I was interested in the game partly because of the Disgaea crossovers, but also because the gameplay seemed fairly solid. So I had some fairly good expectations for this.

Read on!

Developer: Idea Factory/Gust
Publisher: NIS America
Date of Release: June 29th 2010
Platforms: Playstation 3

Genre: Turn-based RPG/Dungeon Crawler
Rated T for Teen (surprisingly lots of swearing here)

Presentation
The graphics aren’t too great technically. The character models are just a bit above PS2 quality, they really don’t look great. You do get used to their looks, and graphics are never that important in a game anyways, but they’re sort of flat (not just talking about Etna here) and lack detail. Everyone is sort of plastic-y which is weird. They look more like subpar action figures than characters in a video game. This doesn’t exploit the PS3′s power whatsoever. Though the style is nice, the lack of actual quality in the graphics is a bit lame. And the levels are really repetitive. Other than differently placed rooms and corridors, every Pirate Ship will looks the same, every level of the Yoma King Castle looks the same, every library looks the same, etc. This is really like any other dungeon crawler in that aspect. One thing that is good about the graphics is the big sprites used in conversations, those are very nice looking. But there is one funny element about them. They kept advertising the fact that the big sprites move during those dialogue scenes, like their hair moving in the wind a little bit, or them breathing, and moving their mouths while talking… Why were they trying to make this into a selling point of the game? It’s really not very different than the usual non-moving sprites, and they still just fade-out/fade-in from one pose to another instead of fluidly moving from one pose to another (now that would have been pretty cool). It’s a fun little addition, but it doesn’t add anything to the game.

On the sound-side of thing, the voice work is pretty good, in both languages. In english, not all the dialogues are voiced which sorta sucks, and the translation is a bit different from the japanese version (I at least know enough japanese to see that). While most of the sentences keep the same general meaning as in the japanese version, the translations are often modified to add more comedy (sometimes good, sometimes bad) or pop culture/gaming references (as per NIS America tradition), like an “Over 9000″ joke and other stuff (I did find a Star Ocean 3 reference in there, for example). The rest of the sounds are okay. Some of them are recycled from previous Idea Factory/Gust games, but they’re not bad. The music is… incredibly joyful, almost too much so. While the music isn’t that memorable, it will get stuck in your head because of how happy it is… But you have to get used to that kinda lame j-pop song in the opening, because you’ll be hearing it a LOT in the game, as it plays in the galaxy menu, which you spend a lot of time in.

Story
The game has 2 stories to choose from (basically you choose which group of characters you want to use), though they both take place at the same time, and share multiple events. When you chose one group, the other group will be recurring rival characters through the game. But each of the 2 groups have a different story, despite both stories coming together at the end.

Kanata, the Demon God King, escaped from a ritual that would transform him into the Demon God Gem, which would protect all of the NetherUniverse. Since he leaves during the ceremony, this turns him into the Demon Dog King. Now that he’s free from his duties, he decides to go on adventures on objects floating around the NetherUniverse, and prevent the objects from crashing into the town. Protecting the world his own way, instead of sacrificing his life to do it. He befriends multiple people during his adventures, and clashes with the Valkyrie during that time.

Rizelea is the Valkyrie fighting Kanata through his story. Her story involves trying to get Kanata to become the Demon God Gem, but also finding out why objects are drifting around the NetherUniverse. There’ not much more I can say about her story, but it’s quite interesting, and a completely different view of the events than on Kanata’s story.

Of course, this has various different endings, and there’s a true ending which requires doing various things through your playthrough. I have yet to get the true ending, but the fact that there’s multiple endings does add some replay value, and a full playthrough isn’t that long (especially if you skip dialogues). Overall, the game has a pretty interesting story. The writing isn’t incredible at times, but it’s still pretty enjoyable to go through. Though I guess the big draw is that it features Disgaea and Atelier characters in both stories, and some of them play sort of important parts in the story.

Gameplay
Game flow
The game flow is pretty simple. You go through events, which are generally just dialog, though sometimes they have some battles in them. Some events make dungeons come close to you so you can enter them. The dungeons are basically series of corridors and rooms (NOT randomly generated), with items laying around on the floor and in chests. You can press Square to search the area, which shows you colored lines you can follow: Red lines lead to hunting spots, yellow lines lead to hidden treasures, white lines lead to gravity cores (only in optional dungeons though, event dungeons don’t get a white line) and blue lines bring to Managraphic blueprint thingies. At the end of Event dungeons, which make the story progress, you will usually find a boss battle, and some dialogue. Some dungeons have “Lurkers”, which are really strong enemies that have rare drops. When you’re close to fighting them, a black mist appears on the screen, and if you wait too long to exit the dungeon, you get attacked. And those guys are STRONG. One thing I found about them is that, if you die against them, you don’t get a game over.

Other than event dungeons, other (optional) dungeons randomly come close to you that you can visit as well, for different types of items and more Lurkers. Destroying those dungeons’ gravity cores will make them leave the area, drifting them away into space (unless you anchor them using an Anchor item). One element about destroying gravity cores, which is also in some of the event dungeons, is that you have a time limit to leave the dungeon after destroying them, but, during that time, rare items start appearing in the dungeon, so you can try picking some of those up before leaving the dungeon. If you fail to leave a dungeon within the time limit, you’ll be stuck in it, and have to hitch a ride back home. That actually never happened to me, so I’m not too sure of the details for this. All I know is that it’s not free, so drifting away with the dungeon isn’t the greatest idea.

Fighting
The fighting system is relatively simple. Each character has a base AP which can be upgraded with equipment. Unless you get surprised by the enemy, you get a turn first, and then the enemy attacks when all your characters moved. You can skip your characters’ turn with R2, which gives extra AP when you get to your next turn (your AP increases by your base AP every turn, and can go up to 3 times the base amount… or 250, it seems it can’t go higher than that), enabling for major damage if you wait a bit.

When it’s one of your characters’ turn, there are a few things you can do. Pressing X does a mighty blow attack which does one strong hit, Square does a Rush attack which hits 3 times but not as strong, and Triangle does a magic attack that hits all the enemies. Pressing Circle does your first equipped ability, and holding Circle charges up the ability bar, which enables you to reach higher-level abilities if you have some equipped (Escaping battle, by the way, is an ability that has to be equipped… in addition, there’s things like buffs and healing). Each of those action uses AP, and you can continue attacking as long as you have AP. AP also goes down overtime as soon as you press a button. When you have no more AP left, it’s the next character’s turn. Doing certain button combinations in your attack can lead to special attacks, which don’t cost any AP, so they’re crucial to getting high numbers of hits. In addition to those special attacks, you have a special meter that fills up around the AP counter, which fills up in the form of gems. When you have 2 gems (it increases when you do special combination attacks, or kill enemies), you can press R3, which enables you to either heal the character by holding Circle, or to use a powerful super attack if you press Square (deals nearly 100 hits, and a fair amount of damage).

One special feature is the Fury Chain. This is activated by pressing R1 while you’re attacking (works during the last attack animation if you have no AP left, otherwise it works anytime you have AP left). When you press R1, some icons will appear. They will represent the other characters in your party, and stars for the remaining spaces. Each icon is assigned to one of the face buttons. Pressing the face button associated to a star gives random boosts, like Gold dropped by enemies, or drops, or boosts to the metter for super attacks. Pressing the icon represented by a character makes that character get his turn, as well as giving a randomly-selected stat boost. So using Fury Chains can be really useful for some of the tougher battles, and is needed to reach high numbers of hits and damage. Oh, and, if you deal enough hits before initiating the fury chain, there’s gonna be a green area in the fury chain meter, and if you switch character in that green area, you enter a combo attack with multiple characters.

It’s a fun battle system, though it eventually gets quite easy even if you don’t grind much.

Leveling
The leveling system here is really simple. Kill enemies, get experience, level up. That gives various stat boosts, and occasionally some passive skills and extra button sequences for special attacks. Leveling here is really fast. If you’re in a dungeon that’s around your level, using EXP boosts from the Fury Chains, you’ll be able to level once every 2 battles or so. And bosses can give multiple level ups.

In addition to Levels you have a few ways of powering up. Equipment is the simplest way. You have 4 types of equipment: Weapons, Kotodamas, Codes and Spaces. Each upgrades certain types of stats. While you’re limited in what you can buy in the store, this is where the dungeon crawling comes in play. While exploring dungeons, you’ll find items. Those items are used as materials to synthesize stuff i the store. You can make any of the 3 kinds of “armor”, weapons, and usable items. In addition to normal equipment, you get access to Meteorites, which are used to boost your stats further. Each character has his own Meteorite settings. You can place one “planet” which gives the biggest boost, and then you have 3 rings which have multiple slots for meteorites. The further they are from the central planet, the lower their stat boost. Just like synthesizing items, you can make meteorites using materials, as well as extra slots for meteorites on the rings.

There’s also Managraphics… All of them give the same stat boost, from what I’ve seen. You can have up to 2 of them equipped at once, each giving the stat boost. All that really changes is which types of Mana you get when you win a battle. There’s also some enemies that are strong or weak against certain managraphics, but it’s rather rare.

A last type of shop is the coliseum, in which you can use materials to make monsters, which are generally stronger than normal enemies. Fighting them gives you a reqard, which is either a bunch of stat-raising potions, or some materials. This can be useful for leveling, though the enemies quickly become really easy… but the stat boosting potions can really help.

The bad stuff
Well, the worst thing about this game is that it’s very prone to freezing. My game froze 4 times, each time after tough bosses or in the “chapter end” screen. That is… terribly annoying. Each time I lost a little bit of gameplay, even if I made it a habit to save often after the first time it froze. And I know this is a wide-spread problem, it’s not just me that was unlucky on this. Games should be at least tested a little before finally being released, this is unnacceptable.

