Hopefully this ends up being a bit more insightful than other posts I’ve seen like this… Where all that was said about most games was “The graphics look good!”… yeah, but what about the game itself? Give some detail about why you’re hyped about a game, dammit!

So let’s go! (and yes, I’m being incredibly cheap and lazy, not including any images here, w00!)

Multiplatform

Asura’s Wrath
Not a game I’m really that hyped about yet, because most of the gameplay footage I’ve seen has been QTEs, which is the laziest/lamest gameplay element ever. But it IS a Capcom action game in the DMC mold, so I’m willing to give it a chance. And there’s a demo coming tomorrow, so… yeah, we’ll see. What I’ve seen does have potential, but I hope it doesn’t overuse QTEs like it seemed to in the videos I’ve seen.

Street Fighter X Tekken
This actually looks like a very solid fighting game. There may be a bit too many systems in place here (cross arts, cross rush, switch cancel, cross assault, EX attacks, stat-modifying gems, pandora mode… and I’m probably missing some), but it does look like it’s going to be fun to play, and I’m interested in seeing how the Tekken characters will play in the SF universe. I’ll rent it first, but I think this has some very good potential.

Final Fantasy XIII-2
FFXIII gets mostly unwarranted hate from… just about everyone really. The sequel will hopefully fix some things people weren’t happy about (linearity, lack of towns, Hope, Sazh… 2 of those which are stupid complaints (hint: Hope and Sazh are the valid complaints)) such as not cramming all the side-quests and exploration in one part late in the game (which was actually very fun). Seems to be keeping mostly the same solid fighting system with some modifications which I hope won’t ruin it (see: QTEs), some cool new elements (monster taming!) and it fixes some things (now you can switch leaders in battle, and you only lose when all your human characters die, rather than just the leader). If the modifications are substantial enough (there’s a lot more that I didn’t mention), it could end up being a really good game, rather than a mildly flawed good game

Ninja Gaiden 3
The latest NG entry, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, sucked ass (basically boiling down to a God of War style button masher rather than a strategic action game like the “original” Ninja Gaiden on Xbox), but I have hope that this one will actually be good again. I do find that they’re putting too much emphasis on the blood and gore when they’re talking about it, but maybe the gameplay won’t suffer from them concentrating too much on something pointless. I’m only hyped enough to rent it due to the previous game in the series being ass, but it should be an interesting rental nonetheless.

Armored Core V
The Armored Core series isn’t one I’m terribly familiar with, but I did enjoy For Answer, and this one seems quite solid from what I’ve heard so far, with tons of robot customization options and a solid new online feature, like where one player seems to play as a “commander” of sorts. Another rental for me, but AC fans will love this for sure. It’s also one I definitely want to give a try.

Devil May Cry HD Collection
Obviously this is gonna kick ass. 2 of the best action games ever (DMC and DMC3) in one package! And their adopted brother, DMC2, is also included.The graphical update seems very minor from what I’ve seen, but maybe it’s gonna be a bit more obvious once I see it for real. I’m pretty hyped for this, and hey, I’ll be able to give DMC2 a fairer chance, maybe it’s not as bad as I remember.

Borderlands 2
FUCK YEAH! I FREAKING LOVE BORDERLANDS. Seriously, it’s so much fun. The blend of FPS and Diablo just works so well. There are a few things I hope the sequel enhances, like making more weapons really strong (in the first, it seemed like, no matter what, revolvers always ended up being better than everything else for me) and maybe a bit more quest variety. New character classes is great (how can one not want to play as a “Gunzerker”?), new weapons is also really cool (specifically the chaingun that shoots rockets… seriously!) and they’re adding weapon customization (which I was disappointed when it wasn’t included in the first) so that’s awesome. Not only that but many elements are being completely revamped, like artifacts (which were a bit bland in the original). The lists of updates I’ve seen make it look like it may feel like a completely different game from the first. I cannot fucking wait!

Anarchy Reigns
A multiplayer (or so it seems) 3D beat ‘em up made by Platinum Games… That’s enough to hype me up. I’m being a bit wary of it since some gameplay vids I watched seemed rather boring (BUUUUT those particular videos were played by gaming journalists, who are frequently not terribly competent gamers… or competent ANYTHING really). I certainly hope for a demo, but it does seem like it’s going to be a fun game (I just hope it doesn’t concentrate too much on the multiplayer aspect… you know, just in case the PSN or XBL end up getting shut down for 1+ month again ).

Bioshock Infinite
I didn’t really like Bioshock. Not that it’s bad at all, I can certainly see why people loved it and I appreciate what it was going for, but it didn’t really strike a chord with me. Bioshock 2 was trash though… Bioshock Infinite, however, looks very good. There seems to be a lot of high-on-action moments, especially using those weird rail things you can travel on, and the use of a partner with supernatural powers to change the world around does have a lot of potential which I really hope will be exploited properly on a gameplay standpoint and not just in cinematics/story moments. I think this is a rental for me though, since FPS games that I’m hyped for have a tendency to be terrible. I hope not, but I’m not taking chances.

DmC: Devil May Cry (lol)
Yeah, I’m convinced this game will be bad, but I still want to play it… probably due to me being a DMC fan. It’s not that hard to figure out that it’s really likely to suck… it’s made by Ninja Theory, who have yet to make anything even close to decent, and it looks really bad in gameplay videos if you compare it to any other DMC game. The action just looks so slow, clunky and sluggish, not helped by the low framerate… it just doesn’t feel like I’m watching DMC gameplay at all (not to mention the “alternate reality” thing where Dante isn’t really Dante at all and the setting is very… not DMC-ish). So I’m pretty sure this will end up sucking, but, for the most part, I’ll be renting it just to confirm that. And, if it does end up being good somehow, I’ll just have another DMC game to buy.

