So before we take a look at the best games of the year, let’s look at a few things that were just plain bad.

So read on and look at our 5… winners?

Bionic Commando

Wow. This game sucked. Bad. It’s a revival to one of the most beloved NES games of all time, you’d expect Capcom to put some effort into making this one of the top games of the generation. Yet they gave the project to Grin, who followed the release of Bionic Commando with… being closed down. Yeah, not too great. The game had lame shooting mechanics, the arm was a hassle to use, the story was completely retarded, and it wasn’t a good experience overall.

Tony Hawk Ride

When I first saw the board, I thought it looked cool. I thought that, if it was done well enough, we might have the single best skateboarding accessory ever. But alas it came out and we realize that it barely works at all. Sometimes doing tricks when you don’t want to, basically being controlled by moving it randomly in hopes that it actually does what you want… It’s not really functionnal. And after all the hype, it’s sad that it has to bomb that much.

Scribblenauts

This game had a huge amount of hype. It also had huge potential, and one of the most interesting concepts in a long time. The final game… not so much. The concept is still there, sure, but it’s really not too fun to play. The controls are beyond horrible, and you can go through most of the game just summoning God/Cthulhu, some rope and a jetpack. Not exactly a bad game in the same regard as, say, Bionic Commando or Tony Hawk Ride, but it’s disappointing that it didn’t even get close to reaching all the hype it got. Go back to the drawing board on this one 5th Cell, and next time don’t screw up.

PSP Go

Not a step in the best direction. By the time the PSP Go came out, most people who wanted a PSP already had one. So most people who might have been interested in it probably already had a good collection of games for it too(or at least a few games). So what does Sony do? Prevent anyone from playing said collection of games they already have if they update to the neew one, AND not going through with their promise of being able to exchange their UMDs for digital versions, and forcing you to go downloadable only for everything. And to top it all off they make it more expensive than/almost as expensive as a home console? There’s definitely something wrong here. The console itself isn’t bad, but the lack of UMD support and the super high price tag is just stupid.

MW2′s Single Player Campaign

Less than 5 hours(probably around 2-3 hours) long if you’re any good at the game, a really crappy story that doesn’t really try to make sense, horrible characters, and the worst and most anti-climactic ending I’ve seen in a game in a really long time… Why? Seriously, you’ve got this super hyped game that will sell millions, why don’t you go all-out on it? Instead we end up with this half-baked product that is really JUST made for people who were obsessed with the first game in the series (because people who are new to it will just get killed repeatedly in the multiplayer, which will make them abandon it instantly since they won’t have fun getting pwnd by the pros from the first game).

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I can’t believe this game sold so damn much. At least 300000 people bought this. It might not sound like a really high number, but considering how bad this game is, it IS high. It’s from an unproven developer (who previously had only released a few games including PC ports of the GRAW games and… hum… that super crappy “Wanted” game), it looked crappy in the gameplay videos and, well… I have no idea why anyone bought this at launch instead of renting it. SURE, they did a GREAT job with Bionic Commmando Rearmed, but they had pretty much nothing to do there other than up the visuals and add boss fights. Oh, and not to mention they released the incredibly crappy Terminator Salvation games a day after Bionic Commando.

This is a “game that didn’t” on just about every front and is an insult to fans of the original.

Read on and see why.

Developer: GRIN
Publisher: Capcom
Date of Release: May 18, 2009
Platforms: PS3, 360, PC

Genre: Third person shooter
Players: 1 (more online)

Expectations
Well… the gameplay videos didn’t display any fun gameplay, with the shooting being awkward and the swinging never looking as fun and smooth as it should be. But I thought it might end up okay when you actually played the game. And the reviews, while not stellar, were still not completely negative. So after waiting a few months to try it out, I thought the hype/anti-hype would die down, and it did, and I could go at it without people talking about how bad it is, or how awesome it is.

Sure, the character designs were a major turnoff, and the gameplay didn’t look interesting, and I was never really hyped for this, but I was still happy to see a new Bionic Commando game, hoping it might be good. But, as you might’ve deducted from my introductory post, this game sucked.

Why it didn’t
Why did it suck? Well, there’s multiple reasons for that, so let’s break it down by points!