After finishing the game, you get a new game+ option. That’s fine, I love going back through a game with all my strong items and levels. But here, you get something called the Convert Shop when you start a NG+. This enables you to trade in items for points, and you can use those points to buy any item in the game. Including the best equipment. There might be some items that cannot be bought there (some DLC-exclusive items maybe), but for the most part, you can get anything there. That’s all fine too… or it would be if it wasn’t so damn easy to abuse. Basically, there’s multiple ways to exploit the convert shops, making it easy to get any equipment you want. If you manage to get 6000 points in the convert shop, you can generate infinite amounts of points by buying certain items in the convert shop, selling them in the normal shop, and buying certain items in the normal shop with the gained money, and converting them for even more points in the convert shop (basically, 6000 points become 18000 points in the method I used). That kinda makes the second playthrough really easy (starting at chapter 8 that is, when the required item becomes available in the normal store). The convert shop makes any need to search for items in the dungeons completely useless. Sure, you can hunt for items anyways, but what’s the point when you have such an easy way to get the same things? The convert shop isn’t exactly a “bad” thing, but it kinda cheapens the game. Oh, and you can even get the stat boosting potions, and they’re stupidly cheap. You can essentially get a 4950 stat boost for only 198 points.

Overall
Trinity Universe is a fun game. The dungeon crawling aspect is fairly well done, if not rendered completely useless by the Convert Shop. It might not be too great graphically (even if the style is quite good), but the gameplay is quite fun, and, other than finding certain materials (which isn’t really needed because of the Convert Shop), it’s not as grind-y as you’d expect. Even if the max level is well above 500, you can still level up relatively fast if you fight enemies in the proper places.

Really, the only gripes I have with the game is that it freezes a lot, and that the convert shop makes it way too easy.

Still, the gameplay is fun, if not a little bit repetitive (but, then again, what game isn’t at least a little repetitive, especially in the RPG genre?), the story and characters are entertaining and it’s overall fun to play.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- Fun battle system
- Leveling is fast and fun
- Funny dialogue
- Dungeon crawling/looking for materials is interesting before you get the Convert shop

Cons
- On a second playthrough, the convert shop is so easy to exploit that it makes the whole game a cakewalk
- The game freezes up rather frequently
- Graphics are sub-par

The Save Factor
The game has a starting price of 50$. I feel that it deserves a Save Factor of around 35$. It’s entertaining, but the production value is rather low (low-quality graphics, bad testing leading to freezing game) so it might not be worth buying full price for everyone. I still feel I got good value for my money at full price, but other people might not think so.

This year we get Record of Agarest War. Made by the same company, and it has a lot in common. So maybe this is this year’s “Cross Edge” in a sense. It’s been out for a while now, I just took my sweet time playing it and finally getting to review it. But, from the little research I made, I found that it got more favorable reviews than Cross Edge did.

So read on and see if it really deserves the slightly more favorable reviews!

Developer: Compile Heart
Publisher: Aksys Games
Date of Release: April 27th 2010
Platforms: Playstation 3 (PSN downloadable game only), Xbox 360 (Disc-only)

Genre: Turn-based Strategy RPG (with dating game elements)
Rated T for Teen

Presentation
This is made by Compile Heart, who also made Cross Edge, so it’s very similar in style. It’s anime-ish, with a medieval-like background and environments. It doesn’t look unique or really interesting for that matter. The characters are 2D, and their sprites are fairly good… or at least crisper and sharper than they were in Cross Edge. The environments are pretty boring. Overall it’s a slight step up from Cross Edge. And the big sprites during conversations are quite nice quality too.

The sound quality is okay. The music always fits the situation, the sound effects are okay, and the voice acting is generally solid, though some of the voices aren’t too great… It’s not overwhelmingly awesome, nor is it terrible, but there’s really nothing to say about it. Though I will say that a lot of the sound effects, especially for menus, are taken directly from Cross Edge.

Story
The story is kind of enjoyable. At first, it involves a man named Leonhardt, who dies in battle while protecting an innocent little female High Elf. While dying (or after dying, it’s not too clear), some women comes by and tells him that he can come back to life if he gives her his soul, and the souls of all his descendants from now on, in order for him to help her accomplish her goals of saving the world from evil. This plays an important role in the story, obviously, as, after a number of hours of gameplay, you’ll be changing main characters for one of Leanhardt’s descendants. Each Generation has its own small plot, usually having to do with politics and rebellions and evil taking over certain parts of the world and all that fun stuff. Since the main character’s descendants have to continue his contract with the woman, each Generation ends with the main character for that Generation choosing one of the 3 girls who are, for some reason, possible “soul-mates”, and they get a children together, which leads to the next Generation. Which girl you choose has very little importance story-wise, though it does affect the next Generation’s main character’s stats, as well as the character’s appearance.

Speaking of girls, this is the “Dating Sim” aspect of the game. As you advance through the game, you get conversations with other characters. Sometimes, you have dialogue choices, and those choices affect what each of the “soulmates” in your party thinks of you. It also changes your “Light/Dark” meter, which I didn’t really check what it did since I just went through trying to always be “Good”. At the end of a chapter, you choose one of the girls, though only the ones that like you enough are going to be options.

Since there’s 5 individual stories, I won’t comment on them all, but they do have similar feels, and they all tie in to an overarching plot which is quite interesting. The cast changes quite a few times through the game, so there’s a good variety of characters and personalities for the player to experience. There are a few characters that carry on from some Generations to the next though.

Oh, and there’s a True Ending as well, which requires playing the game a second time and doing certain choices through the game to get a different ending. It’s annoying and time-consuming, but, if you’re really into it, I guess it can be worth it to get that new ending (and it is required for a trophy/achievement).

Gameplay
Fighting
The fighting system is a very simplistic SRPG battle system. You have a grid, which is almost always the same size no matter the battle, and there’s never anything that involves elevation like other SRPGs. At the beginning of every turn, you move all of your team (this requires AP, 1 for each movement), and then then enemy moves his. Then the turn order for which character acts first is determined by the speed stat. Each character also has “Extended Areas”, which are represented by a glowing border around tiles at different ranges around the currently selected character. Getting other characters in another character’s extended area will be important later on. Being in another character’s extended area “links” the 2 characters togheter. You can basically link all the characters in your party together if you place them correctly.

On a character’s turn, he’ll have a few actions he can do: Using skills, using items, or ending their turn. Ending their turn keeps the AP they have left and adds it to the number of AP they gain at the start of every turn (each character’s AP can go somewhat higher than their base amount, so it can be a good idea to build up lots of AP when fighting strong enemies).Using abilities is what you’ll do most. After choosing a target within range, you’ll be able to choose what attacks to do on it. You can only use each attack once every round of attacks, but, if your character has remaining AP after attacking, you can do more rounds of attacks, until their AP is empty. If 2 specific attacks are put one after another, they combine to form a stronger attack (for example: 2 Double Edge attacks become Quadruple Edge). Character’s also get SP, which is given when other characters die, or when they get hit (from what I’ve seen). When they have enough SP, and if they have enough AP at the same time, they can launch special attacks.

If you are linked with other characters when using skills, this is where things get really interesting. Instead of just attacking with the character who’s turn it is, you can attack with any character who is linked with him. No matter if the characters are in range of the enemy or not either. This can be used to chain attacks to deal massive damage to single enemies, or to move characters around the battlefield faster. Also, combining attacks to make stronger versions of attacks works with multiple characters to, so, for example, if 2 characters select Double Edge in a row, they’ll do Quadruple Edge as a team. Special attacks that use SP can also be combined.

Hitting an enemy enough Breaks it, making the enemy weaker, and enabling certain special combination attacks to deal more hits. Dealing enough damage will kill an opponent, but you can continue attacking after that to deal even more damage and overkill the enemy. Enemies have chance of dropping items when dying, but have more things that can drop when it is overkilled.

There isn’t much more to talk about here. It can be a bit deeper, but it really just uses all those basics, and it’s up to you to make strategies. It’s a fun battle system, and it can offer a good challenge if your equipment isn’t up to par, but it’s generally not really hard if you prepare properly (or if you use DLC).

Leveling
Well… remember Cross Edge? This game has EXACTLY the same leveling systems. It literally has no differences. This is the laziest thing I’ve ever seen in a game. So, here’s a short lowdown since I don’t want to write the same thing a second time.

There are various types of equipment: weapons, armors, accessories… you can also equip different attacks if the equipped weapon has enough slots, and some equipment have slots which can be used to equip certain stat boosts.

You get various types of points here. Experience points, TP, EP, PP and Gold. Experience levels up your characters normally, and, upon leveling, your character gets some basic stat boosts, and extra points to put towards any stat. TP is used to buy items in a certain shop. This ranges from recipe books to materials to weapons. The same shop where you can exchange TP is also where you get tasks to complete, like getting certain numbers of certain items, or dealing high numbers of damage, or high numbers of hits, or killing certain types of enemies… Each of those give you extra items and points. EP is used at the blacksmith to upgrade weapons and other equipment. Each weapon can go up to level 5, and then you can convert the item, which turns them to material or certain other types of items. PP is basically the same type of point you can assign to character stats as you get when the character levels up, except they can be used on anyone in the party instead of just one character. Gold is used partly to buy stuff, and partly to build items at the blacksmith’s shop. If you have the recipes for it, you can make any item if you have the required materials and the required money.

Yeah, I went and oversimplified everything, but that’s because they literally copied the systems from Cross Edge. There’s nothing new whatsoever in the leveling systems in this game. I don’t know why they decided to recycle the everything from Cross Edge, but that made me much less interested in progressing through the game as I was with Cross Edge, since I’m basically experiencing the same game twice.

(Yes, I am aware I skipped a few things, but they’re not really needed to play the game… like the marionette shop)

Overall
While Cross Edge was blasted like crazy, this game comes along and is basically the same thing with a different battle system, and reviews are a lot more positive (still not SUPER positive, but still better)… It makes little sense to me. It might be because it’s much better optimized than Cross Edge. There are barely any loading times and the graphics are higher-quality… But gameplay-wise the leveling systems are all the same, no exception, and the battle system, while very fun, isn’t exactly as good as in Cross Edge.

