Now, I’m not about to go ahead and say that Ubisoft has reinvented the wheel here (it has not), but the first and most impressive thing that’s been done here is that the UI is so much better. Once you’re through the initial load screens and chosen between Kids and regular Dance sections you’re greeted by a lovely, white, clean UI that is less of an assault on the eyes and much more of a pleasure to navigate that the overly busy ones that went before.

All the information you could want about what you’re about to take on is given to you – song title, artist, difficulty – only now you also get a nice preview video to go along with the song giving you an idea of the horrors that await you. Not only this, but instead of the game’s workout mode being hidden away in a sub menu now you just press X to enter sweat mode. Once Sweat mode has been activated the game replaces the difficulty icon with one showing the intensity of the workout, you’ll also get indicators showing how long you’ve spent dancing to said song and how many calories you’ve burned doing so. This is all very helpful to those of us who may be piling on some unwanted excess weight and actually want to do something about it.

The game now has challenges that you can complete to earn coins which in turn go into a Gacha machine for the chance to earn bits and bobs for your dancer card. The problem is that straight from the off these challenges ask you to do things through the Just Dance Unlimited subscription, which even though you get a month’s free trial to begin with it still feels a bit shitty.

That’s right though, Just Dance Unlimited is back, offering you all the feeling of a growing platform of music to dance to while only really allowing you to play what has gone before. All Unlimited songs now have a great big icon on them stating that they’re for Unlimited subscribers only, and with the new UI all the old songs aren’t segregated into their respective game’s segments. Granted you can use the game’s search function to look for songs, but unless you specifically know the song’s title or artist you’re going to be on to a loser trying to find it in a lengthy song list. You can’t filter by title and there’s no sub menus per section.Oh, did I also mention that the search UI is based on the old PS Store letter ribbon Sony recently ditched? Good times.

Then there’s the usual dancewalls that the Just Dance development team are so fond of. Locking features away until you’ve danced the required amount of songs to get them. I still can’t get my head around why this is necessary, especially when features like the playlists (themed songs for special holiday events or ones recommended to your tastes) are pretty cool, even if the majority of the tracks are once again locked behind that darned Unlimited paywall.

I say this in every Just Dance Review now, but, I guess what really bothers me about the Unlimited thing is that it seems like Ubisoft are dabbling with the idea of a subscriber based platform. It’s a sound idea, and would really help people who love to play these games be it for parties, fitness or general enjoyment, and here it presents that case even further.

I’m not going to say that the music here is bad, but once you’ve jigged away to Liam Payne’s Familiar, or bounded around to Elton John’s I’m Still Standing you’ll find very few songs worth dancing to and songs like Mi Mi Mi or Milosc W Zakopanem are good for their novelty value but won’t really warrant return visits. On a side note there’s a Pac-man song with a video featuring dancers dressed as Pac-man and the ghosts, I couldn’t bring myself to dance to this and decided to feel ever so sorry for those dancers instead.

That’s my biggest problem with Just Dance 2019, the track list just feels so devoid of much genuine quality and when you delve into the Unlimited free trial you really see it. Whether this means I’m some sort of music hating muppet who doesn’t understand what ‘the kids’ are into these days I don’t really care, I know a song I like to groove to when I hear it, and I just didn’t feel that here.

If you really like to dance then the Just Dance games are your only real outlet these days barring going to a nightclub, getting drunk and dancing with people you fancy. I guess in the grand scheme of things Just Dance is a cheaper alternative to having a life, and comes with a fitness segment to boot. I just don’t feel that outside of the hit and miss elements of the UI redesign that Just Dance 2019 does enough to justify a new purchase after 2018, you’re probably better off getting a temporary Unlimited subscription instead.

The post Just Dance 2019 review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Without ties to any particular franchise, TT Games finally has a chance to create their own voice, and the writing is superb; it’s laugh out loud funny, and the many pastiches will entertain the older audience, such as the great Shawshank Redemption scene with the record player, or the Matrix scene where Morpheus trains Neo. It pokes fun at lots of different cop shows and police drama tropes as well, never failing to make you giggle to yourself.

Chase McCain is a fabulous lead character, reminding me of a mix between Frank Drebin, Lionel Hutz, and Ron Burgundy; he’s a buffoon, but a loveable one. Your dumb friend, Frank Honey can get annoying, as he can be overly loud, but the way everyone calls him honey had me thinking about Darling in Blackadder. Tonally, it reminds me of the Naked Gun films, and the jokes are fairly similar, so if you appreciate that kind of comedy, you’re going to enjoy this.

The world is nicely decorated, and eventually you’ll get to travel to every area of LEGO City. The missions take place within the city, but the areas they occur in have more to offer, and act as actual levels as opposed to sections of the city. Once a mission is completed, these level areas are unlocked for free play, just like all of the other LEGO games by Traveller’s Tales. Many areas of the game are also locked until you unlock the relevant skills and costumes needed, for example, being a miner will allow you to blow things up with dynamite, and being a robber will allow you to break into rooms or buildings with a crowbar.

Being a LEGO game means collectibles galore, and being an open world means a lot of collecting. It was always bad enough trying to collect all the studs in the franchise-based games, but this can be dangerous if you have to collect everything. Along with the thousands of studs, there are also the Gold Bricks, Disguises (over 250 of them), and Super Bricks. Many of the missions require a certain about of bricks to unlock, and Super Bricks can give you 1.000 or 10,000 depending on the size. At first, building the ferry can take some time as you don’t have many abilities, but the police scanner will help you locate the Super Bricks throughout the city. As you progress, it gets much easier, and with all of Chase’s uniforms, you’ll find them with relative ease (40,000 may seem like a lot to build a dragon, but it takes five or ten minutes max).

It’s not a tough game, and I think this is why it works as well as it does. A lot of the puzzles within the missions revolve around using a newly discovered skill, but they are implemented in many different ways, always attempting to mix up the gameplay. It never gets old, and although the combat remains pretty basic throughout, it’s still a lot of fun. You can even play basketball, weightlift, and at one point, there’s even a puzzle maze you have to move to get the silver ball inside from point A to point B.

One feature not in the original game was co-op, but now you can have a friend jump in whenever you want. It’s pretty great for your kids to jump into, and with the difficulty being relatively low, it’s well worth asking you son or daughter to give it a go. There are some minor lagging issues, and some of the city will pop in and out; for the most part, it’s a stable game, but there are some issues which really shouldn’t be there. Thankfully, the load times have improved (on the PlayStation 4 version anyway), and overall the game runs well, with updated visuals that make it feel like a recent release.

LEGO City Undercover is great to jump in and out of; the campaign isn’t monumentally long, and there are lots to collect once you’ve finished it. There are loads of vehicles to drive and pilot, and the different areas of LEGO City feel alive. Despite some minor technical flaws, you’ll love exploring, building, collecting, and laughing.

The post LEGO City Undercover Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

I’ve owned the PS4 version of this for a while now (one of my son’s Christmas presents) and I can say that the Switch version is aesthetically identical in every way. Every feature is here aside from the camera recording that uploads to Just Dance TV; this itself is a shame as the scrappily cut videos were always a source of unintended hilarity when you’re dripping sweat gasping for breath, but, other than that it’s the same experience as you’ll get on any other console, even to the point where if you’ve run out of Joy-Cons you can use the Just Dance app to tether your phone to it and use that as a controller.

As I’ve stated before, I’m not the best dancer, so it’s hard to tell if the game picks up my controller movements adequately enough, all things told though very few beats were missed, and my ratio of ‘Good’ to ‘Perfects’ was decent enough for me to pick up at least three stars on every track (with one five star rating, but we won’t go into that); so, it’s safe to say that how the game picks up Joy-Con movement in 3D space is good enough. All things told, despite how knackered it made me the game is pretty fun and it really brings out your competitive side when you realise your star rating is sliding under that of your seven-year-old son.

The tracklist comes in at a respectable 40 songs, with a considerable range in quality – thankfully there’s no Drum ‘n’ Bass, Garage or Dubstep, but there’s plenty of cheesy pop for you to get your teeth into. You can gyrate to Shakira’s ‘Hips Don’t Lie’, go silly with PSY’s ‘Daddy’, slow it down with Maroon 5’s ‘Don’t Wanna Know’, Whip it to Silentó’s ‘Watch me’ or go completely mental with Miku’s ‘PoPiPo’ although why you’d want to take on this ludicrous challenge is beyond me, even if you do want to see some poor Miku cosplay in action.

There’s also another 200 songs through the game’s premium service Just Dance Unlimited, for which you’ll have to pay a subscription for. You’ll find costs ranging from £3.29 for 24hrs up to £25 for a full year, and on your first use of the game you get 90 days of access to Unlimited for free, so you can try it out and see if it appeals to you before you start paying out.

This sub-service is fair enough; I mean games like this and Singstar should be platforms rather than singular games, but it does highlight that 40 tracks for £42 (lower on other consoles) isn’t really good value. You can go down to HMV and buy Now That’s What I call Music for £12, get more songs and dance away to your heart’s content without anyone judging you. Also kept being this pay-wall are the game’s mashup feature which allows you to select songs to put together in a ‘mash-up’ just to give you more of a challenge and even more gutting is the gate-keeping of a selection of kids songs; it just feels unfair to keep that away from you unless you pay more money.

The game’s topped off with a mode for using the songs as a workout routine, which is good for people who like to use dance as a means of keeping fit. The amount I was sweating from regular dancing was bad enough for me, and I wasn’t brave enough to take this on lest I not be alive to write this review. Sorry, but sacrifices must be made somewhere.

If you’ve played Just Dance before you’ll know what to expect from the 2017 installment; a bunch of new songs to gyrate your body to and make yourself look like a fool at parties, now you can take it with you and create dance parties wherever you like – what could be better? The gate-keeping of features behind the Unlimited service sticks in the craw a bit, but what Ubisoft needs to do now is stop making Just Dance games and focus more on making Unlimited a value proposition for people to get behind. But otherwise this is an enjoyable, tiring time and the way my back feels right now can attest to that.

The post Just Dance 2017 Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Here we’re treated to the story of how Spectre Knight brought the Order of Knights over to the side of The Enchantress. You’ll choose levels from a Megaman-esque selection via the Dark Portal and battle through to each area’s chosen Knight guardian, knocking seven shades out of them to have them join your ranks. This is done through the main hub of the Tower of Fate where you can exchange money and skulls for an assortment of skills (bestowed upon you by Curios) and armour upgrades. As you take down the bosses they’ll join you in the main hub granting access to other areas within which you’ll find extra pick-ups to aid you.

Spectre Knight himself is a bit of a slow walker and doesn’t really have a nimble jump (it’ll only barely clear the majority of enemies), he can, however, clamber on walls and dash attack when in the air. While this is fiddly to begin with you’ll soon be chaining wall jumps with ease to get up to some of the high points or save yourself from death by hole. The mid-air dash attack is especially handy, as all enemies and much of the scenery can be ‘attacked’ to launch Spectre Knight across the screen like an unladen swallow. You’ll need to watch how you approach them though, as the wrong angle can send you plummeting to your doom rather than sailing gracefully to the next chain point or moderate safety of a ladder.

This dash attack is invaluable for getting around, but it’s all too easy to fall back on in combat; the majority of tougher enemies can be disposed of with relative ease using it, as a successful attack on something that doesn’t die will see Spectre launched back up into the air so he can perform the attack again and again and again. Repeat use of this can see even the hardest of enemies fall with merely a flesh wound; in fact many of the bosses I was able to ignore attack patterns completely and just use airborne assaults for the entire duration, add in the curio for healing and this becomes even easier.

In games like this though the bosses come second to level design and here Yacht Club Games’ work is exemplary. Every level is constructed to eke out every ounce of your ability just to get through to the next check point; they’re filled with secret nooks and crannies to find extra cash and secret rooms to test your climbing and dashing proficiency to claim extra spoils with which to upgrade with. While each level is doable with the basic abilities, you’ll certainly find some of the levels considerably easier if you venture elsewhere to improve yourself before taking them on.

If Shovel Knight reignited your love for 8-bit platforming, then Spectre of Torment is worthy of your time. It’s challenging without being unfair and even if you’re new to this sort of thing you don’t have to go and play the prior content first before taking this on; you might even find that this will give you reason to go back and play the rest afterwards. In pure 8-bit fashion the sprites pop with detail and the excellent chiptune music will have you tapping your feet as you drop to your doom again and again. Failure should always feel this good.

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A large part of the success is the open world. So many games promise a “truly open world” and deliver on half of it, gating areas away from you, funneling you towards the objective. But Link’s adventure is up there with The Witcher 3 in offering an open world that is just so full of things to do, as well as emergent moments that will distract you for hours on end. I can’t quite say “nowhere is off limits”, because there are certain locations that require an ability to access, but the world map is open, inviting, and breathtaking.