Controls
The controls are bad. Very bad. They’re unresponsive, sometimes requiring multiple button presses for Rad Spencer to move at all. When it is responsive, the hit detection is so laughable what you wanted to do might not even work anyways. The worst in this case is the swinging. Basically: You aim at something, and if it’s close enough(a cursor will tell you when it is) you grapple to it if you’re holding L2. That should be incredibly simple to use. Yet just about every time I have to use the bionic arm, it doesn’t respond properly. Sometimes it hooks me up to the ceiling when I’m aiming at an enemy, or it just won’t hook up to what I want. Sometimes I’ll be right next to something, I’ll aim at it, and the arm will never deploy, causing me to fall in water and die. When you do swing, you have an icon that appears to tell you what the optimal time to let go is, but sometimes it just makes you not move at all and just fall. Normal movement, not counting the bionic arm, is floaty and full of glitches.

The combat is also awkward, since all the attacks clase-range have stupidly low range, the arm doesn’t work well so using it in battle isn’t usually a good idea (unless you HAVE to use the arm). The weapons are usually the way to go. Strangely the basic pistol is by far the worst weapon. Its accuracy is lower than the machine gun’s, since the bullets just fly out at complete random from the gun instead of going straight whether you’re moving or not (yay for the laws of physics), it’s weak (unless you do headshots, otherwise  you do more damage with your fists). Aiming your weapons is slow and clunky, moreso if you go in “zoom” mode for slightly more accurate aim. Another bad element here is health. It seems like there’s no actual health system here. You have a random amount of health and attacks do a random amount of damage. Sometimes a grenade exploding right next to you will kill you, sometimes it will just hurt a bit. Same for gunshots. Sometimes 5 people shooting you at the same time will slowly bring oyur health down, while sometimes one person shooting you will kill you in a second. It’s completely random. That’s all there is to it.

The game just doesn’t control very well.

Stupid gameplay elements
This game is filled with stupid ideas here, so let’s crack down on a few.

First: The bionic arm. Well, it’s a fine idea. The arm enables you to swing where you want, go where you want to go, take any paths to reach the next area… right? Well, no. You’re almost always limited to a set path. Going off that path will bring you into “radiation”(wtf? why is it not everywhere instead of just random spots?), which kills you within a second. So if you find a faster way to get to your destination, you can’t take it. Sometimes even paths that look like you can take(since they’re just a bit lower that the “set path”) are plunged in radiation. There’s literally no freedom here. If there’s no radiation outside of a set path, it’s just because there’s a collectible close. Let’s add water to the problems here. Some areas are randomly full of water. If you want to go through through, you have to not touch the water. Getting in water, unless it’s shallow, kills you. You CAN technically get out of water by grappling to something and pulling yourself out, but when you’re in water you can’t see a thing and you have to be lucky to find something to latch on to. And sometimes even things next to you can’t be latched on to because the game just glitches out on you. Lame.

Another thing I hated is the radar. What made me hate it? One area in the forest. Well, there’s this door I couldn’t get into because it was blocked by an energy field. I look around for a switch or something, try to find a way to get around it(radiation killed me), nothing works. After about 10 minutes I just randomly go on a nearby island and find enemies that I had to kill(which I couldn’t see by zooming on the island, of course)… So why weren’t they displayed on my radar if I NEED to kill them to advance? It’s not hard to pass right next to them without seeing them, since I ended up doing just that 3 times. What’s the point of a radar/mini-map thing if it doesn’t display anything?

Story
Now this is laughable. A random terrorist group blows up a city, and Rad Spencer has to investigate. Rad Spencer, who is going to get executed at the same time(executed because he followed orders… nice), but his execution is stopped for this mission.

The rest is nonsensical and stupid (if the premise itself wasn’t bad enough). The characters are all one-dimensional and boring. The script is laughably bad, I could stop laughing because every single line sounded stupid. It feels like it was written by a 10 year old. I love how the first 2 conversations with the bionic legs girl are exactly the same… Really.

Overall
This game is bad. There’s so much bad about it, the good(wherever it is) is definitely out-weighed by it. By far. The swinging around mechanic, which could’ve made the game a lot more fun that it is,  barely ever work properly.

It’s lame, not worth playing. Nothing more to say. It had a lot of potential, but failed on every front.

