February marks the release of a new console! Yay! Otherwise there are: 5 3DS releases, 1 standard DS release, 1 Wii release, 4 PS3 releases and 6 Mutliplatform releases. No 360, PC or PSP exclusives on the list, surprising no one.

So read on and see what’s coming out!

Note: this doesn’t include shovelware or games that we all known will suck, but rather gamse I think are noteworthy for whatever reason, may it be because they’ll be popular, or that I’m personally interested in.

PLAYSTATION VITA

(02/15 for the “first edition” package and 02/22 for the “boring package that only has the system and power cable”)
Sony is starting up on the next generation of gaming with their answer to Nintendo’s “currently kicking all sorts of ass worldwide” 3DS, the Playstation Vita (which is currently selling worse and worse every week in Japan, but I do hope that changes). It’s basically a HUGE upgrade to the PSP. Better graphics and processing, beautiful badass screen of awesome awesomeness, second analog stick, touch screen, back touch pad (I’m currently not convinced about it, but trying it out could change my mind… and yes, it’s a touch PAD, not a touch SCREEN as so many people have been saying), better standard media (carts/cards > discs, especially for handhelds)… The only big downfalls so far is the overpriced memory cards (I see no reason for Sony not using SD other than “we wanna make slightly more money”), the lack of a memory card coming standard with the console (some games REQUIRE a memory card to even play at all, why the heck isn’t there a 256MB card included or something just for saving?), and the high-ish price of the console… but, then again, I paid 250$ for a launch 3DS so… it could have been worse. This seems like a console with a LOT of potential, and I hope that potential is reached, rather than completely squandered like the PSP was.

As for games… there aren’t a lot of launch games worth mentioning really… Seriously, the launch lineup is almost as good as the 3DS’, there’s barely anything there. The only title I want at launch is Gravity Rush, and that’s STILL not clear if it’s actually a launch title (it seems not even Sony knows, despite the game coming out on Feb. 9 in japan and at launch in Europe… what’s the hold up on a release date guys?)… and maybe Army Corps of Hell. Here’s the currently known launch title list (that I can find…), which I hope Gravity Rush will join:

Escape Plan (PSN Only) (hopefully there’s a demo, that has potential, maybe)
Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational
Hustle Kings (PSN Only)
Little Deviants (only game I’m 100% sure of getting in here… since it comes with the first edition package… otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten it)
ModNation Racers: Road Trip (a modern racing game with no online racing… epic fail, especially for a game that should thrive so much on community involvement)
Super StarDust Delta (PSN only)
UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss (it’s gonna be a dumbed-down version of a sub-par cover-based TPS… interest=zero)
wipEout 2048
Army Corps of Hell (potentially interesting, kinda like Pikmin meets DMC meets Brutal Legends)
Asphalt Injection
BEN10 GALACTIC RACING
Blazblue: Continuum Shift EXTEND
Dungeon Hunter Alliance
Dynasty Warriors Next
F1 2011
EA SPORTS FIFA Soccer
Lumines Electronic Symphony
Michael Jackson The Experience
Plants vs. Zombies (PSN Only) (you HAVE to have a version of this on something already, right?)
Rayman Origins (the console version was bad (it looked nice though so that’s…. something), so my expectations are low on this one)
Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen
Tales of Space: Mutant Blobs (PSN Only)
Touch My Katamari
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 (rather pointless due to it being the same price as the console version… kinda like SSFIV3D)
Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

The Darkness 2 02/07 (PC, PS3, 360)

The first “The Darkness” sucked. Yeah they tried something new with the Darkness, a weird creature that attached itself to the main character or whatever, but in the end it was just a sub-standard FPS. I’m expecting much of the same here, though I will give the demo a try.

Shank 2 02/07 (PC(?), PS3, 360)

The first Shank was a very solid game. Some things weren’t that great, like the “parkour”-like segments which were just boring, but the combat was fun and fast paced, and the boss battles were pretty entertaining (and especially fun when you managed to kill a boss without getting hit). I think Shank 2 will be just as good, but less “wow factor” unless they add a lot of new gameplay elements.

Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning 02/07 (PC, PS3, 360)

The demo felt a bit boring, but maybe the part the demo showed was the boring part of the game… It seems to have potential, but it feels quite button-mashy (like, as soon as you hit an enemy and make it fall down, just mash the attack button and win). Might be interesting for Western RPG fans, but not one I’m looking forward to myself.

Asura’s Wrath 02/21 (PS3, 360)

This game sucks. Why? QTEs! Seriously, the demo was basically QTE-only, any other gameplay actually has QTEs embedded into it (blocking/returning missiles, for example) and was only meant to build up a meter to get to QTEs. The gameplay, as far as the demo goes, is fricken boring, since QTEs just plain suck no matter what (it’s lazy on the dev’s side and not fun for the player). But I still really want to rent it, because the cinematics are completely crazy and awesome… Seriously, the second part of the demo is so crazy awesome, I want to rent it just to see how much more crazy it gets, that just looked so cool. If only the gameplay lived up to the awesome cinematics and visuals…

Syndicate 02/21 (PC, PS3, 360)

I’ve only seen videos for this a few minutes ago, wondering what all the hype was about (at least on news sites like Kotaku). And… well, it’s an FPS with nothing special (as far as I can tell)… I may be wrong, but what I’ve seen looks very sub-standard. The gameplay videos I just watch make it look really boring, like most modern FPS. “You can increase certain meters with adrenaline, by going in the middle of the action!!” the guy said, and then the meters went up while he was behind cover not going anywhere near the action… fail. (NOTE: I’m not familiar with the original Syndicate so that may not help… but it’s a completely different genre so… whatever, I’m guessing fans of the original are PISSED, just like X-com fans)

SSX 02/28 (PS3, 360)

It’s SSX…. The graphics look great and the gameplay will probably be pretty good. It’s not a series I ever really played, but I’m sure this is gonna be an enjoyable one nonetheless… Heck, I’ve seen videos and it actually looks really cool. A rental for me (at least for now), but this should be good.

Binary Domain 02/28 (PS3, 360)

I have no idea what this is, it’s just on there because Dave asked me to put it here. The only video I’ve seen it looked like a fairly standard TPS… Not really sure about this, but I’ll check it out when Dave buys it.

NINTENDO 3DS RELEASES

Resident Evil Revelations 02/07

RE isn’t a series I’m very interested in. Basically a series of games I have more fun watching someone play through than play myself. I’ve seen a couple videos and information about this game, and it looks like it could actually be very solid. The plot sounds interesting (as far as RE plots go) and the gameplay looks solid. Not a game I’m terribly interested in, but one I think fans will enjoy.
Demo impressions: Okay, I played the demo, and it’s actually really good. I mean, DAMN good. It looks really fun. It feels a lot like the original series, with the shooting/movement mechanics from RE4. Seems great really. Potentially a must have for the RE fan I’ll say.

Tales of the Abyss 02/14

I haven’t played much of the PS2 version of this, but I do remember not enjoying it much. Maybe I was just stupid at the time, I wouldn’t know, but I am interested at giving it another chance… Eventually, when I’m playing fewer RPGs.

Tekken 3D: Prime Edition 02/14

Prime Edition? What does that even mean? Anyways…. it’s Tekken. Not a fighting game series I’m particularly fond of. I just can’t get into it at all… I think it’s the whole “3D fighter” genre that doesn’t work for me, as I’m also not a fan DoA and Virtua Fighter (with the only exception being SoulCalibur). So yeah, this is gonna be Tekken, and it’s gonna come with a 3D Tekken movie. Not much more to say here, if you’re a fan of the series you’ll probably enjoy it.

Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D 02/21

I don’t even see a point to this… wasn’t there recently an HD version released in a package? Might as well get that for probably the same price since there’s more games… Unless there’s something really different here minus the fairly pointless 3D visuals… I’d say don’t bother. Heck, if you want to play it on a handheld… the Vita is gonna get its own version of the HD remake so… yeah.

Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure 02/28

Some weird rhythm game that… looks sort of fun actually. The basic gameplay seems pretty simple, where you press buttons/tap the touch screen/move the system around when prompted, QTE-style, but the visuals are really interesting (almost Ouendan-like), and there’s multiple gameplay styles… it seems like it could be pretty cool. It’s just a rental for me though, since it’s largely QTE-like.

PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES

Jak and Daxter Collection 02/07

I’ve actually never played a Jak and Daxter game.. I did play Daxter on the PSP (and only a little bit of it), but that’s really it, and I barely remember it… so I have no idea what this particular collection will be like… So yeah, nothing for me to say here.

The House of the Dead III 02/07
(not finding a boxart for this)
Didn’t the Wii get a version of this? … Yeah, it did, and it was in a package that had 2 as well… Not sure why this particular release doesn’t… Anyways… it’s House of the Dead, so obviously it’s gonna be entertaining. Just not sure how worthwhile this is since the Wii has a version with an extra game…

Twisted Metal 02/14

This looks pretty cool. It’s been a while since the last console Twisted Metal game, and this seems to add a few things to the formula and it looks quite fun to play overall. I’ll rent it since I’m not too sure about it, but it does seem very interesting.

Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 02/28

Wait what? Already? huh…. Maybe I should finish the first one (which is a very solid and fun RPG, by the way) some time soon before getting to this one… The original was a fun but repetitive and rather easy RPG, but it gave me good laughs and could pretty easily be really good if a few modifications are made to the base gameplay.
Actually, this one seems to completely change the gameplay, seeming to have similar to Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom rather thanHyperdimension Neptunia… Interesting.