Hyrule has never looked or sounded this pretty. Instead of bombarding you with sweeping orchestral themes (though, yes, of course those songs are included), you’re allowed to hear the ambiance. Link’s footsteps are audible (and things like rain storms will mask your footsteps), and grass will whoosh in the breeze. Occasionally a deep, foreboding piano will chime in, letting you know there may be danger ahead. But the world is allowed to breathe, just as you the player can too.

Visually it’s as though a watercolour is being painted before your eyes. There is so much to take in, from the icy cold mountain tops, to the deep rivers that can sweep you away. There are villages to explore that are full of NPCs who will offer up wisdom and quests, and there are optional boss encounters that will test you to breaking point. All of these things take place in a verdant, intoxicating world. Shooting a fire arrow into a red barrel to immediately clear out a bandit camp sends blistering fire colours everywhere, it’s like a nuclear explosion of beauty, and there’s literally no point where the visuals allow you to pick your jaw from the floor. If you can see it, you can go to it. Sometimes the size and scope causes issue, and there will be minor texture fade in. It seems like a case where some optimisation will fix things, because there are frame drops as well. They’re not going to ruin your experience, but they are frequent enough to be noticeable.

This is a mature Zelda game, but it’s one that completely respects the player. Instead of an extended tutorial, Nintendo accepts that you have played a video game before. It starts as it means to go on: quickly, without lengthy setup, and in fact it’s a few hours before the story really makes itself clear. I won’t delve too far, suffice to say that if you’ve played a game in the series before, you know what to expect. There are dungeons and boss battles, and you will collect heart containers to increase your health. This time you also have a stamina bar (or circle, as it actually is) which controls how far you can run or climb. Smartly, this stamina doesn’t affect your standard battling, so don’t worry about that.

It’s also a harder game, and probably the hardest Zelda to date. Enemies are not messing around, and while you can go anywhere, that means you can run into things that you perhaps aren’t ready for. A generous auto-save means that you’ll never lose too much progress, but there were many times I would find something that was too strong for me, and almost instantly die. Similarly, the weather can kill you: a lightning storm is one of the most visually arresting moments in the game, but that lightning can strike you dead.

Despite being an enormous game, Breath of the Wild keeps combat fresh by allowing you to use pretty much anything from a Soup Ladle to a Sword to fight with, and each changes up how you fight. Traditional sword and board is an option, but you could also go double handed with a larger, more powerful weapon. Your bow and arrow is useful for stealth, but all of your weapons will expire with repeated use – even the bows. One thing that may annoy some people (but I didn’t find to be an issue) is the lack of inventory space for weapons. Given that they lose durability pretty quickly, it’s a good thing you can upgrade your storage space, but it can sometimes become a game of managing your space.

Elements play a larger part, because enemies have specific weaknesses and strengths. It’s nothing new to the world of gaming, but it plays into the cooking aspect. Around the world you can forage for foodstuffs, bugs, ore, and items that enemies will drop when slain. All of these can be combined in some way to buff you. Maybe you want to be more stealthy, or stronger (temporarily boost your heart counter by one), quicker (haste), or perhaps you just need to up your heat resistance or freeze resistance – regardless, you can make potions and food that will both heal you and buff you.

There’s plenty of surprises hidden off the beaten path, but the main dungeons and the shrines are the biggest overall draw. Shrines are puzzle based mini-dungeons which offer a reward at the end. They vary from combat tests to puzzles, and every four shrines completed allows you to upgrade either your heart count, or your stamina bar. The main dungeons, as you’d expect, are larger affairs and are story based. One early (relatively early, anyway) dungeon had me pretty stumped, so they’re not easy. Runes that you get early on are usually required to solve the puzzles, but they can be a bit fiddly sometimes.

As well as being mature, this is also a very modern take on Zelda. You can still get a sword out and cut the grass, but instead of random Rupees, you’re more likely to find a cricket or grasshopper to catch for your tea. Everything feels very smooth and responsive, even down to the slow motion you can use if you pull your bow out while jumping. A menu system that lets you choose quests and side quests (and more) make it feel right up to date, and you can even look through your Sheikah Stone (it’s basically a tablet, but obviously not, because that’d be weird) to tag things in the distance you want to come back to later.

But really, I’m scratching the surface here. You can train your horse so that it is more responsive in the wild. You can search out items that will help you buy better weapons. Christ, there are even simple bandit camps that, if cleared out, will reveal a treasure chest. There are towers that are a challenge to climb; they require stamina management, and will reveal the map and give you a fast travel point when assailed. Some of this might seem like standard open world fare, and it is, sort of, but it’s the cohesion to this Hyrule that makes it all stick together.

This a world you will want to get lost in, and take your time doing so. I want to tell you more, I want to talk for hours about this game, but I also want you to experience as much of it as fresh as you can. It’s hard to pinpoint why Breath of the Wild hit me so hard, let alone brought a lump to me the first time the visual style was revealed to me, but this game is pure magic – Nintendo magic. The difference, though, is this time it’s a modern game, and yet somehow also one of the best I’ve played in a very long time.

I do not say this lightly: Breath of the Wild is an absolute masterpiece, and may well be the best The Legend of Zelda game ever made. Having grown up playing those first games as a child on a system I remember fondly, it feels extra special to be playing a new Zelda on a new console; that I can’t deny, and there are flaws (it’s not perfect), but otherwise, this is everything I wanted it to be and more. I won’t forget Breath of the Wild for a long time, because it’s a memorable, beautiful, stunner of a game.

The post The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

The setup at the beginning is minimal: you are a small probe sent to an alien planet to catalogue and scan it to find its secrets. Upon deployment something goes wrong and you crash land and are stranded alone. Once you awaken and gain control of your little probe, you glide around the map looking for a way out. Early on you find another probe that has been all but destroyed, leaving only one component that you can absorb and utilise. This discovery provides your probe, a delightful anthropomorphic thing faintly reminiscent of EVE from Pixar’s WALL-E, with a shield that can be pulsed to ward off the alien fauna that periodically attacks you. If you are hit you lose energy, but if you manage to kill one of the enemy types, upon their death, they leave little orbs of power that replenish your meter. Later power ups include a small bomb that you can fire off in any direction by pulsing your shield as well as a turbo boost and other skills to help you navigate the environment.

While not immediately obvious, the storytelling is deliberately nebulous, forcing you to investigate in order to proceed. Like all games of this type, there are a variety of ways that you can head out, however inevitably you will come to an area that you cannot progress in because you have yet to locate the power required in order to move forward, so expect a lot of backtracking as is common in this type of game. In addition there is an underlying mystery to the planet and there are a number of areas that initially make no sense to you. These areas are not communicated as such and early on frustration can creep in as the answers are not readily available and it isn’t obvious immediately that you don’t have the answers at that particular time. To compound this, Forma.8 provides little to no tutorial or hints at all, other than advising the relevant button to press to activate a particular power. Even the menu system is a series of geometric shapes and numbers that are not immediately obvious to parse.

The way the game communicates to you is significant as I don’t feel it is entirely successful at the beginning. Some of the early game puzzles and the first boss fight feel a little obtuse with the solution coming a little too left-field to be immediately obvious, particularly in light of the way the game teaches you to play at first. This is potentially a major stumbling block as it comes very early on in the game, however you are more than rewarded for your perseverance because Forma.8 is a stunningly beautiful game.

The visual presentation is utterly gorgeous with a wonderful use of shadow to create depth and lighting effects. The background is a collage of shapes that give life and mystery to the alien planet, and there is a real sense of place with a living planet teaming with life and remnants of a forgotten civilisation. The probe glides around the environment serenely, a small particle trail snaking around behind it gracefully and when in water the movement is slowed down and there is a real sense of the viscosity of it. When Forma emerges from the water there is a feeling of the drag required to exit it complete with a little “plop” noise. The soundtrack complements it all perfectly with little piano notes when collecting energy and waves of electronic music that ramp up in high pressure situations.

The creatures you come across are not necessarily hostile, their behavior is more inquisitive, but unfortunately they do have the power to harm you. You can kill them to replenish your energy, but other than removing them so that you can focus on a particular task there is very little requirement for you to do so: the focus is far more on exploration and the limited means that Forma has to protect itself confirms this.

Forma’s movement is momentum based and this is used to great (and sometimes frustrating) effect on a variety of environmental and timed puzzles. Teasing the thumb sticks just enough to generate movement in one direction, but not too much that a quick change in the other direction becomes a harder prospect. During boss fights the momentum of Forma can become a challenge: trying to line up your bombs to pulse them at an enemy or to escape through a sequence of tight narrow spaces cleanly without wasting too much time knocking into the walls creates moments of frustration when you fail but joy when you finally manage to pull the manoeuvre off.

Forma.8 is a challenging game, which isn’t helped by early communication issues, but it does reward persistence with a colourful and alive world to explore. The design is wonderfully accomplished with gorgeous visuals and complex and interesting puzzles. Your little probe manages to convey pathos despite being completely expressionless so much so that I felt quite attached to it as I progressed further in the game. The core mystery of what the alien planet has to offer is a key driving force behind much of your compulsion to move forward and, while frustration does rear its head at times, there is always something new and delightful to discover. Forma.8 has been worth the wait then, and is absolutely worth your time.

The post Forma.8 Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Toby’s quest is a fairly simple one from there: track down the big chap, or chaps as it turns out, and rescue his fellow villagers who’ve been scattered across the game’s twenty-one 2D levels. You’ll encounter many of the red-eyed fiends throughout the game but strangely, considering they’re much bigger and often armed with bombs or bows and arrows, they always flee from Toby. It’s never really explained why they fear him or, in fact, why they kidnapped his friends in the first place. Not the most enthralling plot, but it does give you the choice of two endings.

Right off the bat you’ll notice that the art style is lovely, although not very original in a time when indie games such as Limbo and Badland have already come and gone. It’s very much inspired by both titles–black silhouette represent both the play area and the creatures that inhabit it, with glowing white or red eyes distinguishing living creatures from scenery and friend from foe. The backgrounds are the only stand out feature in the visuals department, with vibrant colours giving a stark contrast to the monotone foreground and, as you progress, these are regularly exchanged to highlight the varied areas of the game; orange for desert, green in the forest and so on.

The gameplay is pretty basic too, but that’s standard fare for a puzzle platformer like this. Again, it’s very similar to Limbo with your only actions being move, jump or interact with levers, though occasionally you’ll stumble across a puzzle that pops onto screen and blocks your path forward. Initially Toby: The Secret Mine seems like a very relaxed little game, and one I expected to really enjoy, with your character slowly plodding along, searching for darkened areas that hide Toby’s “friends” and puzzle solutions without much danger, but around a third of the way through, the difficulty steps up massively.

Sadly, a lot of the time this isn’t the result of tricky platforming or mind-boggling puzzles but simply because the game starts killing you. You’ll regularly walk into unexpected traps and spikes and enemies start to pop out of the ground without warning, meaning you’ll have to redo that section until you learn to avoid all of the dangers. In a fast paced game, such as Super Meat Boy, I could get on board with the difficulty but it just feels tedious when at odds with Toby’s leisurely trot. At times, puzzles will also fail to supply you with any information from which to glean a solution, so you just have to keep doing things wrong until you guess the correct answer. It almost feels like some of this was added to slow players down in a bid to drag out the game making it seem far longer than it actually is. At a measly two hours, there’s not a lot of value for money here.

To top it off, the regular bugs make the adventure even less enjoyable. Throughout my time with Toby he often become caught on the corners of objects, once couldn’t move at all after respawning and twice reappeared underneath the level meaning I had to restart on all three counts. Bizarrely, Toby can also be dragged to his death by moving platforms when he is clearly no longer touching them.

Taking all that into account, it’s difficult to recommend Toby: The Secret Mine. It’s clear that a lot of effort has gone into the game’s aesthetic but even that lacks originality. The bugs, uninteresting story and tedious gameplay do not make it an any more memorable experience. There’s really nothing here that other games in the genre haven’t done before, and done better.

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You play as Shantae, a half-genie who wakes up and finds herself in a secret cave. You are warned that evil is coming. This leads to you explore the small settlement of Scuttle Town, where the lush visuals of Half-Genie Hero begin to blow you away–everything is so smooth and lovely. Your aim is to help your Uncle build a dynamo with parts that are scattered across various locations–all of which form the basis of the numerous stages you must play through, and the stunning environments that you will encounter.

Shantae isn’t just some generic platformer protagonist though. She whips people with her hair and dances into various forms with the press of a button. There’s a relic system in place letting you tweak gameplay further as well. Each level has its own set of secrets that sometimes require revisiting in order to unlock even more transformations. This adds replay value but also means backtracking, something which I’m not a fan of. Shantae doesn’t just use her hair though. You can buy spells and various other upgrades using gems at the item shop in the main hub to make gameplay more exciting. Boss fights are also fun, and have interesting mechanics at play. The grandness of each one make boss fights enjoyable, albeit frustratingly difficult in some cases. The aesthetic style for bosses and their animations are fantastic, however.

