Talk about a stealth release. It came completely out of nowhere on the XBLA, with no announcement or anything by Atari for a release date, and then it came out on Steam out of nowhere. WTF?

Anyways, this is a sequel to the best selling Atari-made game on the Atari 2600, Yars’ Revenge (notice the different placement of the apostrophe in the title). Or at least some sort of revival. Yars’ Revenge is probably my favorite Atari 2600 game, one that I replay frequently, so that alone made this a sure-buy for me. The shift in gameplay styles wasn’t much of a problem to me, since I doubt keeping the original gameplay would have been a great idea here.

Read on and see if it lives up to its predecessor!

Developer: Killspace Entertainment (who? They don’t even have a website… they’re twitter links to this)
Publisher: Atari
Date of Release: April 28th 2011
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360 (might be coming to PS3… hard to say, it will probably get a stealth release as well) PC version reviewed

Genre: On-rail shooter
Rated E10+ for Everyone over 10 years old

What’s good about the game

Presentation
The game looks really pretty. The art direction, as I’ve seen said in previews multiple times, has a Studio Ghibli look. Sort of similar to Nausicaa to be precise. Really strange looking forests, bug-like enemies with cool designs, and a really cool atmosphere. After the forest levels, it takes on a more futuristic setting, with floating bases in the sky where you fight robotic bug-like enemies. Yar’s battle armors are really colorful too, and it looks really nice in front of everything in the game. It all looks really nice. Some textures are a bit low-res, but the action is generally so fast that it doesn’t matter.

Also, the music is pretty good, if not completely forgettable. It fits in nicely with every situation, and overall doesn’t get in the way.

Basic gameplay
It’s an on-rail shooter in the veins of Sin & Punishment. On consoles, you move with the left analog stick and aim with the right analog stick. In the PC version, you gain a lot more speed and accuracy with your aiming, as you use that WASD keys to move and the mouse to aim. You also have a dodge button, which I found to be entirely pointless, but maybe I’m wrong. The movement speed and aiming precision is great, and the addition of the dodge button gives you a good deal of control over Yar, and, in the PC version, using the mouse+keyboard setup is really good.

You have 4 weapons. First, a fast-shooting peashooter which does minimal damage to all but one enemy type. There’s the Rail Gun, which takes one shot at a time and then it has to charge up before being used again. Then there’s the homing missiles, which require ammo you find from killing enemies. And finally there’s the Zorlon Cannon, which you get in the final 2 levels of the game. It kills all normal enemies on screen for the most part, and deals okay damage to bosses. The only problematic thing I found in regards to the weapons is that the homing missiles are set to the CTRL key, and I find it a bit weird to press while using the WASD keys to move, but I got used to it.

In addition to the weapons, you get 4 power-ups, which enemies will randomly drop. There’s the shield, which protects you from damage for a short time and heals 50 health (and prevents you from shooting for that time, like when you’re in the shield in the original). There’s a special weapon here that slowly kills off enemies one-by-one which is very useful. There’s a weird ball of light that circles you, which will stop most projectiles before they hit you. And finally there’s a power-up that more than doubles the strength of your peashooter. Each power-up has a few uses and they add variety to the gameplay.

The basic gameplay is simple: survive to the end of a level and kill the level boss. You have to avoid enemy attacks along the way, and obviously kill enemies to get points.

Scoring system
The scoring system is actually really simple. Kill enemies, get points. Every 3 enemies you kill boosts your score multiplier. Take too much time to kill another enemy (there’s a meter that shows how close from ending the multiplier is) and you lose that multiplier. While you’re shooting, the multiplier meter goes down even faster.

So the basic idea for every level is to maintain the multiplier for as long as possible and get the most points. There are a few techniques to do that, such as using the power-up that deflects projectlies (this actually gives you points and maintains the multiplier) and using the power-up that kills all the enemies on screen one-by-one (which increases the multiplier by one for every enemy killed, and it can sometimes kill an off-screen enemy, maintaining the multiplier that much longer). It’s fun and rewarding to get super high scores, and finding what to do at certain points to keep the multiplier going.

Story
At first I thought this game was just using the Yar’s Revenge title to get a few extra sales from fans of the original game, but, while that’s certainly true, it’s actually more than that. This is an honest to goodness sequel to the original game. It takes place after the first game, which showed the war between the Yar and the Qotile.

This takes place after the war, and the Qotile actually won the war, capturing all the Yar, and brainwashing them to use as warriors to destroy their own enemies (and apparently the Yars evolved further, becoming 4-armed humans with antennae rather than being bug-like creatures). You play as Yar, a brainwashed Yar, and you start out following the Qotiles’ orders to fight another insectoid race. After questionning the Qotiles’ orders, Yar is blasted by a Zorlon Cannon and nearly killed. She’s saved by an old Yar warrior, the Bar-Yargler, and is told the history of the Yar. Being given a new combat armor, she regains the memory of the Yar people, and goes to fight the Qotile for revenge.

It’s a very simple story, told through still images and in-game dialogue, but it’s a nice story. I like it when stories in games take a backseat to the gameplay, yet still delivers a fun plot with some character development (here with Yar going from a slave to the Qotile to a warrior fighting them, where she slowly regains her own identity and the way she speaks mirrors that evolution). Oh, and you can read the original comic for the Atari 2600 version in the game as well.