But anyways, Record of Agarest War is a very interesting game, though the whole “it pretty much exactly copies Cross Edge” thing made me less interested in fully playing it, which is why I took so long to review it. I mean, I already played Cross Edge, why take some of my time to play it again?

Granted, the battle system is completely different, and it’s well done and fun to play. The Generations system, which is pretty much like a dating sim, gives some variety to the game and a little bit of incentive to play through the game more than once.

If you haven’t played Cross Edge, this is worth checking out, but, if you did already experience Cross Edge, I’d suggest you wait until the game gets a discount on the PSN or in stores if you’re in for the 360 version. Yeah, that’s weird… the 360 only got the game on disc, while the PS3 only has it as a downloadable game.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- The battle system is really simple, but really fun
- The generation system is interesting and adds a little bit of variety if you plan on doing multiple playthroughs (which is required to get all the trophies/achievements)
- Leveling systems and such are just as good as they were in Cross Edge… since they’re the same thing
- No more endless searching on the map like in Cross Edge, the map here is a lot easier and less time-consuming to use
- Very time consuming (good value for your money)

Cons
- There’s a lot of recycling… multiple sounds and game mechanics are taken directly from Cross Edge
- Very time consuming (the game takes around 40-50 hours to finish, which is asking a lot to have to replay this)
- The free DLC makes the beginning of the game really easy, and the paid DLC (some of the cheapest ones, I didn’t want to spend a lot on it) makes the rest of the game too easy(one of the cheap weapon packs has the best sword in the game)… yeah, I know it’s optional, but I just thought I’d throw that out there

The Save Factor
The game costs 45$ on the PSN, and the Xbox 360 version is around 60$ (with a few extras). I’d say the Save Factor for this one would be 30$.

From looking at some gameplay videos and interviews, I thought Singularity might be a fun, original FPS, with different gameplay than the average military shooter or Halo clone. As such, I had good expectations for the game, thinking it might be more interesting than the average modern FPS.

In a time where every FPS looks and plays the same, I had hopes that Singularity would be one of the few to divert from what FPS are nowadays.

Read on and see if it ended up being what I hoped it would be, or if it went for the “we’ll be the same as everyone” route!

Developer: Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Date of Release: June 29th 2010
Platforms: Playstation 3, PC, Xbox 360

Genre: First-person shooter
Rated M for Mature

Presentation
Brown, and darkness. Everywhere. It’s very boring to look at. There’s barely any colors, just different hues of brown. The enemy design is basic zombies/savage mutants, nothing very interesting or original. The graphics are, overall, not very interesting to look at. And it has some graphical glitches, like textures not loading and textures being super low-res when you get close to them, taking some time to get to normal.

Sounds are… basic FPS stuff… I guess the twist here is that it uses basic horror movie sound design, where the music becomes more tense in parts that the developers want you to believe there’s tension (when there’s actually not), with the classic “surprise!” sound when something “scary” pops up. Just jump scares, nothing actually scary. It’s not great, but I guess everything in the sound design is appropriate at least.

Story
You play as a soldier going to explore a weird base that has been destroyed a long time ago and, after an accident, you’re stranded there. So now you have to find out what happened, and eventually get out of there… or, maybe, try to prevent what happened in the past by travelling in time? After a bit of gameplay, you receive the Time Manipulation Device, which enables you to control time a bit, at a limit, and also enables you to open rifts through time to change the events of the past, trying to prevent the island to become a ruin.

The story, overall, is okay, but feels too linear. The whole time travel plot device is just used in a few key moments, and it never really feels like your actions actually changes anything in the game world, but instead it just feels like you’re following a script. I feel that a more open world and more freedom rather than constantly being stuck in corridors would have benefited the game a lot. Lots of games are like that, just you following a script, but here the “script” is way too ovious. This is one of the few times where I feel that an open world would really benefit the gameplay and story.

Gameplay
The basic gameplay is what you’d expect from the average modern FPS. Aim at things, shoot them, go to the next room, and continue until the end. It controls and feels just like every other modern FPS. You have a few basic weapons: a pistol, a machine gun, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, a grenade launcher… nothing special. Though one thing that is a bit different is that you can slow down time when sniping, even before getting the Time Manipulation Device (TMD). There is one cool weapothoughn , called the Seeker, which slows down time, and you can control the bullet, which always kills normal enemies in one hit (not as cool as the Redeemer in Unreal Tournament, which was similar but more awesome, but still). But otherwise it’s very standard stuff. You also have a melee attack, which is boosted once you get the TMD.

What I love about this game is that you have a health bar, rather than stupid regenerating health. You can refill it with health packs, and stimpacks. Stimpacks are instant use, and health packs are carried around for you to use when you need them. It is rather funny that the health packs are just you putting a bandage on your right wrist all the time, the devs must have been laughing their asses off at the one. So you have to manage your health instead of just having to go in cover and wait to get your health back. More modern FPS need health bars.

There’s 3 enemy types: soldiers, mutants and those small fast-moving spider things that chase you and explode on contact (they’re incredibly annoying). There’s a few different types of mutants, but they’re all similar in how they attack. And there’s a few types of soldiers, which is really just a matter of what weapon they’re using. There’s a few boss fights but they’re very easy and boring.

Time Manipulation Device
The big thing about this game is the TMD, which you acquire early in the game. It acts, basically, as a second weapon you hold in your left hand. It has various functions: you can age objects/enemies, or revert them to younger age. You can’t chose if you’ll age something or revert it, the game “chooses” for you. And there’s only a handful of objects that can be aged/reverted. Some enemies are affected differently by this, such as one of the basic mutant types that gets slowed down when you do that. Humans just die. Making objects older can break them down. The TMD can also grab things from afar, like grenades/rockets, and throw them back. It can also charge a ball of energy, which, when you shoot it, creates a bubble where time goes slower for some time, used in the same puzzle tons of time in the game, and not much else. And, at certain point in the games, you’ll use the TMD to open time rifts and go to the past.

What sucks about the TMD is that it doesn’t feel like it’s anything special. It’s just a second weapon that you’re carrying at the same time as the other. You’ll use it like a weapon most of the time, and the few puzzles you go through with it are cheap and uninventive. The TMD does nothing that hasn’t been done by normal weapons in other games, and that is wasted potential right there.

In combat, the TMD has a few uses. Aging enemies is obvious, but you can age cover to make it crumble, slow down time to flank enemies in small areas, use the aging power to turn soldiers into mutants to have them fight their allies, grab grenades and rockets to send them back at enemies… and that’s about it. Nothing that’s never been done before, and sadly the lack of imagination on the developer’s part makes what could have been a very fun device to use rather boring.

Leveling
The last element I can talk about is leveling. As you travel through the island, you find E99 tech points. Those can be used in upgrade stations to gain more health, more TMD energy, higher effectiveness of health packs, upgrades to TMD skills, and perks that you can equip (such as higher accuracy and various types of health boosts). This enables for a little bit of customization, though nothing game-changing.

You also find weapon tech points, which can be used to make your weapons stronger. Each weapon has 3 stats to upgrade, each can be upgraded twice. The boosts are rather minor though.

Overall
My hopes were that Singularity would be different from the usual FPS. I hoped it would join the likes of Mirror’s Edge, Borderlands and Portal in trying something different in the genre and doing it well. After an hour of playing, all my hopes were shattered. And none of that changed for the rest of the game . It’s nothing different from anything else out there. Like I say with so many games this generation, this is wasted potential. It could have been so awesome, but the devs decided that the best thing to do was to be exactly the same as every other FPS, and it fails because of that. If the devs had used their imagination a bit and really gone crazy with the whole time control thing, it could have been a GREAT game. Now it’s just a run-off-the-mill FPS that this generation already has TONS of.

If you’re a big fan of FPS, you should be happy with it since it doesn’t offer anything different than what you’re used to. If you’re hoping for something different than other FPS, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- It uses a life bar! No regenerating health!
- If you like online, you should have some fun with this before you go back to your multiplayer FPS of choice

Cons
- Boring graphics
- Doesn’t try to be different from other FPS, despite having a great concept

Square-Enix sent out a press release today concerning Final Fantasy XIV.

Here’s some of the relevant information on it:

PC version:

• International release date: September 30th 2010 (Collector’s will get it 8 days early, the 22nd)
• Two SKU, Regular ($49.99 SRP) and Collector’s ($74.99 SRP)
• Languages: English, French, German and Japanese

PS3 Version:

• Release date planned for March 2011.
• Pricing to be announced.

Subscription price:

It will cost $12.99/30 days with an additional price of $3.00 per character ($2.00 more than FFXI).
8 characters maximum per account with each additional retainer at $1.00. (what is a retainer?! see below)

Retainers:

Since most people in FFXI had inventory issues most people would create new characters that would have the sole purpose of behaving as a item mule. A retainer will serve for this purpose. It is a non playable character that you store items on.

PS3 Code from FFXIII:

You can now apparently choose to apply this code to the PC. I’m not sure if this means that people who cashed this code in before will need to wait for PS3. The item you will get from this is called Asuran Armguards. It will enhance the equipped arm or tool.

Full press release after the jump

EDIT:

New image with bonus content for Collector’s Edition and Standard Edition:

FINAL FANTASY XIV FOR WINDOWS PC CONFIRMED FOR SEPTEMBER 30, 2010 RELEASE

FINAL FANTASY XIV PC Collector’s Edition to Offer Early Access to the Realm of Eorzea

LOS ANGELES (June 30, 2010) – Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of SQUARE ENIX® interactive entertainment products in North America, announced today that the highly anticipated massively multiplayer online game FINAL FANTASY® XIV is set for global release on September 30, 2010 for Windows PC.

In advance of the September 30 release, FINAL FANTASY XIV PC Collector’s Edition will offer early access to adventurers eager to embark on this new chapter in the FINAL FANTASY series. In addition, the Beta phase for the Windows PC version will begin in early July 2010.