Lollipop Chainsaw
I’m getting tired of zombies. Everyone is. But one thing I’m most definitely NOT tired of is cheerleaders going around killing zombies (or anything reallly) with a huge chainsaw, making them spray rainbow blood. Oh, and it’s being made by Suda51 so… I’m getting it for the crazyness factor really… As if the awesome title wasn’t enough to make me want to get it.

Metal Gear Rising Revengeance
Not really sure about that one yet since we haven’t seen much of the secretly-cancelled-and-then-secretly-taken-over-by-Platinum-Games game after Platinum Games took over (remaking the whole gameplay engine)… but the fact that Platinum Games took over at all is very interesting. I can’t wait to see/hear more about this particular project. It looks like it could be really fun, the little gameplay we’ve seen looks really solid.

Skullgirls
A fun little project by a few random gamers (and getting published by Konami). It’s a fighting game that uses anime-style graphics to display a bunch of really strange female characters, all with their own quirks either visually or gameplay-wise (like Ms. Fortune who can take off her head and control it individually from her body). This looks like it could be a really fun game, and there’s a lot of really cool systems in place to make it easy to play and as balanced as possible (for example, if someone is doing an infinite, the game recognizes that and the infinite can get ended with a single button press by the “victim”). And it’s developed by a solid competitive fighting game player, Mike Z (whom I know for having a badass Tager in BlazBlue), so I think the fighting engine will be very solid.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2
Episode 1 was fantastic. It doesn’t have the same great level design and overall polish as Sonic Generations, but it was still a very well-made game. Here they’re fixing the “not actually broken if you play the game normally but people stupidly complained about it anyways” physics from the first episode (seriously, ALL the complaints about the physics in Episode 1 are 100% impossible to find in normal gameplay, you HAVE to be looking for it),and to top it off Tails is gonna be here and Metal Sonic makes a comeback. This seems like it should be great. Yeah, probably gonna be the third good Sonic game this generation (3 great Sonic games in 1 post-Genesis generation? That’s pretty amazing ).

Zone of the Enders HD Collection
Kojima, stop making Metal Gear games already, and work on Zone of the Enders 3! Seriously, what’s the hold-up? ZOE3 has been talked about since before the PS3 came out, there’s no reason for it not to be in the works by now. Anyways… This includes the 2 PS2 ZOE games, redone in HD. I haven’t seen much about these versions, but whatever. The first game, from what I recall, probably didn’t age too well but was really fun at the time and it still has nostalgia value (as much nostalgia value as a PS2 game can have I guess). The sequel, however, made the controls a lot better, added a lot of movement/attack options and gameplay elements and should still be really fun now. This should be well worth picking up… and maybe if enough people buy it Kojima will finally drop Metal Gear get to work on ZOE3!

3DS

Kid Icarus: Uprising
This is the reason I bought the 3DS so early, since I was expecting it to come sooner (due to it being the first game announced for the system). But now it’s actually coming fairly soon. After seeing various gameplay videos, and a 3D trailer on the 3DS, I can’t wait to play this. It looks fun and fast-paced. Sure, it’s a different gameplay style from the original, but I don’t think the original’s gameplay would fare very well in modern days. Both the flying levels and the action hack n’ slash levels seem like they’re gonna be really fun.

Luigi’s Mansion 2
That was the unexpected announcement of E3 2011. Luigi’s Mansion is a very under-appreciated gamecube game, and, with the low amount of people who actually liked the original, it’s quite surprising that a sequel was announced… but it makes me and other fans of the original very happy to see Nintendo revisiting the idea, and they seem to be expanding on the original’s gameplay with more mansions, different types of ghosts to capture, revamped gameplay and a more puzzle-oriented design. Seems like a very high-potential game.

Paper Mario
A new Paper Mario! And, looking at the 3D video on the 3DS, it looks to use 3D insanely well, and the gameplay looks solid. Seems great! Not much more to say here.

PC

Diablo 3
This. Fucking. Game. It’s been in development way too long, and Blizzard has been teasing us with this for quite a while, constantly saying it would come out soon, eventually going for the DNF approved “it’s gonna come out when it’s done”. Finally it seems it will come out this year, and I can’t wait. Diablo 2 has always been a favorite within my group of friends, and it’s tremendously fun. This seems to add better graphics, a bunch of new character classes, as well as a completely different leveling philosophy than the previous game, new items, that auction house thing… The many videos I’ve seen over the years have been quite solid.

Fortune Summoners
A japanese indie game made by the dudes who made Chantelise and Recettear, and localized by the same guys who localized those 2 games (Carpe Fulgur). This game is a fast-paced side-scrolling party-based action RPG, with combo-based combat (using Street fighter-like moves), with multiple playable characters that you can switch between on-the-fly. Should be worth checking out, look for it on Steam… this month! It has a high price point for an indie game at 25$, but the game will take over 20 hours to complete (some have said around 27) and the gameplay is solid so… it should be worth it. You can check the overly cutesy demo here: DEMO! (keep in mind the demo takes over an hour to complete)

Torchlight 2
The main/only competition to Diablo 3! A lot of people who played both games at events actually preferred Torchlight 2, but this is from short bursts of gameplay, so it’s currently impossible to know if either of them will have more or less lasting power. Torchlight 2 does make a good case for itself with the modding tools being made available to everyone and easy to distribute (within the game itself, sort of like custom-made maps in Starcraft). Torchlight was fairly solid, but I found it to be way too easy, so hopefully this one fixes that. It’s one I’m very hyped to play.

Wii

Xenoblade Chronicles
A late surprise last year/month, with NOA announcing the American release of this game after months of saying they wouldn’t. Finally, through a deal with Gamestop/EBgames (I’m only assuming here, but it IS only being sold at Gamestop/EBgames, as well as Nintendo’s own website) the game is being made available and is doing quite well preorder-wise. It seems like a solid RPG with a few unique systems for battle (and otherwise… you can build/rebuild towns, go on quests and more) and a cool setting (the game takes place on a mountain-like titan giant… thing). And hey, if this does well, maybe Nintendo of America will probably be more willing to release Pandora’s Tower and The Last Story.