NINTENDO DS RELEASES

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 02/28

Not a sub-series I’m familiar with, since I missed the original DS game AND the 3DS remake of the original, so there’s not much I can say here… Yeah, I’ll stop here.

WII RELEASES

Rhythm Heaven Fever 02/13

The DS game, Rhythm Heaven, was fantastic. The gameplay was simple with 3 actions (touch the screen, DON’T touch the screen and swipe the screen) which affected the animations on the top screen, where you basically had to mimic something or follow a certain rhythm or do different things depending on instructions given by the characters. The gameplay was actually very fun and quite exciting, especially as the rhythm went faster and faster and the patterns mixed became more complicated… But I’m not too sure how well this will work on Wii… I’ll rent it.

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Okay, I guess saying just that is really not doing this game justice, since there’s actually a lot to say about it. Its original game design philosophy is something to be commended and that’s what I want to talk about here.

So read on!

Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Date of Release: November 13th 2011
Platforms: Nintendo 3DS

Genre: 3D platformer
Rated E for Everyone

A 3D side-scroller?

Okay, so this is fairly standard Mario fare: Peach gets kidnapped and you have to travel through 8 worlds to find Bowser, beat him up and save the princess. Each world features 5 levels (+1 boss level), all in the format of a standard jump and stomp Mario platformer. This is where it gets interesting.

You see, this IS a 3D Mario in the veins of 64/Sunshine/Galaxy, but there’s something very unique about it. I’ll try my best to explain, but at worst you can just buy the game and experience it for yourself… While the game IS a standard Mario 3D Platformer, the levels are designed in such a way that it feels more like a 2D side-scroller. It’s just the way the enemy placement is thought out, and how the various obstacles work that give it more of an “obstacle course” feel that you get from side-scrollers than most 3D platformers which tend to more often be about exploration rather than straight out platforming. A lot of the action takes place in more side-scrolling settings, but there’s almost always options to go in any direction for shortcuts/alternate paths and such. Even the more “exploration based” levels have that side-scrolling feel to them due to smart enemy/trap placement (with an exception or 2), as well as requiring precise jumps. It all has a very unique feel compared to other Mario games… Yeah, I guess it is a bit hard to explain, but it does have a very unique gameplay design.

Mario nostalgia

I will never hide my mildly fanboy-ish attitude when it comes to Mario. I really can’t, because Mario games were a big part of my growth as a gamer, with Super Mario Bros being probably my first game (or at least the first game I remember playing), and every successive “main” Mario game being amongst my favorites. Other than a couple spin-offs and the CD-i game, Mario games have mostly been high-quality (yes, even the american Super Mario Bros 2), and every one of the main series Mario games are still very replayable now, barely showing their age. As with every modern Mario release, this game will tug at your nostalgia nerves. Old music, old enemies (Boom Boom makes a reappearance!), old power-ups making a comeback in a big way (Tanooki suit for the first time since SMB3? Yes please). It forces you to revisit old Mario memories…. and fuck, it works! Anyways, on to the normally scheduled review.

Presentation

The game takes a very… Super Mario Galaxy take for its basic look. All the levels other than underground, mansion and Bower Castle levels take place high in the sky, where you’ll be running and jumping along various floating platforms.You’re never clearly on the ground like in other Mario games, the bottomless hole you can fall in is made quite clear. I think it’s an interesting look and it makes everything look open. The underground levels look nice too, with their (generally) side-scrolling nature and hidden paths and items (while they look side-scrolling ,they aren’t, which I find is what makes them interesting).

Technically, the graphics are great. Everything looks really nice, the textures are good quality, nothing to complain about here. I’d say it’s very close to Super Mario Galaxy level, just… a bit less due to the tiny screen on the 3DS. I’ve come to accept this though: The 3DS screen, partly due to the 3D and the relatively low resolution, will always have aliasing problems. It’s easy to ignore, but there are times when you’ll clearly see that the edge of objects are super pixelated (moreso for Mario than any other object in the game I find). Yes it’s annoying, but it’s a very easy detail to get over when the game is fun to play.

Sound-wise… It’s Mario. There’s a good amount of recycling here, with a lot of older music and sound effects. Basically nothing out of place for a Mario game. It’s good, nothing to add.

Gameplay

The gameplay is fantastic. As previously mentioned, it controls something akin to other 3D Mario games. Running around and jumping feels great, stomping on stuff is good. You have most of the Super Mario 64 moves here (sideflip, backflip, long jump, ground pound) but no double/triple jump strangely enough, and the backflip is triggered by crouching and charging it up ALA Super Mario Bros 2(US version). The goal of every level is simple: get to the end without losing all your lives (note: You’ll never lose all your lives unless you’re really bad at games… in general). You’ll find a flagpole at the end of every level signifying the end, and a way to jump to the highest part of said flagpole (for extra lives!).

As always Mario has a few power-ups. Making a long-awaited return is the Tanooki Suit. It enables you to swing your tail around for an attack, and also glide in the air (the flying function was removed, partly because it would make the game way too easy). It’s very fun to use, though it does make some platforming segments a bit too easy. There are actually 2 versions of this, one which enables you to transform into a statue to become immune to damage for a limited time. You have the fireflower, as always. I love bouncing the flame on walls to hit enemies that are behind barricades with it. Finally there’s the boomerang… flower? It gives you a costume similar to the Hammer costume in SMB3, but instead you throw boomerangs, which you can use to hit enemies or grab far-away objects (similar to Zelda). Overall these are pretty fun to use.

Difficulty/Content

This game is actually stupidly easy. Let’s just forget the fact that you can gather up over 1000 lives in about 5 minutes in the second level using one of the koopa shells, this game is really easy. While it features amazing level design, said level design will not challenge you much. As an example, I died around 8 times on my first playthrough of the main game. The jumps are generally easy, and the enemy/trap placement, while really cool, is never really that tough. But that’s obviously not all there is to the game.

After finishing the main quest, you gain access to the “Special” worlds. There’s 8 of those with 5 levels each (+1 boss level), and there’s a final level in addition to that once you’re done completing both the normal and special levels 100% (including playing through them all with Luigi). The levels in those 8 worlds constitute of re-made levels from the main games with tougher enemy placement, tougher/faster traps, and crazy gimmicks (such as giving you a super-short time limit with the only way to increase it being killing goombas, or a shadow Mario that follows you around to try and kill you). The game actually gets pretty hard at this point. Sure, you’re never in any danger of game over (the game not only has the infinite lives trick in level 1-2, but it gives away 1-ups like crazy so you’ll be well over 100 lives by the time you reach the special worlds), but some of the levels WILL frustrate you and actually challenge you quite a bit with really evil enemy placement and complicated to navigate traps.

I think it’s a good balance really. And it does end up having tons of content (96 levels, each with 3 star coins to pick up and having to get the top of the flagpole in each), and overall a good amount of gameplay even if you don’t plan on 100%ing everything.

3D

Just a quick blurb on it. It looks very nice. That’s… about it… I mean, there’s some moments where the 3D definitely helped me with platforming, but nothing really major. There’s a few moments with clever use of 3D, but they’re very few and very far between. It’s nice, but it’s not required. There’s an option to have “deeper” 3D, which you can toggle by pressing up or down on the d-pad. It’s pretty good, though some people who tried the game told me they saw it blurrier with the “deeper” setting on (not a problem with me though). Overall I think that reviewers have been blowing this way out of proportion. It’s nice, but it’s not game-changing, not anywhere near close to that.

Overall

It’s by far the best game out now on the 3DS. Nothing more to say here. If you have a 3DS and you don’t already have this, you have to remedy this now.

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So here we have: over 9000 Wii releases, 13 multiplatform releases, 4 3DS releases, 2 PS3 releases and 2 Xbox 360 releases… OH and 1 PC release (almost forgot that, silly me). Don’t forget this only includes games that will probably be good, or popular games. No shovelware here (other than Call of Duty), and no/very few downloadable games (since release dates rarely pop up early for these).

Read on and tell us what you’re getting!

WII RELEASES

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword 11/20

Ah yes, a new Zelda, and holy shit does it look glorious. Nothing more to say here, buy it!

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

Goldeneye 007: Reloaded 11/01 (PS3, 360)

The Goldeneye remake on Wii was complete shit… by which I mean it was Call of Duty with the Goldeneye story with some messed up details and random stupid changes. This is looking to be the same thing… IN HD! Shit in HD is still shit though.

Sonic Generations 11/01 (PS3, 360, 3DS)

Ah Sonic, coming back with what might possibly be the second good Sonic game this generation! (note: Sonic 4 Episode 1 was the first) I’m not entirely sure what to think of this one yet. The demo that was set in the classic style of gameplay was really well done, though that can change if the level design starts sucking later on, and I’m not totally hyped up for the “new” gameplay style, but the demo at least convinced me that it’s at least not AS shitty as the terrible Sonic Colors. I’m picking it up, but I’m still very unsure if that’s a good idea or not. Good thing it’s so cheap on Steam.

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North 11/01 (PC, PS3, 360)

Just saw it on some release lists, figured it might interest some people…. I have no idea what this game is like, and I don’t care.

