the same time looks like it might be REALLY cool. And even people who suck at games can enjoy this with the Super Guide feature which can help them through the tougher levels. It just sucks that there’s 2 Toads, there’s no way Nintendo couldn’t think of something else for a fourth character.

Nintendo DS RELEASES
Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans 11/10

And RPG based on DBZ. Probably won’t be anything great.

Phantasy Star Zero 11/10

I actually haven’t checked anything about this. An interesting release nonetheless.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized 11/10

I dunno. I have no expectations for this.

Spectral Force Genesis 11/10

Might be an interesting RPG…

Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes 11/17

I had this on the list last month but it ended up getting delayed. So it’s back here.

Sony PSP RELEASES
Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier 11/03

AIt’s Jak and Daxter. I’m not very familiar with the series, but it shouldn’t be too bad.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Tag Force 4 11/10

Hopefully this one doesn’t have crappy motorcycle segments… But it’s based on 5D’s, so it probably will.

Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble 11/10

A beat ‘em up. There’s a little hype surrounding the game.

Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines 11/17

To tie in with Assassin’s Creed 2… this one seems based on the first game though.

LittleBigPlanet 11/17

It’s LBP, on PSP… Should be pretty good.

The Bleach DS series is a weird one. The first 2 games were straight up fighting games. Really well done too. And made by Treasure. There were some balancing issues, of course, but overall they were quite good. The third game in the series was a Strategy RPG, and made by Sega. And now this new one is a Beat ‘em up. 1 series, 3 genres. Really strange.

So, is it a good beat ‘em up, or is it just a lame cash-in on the Bleach name? Read on!

Keep in mind, this is a Japanese game, and I have no Japanese knowledge, so there are certain things I can’t explain/know. (and this is a pretty shot review too)

Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Date of Release: August 6th 2009
Platform: Nintendo DS

Genre: Beat ‘em up
Players: 1

Looks and sounds
The characters look really good, they’re completely recognizable from the series and their animations and attacks look quite good. But one thing to note here is that the sprites are mostly just recycled from the previous leach DS games, or just mildly changed from them. The enemy design is lame at best. There’s just a few enemy types and some are just upgraded versions of older ones, either bigger or with different colors. The environments range from random areas in Karakura village, some random areas in Soul Society and… randomness! Nothing inventive and not much that really has to do with the series.

Sound-wise… It’s nothing great. The voice-acting is fine, using the same actors from the show. The music is very forgettable, and the sound effects are either completely normal “hit” or sword sounds. Don’t expect anything ground-breaking, of course.

Gameplay
It’s a platforming Beat ‘em up. It doesn’t get much simpler than this. Y attacks, pressing different directions change what attack you do. B jumps. X does you special attack, and if you press X and Up at the same time you do a bigger special that takes more SP. A uses your currently-equipped assist character. Holding R pauses the action and let’s you change assist character if you have multiple in your deck. L let’s you stand in the air. It’s useless(or at least i never really found a use for it) and takes up SP. Double tapping a direction makes you dash, and pressing an attack button during the dash, no matter the direction, makes you do a special dash attack.

So the basic flow of the game is ” Select a level, See a conversation, Go to the end of the level, Get a Rank up to S depending on various variables, Repeat”. It gets repetitive after 2 worlds, and there’s 8 worlds in total. Levels play out in a simple “kill everything that gets in your way” manner. Heck, you can skip most enemies. There are some sections in stages where you have to kill everything that comes at you, but the rest can be skipped. At the end of each level, you get one of 2 things: a boss battle, or a “bonus stage” where you have to attack some… flying ball with tentacles, which gives you money for the shop.

The difficulty level is pathetically low. There’s only one level, based on platforming, which was able to kill me. The rest of the levels, even the tougher bosses, are really easy to beat. The only “difficulty” is finding everything. Each levels have 1 collectible to find: Hell butterflies. They’re hidden through the levels (1 per level), and they give you a boost to your SR meter. Also, getting S ranks everywhere might offer just a little bit of challenge (though I never got under an A rank so it’s really not that tough either).

A different element here is the Support Deck. Using cards you either find in stages, or buy in Urahara’s shop, you set a deck of sorts, in a grid. Each card takes either 1, 2 or 4 spaces in the grid (and you can get extra grids for different kinds of decks, i guess).  From what I understand, the ones that take 1 or 2 spaces are stat boosts of sorts. And the 4 space cards are assist characters (which I explained earlier, they all have different effects like healing, protection, or attacks).