Rhythm Heaven Fever
Rhythm Heaven was a solid DS title, one that had fairly simple gameplay/controls but it was super fun. This is purely a rental for me tough, as I don’t know if the fun gameplay on the DS will translate well to the Wii’s motion controls, but I’m fairly convinced it’s gonna be worth trying out.

PS3

Twisted Metal
It’s been a while since a new Twisted Metal, and this seems fairly solid. There’s a variety of vehicles to choose from, and some have multiple functions (your driver can go out of a car to snipe people, for example)… and some of them seem to be transformers! Add to that classic Twisted Metal gameplay and cool boss battles… The game looks quite fun, and David Jaffe seems to know what he’s doing (I’ve been visiting his blog from time to time lately, I really like his attitude in regards to games and gaming).

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
Sly Cooper… I’m still playing through the second one (very slowly… I need to actually go at it seriously again), but I actually really liked the original and what I’ve played of the second. This seems to follow the basic gameplay formula of the other games, which is fairly classic 3D platformer style with unique stealth missions and fun boss battles… Sony’s ONLY announcement for PS3 last E3 seems like it will be one of the really good exclusives on it this year.

Vita

Gravity Rush (or whatever the fuck it’s called… seriously, the game has, like, 4 working titles)
One of the only Vita games that seems… interesting to me. The controls sound a bit weird from what I’ve heard (though that’s probably just a matter of getting used to the back touch pad… I hope), but it looks really interesting, where you have to alter gravity to travel through the environment. It just looks like there’s so much potential for cool platforming segments and boss fights. One of the only games on the Vita making me think about getting it at launch. But I may need a bit more to decide that.

Ruin
The other Vita release that’s not a port that I want to check out. It’s a Diablo-like game with, from what I understand, player-customized dungeons to fight through which are generated from your base setup or something like that, which is a very nifty idea (that and the game being saved on the “cloud” being able to be played on the PS3). Well, from what I’ve seen it looks great. I have some good expectations for this.

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Really not a whole lot coming up for January so here we have… 5 (*Edit* 3) Multiplatform games! That’s… it really. No good/interesting/popular exclusives for anything.

So let’s go at this quickly!

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

Final Fantasy XIII-2 01/31 (PS3, 360)

I’m one of the 3 people who actually enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII. It had a fine leveling system, good characters (ignoring Hope and Sazh), an okay-ish story and a really good battle system. This one seems very similar, though I hope some elements are ironed out (such as a few minor things in the fighting system), but I have good hopes for this, as long as the QTEs I’ve seen in some videos aren’t as annoying as they could end up being. I’ll be picking this up.

NeverDead 01/31 (PS3, 360)

This looks potentially interesting. It’s a third-person shooter action game where you play as an immortal character. You seem to have guns and melee weapons, and you can lose or remove body parts as you want and you can retrieve them by rolling over them or something like that. Not sure how dying/challenge will work with a character that can’t die even if he removes his head, but the gameplay videos I’ve seen actually don’t seem THAT bad… I’ll rent it.

SoulCalibur V 01/31 (PS3, 360)

I’ve never been really good at Soul Calibur, nor do I enjoy them that much. Not that I think they’re bad of course, I think Soul Calibur is probably the best 3D-style fighter out there… just not my style of fighting game. I’ll definitely give this a try when Dave gets it though . Things I’ve seen about this game do seem quite interesting.

PC RELEASES

Fortune Summoners 01/17
An insanely cutesy action-RPG with crazy combos and on-the-fly character change. It’s a bit steeply priced compared to other games that were localized by Carpe Fulgur, but with a 20+ hours long game that has quite good gameplay (I can tell from the demo, which was well over an hour long just for the prologue), the 25$ price tag isn’t that unwarranted. And how often to japanese indie games get officially localized over here? I think it’s something that may be worth encouraging, especially if the game ends up being really good… DEMO!

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Ah the Sonic cylce: see the game’s reveal trailer, get excited thinking “finally, THIS is the game that will make Sonic be good again”, see some gameplay videos and think “this doesn’t look too bad!” and then play the game and realize it’s terrible as always. It happened with every Sonic game. EVEN Black Knight where they gave Sonic a sword had a lot of people thinking that it would be the game to revive Sonic.

Well, before actually playing the game, I was planning on coming into this review saying “Hey guys, this new Sonic games is bad as usual, don’t buy it, ‘k?”. But somehow I can’t do that, because then I’d be lying.

Read on and see what Generations did right with the Sonic franchise… FINALLY!

Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Date of Release: November 1st 2011 (November 3rd for Steam)
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC (Steam version reviewed)

Genre: Side-scrolling platformer
Rated E for Everyone

Overall feel

So the story goes as follow: some beast is blasting through time and space destroying everything in its path and taking Sonic’s friends prisoner in time. So Sonic has to save them. At the same time Sonic is dealing with that same monster that’s ravaging space and time… Oh, and by that I mean Sonic from the Genesis day. So you have 2 Sonics from different time periods fighting for a common goal, each with his own levels and gameplay style. The actual plot is actually NOT completely cringe-worthy like in other modern Sonic games. I couldn’t survive a whole Sonic Colors cinematic for example, while the cinematics here were at least bearable, and even really good in some cases (see: the cinematics before Metal Sonic and Shadow).

Generations is a game that pays tribute to everything Sonic. And I truly mean everything. This not only has levels from (well, more like “inspired by”, since they’re not exactly the same) Sonic 1, 2, 3&K, Adventure, Adventure 2, Heroes, 2006, Unleashed and Colors, but references to just about every Sonic game. There’s the kickass Toxic Caves music from Sonic Spinball and probably music from most Sonic games overall, the Chaotix are here (sadly no Chaotix-insipired level…. they have 2 Sonics to work with, so why not?), Blaze is here, Silver is here, you have Metal Sonic and Shadow… Not much of Sonic video game lore was forgotten here (seemingly no cartoon/comic references though, so no Princess Sally), though I will say Big the Cat seems to be missing… not that anyone really cares about him.