Burgertime World Tour 11/02 on Xbox 360 (Also coming to PSN, PC and WiiWare later in the month, date currently unknown)

I rarely put downloadable games on here, but this one is worth it. How long has it been since a NEW Burgertime game anyways? And this actually looks really good from what I’ve seen. It keeps the classic gameplay philosophy but adds some new gameplay elements and level design gimmicks. Should be worth checking out.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 11/08 (Pc, PS3, 360)

Activision is once again releasing this game. This is the EIGHTH time they’ve release the same game this generation (ninth if you want to count “Call of Duty Classic” which is downloadable)… This is getting completely crazy guys (who am I kidding, it was already crazy at the third re-release)… Bah, who am I kidding, this will sell the inevitable undeserved millions and will make Actvision huge wads… of cash. Maybe soon people will realize they’re buying the same crappy game over and over… *looks at Madden*… Yeah, that’s not happening.

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection 11/08 (Ps3, 360)

Strangely enough, this doesn’t contain MGS1… may I ask why? Instead it’s Peace Walker (unless you’re in japan, in which case you’re getting MGS1 (on PSN, so not in HD) but not Peace Walker)… just a bit weird. Either way, this is an interesting pack for people who didn’t get the same collection (minus HD, minus Peace Walker, plus MGS1) on PS2 a few years back.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 11/11 (PC, PS3, 360)

One of the most hyped game this year. I’m personally not too interested (I’ll just rent it), but it doesn’t look terrible by any means. I’m gonna say this is one to watch out for, it’s probably gonna have hundreds of hours of gameplay if you want do to everything/if you don’t get bored of it before doing everything.

Rayman Origins 11/15 (PS3, X360, Wii, 3DS)

Seems to be really cool. Graphically it’s beautiful, but it also looks really fun to play. And a new Rayman game that’s actually about Rayman himself and not those fucking rabbits? CRAZY!

Need for Speed: The Run 11/15 (PC, PS3, X360, Wii, 3DS)

A seemingly standard Need for Speed game… with completely stupid and random “parkour” segments which are controlled by QTEs (at least in the original trailer I saw, the demo didn’t feature any of that)… not interested, the demo was very unimpressive.

Saints Row: The Third 11/15 (PC, PS3, 360)

Why hello there weird GTA clone. I actually haven’t played any of these, and I won’t start here, but at least I can say the devs of SR seem to take the game less seriously than the GTA series of late, so this is full of wacky weirdness, making it at least more imaginative than what GTA.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 11/15 (Ps3, 360)

A bit of a kick in the balls to release a much better version of the game (12 more characters, bunch of new stages, a couple new modes, spectator mode, complete rebalance, etc.) for 40$ only 8 months after the original which cost 60$, BUT at least this is looking really awesome. The new characters (other than Nemesis and Frank West) look really cool (my favorites so far being Firebrand and Mr top tier…. I mean Phoenix Wright), the Heroes and Heralds mode looks interesting and there’s tons of rebalancing done too.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations 11/15 (PC, PS3, 360)

It’s Assassin’s Creed. And again it’s milking Ezio for all he’s worth, instead of going to a new setting or something. Anyways, you already know if you want this or not. I personally don’t like this series with it’s 100% mindless “platforming” (hold a button and a direction and the game will do everything on its own!) and button-mashy combat with no real strategy/fun… But a lot of other people clearly do (or at least enjoy the plot enough to suffer through the gameplay), so if you do, check it out!

The King of Fighters XIII 11/22 (PC, PS3, 360)

Didn’t really enjoy KoFXII… Not sure what it was about it, I just couldn’t get into it (though KOF as never my fighting game series of choice). Not planning on trying this one.

PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception 11/01

The Uncharted games, despite having rather uninspired gameplay (standard cover-based TPS with nothing that sets it apart from any other game in the genre), remains interesting due to being actually really good action movies in the vein of Indiana Jones. I’m sure this will continue the tradition of “fairly boring gameplay, good story/cutscenes”. I’m gonna rent it for sure.

Tekken Hybrid 11/22

Not a big Tekken fan myself, but for people who are, this includes the Tekken 3D movie, Tekken Tag Tournament HD and Tekken Tag 2 Prologue, so it should be a nice package for fans.

3DS RELEASES

Cave Story 3D 11/08

The original Cave Story is a very fun Metroid-style platformer. This looks… pretty much identical from what I’ve seen, but with 3D graphics (that do look quite good from what I’ve seen). Probably not a bad buy, but I question if 40$ is a good price point for it since you can still get the original for free… maybe if there’s enough new content…

Super Mario 3D Land 11/13

This will kick ass. Nothing more to say.

Shinobi 11/15

Not really sure about this one yet, but I’m pretty sure I’ll at least rent it. It’s been a while since the last side-scrolling Shinobi game (I’d say Saturn off the top of my head (Shinobi Legions) but I might be wrong), so this is interesting on that premise alone, and the gameplay looks okay from what I’ve seen.

Nano Assault 11/22

The third in the not-acclaimed-but-still-really-good Nanostray series by Shi’nen. This one takes on various gameplay styles. The ones I’ve seen were twin-stick shooter and a star fox-style “space” shooter, but I’m guessing there’s going to be regular side-scrolling shooter levels as well. Looks very solid.

PC RELEASES

Serious Sam 3: BFE 11/22

Another FPS this year that I’m interested in, partly because it takes on an “oldschool” style of gameplay in FPS, with some exploration for secrets but, most of all, badass fast-moving action and awesome weapons. Looks like this could be really good… hopefully.

XBOX 360 RELEASES

Otomedius Excellent 11/01

It was delayed again? Seriously? Come on guys, just release the damn thing… there’s already DLC available for it, so why is the game not out yet? *insert blurb about how it looks to be a kickass gradius game*

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary 11/15

It’s Halo.

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But the biggest part of E3 is definitely the big keynote conferences, namely the ones by Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. I have a few things to say about them after watching them, so let’s go! Keep in mind I’m only talking about the big 3 here, so there’s gonna be no mention of the EA or Ubisoft conferences (despite Ubisoft kicking Microsoft’s ass, and that JUST by showing Rayman Origins footage… but I digress)..

Read on! (wow, I wrote a lot more than I thought I would… Oh well)

Note before discussing the conferences

People must keep in mind that E3 is, first and foremost, a trade show. It’s a place when hardware manufacturers and developers go to show off to journalists and to their stockholders what they have coming out, and what they hope will sell. To their stockholders, it makes them see what they’ll be making money on. Journalists… are just happy to write about it and spur discussion about upcoming products. This isn’t primarily a show for gamers (sort of), it’s more of a show to present upcoming products, may it be exciting to “core” gamers or not. Sure, the gamer’s experience is what counts in that end, but money is what really counts here. I am presenting this from a gamer’s perspective, but do keep in mind that I also think of this as a trade show, so my opinions do change due to that.

Microsoft

Starting the conference
Microsoft opened with a few third-party games, namely Modern Warfare 3 (surprise! it runs on the same damn gameplay engine as MW2 and MW1!… fuck evolution, right?) and the new Tomb Raider game (which, from the looks of it, is actually a movie with minor interactions… but that was just a small portion so maybe it becomes a game later on?). It was a rather subpar start.

Kinect
If there’s one word that can summarize this conference, it’s “Kinect”. that’s basically all that was shown. First, integration in “hardcore games” was a main concern… at first. Talking to speak your choices in Mass Effect 3 (lame), directing your team with speech in Mass Effect 3 (possibly really cool), customizing your weapons in Ghost Recon (kinda nifty, though buttons would do the job just as well, and probably faster), looking at cars in Forza…. and yeah, that’s about it.

As for new “core” games announced, we saw a new Fable game (filled with false promises by Peter Molyneux right before showing the gameplay that makes it clear that his stupid speech was false) which is actually an on-rails shooter. We saw Ryse, a project by Crytek, which, by the looks of the trailer, will be an on-rails brawler (it actually looks quite cool, but the on-rails nature may be iffy). We saw Star Wars Kinect (okay, not really a new announcement, but shut up ), which is a crappy on-rails brawler with unresponsive controls… Okay, we get it MS, Kinect can’t deliver full control of character movement and as such going for on-rails is probably the best possible implementation for “core” games but… I dunno, I think this is the maximum Kinect can do for “core” gamers at the moment. Boost up this technology for your next console.

Then we got the “shit” no one wants to hear about. Kinect got a new sports game, a new dance central, a sesame street game, a lame Disneyland game… and that’s about the extent of that. One cool announcement for Kinect was the Kinect Fun Labs… though it’s hard to say what it can really do from their conference, it did look kinda cool… we’ll see!

Tim Schafer’s career destroyed?
The man who helped make the famous SCUMM engine, the man who wrote for Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, the man who created Psychonauts and Brutal Legends… Basically one of the big names in the gaming industry… is making a fucking Sesame Street Kinect game… Fuck you Microsoft.

New announcements
NONE! Because MS leaked their new announcements a bit over an hour before their presser… fail. Okay, let’s say that somehow didn’t happen. Other than a bunch of Kinect stuff that seems lame, we got 3 new announcements. First, an HD remake of Halo… which is already playable on the 360 anyways so it’s pointless (other than reviving the online maybe? I don’t really know). Then Minecraft on 360, which I guess is nice if you like Minecraft (I don’t get it personally).  And, finally, 3 new Halo games were announced. Okay, so most people will tell you only Halo 4 was revealed, but they said that Halo 4 was the dawn of a new trilogy. As such, they have effectively announce Halo 4, Halo 5 and Halo 6. Yeah, we needed that much Halo guys! </sarcasm>

TV on Xbox
You can watch TV… on your Xbox 360! …. That’s about the extent of that. They may as well not have mentioned it since they had no information about it at all.