Oh, and the character list is a bit lame. Ichigo, Rukia, Uryu, Renji, Hitsugaya, Yoruichi, Byakuya, Young Byakuya… Why is Byakuya in there twice? Aren’t there enough Bleach characters not to have to use the same one a second time, but younger? Not a big problem, but it’s a bit strange.

One thing I have no idea about is the SR stat (under SP), and I have no idea what Oversoul is (when the SR meter goes at 100% or above). I know higher SR gives you more points in the end of a level(which makes it easier to get a high rank), and if you get hit by an attack that knocks you down your SR goes down to 50, or lopwer if you’re at 50% or below.

Overall, the gameplay isn’t bad. But it’s awfully simple. And there’s little to no difficulty.

Import-friendlyness
Can you press buttons? If so, you can play this game. The basic gameplay is really simple, and just randomly fumbling around the menus you should be able to shop and build support decks without much trouble. There’s not much of a big community for this title, but you can surely find places on the web where people can help you out here. It is Bleach after all.

Oh, and for modes, Ichigo (and i guess you can change the character) tells you what each option in the main menu is, so the menus are simple enough to navigate.

And you’ll miss the story, but you can fast-forward through the conversations so it’s not a burden to the gameplay.

Overall
It’s a competent enough Beat ‘em up. It’s incredibly easy, but it works. But if you’re not a Bleach fan, skip on it. Heck, even if you ARE a Bleach fan there isn’t much of a reason to get this. If you can read japanese, the story is just random filler junk so you’re not missing much here. It’s pretty much a cash-in on the Bleach name, nothing more.

Pros/Cons
Pros
- Nice Graphics
- Simple gameplay
- Import Friendly

Cons
- Way too easy
- Could use a bit more character variety, the only character that plays different from the others is Uryu
- Get repetitive FAST, there’s no gameplay variety at all

The Save Factor
With a starting price of $48.90 on Play-Asia, the Save Factor for Bleach DS 4th: Flame Bringer is:

$10 (only for big Bleach fans)

This is a game we basically knew nothing about before it came out. SE had a countdown site, people were confused at the reveal, and then trailers started  appearing, and people were confused with them since the trailers didn’t explain much about the game. Now the game is out and it all became clear.

So, is it fun to play? Is it as confusing as the trailers made it seem? Is it worth the 60 USD it costs to import? Read on and see!

Keep in mind, this is a japanese game, and I can’t read japanese, so I played the game as well as I could considering that “handicap”, and I might forget/not know about some details.

Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Date of Release: August 6th 2009
Platform: Nintendo DS

Genre: Action RPG
Players: from 1 to 4, no online

Looks and sounds
The character sprites are 2D. Not incredibly high-quality 2D, but they look fine. One problem is the point of view. The environments (if you can call them that…) are in 3D and the camera constantly moves around as you traverse the stages, yet you always see you character from one of 4 sides, but not depending on the camera angle. Otherwise they look fine. The normal monsters are also 2D sprites. There’s a few basic enemy designs, and color palette switches for stronger versions. Nothing very original, but they look okay.
The show stealer here are the giant monster designs. They’re big 3D renditions of Square Enix summons/various other monsters/characters. And they look quite good. It’s obvious that they suffer from the DS’ lower power and the texture’s look quite bad when the giants are too close, but they’re really quite well done despite all this. Their animations are mostly really smooth and natural, and they’re huge compared to everything else in the game. So considering how strong the DS is, this is very well done graphically.

The sound design is standard. The sound effects are fine, the giants’ voices (they mostly just scream and stuff) sound fine, and the music is okay . Not a very memorable soundtrack, but it works great with the game.

Gameplay
The game is all controlled on the touch screen. You can either move around with the stylus by dragging it around, or use the D-pad (this is highly suggested). You can do a teleporting dash by scribbling randomly with the stylus, or pressing the L button (also highly suggested). Attacking is done by tapping the touch screen where you want to attack. If you tap on a normal enemy, you’ll walk towards it to hit it (unless you use a ranged character). That can be annoying since, if you’re in a big group of enemies, you character can have trouble getting to the right one. If you want to attack the giant, it’s the same thing. Tap the area of the giant that you want to attack, and you’ll attack. If you’re too far, you’ll do some kind of range attack,  while if you’re close to the edge of one of the platforms that are closer to the giant(and if he’s close enough) you’ll do a normal attack (some characters can combo by tapping multiple times, others just attack from a range normally). How a normal sword slash can hit a monster that’s a mile away I’ll never know, but that’s how it works.