Modes
In addition to the campaign mode, which has 3 difficulty levels, there are 3 more modes where you can tackle each level with a certain amount of limitations, like half the health, or having to maintain your multiplier, or the inability to use the shield. And each of those modes have their own leaderboards too.

What’s bad about the game

Tutorial
This is just a minor complaint. Since the game partly relies on the leaderboards and replaying levels to go high on the leaderboards for its replay value, having to replay the first level is anoying since it always has you going through the tutorial segment, which first prevents you from moving and shooting, then it lets you move, then it lets you shoot, then it pops up a bunch of pointless messages that you don’t need to see again… It’s just really annoying if you want to get up in the leaderboards and need to get through the first level again.

Minor lack of variety
Levels 1 and 2 look pretty much the same. Levels 3 and 4 look just about the same. Levels 5 and 6 look about the same (with a lot of similarities to 3 and 4). While the game looks fantastic, the visuals definitely lack variety. But that’s not the only thing that lacks variety. There’s 4 enemy types: 2 simple drones that are weak to the basic gun, the “bi-pedals” which are weak to missiles and arachnid-like enemies that act sort of like turrents, who are weak to the rail-gun… and that’s it, each level features the same 4 enemy types and there’s not a whole lot of variation in that respect.

Overall

Other reviewers have been REALLY negative about this game. And I really can’t understand why (other than the whole “they’re not actually gamers” explanation). Maybe the 360 version controls like shit? If it does, I’m not aware of it. The PC version controls really well (and you have WAY more speed and accuracy with a mouse than with an analog stick, so it’s obviously the better buy between the 2 versions), the gameplay is fast-paced, and the leaderboards keep you coming back for more. Heck, Gametrailers outright LIED about it to make it sound worse than it is (in this case, they say that you can’t collide with the environment, despite me dying a few times from hitting the environment). Keep being classy guys, lying about games makes you seem even less credible than you already are.

Yar’s Revenge is a great game. The gameplay is fast and really fun, the scoring system is simple but fun, the power-ups are interesting, the story is actually a good follow-up to the original, and it’s just a nice little package.

My bottom line here is that, if you like on-rail shooters in the vein of Sin & Punishment, you will like this. And we need more people in the leaderboards, so come on, join in! It’s just 10$, you’re not gonna break the bank picking this up.

I’m currently (as of the writing of this review) at the top of all the campaign leaderboards other than Level 6 and Level 4 (both on Hard mode), but I can’t honestly believe that I’m actually THAT good at the game, and I’d love to be proven right on this. Pick up the game and kick my ass off that leaderboard!

Pros and Cons

Pros
- Nostalgia factor: fans of the original will recognize various things from the original, including the Zorlon Cannon and the graphics for the shield, as well as getting a good continuation to the original story
- Great control on the PC version
- Fast and fun gameplay
- Cool boss battles
- Leaderboards are fun to tackle
- Great replay value

Cons
- Lack of variety in levels and enemies
- Annoying tutorial each time you start the first level

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Super Meat Boy! The game that confuses people now since it has the same abbreviation as Super Mario Bros!

It’s about a boy without skin going to save a girl covered in bandages, from the evil hands of Doctor Fetus, an actual fetus in a robotic suit. The premise itself sounds all sorts of awesome, and then we see that it’s a super-hard super-precise platformer where you die in one hit and any minor error will kill you? Damn right I’m interested.

So read on and see if I liked it as much as I was hoping!
(Note: I’m starting the GotY posts either tonight or tomorrow morning)

Developer: Team Meat
Publisher: Team Meat
Date of Release: November 30th 2010
Platforms: Xbox 360 (XBLA), PC (PC version reviewed)

Genre: Side-scrolling Platformer
Rated T for Teen (not sure why though… the large amounts of comically animated blood?)

What is good in the game

Very simple
The basic gameplay is really simplistic. You can do 3 things: move, jump (either from the floor or while sliding from walls) and run. That makes the controls stupidly easy to learn, letting you actually learn how to play the game. And that’s the fun part.

Basic Gameplay
The basic gameplay is really fun. Rather than being about pixel-perfect precision jumps like various other games, this is all momentum based. When you move, you add momentum. By pressing the run button, you reach maximum momentum faster and actually make the maximum momentum higher, so you can do longer jumps. The goal of the game? Well, every level, you have to avoid obstacles or projectiles and reach Bandage girl, who is waiting at the end of the level. Blocking your way is saw blades, spikes, lasers, and, most importantly, level design made to have you do tough jumps and wall jumps to try to kill you. You have infinite continues, and, since the levels are levels are really short, having to restart them every time you die isn’t too bad.

Presentation
Super Meat Boy is the sequel to a flash game, but the presentation is upped. The game looks great. Meat Boy/other characters are very small on the screen, since the camera is zoomed out very far. Which is good since, with the camera zoomed out far, you see all the traps in advance, and getting cheap-shotted by off-screen stuff basically never happens. As for the actual graphics, they’re high-quality. The visual design is nice, though each level in each world looks the same. Not a problem really, but it can be annoying seeing the same things over and over until you finally complete a level. Otherwise… what kills you is very clearly marked so you’ll never get surprised by a death.

Oh, and one thing I must mention is when you finally finish a level. You get a replay… what’s cool about the replay feature is that you not only see the “winning” playthrough of the level, you see all of the failures at the same time, which can be pretty fun.