Actors
FIST BUMP!
Anyways… Seriously Microsoft, do you really NEED actors that fail at pretending they’re having fun? May it be the child or adult actors you get to play the games, they’re all REALLY bad. Kids don’t act like that in real life. Adults don’t act like that in real life (that football-playing segment was pathetic). Just get real people to play the games instead of people acting like they’re enjoying them when they clearly aren’t. Sony and Nintendo get it right by getting the developers to play the games, you should do the same.

Overall
Meh? I mean, it could have been worse, I guess… maybe… They leaked their only announcements, and the actual presentation was really boring. Nothing that’s really interesting was announced, and it was all about integrating Kinect in games that don’t need Kinect… I was expecting Microsoft to not have much to show, so I guess they met my expectations….

Microsoft did what they needed to do, showed off what they had down the pipeline… it kinda sucks that all they have down the pipeline is multi-platform games, Gears, more Halo which isn’t needed and lame Kinect games.

If I were to rate out of 10… 3.5/10, “at least they were there”. I’m sure the stockholders are okay with the conference, but the gamers aren’t.

Sony

Apologies
I’ll say I was kinda hoping for a big joke with Kevin Butler about how he’s the VP of Hacking Sony, but whatever. An apology, as quick as it was, was all that was really needed here, and I think it was handled fine..

Random stuff shown
The Uncharted 3 showing just… showed me that they have no intention of making a new game, but rather just ra-taking the old one and adding new graphic technology. It does look nice though, and, despite always being the same, the Uncharted games aren’t bad.

Resistance 3 was shown. Boring generic FPS, yay! But I think the big problem is that they rushed to get a small demo out for the presentation, and they just picked 2 really bad segments of the game to show off. The showing of Resistance 3 was followed by the announcement of a cheap (499$) 24 inch 3D TV which is pretty nice (which includes a copy of Resistance 3), so at last there’s that. Also shown was the great idea of 2-player gaming with each player having a full screen to look at on the same TV by using 3D technology to remove the need to actually split the screen. Nice stuff, I hope to see more about this in the future.

There was a nice Bioshock Infinite Trailer which actually seems pretty good… Not much to say about that really.

Not a lot of announcements
Sly Cooper 4! And that’s really about it on the PS3 front. A new Star Trek downloadable game was shown which looks… like a standard cover-based TPS… Dust 514, a competitive FPS that is somehow linked to Eve Online, was shown to be a PS3 exclusive.

There were a few things in regards to Vita, but I’ll talk about that separately.

Move
There was some Move stuff shown, a lot of talking about integrating Move to various titles like Saint’s Row 3, and one Move game (Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest) that… oh look it’s an on-rails shooter… Come on Sony, this isn’t Kinect, you’ve already shown (apparently) with Killzone 3 that a “normal” game can work well with Move controls, you don’t need to fall in the same trap Kinect did.

Move had an… okay showing… Nothing really amazing, but at least it has some support that isn’t total crap/pointless.

Playstation Vita
Okay, Sony, I have a very serious question to ask here: How did you manage to bring the price down to 250$? I have no clue how you managed that… unless you’re taking a loss or breaking even with every console sold….
ANYWAYS… really good showing for the Playstation Vita… sure, it has a terrible name, but whatever (the worst is yet to come). My only big problem was showing Uncharted here… just because they streamlined the gameplay so much it’s stupid… “no need to actually time your jumps, just touch where you want to go!”…

But otherwise… amazing pricing, nice hardware, an okay lineup of software if you like the PS3 exclusive stuff (since, for now, it’s all ports/adaptations of sorts)… And I think Ruin looks cool too.

Oh, and, for the lulz, Vita has cross-game chat, but PS3 doesn’t. Awesome trolling there Sony, love it. Not like it’s a useful feature anyways.

Talkers
Microsoft had problems with bad actors, Sony had problems with the people they sent on stage to talk about their product. Okay, unless you have someone speaking in japanese getting translated, here’s a very simple rule you should follow: the person you get on-stage to talk about your game SHOULD BE ABLE TO SPEAK IN CLEAR, EASY-TO-UNDERSTAND ENGLISH. Half the people that got on stage to talk barely even knew the language, it’s crazy.

Overall
Not a bad presentation from Sony overall. I mean, nothing new was announced other than Sly 4 (which I’m pretty happy about), but they kept it simple: talked about a game, showed it, went to the next game. It never dragged out too much, some of the devs talking about their games were interesting (that Bioshock guy was great, for example) and it cut the bullshit for the most part. Oh, and no retarded speeches by Kevin Butler, happy to not have seen him there at all (unless the previously mentionned joke that would have been awesome).

The high point of the conference is obviously Vita with a pretty nice lineup and a great price point that’s really making me want to buy one…. Maybe

Score? 7/10. Solid. I wanted giant enemy crabs, a ridiculous price point for the Vita and RIIIIIIIIIDGE RACEEER (though Tretton DID reference it which was awesome) so that Icould laugh at Sony a bit, but a good conference is nice too (I AM a PS3 fan after all).

Nintendo

It’s Zelda’s 25th anniversary?
Ah yes, one of the best franchises ever is 25 year olds. Cool announcements here, like a symphonic concert tour for Zelda music across the world, FREE Four Swords for DSi (and, obviously, 3DS) in September, Link’s Awakening DX being added to the 3DS eshop during the conference (GO BUY IT! easily one of the best Zelda games ever, up there with LttP and OoT), certain OSTs (one that will come for Club Nintendo members who quickly register their Skyward Sword game, and some other OST of sorts, I think about that music tour I talked about earlier), skyward sword coming before the end of the year… Oh, and a BADASS Gold Wii Remote that comes with the game… Cool stuff, especially with the orchestra playing awesome Zelda music. Great start to the conference.

3DS
Star Fox, Mario Kart, Kid Icarus and Super Mario, all coming out before the end of the year… BADASS, they all look great. Who cares if they’re “just” sequels, they’re going to be great games and that’s all that matters. But not only that, but a long requested side-game of the Mario series is getting a sequel: Luigi’s Mansion 2. It seems to be a huge upgrade from the first with more varied environments. In addition, a bunch of third-party titles were shown, mostly games we already knew about, and Tekken. Tremendous showing for the 3DS.

Project Café
I don’t understand how Nintendo could screw up a NEW CONSOLE reveal. But lo-and-behold, they did. Through most of this part of the conference, it was mostly unclear whether this was a new console or just an add-on to the Wii.  The actual console WAS shown in the videos… but it was far away and, if you just looked fast, it looked like a Wii (though, after further observation, it looks like the lovechild of a Wii and Xbox 360). Speaking of looking like a Wii…. WII U… I thought Vita was a bad name, but this… Come on Nintendo, what the fuck? Are you insane? Did you make a contest through the company to find the worst possible name for the console? Or maybe you’re big Kung Pow fans? It took me about 5 minutes to accept the “Wii” name (said Wii, had a childish chuckle, and it grew on me just about right away). But Wii U? Come on guys, you should have distanced yourself from the Wii name.

Anyways, the big problem with this was partly that they didn’t really show the actual console, but that they pretty much gave no information whatsoever. I know the focus is and should be the controller in this case (which I actually really like), but nothing about the actual console? Why not show it at all, even if it’s just an empty shell modeled after the console? Just have the console on a stand with the controller on top or something… And they really said nothing about it. Not a good idea Nintendo, people were pissed off after your conference.

On the positive side, the controller has a whole lot of potential, and the power of the system is getting a lot of developers on-board (and hopefully some of them will do truly innovative things with the controller).

Where’s Wii?
All that was actually talked about at the conference for Wii was Skyward Sword? What the hell? Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to play that, but… Your new console is coming out next year, you have to keep on supporting the Wii just a little bit… Okay, to be fair, a picture was shown right after the conference on the screen with a bunch of logos (click here) where you can see a Kirby Wii logo, and Mario Party 9… but that barely counts.

Information after the conference
It wasn’t long after the conference that information started to be given about the Wii U (argh… hate that fucking name)… But why not take an extra half hour or something to show the info there? I really don’t get it. The confusion I felt when the conference ended is mostly gone now… but it shouldn’t have ben there in the first place.

NEW SUPER SMASH BROS
Yay

Overall
GREAT 3DS showing, no Wii showing at all, and a badly thought-out Wii U (ARGH) showing that really didn’t do justice to the platform. There was not much new shown other than Wii U (dammit), but the announcement of Luigi’s Mansion 2 and Super Smash Bros on Wii U (fuck) and 3DS was definitely nice. Some new things were mentionned from 3rd parties, but not much really.

Score? 7/10, the lack of Wii and a rather weak reveal for the Wii U (… change this name Nintendo, seriously) was detrimental, but not enough to counteract the great 3DS showing and A NEW SMASH BROS!

Overall

This year was… pretty standard. Nothing truly mind-blowing, none of the big 3 showed off much that we didn’t know about already. But, other than Microsoft’s conference, it was nice. I’d put Nintendo and Sony about equal in this case since Nintendo had a sort of lacking showing of the Wii U while Sony had a great showing of the Vita.