If you’re a Sonic fan, you’re gonna be in for a cool trip. But even then, this whole tribute to Sonic wouldn’t be any good if the gameplay sucked so…. There are 2 gameplay styles here. Fully side-scrolling levels with old-school Sonic in the style of the Genesis games, and levels that play like more recent Sonic games with some side-scrolling segments and some exploration/3D moments, so let’s talk about that!

Retro Sonic gameplay

Remember Sonic 2 on the Genesis? Yeah, this is just about what you’re getting here. As I and many other people have said for a long time, Sonic is not about speed, it’s about momentum and trying to maintain that momentum through properly timed jumps and spin dashes to avoid slower-moving segments of a level. This game pretty much nails this idea when it comes to the retro Sonic levels, with different paths depending on your performance. As far as I’ve seen, the physics are pretty much spot-on here, it really feels like Genesis Sonic (though, again, I just play the game, unlike the people who, instead of playing Sonic 4, tried to find problems with the physics that don’t exists in normal play… but from my experience there doesn’t seem to be the imaginary problems people had with Sonic 4). What’s cool is that all the levels truly have that retro Sonic feel to them, even the ones that take place in levels from modern Sonic games. City Escape has these cool segments with a truck trying to stomp you, Crisis City uses firestorms to change the horizontal momentum… it’s all well thought out. One enhancement that I quite enjoy here is the fact that the spin dash is now assigned to its own button (you can do it by crouching and using the jump button, but you don’t need to), making spin dashing a lot faster and easy to do at a moment’s notice.

Long story short: Retro Sonic levels=really good.

Modern Sonic gameplay

I’ll be brutally honest here: Sonic games on console have SUCKED since Adventure 2 (other than Sonic 4 which kicked ass), and the major culprit is the fact that is just feels like it plays itself without you really needing to do too much to finish levels. It’s just “Hold forward, win”. It reached its worst with Sonic Colors, where you could literally button-mash the homing attack to beat bosses.

Here, it keeps a similar gameplay style, with some side-scrolling segments and some “behind Sonic” segments. It actually plays a lot like Colors in general… But, for some reason, it doesn’t suck! Yeah, it just feels a lot less “I’m playing myself” than Colors did. There’s honest to goodness obstacles this time around, the jumps and boosts and homing attacks feel like you’re more in control (though movement when you’re not running is still a bit of a hassle, it’s not much of a problem when you’re going full-speed, which should be ALL THE TIME anyways). It’s not like in Colors when you can just keep the boost on and finish a level, here you actually have to do some platforming of your own. Crazy I know. It’s like they actually DESIGNED LEVELS, which is something modern devs tend to not really do anymore. It helps that the jumping in side-scrolling segments is a bit less floaty than in Colors and more precise.

It’s also super-exciting. I won’t spoil it, but the “modern” version of City Escape, while it does have some parts that are taken straight out of Adventure 2, is mostly original, and features an insanely awesome bit at the end that always has me go “OHSHITOHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT… WTF WAS THAT”. The levels have some parts that just get the adrenaline pumping not just because of the action on-screen, but because the game isn’t just playing itself though those parts, it actually requires YOU to do the awesome things you see on screen without relying on something stupid like QTEs or just plain watching.

My only complaint here is that drifting is super-tough to control properly, and doing a homing attack in side-scrolling segments pretty much stops your horizontal movement altogether (they should have implemented the homing attack from Sonic 4 instead).

Long story short: they took the basic of Colors, and made it not suck. These levels are actually FUN, differently from my expectations.

Content

There’s 9 levels, each with 2 acts (one for each Sonic). Each act has 5 or so red rings which unlock extra stuff like music and artwork. There’s 7 boss battles (4 story-based battles inspired by old bosses, but with new gimmicks and 3 boss battles featuring “Sonic clones” Metal Sonic, Shadow and Silver) strewn within that (you HAVE to do the 6 first to get to the final boss)… Not sure why some reviewers said that there’s only 2 boss battles when that’s clearly false though… Each level has 5 challenge levels for each Sonic, so that’s 90 challenge levels total. And each of those unlocks a bell, which will unleash a music note which you must catch to get either artwork or music. Each of those boss battles and acts and challenge levels rank you for time, or time+ring number+performance, with a maximum ranking of S. So, basically, there’s a shitload of content (as in I’m over 10 hours into the game and I’m only halfway through the content, and that’s without S-ranking everything).

I especially enjoy the challenge stages. A few of them are just time trials, but some will add stuff to the level, like more platform or blocks to make you take certain paths, or tons of enemies to make the way to the goal tougher, or just different layouts overall. Some will give you skills (such as shields for retro Sonic or boost-increases for modern Sonic), others will make you have to work with/against one of Sonic’s friends (sadly you cannot murder Cream the Rabbit). These levels are REALLY fun (with a couple exceptions).

Also, just a quick mention of Skills. Basically, you get 100 points, and you can use those points to equip skills (which you buy from the Skill shop). For example, you can get better underwater movement for both Sonics, increased speed for modern Sonic or shields for Retro Sonic (including bubble, flame and lightning shields from the Genesis games, which you get a few that you can activate when you want), and some other stuff. It’s not required, but it can make some levels easier, or make certain gameplay elements more forgiving (like making the rings stay longer when you get hit).

Difficulty

Okay, not really a “bad stuff” part, but this game is rather easy. You can buy lives, which are super cheap, and losing them all just makes you restart the level you’re at, with 5 lives. This game DOES have honestly hard parts and it will kill you from time to time, but I think the difficulty is a little bit on the low side overall. There’s a few cheap deaths on modern Sonic levels due to the controls going all herp derp on you, but not enough so that it makes the game worse. There are also times where you’ll spin dash or boost at the wrong time, making you miss a spring or jump you HAVE to use to go further, but that’s your fault if you do that, so I really don’t mind that at all.