Lots of content
There’s quite a bit to do here. You have a bunch of basic levels. Each level, if you get an A+ grade (which requires finishing the level under a certain time), has a Dark World version, which is harder. In addition to that, each world has 20 bandages to find, hidden either in normal levels or dark world levels. Bandages unlock new characters, each of which plays a bit differently. And then some levels have portals that lead to special levels. These special levels actually give you a limited amount of lives to get through them, and each of those have 3 levels in a row. Some unlock special characters, other have bandages in them. And then there’s Teh Internets, which will eventually be updated to add more and more levels to the game, apparently for free. And then the PC version has, still upcoming as of the writing of this review, a level editor so you can make your own levels (not sure how distribution would work, I might comment on this later on). There’s really a lot to do here.

What some people might not like

Difficulty
The game is HARD. It WILL kick your ass. A lot. But the difficulty is pretty fair. Since the levels are super short, there’s no need for checkpoints, and you have infinite lives so it’s not a terribly punishing game. But the game is really frustrating. Unless you’re near perfect, some levels can take you tens, if not hundreds of tries. That can get very annoying replaying the same level over and over and over again. But finishing them after dying tons of times can be very fulfilling. Some people might not like the “extreme” difficulty this game offers, but some gamers will love it for it.

What sucks in the game

Keyboard controls
If you’re playing on a PC, getting a proper controller isn’t a bad idea. I sadly don’t have one, and the game is clearly not designed for keyboard controls. You have less precision with a keyboard, and having good reflexes for fast button presses isn’t very easy with a keyboard. If you get this game, either get it on the 360, or get a controller for it. It makes the experience a bit more tolerable.

Overall

Super Meat Boy is now a perfect game by any means, but it’s entertaining. If you love hard as nails platformers, this will be right up your alley, and, if you get into it, there’s tons of content for you to go through and more to come. The momentum-based gameplay takes a little while to get used to, and it is a very frustrating game, but I think those are things people should/will look over as the game is quite enjoyable.

Pros and Cons

Pros
- Pretty
- Fun
- Lots of content (with more on the way)
- Difficult
- Retro presentation with lots of references to older games

Cons
- Can be frustrating at times
- Not meant for keyboard play

The Save Factor

The game is 15$ both on XBLA and Steam. There’s tons of content and it will be updated to get more, so it’s definitely worth it.

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Pac-Man, one of the legendaries in the gaming industry. Despite being part of a few less-than-stellar platforming and adventure games, and the infamous Atari 2600 port (which really IS as bad as you might have heard), Pac-Man’s original gameplay style remains timeless and one of the best pure gameplay experiences ever. Basically, if you don’t like Pac-Man, you can’t consider yourself a gamer. It’s that awesome.

When I checked the demo for this game, I didn’t think I’d end up buying it, considering I already have a few versions of Pac-Man available to me (on NES, on Atari 2600 (there’s actually 2 good Pac-Man games on there, people tend to forget those because of the crappy port), the arcade version in my MAME cabinet), but then I saw something that got my attention: this game has a BOMB button. A Pac-Man game with a bomb button? What the heck? That’s awesome! I had to buy it.

Needless to say I instantly picked it up after experiencing the furious gameplay. So read on and see exactly why I liked it so much!

Developer: Namco Bandai Games America
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games America
Date of Release: November 23rd 2010
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 (on PSN and XBLA respectively)

Genre: Hum…. Pac-Man? What genre IS Pac-man anyways? Maze-action? (and no, “Arcade” isn’t a genre, it’s a platform)
Rated E for Everyone

What is good about this game
Presentation
The game is played in the usual Pac-Man top-down perspective. The visual styles… well, you actually have 8 to choose from. You have the flashy visuals from the first Pac-Man CE, you have the 3D styles from many other games, a style where everything is made of huge pixels,classic styles… it’s all here. Everything looks awesome. There’s flashy special effects everywhere, it’s incredible colorful and it just looks great. No complaint whatsoever.

On the music side of thing, I’ll say it’s not particularly great, but it is fun and fast-paced, fitting perfectly with the gameplay (it’s a bit techno-ish). And there’s various tunes to choose from, so you can select whatever music you prefer. The sound effects are classic and there’s sounds for everything that need it. Very solid audio design.

Gameplay
Where this game excels is the gameplay. While it goes for similar basic gameplay to the original Pac-Man games: you eat pellets and avoid ghosts through the maze. Power Pellets enable you to eat ghosts. You get points for eating ghosts and pellets. That’s about where the similarities with the arcade original ends.

Rather than having you clear the board to get to the next level, this game changes the format a lot. The board is divided in 2 (vertically in the middle). It starts with only a few pellets on the board. Eating all the pellets on one side of the screen reveals food on the other side of the screen, and eating that food will reveal ghosts and pellets on the other side. So to keep scoring, you must clear each side of pellets and eat food to make more pellets appear. Ghosts here are very different from the arcade original. Rather than trying to trap you through the labyrinth (some of those exist, but they’re not as common as the “normal” type of ghost here), the ghosts are sleeping through the board, and passing next to them awakens them. The first few will start following you, taking the fastest path to try killing you. Otherwise, awakened ghosts will latch on to the group of ghosts following you. When you eat power pellets, all ghosts, may it be ones wandering the maze, the ones sleeping or the ones following you, are vulnerable to being eaten. Eating multiple ghosts in a row will increase the amount of points each give you. Eating extra power pellets will extend the amount of time ghosts are vulnerable, and some ghosts carry power pellets which extend the time as well (oh, and bombs too). As you eat ghosts and get points, the overall speed of the game increases, which makes it more and more fast-paced and awesome.