But E3 isn’t all about the conferences (otherwise we still wouldn’t know anything about Project Café beyond the controller), tons of stuff is still to be revealed, and we’re gonna get journalist impressions of stuff at the E3 showfloor, which is the most interesting thing about E3. So keep on following what’s going on at E3! Stay on those news sites, there may still be surprises on the way! And a flood of gameplay videos and such.

Oh, and go buy Link’s Awakening DX… seriously.

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That being said, this is strangely enough the first time I ever play a Pilotwings game (not counting the few minutes of gameplay I had with Pilotwings 64 a few months before the N64 came out since they had demo units at an amusement park), so it’s a completely fresh experience for me.

Read on and see if the 3DS’ showcase title is any good!

Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Date of Release: March 27th 2011
Platforms: Nintendo 3DS

Genre: Flying simulator-ish mini-game collection thingy?
Rated E for everyone

What’s good about the game

Gameplay variety
There’s a good amount of gameplay variety. You have 3 basic vehicles at your disposal: a plane, a jetpack and a glider. Each of them control completely differently and, even if some of the vehicles can have similar goals, like going through rings, the way you move them really gives a lot of variety to the gameplay. In addition to all of those, you have alternate versions, like the pedal glider, where you can pedal to go faster, the turbo jet which goes faster and the super jetpack which also goes faster…. And the flying squirrel suit which is sorely under-used (like, only once or twice) but really fun.

The plane moves at its own basic pace, but you have a boost meter that fills up to go faster from time to time and you can brake. Also, you can get the plane sideways and DO A BARREL ROLL, which may have a few uses. From what I recall, the plane is also the only vehicle with a gun to shoot at targets. This is definitely the funnest of the basic vehicles.

The jetpack (they call it a speed belt, but screw that, I call it a jetpack) can move vertically and horizontally. Turning requires you to turn the Mii’s body around, and then using the jetpack to slowly gain momentum in the direction you’re facing. In addition to controlling the jetpack normally, you have access to a weaker burst of the jetpack for more precise movement, and an air brake/hover function. Controlling the jetpack properly is all about momentum, and it’s pretty satisfying. The upgrade, the Super Speed Belt, is a lot more fun, and actually easier to control.

As for the glider, which is my least favorite vehicle in the game… you have to dive to gain speed, go up to slow down. You have a brake button(which you have to use if you want to land) which slows you down and makes you gain less speed when diving. Landing the glider is a hassle though, as you have to take a really slow approach and the target is surprisingly easy to miss, since it’s the same target as with the jetpack, rather than a landing strip like with the plane. It’s generally a really slow vehicle, and isn’t as fun to play as the others.

In addition to the different vehicles, there’s a good variety of missions. Going through rings, time trials, stunt courses, target practice, going a certain height with the glider, finding collectibles, taking pictures… there’s quite a bit to do. Each mission ranks you by scoring you for various things: time, landing impact and accuracy(which is what will prevent you from getting perfect scores most of the time), points for each ring your fly through, points for tokens you find, you get penalties for hitting the ground and more. Getting a perfect score can get pretty tough.

It’s definitely fun to play, and packs enough variety to not get boring too fast.

Replay value
There’s actually a good amount of replay value here. While the it’s pretty easy to get 3 stars on every mission (only one has been giving me trouble…), if you really get into the game getting perfect on every mission will take you a very long time, I’d say especially due to how hard it is to land perfectly (the easiest to land is the jetpack).

If that’s not enough, you have the Free Flight mode, which isn’t exactly as “free” as you’d expect, since there’s actually a time limit, but it makes for a fun time if you enjoy searching for collectibles, which there are a lot of.

What’s average about the game

Presentation
It’s not terrible but… well… I don’t like Miis. They’re just not really appealing design-wise. The environments look, from what I remember, pretty much identical to Wii Sports Resort, which is very good. It’s bright and colorful. The only bad thing I can really think of graphically is the lack of anti-aliasing, it’s quite glaring seeing all those super-pixelised edges on the characters and vehicles. Otherwise this looks really good.

What’s bad about the game

Locations
There’s one. And it’s recycled. This is Wuhu Island from Wii Sports Resort. There’s really nothing new about it. It’s not a HUGE problem, as there’s enough variety in the gameplay for it to not become completely stale, but an extra area or 2 would have been nice, since constantly passing through the same parts does get mildly boring.

The 3D effect

It works really good here, most of the time. While the other games I played on the 3DS didn’t have that problem much, in Pilotwings I frequently see faint double-images of things while playing. I figured that putting the 3D slider at 50% would fix the problem, and it actually makes it better at least, but unless you’re right in the sweetspot, I find that you still get a lot of doubles.

Otherwise, the 3D effect here is great. None of the other games I’ve played on the 3DS have so much depth in the visuals, and it actually really helps in judging distances (though not enough to be a complete game-changer), and the few times where something gets in your face, like when you’re flying through trees, they really pop out. Really good stuff here if you want to see the 3D effect on the 3DS.

Overall

My suggestion, if you play this game, is to play it in short bursts. Playing it non-stop for hours will obviously make it a very short game (unless you plan on perfecting every mission), but only playing it from time to time gives it a lot more longevity. This is why it took me a week to get a review out for it.

I think it’s a really fun game overall, though I’m not a fan of the glider, and it really is a good showcase of the 3DS’ abilities, other than graphic-wise, which I know it can do much better than that.

The controls are smooth, the different vehicles are fun and they all play differently and there’s a good amount of replay value. Now if only you got access to that Squirrel suit more often…

While this will never end up being considered a must-have on the system, it’s still a solid title, and one of the best of the launch titles.

Pros and Cons

Pros
- Fun to play
- Great display of 3D
- Lots of replay value

Cons
- Graphics are a bit sub-par, but only due to the complete lack of anti-aliasing
- Fairly short and very easy unless you go for perfect runs on every level
- Only one area

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I’ll try out a completely new, one-time-only reviewing style on this one. Read on!

Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Date of Release: March 27th 2011
Platforms: Nintendo 3DS

Genre: Hum…. side-scrolling shooter with other stuff added to that? I wouldn’t call it a submarine simulator really
Rated E for everyone

What’s the game about?

Basic gameplay
The basic gameplay is actually pretty cool. In mission mode, you choose a submarine and go through the level, trying not to die (and sometimes fighting really easy bosses). How you go through is the interesting part. Rather than normal D-pad controls, here you control everything through the touch screen. You can select forward/reverse speed,  how fast you want to surface or dive, mask yourself which throws off the aim of enemy homing torpedoes(but that uses some of your air), shoot torpedoes and 2 of the subs can control the angle they’re facing (the other changes its angle automatically as it surfaces or dives). Oh, and if you go to the surface, you not only regain air, but your sub is somehow repaired that way too (yeah, I don’t get it either). And getting hit by the environment/enemy attacks sometimes causes leaks in the sub, which you fix with the touch screen.

Each of the 3 subs has slight differences. Each of them are a different size, there’s the previously discussed differences in controls, and each of them comes equipped with different missiles. One of them has 2 that shoot forward, another has 2 as well but one of them shoots vertically, and the biggest one has 4 that shoot forward. Torpedoes will blow up mines, boulders, enemy subs, depth charges and other projectiles, and aiming them is REALLY complicated. That’s basically the whole point of the game. Try to get to the end of every level with the difficult controls. It’s actually pretty cool in that sense, it encourages control mastery rather than twitchy gamer reflexes.

Modes
There’s 3 modes. The mission mode has normal missions and time trial missions (which are actually different from the normal missions), and each normal mission is followed by a periscope mission. This is the main mode of the game, and by far the best.

You can also access the periscope mode separately, where you have the choice of 3 stages. Here you have to spin around (I suggest using an office chair) and shoot boats/subs. Destroying targets gets you decals, which you can put on your subs to increase stats (if you have enough of them). It’s kinda fun at first, but it gets boring fast, and is only useful if you want to get decals.

The final mode is a sort of turn-based strategy game thing, and it’s horrible. Basically, you move only one unit per turn (which sucks), and if you control your sub and attack an enemy group of ships, you get to the periscope mode to shoot the group of ships. If normal ships get on top of your sub, they can drop depth charges, and you have to predict how deep the charge will go before exploding, otherwise you get hit. Very boring.

Replay Value
There isn’t too much. There’s all the decals to get if you’re a completionist, and you can’t get their effects on your sub if you don’t have a certain amount of them, so there’s a lot of pointless hours to spend in periscope mode… And there’s an expert mode that can be unlocked, as well as all the missions being playable by each sub. Not too much, but people who end up loving the game will find a fair amount of value here.

Presentation

Looks
BLAND. There’s really nothing else to it. Think about the least original look you could go with while making a submarine side-scrolling game thing. That’s what you get here. It just looks boring. Nothing to talk about really. It’s adequate, but nothing more. I’m not even sure it’s really 3DS worthy when it comes to the normal graphics, it seems to me like the DS could handle it.

3D effect
It’s really pointless here. It kinda helps in the periscope mode, making it slightly easier to see  how far ships are (making aiming your slow-moving torpedos easier). But otherwise it’s completely useless. Definitely not a great show of the 3DS’ capabilities.

My Impressions

If Steel Diver excels in one thing, it’s the fact that it’s actually a great show of the capabilities of the original DS, what with the original use of the touch screen. But it’s not doing much with the capabilities of the 3DS beyond the periscope mode, which is frankly not fun… don’t get me wrong, controlling the periscope by spinning around in an office chair is really cool the first time, but the actual gameplay in that mode is shallow (no pun intended… though I’m guessing every other reviewer who played Steel Diver used that pun) and boring.