Speaking of aesthetics, this is Shantae’s first adventure built for HD from the get-go. A lot of retro-style games lose some of their charm during the transition to high definition. Half-Genie Hero is beautiful, and performs great on both PlayStation 4 and Vita. The great idle animations are icing on the cake.

Music is very important in games and the soundtrack here is catchy and one that you will want to listen to after completing your adventure. Jake “virt” Kaufman composed the score for one of my favourite games of all time with Shovel Knight, and his work in Half-Genie Hero is equally exceptional. The voice acting is also great but I wish there was more–it’s unfortunate that WayForward couldn’t meet the full voice acting stretch goal for this project. I’m even sadder that I had no idea about this game during its initial funding period, otherwise I would have backed it.

WayForward has made quite a name for themselves with this franchise online and I finally see why. Half-Genie Hero has enough depth to satiate hardcore platforming fans, but is also accessible enough for anyone to just pick up and play. The dialogue delivery and writing deserve a special mention. I even love that the main hub even has a bath house that has someone offer hints if you’re stuck.

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is a must play for any fan of 2D platformers. I’m glad XSEED decided to do a limited retail release for this because it more than deserves it. It may have released near the end of 2016 but you’d be doing yourself a favour by starting 2017 off with Half-Genie Hero.

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Its description claims it to be inspired by “90s platforming goodness” and I expect the developer would like to think that Mekazoo has elements of Sonic, Donkey Kong Country, etc, and if you squint really hard you might see hints of those iconic franchises in there somewhere, but it soon becomes apparent that it’s more akin to those average, early 2000s efforts.

You start the game as a mechanised armadillo, rolling around levels like a low budget, neon (this game loves its neon) Sonic the Hedgehog. You’re in some kind of facility, chasing an evil frog until you eventually have to fight it. You know the frog must be evil, because it’s red. The boss fight that follows is interesting, but a little awkward due to the controls and physics not quite fitting the situation. These issues become even more pronounced when you take control of the frog, as defeating bosses sees you taking control of those mechanical animals. The frog’s bounding is imprecise, in a game that requires precision for ninety percent of its duration, but it sometimes makes up for it once you realise that the frog’s tongue can be used like a rope, swinging you from grapple point to grapple point.

The third animal also has these control issues. Playing as a wallaby, its bounding is even more imprecise than the frog, and its special ability is to jump even higher (and wall jump) which just makes things worse. The wallaby’s jumps don’t always work properly either, which can lead to many, many deaths thanks to the glitchy controls. There are moments when you need to jump from wall to wall, going quite high, and sometimes the jump doesn’t register and you’re left hitting the wall before falling back down. Restarting sections like this just whittles away at your patience.

It does have an interesting switching mechanic though, which allows you to switch between the creatures you’ve unlocked to solve environmental puzzles. This usually boils down to switching on-the-fly, often requiring quick thinking to avoid death, and it can work quite well at times. The nice thing about it, is that you’re given set pairs to work with. This means that levels are designed around those specific pairings, but also contain challenges that require extreme patience if you want to find all the secrets and collectibles dotted throughout each level.

Speaking of challenges, each level offers challenges such as killing all of a certain enemy, as well as finishing it without dying or within a certain time limit. Each completed challenge rewards you with a gear, essential in unlocking later levels. This kind of progression system is archaic and can end up blocking many players from finishing the game, despite being able to finish all the levels available to them. Why do games still do this in 2016? It also doesn’t help that finding new levels can be a chore, as even the hub worlds are poorly designed and confusing to navigate. You can spend a few minutes fumbling around a hub, only to stumble across a level you can’t actually play yet.

The levels you can play before you inevitably end up having to go back to replay older ones, have some real design problems too. The first of which, noticeable very early on, is down to the visual style. Your characters often blend into the background and that already makes it an issue, and when you’re needing to make decisions quickly but can’t see your character? Poor design. Now, one of the boss levels is so badly designed that I genuinely needed to take a break before attempting it again. It sums up the bad design of both level and character movement, and brings to mind a third design flaw that makes this battle all the more infuriating: checkpoints.

Mekazoo’s checkpoints are so badly placed (or worse: not placed at all) that you’re often forced to replay sections of a level over and over, thanks to a combination of all three design problems. You might get through a particularly tough area, then the wallaby will decide not to wall jump, dropping you to your death, only to find that you’re forced to retry that tough area again due to the horrendous checkpoint placement. Again, how is this a thing in 2016? There’s no excuse for this.

Mekazoo is not a terrible game. It shows genuine flashes of fun, and its characters are colourful and cute, and that’s why I will compare it to those average early 2000s games mentioned at the beginning of this review. The fact that it repeats the mistakes of those games, released two generations ago, shows that Mekazoo is a game out of time.

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Exile’s End’s premise reminded me of VVVVVV in a lot of ways. You start out alone on a planet after everyone in the crew has been spread out on a mission, and everyone escapes the ship in pods when things take a turn for the worst. You have no power-ups or weapons and your suit power is low. This method of creating difficulty by restriction is something not many games get right.

Most games released today don’t rely on you actually trying to move the camera down by holding and waiting a few seconds, and this is something I picked up on immediately. I’m used to doing this, but many modern gamers probably won’t be and this is will end in frustration. Exile’s End’s opening is too old school for its own good: you initially take a lot of fall damage and have to navigate through multiple screens of areas with just a few rocks until you actually get a power-up that disables fall damage. I feel like the addition of a proper weapon initially would have made the opening much more palatable.

The old school aesthetic extends to how cutscenes are shown off as well, and I couldn’t keep track of how many times I was reminded of the SNES era design and even early PC games in the 90s with Exile’s End. Power through the opening and you will get a proper old school Metroidvania game that is worth experiencing.

The visual and audio design is really true to the era Exile’s End is going for. It isn’t as polished as, say, Axiom Verge, but I really like some of the things the developers added to take you back to a simpler time. There’s a CRT filter akin to what Retro City Rampage has with intensity options that I turned all the way up, of course. The sound effects really shine while the music is a tad disappointing. I can’t imagine myself listening to the music outside the game and I enjoy doing that with most games I play.

Exile’s End is absolutely worth playing if you’re looking for an old school game that pulls no punches. I wish the opening section was a little more forgiving because most people will probably drop it without powering through to reach the fun part. I hope the developers consider tweaking the opening area and even allowing for manual saving instead of the auto save system in a patch.

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This version of Mario’s world is formed entirely of paper or card, and the lifeblood that runs through everything is paint. Arriving at Port Prisma our intrepid travellers find out that Shy Guys are terrorising the place, sucking the coloured gloop out of everyone and everything and essentially freezing stuff in time, restoring paint to the item or person brings said object back to ‘life’. Color Splash has Mario flanked by sentient paint can Huey as they venture across Prism Island looking to restore colour to the world and the evil (Bowser, obviously) that plagues it.

Like previous Mario RPGs, Color Splash is complimented with a sharply written script, as you explore Prism Island you’ll meet a wonderful cast of characters – from postal workers to superheroes – and barely one goes by without some sort of quip that’ll have you giggling madly to yourself. It’s never afraid to poke fun either at itself or at the legacy of the characters that make up its cast (a spot of paranormal activity has a bunch of Toads hankering for the taller brother and Peach keeps Mario up to speed of her whereabouts ensuring he is not frustrated by an ‘another castle’ message). It isn’t easy to be consistently funny over a long period, but here, more laughs are delivered per hour than almost any other game; it’s excellent work and a true credit to the writers and localisers.

The tried and tested platform-RPG structure once again returns here, with you guiding your 2 dimensional plumber through a series of 2.5D courses punctuated by semi-RPG style battles. What’s interesting here is that Intelligent Systems are never afraid to flip the script and do something different. Some courses can be completed with no fighting at all, some battles are fought against single large enemies while others see you up against a horde of diminutive goombas; many times, checking the environment can lead to a very cost effective way to clear an enemy group. Boss battles also change things up and are more like puzzles requiring you to figure out what particular combination will open up the enemy to a devastating attack.

In a world where paint is literally life the stuff comes out of pretty much everything. Hitting scenery causes paint to be deposited on the floor for Mario to pick up and replenish his supply. You’ll need to use it to repaint colourless spots within the worlds, which result in coins to pick up or cards to collect, which are how you attack within the battles. Each turn sees you select which card you want to attack with, you then need to use paint to colour it in and then flick it into play to fight. Each attack can then do extra damage by pressing A at the right time to prolong the damage, plus the more paint you’ve used on the card the more hurt you’ll pile on.

It’s a fairly decent system: the cards come in several distinct flavours – jump, hammer, flower power, ally and more – which will be very familiar to Paper Mario veterans; these are complimented by ‘Thing’ cards. ‘Things’ are dotted about the landscapes and are like ‘real’ objects in a land of paper. Fire extinguishers, ice picks, piggy banks… all these can be found and squeezed into a card, which can then be used in battle with a huge special attack that can either change the course of battle in an amazing way or have specific uses within the courses themselves to solve puzzles.

The problem with the battle system though is the fiddliness of it all. Having to select a card then press a button, then paint it, then press a button and finally flick it had me regularly forgetting to do one part of the sequence, and it never ceased to frustrate me. This probably stemmed from the fact that when playing on the TV my attention was split between it and the gamepad, and as such I would miss a step and have to look back down and do it again. When I was using off TV play (such a great thing) this problem was all but eliminated.

Colour Splash also isn’t helped by a camera that can’t be moved or adjusted in any way. Granted, it frames the papercraft worlds beautifully, but on regular occasions set dressing would obscure environmental elements that you kind of need to see, like jumps or colourless spots. Colourless spots are probably the more annoying of the two, as it’s hard to line yourself up just right to hit them in one shot, and you can end up wasting paint with more than one hit on ones you can see, let alone the ones you can’t due to an errant tree.

I can’t bitch and moan about that too much though, as the rest of the game is just so damn good. It’s really nice to put myself in front of a nice, colourful, happy game. Oh, and then there’s the music. Koji Kondo’s score is an absolute delight to listen to. The sad trumpets if you get attacked during a fight instigation to the way the music starts to waver if your health gets critically low, it’s sound design par excellence and I guarantee you’ll catch yourself humming any one of the tunes at all times.

Colour Splash is just another in a long line of great exclusive games for Nintendo’s beleaguered Wii U system, which will soon be replaced by the upcoming NX. It won’t be played by as many people as it should, and that’s sad. It’s not going to be a system selling title, but Wii U owners owe it to themselves and to Nintendo to play this.

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Here, Bruce Wayne is struggling to come to terms with the news about his parents and their ties to crime. If Realm of Shadows’ goal was to allude to Thomas and Martha’s illegal past, Children of Arkham downright exposes it. The episode is all about revelations, and my God, are there some zingers. The story starts off on crime alley, and off the bat (no pun intended) you’re given some really sad information about Bruce’s parents. Telltale has some great ideas and their vision of Batman and his family is original and interesting.

The Batman comics never shy away from tragedy or death, but Children of Arkham sees some pretty shocking moments. You may not be surprised with what happens, but they’re still big moves. One such moment made me almost shit myself because I wasn’t expecting it, especially in the sudden way it happens. After finishing the episode, I’m fully trusting of where Telltale takes the story; they may have started off a bit wobbly, but it now feels like they’ve gained control of a sinking ship and I’m very happy with where the story’s going.

It’s commendable how Telltale is focusing on many of the smaller characters within the Batman universe. There’s no sign of the Joker, Riddler or Robin, and I’m ok with it. We may end up seeing them in later episodes or even in another series, but things are good without them. I’m still not a fan of how the Penguin has been introduced in the two episodes to date, mainly because Oswald was better as a crime boss and not Bruce’s childhood friend. If you want to feature characters from Bruce’s younger years, bring in Roman Sionis or Thomas Elliot. A minor criticism maybe, but Black Mask and Hush are much better villains to lead with, especially with how Oswald Cobblepot doesn’t have much of a personality beyond his generic craziness.

Telltale Games prides itself on decisions and how the story changes depending on what you choose to do in certain situations. I can’t remember any of the decisions from last month’s episode, and it was one of the reasons I hadn’t liked it that much. Children of Arkham features a few tough choices and you’ll likely struggle with them. One of the choices you have to make had me entertaining both outcomes, and even when I made my mind up I felt back for contemplating both paths. Being Batman is hard, and putting you in his mindset gives the character a new dimension.

Some of the visuals in Children of Arkham are impeccable: the Batcave is immaculately designed and detailed, and the general colours provide a nice pop to every environment. The voice-acting is on point for most of the episode, but I still can’t get to grips with Troy Baker’s Batman voice. Much like Bale’s in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, it’s too gruff and comical.

Children of Arkham is a great episode, and it’s opened up the world of Batman to allow plenty more shocks as the series goes on. As the episode concludes, we’re shown something deplorable from someone never associated with heinous acts, and it’s going to make a big difference. Bruce Wayne’s life has always been about juggling balls and spinning plates, but now his own legacy is in tatters and you’re free to watch Telltale work wonders with it.