Getting close to ghosts will actually slow down time, which gives you a few extra seconds to get out of trouble, and I think this really eases up the pace when the game becomes really fast. This makes for great defense against ghosts. But sometimes you’ll be surrounded. At such times, you either die or use a bomb. Bombs, rather than killing ghosts, send them back to their “safe zone” in the middle of the board, saving you from dying and giving you a few moments of safety. But you only have a limited amount, so use them wisely.

You have a few modes: a score attack, where you have to score as many points as you can within a few minutes, a time trial where you must pick up a set number of apples as fast as possible, a Ghost Combo mode where you must try to eat as many ghosts as you can in one Power Pellet “bar”. And there’s a Free mode where you can practice to get ready to tackle the leaderboards. Oh, and a Darkness mode, which plays like Time Trial, but darker. There’s definitely a lot to do here.

Overall
Yeah, there’s nothing really bad about this one. Really. It’s probably the best Pac-Man experience there is out there. I haven’t played the original CE so I don’t know how that one compares, but, from what I’ve played, Pac-Man has never been as intense and fast-paced as this. Some might prefer the original, but if you want something a lot more intense, this is great.

It looks good, the gameplay is just all sorts of badass, and it’s intense.

Trying to conquer the leaderboards will most likely get people addicted for a long time. The replay value is off the charts. And it’s a fast game, with each play lasting only at most 10 minutes, so it’s an easy game to play for a few minutes at a time. The time trials last less than 3 minutes each. While short, each play of the game is really fun.

I have no complaints with this game really, it’s a blast…
Okay, I will mention that the trophies are stupidly easy, they take no time to get… Why no challenge for those? This IS Pac-Man after all.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- Fast-paced, really intense gameplay
- Really fun and it changes up the gameplay quite a bit from the original, making it unique
- Huge replay value
- Addictive

Cons
- … hum… none really…

The Save Factor
Definitely worth the 10$, no doubt about it.

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Read on and see if it reached my expectations!

Developer: Hothead Games
Publisher: EA Partners
Date of Release: July 13th 2010
Platforms: Xbox 360 (XBLA), Playstation 3 (PSN)

Genre: Hack-and-slash Action RPG
Rated T for Teen

Presentation
The graphic style is really cool. It’s really colorful, which is always a plus. The character models are generally wacky and funny to look at. Objects like trees, houses, towers, and a bunch of other things, look like cardboard cutouts, which feels perfect in regards to the rest of the game visually. The monster design is very cartoonish and fun to look at. And then there’s the enchanted forest, which basically mocks everyone who thought Diablo 3 was too colorful. Overall, the visual style here is awesome. The only problem, graphically, is that there’s a TON of screen tearing, and some very minor framerate drops.

Sound-wise, I have no complaint either. The sound effects are just as wacky as the graphics, the music is fun to listen to and actually sounds like video game music, unlike most modern games. But what steals the show here is the voice acting. Other than one or 2 meh voices, everyone sounds great. I love DeathSpank’s voice in particular, that overconfident hero voice in the style of Zapp Brannigan/Captain Qwark/Flay(from Mana Khemia) is just so awesomely badass, and the voice actor here does it perfectly even in the wackiest of lines.

Story/Humor
DeathSpank is off the find a legendary artifact, known as The Artifact… and that’s about it. You start the game near the end of DeathSpank’s adventure, as he found the location of the Artifact. After a few quests, you find it, but it’s quickly stolen from you by Lord Von Prong’s minions, and you have to get it back from him. At the nearby town, orphans have gone missing and you have to save them if you want to even get into Von Prong’s castle.

The story is fairly standard stuff… sort of. But it’s executed in a completely non-serious manner. The humor is just completely over-the-top. I was expecting some of that dark/dry humor from Monkey Island, but instead it’s really crazy absurd humor and it’s really well done. The dialogues are completely random to the point of not making sense, yet incredibly well-written at the same time (well-written randomness? That’s quite rare). The humor isn’t just in the dialogue though. Each item in the game, may it be swords, orbs, potions, random materials, all have some joke on them. It might be in the title (Cleaver of Cleaving, the “Fire Axe” family which includes sequels like “Fire Axe 2: Fire Harder”), or in the items description, but here the humor is very much like the Munchkin card game (heck, Munchkin actually had a Cleaver of Cleaving). And where else would you put the orphans you rescue than inside a Bag of Orphans (otherwise the orphans would take place in the inventory screen… you don’t want that, right?). It’s very light-hearted and fun humor, even if some things are so very horrible.

Gameplay
Basic controls are pretty simple. Each face button has a weapon equipped to it, and pressing that button attacks with that weapon. Each d-pad button can be associated to certain items: orbs, help from heaven (and all it’s different versions), orbs (invincibility, black holes, summoning), potions (healing, speed, crit, armor) and food. Health potions heal HP instantly, while food fills it slowly as time passes, and is interrupted if you do anything or get hit (you can walk while eating, but that’s it). You also have a shield which blocks incoming attacks preventing most damage, and you can change targets if there’s multiple enemies in front of you.