The basic gameplay in mission mode shows great originality, making it more about how you control the vehicle than anything else, and giving 3 subs with different stats and slightly different control methods makes for a bit of variety, making certain levels easier with certain subs, and harder with others. Some people will probably find it  to be a very slow game at first, but after a few missions I got into the pace pretty well, and being faster would make the game much less interesting, and too hard.

Overall, it’s not a terrible game. There’s just not much to it beyond the cool control scheme. There is SOME replay value, due to the decals and medals you can get on each stage, and an expert mode… but it’s still not too great, since most of the replay value relies on the boring periscope mode. It didn’t click with me, but I have seen quite a few people really enjoying this game, so it might click with you. I just suggest renting it first, so you don’t waste TOO much money on the game if you end up not liking it. I would have suggested buying it when the price goes down, but it’s a firt-party Nintendo game so that’s never going to happen.

The average reviewer has been too rough on this game, but I can see why people would either love or hate this game.

Pros and Cons

Pros
– Original and fairly fun gameplay in mission mode
- Great show of the original DS’ capabilities
- Can get pretty difficult

Cons
- Could have had more missions (only 15 if you count the time trial levels, which are super short)
- Periscope mode, while nifty, isn’t fun
- The strategy mode sucks (and it’s the only multiplayer mode, so there’s no good multiplayer either… 2 cons in 1!)
- Very little replay value
- Doesn’t need to be on 3DS

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Let’s start with the biggest surprises. Every year in gaming is full of surprises, some good, some bad (AKA disappointments, which we’ll discuss next time). This year? Well it definitely was no exception. There was tons of really good surprises here.

So read on! Here are our 4 biggest surprises of 2010!

Duke Nukem Forever being picked up by Gearbox

Duke Nukem Forever was basically dead. The development company could no longer release the game, despite being so close to being near the final form of the game (finally). So it really was completely unexpected to see that Gearbox would come in, take the game, complete whatever needed to be done (which I heard really wasn’t that much) and are now prepping it for release in 2011. This is a game that people will probably buy just because it’s been so long in the making. I, for one, don’t care if it sucks, I’ve been waiting for this since I was 10 years old and dammit I’m gonna play it. Now let’s just hope for no more delays.

Large amounts of unexpected sequels

A lot of fairly unexpected sequels to old franchises have popped out this year, or been announced at least. The pictured Rocket Knight comes to mind (and it was pretty good too), but there’s more. A new Kirby on consoles, a new Donkey Kong Country, a new Bonk has been announced (yeah, BONK!!!!!!!), the new Golden Sun that came out, a non-Prime Metroid, Yars’ Revenge getting a new game (though the title isn’t spelled properly (should be “Yars’ Revenge”) and it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the original), Kid Icarus, MvC3, Earthworm Jim being remade in HD, Spelunker getting an HD sequel… and I’m sure I’m forgetting a TON of those.  Long-thought dead series getting sequels/revivals, seems to be a big thing at the moment and it makes me very happy. Let’s hope for more!

Nintendo kicking ass at E3 while Sony and Microsoft sucked said ass

Wow. Seriously. Nintendo had a bit of weak showing in the last few years of E3, with last year’s presentation being saved only by Metroid: Other M and Golden Sun DS. This year? WEEEEEELL… New Kirby, new Zelda (despite the random technical difficulties during the stage demo, people did say that the controls worked well when they could play the game right after the conference, so it was just a stroke of bad luck for Miyamoto), new Donkey Kong Country, new Mario Sport game with tons of sports (which looks awesome), DQIX, Golden Sun, KID FUCKING ICARUS, the 3DS, and no sign of that heart monitor thing that we haven’t heard about since E3 2009. On the other hand, Sony and Microsoft, who were generally said to have had good showings in the previous years (note: they didn’t REALLY, they were just more interesting than Nintendo), were TERRIBLE this year, only talking about their Wii-copying devices and not much otherwise (and no, Kevin Butler didn’t save Sony’s conference, he just wasted time). That, frankly, wasn’t interesting at all to watch for gamers. Not belittling the Move and Kinect, they are cool, but come on, this was just overdoing it. Sony/MS MUST have something else in their financial plans than “let’s get a bit of the Wii’s target market”. And… Sony, seriously, why did your conference have to be so fucking long and boring? This was almost as bad as “five hundred ninety nine us dollars”. At least Microsoft kept it fairly short.

Sonic getting one good game

Well, not only one, but TWO good games. Early in the year saw the release of Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, which was a solid kart racer. Not exactly Mario Kart quality, but still very fun and it included a great roster of both popular and completely obscure Sega characters, with cool vehicles to boot. Fun game, but it wasn’t the last good game to come out for the blue blur. Sega actually produced a good Sonic game that’s not just a spin-off… heck, it was actually a sequel to the Sega Genesis series, taking a similar look and gameplay style (with added Homing attack, which fits VERY well in the classic-style gameplay). Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 was fantastic, making me wonder why Sega didn’t do this before. You know, before completely ruining the character with… well… Sonic Adventure’s addition of useless characters (the game was fairly good though), even more useless characters being added in Sonic Adventure 2 (despite the game being awesome, the added characters=not a good idea), EVEN MORE crappy characters in Sonic Heroes (which sucked), Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic 2006, Secret Rings, Black Knight (AKA Secret Rings but a lot fucking worse), Unleashed (yes, even the daytime levels sucked) and the then unreleased Sonic Colors (which, after release, we see is about as bad as Unleashed). Seriously Sega, what is wrong with you? You show that good Sonic games CAN still be made, so FUCKING MAKE THEM.

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When Nintendo announced this at E3, I couldn’t have been happier. Donkey Kong has been either ignored, or been put in average to crap spin-offs (Barrel Blast, ugh). But finally there’s a new Donkey Kong Country, one of the best platforming series out there, or at the very least one of my favorites.

And then we saw gameplay… this just looked awesome. Not only graphically, but the gameplay looked so damn fun. I was hyped.

Read on and see if it lived up to the hype I had for it!

Developer: Retro Studios
Publisher: Nintendo
Date of Release: November 21st 2010
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 (on PSN and XBLA respectively)

Genre: Side-Scrolling Platformer
Rated E for Everyone

What is good about this game

Presentation
The game looks fantastic. Retro Studios made Metroid look incredible, and they do as good a job here. The game is incredibly colorful and appealing to the eye. It uses a style similar to the SNES titles in the series, but obviously the technology is a lot better, so it also looks a lot better. There’s a huge attention to detail, with very pretty backgrounds and lots of animation everywhere. There’s always something going on, and everything looks really good. And there’s lots of variety in the visuals. Every world has its own unique look, with different elements and colors and overall design, and different enemies… unless, say, a pirate ship ends up in that weird canyon/desert-like level… which brings very interesting visuals too.

As for enemy design, while it is very different from the SNES DKC games, with no crocodiles or any familiar enemies, it still follows a similar visual style to the originals, and there’s various enemy types and lots of unique looks.

And the music. Ah, the glorious music. There’s lots of nostalgia for me in that sense, since there’s quite a few remixes from the first DKC game. Heck, I think most tunes from DKC make a return of some sort here, and they sound just as great as they did on the SNES. The new tunes also sound pretty nice, very fitting to the level and fun to listen to, with a DKC-like style.

Gameplay
Well this is awesome. It’s one of those hardcore platformers that require precision and fast reflexes/memorization. It plays fairly similarly. You don’t have a run button, but the B button is used to pick up and throw barrels, and shaking the Wii remote makes you roll, ground pound and blow some air. The jumping mechanics are solid. If you jump on an enemy, you can time the A button to jump higher, whether you’re in a normal level or in a mine cart. Swinging on vines, throwing barrels at walls to reveal secret areas, slamming the ground to find more secret areas, finding all the KONG letters, jumping on enemies, avoiding obstacles, jumping across holes, riding on Rambi, riding mine carts… this really feels like a new SNES DKC game. And it plays just as well, if not better at parts.

What steals the show though is the level design. Holy shit did Retro Studios surpass expectations. Heck, screw surpassing expectations, this has the best levels in any game in the series. Each level has some kind of gimmick, each which are really fun. Levels that don’t have their own gimmick mix up multiple other gimmicks making for very interesting levels. I’m not gonna spoil anything here, it’s something that has to be experienced.

Difficulty
The game is really quite hard. But I think this was a bit overblown by some reviewers. The game is hard, definitely, but I think various things in the game balance out the difficulty. First, you have 2 hits before dying, which is better than just 1 in the original. Then, you can pick up Diddy, who adds 2 more hits you can take, AND he has a jetpack which makes the jumps easier. You never NEED Diddy, but having him makes things a lot easier.

If you get to a level that might kick your ass nonstop, and it surely will happen, the Super Guide is back from NSMBW. 8 or so deaths, and you have the option of having Super Kong go through the level instead of you. He finishes the level for you, but he doesn’t pick up the KONG letters, he doesn’t pick up any of the puzzle pieces, and letting him do any of the K levels (the ones you get for getting the KONG letters) is useless since he doesn’t pick up the orb for you. Heck, while the game lets you go to the next level when you use the Super Kong, the level remains red to say that it’s incomplete.