So how the game basically works is that you’re on big floating platforms with areas that are at different heights and stairs to get to different parts of the platform. There’s also warp points which, during certain missions (mostly the free missions), warp you to different platforms. There’s 5 platforms in the stages. One is a bit further from the rest and is usually used in certain missions that mostly make you fight normal enemies. The rest surround the area where the giant usually is (though some giants can get out of that square to get in front of the further one).

The game is set-up with a bunch of missions. When you’re done with a mission, you get to the main menu and have a bunch of things you can do, and you go to the next mission whenever you want. The main goal of every mission is to destroy one of the current giants’ core, or something protectiong one of their cores. Cores are differently-colored areas on the giant which has less defense than the rest of his body. Armor protecting cores also gets more damage than the body itself. If you do about 6 damage by hitting the giant randomly, hitting the cores will do at least over 20. Other missions  require running to a portal, fighting normal enemies on the way, or surviving for a short amount of time.

Each giant has a set of 5 missions to go through. The last mission is always to finish off the giant. When that’s done, you get a series of free missions related ot that giant, which give you different objectives than the main missions, sometimes asking to remove certain body parts from the giant, or destroying a stronger version.

There are also multiple characters you can use, six in total. Each character is a bit different. Some have magic, some use guns, some are slow, some are fast, some only use range attacks, others use close-range. Each character has a different basic element as well. You can train any character you want, whether you train just one and concentrate on that one, or train them all to use them for different situations.

Fighting is fairly simple. As explained above, tap a target, either a normal enemy, the giant’s body, or one of the giant’s core, or armor piece that is hiding/protecting a core. The giants all have a variety of attacks. Learning the timing of the attacks is crucial, as you’ll need to use the dash/teleport to get out of  the way most of the time. All giants have some kind of attack where they’ll rest their arms/heads/weapons on the floating platform, and you can get on them to get closer to cores to deal more damage. Some cores even require doing so. Another thing to memorize is the giant’s pattern. Each of  them will act differently depending on a variety of things. Attacking them in certain ways can cause them to do certain attacks, and some attacks they will only do if you’re on a certain platform at the right height. And they all have some kind of elemental resistance/weakness. There’s lots of things to figure out here.

Another big part of the gameplay here is the normal enemies. Enemies are set in certain areas of each platform and platform area. You fighting them the same way you fight the giants, except they have no cores, they’re just small 2D sprites like you. Hitting them a few times kills them. But the catch here is that all the giants have some way of re-spwaning them. And they are actually more of a threat than the giants, since they constantly get in your way when you try evading the giants’ attacks, or sometimes you’ll try tapping on the giant and your character will attack them instead. But they sometimes drop healing balls and orange balls. The healing ones heal you, obviously, but I have no idea what the orange ones do.

You also have access to skills. In the menu, the menu item to the left of the bottom-right menu item brings you to the skill menu. Here you can learn new skills, or upgrade current skills, and set up to 3 skills to use in battle. All of this require to use gems, which you can find at the end of battles. You’re told how much you need for each skill too learn/upgrade it, and the top screen tells you the required MP and damage/effects. In battle, the skills are on the bottom of the touch screen, next to your HP/MP. Some require tapping them twice, others require tapping once, then tapping the monster you want to use it on. There’s a large variety of skills to use, and each character has different skill sets and effects.

The last important part of the gameplay is buying new equipment. Each giant has a set of materials it can give, which are unique to each of them. Each mission you complete, you get a list of all the dropped material for the mission. Also, each core you destroy on each giant has a chance of giving you certain materials. The grinding requires you to go through certain missions(you can replay any previous mission), or free missions, to destroy certain cores which will give you the materials you need. In-between missions, you can go to the shop(the middle option in the main menu). The first option in the shop enables you to buy equipment. Here you’ll see every category of items you can buy, and the characters(displayed on the top of the touch screen) will move if they can equip the items in the category you’re hovering over. When you select a category, you’ll see the items and their cost in gold. By selecting them, you’ll see what materials you need to collect. If the item name is greyed out you can’t purchase it, and if it’s white you can. Check the color of the materials you are missing to know what giant you must fight to get it(I’ll list them in the “import-friendly” section). Also, when an item is selected you have different tabs with different info, inculding stats and the stat changes on your character. There’s consumable items you can buy too. Basically they give you some sort of stat boost for 1 mission only, but they’re not too expensive to make. Also, you get no money from completing missions, so you must use the third option in the shop menu and sell old equipment or excess materials to get money. The second option in the shop menu is a lottery which has yet to give me anything worth it.