There are multiple weapon types. Melee weapons come in various forms and effects (some are elemental, some hit multiple enemies, etc.), and then there’s a few increasingly strong range weapons. Some weapons have a Justice attack. By hitting enemies, or perfect blocking, you build up your Justice Meter. When it’s full, some of your items will have the ability to use powerful attacks that hit multiple enemies, or at least deal major damage. The Justice Meter fills up fast enough that using it will become part of your strategy in battle. Also, after getting certain rune stones, you get new skills, which involve using 2 weapons at the same time when your Justice Meter is full.

Other type of equipment features a plethora of armors (shoulder pads, halmets, body armor, gloves, boots, amulets, rings). Each of those increases your HP, and sometime elemental resistances. But never “defense”, which doesn’t exist here. One thing some people might like is that changing your armor pieces changes DeathSpank’s appearance.

Leveling is fairly simple. Complete quests and kill monsters, get Experience points. Enough experience raises your level. In addition to HP and attack boost, you get access to more equipment, and you get to choose one Hero Card, which gives various boosts. It can boost damage, movement speed and various other things, and upon leveling you can sometimes get a new version of a previous card, further boosting said stat. Leveling is fast through most of the game, though starting at level 16-17, leveling slows down massively.

The game has 2 quests types: Main Quests (“Important Things To Do”) and side-quests (“Unimportant Things To Do”). Each quest type gives you items and experience when you complete them. Quests are generally simple “kill enemies to get items that NPC wants”, and the game rarely goes much deeper than this when it comes to quests, though some quests generate more quests, especially the orpan-finding quests. Most quests aren’t needed to complete the game, but quite useful because of items and EXP.

But it is made by Ron Gilbert, so a few quests require thinking out of the box to find the solution, sometimes making it feel like an adventure game (especially one of the final quests). The game does feature a hint system though. By getting fortune cookies, you can, when you get stuck, go in your quest log and ask for a hint. Most quests allow for at least 2 hints: one that’s a bit vague, and another that tells you exactly what to do. Since the quests are generally pretty easy to do without hints (their description is generally more than enough), you’re pretty sure to have a ton of hints left when you really do need one.

One cool system I’d like to mention is the Outhouses. They act as checkpoints where you revive when you die, but you can also use them as teleporters to reach far away areas in the game (very useful in the “grind” from level 19 to level 20, or to reach areas for quests).

Overall
DeathSpank is a very entertaining game. It’s going to get you laughing a lot like the Monkey Island series did, but it’s also quite fun to play. The gameplay is simplistic enough to be accessible, but still very fun to use no matter your skill level. And playing with a friend in co-op mode is very fun as well, and it’s very easy to enter or drop out of a game on-the-fly for a second player. It’s only local multiplayer, but that’s the best type of multiplayer anyways.

There isn’t much variety in the quest style, mostly requiring to get X number of X items, but the reasons you’re doing the quests are always comedic. The fighting is fun and simple, though it can get hard if you’re not being careful. But, if you know what you’re doing and use your shield perfectly, you can pretty much go through the whole game while getting minimal damage. Though overall the difficulty isn’t very high.

There’s barely any grinding, as you get some of the best equipment playing normally (I think there might be a merchant selling the best stuff, but I didn’t need to check that) and finishing quests, so you’re pretty much sure to have mostly the best stuff before fighting the final boss. The only “grinding” is to get from level 19 to level 20 (which is the max level), and even that requires no more than an hour if you do it properly.

The lowest point of the game is the length… I played for less than 10 hours and I am done with the game, with all the side-quests and trophies done. I still feel that, for 15$, I got enough bang for my buck, but some people might feel like it’s not enough.

But still, DeathSpank is very fun and very unique, well worth checking out.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- Great graphic style
- Great voice acting
- Super funny
- Fun, simple gameplay
- A good number of quests and such

Cons
- Rather short (100%’d it in only 4 days, and I didn’t play that much in each of those 4 days)
- Quite easy, ESPECIALLY if you use the shield properly (since it blocks almost all damage)… though I didn’t use it at all and had no trouble

The Save Factor
The game is, as of the writing of this post, is 15$/1200 Microsoft Points on the PSN and XBLA. I think that there’s enough content and humor to make the game worth the price, though the short length might make it a no go for some people. So while I think 15$ is fine for this game, I’ll give it a Save Factor of 10$.

*NOTE: I still have no idea why people are comparing this with Castle Crashers… Castle Crashers is a 2D side-scrolling beat ‘em up, while DeathSpank is more akin to the Diablo series… even the humor is very different*

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So this will be a rather short review, but it’s still a game I want to comment about a bit.

So read on!

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Date of Release: April 15th 2010
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 (PS3 version reviewed)

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

Both games share some similar functions. The first is the display options. You can see the game as if it was an arcade machine, with the arcade front panel bordering the screen, or you can have the image stretch out to fill up the screen. And there’s various visual options, to have crisper/sharper graphics, or a view simulating seeing the game from a CRT screen with scanlines and all, just like playing on an actual arcade cabinet. None of those really make the games better or worse, but it’s nice to see visual filters that can make them look just a little bit better.