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There is no respite and you’re constantly in the thick of it, whether you have to shoot your way out of a sticky situation, or the environment around you is conspiring to take you out, every second is a constant struggle and it isn’t pleasant. I’m happy to be challenged, but I feel the game is too hard. Games should be accessible for everyone, but RIVE isn’t aimed at everyone. It’s aimed at those who love demanding games and like nothing more than near impossible encounters. I’ve played many games over the years and many have presented some gruelling tasks, but most of the time you feel a great satisfaction when you manage to beat them or get past an area.

Take Bloodborne for example. At first you may struggle to get past a boss, but at least you’re given the chance to grind, level up and equip the necessary weapons to give yourself a chance. Beating every boss in that game was euphoric, and you truly felt you’d accomplished something with a burning inside to keep going and keep fighting. RIVE doesn’t do this correctly, and even though you can upgrade your ship and purchase new weapons and abilities, they never feel like they help you, especially when you’re constantly bombarded with wave after wave of enemies. I never felt satisfied or happy that I’d progressed, just frustrated and irritated.

Controlling your ship in RIVE and firing your cannons is reactive and straightforward. It’s a twin-stick shooter, so those familiar with this style of game should have no problems. The weapons you’ve upgraded are available at the push of a button and can be restocked when you find a crate that’s fallen out of one of your enemies. You can hack certain things
such as enemy turrets and medic spheres to use for your own gain, and it’s not complicated to do so, even when you’re in the middle of a heated fight.

The environments are wonderfully designed, though, and you’ll always encounter new challenges. Laser beams, gravity globes, lava and rocket launching cubes are only the beginning; there’s lots to weave between and destroy, but you’re always pushed to succeed through a plethora of different ways. When it’s really kicking off, the colours and the light fill your TV screen, making the chaos and the panic look glorious. Being as difficult as it is, the visuals are the last thing you’re focusing on and it can be hard to see anything other than where the next shot is coming from.

That’s what’s so frustrating about it: the visuals are gorgeous and the variety of set pieces are sublime. It’s just painfully tough and I didn’t feel like I was getting any support whatsoever. I guess this all boils down to what type of gamer you are and what you want from a game. I adore a challenge and I love the satisfaction you get from beating those moments that are a constant thorn in your side, but RIVE takes it to the next level. The beginning difficulty is hard, and it only gets more extreme the further you progress. There will be plenty of people that seek out this kind of game for the strain it puts on your psyche, but I’m sure the majority will give up after a little while.

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Your avatar is a geometric shape that morphs into a triangle when you jump, becomes a circle when you move and transforms into a square when you are stationary. Controls are simple, you move left and you move right, occasionally you jump, often you will fall, and when you do, you explode in a crescendo of white noise and images. When things are going slightly better you are treated to monochromatic, psychedelic backgrounds that jump and fizz in time with the pumping electronic soundtrack.

Everything is minimalist. There are no instructions on how to play or what you are required to do; everything is introduced to you as you explore. You move your avatar around the environment trying to find balls of colour that act as a key to return to a repository of sorts, or a door. Upon doing so, the screen will explode with the colours of the item you have returned and the background will change to reflect the new palette. The structure of the environment doesn’t change, but with each new level, areas you couldn’t access before become available.

Death, or the white noise, comes regularly as there are moving platforms that disappear and reappear in time with the beats of the music, which act as a kind of metronome for the action. Platforming then becomes a feeling, jumping in time with the beats and flourishes. As the levels become more difficult, the music becomes more complex and more layered and it is here that I began to struggle. I am not musically gifted and my ability to take in aural instruction is growing weaker as I get older, and so later stages of 140 became crushingly difficult. The simplicity of the design and the beautiful way it introduces the mechanics to succeed, however, makes it a game I wanted to get better at. I wanted to learn the pattern of the disappearing and re-appearing platforms, to find the rhythm in the music and make progress.

At the end of each level (three in total) you are presented with a boss battle, and all the mechanics you have learned up to this point come in to play. Boss battles are reminiscent of old school arcade shooters like Space Invaders, and change the way you play entirely. Now you need to incorporate spatial awareness as you jump, and avoid the geometric “bullets” of the boss. Timing is everything, not only to avoid death, but to line up your weapon that phases in and out in time with the heavy synths of the soundtrack. The process is curiously frustrating, but satisfying at the same time, as the battle becomes an exercise in feeling your way to victory through the combination of aural and visual inputs.

Once you complete all three levels and defeat the bosses you unlock a Hardcore mode that will truly challenge all you have learned. It’s a one-life-only affair that will return you immediately to the main menu should you fail at any point. It’s aggravating, and will really only appeal to the musical and mathematical savants or the eternally masochistic players who revel in a challenge.

Clocking in at around an hour’s worth of play, depending on your skill of course, 140 is a cold and mathematical, yet beautiful, sensory platforming experience. There is no story, only movement that leads to success or failure. It is a game that is simple in its purest form, from the monochromatic visuals to the simple geometry of your avatar, to the beats of the soundtrack. It won’t appeal to everyone, but for those who excel in spatial and aural awareness, 140 isn’t a bad way to spend an hour.

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Armikrog is a claymation point-and-click adventure from the creators of Earthworm Jim, a combination which sounds great on paper, and it follows the story of an astronaut called Tommy and his weird dog Beak Beak, who’ve crash landed on a planet, I think, and now have to do something on it? Escape maybe? I’m not really sure, as it’s all just quite forgettable from the off-set. There might be something about Tommy’s home world coming to an end and his brother astronauts dying. I think. Maybe.

As I mentioned, Armikrog does get off to a perfect start, opening with a catchy theme song that gives off strong vibes of 90s Saturday morning cartoons, and I actually thought I was going to be in for a treat. The song sets a fun tone and makes it seem that Armikrog will be a mad, enjoyable ride, but that feeling quickly disappears, even if the music does consistently remain really good and quite unique.

With Armikrog being a throwback to the point and click adventures of old, it’s certainly reminiscent of classics like Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango with the absurdity of the puzzles. But what Armikrog does is prove just how well those two and other classics were made, as even if you were never able to solve one of their puzzles, when you finally found out the answer it did (in the majority of cases) at least make a degree of sense. In Armikrog there is no rhyme, reason or logic to any of the puzzles, and if it wasn’t for a guide I’d still be on the very first one. It expects you to jump through hoops and be able to read the developers’ minds, because there are no clues on the screen as to how you get to the places where different puzzles are, let alone be able to actually solve them. Then even when I cheated to find out the answers to the puzzles, they were just so dull and uninspiring that it felt pointless even doing them, because there was very little reward in terms of story for doing so.

I’m all for developers looking into the past and being inspired by classic genres of old to create new things, we all love that nostalgia buzz, but advances in game design and theory really should be fused with the styles and genres of old. The puzzles in Armikrog are just plain bad, and there isn’t even an in-game hint system to help solve them.

One saving grace, along with the great soundtrack, is the wonderful art style that even gives Wallace and Gromit a run for its money. The claymation looks really good in Armikrog, and every character looks cool and different. The cutscenes are also really well done, as they have that nice stop motion look that’s satisfying to watch. The art styles often change too when you enter some specific rooms and tunnels and they help to keep things interesting and fresh. A really bright colour palette and lots of weird and imaginative creatures, like a bug with pincers that is also Abraham Lincoln, do make the world of Armikrog interesting to be in at least, it’s just a shame that the monotonous puzzles let it down.

Armikrog could have been really good, especially with the people behind it, but a complete lack of logic in the puzzles and the little reward for actually completing them made it frustrating to play. If you want to dive back into the past or you’re looking for a new point and click adventure that will get your nostalgia sensors tingling, then you may well get something out of this, but you should probably just go and play one of the classics instead.

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Things seem to be moving along at a much faster pace now that the stories are being told within one episode, and this feeling is helped on considerably with Access Denied being another short episode and with no late title sequence. The credits appear immediately with an extended montage of the gang running into and out of the various portals leading to strange worlds. Once we do get control again, our friends enter a new portal and the story begins.

I was disappointed with the last entry, A Portal to Mystery, as I felt that the fan element with the introduction of the YouTube “stars” detracted a little from the quality of the first few episodes. I am pleased to say that Access Denied is a better overall entry than the previous one with a fun storyline and some quite clever little jokes. However, I still feel that the smaller, self-contained stories are exposing the pointlessness of the decision-making process that characterises Telltale’s style. It is hard to feel anything about the choices you make because the story ploughs on regardless of the decisions you make. Despite this, Access Denied is still fun to play.

Our team begins their journey in a barren land, this time set in the Mesa biome, and we are quickly introduced to a mystery in the form of zombies in the daylight. Our friends find a village (again, beautifully detailed with lots of new ideas for buildings to try in your own Minecraft worlds) and it seems the villagers are themselves a form of zombie or automaton with strange redstone circuitry in the back of their heads. It is then down to our band of heroes to solve the mystery of why villagers are acting this way, fix it and then find their way out again to finally get home.

As with A Portal to Mystery, Access Denied has a number of nods to other genres of storytelling, and as mentioned before, some lovely little in-jokes about gaming in general. There is Ivor’s quip about getting out of trouble using “[…] the power of our imagination”, referencing the ‘make your own story’ nature of Minecraft itself; then there is the baddie that borrows heavily from the likes of Portal, as well as a delightful little skit on the forthcoming virtual reality functionality of games like Minecraft. It’s a pleasant little story, made charming by the animation and characters we’ve been with since the start, even if it doesn’t feel all that original.

Access Denied also does a good job of quickly building up the character of the mystery woman our friends find. The short runtime doesn’t allow a lot of room to do this, but there are some really interesting techniques that Telltale use to try to get as much information about her as possible without endless dialogue trees. It is moments like that where the game does stand out and it’s a shame that these additional episodes haven’t been given a bit more time to be more fully fleshed out as there is some talent on display. As it stands, Access Denied, as with those episodes before it, feels a little rushed.

The shorter run time means that there isn’t an awful lot of interactivity to be had — there is some mild problem solving, some crafting, a few fight sequences and thankfully not many conversation trees. The lack of this branching dialogue feels welcome as it allows for a smoother pace, but on the other hand, makes you feel a little short changed in the ‘game’ department.

Access Denied is a better episode than the previous one. The story, although not original, is fun with some strong character moments and a few decent action set pieces, but the length and lack of interactivity overall could make you question the value of these standalone episodes. Once again, I am sure that young fans will delight in what is on offer here but there is no escaping the feeling that Access Denied and previous episodes could have been much better had there been more time allocated to producing them.

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It feels quite strange, actually, coming back to the game that kickstarted the love affair with this series for us game playing folks. LEGO Star Wars was the first game most of us played and loved, and I’ve been heavily critical of the amount of games that have been made with that “LEGO” prefix (almost as annoying as having to capitalise LEGO every time), especially when you get single movies getting their own game, as opposed to the situation with a series like Harry Potter, where six films were dolled out over two games. With that all in mind, it’s in the back of my head that people will be reading this to find out what’s new for The Force Awakens (there are new bits), and which games are my favourites (Dimensions, Harry Potter, Star Wars – in that order) so they can check the score and judge if this is for them.

Firstly then, what’s new? The most surprising new addition is the cover shooting sections. Yes, you read that right, and no, I’m not taking the mick. Pre-defined sections will have cover you hide behind, whereby you hold the left trigger to pop out, and then hammer square (PS4) or right trigger to fire. You can move the reticule if you want, but otherwise it’ll auto-lock to the nearest enemy. These are quite cool, in fairness, but like much of the series, because there’s no penalty for death (save losing some studs, that is) they aren’t quite as exciting as they could be, despite trying to change it up ever so slightly with different character’s skills. It is an issue for people wanting a challenge, but if that’s why you’re here, you picked the wrong game.

Next, certain builds are now called “Multi-builds” and let you choose from a few different things to create. Most of these are supposed to be done in a certain order. For example: a three piece water puzzle is solved by creating part one of the multi-build, blowing it back up, moving to part two, blowing it up, then moving to the final part and finishing the puzzle. It’s rudimentary and will be more fun for kids than adults, but it’s a nice idea. More interesting, though, is that often one of the build options seems unnecessary, and that’s because it’ll lead to a hidden red brick, or another secret.

Part of the prologue is playing out the final moments of Return of the Jedi (it acts as a tutorial), and at first it seems odd to be playing the old films in this new game, but flying around in the Millennium Falcon is a nice distraction, even if it’s a little squirrely to control. Before each story level there are mini hub worlds which you can muck around in, or choose to replay levels in free-play (and thus access secrets with non story-level characters as per usual). Obviously in an effort to not short change you, the story is stretched over multiple levels, but it’s done quite cleverly. The first stage sees Poe Dameron help the people of Jakku to find their weapons caches so they can attempt to fight back against The First Order, and the second is about Poe and Finn’s escape. Likewise, when Rey finds the lightsaber there’s a puzzle to solve before the story continues. There are also levels that aren’t from the movie which are unlocked with gold bricks and show the lead up to the story of The Force Awakens. Whichever way you look at it, this is a good value proposition, with the usual high number of collectibles, characters, gold bricks, red bricks, and more to find before you can honestly say you’ve done everything there is to do.