Title	FINAL FANTASY XIV	FINAL FANTASY XIV Collector’s Edition
Platform	PC
Street Date	September 30, 2010	September 22, 2010
Price	$49.99 SRP	$74.99 SRP
Subscription	$12.99/30 days
Languages	English, French, German, Japanese
Genre	MMORPG
Contents	Standard Edition preorders will include a reward code to receive an exclusive in-game item, the Garlond Goggles.* FREE GAMEPLAY – Free gameplay for 30 days. GAME DISC GAME MANUAL	IN-GAME ITEM – Collector’s Edition preorders will include a reward code to receive an exclusive in-game item, the Onion Helm.* EARLY ACCESS – Play 8 days prior to the release of the Windows PC Standard Edition (timing of access subject to initial server capacity). BEHIND-THE-SCENES DVD – Get an insider look at the making of FINAL FANTASY XIV, with exclusive video content, interviews and more in this special documentary DVD. SECURITY TOKEN – A FINAL FANTASY XIV–branded Security Token for use with your regular password. TRAVEL JOURNAL – Record your travels in this beautifully bound journal filled with pages of never-before-seen concept art. RIGHT OF PASSAGE – Redeem a voucher to receive your fully-personalized Right of Passage Certificate, each stamped with a unique serial number. AMANO COVER – Special PC Collector’s Edition illustration by renowned artist Yoshitaka Amano. FREE GAMEPLAY – Free gameplay for 30 days. GAME DISC GAME MANUAL
ESRB	Teen
Copyright	© 2010 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All rights reserved.
Official Site	http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com/

* FINAL FANTASY XIV PC Collector’s Edition pre-orders will include the Onion Helm, an exclusive in-game item which accelerates character recovery after falling in battle. FINAL FANTASY XIV Windows PC Standard Edition pre-orders will include a pair of Garlond Goggles, an exclusive in-game item which increases the speed of skill progression.

“This September, players around the world will join together to explore the fascinating and exciting realm of Eorzea,” said Hiromichi Tanaka, Executive Producer of FINAL FANTASY XIV. “We’re presenting players with a new style of online gameplay that we know will please avid fans of online games, while welcoming more casual gamers with a variety of gameplay and story-driven content.”

For additional information, visit http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com.

FINAL FANTASY XIV will become available for preorder at certain retailers from today.

Those who have registered their PlayStation® 3 computer entertainment system version FINAL FANTASY XIII Campaign Codes can now choose to apply this code to the Windows PC version of FINAL FANTASY XIV. These players will also receive a pair of Asuran Armguards, an exclusive in-game item which enhances the effectiveness of their characters’ equipped arm or tool.

The Windows PC Standard Edition will have an SRP of $49.99. The PC Collector’s Edition will have an SRP of $74.99. The FINAL FANTASY XIV PlayStation 3 system version will be available early March 2011, with pricing to be announced at a later time.

Access to Eorzea is subject to certain license agreements and, after the 30-day free gameplay period, recurring subscription fees. All new game packages come with a period of free gameplay, one playable character and one non-playable retainer character (a non-playable character that provides free item storage and in-game merchant services). After the free gameplay period, the regular 30-day subscription fee will be $12.99. Each additional playable character will be $3.00 per period, with a maximum of 8 playable characters per account. Each additional retainer will cost $1.00 per period.

Story

In the past, the city-states battled tirelessly, vying for domination and hegemony. Death-mongering beast tribes pillaged the land unchecked, leaving only destruction in their wake. Unseen enemies lurked beyond the borders, striking at the slightest provocation or show of weakness. The history of Eorzea is a tapestry woven of war and strife, stained with the blood of those gone before, and the tears and ash of fallen endeavor.

And yet the love the gods bear this unforgiving land endures, now as always. What is the allure of this seemingly forsaken place? With what hope and to what end do would-be inhabitants journey here to live out their days?

The answer lies with that which gives form to Hydaelyn and all myriad creation in it – crystals. The cornerstone of all things, it is these crystallized manifestations of the aether that beckon the people to come, risking all in the undertaking.

And so it is that adventures too have harkened the call – to bear witness to the epic set to unfold in this land. This Eorzea.

Features

· Conceived and produced by notable FINAL FANTASY developers – Produced by Hiromichi Tanaka (FINAL FANTASY I, II, III, XI) and directed by Nobuaki Komoto (FINAL FANTASY IX, XI), with art direction by Akihiko Yoshida (Vagrant Story®, FINAL FANTASY XII) and musical score by Nobuo Uematsu (FINAL FANTASY series).

· In-depth character creation – Choose a race and clan before going on to customize your avatar’s face, hairstyle, skin color and more, with subtle adjustments allowing for limitless possibilities.

· The Armoury System – With defining emphasis on the game’s weapons and tools, the Armoury System is a unique class system that influences both character development and an individual’s style of play. With it, players have the flexibility and freedom to fight, craft and gather whenever and however they so choose. Simply equipping an item will automatically cause the character to take on the class associated with it.

· Aetheryte transportation – Traverse the realm of Eorzea instantly using this seemingly supernatural teleportation system.

· Solo or party play – Adventure alone or in the company of others as you undertake quests and engage in battles on your travels through Eorzea.

Windows PC Version Beta Test Phase to Begin Early July

The next beta test phase is schedule to begin in early July. For more details on how to participate in the beta test, visit http://entry.ffxiv.com/na.

The required specifications for the Windows PC Beta Test are now available.

The requirements below may change at the time of retail launch. Please visit the official site periodically for the latest information.

Operating System	Windows XP SP3 **
	Windows Vista 32bit / 64bit SP2 ***
	Windows 7 32bit / 64bit ***
CPU	Intel® Core™ 2 Duo (2.0GHz)
	AMD Athlon™ X2 (2.0GHz)
Memory	Windows XP: 1.5GB or higher
	Windows Vista / Windows® 7: 2GB or higher
HDD/SSD Space	Install: 15GB or more
	Download: Space on the hard drive where My Documents is located should be 6GB or more ****
Graphics Card	NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600 series or higher with VRAM 512MB or more
	ATI Radeon™ HD 2900 series or higher with VRAM 512MB or more
Sound Card	DirectSound® compatible sound card (DirectX® 9.0c or higher)
Internet Connections	Broadband Internet connection or higher
Resolution	1280 x 720 or higher; 32bit or higher
DirectX®	DirectX® 9.0c
Others	Mouse, Keyboard, Gamepad *****

** If using Windows XP, the executable files, installation and version updates should be set to Administrator settings.

*** 64bit OS will run in WOW64 (Windows on Windows 64) mode.

**** The file system in the drive containing the My Documents folder will need to be set to NTFS formatting.

***** A gamepad is not required.

About FINAL FANTASY XIV

Developer:         Square Enix Co., Ltd.

Publisher:          Square Enix, Inc.

Platform:                       PlayStation 3 system and PC

Genre:                          MMORPG

ESRB:              Teen

About Square Enix, Inc.

Square Enix, Inc. is a U.S. based wholly-owned subsidiary of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.. Square Enix, Inc. publishes and distributes entertainment content under the Square Enix Group’s internationally renowned brands such as Square Enix, Eidos and Taito in the Americas. The Square Enix Group includes a global network of leading development studios located in North America, Europe and Japan. The Square Enix Group boasts a valuable portfolio of intellectual property including: FINAL FANTASY, which has sold over 97 million units worldwide; DRAGON QUEST®, which has sold over 54 million units worldwide; TOMB RAIDER®, which has sold over 35 million units worldwide; and other well-established products and services.

If there’s one genre that’s been slightly under-represented this generation, it’s the shoot ‘em up. I mean, in most previous generations you couldn’t walk into a video game store without being surrounded by shmups. They were everywhere. Now there’s barely any of them in stores, and the network marketplaces of PSN and XBLA just have a handful of them.

Gundemonium Collection is a set of 3 shmups featuring “cute” chibi anime girls, and tons of bullets on the screen trying to murder them. The 3 games are: Gundemonium Recollection, GundeadliGne and Hitogata Happa. The first 2 are side-scrolling shooters like Gradius, while Hitogata Happa is vertical-scrolling, like the Touhou series. The games can be bought individually at $6 each, or as a pack for $15 (saving you $3 if you get the bundle).

So since the 3 games come in a collection, I’ll do a quick review of each game separately, with a small section to talk about the parts that are similar.

Developer: Platine Dispositif
Publisher: Rockin’ Android
Date of Release: June 15th 2010
Platforms: Playstation 3 (PSN), PC

Genre: “Bullet Hell” Shoot ‘em up
Rated E10+ for Everyone over 10

Presentation
Gundemonium Recollection and GundeadliGne have the same graphic design. Everything is big sprites. The girls you control take a good portion of the screens, as do the enemies, and the bullets are generally pretty big as well, so everything is very easy to see. And everything looks nice and pretty detailed. It’s very anime-ish, quite colorful and fun to look at. The bomb special effects for certain attacks are pretty crazy and fast-paced. Really, I have nothing to complain about in the graphics for those 2 games.

Hitogata Happa is very different graphically compared to Gundemonium Recollection and GundeadliGne. It’s vertical scrolling, the sprites for the characters you control are a lot smaller, the bullets are a lot smaller, and the enemies are generally a bit smaller too, other than the epic bosses that take half the screen. The enemies are quite detailed, though they all look very similar, using the same color palettes. The characters you control are a bit less detailed than in the other 2 games, but still quite good. Really, I’d say Hitogata Happa has a look that’s pretty similar to some of the Touhou games. The bullets look quite similar, and the sprites are around the same size, etc.

Gameplay
First let’s go with what all the games have in common. I’ll talk about specifics for each game afterwards. Since Hitogata Happa is radically different from the other 2, I won’t talk about it here.