Is it import-friendly?
Yes and no, but mostly yes. The basic gameplay is easy enough to learn. Shopping is quite easy as well since you see what character can equip each category of equipment. As for material gathering, the material’s icon color tells you which monster drops it. If it’s gray, Fenrir drops it, brown means Gigant drops it, orange means Ifrit drops it, purple means Gilgamesh drops it, blue means Shiva drops it, black for Bahamut, gold for Gration, a lighter purple for Vanargand, green for Beelzebub, red for Durga and white for Shin Bahamut. So if you need a certain material for a piece of equipment, just check the color, and destroy the monster/certain body parts to get the drop you need.

The one thing that might be problematic is the mission objectives, since you start up with no idea what to do. Thankfully there’s guides on the web. Here’s the one I use (thanks A7thSteve from Gamefaqs and everyone who contributed to the guide). That’ll help you know what to do in both the main missions and the free missions. There’s probably a few communities of fans of the game that  can help you out somewhere, until an english release happens at least.

Overall it’s import-friendly enough, since the menus are quite easy to navigate, but a guide is a must.

Overall
It’s a pretty fun game. It’s frequently compared to Monster Hunter, and sometimes compared to Shadow of the Colossus.  I say it’s a mix of the two, but with a lot of differences. You fight giant creatures, but the way you beat them is a lot different from Shadow of the Colossus. And like in Monster Hunter, you have quests to do and materials to collect to get more equipment.

The fighting is pretty fun, though I don’t really like that the normal enemies pose a more dangerous threat than the giants. Sure, in the end it’s normally the giants who end up killing you, but it’s usually because normal enemies are preventing you from avoiding the attack or something.

The lack of online multiplayer is a bit of a bummer. I doubt I’ll ever get 4 people with DSs and the game together at the same time. It’s a bit weird not to have online considering the game is quite obviously built for a multiplayer experience.

It’s a good choice if you want a good Action RPG on the DS, or if you want something that’s kinda similar to Monster Hunter. There’s definitely a lot of gameplay to be had here.

Pros/Cons
Pros
- Good looking giants
- Fun gameplay
- Grinding isn’t as tedious than in other games
- Finding how to fight each giant and how to destroy each of their cores is a game in and of itself
- Lots of content
- Relatively import-friendly

Cons
- Touch screen controls sometimes unresponsive/inaccurate
- The grinding may not be as tedious as in other games, but there can still be a lot of it, especially if you don’t know exactly what materials you’re looking for
- Lacks online multiplayer, which would be useful considering getting 4 people with a DS AND the game together might not be really easy

The Save Factor
With a starting price of $60 on Play-asia, the Save Factor for Blood of Bahamut is:

$35 (wait for a domestic release, and probably a price drop)

Other than that, I’ve purchased a few other titles on the DSiWare store but I wasn’t AS impressed as I was in the previous title mentioned. I tried AQUIA (AKA AQUARIO) from Art Style as well as BOXLIFE (AKA HACOLIFE). They didn’t hook me as much as PiCTOBiTS. They both have a pretty good level of difficulty in them though so if you’re in for a challenge in something that would seem like a simple game, you’ll find it there. BOXLIFE has a pixel like charm to it, which is neat.

I got a title named Mighty Flip Champs! this one has an increasing difficulty as well, but the first few puzzles are a complete walk in the park. you basically walk this super deformed girl over to her frog lover or something like that. Eventually you’ll need to gather things before you meet him. Apparently this is a game meant to be taken as a speed run type game. You want to improve your time and see just how much you can optimize out of it.

And the last title I will have a small blurb on it Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! This is a series that interested me from the beginning but I never got to play with any previous version of it. You have wind up marios that basically go forward from the time you do the first crank. They will collect coins and open the door to exit the level. It’s fairly simple. There are boss stages that are entirely different however. I didn’t get a chance to play this one too much but I will give it another chance eventually in the future.