Oh, and the game is insanely generous on lives. You get a lot in levels (100 bananas give a life, and more can be found in levels), and you also find TONS of banana coins. Those can be used in Cranky’s shop to buy Squawks (who helps you find puzzle pieces), an extra heart (which lasts one level), invincibility potions (which actually gives you a ton of extra heaers, making the one extra heart useless) and, more importantly extra lives. You get so many banana coins that you never have to worry about lives.

Replay value
There’s TONS to do here. Going through the game is only a small part. Afterwards, you can find every KONG letter in every level of the game. Once you get all of them in one world, you get an extra level, which is quite hard, and it gives you an extra level afterwards… which leads to Mirror Mode, where you play the levels upside down, only have one hit and you never get access to Diddy. Oh, and every level has between 5 and 9 puzzle pieces, which opens up stuff in the gallery. And then there’s Time Trials, where you have to use advanced techniques and such to go through levels as fast as possible, which is really damn hard. Needless to say, there’s a lot to do here.

Any negatives?

Yeah, one or 2 things.

Controls
While the controls aren’t bad by any means, they’re very precise and easy to use, but there is one major problem: motion controls! Yeah, DKC was a fairly simple game control-wise: one button for jumping, another button for everything else (running, rolling, ground pounding, picking up barrels). It worked perfectly. The problem here? Well, the second button was made almost useless, by making it only be used to pick up and throw barrels. Everything else? Well, there’s no running (if there is, the speed increase is VERY minimal), and the rest is handled by shaking the Wiimote… Shaking it while moving makes you roll, if you shake while holding down, you blow some air which can affect some enemies or background objects, and the rest of the time it does the ground pound.

The  problem here… Shaking the Wiimote isn’t exactly 100% responsive. Most of the time it works okay, but pressing buttons is much faster, easier to do in a tight spot, and ALWAYS responsive. It’s like they took everything the B button SHOULD have done, and assigned it to the waggle… It’s a really stupid decision. If the motion controls were an option then I wouldn’t even have mentioned it, but they’re the only control method for rolling and such. Bad idea.

Cast
That’s just very minor. Heck, I don’t even really care about it, but a lot of people do, so I might as well mention it. The cast of character is fairly short: Cranky, Donkey and Diddy are the only Kongs in the game, making furries unhappy at the lack of Candy Kong, and Funky Kong is nowhere to be seen. The animal buddies list is also fairly short: Rambi (who is upgraded from the SNES games) and Squawks (who just helps find puzzle pieces). More would be nice. I think the biggest complaint in this regards is the villains. The Kremlings are not there. At all. King K. Rool is not there. Instead, the enemies here are Tikis, who hypnotize animals for you to beat up. The new enemies are still fun to fight, and not bad in any way, but me and many other DKC fans just find the Kremlings more interesting.

Overall

If it wasn’t for the motion controls, there would be nothing to complain about in the game. The difficulty is balanced enough for anyone to be able to finish the game, but if you don’t use the Super Guide, or unlock Mirror Mode, there’s still a LOT of challenge in the game for veteran gamers or people looking for a challenge.

The best part of the game is the incredible level design. That’s not to say that everything else isn’t awesome though. Great controls (other than the waggle), great graphics, great music, really well done gameplay…. This is just a great game overall. I’d even go as far as to say that this is one of the very few must-haves on the Wii.

Retro Studios did a great job on Metroid Prime, and they did just as good, if not better, on reviving Donkey Kong Country. Great stuff.

Pros and Cons

Pros
- Incredibly fun
- Fantastic level design
- Great graphics
- Good music
- Very balanced difficulty
- Lots of replay value

Cons
- Waggle is a stupid idea for a game like this, especially when such an important aspect as the roll being controlled by the waggle
- Some people might not like the short cast of characters, and the lack of Kremlings

The Save Factor

The game is 50$ at retail price, and considering everything there is to do in the game, and the fact that it’s just so well made, I think it’s well worth 50$.

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Now that Retro Studios are done with the Metroid franchise, it’s time for a new developer to take a shot at it, and this time, strangely enough, Team Ninja is behind the game.

So read on and see if they made Metroid: Other M into a satisfactory experience!

Developer: Team Ninja
Publisher: Nintendo
Date of Release: August 31th 2010
Platforms: Nintendo Wii

Genre: Action game
Rated T for Teen

Presentation
For a Wii game, this is very nice. The models are good, there’s a nice amount of detail in every room, and the textures are very nice as long as you don’t zoom in on them. The characters look okay, especially Samus. Though the Galactic Federation soldiers look the same though, just with different heads behing their visors, they still look cool. And I’m really loving the enemy design here… mostly because a lot of the enemies are classic Metroid enemies remade in 3D, and those were really cool-looking enemies. The new enemies look great too. The environments look good too, since they’re surprisingly varied. The ship the game takes place on is actually made to have areas that mimic various areas on Planet Zebes, so it’s more than just bland gray space station graphics all the time, it has a lot of color.

I think the most impressive part of the game, graphically at least, is the cinematics. They look fantastic. Even on the stronger current-gen systems, I’ve rarely seen such high-quality cinematics. The cinematography is great, the effects are fantastic, and it’s all really entertaining to look at.

The audio design is very nice. The game uses familiar sounds from older games for various things, such as monster screams and attacks. The music is also really good. Lots of atmospheric stuff, but there’s a lot of classic Metroid tunes, which are slightly remixed, and always very well used. The voice acting isn’t perfect, some of Samus’ lines aren’t delivered very well, or kind of emotionless, but otherwise it’s quite good. No big complaints on this side.

Story
After the events of Super Metroid, Samus takes a bit of time to recover. After she’s all okay, she leaves with her ship, and intercepts a distress signal from a nearby ship, called the Bottle Ship, so she goes to investigate. On the Bottle Ship, she comes across multiple Galactic Federation soldiers, some that she knows from back when she worked for them. They’re here for basically the same reason as her, so she follows the orders of Adam, the leader of the group.

This actually gives you the excuse in this game for not having all the power-ups from the previous games. Rather than finding power-ups through the game, Adam restricts Samus from using certain weaponry. It kinda doesn’t make sense for him to restrict use of, say, the Gravity and Varia suits, but it makes sense when you see that this is a military operation.

So, through the game, you find out various things. About the Space Station: what it is, what it’s for, what’s the purpose of its existence, who is in charge, etc. There’s a lot of references to older Metroid games, though mainly Super Metroid.

One interesting thing is that the game gives a LOT on insight on Metroid history. Mostly on Samus’ past. Speaking of which, Samus talks in this game. A lot. That gives here a lot of personality, something we didn’t see much in any other Metroid games really. It makes her a lot more “human” than previous games give the impression of. She not JUST a badass emotionless super soldier that might as well be a robot anymore, she’s a person, with fears and emotions, like all of us, in addition to being a badass savior of worlds.

Then there’s the ending. WTF. You go through the game mostly wondering what is going on. And then, suddenly, you get a whole lot of exposition, showing who the story’s actual antagonist is, and… the game ends. No boss battle, nothing. It just ends. And it’s a shame really, since the antagonist is probably the most interesting bad guy in the history of Metroid other than Ridley, and its motivations are clear and understandable. The ending was so sudden it even took me by surprise. It feels like the game should be a lot longer. You just got your last power-up, and you could only use it once before the game ended. It should have been longer.

Another minor complaint about the story is that some parts of progression are really forced. You’ll get stuck in first-person mode, and you’ll HAVE to lock-on on something in particular around you, or the game doesn’t progress. That’s just way too forced, they could have shown it in a cinematic rather than force you to point at it…

Oh, and just a small thing I’d like to mention… I was scared as to what would happen to Samus if we let Team Ninja handle her. I mean, they made Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive, they’re pretty much “all eye-candy” when it comes to female characters. But I’m happy to say that they treated Samus with the respect she deserves. Sure, they show off her body a bit, but Nintendo themselves did that before them, and, most of the time, Samus is in her badass space armor, and she feels a lot more human than her usual silent self.

Gameplay
Basic controls
Some people say a game with 3D gameplay can’t be played with an NES controller. They’re wrong, and this game proves it. The controls for this are great. Very simple. The D-pad moves in any direction in 3 dimensions. The 1 button shoots. The 2 button jumps. Pressing A turns you in a morph ball. Pointing the Wii Remote at the screen puts you in first-person perspective, where you can’t move. Here you can move your view around and lock-on targets with the B button, and shoot with the A button. Generally, you shoot missiles if you’re locked-on to something, unless it’s something you need to shoot with the normal canon.

Combat
The combat is actually really fun. I was scared that it might suck because of the auto-aim, but I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, it makes the weaker enemies very easy, but battles against strong enemies will be quite interesting. The auto-aim only works when you’re pointing towards an enemy, so you still “sort of” have to aim. There are various things you can do in battle. Shooting enemies is obviously the most important thing, but there’s more. Charging your laser does more damage. You can avoid attacks by pressing a direction right before an attack hits you, which enables you to instantly charge your canon (and you can dodge even in first-person perspective). Some enemies, after taking enough damage, will fall down and will be killed in a fatal melee/close-range attack. You can also do similar attacks by jumping on top of certain enemies. And some enemies require shooting with missiles to kill, sometimes according to a pattern. Overall, combat is really fun. It’s really smooth and fast-paced. Boss battles are also interesting. You have to figure out weak points, patterns, and when to attack, with which weapon. Each of them are very fun and unique.