Gundemonium Recollection and GundeadliGne are very similar. While both have big sprites for your character, only a tiny spot on them is actually vulnerable to attacks, which is right behind the characters’ hands when they’re shooting, just under their neck (sometimes a heart is displayed there). If bullets hit anywhere else on your character’s body, you’ll be fine. Each game has 2 characters you can use. One of them has more mobility, while the other is stronger. Each character has a mana action, which is generally an attack or a way to slow down time, and a bomb attack. The bomb attack generally clears the screen of bullets and kills weak enemies, or deals big damage to bosses, though some characters do have different types of bombs. You get points for various things, like picking up gems that enemies drop when they die, killing enemies, staying close to bullets (which boosts your mana bar). Though points really only matter when you get really good at the game and you try to beat your high scores.

Each game has a fire button, which you can hold down, a rapid-fire button, which acts differently from the normal fire button, a mana action button and a bomb button. Going from one game to the other is very easy since they have the same basic controls.

A weird gameplay element here is the time limit. For each area in a level, you have a sort of time limit. As you kill enemy waves, you get more enemy waves to come out. So the faster you clear enemies before the time limit goes out, the more enemies you can kill. It’s very frequent that you’ll be fighting a boss/mini-boss, and she’ll just go away undefeated. Sometimes you might not even reach the boss at all if you’re killing enemies too slowly. This elements really forces you to practice a lot to become better at the game. Very interesting indeed. This mechanic leads to different endings depending on how well you perform… From what I’ve heard.

Gundemonium Recollection

The first game in the series, and the second hardest. Here, getting your weak spot hit means losing a life. Lose all your lives and it’s game over, no continues. There are some extra lives to be found, but they’re very rare. You can also pick up “ammo” for you bomb attacks. The most interesting feature in this game is the Earl Types character. She has a few basic builds, but you can customize those builds. You can choose what her basic weapon is (this ALSO changes her movement speed), what her mana action is (though I suggest Slow, it’s insanely useful), and what her bomb is (some attack in front of her, another powers her up, and some hit the whole screen). Eryth, on the other hand, only has one build. Her basic gun is relatively fast if you hold the shoot button. If you use the rapid fire button it shoots at an insane speed, but her guns overheat and need to cool down if you hold it too long. Her mana action shoots a wheel, which deals damage, but also slows down time while it’s hitting enemies. And her bomb hits a wide area of enemies in front of you.
You can also “Demonic Shift”, which I have no idea what it does. I think it powers up your shots for a short while but I’m really not sure.

Overall this game is very challenging and very fun. The customizing is a nice addition.

GundeadliGne

The second game in the series. It’s the easiest in the bunch. Not that it’s a very easy game of course, but compared to Gundemonium Recollection and Hitogata Happa it’s fairly easy. This one has extra lives popping up everywhere, making it hard to lose all your lives. And you have 1 continue as well if you want to. In addition to that, here, the bomb can only be used when the “bomb” meter is full. When the bomb meter is high enough (there’s a small bar in it to tell you when), if you take a hit, it protects you from that hit and changes every bullet on the screen into blue gems which fill up the Mana meter (at the cost of all your bomb meter getting depleted). So with all that, the game is fairly easier than the other 2. Another addition is that you have a button that changes which side your character faces, so you can now shoot behind you, which is crucial in certain levels. Oh, and you have to go to the option menu to set the rapid fire button, and a button to slow down your movement which can be useful for certain bullet patterns.

Here, the Earl Types character cannot be customized. Her mana action slows down, and her bomb takes out most of the screen. But here her rapid shot and normal shot are completely different. She’s super powerful, and her shield from the bomb meter charges up stupidly fast, making her the best character here. Eryth, on the other hand, is very similar to how she is in Gundemonium Recollection, but rather than just one bomb, she can choose between a variety of anime maids (called Matrix) with super powers. Each of them has a different effect, and it’s fun to experiment. Personally Diamond Matrix is my favorite. There’s an unlockable character, a shrine maiden called Nagi, but I haven’t been able to figure out how to play with her very well, she’s definitely for “experts” as the game says.

This one is quite fun, and the fact that it’s easier than the others makes it a bit more accessible.

Hitogata Happa

The third game in the series, though it is a prequel story-wise (wait, there’s a story? I didn’t bother reading those paragraphs of text throughout the other 2 games). And holy shit is it hard. The other 2 games are a cakewalk compared to this. I have trouble going through just the second level (AKA Level 1) on the beginner difficulty. It’s just insane. So here, it’s a vertical shooter. Holding the shoot button slows you down, while tapping it let’s you move at normal speeds. Instead of having 2 playable characters here, you have a variety of dolls. At first you only get the Leaf doll, but after the intro level, you can buy some more. Enemies drop gems, which you can try to pick up, and they’re used to buy dolls in-between levels. Here you don’t have a bomb button, but instead you have a special bomb attack. You have a “Flow” meter that charges up over time, and, when it’s full, you can ram into enemies to blow up and deal massive damage. This takes away one of your dolls though, so use it sparringly. Each doll has its own shot, and its own mana action.

But damn is this game HARD. Even on beginner difficulty there’s quite a lot of bullets going around (though nowhere near as many as in the impossible difficulty), the bullets move at a relatively high speed, and your hitbox is a bit bigger than in the other 2 games. And, if that wasn’t enough, you HAVE to use the kamikaze bomb attack against bosses because otherwise they can barely be defeated. If you take too much time to kill a boss, he goes BERSERK, with basically impossible  to avoid attacks. And, if you get killed during that “berserk” moment, it’s game over, no matter how many lives you have left. It’s crazy hard.

This one is fun even though it’s really damn hard, and there’s some gameplay variety since all the dolls play differently.

Overall
If you like bullet hell shooters, this is right up your alley. They offer challenge and really fun gameplay, and the various difficulty levels make them all accessible to players of various skill levels. And who doesn’t like a good challenge? It looks good, plays great and the 3 games in the collection offer different experiences. Well worth the money.

The Save Factor
The collection costs $15, while the games costs $6 separately. I feel that, at $15, if you’re into this type of crazy hard game, you’re definitely getting your money’s worth. And it’s less expensive than buying the PC version (which is $20+shipping). So I’m keeping the Save Factor at $15 for the whole collection.

I sort of took my time before playing this, because I wasn’t sure if it would be any good, considering this is a post-Sonic 3 game in the Sonic franchise (I checked, Sonic CD was before 3), AND it’s a spin-off…

After a while I decided to rent it and sort of played non-stop since I got it… So read on and see if I really liked it or not!

Developer: Sumo Digital
Publisher: Sega
Date of Release: February 23rd 2010
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Nintendo Wii (360 version reviewed)

Genre: “Kart” racing
Rated E for Everyone

Presentation
The graphics look pretty good while you’re racing. The tracks are all based on various Sega games, and all of them are very similar in style to the games they come from. Like, when you’re in a Samba de Amigo level, it looks like it would in the actual games. But, from closer up, the character models are a bit cheap, and the textures aren’t too high-quality. And the lighting in some levels is just crazy bad. Some are too dark, preventing you to see anything, some are too bright, making the graphics look worse than they actually are. It’s not a bad-looking game overall, the style makes up for the low-quality stuff.

I didn’t pay much attention to the music here, so I won’t comment on it. What I did sadly pay attention to is the announcer. He’s constantly speaking through every damn race, and he’s completely annoying. Maybe there’s an option to remove him, I don’t know, but if there is, it’s a must. He’s constantly screaming random shit and it just annoys you to no end. The sound effects do a fairly good job at telling you what’s happening, so other than the announcer, I have no problem with the sound design.

Gameplay
The game is a fairly standard kart-racing game. You drift, boost, pick up boxes that give you items such as weapons, boosts and shields, and the goal is to get in first place. It doesn’t do much that you haven’t seen in other kart-racing games.

What makes this game a bit different is the total lack of a brake button. Instead, what would usually be the brake button is a drift button. The drift button makes you (surprise) drift, in the direction you’re turning. That kinda confused me at first, since I was counter-steering before drifting (but that’s just a personal problem). During the drift, a small flame will appear at the back of your car. The longer you maintain the drift, the stronger the flame gets. The flame has 3 levels, it won’t go beyond that no matter how long you maintain the drift. If you hit a wall, you lose all of the power given by the drift. When you let go of the drift button, your car will boost. The higher the level of the flame behind the car when you drift, the longer the boost. It’s pretty easy to see how that can be “abused”, since you can drift again right away when you start boosting.

Otherwise, you have a selection of items. The boxing glove goes straight and bounces around, the missile is homing and will hit enemies without fault (I found no reliable way to avoid them, they’re about as annoying as a Blue Shell from Mario Kart), the shield blocks 1 hit, the shoes give you a boost, horns hit everyone that is close to you, cones are mines, rainbows block the vision of anyone who touches them, stars are homing and flip the target’s screen around, and I might be forgetting a few. Overall… well, it’s basically the items from Mario Kart with a different look. In addition to that, every character has a “unique” All-Star item. Though they basically have the same effect: they give a big speed boost, and have you spamming the A button for an attack/speed boosts, and you don’t have to steer for the duration of the item. The strength of the all-star item depends on the character. The occurence of the All-Star item depends mostly on your position in the race. If you’re in 5th or less, you have a chance of getting it, if you’re 4th or higher you basically never get it. The items are generally not too cheap, though the CPU gets all-star a lot, while you never get it because you pwn the CPU so much.

On the single player side of things, in addition to Grand Prix and Time Trial, you have missions, which have various objectives. 64 missions in total. Some require picking up items, others are races/time trials, other require passing through gates to get more time to get to the end, and various other things. They offer a bit of variety to the single player experience. And, as you do grand prix, time trials and missions, you get Sega Miles, which are used to buy characters, music and tracks for multiplayer.