The main issue here is that the new stuff is leaned on too heavily. The cover shooting sections are used in nearly every level, and after the first few times the cracks start to show, with the imprecise nature of the controls for older players at odds with the locking on for the younger audience. By the halfway point of the story you’ve experienced enough vehicle sections, too, and while they make sense in the story context, from a gameplay perspective you almost want to get back to the good old fashioned LEGO fun.

But what is here is a good time, and its amplified by co-op as usual. I’ve never gotten on with the dynamic split screen so switching back to a vertical split is a godsend. While The Force Awakens does feel a little more geared toward solo play (sometimes during co-op the partner will be sat waiting for the character with the required skill to unlock a path) it’s enjoyable nonetheless. The character skills feel like they make sense, here, with Rey beginning as a melee fighter with great agility, BB8 able to interact with machinery and power objects, etc.

It looks great, of course, and while the audio is typical Star Wars fare, there does appear to be some inconsistencies with the voiceover audio. While some voice actors have added their words to additional dialogue for the game, the quality seems to vary. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is, but there’s a definite difference in the audio production in places. Whether that’s just a case of some being directly ripped from the film and some being new, I’m not sure, but it’s not really bad, just noticeable if you’ve a good ear.

So while it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, The Force Awakens is a surprising time sink. Each level is hefty enough if you’re the type who likes to get “True Jedi” ranking, and as usual, there is reason to replay each level to unlock all the hidden stuff. What could have been a quick and easy cash grab is another LEGO game fit to burst with content, and one that actually strives to make a more modern feeling product. While it’s not going to change your mind one way or another, often there are two types of LEGO game, and thankfully this firmly falls into the “good” pile.

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Well, the game is certainly shinier, characters for the most part are better defined – despite some anti-aliasing issues in a lot of places – but locations are full of much more detail: sand moves nicely underfoot and water effects look, well, watery; it’s the step up you’d expect from handheld to a home console. Sound however remains pretty much the same, music carries over from one machine to the next, while the sound effects remain unchanged, but it’s given a boost by a decent sound system should you have one.

Gameplay-wise, though, things have taken a turn for the worse. There’s no main menu, so all your selections are done through a 3D ‘world’ interface solely located on a stylised Rio Beach, you move to an NPC to select what way you want to play and then you’re whisked off to a menu by way of loading screen. Get used to seeing Rios’s cheery DNA spliced hybrid mascot because you’ll be seeing him at least three times to get into an event, and once more to get back out.

The whole point of these titles is to provide fun mini-games for people to play, with the point in a mini-game being that they’re ‘mini’. In Rio 2016 you’ll find the events take less time to complete than it takes to learn the controls. There can be one or two screens made up of four pictures for you to take in, each detailing the convoluted control scheme that you’ll need to use to achieve success; there are prompts during the events but these are more of a halfway house solution as you’re likely to have forgotten what it is you’d have needed to do during play anyway.

Football, Archery and Rugby Sevens are exempt from this awful control situation and prove to be the most fun, despite the issues they themselves contain. Archery loses the motion control from the 3DS version, whether you consider this a bonus or not is purely up to you, but button controls don’t feel like it suits the event at all. Football plays like a basic game of football, with singular pass and shoot buttons. It’s generally ok, but worse compared to its 3DS sibling; there are less outfield players (4 compared to 3DS’s 6) and it loses the power shot bar, which at least gave it a nice Mario Soccer vibe.

Rugby Sevens makes its way to the Olympics this year for the first time since 1924, and makes it into the Wii U game. The 3DS got golf instead, so if you’re undecided on which version to get, that’s something you should probably take your sporting preferences into consideration for. It’s unclear why this had to happen though, surely the Wii U version had space for both sports?

Rio 2016 Wii U also drops the 3DS’ story mode, which is a shame, because the sports anime stylings of rival Sonic and Mario camps gave a much better impetus to carry on with the events than this new format does. Here you’ll find yourself in two heats and a final for each event, up against Miis all wearing stat boosting suits. You might be able to cadge the odd win against the AI, but all too frequently you’ll find the odds stacked against you and there’s no quick retry either, it’s always a trip back to the beach and a slog through many other events before you’ll get to go again.

Perform well and win a medal though and you’ll be challenged to a special event by a member of the game’s character roster, success in which will unlock an outfit to improve your stats. Entry into these events cannot be refused though, so, once they start you’re in until the event is over. It makes these more of an annoyance than anything else.

I need to reiterate the point I made about the stat suits from my 3DS review: the best stats are reserved for the costume that reflects a member of the character roster, and grant your Mii the same stats that character has; which begs the question, why not just let you select from the character roster instead or maybe let you ‘train’ your Mii to improve your stats? Having them dress as a particular character removes the personal touch that comes from using a Mii.

Finally, only Football, Rugby Sevens and Beach Volleyball have special event types, compared to every event from the 3DS game. The specific rules for these are also much more complicated and considerably less fun to play, you might have a go for the sake of novelty but don’t expect to play them on a regular basis.

Despite the extra shine afforded by the hardware, Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is worse than its handheld brethren thanks to the fact it has less modes, less events and less features. It can be fun in multiplayer, but that’s provided the people you’re playing with don’t get frustrated with the constant learning of different convoluted control schemes. The wait for a new Track and Field game continues.

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Set in modern-day Tokyo, players take control of Itsuki Aoi: a high schooler who finds himself roped into a world of phantom-like warriors known as Mirages. He and his friends, Tsubasa Oribe and Touma Akagi, are enlisted by a talent agency called Fortuna Entertainment to become “Mirage Masters” — they bond with cordial mirages who help them in battle by turning them into warriors, known as “Carnage Form”. Various locations across Tokyo are attacked by evil Mirages and the team must enter their realm known as the Idolasphere to halt their assault, all while trying to discover the root of the Mirage attacks that plague the city.

One of the most visually complex projects Atlus has ever worked on, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE bursts in colour and light — literally and metaphorically. Character design is some of the most magnificent I’ve ever seen in a video game with resplendent costumes and fine attention to detail being a staple of the experience. The in-game locations have been created beautifully, featuring real landmarks such as the Shibuya crossing and Harajuku’s Takeshita St. The palettes used across locations and character models are astoundingly bright and lively, complementing the lighter story we are presented with as well as the various themes of music and performance that are present throughout. Dungeons have been designed just as well, with many being familiar to players of Atlus’ Persona series.

Enemy encounters take place in an arena populated with Mirages, who cheer on the player-controller characters throughout as though they are watching a performance. Characters fuse with their Mirage partners during battle, allowing them to perform a variety of skills and abilities. While utilising the weapon triangle from the Fire Emblem series, the battle system appears to be heavily based on that of Shin Megami Tensei and Persona, with elemental weaknesses and resistances playing a much larger part in the majority of combat scenarios.

A unique feature in Tokyo Mirage is the ability to participate in “Sessions”, which allow characters to perform a follow-up attack if an enemy weakness is exploited. Session lengths can vary and depend on the “Session Skills” that characters have learned prior — these dictate the sort of weaknesses that they can capitalise on with a session. These sessions keep characters working in unison and add a more tactical element to battles as victory can often depend on carrying out the most damaging sessions possible, defeating enemies before they get a chance to attack. Perhaps the only limiting factor of combat is that you can only use three characters at once, whereas in titles like Persona, you were able to use four. Three characters can feel right at times, then at others it can feel slightly unfair — a technicality which resulted in me having to grind for a half-hour or so before a few bosses to make sure I was up to scratch.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is one of the few games on the Wii U which prevents Off-TV Play — instead, the GamePad acts as a permanent social interface which allows you to interact with characters during key moments in the story as well as during side stories. Known as Topic, the GamePad permits short text messages and cute stickers to be sent back and forth, revealing fragments of lore and glimpses into a character’s true personality. Some can be humorous, relaying an embarrassing event they have experienced and others can relate to the more serious points of the plot, with characters expressing worry, sympathy or dedication to trumping enemies. It is a wonderfully innovative feature, one which brings depth to the characters and adds a real sense of modernity.

Following the Fortuna Entertainment members’ meteoric rise to stardom, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is far more light-hearted in terms of story compared to other Atlus titles. Tsubasa Oribe, perhaps the main subject of this ascent to idolhood, overcomes a variety of issues throughout the story — first struggling with singing, then modelling, acting and so on. Through these struggles, Tsubasa learns new skills and unlocks “Performa” — visualised as a radiant orb of light which represents the new strength of a Mirage Master. All playable characters can unlock these Performa and can be put towards learning new support skills resulting in longer sessions, higher stats or weapon specialisation. The main themes of performance and entertainment are highly appealing to those who enjoy Japanese culture and pop music — the vocal collection soundtrack is a centrepiece of the main story as well as numerous side missions, adding a truly authentic feel to Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. Many of the female characters are idols in some sense and there is even a nod to vocaloid otakus, with Tiki feeling like a distant relative of Hatsune Miku — there’s even a side mission called “I’ll Tiki-Tiki You (For Reals”). The use of Japanese-only voice acting with English subtitles adds to this feeling, providing an immersive atmosphere for weeaboos everywhere. Knock half a point off the score if you ain’t one.

I still feel like I haven’t summed up how splendid of an experience Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is, but if you’re in love with Japanese culture and video games to the same degree as I do, it will feel like a game that has been tailor-made for you. Even without this fascination, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE presents an excellent battle system with innovative mechanics, adding sessions to make combat feel lively and interconnected. It is a vivid, enchanting adventure that offers humour, drama, and a range of magnificent characters to back it all up. While drawing from the Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem series, it’s able to stand apart from its blood relatives — outshining both series as a fresh and exciting new IP brimming with promise.

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But here it is: Mighty No. 9 has taken many years to get here, but if you are looking for the next Mega Man; it’s right here and if you squint a little bit, you could well be mistaken that Capcom have brought the Blue Bomber out of cold storage. In most Mega Man games, the protagonist Rock has to rescue the world from eight malfunctioning robots who you can tackle in any order, while backed up by his creator (Dr. Light) and other allies such as a female robot named Roll. After beating each robot boss, you gain their weapon, while each robot is weak against another boss’s weapon. In Mighty No. 9, the protagonist Beck has to rescue the world from eight malfunctioning robots who you can tackle in any order, while backed up by his creator (Dr. White) and other allies such as a female robot named Call. After beating each robot boss, you gain their weapon, while each robot is weak against another boss’s weapon. As you can tell, the similarities are practically lawyer-baiting, and it’s almost to Mighty No. 9’s detriment, as the thought of this being a Mega Man game with a different character is never far from your mind.

Beck does indeed control like Mega Man, more specifically the X incarnation of the character. While he’s missing X’s wall grab abilities, Beck does retain X’s dashing moves, in fact this is a major mechanic. Different types of dash can be used in the air, to dash under projectiles (yes, Beck can duck!) and quickly land on the ground. But this isn’t all, depleting an enemy’s energy will put them in a state where they are weaker and surrounded by a coloured aura of “Xel”. A few more hits will finish them off, but Beck can dash near them to finish the job as well as absorbing their Xel in order to temporarily become stronger, with different colours offering different bonuses, and in some cases they’ll even replenish his health or store it for later. It’s in these absorption mechanics where Mighty No.9’s high level play comes into effect, as the longer an enemy is in their “destabilised” state, the lower percentage of power can be absorbed from that enemy. The game encourages you to efficiently destabilise, absorb them at 100%, and continue to chain perfect absorption rates for as long as possible, earning you points and better rankings.

More so than any other Mega Man release (save for possibly the handheld Zero games), being skillful is incredibly important. After sailing through the relatively easy tutorial level, it took me nearly an hour and a half before I even finished a normal level. I went through several stages, falling to each one’s robot boss, before eventually taking down one of them with my standard shots. Once I had one boss weapon, the majority of the game was a breeze, especially when the game practically tells you what weapon works best on each boss. And those weapons seem somewhat underwhelming, with very little imagination put into them. Only the final boss truly challenged me, but getting from start to finish ultimately took little more than a few hours over a weekend. Outside of the story, there are plenty of extra modes including Challenges, a Boss Rush mode, Leaderboards, Solo challenges, and various online co-op/competitive modes, which are OK additions but come across as filler to make up for the shallow story. The length of the main game mode is one thing that’s possibly too similar to Mega Man, although rather than the game’s length itself, it’s the inconsistency in Mighty No. 9’s difficulty that could possibly be the real problem.