Pros/Cons
Pros
- If you get the disc version, it can serve as an okay Frisbee, or you could break it (that would be much more entertaining than playing the game)

Cons
- Bad controls
- Bad physics
- Clunky combat
- Swinging is boring and badly handled
- Boring array of enemies
- Bad Character designs (just look at the box “art”)
- Boring story
- Characters aren’t interesting, or anywhere near likeable
- Hard for all the bad reasons
- Not as free-roaming as it should be
- Radiation kills you in a second (the fact that radiation exists in the game is bad enough)
- Water kills you (that’s acceptable in old NES  games, and MAYBE inFamous, but otherwise there’s no excuse unless the water is dangerous for some reason… but no, the excuse here is “the arm is heavy!”… why not use the grappling hook as a propeller or something?)
- No fall damage…. UNLESS the game wants you to have fall damage (what kind of sense does that make?)

The Save Factor
Pay only $10 if you REALLY want to check this out(AKA rent it). Otherwise don’t even bother.

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Instead, let’s get hyped for next month!

With a few interesting releases… Well, it could be a fun month, we’ll see. For now, let’s look at the releases for each system!

The multi-platform games are at the bottom of the list, and the japanese import games will have (JAPAN) written next to the titles.
And slightly bigger boxart sizes for the more interesting games O_O

Read on!!!

DS

Desktop Tower Defense
Originally a fun little flash game, now becomes a DS game. It was a fun little time-waster, so it’s probably gonna be no more than that on the DS either.

Puchi Puchi Virus

This game was supposed to come out a long time ago, sometime last year, but it never did(despite the ROM being leaked). Well, now it’s actually coming. A fun little puzzle game published by Nippon Ichi Software America. Souldn’t be too bad.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Stardust Accelerator: World Championship 2009

It’s Yu-Gi-Oh… Not much more to say. If you like children’s card games and don’t have a yu-gi-oh game on DS yet, this will be worth checking out.

Naruto Shippuuden: Ninja Council 4

I had it last month, but I guess it was pushed back. I don’t have very high expectations for this, but it’s probably gonna be a bit fun for Naruto fans.

Steal Princess

I don’t know… It’s published by Atlus so it’s pretty sure to be rare fast, and the trailer on youtube makes it look not too bad.

Gyakuten Kenji (JAPAN)

A must for Phoenix Wright fans. In this one you play as prosecutor Miles Edgeworth. But considering the type of game it is, it’s probably not gonna be possible to play if you don’t know japanese.

A Witch’s Tale (JAPAN)

This was supposed to come out some time last year in the US, but the developpers randomly decided to change the game’s genre(from an Action RPG to a normal RPG) and, of course, they pushed back the release. It’s now coming to japan, so the US release should be coming in not TOO long…

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (JAPAN)

It’s Kingdom Hearts… And the 3 seconds of gameplay I saw last year looked pretty good, so this should be interesting.

PSP

Patapon 2

Budget priced, and just now it was announced to POSSIBLY be downloadable only(despite them still shipping the game with boxes…). A bit random, but whatever. The first game was apparently really fun, so this one should be just as good.

Bleach: Heat the Soul 6 (JAPAN)

A fighting game with Bleach characters, and the sixth in the series. I’ve only had… around 10 minutes of experience with that series, so I don’t know if it’s really good, but it must be doing something right if it went up to 6 games in the series (hopefully that “something right” isn’t just “being about Bleach”…)

PS2

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon

AKA game with uselessly long title. Not familiar with the “Devil Summoner” sub-series, but it should be interesting enough.

Secret Agent Clank
(yeah, it’s the PSP boxart, probably won’t change for the PS2 version)
Another PSP game gets ported on the PS2. A good option if playing it on the PSP isn’t possible…

Wii

New Play Control! Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
(japanese boxart, expect the same thing for the US boxart)
Another “New Play Control” game, this time it’s Donkey Kong taking center stage. Be ready for some random Wiimote Waggling! >_>

Klonoa

Klonoa was a fun game originally, and the remake should also be really fun.

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus

More Guilty Gear! Another version of XX. This time, from what I’ve read, Kliff and Justice are back, and there’s a bunch of random balance fixes and tweaks.

Punch-Out!!

It’s Punch-Out, but this time with Multi-player and awesome graphics! Should be badass enough.

Boom Blox Bash Party

Didn’t play the first Boom Blox and frankly I have no interest, but this should be a pretty popular game…

Xbox 360

Raiden Fighters Aces

A compilation of Shoot ‘em ups. Seems pretty fun from the videos I checked. The only interesting 360-exclusive release for the month of May.