Overall
Random pointless complaining about the game’s title
Why “Sega All-Stars”? They really pushed the definition of the term “All-Stars” here. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Robotnik, Amy, Shadow, Alex Kidd, Akira Yuki, and Ryo Hazuki(barely) can be considered all-stars, but the rest? I’m not denying that most of the characters are great, but some of them even I had to check where they come from. Without checking, can you tell me where Robo and Mobo, Zobio and Zobiko, B.D. Joe and Opa-Opa are from? Probably not unless you’re BIG Sega buffs. And other characters like Ulala, Billy Hatcher and Amigo are at least a bit known, but they’re not “All-Stars”… Why not just “Sega Racing”? You know, since a lot of the characters aren’t All-Stars. Especially not Big the Cat…

Impressions
As for the game itself it’s pretty fun. From what I’ve heard the online on it is basically dead, so if you want an online racing game, look elsewhere. But if you want it for single player and local multiplayer, this is actually pretty good. The single-player has time trials, 64 missions to go through, and grand prix, as well as unlockables, so with just that you have a bit of gameplay in front of you. But if you really want value for your money, getting with a group of friends and playing with them should be fun.

Not exactly a Mario Kart killer, but, if you’re looking for an entertaining kart racer and you don’t have a Wii, this is definitely something you should consider.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- Fun to play once you get a good grasp of the controls
- Good graphic style where all the levels have a similar graphic style to the games they’re based on
- Some gameplay variety
- Multiplayer is fun

Cons
- Difficulty varies too much, and is completely random because of the AI
- The AI is rubber-band, and frequently annoying, but I’ve seen worst(see Split/Second review)
- Graphic quality is a bit on the low side (character models sort of feel cheaply made)
- Lots of glitches (like racers and weapons passing through the floor)
- I can’t be the only one who thinks having accelerating and drifting on the shoulder buttons is a bad idea… it hurts my fingers after only a few races

The Save Factor
The game, as of the writing of this review, costs $30, whatever version you pick. While I feel it could be worth it at that price, the Save Factor for this one will be $20 since the online is dead.

I haven’t played that one when it came out, because frankly I thought $20 was a bit high for something I really wasn’t sure about. But it recently went on special on Steam for $5, so I thought I’d take a gander and check it out. And at $5 it’s more than reasonable.

It got some pretty good reviews when it came out, so let’s see if it actually deserves all the high praise it has been getting.

Read on!

Developer: Frozenbyte, Inc
Publisher: SouthPeak Games
Date of Release: October 7th 2009
Platforms: PC, PS3 (PC version reviewed)

Genre: Side-Scrolling Platformer
Players: 1
Rated E for Everyone… though by the ESRB’s usual standards it would be a T normally… weird

Presentation
The graphics are pretty nice. It looks mystical, it’s flashy and… every area looks almost exactly the same, with the only differences being “Now you’re in a cave instead of outside!”. While there’s a few minor difference in every level, every place is basically the same. It’s not a really big problem, but it would be nice if there was variety in the visual design. And there’s only one enemy design, other than the mini-bosses, and it’s skeletons… yeah, just skeletons. So there’s not a lot of variety there either. The game looks okay, but it’s rather stale.

Sound-wise it’s not too bad, but stale again. The music is rather boring, and there’s not that many tracks. The voice acting is way over-acted. The rest of the sounds, such as sword strikes, arrows and skeletons appearing are good, and make it easier to follow the action. But overall the sound here is just there because it needs sound and… that’s it.

The story is barely worth mentioning, there’s no depth whatsoever. At first the three characters come together and are “combined” because of an artifact, and then they just go through various locations until they find another artifact that can separate them again. The ending is terrible as well. I was expecting a boss battle, but the death of the final enemy is done through a terrible cutscene… lame.

Gameplay
The game is basically a puzzle-platformer. You get control of 3 characters: the Wizard, the Thief and the Knight. Each of them have different powers. The Wizard can materialize blocks, planks and floating platforms, and he can use a form of telekinesis to move almost any movable objects: planks, blocks, platformers, just about anything. The Thief can shoot arrows (hurt enemies and giving momentum to movable objects), and has a hookshot that can attach to any wooden object, which you can use to haul yourself up to higher places or swing from platform to platform. The Warrior can slash his sword to attack enemies and break weak wooden planks, hold up his shield to block attacks, and swing his hammer to destroy certain obstacles and enemies. And each character can jump, just around the same height.

To properly progress through the game, you need to use all three of the characters to get through different obstacles that not all of them can go through. A platform is too high and there’s nothing to grapple to? Use the wizard to build platforms up to that place. There’s various types of puzzles, though most require summoning blocks with the Wizard, or use the Thief’s grappling hook. You have to dynamically switch between each character to get through every situation. That’s really cool. Kinda like Lost Vikings but a bit less unique.

An element here is that you find experience points, both through searching every nook and cranny of every level, and through defeating skeletons (or the very rare Goblin). Each time you get 50 Experience points, each character get one skill point. They can be put in any of each characters’ 3 skills (which can all be brought up to level 3), each time getting new capabilities or boosted power. Each character starts with only 1 skill, the rest are found through the game in treasure chests.

Speaking of treasure chests, multiple are found through the game in addition to experience points. They either have new skills, or equipment. The equipment can be given to any character, unless it’s a character-exclusive item. Equipment have various effects: boosted defense, more HP, better attack, automatic revival if your health goes to 0, and various other things. So you can kinda customize every character. The differences aren’t huge, but it can be helpful to have a little bit of extra HP or defense.

If I have one problem with the game, it’s the physics engine. Since most of the game’s puzzles are centered around the physics, they should work near perfectly. But I have seen tons of glitches with the physics. Enemies passing through floors, blocks sinking through solid surfaces, and the occasional “being sent flying through the air when jumping on an object that isn’t moving”. It’s not frequent, but there’s multiple parts where the physics engine just screws up at random, from time to time it makes your life harder.

Overall
This is quite a fun game. The platforming is good, some of the puzzles are really fun, having 3 characters to switch between on the fly is really cool, and it’s overall really fun to play.

The combat isn’t too good and the game is really short and easy, but it’s still quite worth playing.

I don’t feel the game deserves all the super-high reviews it got when it came out, but it’s still a high-quality game that people should check out.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- The gameplay and platforming is fun
- Having 3 different characters to play as adds lots of variety to the gameplay
- Some fun puzzles

Cons
- The physics are rather bad at some points
- The visual design isn’t too interesting
- The story and ending is lame
- Rather short

The Save Factor
The starting price of $20 is a bit too high. $10 would be a fine price.

But I wasn’t expecting such a low number of note-worthy releases. PS3, Xbox 360, PSP and PC get no interesting exclusive releases, so we’re left with just a few interesting multi-platform releases, 3 DS releases(including 1 japanese release), and 2 Wii releases. A very slow month indeed.

It might be a small month, but still, come and check what are the interesting games coming in April 2010!

As usual, Multiplatform releases first, ordered by date, and if the game is a japanese release it is marked accordingly.

Read on!
*EDIT: Monster Rancher DS was removed from the list due to it being delayed to July 2010, After Burner Climax was added*
*ANOTHER EDIT: Trauma Team delayed to May*
*YET ANOTHER EDIT: Dementium 2 delayed to May*

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction 4/13 Xbox 360, PC

To be totally honest, I never played a Splinter Cell game before, so I have no idea what to expect from this. But the gameplay videos I’ve seen of this one look really cool. I’m definitely keeping an eye out for it.

Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse — Episode 1: The Penal Zone 4/18 PC, PS3, MAC

And it’s time for more Sam & Max! I sadly missed on season 2, but this one still seems quite interesting, having the trademark weird humor the series is known for. Definitely an interesting release, and this time PS3 owners are part of the fun too, with the game being available on PSN in addition to the PC and MAC releases.

After Burner Climax 4/21 on Xbox 360, 4/22 on Playstation 3

It’s After Burner!! Yeah, the classic shooter from Sega got a revival in 2006 at the arcades, and now the arcade version is FINALLY coming over to consoles. The game looks great, and really fast-paced. Definitely can’t wait to play it!

Super Street Fighter IV 4/27 PS3, Xbox 360

It’s Street Fighter, so of course it gets a new version. This will surely be good… since it was good last year! There’s some pretty good upgrades though. Some characters get new moves, there’s some rebalancing, there’s a bunch of new additions to the roster, Makoto is there… Should be worth checking out for big fans of SFIV, or people who skipped on SFIV the first time, since it’s gonna be cheaper than a new game (a bit less than 40$ on Amazon).

Record of Agarest War 4/27 PS3, Xbox 360

Okay… from what I understand it’s an RPG, with an SRPG battle system, utilizing 2D sprites in a 3D environment… But when I search around for info, ALL I find is pictures like the one above… like this, or this. It looks kinda interesting from the little gameplay I’ve seen, and it seems to have cool battle animations and such, but I really don’t know much about it… I’ll give it a rental.

NIER 4/27 PS3, Xbox 360

I have no idea what this is. I’ve heard about it a bit, but not much. Then I heard something about the 360 and PS3 getting different versions(Replicant on PS3 and Gestalt on the 360), then I hear that the US gets the same version(Gestalt) on both systems… I’m not really sure what’s going on… It’s an action game, I don’t know if it has RPG elements… It’s published by Square Enix. And it’s developed by those guys who made the Resident Evil on-rail shooters for wii, that piece of shit Drakengard on PS2 and the pretty good Fate/Stay fighting game on PSP… Really not sure about this.

Final Fight: Double Impact 4/30 PS3, Xbox 360

Ah, Final Fight. One of the veterans of the Beat ‘em Up genre, and also one of the better representations of the genre. It’s coming to XBLA and PSN, with various visual options, some new filters and such. The title is Double Impact, so it’s not alone. It’s accompanied by Magic Sword, a lesser known but still very good arcade classic by Capcom. A nice little compilation, though hopefully the price isn’t too high.

No More Heroes: Eiyuutachi no Rakuen 4/15 Xbox 360, PS3 (JAPANESE RELEASE)

Currently not announced for an American release. No More Heroes was a fairly good game on the Wii. Not incredible, and it had some huge flaws, but the really good parts (AKA the boss battles) were definitely something to behold. Now people can experience it on the more powerful consoles… in Japan at least.