While it lasted, I had a pretty good time. Admittedly, bosses take far too many hits to kill at times (and replenish their health while destabilised, so you need to absorb them quickly), and while it was all over far too quickly, it brought back all of those fond memories I had of playing similar games on the SNES. It reminded me how great a premise they are, and that there’s still a place for them. While Capcom clearly don’t agree, it’s heartwarming to see that there are plenty of fans out there that were so open to the idea of a spiritual successor that they put their money where their mouths were and helped make this project a reality (and if you were one of those people, the credits are so long that there is an highlighting function for finding your name in them; which is a nice touch).

Mighty No. 9 completely understands what fans love about the genre. The hand drawn artwork and design of the characters themselves hark back to the X series, while the environments are a grab bag of areas that would happily fit into any of Rock’s adventures – although as a result, the various robot bosses and their associated levels feel incredibly recycled and uninspired. While the story isn’t particularly engaging, the spoken dialogue is delivered in a manner that suits the style, and the soundtrack is particularly wonderful and authentic to its roots, featuring tracks composed by many former Capcom musicians. Oh, and from the very start, you can switch the entire game to an 8-bit style soundtrack that is just wonderful. Rather appropriately, nerd rapper Mega Ran contributes a cracking track to the game as well.

After all the hype, controversy, and delays, the end results are satisfying. Some may be turned off by the shortness of the standard game, others may be turned off by the toughness of some of the bosses, but there are plenty of nostalgic and challenge-seeking players that will get a kick out of Mighty No. 9. There’s a hope in me that there’ll be a sequel, one that really pushes the formula forward, but for now, this is just another Mega Man game – make of that what you will.

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As it is with Star Fox Zero: a product of Nintendo’s fruitful relationship with Platinum Games, and the team that brought you such adrenaline-fuelled outings such as Bayonetta 2 and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance seem to be the perfect fit to bring the exploits of Fox McCloud and pals to a system that desperately needs all the exclusives it can get.

Fans of the series will be very pleased to know that this is a pure Star Fox experience. No Adventures style, well… adventuring, and no Star Fox: Assault on-foot stuff, and the whole game is light on narrative. In fact, Zero plays out almost the exact same way as Star Fox 64/Lylat Wars does, and the same as the original game for that matter. It’s a mission that once again takes you from Corneria to Venom, finding your way via multiple branching paths towards planets of various climates and piloting multiple vehicles to get the job done.

It’s also just as short as Star Fox 64, if you’re talking in terms of playing through from start to finish, but looking at this game on those terms is missing the point. When I finished the game for the first time, I had only found half the available levels, and barely collected any medals. After all, this is a Platinum joint, and it’s all about replaying levels, collecting five medals in every stage through various means, and experimenting to find those alternative paths – plus a fair few unlockables that add further gameplay still.

As for how Zero evolves the series further, that is possibly the most controversial of topics. If you don’t know already, this release is Wii U Gamepad-centric, and heavy on the motion controls. If you played and enjoyed Splatoon’s motion-based aiming, you will feel right at home. If not, you may feel divided on whether gyro controls work for you. The basic controls are mostly “traditional”, with the left stick moving your ship around the screen and the trigger firing your lasers. The right-stick is used to boost and brake, as well as bank left or right, and of course barrel roll) with a double push in either direction. This configuration of maneuvering your craft is a little unorthodox, but it works very well and is quite intuitive.

What will be a dividing factor is aiming your reticle via tilting the GamePad. You can set it to only use motion controls when targeting an enemy using the ZL button, but you can never turn it off fully. Most of the time, the GamePad screen will give you a cockpit view which, combined with the motion controls, allows you to precisely aim your shots. In addition, your reticle is mostly independent of your movement – now, it is entirely possible to fly your Arwing left, while aiming at enemies to the right. It’s at this point you may just realise that the motion controls allow you to do things you could have never done before. Platinum had the foresight to add the ability to quickly re-centre your reticle using the Y button, which ensures that the motion controls are as user-friendly as possible. Ultimately, it works and allows Zero to stand apart from the previous games, which is not to ignore the fact some people hate motion controls: to enjoy this, you’re going to have to get past that.

Another evolution involves the viewpoint. Star Fox was always known for a behind the ship view, and that returns here alongside the cockpit view which now resides on the GamePad (the TV and GamePad views can be swapped with a press of the minus button). A third view is occasionally forced upon you, or activated when in open areas by pressing the ZL button. This external view focuses on your a target no matter where its location is in relation to your ship, and initially becomes an annoyance, before eventually being one of the most useful tools in your arsenal. Being able to turn the table on a pursuing enemy by seeing where they are and how you can maneuver around them adds a dimension to dogfights that was never there before.

The Gamepad also enables a few other neat additions. The original voice cast of Star Fox 64 returns to record various sound-bytes, many of them almost identical to that of the 64-bit game. It’s nice, but you’ll only hear the dialogue if you have the GamePad volume turned up, because it offers a pseudo-surround effect which is actually quite clever. Provided you aren’t using headphones, while playing the game, you’ll hear dialogue from the right as if you were hearing a headset. It’s subtle, but it really works.

There’s also a co-op mode, where you can replay any completed level with a Gunner using the GamePad to aim and take fire, while another player can use a Wii Remote or Pro Controller to pilot the ship. A small, almost meaningless addition, but a fun one in any case. You can scan in a Fox or Falco Amiibo to unlock two new craft: a retro-themed Arwing that cannot lock-on, but has a powerful charge attack, and a Black Arwing that can lock-on to multiple enemies but takes three times the damage. These are cool new additions that can also help in getting some of those high score medals.

It’s not all about Arwings though, The Landmaster returns for ground-based missions and is eventually replaced with an even better land-based vehicle, while the standard Arwing can now transform into a Walker, a craft originally intended for the cancelled SNES Star Fox 2. It’s possible to morph between the two for finding new paths, hitting switches and hacking into machinery (don’t worry, no mini-games here, you just run into a green pad and the game does the rest). The brand new Gyrowing changes the pace considerably, as this gyrocopter controls very differently, and can also release a R.O.B.-like Direct-i droid that can retrieve items and hack terminals.

It’s very easy to criticise Star Fox Zero for the sense of déjà vu, throughout. This is a game that is basically Star Fox 64 remade for the Wii U. There may be new planets and the existing ones may not play out the same way, but the narrative is pretty much the same, as are a few bosses and enemies. As fresh as the new mechanics are, you can’t help but feel a little deflated by the initial length and familiarity.

But for the most part, this is the Star Fox game that fans have waited for since Star Fox 64. The gameplay is intense, exciting, and knows when to invoke the past, while adding plenty of fresh ideas and changes of pace to ensure that each playthrough is well-paced and full of surprises. This is a game based purely on nostalgia, but the motion controls help elevate Star Fox Zero to something beyond a simple retread, although not everyone will appreciate that.

The post Star Fox Zero Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

I glance at Camera 4. Camera 9. Camera 2. Shielded Combat Droids roam the corridors of my metallic sanctum while I was busy taking care of its smaller brethren. Camera 1 has been stolen by a chicken-like droid, Camera 7 just went offline, and no longer can I get a shot around the shields of those Combat Droids. The upper-half of a standard Combat Droid is scuttling around, speedily avoiding the fire of my remaining cameras, and a small tank just took down Camera 6. I wipe my brow as Camera 7 finally comes back online, only to spot a droid resembling a snail reach the core of the mine.

DEFENCE FAILED.

Balls. Maybe I should have picked the slowdown camera instead of the lock-on.

Ignore the family-friendly sci-fi exterior that borrows from a long-dormant Nintendo franchise, because the game formerly known as Project Guard can somehow convey the sort of dread that you’d expect from Silent Hill or Resident Evil. But maybe I’m ahead of myself, because to the uninitiated it’s not necessarily clear what Guard is all about.

Grippy Toad, the uncle of Star Fox’s chief engineer, Slippy, just happens to own a prosperous mining company, making money from unearthing precious metals while the war on Andross rages on. With such a booming business and a conflict going on, it’s only a matter of time until someone wants to initiate a very hostile takeover of Grippy’s business. You’ve been taken on to protect each of Corneria Precious Metals Ltd.’s mining complexes from an onslaught of droids. Some are Chaos droids, designed to distract you from the real threat of the combat droids that exist to reach the centre of your base and destroy its core. Destroy a predetermined number of Combat droids, and the whole lot will retreat, signalling a successful defence.

Before the attack, you’ll have the chance to take your time and place your twelve cameras wherever you see fit, and rotate them to suit your purpose. You might want to have at least one camera on each opening, a few in the centre of your base, or even some facing down long corridors. Eventually you’ll unlock better cameras that contain better offensive abilities such as freeze shots and the ability to slow down gameplay, giving you a little breathing room in more hectic situations. While the default camera positions might serve your purposes, most of the time, you’ll get better results by experimenting, especially as you’ll be shown beforehand where the most enemies are likely to appear. You can change these positions while the attack is happening as well, which you’ll definitely need to do when enemy bots start taking your cameras offline, and eventually start carrying your cameras around.

Once you’re happy, the attack (and the chaos) begins. The difficulty curve is spot-on, as you’ll be eased in slowly, facing foes that aren’t too tricky to best. Eventually things will get tough, as you’ll be swarmed by endless swarms of droids, containing multiple types of Chaos and Combat bots, requiring a great deal of quick thinking and plate-spinning to ensure you aren’t completely overrun. You’ll panic, you’ll make mistakes; fail and try again, but you’ll have fun doing it. There’s a lot of experimentation to be had, seeing what types of cameras work in what positions, and how to prioritise the bots that spawn. You may find yourself ignoring the smaller Chaos robots in favour of taking down a magnet-wielding foe that messages around with the direction half your cameras are facing. Each enemy has it’s own way of giving you grief, and you’ll learn to fear quite a lot of them, especially in bulk.

Hopefully, you’ll stop the enemy’s advance, and you’ll be rewarded with plenty of precious metals from enemy scrap, which will help you rank up and unlock extra missions and better equipment in which to take on future offenses. Eventually you’ll come up against boss fights that’ll test everything you’ve learnt in prior levels, and they’ll do their best to ensure you don’t make it to the next planet, and find out who exactly is attacking Uncle Grippy’s company.

Of course, you’ll notice that I haven’t spoken too much about Star Fox’s involvement in the whole situation, and that’s because the whole branding is Star Fox Guard is very minimal to the whole game. Sure, acquaintances from Slippy’s day-job occasionally appear in between levels, and you can unleash a Star Fox airstrike once a day by scanning your Fox McCloud or Falco Lombardi Amiibo, but it’s a testament to Guard’s quality that it would be just as good a game even without the use of the characters and settings from Star Fox. At times, this is a thrilling game, and there’ll be times when you’ll breathe a sigh of relief after fighting off the last bot just as it’s about to finish off your base. Each level lasts a matter of minutes, and never outstays its welcome.

On the flipside, there’s plenty of extra content as well. There are tons of extra missions to unlock, rankings to increase, and equipment to unlock – there’s even a very cool mode where you can put together your own crew of misfit robots, customise their look and then plan out their entire attack pattern for each of the maps. Other players can then try and defend themselves against your army, while you can pit your base-defending skills against attacks as well. A successful attack or defence will increase your online score and also increase your ranking for the main game. It’s a great mode, and it’s fun to put together the most difficult attack patterns you can think of – especially as it can give you the tools you need to get past the trickier sections of the campaign.

From start to finish, this isn’t a lengthy title, but the focus is on unlocking and tackling all the extra missions and taking on the online world. Built on simple strategy and intense twitch gameplay, Star Fox Guard gets more and more exciting as the levels get tougher. If it takes the Star Fox name to get more people to take a chance on this experimental title, then Nintendo has made the right choice.

The post Star Fox Guard Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Marvel Battlegrounds is essentially a simplistic four player arena fighter that pits your favourite Marvel superheroes against robotic versions of themselves that are infiltrating Shield for reasons best known to villain Ultron. It’s something to do with stealing Vibranium and trying to frame Loki for it, but the paltry four mission story doesn’t do much to explain anyone’s motives.

But then, it doesn’t really need to. The whole purpose of Marvel Battlegrounds is to let you beat the snot out of your collection of Marvel characters in a variety of arenas. You can use any Disney Infinity Marvel character from 2.0 or 3.0, and each one has their own moveset including an aerial attack, a ranged attack, and a unique special ability activated by hitting R1 when you’ve collected enough purple sparks to fill your meter.

Level-specific hazards play a part, too, whether we’re talking about boxes and crates to through at your opponent or trap switches you can hit to electrify the floor or call in the Milano for an aerial bombardment. Now and then a Power Disc icon will drop in, which you must hold onto until the circular gauge is full, at which point you call in a random hero to help you. The Winter Soldier will snipe your opponents, for example, or Iron Patriot will fly over the battlefield and bomb them.

Certain characters are more fun than others. Captain America’s shield throw never gets boring, ringing with that trademark Vibranium ting every time you hurl it, while Iron Man and characters like him can fly. Even with the short story mode, there’s replayability thanks to 28 Challenge missions with various criteria, but you’ll have more fun playing with the kids in the Versus Mode, trying out all the characters.