PS3

Cross Edge

Finally! Looks to be a really fun RPG with characters from Disgaea, Darkstalkers, Ar Tonelico, some other random stuff, and some new characters. The Battle mechanics look fun, so this could be worth looking into.

inFamous!

It was just announced that it was pushed up one month, coming near the end of May, and it looks really fun. If interviews about the game are to be believed, everything that LOOKS climbable is, and the lightning powers look cool. Should be a very interesting release!

PC

Crysis: Maximum Edition

It’s Crysis… Not much more to say.

Plants vs. Zombies

Zombies are quite overused recently, but whatever. Seems like a little tower defense game where you place various types of plants to kill zombies.

Multi-Platform Games

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (PS3/360/DS/PSP/PC/Wii/PS2)

This looks like it could be pretty fun. Expect much lamer version on PS2/PSP/DS/Wii, but it should be really good on PS3 and 360. The PC version is the “uncaged” edition, and I have no idea what’s different about it. If it’s well optimized (not like that lame PC version for the latest Spiderman game), it should at least be playable. Oh, and you can have the classic yellow-blue outfit, awesome

Bionic Commando (PS3/360)

The gameplay videos for this are really not convincing me, but this will at least be a rental. The ue of the robot arm might be good, and the gunplay looks… just about as good as in any third-person shooter.

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel (PS3/360)

Didn’t like the PC version much, but if you liked the first game, you should like this one too.

Left 4 Dead (Game of the Year Edition) (PC/360)

Not really a big release. All it includes is the game with all the patches up until now and the free DLC already on the disc. Nothing special… But if you don’t have L4D yet, it’s well worth checking out.

Terminator Salvation (PS3/360/DS/PSP/PC/Wii)

Well… the latest trailer was vastly unimpressive… Maybe it’s because so many games lately are third-person shooters that all play the same?

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I’ve compiled a list of the great games coming out next year, so check it out to see if it’s gonna be a good year for you.
Of course, some games are not confirmed for 2009, and there might be some games that haven’t been announced yet, so this is in no way a 100% complete list, but it should include enough to have interesting games for every gamer out there.
Well, without delay let’s jump into this!

 Arc Rise Fantasia
Looks like a “Tales of…” game, could be interesting. An interesting Wii game

Another Code / Trace Memory
The first on the DS was pretty interesting, the new Wii version could be good.

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Lots of potential here. The atmosphere seems great, now we need to see some gameplay.

Bayonetta
This looks crazy. Disregarding the hot chick getting naked to do certain attacks… the gameplay could potentially be at a Devil May Cry level of awesomeness

The Beatles
Made by Harmonix… If you like The Beatles, why not?

Bionic Commando
Despite the lame looking main character, the game looks pretty fun.

The Conduit
A first-person shooter on the Wii, graphics look good, and if the controls are as good as Metroid Prime 3, it could be really good.

Cross Edge (X-Edge)
Darkstalkers+Disgaea+a bunch of other random franchises? There’s Prinnies, so I’m in, but the game actually looks good. Look forward to this on the PS3 in March.

Duke Nukem Trilogy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K00DCK1l98 Not much more to say, since I saw NO info on it, but if it does come out in 2009, I’ll be getting it for sure.

Dragon Quest 9
It’s Dragon Quest, nothing more to say. Changed from action RPG to turn-based during development, let’s see how the first numbered DQ game fares on a handheld.

Deadly Creatures
You control a spider or a snake througha huge desert. I’ll definitely rent this, lots of potential. Finally something on the Wii.

Dark Void
I remember seeing a trailer for this, looked pretty fun… Not much more to say since I know little about it.

Deus Ex 3
Haven’t played the previous games in the series (maybe i should…) but if this does come out in 2009, it should be well worth looking out.

Diablo 3
May not be a 2009 release for sure, but I’ve been anticipating this since the expansion to the second one came out. A 2009 release would definitely be awesome. The game looks awesome, and is probably gonna be as good as the first 2.

EyePet
This better fucking be free… If it is i’ll download it just to see how it works. Then delete it because it’s gonna suck despite being a fun little toy.

Fat Princess
Looks to be a fun little downloadable game. 

Fight Night Round 4
Really liked Round 3, so this one should be fun. And Mike Tyson is there! Ear-eating for illegal move would be awesome

Final Fantasy Dissidia
We should have a review for this soon, but until then those people who don’t know japanese like me will have to wait until the US version in 2009.