WII RELEASES

Monster Hunter Tri 4/20

I don’t really like Monster Hunter. I think it was the slow combat style that didn’t feel too good to me. This one seems very similar to the ones I’ve played. But its a hugely popular series, so if you’re curious it’s definitely worth checking out. And it comes with a Classic Controller Pro which is pretty cool.

DS RELEASES

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 4/28 (JAPANESE RELEASE)

The first Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker was pretty good. I’d say not exactly as good as the original Dragon Quest Monsters, but still really fun. I actually haven’t heard about this one until… just now. This should be good, and it’s sure to sell a shitload just because its Dragon Quest. Not exactly an import-friendly game, but an interesting release nonetheless.

Since the fans loved it so much, myself included, this game goes back to the NES style of Mega Man games again. Cover art and all. Yeah, I really love that cover art… The game features nostalgic graphics, nostalgic music and nostalgic gameplay.

Does it hold of as well as Mega Man 9, or should have Capcom stopped milking the cow already?

Read on and see!
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Date of Release: March 1st 2010 (Wii), March 11st 2010 (PS3), March 31st 2010 (360), Wii version reviewed
Platforms: Wii, PS3, Xbox 360

Genre: Side-scrolling Platformer
Players: 1
Rated E for Everyone

Presentation
Well, the graphics are just like the NES games, and MM9. It looks great. The sprites and areas are nicely detailed, while always retaining the 8-bit NES style. Each area is unique, containing different visual styles and level elements for each. There’s really not much to say here. If you like the NES look, you’ll love this.

The sound is good. Again, most of the sound effects are taken from the NES games, though the weapons mostly have new sounds. All of those retain the NES-like sounds. The most important though, in any Mega Man game (in regards to presentation at least), is the music. The menu music and such is okay, but not stellar.
As for the level music, let’s go at them quickly one by one. Blade Man is okay, but lacks anything really good and the composition is rather flat. Solar Man’s music is really cool. It starts out rather bland, but it picks up the pace and becomes fast and exciting, with something of a double pedal sound in the backing, making it one of the more interesting tunes in here. Pump Man’s music is kinda slow and doesn’t really “climax”, and overall it’s okay but short and not too exciting. Commando Man’s music sounds pretty cool. I find it a bit slow paced, but I think it fits to mood nicely. The music in Chill Man’s level sounds appropriately winter-ish, but it kinda lacks character, and doesn’t feature many instruments, making it more bland than it could be. Sheep Man’s music has that “electronic” sound to it, being an electric-themed stage, and it sounds pretty good, with a nice tone and melody. Strike Man has some music that’s high on energy and quite fun to listen to, quite fitting with the level’s sports-theme. Nitro Man has another nice fast-paced tune with a good melody, and I quite like this one. The final levels, after beating the Robot Masters, also have a few nice tunes. Overall, the music quality isn’t bad, but there’s nothing really memorable.

Finally, a quick passing note on the story. The story here involves multiple robots, including Roll, catching Roboenza, a virus that only affects robots and almost renders them useless, and, after a couple weeks, turns them violent. Doctor Wily turns up at Dr Light’s lab, after his flying machine has been destroyed by berzerk robots, saying he had almost found a cure, but had his medicine-making machine stolen from him, so Mega Man goes to find it, with Proto Man tagging along since he thinks Mega Man might need his help. The story is superficial, as with all Mega Man games, but it’s still has that old-school fun factor to it.

Gameplay
Well, the game retains the same gameplay as the NES classics, has the same jumping and shooting mechanics. The shop is back from 9 so you can farm screws to fill up on lives and E-tanks when you want. And this game adds real-time weapon change, with the A and B buttons on the WiiMote, and I think L and R on the Classic Controller/Ps3 and 360 controllers.

Bosses/levels
Each level features some unique elements. Of course Sheep Man’s level has the trademark disappearing blocks, and Chill Man has slippery grounds, but each has some really interesting ideas that make them all rather unique. Most of them will have elements that will completely change the platforming, like speeding trucks in Nitro Man’s level, or that tether thing in Blade Man’s level, for example. Some of the levels also have mini-bosses, and I’ll say that the ones here are actually quite interesting, and overall I find them really fun to fight. The giant goal in Strike Man’s level is really quite interesting, though a bit easy if you have the right weapon. Each boss is also completely different, and I’ll say there’s some really cool fights here. Trying to find each boss’ weakness without reading about it before is quite fun, if not a little bit easy. Trying to figure out Blade Man is REALLY tough but totally satisfying since his pattern is so fast and random and adaptive of your behavior. Finding the best ways to avoid Solar Man’s attacks is hard but quite fun. Easily killing Sheep Man is fun too, and avoiding several of Nitro Man’s attacks requires precision jumps. A few of the fights aren’t as great, but overall I think they did a good job with the bosses.

Weapons
After killing a boss, you get his weapon, of course. The weapons here are not too bad. There’s a few good ones.
The Water Shield is one of the more interesting shields in the series.
The Thunder Wool basically creates a little wall of electricity in front of you(after around 2 seconds), shielding you from certain attacks and dealing good damage (though it’s hard to aim properly).
The Triple Blade you get from Blade Man can hit up to 3 times at once if you’re close enough to your target, and doesn’t use that much weapon energy compared to the other weapons.
The Commando Bomb can be remote controlled to go where you want (though your character moves as you move the missile, so be careful).
The Cutting Wheel moves across the floor and on the walls which is cool, and it stays attached to Mega Man’s (or Proto Man’s) arm until you release the button, so it can act as a shield, and it can be used to climb walls too.
The Rebound Striker can be shot either in front of you or diagonally, and it bounces off walls a few times too, making it quite useful in the right situations.
The Solar Blaze isn’t really great though, basically shooting a fireball then splitting in 2 fire waves on each side, which does no more damage than the buster.
The Chill Spikes are… not too great, unless you use it on an enemy that might walk on the spikes those produce (you can’t shoot again until something touches the spikes).

My big problem is that most of the weapons use a LOT of weapon energy. The Thunder Wool can only be shot a few times before being empty, as does the Rebound Ball, and the other weapons get empty relatively fast as well. The only weapon that can be used a bit more is the Triple Blades, which is a good thing since they’re really good.

Difficulty
The game is hard. It’s not cheap hard like most modern “hard” games, it’s “Nintendo hard”. Your first time through most levels will probably kick your ass, but you’ll eventually learn how to pass the tougher sections with trial and error. There’s a few areas that are more annoying than hard, but they’re relatively rare. The mini-bosses are also pretty tough, especially in Strike Man’s level, but learning the patterns will eventually get you through them without getting hit. The boss battles range from really easy (sheep man) to really hard (Blade Man), and most bosses will require more than one try to finally get their pattern and beat them easily…. or learning their weakness (which you should do on your own rather than looking it up online). Overall it’s quite a hard game, but I’d say not exactly as hard as Mega Man 9, since I got to the end a lot faster than 9.

The game features an easy mode. This changes quite a few things: some enemies are removed or replaced, some enemies don’t have the same attacks, some pitfalls/spikes are covered by flying platforms, some “puzzles” are changed completely like the disappearing block part in Sheep Man’s level, and the game is a LOT more generous on lives, E-tanks and screws. The levels also all have, 2-3 times each, an item appearing that fully heals all your life bar, sometimes right before boss battles. The bosses are also a bit easier, mostly featuring easier to avoid attacks. While this mode is almost useless for veteran Mega Man players (though it’s required to play to unlock all the challenges), newer gamers who are used to having their hand held through a game will definitely have a much easier  and probably more pleasant time with the game if they start out on easy mode.

Extra stuff
Here, you can play as Proto Man without having to pay extra, unlike in MM9. Here, he plays just like in MM9. He can slide, charge his weapon, he holds up his shield when jumping (unless he’s shooting) which stops almost any projectile that touches it. On the downside, he can only have 2 shots on the screen at once instead of Mega Man’s 3 shots, and he takes more damage. And here he has access to the shop unlike MM9, though it doesn’t have the same inventory as in Mega Man’s, and stuff costs more. Overall he’s pretty fun to play as.

Here, the game features 2 types of challenges. Just like in MM9, the “Challenge 2″ section is basically achievements. There’s a lot fewer than in MM9, but all the “important” ones are there. The “Challenge 1″ section is actually a relatively big amount of challenge rooms. Most of them require getting to the end of the room without dying, using pixel-perfect precision jumps, and various other things. This actually makes you get used to the game’s various jumping mechanics and puzzles in the game. There’s also boss fights and such here. It’s a really nice addition.

Like MM9, this features a Time Attack mode, where you try to finish levels as fast as possible, with all access to all weapons, with only 1 life. When you’re done, you can post your time on the leaderboards, and you can save a replay of your run. This is REALLY cool, because, if you save your replay, your recording becomes available online and people can watch it straight from the leaderboards. That way you can look at other people’s runs, to find out little tricks and such. This is a cool feature, for sure.

Overall
Mega Man 9 was the perfect revival for the 8-bit classic Mega Man. This is just Capcom milking the idea of making old style Mega Man games since it sells so well. It doesn’t feel like they put as much effort in this one than they did in Mega Man 9. But don’t get me wrong, this is still a really good entry. Damn good.

But overall it’s quite fun. The platforming is good, the boss battles are interesting and require really learning how to fight them, there’s some really challenging parts and it’s overall really fun to play. Being able to choose 2 distinct characters from the start is good, though being able to unlock Bass would be a LOT better than having to buy him.

The Easy mode makes levels almost too easy to veteran gamers, but newcomers will definitely like it more.