Disney may have missed a trick not allowing for “team-up” moments, as so many of the characters have skills that would complement each other. With no lock on it can also become horribly messy at times, but there’s little there to tax you unless you artificially enhance the difficulty, at which point the enemy’s blocking and skill use becomes irritatingly on-point. There’s little point looking for a challenge here, though, it’s really all just about having a laugh.

The new Captain America figure included with the Playset is fantastic, based on the MCU-version of everyone’s favourite super-soldier. There’s no disparity in strength between characters, which is weird when Black Widow is picking up Hulkbuster Iron Man and throwing him around like a ragdoll, but it’s something you can overlook for the sake of the fun.

Sadly, the environments are a little bland, and despite the incredible variety of options in Toy Box Mode, there are no options to build your own arenas. While it’s nice that each character has a unique ability, the actual level of variety on offer is fairly low. One arena is more or less the same as the other, while aside the aforementioned special moves, every character does more or less the same thing. For a game that sells itself on limitless possibilities, 3.0 doesn’t do enough with the Battlegrounds Playset. Luckily, it’s all good, clean, wholesome Disney fun anyway.

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Developed by Bandai Namco as a spin-off of their famed Tekken series, Pokkén Tournament sees players take control of a variety of different Pokémon and actively participate in battles. Gone are the days of Missingno, incessant Zubat battles, and the Elite Four: Pokkén Tournament ushers in an entirely new way to play Pokémon — one that I hope is here to stay.

To kick off, I must profess a feeling that has been itching away at me all week. Pokkén is a grower. When I first played the arcade build in the Tokyo arcades, I can easily say that I was underwhelmed. It may have been the deafening rave beats coming from the maimai PINK rhythm cabinets or the dense blue smoke that seemed to engulf entire floors of the arcade, but what I experienced with Pokkén wasn’t what I was expecting. It’s not that the game was bad or that the experience wasn’t exciting, but it didn’t match with the thrill of the content I’d seen up until then. This may be me being pedantic, but it rather unsettled me for the game’s eventual release on Wii U.

Now, thankfully, I can replace the disappointing memories of arcade Pokkén with shiny new enthralling memories of Wii U Pokkén. While not exactly blowing my socks off to begin with, after a few hours of play I came to really enjoy the gameplay of it all. This is not to say the game is not without errors, but for the most part it delivers a wonderfully entertaining experience.

The roster of Pokémon will be a topic of division between fans of the series: some will argue that the weightier and more battle-ready Pokémon were the right choices for the in-game fighters, and others will say that Pokémon with Mega Evolutions have been selected too frequently. I partially agree with both these statements, finding the roster middling. It’s no surprise to see Pokémon like Pikachu, Gengar, and Charizard in there since they are virtually icons of the series, but players may be surprised to see more obscure choices such as Chandelure making an appearance as playable characters. It feels like Bandai Namco has missed an opportunity with the roster, here. One incarnation of Pikachu is more than enough, but instead we’re treated to a Lucha Libre version which wastes a slot for a more deserving fighter. Chandelure, although innovative and certainly powerful, is clunky to manoeuvre and doesn’t feel as combat-ready as other selections. The roster is a bit all over the place, and there’s a high chance you’ll choose a Pokémon and end up sticking with them. I floated between Gengar, Chandelure, and Sceptile before, hilariously, finally settling on Pikachu.

During the first hours of playing, I felt that a lot of the fighters were greatly imbalanced in terms of capability and power: a notion which has now changed after many hours of battling. Perhaps it was a pre-release patch which balanced this out, but Pokémon’s skills now feel more rounded and victory is entirely possible with any fighter with the right level skill.

That said, victory is almost a dead certainty if you’re playing single-player offline, which is real shame. Fighting your way through the ranks of the Ferrum League, there is virtually no challenge in the battles whatsoever, regardless of whether you’re in the lower-ranking Green League or battling for total victory in the top-tier Chroma League. Early on in the single-player campaign, opponents hardly attack and point-blank refuse to block attacks it all. Eventually they begin to get more feisty, but it feels like this kicks in far too late to make offline battling a pleasure.

Campaign mode (and I call it that sparingly) is comprised of four leagues that you fight through. As you move through the ranks, the number of opponents per league increases. This means you have to battle your way through 40 opponents in the Green League, 60 opponents in the Blue League, and so on. You don’t actually have to fight every opponent in the League, as battles are organised on a rank range which means you’ll only really fight about 15-50 battles per league, depending on their number of participants. While it’s certainly a relief that you don’t have to fight your way through every participant, League gameplay can still get quite repetitive as you partake in battle after battle of timid CPU-controlled opponents.

Campaign mode attempts to introduce a story into Pokkén Tournament which I wholeheartedly wish they had just left out. A black version of Mewtwo, tainted by a Shadow Stone and subsequently called Shadow Mewtwo, is drawing Gaia energy from the Earth — the energy which is used to allow for Synergy between Pokémon and their trainers. Shadow Mewtwo appears unannounced at the end of every League finale, accompanied by a rambling hooded woman, and three-quarters of the way through the main campaign, an attempt at a story comes out of nowhere and suddenly you’re whisked across the region in pursuit of three magical stones which can free Mewtwo of the curse. To cut a very short story a whole lot shorter, you partake in three battles, fight Mewtwo and free him. All of which takes the best part of 15 minutes and seems entirely aimless. This cannot be deemed as a spoiler, because I refuse to accept it as a plot in the first place.

Battles are an entertaining experience, and I sincerely look forward to the online servers being populated post-launch so I can get into the real challenge. Combat is fluid and the moves do their best to mirror those we’re used to in previous Pokémon games. At the peak of battles, you’ll be able to power-up your Pokémon with a Synergy Burst, which evolves them from their regular form into some enhanced version (Mega Evolution if available). In this form, Pokémon hit a lot harder, take less damage and can perform a devastating special attack that knocks off a fair chunk of your opponents health. Pokémon models are wonderfully designed, and the stages have a variety of cute quirks in the background which make them memorable. Also on your side are a variety of Support Sets — pairs of Pokémon, each of which have unique abilities. Some will attack the opponent, others will disrupt them by slowing them down or lowering their defence and a small group will directly heal you or boost your stats or Synergy Gauge. It takes a bit of experimentation to find the pair that’s right for you, but they’re certainly worth having should you find yourself in a pinch.

Pokkén Tournament is a great experience that pretty much every Pokémon fan will enjoy. Despite its disappointing lack of challenge during offline play, outlandish roster and feeble attempt at a story, Pokkén still offers wonderfully fluid combat and a firm fighting-game foundation to build upon. It may be hard to believe following my criticisms, but Pokkén kept me coming back for more regardless of its shortcomings. Online play is where it will truly shine, and where players can go to seriously develop their technique. It’s a game that took a while to hit the heights it’s capable of, but I have total faith in it doing so for a while to come.

Buy from Amazon: Pokken Tournament with Shadow Mewtwo amiibo card (Nintendo Wii U)

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Pokken Tournament Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Almost ten years has passed since The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was released on Wii, in the chilly winter of 2006 — I was 10 years old. Santa gave it to me, that charming old fellow, and I had completed it before the new year rolled around. As soon as I finished it, I started it all over again. It was spellbinding and challenging, and was the game that introduced me to the Zelda series.

I’m now 20, a fair bit taller and more critical of video games — a given since I’m writing a review. I, for the most part, understand what needs to be included to make a game greatly enjoyable. Back then, I thought Twilight Princess was the best thing since sliced bread, but now? Now I know for sure that it’s one of the greatest games of our generation. Twilight Princess HD is, at the core of it all, the same game that critics raved about back in 2006. While a few things have changed to suit our modern times — amiibo functionality, pro controller support and the wonderful second screen feature — the story remains untouched, as dark and captivating as the day it was first released.

Hyrule is threatened once again in Twilight Princess. We take control of Link – the series hero – as he finds a foreboding darkness spreading over the realm, turning the denizens of the region’s towns into foul beasts. When traversing the so-called Twilight Realms, Link takes the form of a wolf and with the help of an imp-like shadow being called Midna, the player is tasked with restoring light to the land and banishing the Twilight for good.

The story of Twilight Princess is one of the more mature plots featured in a Zelda game: not that it’s explicit or gory in any way, but it feels a lot more despairing than usual. Zant, one of the main antagonists of the game, is frightening looking with his metal iguana-like helmet and scream sound effect whenever he appears on screen. Cutscenes are found in abundance, doing a wonderful job of securing a steady pace and intriguing you deeper into the story. They’re cinematic and gloomy, doing wonders for the game’s hopeless atmosphere.

Midna is perhaps Link’s best-ever companion, as she humours the player with her black comedy and sarcastic wit. Her garbled vocals are adorable as she rides along on your back while in wolf form, yelping and flailing as you dash through the fields of Hyrule. Unsurprisingly, Midna plays a key role in the plot of Twilight Princess, acting as your mediator between the worlds of light and dark – and a lot of what you do, you do for her. Outshining our silent protagonist and even Princess Zelda herself, Midna is the defining character of Twilight Princess.

After mentioning the redefining features of games such as The Wind Waker and Majora’s Mask, it would be unceremoniously rude to not discuss the inclusion of Wolf Link — a lycan version of our green-robed hero that adds an entirely new dimension to Twilight Princess. When in the Twilight realms, the gameplay is significantly altered as you learn to use four legs instead of two: combat feels totally different, and canine skills such as enhanced senses and digging come into play. Eventually, you’re able to switch between Link and Wolf Link at any time, meaning later dungeons become even trickier as you have to be in the right form before you can even start thinking about any solutions. Wolf Link is the feature that sets Twilight Princess apart from the other games in the series — a unique addition that adds a mythical twist to it all.

In terms of the locales found within Twilight Princess, the game offers a variety of different dungeons and environments to be explored within its vast open world. In the non-frequent times where you’re left to travel without your trusty steed Epona, it really dawns on you how enormous Hyrule is. So much so that a fast-travel feature is included, allowing you to warp to and from various unlocked portals courtesy of Midna’s Twili magic. A selection of themed environs are also present: Snowpeak is a tundra-like precipice inhabited by a cheerful yeti; Zora’s Domain is a water-logged plummet populated by an aquatic race of fish-people; Death Mountain is a craggy summit designed to be home to a race of bulky humanoid race of rock-eaters. Returning players will recognise some of the places and faces found in-game from previous incarnations, be it the original Twilight Princess or another Zelda title. New players of the series shouldn’t feel left out, though, as you’ll quickly become charmed by the exotic races that Hyrule has to offer.

The most obvious enhancement comes in the form of the crisp 1080p visuals. Fine details too hard to spot in the original’s muddy standard definition output can now be viewed in all their glory: tasks like bug-catching and fishing are ten times easier when you can actually see the creatures your trying to capture. Various improvements have been made to the UI too, allowing you to switch between regular Link and Wolf Link in a single tap without having to navigate Midna’s dialogue like in the original. A sleeker and less cluttered collection screen is present, allowing you to see the wide variety of Poe’s souls, letters, armour, and weapons you’ve collected on your travels. Second screen support is also a Godsend, and those who have played The Wind Waker HD will wholeheartedly appreciate this feature — perfect for reshuffling your shortcut items without breaking the immersion of dungeon combat.

It’s hard to fault Twilight Princess HD on anything really. Everything that the original did well, the remaster seems to do even better. It is a game enhanced for a new generation of players, with all the added conveniences of our modern consoles only improving the experience. I suppose there are the very minor graphical issues that appear in some temples when caught in a slightly awkward angle — camera getting caught in the wall, some texture clipping, etc, and fighting enemies with the GamePad as a controller is obviously not as fun as waving around the Wii remote and nunchuk like a real sword, causing all sorts of damage to the room around you, but apart from that, I’m at a loss for things to complain about.

No game is ever perfect. There will always be some error that holds it back from being an entirely flawless experience, but Twilight Princess HD is as good as it gets in terms of closing the distance. Nintendo has revived this classic title not only for Zelda diehards but for newcomers too: it feels welcoming and is one of best, if not the best title the series has to offer. If you’ve been here before, you’ll have as much fun reliving this breathtaking adventure as you did ten years ago — Twilight Princess HD is a remaster not to be missed.

The post The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

The boy can create shadows for his flatter self to walk on, and the shadow lad can assist with puzzles that require items to be manipulated in both the shadow and real world at the same time. The old Wii game Lost Winds springs to mind as something that used a similar dual character mechanic in order to complete areas. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons shared something similar, but was focused on a single player. It was very novel to see it employed again, right up until I tried to play it.