Final Fantasy XIII
Probably not a 2009 release in the US, but in Japan it should be out. Let’s hope that a current-gen FF is gonna be really good. I really can’t wait to see what they’ll do with it.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII
I have yet to see any gameplay, or know when it’s coming out, but it could be pretty nice, and a 2009 release would be good.

Final Fantasy Agito XIII
Not sure what this one is about, all I know is that it’s a cellphone game gone PSP. We’ll see.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
A Wii/DS game? How will that work? Well, we’ll see, it could potentially be really fun… As long as it’s better than the FF:CC on the Gamecube…

Forza Motorsport 3
The 360s response to Gran Turismo 5… oh wait… Well I didn’t play the previous games, but I did hear some good things. I’ll be sure to try this one out (now that I have a 360)

Ghostbusters: The Video Game
YES PLEASE. The trailer was so awesome, I’m sure to buy it. The game looks quite interesting other than the fact that it’s Ghostbusters.

God of War III
I hate God of War. Lame QTE-fest….. But it’s long awaited, and if it comes out in 2009 it’s gonna be one of the biggest PS3 games of the year. No matter what I think it’ll be big, and even I will give it a chance.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
GTA, on DS. Interesting idea, I’m curious about this.

Halo 3: ODST
It’s Halo 3, nothing more to say…

Halo Wars
Incredibly generic RTS that Halo fans are already trying to make lamer! “This button should shoot grenades!” WTF. Well, it’s potentially interesting, but we’ll see.

Heavy Rain
Great graphics… QTE-fest, but I think the main focus here is the story, which changes depending on what you do, and if you die the story actually goes on. Will definitely rent this. Not sure if it’s a 2009 release, but whatever.

The House of the Dead: Overkill
Killing zombies is always fun. So this should be fun too.

InFamous
An open world game using a guy with lightning-based super powers. Lots of potential, let’s hope they do it properly.

Indiana Jones
Not much info on it. If it comes out in 2009, I’ll check it out.

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile
It’s a remake of the first Klonoa. Will be fun.

Killzone 2
Great graphics. That’s just about all I know. We’ll see if it’s gonna live up to the hype

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
KH on DS. The very short gameplay I’ve seen looked fast-paced and really good.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
KH on PSP. Looks great.

The King of Fighters XII
Proof that 2D should never die, even in current/net-gen consoles. It looks great and seems to play great.

MadWorld
Not sure about this. If the gameplay complements the over-the-top violence, should be good.

Mario & Luigi RPG 3
The first 2 were kinda fun.

Massive Action Game
256 players online. That’s basically all I know. No gameplay was seen but people are hyping this up like crazy. Let’s prepare to be disappointed right away.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade
2D beat-em up game I think? Made by Vanillaware, the guys behind Odin Sphere. Should be an interesting Wii title.

Ninja Blade
I lost all interest when Wintrale told me it was just a big QTE-fest, but it might still be interesting. The demo coming soon should help make a good decision on this.

Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers (Wii)/
Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad (Xbox 360)
Japanese Schoolgirls killing zombies with katanas. On 2 consoles, so most likely you’ll be able to experience it. I’ll most likely be going for the 360 version though.

Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?
You play as a Prinny, who wouldn’t want to get this? The demo was great, let’s hope the full game is just as good.

Prototype
Another game I know nothing about, but it’s really hyped. We might see what it’s all about in 11 days though (official website countdown)

Phantom Brave Wii
ORLY? Okay, I’ve already played a lot of Phantom Brave on the PS2, but if you didn’t, check it out. Really fun strategy RPG.

Punch-Out!!
HOLY SHIT! PUNCH OUT!! Though Nintendo seems hell bent on making lame games like Wii Music, it seems they got the right idea as to what to do for “core” audiences, and this looks awesome.

Resident Evil 5
It’s Resident Evil…yay! Rental only for me since I suck at RE games, but still potentially interesting.

Sin and Punishment 2
I have yet to get the N64 version on the Virtual Console, but I did play it once and it was fun, so the sequel should be nice.

Sonic and the Black Knight
Okay, after what sounds like a deception with Unleashed, I can’t really get excited for this. But there might be potential.

Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection
Now that’s Sonic at its best. And there’s a bunch of other games that aren’t Sonic too. You might already have all of those on other compilation discs, or emulators, but if not, and if the price is right, why not?

Splatterhouse
Remake of the first? That’s what I read. Could be good. Maybe.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope
Not exactly sure what to say about this one. It’s Star Ocean. The previous games in the series were fun. I’ll be sure to at least rent it.

StarCraft II
The first starcraft was and still is great, the sequel looks just as good. Check the 21 minute battle report, great stuff there.

Street Fighter IV
A sequel to SF2, fun. From various videos I’ve seen it looks really good, and the console versions have more characters than the arcade.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
The first was fun, if the sequel improves on a couple elements it could be really good.

The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf
Didn’t play the PC version, but it seems interesting enough, especially since the console versions will apparently have more stuff in them.

White Knight Chronicles
Another game we’ll hear about relatively soon on here, with hopefully a review in January. Level 5 makes relatively good games most of the time, this could be nice.

Wolfenstein
Wolfenstein 3D was good for its time(though it didn’t age well) and Return to Castle Wolfenstein was really good. If it comes out in 2009, I’ll be playing it.

Yakuza 3
The first 2 were good, let’s see if the PS3 one is good as well.

 

So that’s it for now. Lots of great games coming on all systems, this sounds like it’s gonna be another great year in gaming, no matter which system you have. I did leave some games out, but I couldn’t find ALL the games coming out in 2009. And some are probably yet to be announced.

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Bionic Commando (Xbox360 version)

Right… The demo I played was mostly the tutorial that you’ll all be playing when the game actually hits the shelves… It does little more than get you to grips with the Arm by putting you through a variety of challenge rooms that require deft use of the Arm to traverse. Thankfully, the mechanic is pretty easy to use: hold the right trigger to grab and swing, let go of the trigger to let go of whatever it is your Arm is holding onto. The timing obviously changes how far you fly through the air and, subsequently, if you land on the platform you need to. Anyway… Great mechanics and great looks.

Star Ocean 4

Graphically beautiful, I’d easily put this as the best looking 360 game in my opinion. The art direction only helps solidify that. Plenty of attackable enemies of little danger, coupled with an impressively breezey combat system help make this game feel as good as it looks. While the queue to play this was pretty long, so I got thrusted off after about five minutes, I could tell from the start that this game was going to be huge. Having played most of the Star Ocean games before, as well, I can easily say that fans of the previous games will feel right at home with this one.

The Last Remnant

Errr… Maybe after playing the other games on show, this one didn’t appear too great in comparison. I can’t think of any other reason why this game didn’t “click” with me. The demo was pretty restrictive, and it didn’t share the graphical prowess of Star Ocean 4. At least the battle system is interesting, right? Morale dictates the damage your “unit” deals, and damage affects their Morale in both ways – they get damaged, they lose morale, they deal damage, they gain it. Again, this was another game I didn’t get much time to fully explore, and I’ve been told that I missed out on some critical mechanics (no pun intended).

Ninja Blade

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear… Ninja Gaiden’s successor, this isn’t. Simply put, this game is trying too hard to take on the most stand out mechanics of the other big Action games. The on-the-fly weapon switching of Devil May Cry, the Ninja Gaiden-like protagonist and weapons, and God of War-esque Quick Time Events and giant bosses. Sadly, it doesn’t excel at using any of them. It even tries something new in the form of it’s own brand of bullet time – everything slows down, and enemy weaknesses are highlighted in white. Overall, this game either needs a lot of polish or it won’t even be worth renting. I know they want a Cinematic Action Game, as opposed to an Extreme Action Game… But does it have to be this easy…?

Dissidia Final Fantasy

If you own a PSP, preorder an import right now. Don’t worry about not understand a word of it – this is a game everyone needs to be playing before Christmas. It’s that good. The demo had five available characters, and I got to play with all but one. Basic mechanics are the same for each character… Circle whittles away at your opponent’s Bravery, while Square deals damage to their HP. Holding directions, as well as whether your character is on the ground, in the air or running across a wall, changes what attack that character uses. In addition, every single character plays in a drastically different way: Squall is slow, but powerful, while Tidus specialises in quick weak attacks that are easily chained together for damaging combos. I think this game has beaten FFXIII Versus to the punch for replication of the kind of fights we’ve seen in Advent Children. Did I mention that everyone should preorder an import right now?

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