One thing I DO appreciate is that the first thing the game does is ask if you want the retarded tutorial thingies popping up all the time. So you can have the game telling you how to jump or whatever, and tell you “hey, there’s a hole there” OR you can just remove that stuff and figure out how to do things yourself like normal people. I think it’s considerate of Sega to realize that not all gamers are idiots that need to have everything told to them.

Bad stuff

Not much to mention here actually. I’m serious. So the final boss is kinda lame. The rendition of the City Escape song on the retro Sonic side is one of the worst things I’ve ever heard (but the fact that you can change the music to anything in the game that you’ve unlocked mostly negates that problem. My other problem is Planet Wisp… The level is fine, no problem here, but the implementation of the Wisps here STILL sucks. Not as much as in Colors, and that’s mostly because there’s only 2 Wisps (the rocket, which was the only one that wasn’t completely terrible in Colors, and the spiky ball wisp which is super hard to control properly). Oh, and there’s minor glitches, like getting stuck in moments where the game is supposed to be taking control for a moment (there’s this one spiral ramp in Green Hill Zone where sometimes Sonic will just get stuck and you’ll have to restart the level). Not a big problem.

Another minor issue I had is just something on my end… I’m playing the Steam version (using my PS3 controller configured as a 360 controller, which controls SUPER well by the way, I suggest it since the Steam version is uber cheap), and there’s a few moments when I get major slowdown even though I have a good computer (Chemical Plant when there’s certain water effects, and Speed Highway when multiple of those police enemies sound off at the same time), not sure if it’s something in the configs, but it’s not a HUGE problem.

Overall

Sonic Generations is great. There, I said it. It’s super fun to play, there’s tons of content, it has the kickass Toxic Caves song from Sonic Spinball (I love Sonic Spinball……. what?), it’s a badass tribute to everything Sonic and it just feels great. I didn’t think it would surpass Sonic 4 (the only other good Sonic game of this generation), but it did by FAR. Declaring it the best Sonic game yet might be a bit much, but I will say that it’s stiff competition at the very least.

It’s a well-designed game with some actual thought put behind it and…. well… fuck, it’s great. And the Steam version is only 30$, so… yeah, pick it up and stuff! And if you’re European, get the Collectors Edition, it looks amazing!

(Note: You may have realized that I didn’t talk about the graphics. That would be because I forgot about it, and now I don’t really care about writing a blurb about them… I’ll just say “they look great” and leave it at that *thumbs up*)

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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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Let’s see… for October 2011 we have:  9 multiplatform releases, 3 PS3 releases, 3 3DS releases, 2 Xbox 360 releases, 2 PC releases and the first truly great Wii release of the year (note: yes Mario Sports Mix was good, but definitely not GREAT)! Don’t forget this only includes interesting or potentially popular games, and it maybe be missing a couple hidden gems (and downloadable games, these rarely get release dates this fast). I try to not include shovelware in these lists.

So read on and see what you’ll be buying!

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

Dark Souls 10/04 (PS3, 360)

A spiritual successor to the highly popular Demon’s Souls on PS3. This time it’s a multiplatform title, but it seems to retain the gameplay style and difficulty-type of the original. I’ll only be renting this, but it’s looking mighty fine from what I’ve seen.

Spider-Man: Edge of Time 10/04 (PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS, DS)

Seems very similar to Shattered Dimensions. Not too sure about that one. Shattered Dimensions was… okay… but it was definitely not worth a purchase. I’m expecting the same here.

Rage 10/04 (PC, PS3, 360)

I always look reluctantly at FPS. This may have been made by id, and some things I’ve seen looked interesting (especially since it reminded me of Borderlands a little bit), but… I don’t know, FPS tend to disappoint me most of the time, so I’ll not get any hype for this. I’ll probably check it out eventually though.

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record 10/11 (PS3, 360, PC)

The first Dead Rising was boring, the second one was pretty much the same but with a few added gameplay elements so it wasn’t AS bad… This seems like it’s just gonna be DR2 with Frank West… meh (and no, I don’t care that he’s covered wars, you know).

Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure 10/16 (PS3, 360, PC, Wii, 3DS)

I don’t know about this one… You can collect figurines, and get them scanned into the game somehow. It seems to be a fairly standard 3D platformer, but here you have access to 32 characters…. as long as you have the figurines. I’ll be honest, I’m not expecting this to really catch on.

Batman: Arkham City 10/18 (PC, PS3, 360)

Arkham Asylum was a very solid puzzle-y brawler/stealth game, and ended up being one of the very few modern licensed games to not be terrible. I haven’t actually seen anything in regards to its sequel, but I am still excited to check it out (had it pre-ordered for months now). I only hope a few things are modified here, to make it even better than the first. I’m pretty hyped.

Battlefield 3 10/25 (PC, PS3, 360)

This has been played up to be the competition for MW3, with both the advertisers, gamers and overall press talking about how much greater it’s gonna be… but from what I’ve seen it’s just another bland military FPS with no defining elements, it might as well be called “MW3 with more vehicles and better graphics”. The non-vehicle moments are 100% identical to any CoD game… Even the box art has the exact same lack of originality/fun as the CoD series’ box art… Get Serious Sam 3 instead!

The King of Fighters XIII 10/25 (PS3, 360)

King of Fighters XII kinda disappointed me… I can’t say why though, it just didn’t get me like older KoF games. I’m not even sure I’ll try this one. We’ll see.

Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi 10/25 (PS3, 360)

DBZ fighting games always kinda failed to really impress me. This seem very much the same as previous Tenkaichi games.