Overall, any Mega Man fan should check it out, and people new to the series should check it out too because of Easy Mode.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- Fun retro gameplay
- Looks great
- Sounds good
- There’s a few quite good music tracks in here
- It’s hard
- The “Easy mode” makes this a perfect for beginner Mega Man players
- Being able to watch other peoples’ Time Attacks online is really a nice feature, you can learn quite a few cool tricks
- Challenge mode is fun

Cons
- The music is nowhere near as good as in MM9
- Some parts are just annoying rather than challenging
- The weapons aren’t the the best in the series, though there’s some really cool ones
- Bass is downloadable rather than unlockable, which is really stupid

The Save Factor
Despite not being as good an entry as Mega Man 9, it’s still a solid game and is well worth the 1000 Wii Points it costs. So $10 is the Save Factor here!

There’s lots of good releases, a few that aren’t too great, but overall it seems like it should be a really good month. Let’s go and see what March has in store for us gamers, shall we?

As usual, the multi-platform releases are toghether, the exclusive releases are in their own sections, and japanese releases are marked accordingly.

Read on!

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

Mega Man 10 3/01 on Wii, 3/11 on PS3, 3/31 on Xbox 360

Probably the month’s biggest release for me. I’m always in for some old-school Mega Man 8-bit action. Not sure why there’s super delayed releases for the PS3 and Xbox 360 (seriously… 30 days later on the 360? Why?), but I’m very excited for this, so I’ll probably get it on Wii. And the easy mode might make the game a lot more accessible to casual gamers, or modern gamers who are used to games holding their hands too much.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 3/02 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

Another sequel to the popular franchise. To me it’s just a generic war FPS, but I’m sure lots of people are hyped for it, and from what I’ve seen it looks decent.

Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition 3/09 (PS3, Xbox 360)

A new edition of RE5. The DLC comes in it, and there’s some new content as well. Not really what is new in it though. But if you loved the first version and want to see the new stuff, or haven’t played it and want to try it out, this should be well worth getting.

Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space 3/09 (Wii, PC)

Sam & Max, season 2. Made by TellTale games, this continues the famous duo’s quest of… hum… being incredibly weird and random. Should be well worth checking out for fans of the first season. Which reminds me, I should finish that first season someday…

Final Fantasy XIII 3/09 (PS3, Xbox 360)

One of the most awaited games in a long time. And one I’m quite hyped for, despite the kinda negative opinions we hear from japanese players. It still looks quite good, the combat looks fun, and I doubt it will really disappoint. To me it looks like a step up from 12. And it’s been in development for a really long time, SE can’t really have screwed it up too much, right? RIGHT?

Resonance of Fate 3/16 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

Tri-Ace’s latest RPG. I actually have no idea what this game is like. It’s probably gonna have underwhelming sales because it comes out a week after FFXIII, but it might still be an interesting game… since it’s from Tri-Ace. I’ll definitely give it a try sometime.

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening 3/16 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

An expansion to the critically acclaimed  Dragon Age Origins. From what I’ve heard it adds quite a bit of content, so fans of the game should really enjoy it.

METRO 2033 3/16 (PC, Xbox 360)

I only saw one gameplay video for this… And I really am not impressed with what I’ve seen. Looks like it will be a boring generic FPS, with no online and little content. But I might be wrong, and might rent it if I have nothing else to do one day(and if the reviews are higher than I expect them to be). I know there’s a bit of hype on the internet for this, so I’ve added it to this list…

R.U.S.E. 3/23 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

This looks like a really fun RTS with some cool quirks and it seems to use different tactics than other RTS out there. I definitely want to give this one a try.

Just Cause 2 3/23 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

I know nothing about that one. Nor have I heard of the previous game in the series. This looks like the average open-world game where you can cause any kind of chaos you might want. I’ll probably rent it, but I don’t have very high expectations from what I’ve seen.

Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City 3/30 (PC, PS3)

Finally the PC and PS3 get the 2 expansion packs for the popular GTAIV. I didn’t really like GTAIV, but lots of people have, and this is a long awaited release for people who don’t have a 360.

Hokuto Musou 3/25 (JAPANESE RELEASE) (PS3, Xbox 360)
(wow, the boxart looks just like Just Cause 2′s… yay for originality?)
A Fist of the North Star(Hokuto no Ken) game, which plays similarly to Dynasty Warriors… With more exploding heads probably. Definitely sounds like an interesting idea. Hopefully there’s gonna be an American release one day.

Wii RELEASES

Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon 3/16

From what I understand, this is a sort of Survival Horror game, with anime visuals. I know nothing about it, but I know it’s quite hyped in the Wii’s “core” community.

Cave Story (on WiiWare) 3/22

It’s been delayed so much no one though it would finally come, but there it is. Unless something goes wrong again, you’ll be able to get your Cave Story action on Wii on March 22nd.

Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love 3/23

There’s also a PS2 release coming, though I didn’t list it here… Anyways, this is a strategy RPG where you control mechs, as well as a visual novel-like game it seems (which affects stats in battle). I’m not exactly sure what it’s gonna be like, but the fact that it’s the first Sakura Wars game to make it to the US makes it an interesting release. Should be worth at least checking out.

Red Steel 2 3/23 (found a second release date saying 3/26 with a WiiMotion Plus)

The first Red Steel was a pretty lame FPS. This one apparently makes use of the WiiMotion Plus to correct the original’s shortcomings. Though I have no idea if it really adds much, I have yet to play it so I have not much to comment in that sense. But I definitely want to check that one out someday.

PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES

Yakuza 3 3/09
(I can’t be the only one not to like this boxart…)
A quite interesting release on the PS3 release. It’s a very loved series, and I know quite a few people who are hyped for it. It was still unsure for a while if it was even gonna come out in America, but there it is.

God of War III 3/16

God of War. The lower tier in the action game genre that was spawned by Devil May Cry. Featuring pathetic QTEs, one of the lamest characters in all of gaming, and boring(though good-looking) combat, it’s an example of everything that sucks in modern gaming. Yet people can’t do anything but be excited for it. I.. don’t get it. But this is a very hyped game that will generate a lot of sales, I won’t deny that. Whatever it is people like about this series, this one will have it all, and fans won’t be disappointed, that’s for sure… Since it’s exactly the same gameplay-wise as the first game, just technically better-looking.

Ryu ga Gotoku 4 3/18 (JAPANESE RELEASE)

Well, just as we get the third game in the Yakuza series over here, the fourth one comes out in Japan. Nice…

XBOX 360 RELEASE

Perfect Dark 3/02 (this comes out on the XBLA)

Well, I just found out that this was coming. I don’t know how I missed that either, since Perfect Dark is by far my favorite console FPS. This is a remake of the original on the N64. This has updated graphics, but the same old gameplay, which I think is awesome(I don’t think any modern console FPS has better gameplay than this… but that’s just me). It also has some cool online implementation which enables more than the usual 4 people in one match, in combination with split-screen play (so you can have 4 people in split-screen playing with more people online at the same time). OH, and it has multiplayer maps from Goldeneye 007 as well, awesome.

PC RELEASE

Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight 3/16

I almost forgot about that one. A new Command and Conquer game! Should be good, I might check it out someday.

DS RELEASES

Sonic Classic Collection 3/02

This includes all 4 Genesis Sonic games. 1, 2, 3 and Sonic & Knuckles (pretty sure it includes Sonic 3 and Knuckles too). It’s a nice little collection, and in total should cost just a bit less than getting all 4 games seperately on the Wii Virtual Console(hopefully, otherwise there’s no sense in buying it). Though there are so many compilations of this, some with MORE games, it might not be really worth it.

Spectral Force Genesis 3/11

Not sure what this is exactly, but from screenshots it seems like it might be a Strategy RPG… For some reason the name sounded familiar, so it’s on the list.

Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver 3/14

More Pokemon! Yay! This one comes with the PokeWalker accessory, which enables you to carry a pokemon around to make it gain experience. And it’s a remake of the best pokemon games in the main series. Cool stuff.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey 3/23

From various info I’ve found this sounds a bit like Nocturne, which is pretty cool. Though it takes on a more futuristic theme this time. One game I definitely want to check out.

WarioWare D.I.Y. 3/28

I don’t like WarioWare. Not my thing really. But fans of the series can now make their own WarioWare mini-games, which I’m sure they’re very excited for. Heck, even I want to check it out, see what the various options are in here. (This is also getting a release on WiiWare)

Monster Rancher DS 3/30 (I see multiple release dates for this one including April 1st, so if I need to I’ll mention it again in my April 2010 post)

WHOA!!!! FINALLY!!!! I’ve been hoping for this for a long time. This is the second Monster Rancher game on the DS in japan, but the first never came out here, and it’s some kind of miracle that this one is coming here at all (with Tecmo thinking the fanbase is too small for the game). I can’t wait to play this one, I played the hell out of the GBA games in the series.

PSP RELEASES

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony 3/02

Another remake of Lunar. There’s been multiple versions of this very same game, though the one I played was on GBA. This features new upgraded graphics and… I don’t know what else really. RPG gamers who haven’t played any of this game’s millions of versions might want to check it out, and older fans of the game might like to revisit it in an upgraded format.

Blazblue Portable 3/09

This features new modes and new unlimited versions of characters, but otherwise it’s the same BlazBlue we know and love… with downgraded graphics.

Zettai Hero Kaizou Keikaku 3/11 (JAPANESE RELEASE) (currently known as “Absolute Hero Modding Project” in english)

Nippon Ichi’s newest game is coming out in Japan! It features incredible customization, dungeon-crawling gameplay, lots of content and it looks to have Disgaea’s trademark humor style. I won’t be playing the japanese release, since it seems to have way too much japanese text for me to handle, but people with good japanese skills who are NIS fans should definitely check it out.

Prinny 2: Toukou Yuugi! Akatsuki no Pantsu Daisakusensu!! 3/25 (JAPANESE RELEASE)

MORE NIS GOODNESS! This one features similar gameplay to the first, with some modifications, and a new “Asagi mode” with Contra-like gameplay(or at least that’s what the screenshots lead me to believe). I definitely can’t wait for the American release for that, but people who are too impatient should have little trouble playing this language-wise, since it’s a platformer. It’s sure to feature hard as nails gameplay like the first though.