In addition, both games feature arcade-style online. Meaning, if you turn on the option (it’s turned on by default), people can jump into your game to help you out at total random. It only happened to me once for now, but it’s a pretty fun feature. Randomly getting help to finish a game is nice and useful. You can also invite friends to join your game. It’s a great feature for sure. The other online feature it has is the leaderboards, where you get ranked against other players depending on your score, though your number of continues used and number of lives lost, are also displayed.

Another function both games have is the Vault. After completing various conditions in-game, you get access to various pieces of art. Concept arts, comics, other art, some of which is pretty nice. And getting some of those require being really damn good at the game. Some require finishing levels really fast, or completing levels by dying as little as possible, or getting certain scores… it’s not always easy. The Vault is separate from trophies so there’s extra challenges for those.

Final Fight
Final Fight is one of the top Beat ‘em ups ever. No doubt about it. It has all the elements of a great Beat ‘em up. The nice graphics, varied enemies, simple gameplay, high difficulty, co-op gameplay… it’s just really good. The game took a slight drop in quality in its SNES incarnation. Some enemies were removed, some were renamed (Sodom renamed to “Katana”), co-op gameplay was gonna, one of the 3 playable characters just disappeared… overall it was inferior.

Here you get the actual arcade version. Poison is there, Sodom gets his proper name, there’s co-op gameplay, all 3 characters are there… This is Final Fight as it was intended to be played. Just less expensive then playing it at the arcades (if you know a place that actually has a Final Fight machine), since here you have infinite credits. But it’s still pretty hard. The fire part of the industrial stage will probably make you use a few continues to get through. Since it’s an arcade game, it was basically made to make you waste tons of money to get to the end, so in this case you’ll be using a lot of continues. And getting a good spot in the leaderboards will be a huge challenge, since using a continue resets your score.

The gameplay itself is quite simple… since it’s a Beat ‘em up. One attack button, one jump button. Hitting both buttons are once launches a special attack that hits all around you, and, if it does hit, you lose a bit of your life bar. Pressing forward while touching an enemy makes you hold the enemy and then you can hit him or throw him. The games biggest feature though is the difficulty. It’s really hard. Enemies are strong, there’s traps everywhere, and sometimes there’s so many enemies it’s hard to manage them all. So you have to learn how the AI works and what strategies to use against which enemies. It’s a simple game, but it’s tough and requires a good amount of skill to get good at.

Magic Sword
Magic Sword is a largely overlooked Capcom arcade classic. But it’s a very good game. It’s rather simple. Like Final Fight, you have one attack button, and one jump button. But it’s a lot simpler than Final Fight. It’s a side-scrolling platformer, and the goal of each of the 50 levels is to get to the end, or fight a boss. Each time you beat a boss, or reach a certain part of the tower, you get a new sword, which is more powerful and has different magic attacks.

You have one attack: swinging your sword. If you wait long enough between each strike, your magic meter increases, giving different levels of magic attacks. Each level is filled with respawning enemies, chests, and doors. The doors lead to prison cells, which you can open to liberate an ally, who, if you touch them, will follow you and attack when you do. There are 8 different allies that can follow you, each with different powers, as well as pros and cons. The only ally I found that isn’t gotten from prison cells is the Lizardman, which you must defeat, and, if you have a diamond ring equipped, you’ll be able to recruit him. Each ally can be leveled up for stronger or slightly modified attacks. You can also find items either dropped by enemies or from chests. Each item has a different effect, most of which I don’t know. Some give you protection from attacks, some make you attacks stronger, some give you better magic for a limited time. Some items are piece of equipment, and you can only have one of them at a time (picking up another removes the one you have). There’s a good variety of different effects and using the items properly or according to your style of play can really help.

Just like Final Fight, this is a hard game, especially if you want the tougher trophies and Vault challenges. While the gameplay is simple, learning exactly how your characters move and how to deal with different enemies is required to properly progress through the game. Sure, you have infinite continues, but you’ll never land a good spot in the leaderboards if you keep dying.

Overall
This is a very nice package. Not only does it include the best version of Final Fight, it also includes the very under-rated Magic Sword. Both of those games contain huge replay value, with secret to find and Vault Challenges that require getting better at them. The leaderboards alone can offer tons of replay value once you’re done with the challenges. Both games are really short with infinite continues, but you’ll keep going back to them because of how fun they are. And the inclusion of very solid online elements make both games that much more fun.

Both games are really simplistic, but really damn fun to play, and both are great experiences. Oh, and the soundtracks are remixed and they sound great.

The Save Factor
Considering getting the SNES version of Final Fight, which is much inferior to this one, would cost at least $5 (+shipping)… $10 for the best possible version of the game PLUS Magic Sword… It’s definitely worth the money. So the Save Factor is $10, the package’s full price! This is a bargain.

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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!

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The first Matt Hazard game bombed. Big time. The story of the fictional former video game icon doing a return seemingly didn’t appeal to anyone. Or maybe it was the mediocre and very buggy gameplay. Who knows?</sarcasm>

On my side, I appreciated the humor, but the game didn’t really feel right. Following the first Matt Hazard comes a new game in the series, this one going for what the first game SHOULD have been: a Contra/Metal Slug-like action platformer.

So did Matt Hazard finally find his genre of choice, or should he just give up?
Read on and see!