3DS RELEASES

Tetris: Axis 10/07

Looks like Tetris! Not really much to say here…

Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns 10/11 (also coming to DS, but I decided to ignore that)

To be completely honest, I haven’t played a Harvest Moon game since the SNES… I have no idea if the series has done any changing since then. Maybe I’ll have to check a newer one soon…

Pokemon Rumble Blast 10/24

I played the demo for the original Pokemon Rumble on Wiiware, and it SUCKED. You’d think a Pokemon action game like this would have the potential to be great but… Yeah, my expectations for this are super-low.

PC RELEASES

Dungeons & Dragons: Neverwinter 10/04

I have no idea what that’s gonna be like. So I won’t comment on it! *thumbs up*

Might & Magic: Heroes VI 10/11

The Heroes of Might and Magic series is a very cool Strategy-RPG series. By building up your city and conquering other cities, you can build an army and take over the rest of the land. As of now my favorite in the series remains the third, but I’ll probably end up checking this one out eventually. Should be good.

PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES

Twisted Metal 10/04
(Haven’t found the official box art, will update when I do)
The videos I’ve seen look very… Twisted Metal-like (duh). You have access to more vehicles, and you even have sniper rifles to take out enemies from far away… I’m not really convinced about this game though, I might rent it.

Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One 10/18

Ratchet & Clank with 4 players! It looks like a simplified and super-linear version of Ratchet & Clank. It DOES look fun though, but it’s probably not terribly interesting to play alone.

The House of the Dead: Overkill – Extended Cut 10/25

House of the Dead Overkill was an amazingly fun on-rails shooter on the Wii. I don’t know what kind of extra content this is getting, but it’s probably gonna be awesome. Sadly, I don’t have a Move to check it out.

NINTENDO WII RELEASES

Kirby’s Return to Dreamland 10/24

The first really good Wii release of the year! This was a very long time coming. This is the first real Kirby game on a console since Crystal Shards on the N64. And it looks AMAZING. No offense to Epic Yarn, I quite liked it (despite the slow gameplay and total lack of challenge), but THIS is what a Kirby game should be like. And a 4-player option kicks ass here too, it’s probably gonna be a fun game to play while hanging out with friends (since all the playable characters look to play differently).

XBOX 360 RELEASES

Forza Motorsport 4 10/11

Forza 3 was solid. I’m expecting the same amount of solid-ness from this one. Not sure what Kinect really does in regards to the gameplay here though, seems kinda pointless to me.

Dance Central 2 10/25

It’s Dance Central… If you liked the first one, this seems to be identical beyond having new dance moves and new songs.

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September sees a good amount of interesting/popular games:  7 multiplatform (Wii, PC, PS3, 360) releases, 8 PS3 releases, 3 3DS releases, 3 DS releases, 1 PSP release and 2 Xbox 360 releases. Don’t forget this only includes interesting or potentially popular games, and it maybe be missing what will be hidden gems. We never know.

So read on and see what you’ll be buying!

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

Dead Island 9/06 (PC, PS3, 360)

As far as I’ve seen, it just looks like L4D with slower gameplay and maybe a deeper plot (or at least some character development). Not interested.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 9/06 (PC, PS3, 360)

Seems like a God of War rip-off with a space marine and orks… I’ll keep an eye out just in case it ends up being a competent action game, but I’m not keeping my hopes up.
(Note/correction/whatever: The demo was very unimpressive… it’s a clumsy hack n’ slasher with the controls of Gears of War which just doesn’t work for action like this… BUT the jetpack level in the demo was fun… I guess jetpacks DO make everything better… it’s a rental)

NHL 12 9/13 (PS3, 360)

*insert same text as madden release from last month*

Resident Evil 4 HD 9/20 (PS3, 360)

It’s RE4… I shouldn’t need to say much more, because you already know if you want an HD version of that.

Resident Evil Code: Veronica X HD 9/27 (PS3, 360)

I’ve never played Code Veronica… So I don’t have much to say here.

X-Men: Destiny 9/27 (PS3, 360, Wii, DS)

Haven’t seen much of this… it seems like a possibly interesting beat ‘em up with RPG elements. Doesn’t look too bad, but it’s a rental for me.

Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny 9/27 (PS3, Wii)

I had no idea this was even coming. But I’m also not terribly familiar with Rune Factory so I have nothing to say about it.

PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES

Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten 9/06

Disgaea always kicks ass. Nothing more to say. Buy this!

Resistance 3 9/06

First sucked, second sucked but had fun online, this one will probably also suck (don’t know about the online, don’t care). I’ll rate this game a “boringfps/10″

God of War Origins Collection 9/13

Portable lameness, redone in HD!

White Knight Chronicles II 9/13

Includes the first game with the modified engine from the sequel, so, if you don’t get bored of this fast, you have a LOT of content to go through here.

Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland 9/27

The Atelier series is generally great. I’m pretty hyped for this one

ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection 9/27

Ico looked boring to play (haven’t played it myself, just judging from the boring-looking gameplay videos I’ve seen), Shadow of the Colossus was stupidly boring (a game where you spend most of the time basically doing nothing isn’t terribly exciting), not hyped for this at all.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Classic Trilogy HD 9/27

Despite having all the old splinter cell games, I haven’t played them…. May be worth it, I wouldn’t know… yet.

Child of Eden 9/27

Wasn’t interested in the 360 release, not interested in this one.

3DS RELEASES

Star Fox 64 3D 9/09

This is my favorite N64 game, by far. I must have completed it over 100 times as a kid, and I still replay it from time to time. I’m pretty hyped to see it with even better graphics and 3D, should be quite interesting.

Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection 9/13

This game is great. It features amazing pinball tables like Funhouse and Pinbot and Taxi, and is overall really fun to play. One drawback on the 3DS version though… as far as I can tell, it’s missing 5 tables that are in the PS3/360 version: Tales of the Arabian Nights, Medieval Madness, No Good Gofers, as well as MAYBE Jive Time and Sorcerer that are in all the other versions…. If you have a PS3/360, get those versions, Wii if you don’t have a PS3 or 360… This is a nice alternative, but the HD versions kick its ass.