Onto Peggle now. I’ve been playing this on my iPhone, it was a dollar a while back and I figured I’d check it out. This game is totally worthwhile. It’s exciting to play it well, when you finish a level you get an over the top congratulation. You just want to do it over and over. I finished it in a few sittings. Now I’m playing through it again and trying to get an even better score. I use the zen owl. Having the green peg upgrade from him totally rocks on non-moving stages. Also, this it totally pick up and play on the iPhone, it will save your state and allow you to resume whenever!

Enough of the Handhelds now!

I’ve sunk most of my time recently on the following titles: Team Fortress 2 (PC), Left 4 Dead (XBox360 and PC), Final Fantasy XI (Xbox 360 and PC), Demigod, Plants Vs Zombies (PC) and Prototype (Xbox360).

I’ll start by mentioning Team Fortress 2. Ever since the last patch, I’ve spent a decent amount of time playing with my friends. I like to jump classes in all my games. I have invested far more time in medic in this game however. This, for some reason is the class that’s lacking in a team most often, but in my opinion it is the most exciting and it will often make or break a team. I’ve played a decent amount of Pyro as well. This game is great. There’s just so much community love out there for it that there’s tons of youtubes out there with dubbed sound clips. The achievements are neat too. Some are clever. I got one for getting a guy to rage quit apparently. I had no idea an achievement like this existed! Here are my stats! I really don’t have any sniping skills.

Still playing Left 4 Dead on both XBox360 and PC. But mostly Xbox360. Not playing no mercy constantly is pretty nice. The fact that the Xbox version got patched up to current was very sweet a few months back. It unbroke the game, but it’s still pretty cookie cutter and you’ll use the same tactics over and over again. It’s mindless fun though and that’s what counts!

I’ve come back to an old favorite, Final Fantasy XI. I mostly play on Xbox 360 but sometimes on PC. Saving macros on the server makes everything really easy for me! I decided to level jobs I wouldn’t have even considered in the past. I dropped my goal to get Ninja to 75 (currently 65) to level other jobs. Scholar was my main goal, but I’ve kept White Mage and Red Mage at the same level. I plan to do this for as long as I can. After this is complete I may go back to melee. I’m thinking I’ll cap up my Ninja and move over to Monk. Eventually, I would like to get back into Assault/Nyzul. I’ll have to get into Limbus and Dynamis for a short while too. Einherjar is another one I’d like to try. Everything mage is semi-new to me so I like the change of pace. It’s funny how this game after so many years still stands apart from the rest of the MMOs. The cross platform aspect of it is also quite wonderful.

I’ve been playing Demigod still, less frequently though. I love this game but on the steam platform it may have flourished a bit more than on the Impulse one. The game has some pathing and balancing issues. It’s also quite annoying to play with a person with high ping as it makes the game choppy and nearly unplayable for everyone else. I also cannot play this with my friends easily.

I got Plants Vs Zombies for both me and my significant other. We both played this tons. I would have loved the progress to be saved on my Steam profile somehow. I’ve had to replay the same parts twice because I move it over to my Asus N10J (semi-nettop).

I also purchased and played through BlueBerry Garden. It’s a pretty game. I liked the music and the art but it offers no replay really. It’s cheap though so if you don’t think that’s going to hold you back go ahead! I’d also suggest And Yet It Moves. Not entirely the same thing but it’s got charm also!

Finally, I’ve been playing Prototype on Xbox360. I love this game! I don’t care about graphics, they’re more than acceptable. I’ve seen people complain about them but honestly, that’s being pretty picky. The abilities you unlock, using them and the exploration of NYC is pretty fun. I’ve gotten quite a few “orbs”. I’ve heard people complain about the difficulty but I’ve just been caught by a spike once honestly. It’s quite easy to feed off poor random innocent bystanders while doing your thing. I’ve been listening to a lot of people on destructoid talk about both these and inFamous. I believe episode 102 of Podtoid had a few people discussing these. Anyways, I’ll try and complete it this week. I believe some review will be incoming soon on behalf of Dave. Metacritics don’t do this game justice however. To me, between this and inFamous I totally prefer this one but it’s quite frankly a pretty big coin toss.