Developer: Vicious Cycle
Publisher: D3Publisher
Date of Release: January 7th 2010

Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 (on PSN and XBLA)

Genre: Side-scrolling action platformer
Players: 1-2
Rated M for Mature (though I have no idea why)

Looks and sounds
The character and enemy design is very basic. They didn’t get really creative on that end. The level designs are a bit better, especially the ones parodying other games, and the game brings you through a lot of different and varied areas. The graphical quality is pretty good. I’d say around the level of Shadow Complex, but a bit more cartoonish and colorful. It looks quite good.

The sound is okay. Not lots of memorable music, but nothing really bad. The voice acting is almost non-existent other than Matt’s few one-liners during gameplay. If you play in co-op, Matt has some guy with a really annoying voice as a partner… That part of the voice acting isn’t too good. The rest of the sounds are normal stuff you hear in any other game.

Story
Eat Lead got crappy reviews and low sales, therefore landed in the bargain bin(yeah, that’s actually in the game’s story). With Eat Lead, Matt couldn’t return to his former glory. To make matters worse, Matt’s sworn enemy Dr Neutronov went back in time and kidnapped Matt Hazard(8-bit version) in his first game, and plans on destroying him… which will at the same time eliminate Matt from present time and through all of video game history. So to stop this from happening, Matt goes through the Marathon Games servers in search of the evil doctor. So Matt has to go through various games stored in the servers to find him. Each game Matt goes through has corrupted code that brings in data from other games, including areas and enemies…

Yeah, that’s about it. The game uses just about the same type of humor as in the first game. Lots of references to various real games, some level designs or visual styles from other games, satire of games or even real life stereotypes. The game is fairly funny, but the humor can get old fast. Overall this isn’t a game you get for story (obviously), and the humor is really only effective on the first playthrough.

Gameplay
The gameplay is basically Metal Slug mixed with Metal Slug mixed with Contra mixed with Contra. It’s the basic Action platformer gameplay. Run to the right and shoot everything on your way. There’s nothing more satisfying that being a one-man army and killing everything in your way

There’s a few things you can do here: shoot, free-aim in any direction, jump, throw grenades, aim in the background and activate Hazard Time. The game has enemies both at the same level as you, or in the background hiding away from your normal aim, each of them shooting at you or trying to get close to you for the kill. If you’re touching a normal enemy, attacking will do a melee attack instantly killing them, unless it’s bigger monsters or boss, where you’ll just normally shoot. Aiming in the background will auto-aim towards anything that’s around the area you’re shooting in. My only problem is that you can aim upwards while playing normally, but to aim downwards you HAVE to free-aim, since pressing down normally makes you crouch (even if you’re walking)… it’s a bit annoying, especially in a particular segment of the final level.

Killing enemies and breaking boxes will make power-ups spawn. Said power-ups will either be weapons, grenades or health. Each level also has 3 NES cartridges which unlock collectibles. Grenades pickups give you 6 extra grenades, and health pickups fully heal your HP.
You start with a lame peashooter that barely does any damage, but has infinite ammo. Picking up a weapon will replace any weapon you might have equipped. Each weapon pickup gives a limited amount of ammo. Picking up another of the weapon will add to your ammo. There’s an okay variety of weapons: flamethrowers, machine guns, particle cannons, laser beams, rockets… there’s more than enough to satisfy your enemy-killing urges.

Killing enemies is obviously important. Most areas require you having to kill all enemies in the vicinity to get to the next part. Killing enemies fills up some meter. When it’s filled up, you can press a button to go in Hazard Time. It will make you invincible for a short period of time and turn your normal shot into a three-way shot, effectively turning you into a killing machine.

Difficulty
This game is REALLY hard. The first few stage or two are pretty easy to deal with, but afterwards it gets pretty crazy, especially the last one. Damn, the developers weren’t fucking around with that one. Enemies firing at you from every direction, strong enemies with powerful attacks everywhere, some able to kill you with one or two hits, and with lots of enemy respawns… This is really not an easy game to deal with. Playing co-op makes it a lot easier, but still really damn tough. It… sorta helps that, if you lose all your lives, you can steal one from your partner.

There are 3 difficulty levels. In “Wussy” difficulty, enemies don’t do much damage and you get infinite continues. The “Damn this is Hard” difficulty deserves its name. You get only a few continues (though you can get more by getting high scores), and enemies do considerably more damage (some attacks kill you in one hit). In “Fuck This Shit” difficulty, almost everything kills you in one hit, and you get no continues. On this note, the difficulty doesn’t affect how many hits enemies take, or their AI, or how many enemies and bullets there are, just the damage you take from them.

Continues restart you from where you died on your last life If you lose all your continues, you have to restart the level from the start. You have infinite “retries”, so while the game offers a huge challenge, it never becomes overwhelming. Unless you’re playing in “Fuck This Shit” mode, this really requires you to become a GOD at the game, and playing co-op with another person who is GODLY at the game if you even want a chance to get to the level bosses.