Frogger 3D 9/20

This actually looks really interesting. It’s classic Frogger gameplay, but in various environments, featuring a lot of new gameplay elements… I may check it out.

DS RELEASES

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 9/19

Loved the first one, and the other games in the previous Monster sub-series. This should also be great.

Kirby Mass Attack 9/19

The videos I’ve seen make it seem like a Kirby/Pikmin hybrid… looks pretty fun.

Solatorobo: Red the Hunter 9/27

Random Action-RPG, actually looks cool.

PSP RELEASES

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2 – Innocent Sin 9/20

Oh, this is actually the first time this comes out in the US. I know people will point me to Persona 2: Eternal Punishment on the PS1, I will point out that it’s actually a different game from the first Persona 2, one that takes place in a parallel world. So yeah, this could be interesting.

XBOX 360 RELEASES

Otomedius Excellent 9/01

It better not get delayed AGAIN. Well, I don’t have a 360 anymore, but, if I did, I would be all over this. It actually looks like a solid Gradius game.

Gears of War 3 9/20

It’s Gears of War. You’ve played one of the 2 before it, you’ve played this one.

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It may be the summer drought, but there’s still a few interesting releases, right?

Here we have: 1 3DS game, 1 DS game, 2 PS3 games, 1 360 game that was delayed from last month and 3 multiplatform title. Keep in mind this is just “hardcore” games and potentially good games, there’s tons more if you count the shovelware (though I DO include one or two pieces of shovelware this time, by obligation).

So check it out and see what you’ll be buying in August!

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron 8/16 (PS3, 360)

After playing the demo for this, it looks like this may be  the top action game of the year. The fighting is fun, you get a nice variety of attaks from just one attack button and it seems to offer a good challenge. I’m looking forward to this one.

Bodycount 8/23 (PS3, 360, PC)
(did they just open up photoshop and do that in 2 minutes? Worst cover of the year, seriously)
A First-Person Shooter. Yay…. we definitely don’t have enough of those this generation… Low expectations on this one, doesn’t seem like it’s anything special.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution 8/23 (PC, PS3, 360)

Whoa, new Deus Ex! I haven’t seen that much of this game, but the few gameplay videos I did see were quite interesting, with the character customizing and actually fun-looking/varied gameplay. I’ll give it a look.

Madden NFL 12 8/30 (360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP)

Same game as last year with roster update that should seriously be DLC by now… What more is there to say? Millions of idiots will go out to buy it even though they’ve bought it already every year for the last 14 years, and nothing is gonna stop that.

3DS RELEASES

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked 8/23

I haven’t played the original DS version of Devil Survivor, so I’m pretty excited to check out this updated version. It seems quite interesting, and apparently it’s challenging (as is a tradition with SMT games). An early but probably really good RPG for the 3DS, yay!

PLAYSATION 3 RELEASES

Bleach: Soul Resurreccion 8/02

This basically looks like Dynasty Warriors with Bleach characters. It actually seems pretty good as far as Dynasty Warriors clones go.

No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise 8/16

It’s No More Heroes. It was a pretty good game on the Wii, and it’s probably gonna be pretty good here too. And, looking on amazon.com, it’s budget-priced too! (not on amazon.ca, but amazon.ca sucks anyways)

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I’m always looking for FPS that actually attempt to do something different/more with the genre, because I can see the advantages of a first-person perspective, but it’s sad that it’s almost always used to shoot people behind cover and nothing much more. Most potentially-interesting FPS are disappointments (like Singularity) and very few end up being enjoyable to me, such as the ones I mentioned above and today’s subject: Sanctum.

Read on and see what it’s about.

Developer: Coffee Stain Studios
Publisher: Coffee Stain Studios
Date of Release: April 17th 2011
Platforms: PC

Genre: First-Person Shooter Tower Defense

A mix of genres

Yeah, I’ll mention this first, because the info part above mentioned it and may have confused you… It’s a First-Person Shooter Tower Defense game. That idea also confused me before I picked it up. After playing the demo, I got it. I wouldn’t call it the most genius idea out there, but dammit it works, and it’s actually fun. It works like a basic tower defense game. You start with a grid which you can make blocks on (which you can make into a maze to have the enemies run through), and you can put turrets on said blocks (or teleporters to move around faster). You can also put certain panels on the floor to slow down enemies. You can upgrade those towers and panels to increase their damage/firing speed/range/effectiveness using money you get for completing waves. Some enemies are aerial, so you have to make anti-air turrets or turrets that hit both the ground and the air to fight them. Pretty standard for now.

But then you add the FPS element. You’re actually moving around through the turret maze you build, or running on top of the turret blocks. Once you press Enter to launch the enemy wave, you take out a gun and you can shoot the enemies yourself. Each enemy has a weak point (it’s generally all glowy for you to see it easily), and each weapon also has stats, and secondary fire. You can decide between waves to actually power-up your weapons rather than your towers. The assault rifle generally just gets a damage increase for both the normal shot and the grenade shot, the sniper gets a lot of extra damage but also extra ammo before needing to cool down, and the freeze gun’s “bullet” gets more longevity and it can slow down more (the freeze gun’s secondary fire actually freezes enemies in a large radius, and upgrading makes them frozen longer).

The strategy basically comes from how you balance upgrading your towers and weapons, since either choice eventually becomes quite expensive (to the point where there’s some waves where you won’t be doing any upgrading so you can fully upgrade a tower or gun next wave).

It will kick your ass

This game is actually surprisingly hard… or maybe I just suck at tower defense. Even on Normal difficulty most levels give me some trouble. It seems that, beyond easy difficulty, you have to know exactly the right way to place and upgrade your towers and exactly when to upgrade your guns if you want to stand any chance. Or, again, maybe I just suck, who knows?