One thing that might be a mixed bag is the way you recover energy and missiles. Rather than picking up energy and missiles from enemies, you get them back by either going to a save point, or using “concentration”. This requires you to point the Wii Remote upwards and hold the A button for a while. This replenishes your missiles. If your energy is below a certain threshold, doing the concentration method will also replenish your energy to a certain amount. Not full though, and it takes a long time to do so, so it’s really hard to in combat situation since it takes so long. I don’t mind the system at all since it’s quite hard to pull off in the tougher battles, but some people hate it.

Exploration
The game does feature a little bit of exploration. But, like Metroid Fusion, it’s a very linear affair. There is a big map, with various areas to visit, and there are areas you can only visit once you get access to different equipment, when Adam gives you access to said equipment. So, basically, you go where you’re asked to go and that’s it. You can go off the path from time to time to find upgrades: Accel Charges (makes your canon charge faster), Energy Tanks, E Recovery Tanks (which change the how much you can recover HP with the Concentration method), Energy parts (4 of them give you one energy tank) and missile tanks (one missile each). But, generally, it’s a linear experience.

The only time you really have to explore is after finishing the game. You finally have access to the Power Bombs, which you didn’t get until the end of the game, so you can explore the ship in its entirety by using the power bombs to access areas you couldn’t before, and you might come upon items you might have missed on your first way through the ship.

Overall
I really like this game. It feels like a 2D side-scroller, despite playing in 3D, which is really interesting. And, while it is a linear game, it does really feel like a Metroid game (like Metroid Fusion). You’re given an objective, but you have to find your way to it. Sometimes it’s obvious, sometimes it takes some puzzle-solving. And the combat is great, it’s smooth and incredibly fun, and it can sometimes even become hard.

I also love that there’s a lot of story here. The Metroid games are generally pretty low on story elements, and very basic, so it’s nice to have some back-story and such. And the antagonist here is awesome, I hate that it was sort of ruined by the ending.

Yeah, the game finishes very suddenly. Don’t expect a badass final battle. I hate that there’s no final battle. There is a boss just before the final gameplay scene, which is one of those “you have to scan something in first-person view” parts, but neither that last boss nor the forced first-person part FEEL like a final battle. It’s nothing like in any other Metroid game and it’s a huge deception. There’s another boss when you return to the Bottle Ship. OH, and that last boss battle expects you to know that your power bomb has been activated during the battle, despite there being no sign that it was, and it’s require to win.

But still, it’s a solid game, one that I will surely replay. There’s incentive to replay (mostly the fact that it’s really fun to play), and there’s a good amount of gameplay there if you want to find everything after finishing the story (which is required to unlock “Hard Mode”).

Pros and Cons
Pros
- Controls are great
- Combat is really fun
- Gameplay is superb
- Story is fun
- Great presentation
- There is post-game content

Cons
- Kinda short (around 7-8 hours) but the problem is that the game ends so suddenly
- The ending segment is very anti-climactic (and there’s an element or 2 that aren’t cleared up in the ending)
- Not too much exploration
- After you get the power bomb, normal battles become way too easy

The Save Factor
The game is way too expensive. 50$ in the US, 60$ in Canada… WOW… Wii games should never get this expensive. The Save Factor for this will be 35-40$ (either US or Canada). Since it’s a “love-it-or-hate-it” kind of thing, I’ll just say that you should be wary of it. Lots of people liked it, like me, and even more people hated it (a lot of the time for completely inane reasons).

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The first game in the series only made it to America recently via the Wii’s Virtual Console. So we can be pretty happy that the second one came out here in a relatively timely matter.

The original on the N64 was a fun shooter in the veins of Star Fox, but with really confusing controls, since you had to control the character seperately from the cursor that you use to aim at enemies, it was a bit hard to manage (though not impossible once you got the hang of it). So the Wii release should logically correct that minor problem, and at the same time make for a very fun game.

Read on and see if it’s any good!

Developer: Treasure
Publisher: Nintendo
Date of Release: June 27th 2010
Platforms: Nintendo Wii

Genre: Arcade-style shooter
Rated T for Teen

Presentation
Surprisingly, the graphics suffer from similar problems lots of modern games have: the color palette is boring. Other than the bullets, the whole game is brown and gray. The areas are pretty much all boring to look at. The base built around a volcano is probably the most interesting area, and even that is mostly brown. The graphical quality itself is just above average Playstation 2 level, nothing overly impressive here. The character design is simple, basic anime stuff, with nothing unique. Overall I’ll say the game doesn’t look BAD, but it doesn’t look good either.

Sound-wise, the voice acting is okay in japanese (though the translation in the subtitles is pretty bad at times). There’s audio cues for most things going on on-screen, so you know when you’re hitting things and getting it, as well as bullets speeding towards you. The sound effects themselves are fine, shots sound like shots, sword slashes sound like sword slashes, everything sounds good and nothing is out-of-place.

Gameplay
One of the big problems, for me, were the controls in the N64 version. So let’s talk about this right away.

The controls here are super simple: You aim and attack with the Wiimote, move/dodge/jump with the nunchuk. Everything works really well. Where the N64′s controls were confusing and hard to use, the Wii controls feels very tight and natural. Instead of having to use buttons to move your character around, and other buttons to aim your cursor, now everything works near flawlessly using the Wiimote’s pointer, which makes it easier to move around properly while aiming at enemies. You can float in the air freely so you have a lot of freedom of movement. Dodging makes you quickly dash in the direction you’re going, and you’re invincible while dodging.

You have 3 attacks: A normal fast shot by holding the B button, which aims where you’re pointing, a sword slash if you just tap the B button and a Charged shot if you hold the A button long enough and let go. The charged attack deals big damage to bosses, and kills almost any other enemy in one hit, including everything in the target’s surroundings, but you need to wait a bit before being able to use it again. The sword slash only hits close to you, but, other than killing any normal enemy in one hit, it also stops most projectiles and reflects certain projectiles towards where you’re aiming. The normal shot isn’t nearly as strong as the average attack, but it’s more useful than the other attacks since it has a good range and can always be used. You can also press A near a target to lock-on, which makes your attacks home in on that target no matter where you aim, but it’s weaker than manually aiming.

You get points for killing enemies. You get point multipliers for killing enemies as well, increasing your score further. Getting hit reduces your multiplier. Bosses give bonus points depending on speed. When you finish a level, you get bonuses based on remaining HP, Time spent to finish the level and a bonus for every Secret found through a level. Secrets can be destroying certain objects, or doing something special against bosses. Learning everything in a level is required to get a good spot in the leaderboards.

A stand-out of the game is the fact that it has a lot of boss battles. Each of the 7 levels (not including the super-easy tutorial level) has multiple bosses, each harder than the last (heck, the final level is just a series of bosses). And they WILL kill you. A lot. Until you figure out their patterns that is. Each boss battle is fought differently and  each are fun to fight. I think this makes the game faster paced and more varied.

The game has 2 types of levels. Most of the time the levels that play sort of like a mix between Star Fox and Wild Guns, and others play like side-scrolling shooters. The both use the same type of controls, so going from one level style to another works perfectly. This adds a bit of gameplay variety.
There is one extra style of gameplay, but it’s only used in one of the boss fights late in the game and it SUCKS. While the whole game is a shooter, this one boss battle in level 6 suddenly becomes a fighting game with terrible controls… It’s stupid and pointless, but at least it’s not too hard when you figure out the timing.

Difficulty-wise… on your first playthrough, this game will kick your ass. Almost every boss will kill you a few times until you get a hang of their pattern. But it’s not unfair difficulty. Sure, you’ll die a lot, but there’s infinite continues and lots of checkpoints, so, the first time through the game, even if you die a lot, you won’t despair since you’ll always be right back where you died, or at least not too far from where you died. And there’s healing items too, though some levels barely have any of them, and others are full of them. But the real difficulty comes from getting up in the leaderboards. Now that’s a challenge, and, if you really get into it, could keep you occupied for quite a while. There’s a lot of trial-and-error involved in playing this game, but it’s very fun.

Overall
The presentation is a bit subpar, the story (which I didn’t mention in the review, for good reason) makes no sense and isn’t really interesting, but the gameplay is great and that’s all that matters for an arcade shooter.

The point of the game isn’t really finishing it, which should only take a few hours on your first playthrough, but to learn how to play the game as well as possible, until you can manage to finish levels without dying to get high scores. Getting high scores is very tough to do, and requires a lot of practice, even on lower difficulty levels.

There’s good challenge to be had here, with even the normal mode being real tough. The difficulty is never overwhelming on your first playthrough at least, as there’s a pretty high amount of checkpoints. Sure, some bosses take multiple tries to finish off, but a bit of practice and pattern-learning will get you through any of them in no time. The real challenge isn’t just finishing the game, it’s actually getting good at it.

The gameplay is solid, the challenge is good and the controls work great compared to the original version. This isn’t a must-have by any means, but it’s definitely worth checking out. It can become pretty addictive.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- Great controls
- Lots of replayability (if you get into it) with the online leaderboards
- Fair difficulty
- Really fun to play
- Rather long for an arcade-style shooter (can be both a pro and a con)

Cons
- Sometimes the difficulty is just a bit too intense, even on Normal mode
- If you somehow care about this(which makes no sense for an arcade shooter), the story sucks
- The stupid fighting game segment in the sixth level

The Save Factor
The game starts at $50, which I find a bit too high. If you plan on playing a lot and try to get high in the leaderboards spending $35-40 is fair. Otherwise, you shouldn’t spend much more than $20.

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