One complaint
I have one complaint with the game. In the seventh level, there’s a segment that plays like Lunar Lander (this thing)… May I ask why? It was never a really good game, and it was always needlessly hard because of crappy controls and physics… And this version doesn’t correct those problems… Before actually playing that segment, you get to practice as much as you want, which is a very good idea…. But why is it so damn hard? Before landing, you have to actually reach the landing pad in an horizontal auto-scrolling segment. The controls don’t really lend themselves well to that… Then, when you do complete the training, you think you’re ready to play the actual mission… But the game tricks you really. Now not only does the stage auto-scroll horizontally, but vertically too… AND there’s enemy turrets shooting bullets and semi-homing missiles at you. Wow… That segment really sucked. I’m sure landing an actual Lunar Lander is a lot easier AND more fun than this.

Overall
I have an honest question to the developers: why the fuck wasn’t this the first Matt Hazard game? You make a new character who, in his world, is an icon of video gaming, a badass in the Duke Nukem mold, and you put him in a Third-Person Shooter? Seriously? He SHOULD have been in an old-school style game from the start.

Anyways… The game is fun. Very much so. And it’s damn hard. The Contra/Metal Slug style of gameplay definitely fits the character a lot better than a badly done TPS. There’s some glitches at some points, and the occasional screwy hit detection or hit boxes. There’s very little slow-down though, unless there’s a ton of enemies shooting at you with some burning because you’re shooting your triple flamethrowers, but that’s not a frequent occurrence.

If you want a challenge, or if you’re a Contra/Metal Slug fan, check it out for sure.

Vicious Cycle: Continue making Matt Hazard games, but PLEASE treat him well. And maybe polish up your humor a bit.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- Challenging
- Fun to play
- Good humor the first time through

Cons
- The Lunar Lander level
- HAVING to free-aim to aim downwards

The Save Factor
It has a starting price of $15 on both XBLA and PSN. If you’re in for a really tough game, it’s well worth full price.

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Mmmm Shadow Complex I had fun times. Yeah this is kind of old news but it’s a good game damn it.

Developer: Chair Entertainment and Epic Games
Publisher: Microsoft Games Studio
Date of Release: August 19th, 2009
Platform: Xbox 360 (XBLA)
Genre: 3D Side scrolling platformer (metroidvania)
Players: 1 (with leaderboard scores)

The Graphics:
Excellent! There’s not much diversity with the goons you’ll encounter so that’s about that. They all make me think of cobra commander. The rooms are detailed. The effects are fantastic. There’s even times when the side view becomes a fully 3d environment and the perspective transition is seamless.

The Game:
There’s a lot of high production value going into this game. You can clearly see that Chair put a lot of love in here. The controls are very solid and it’s not very difficult to learn them. The game’s speed has a nice pace to it and you can move around rather quickly especially after certain upgrades. I was able to create some make shift  stairs to get me in places I shouldn’t be. It’s pretty sweet that I wasn’t completely locked out or stuck by doing this. The plot is kind of funny in a b movie way. You’re hiking over a top secret base with your girlfriend and she gets captured. You want to save her. You discover the base filled with left wing nut cases that want to get rid of the military. Yes, left wing nut cases. Socialist to the extreme! And socialism is a bad thing if you’re an American. Of course these guys are going to be shooting at you and such. They’re also going after the government.

The Arsenal:
Here’s what you have at your disposal…
The gun:
There are many versions of it but it’s what you will use mostly. And it’s quite precise!

The foam:
Once you unlock this you can build bridges to anywhere. In fact I’ve pretty much explored corners I don’t believe I was meant to get to yet by using this wonderful weapon. Of course, like all alternate weapons, you use it to destroy certain barriers too.

The grapple hook:
I didn’t use it much because I was slightly clumsy with it. I can’t say much for it other than it helped me get a stationary position on the ceiling to shoot things with!

The grenades:
After the normal gun, I pretty much spammed the crap out of this alternate weapon. In fact you get so many of these and very frequently you can probably use it on most every enemy by the end of the game.

The rocket:
This is the weapon I played least with. It just didn’t really seem to be all that much better than grenades. I also preferred lobbing grenades to shooting rockets.

The suit:
You can double jump, walk on water, breathe underwater and be invincible to weapons fire by walking. You simply have to find all these upgrades I was only missing the last one I mentioned.

The Sound:
The music and sound effects match very well with the game. The voice acting is as good as the dialog will let it be. It’s Nathan Drake from uncharted! I’d say that’s about it. Also, you’ll start loving the level up sound.

The Bottom Line:
This is a kick ass  game if this is your genre. I had a lot of fun playing it and I do not regret this purchase at all. Thanks Chair. If you feel morally guilty for supporting Card’s cause contribute to a charity that defends gay rights.

Pros:
- Fun MetroidVania style action
- The colour coding using the flash light helps you discover things a lot quicker
- Controls are solid for a side scroller built upon a 3D engine

Cons:
- You’re giving some amount of money to Orson Scott Card
- The end boss is somewhat disappointing!

The Save Factor:
The game sells at 1200 which is among the top tier of most Arcade titles out there. I’d say it’s got as much content as some retail releases so I think this is a respectable price for it. I wouldn’t mind it going at 1500 either! Now the big thing about this here title is that your money is giving some residuals to Card and this fellow spends his money on making sure that his values are held by the American government by lobbying for them with his riches. I’m sure you can find various resources on the Internet about this. In any case a lot of people over the Internet suggested donating some money to charities and such that would defend against these lobbyists. In any case, good game chair.

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Update: It blocks Canadian adresses. I will verify if I can get the code with a mock American one sometime later when I have something I really want to buy.

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