Still a work in progress

As far as I can tell, this game is still a work in progress. It gets occasional updates, like it recently got 4-player co-op. So maybe there’s more to this game that’s still to come. I’ve seen various complaints like how short it is and how there’s not a lot of levels, but maybe that’s gonna change as the game gets more updates… And do people that complain that it’s too short try to play the game on hard or insane mode? I’m pretty sure those require at least some skill to get through.

Overall

Sanctum is definitely not a bad game. It’s a superbly original take on the FPS genre… or is it a great take on the Tower Defense genre? Whatever. Either way, it’s a very original gamethat takes 2 genres you wouldn’t expect to see working so well together… and it makes them work well. If it pops up on sale on Steam again, or if you really want to support the developer, buy it! (there’s a demo if you want to see what it’s like)

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Madness Returns, however, seemed pretty interesting in previews I’ve seen, so I decided I’d check it out as soon as it came out, though negative reviews all around made me decide to just rent it.

Since I haven’t come close to finishing the game (done with chapter 2), this is an impressions post rather than a review, though honestly I doubt the game throws any curveballs gameplay-wise, so I’m pretty sure I’ve seen everything that is to be seen here (considering the total lack of BOSSES in the game…). So read on and see what I thought (I’ll make it short).

Developer: Spicy Horse
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Date of Release: June 14th 2011
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC

Genre: 3D Platformer
Rated M for Mature (why?)

Basic gameplay

The basic gameplay is quite simple: jump on platforms, kill dudes, go to the next place where you’ll jump on platforms and kill dudes. The platforming is okay, though I find it incredibly easy since you actually have 3 extra jumps once you’re in the air AND a glide move ALA Princess Peach in Mario 2 (but less awesome). There’s generally not a lot of variety in the platforming, mostly due to how easy every jump is (so you do them all in the same way). And there’s no penalty for falling in holes, you just go back before the jump. The only variety comes from shrinking, which sometimes reveals invisible platforms (though the game places flowers around areas where you might want to shrink so you’re never at a loss as to where to go).

Combat is very Zelda Ocarina of Time-ish. You can target single enemies, you have a knife which has a single combo attack (more hits are added when you level the knife up), and you have extra weapons assigned to other buttons like the pepper grinder and the hobby horse. You have a dodge move as well, which is super versatile since it essentially lets you teleport behind enemies in addition to letting you dodge attacks in any direction. So combat ends up being super simple, with the only challenges being the first time you encounter the bigger enemy with 3 masks. You can level up your equipment, making it stronger or adding more hits, using teeth that enemies drop or that you find in various destructible objects. And if you’re having trouble against a bunch of enemies? Well, if you’re down to one health, you can go into a super-powered mode that makes you invincible and makes you stronger…. this is especially useful against multiple enemies since they seem to always drop health when you’re in this mode.

The problem here is that the gameplay wears thin really fast. It felt to me that I saw everything the game had to offer in the first hour of gameplay. And frankly I wasn’t having a whole lot of fun with it. It all worked well, but it felt to me like it should have been so much more fun to play. It may be due to the complete lack of challenge, it never feels like you’re actually in any trouble, so you’re just going with the flow… The game is just holding your hand all the way through, you barely feel like you’re playing it at all. Even the completely random side-scrolling shooter level didn’t really manage to break the monotony for me. It did bring variety, but not enough to actually make the experience as a whole terribly fun.

Graphics

Quality-wise… Alice’s hair looks lame, and there’s low-res textures all over the place. But overall it does look good enough to portray the style very well. Stylistically, this looks great. It’s a bit like if Tim Burton (the one who made Nightmare Before Christmas, not his less talented clone who made that Alice film) took the Alice story and made it in his own style. There’s a lot of very interesting locations, though each chapter has the very same look all the way through so the areas start looking the same. There’s a few nice touches here, like Alice having different clothes depending on the area she’s in.

A problem here is that, since you can jump so far, a lot of areas end up feeling empty, though that problem does start to die down in the second chapter (I don’t know if it goes back to feeling empty later on though).

Performance issues

I don’t know if this is a problem on the PC or Xbox 360 version, but the PS3 version has terrible performance issues. It totally lags out each time you pick up a memory, the framerate keeps chugging, sometimes the physics mess up… This really feels like an incomplete game at times.

Overall

The basic gameplay is solid enough, but it’s not really fun. I have ragged on negative reviews of this game before and… frankly I still do. The complaints I’ve seen have generally been stupid (stuff like “the platforming has traps that can kill you”… No, I’m not kidding), and none of the reviews really commented on whether the gameplay is fun or not. So I’ll say it: It’s not fun. It had a lot of potential, and the controls are really good for the most part so… I have no idea where they went wrong. It just feels really bland and it has nothing that really defines it. It’s just… there. I’ll say rent it if you’re a fan of Alice, otherwise don’t bother.

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We have 1 3DS releases, 3 multiplatform releases, 1 Xbox 360 release.

Read on and see if you’re picking anything up!

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon 7/05 (PS3, 360)

The previous Earth Defense Force on the 360 was definitely a cheap game. It was cheaply made, had various issues and it didn’t have much depth… but damn was it fun to play. I’m hoping this one will be similar. And it’s budget-priced as far as I can see too.

Call of Juarez: The Cartel (PC, PS3, 360) 7/19 (PS3, 360, PC)

Rule of thumb: if a game title starts with “Call of”, it sucks. The last Call of Juarez game was pretty bad, so I have no expectations for this one.

Catherine 7/26 (PS3, 360)

I’m not sure about this… the characters and story seem protentially interesting, but the gameplay just seeming a big repetitive block-moving puzzle makes me wonder if I’d even get much gameplay out of this.

3DS RELEASES

Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions 7/26

This actually seems like a nice release for the 3DS. You get 3 Pac-Man games and 3 Galaga games. You have the classic versions of both, the recently-remixed versions of both (Pac-Man Championship Edition, Galaga Legions (though not DX for either of these)) and a completely new game for each (pac-man gets platformer that you have to tilt the system to move him around, while Galaga gets a first-person space shooter).

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