Shadow Puppeteer suffers from a confusing control system that forces you to rewire your brain on a continual basis in order to progress. It takes a large amount of discipline to get used to and become competent with the controls. Movement for both characters is via the control sticks, with jump and action assigned to the shoulder buttons. You spend half your time remembering which stick controls which boy most of the time simply because both characters are going to regularly interchange which side of the screen they are on. It is initially very frustrating, and that quickly progresses into annoyance, followed by resignation, then acceptance. You almost yearn to be using a Wiimote and Nunchuck to provide the necessary separate controls.

Sarepta should have pushed the two player mode over the single experience and perhaps even considered co-op mode to be the default, as this is when Shadow Puppeteer not only makes sense in terms of controls, but also starts to shine a bit. The irritation is more like a mere grain of sand inside an oyster and it’s easy to see the beginnings of a potential pearl. The levels flow quickly and decisions can be made more rapidly. You’ll certainly feel like your shadow partner is more of its own entity rather than the poorer staccato experience of the single player game. It changes the focus to continuous cooperation and is therefore the better for it.

The introduction cutscenes look like they were collected off the floor of the editing suite from A Nightmare Before Christmas. While presentable, they don’t really hit the levels of polish you would expect from Nintendo’s machine and they look quite aged compared to when they were produced. Eighteen months really is a long time in game design. The lighting works extremely well when you are interacting with the glowing globes or moving around a crate to create a platform for your shadow, so every puzzle has a logical and sometimes obvious solution. Sarepta have obviously put a lot of effort into how that works and it is to be applauded.

But there has been a lot of thought put into the levels themselves, especially with the puzzles. Some are extremely straightforward, only requiring the moving of a platform to create a bridge for your shadow companion, but others require you to work together in tandem, or at speed – and again, at those points, those solo players are going to hit a large difficulty curve. Some of the levels are eerie and dark to increase the levels of atmosphere, but you’ll find nothing spellbinding or beautiful, just environmental furniture to set up the next set of puzzles. At the same time, the levels aren’t poorly designed, you’re just very aware you are playing a game rather than being involved in a story. Likewise, the sound design is nothing special, but serves its purpose without cementing any atmosphere as you play through the levels. You won’t get goosebumps, but you won’t mute the TV either.

You’ll get through Shadow Puppeteer in around four hours and your experience will depend entirely on whether you play through alone or with a shadow buddy in tow. Those who tackle the game with a friend are going to find Shadow Puppeteer to be a charming, clever, and quick flowing puzzle game that uses its core mechanic to great effect. Those who want to go it alone will find its stop and start experience frustrating and off-putting, but this was never the intention and would be unfair to criticise for playing it how it wasn’t designed to be played.

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LEGO Marvel’s Avengers is a yellow brick compilation of the Marvel universe, the main missions coming from the two Avengers films, with Iron Man 3, both Captain America films, and Thor: The Dark World also providing levels. As usual, the adaptation and construction of the films playable scenarios is fantastic, each level providing enough variation in gameplay, from puzzles to combat, to keep you engrossed. The combat is particularly good this time around, the ability to team up characters for special moves adding more interesting ways to take opponents down. Combining Black Widow and Quicksilver is a personal favourite of mine, any enemies in the circumference of them being obliterated by the quick whirlwind of bullets that their pairing creates.

The game time for each main character is another positive, my moments with each of the Avengers heroes being well balanced and fairly distributed. The final act of Age of Ultron does this particularly well, the chaos of the films final scene being broken into small, playable chunks, your time with the hero’s divided fairly. As usual, there’s lots of replayability, each level asking you to go into Free Play mode with other characters in order to fully complete it and, as usual, you’ll find yourself happily obliging, the “must collect everything” ethos that drives these games pushing players to carry on long after the stories are over, which is rather quickly.

In total, it took me fifteen hours to finish the story missions, which doesn’t seem bad for a LEGO game. But you have to bare in mind that there’s six films worth of content here, the one level film stories outside of the Avengers feeling more like easy add-on content than well thought out mini-games. The truth is there’s too much content, which seems like a ridiculous thing to say, but here this sentiment rings true. If the developers and publishers had come to some sort of agreement to break this game into two releases, with each Avengers film perhaps being the flagship for the titles, the storytelling here might not have been as rushed as it is, a feeling of being hurried through the game prevalent throughout, especially during Avengers Assemble. There are a few occasions, where large narrative leaps from one to the next scene are obvious during the film storylines, and while these do not cause stories to be incomprehensible, they make for distorted viewing, which may cause some fans who have seen the films to be disappointed in the lack of story-line exploration. As much as I don’t play the LEGO games for their plot creations (mainly because most of their games narratives are already mapped out beforehand) they have proved before that they can tell a story well, the great memories of LEGO Harry Potter fading fast while playing this.

That isn’t to say I didn’t have fun while playing, my time never felt like a chore or a bore. I particularity liked the many hub worlds and the contrasts they offered to the linear action. From the sprawling landscape of Manhattan that encourages you to explore, to the idyllic beauty of Malibu, each hub world provides an interesting rest bite from the story-lines, side quests bringing with them many Marvel characters to meet, some of which you will get visibly excited about and some of which you may not even know. Then there’s the attentions to detail that you see, such as Coulson giving you the wink when you think he’s dead, with the usual LEGO humour providing the laughs, the concoction of the serious nature of the Avengers and slapstick LEGO comedy being an entertaining mix.

With LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens recently being announced, it makes sense that TT would want to leave the Marvel world behind for a while, their concentrations lying elsewhere. However, this game really could have done with a less is more approach, the decision to cram everything into one game meaning that quality is sacrificed in places. For avid fans, this will make a nice addition to the collection, the ultimate Marvel experience being brought about by the sheer amount of characters to unlock, replayability, and the quest for 100% ensuring that players pick this game up time and time again. For anyone else however, Marvel Super Heroes is still the best game to pick up when looking for a LEGO superhero fix, Marvel’s Avengers falling short of its predecessor in the style over substance stakes.

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It might well be one of their most neglected series, but the futuristic high-octane joys of F-Zero and its sequels remain some of the best arcade racers around, with the SEGA-developed F-Zero GX/AX being the highlight of the series, and a bonafide classic. While Nintendo have been reluctant to return to F-Zero, fans have cried for more, and indie developer Shin’en Multimedia have stepped up to the plate once more, in their sequel to the 2011’s WiiWare title, Fast Racing.

Oh, and this is the most aptly-named game since Farming Simulator, because this game is fast. Probably the fastest game I’ve played in a very long time. Yes, ridiculously fast.

We’ve got the standard arcade racing setup here, with three difficulty levels/speeds: Subsonic, Supersonic, and Hypersonic. Subsonic is fast enough on its own, and I was knocked back when I realised that things got even faster with the later classes. Then you have 16 tracks split over four cups, all waiting to be conquered. All you need to do is get in the top three after four races in order to progress to the next cup, which almost sounds too easy.

But it isn’t, at least not initially. There are some great tracks here, and it excels when putting you on a track with plenty of straights with the odd slight turn, because it’s in these moments that you get to truly feel the speed at your disposal, piloting one of ten unlockable crafts that cover the gamut of speed, acceleration, and weight.

Meanwhile, your AI opponents are incredibly mean. Don’t expect to be reaching first place much, because all too often one racer will magically race ahead, and that’s the last time you’ll see him unless you perform an absolutely immaculate race. It’s quite frustrating, but you’ll discover it’s not the end of the world. Cleverly, there are quite a few avenues for increasing your usual speed, as boost spheres litter each track, filling up a bar that you can use to give yourself an immediate increase in speed. The road also features strips of orange and blue, and your ship has a colour-change function, manually activated by pressing X or L, and being the same hue as these coloured strips of road will give you a massive boost as well. However, driving over them in the wrong colour will slow you down. Grabbing all these boost spheres and hitting all of the boost strips using the right colour is the key to earning victory, as difficult as that can be sometimes. It’s fantastic, and it certainly sets FAST apart from its peers.

But as you only need to be the in top three to proceed, there’s a lot of leeway. You could consistently be in second, third, or even fourth and still make it to the next cup. It might be tempting to restart a cup if you have a less than stellar race, but there’s always the opportunity to make up for things in the next three races, which makes up for the almost inhuman ability of some of the AI racers. I’m sure there are plenty of masochists that’ll want to push for Gold in all difficulties and cups, and there’s plenty of challenge involved in doing that and more besides.

Going back to the track design, some of these races can be rather unfair, especially at the speed you’re racing at. There’s some very annoying instances where tracks have some incredibly difficult to dodge rocks at the side of the road that are so small but still able to destroy your ship. While you have infinite lives, exploding can have a catastrophic effect on your chances of getting points, as the delay in respawning can be excruciatingly long. This is one racing game where the brake becomes absolutely crucial, alongside your ability to memorise each track.

That said, I had finished all tracks, cups, and difficulties in a matter of hours, even if I didn’t finish all of them with a gold rank. The longevity of a racing game is only as good as its added features and modes, and it does attempt to extend gameplay after completion of the main cups. Hero Mode is a particularly devious addition, unlocked only after finishing the Hypersonic Cup. In this mode, FAST suddenly becomes even more like the legendary F-Zero, as your boost bar now equals your health, and you only have one life. Each prang depletes your bar, and you’re only a crash away from game over. Thankfully, you only play individual tracks (rather than cups) here, because it is rock hard. It’s also a very clever addition, completely changing the way you approach certain cups as you realise that sometimes maximum speed isn’t always the way to go.

As an authentic arcade racer, this is a rather bare-bones release. Although the important stuff like the racing and the handling is spot-on, the presentation around it is somewhat lacking. Don’t get me wrong, this is a fine looking game, with an astoundingly consistent frame-rate, but in sticking to the arcade racer template to a tee, there lacks personality and uniqueness. F-Zero had a cast of weird and wonderful characters, Wipeout oozed cool with its iconic soundtrack, but FAST Racing Neo does little else than be a very competent racer. That’s not to be down on FAST, because for a rather small download, what is here is impressive. It’s just crying out for a little more showmanship to separate itself as more than an F-Zero wannabe.

But hey, this is an F-Zero wannabe that does what it sets out to do. With some pumping electronic tracks that invoke a feeling much like that of F-Zero GX, it nails the music down to a tee. Plus, the race announcer is one of the guys that did the voice acting for F-Zero GX, so it’s clear what Shin’en Multimedia were trying to achieve, and for the most part it’s successful, because with twelve single player cups, developer Time Trials, Hero Mode, and local/online multiplayer, there’s enough bang for your buck here.

It won’t be for everyone, but this is a brutal and unwavering assault on the senses, made for the most hardcore of racing fans. Very few games make my heart pump out of my chest like this one does and after this impressive performance, I’d trust Shin’en Multimedia with the F-Zero IP.

The post FAST Racing Neo Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Your character is not only the hero, but is made from the letters that make up that very word, as is every over character and beast you meet. Meanwhile, the drab and dreary land where Typoman is set is littered with letters and you must use push, pull, grab, and throw these characters to make words that affect the world around you. Want to hit a switch? Pull an ‘O’ and an ‘N’ together to spell “ON”. Spell “LIFT” to raise a platform – you get the idea.

And it’s an interesting idea, even if the execution is lacking. Those expecting the freedom of a Scribblenauts will be disappointed to know that the words and their associated puzzles are set in stone. You’ll traverse a prologue and three chapters of deeply depressing, uninspired environments; jumping over chasms and manipulating letters to solve each puzzle.

Gamepad use is exceptionally minimal, even missing the opportunity to use off-screen play. If you’re standing next to a string of characters, you can use it to rearrange the letters however you choose, which is far quicker and easier than lugging them around. But all too often, once you’re done with rearranging letters, it spawns them far from where you need them to be, usually down a chasm. You can also see hints for every puzzle on the Gamepad screen, which gives you a not-very-cryptic passage of text that contains the word you need to create. Press an icon, and that required word is highlighted for you.

And this completely ruins Typoman. Why bother trying to work out what words you can make with the letters you have access to, when you can look down and see the answer, right there. It wouldn’t be a problem if you had to earn these hints somehow, or the game gave you a certain amount of time to figure things out before handing you the answer on a platter. After you’ve played for a little while, you tend to figure out what most of the words are, anyway, as a lot of functions and puzzles are repeated.

Another annoyance is the actual platforming. This is a game that likes to throw hard-to-jump gaps at you, alongside enemies that chase you, and platforms that fall moments after landing on them. Sometimes, pixel-perfect jumping is required, and your hero’s movement physics don’t always accommodate that very well. There are also far too many instances where you barely have any time to think of a puzzle solution and manipulate letters to spell it.

But you’ll stumble past these hazards with relative ease, as this is a very short game, clocking in at around three hours. Sadly, you’ll likely see the very best that Typoman has to offer in that very first hour, as things never really pick up from there.

Aside from the miserable visuals (can we have a puzzle-platformer that’s a little bit less depressing, please?), the presentation is decent, and the way all characters are made from words is pretty impressive, especially some of the Xenomorph-inspired creatures you run into. For a 2D platformer, the framerate was diabolical at times, sometimes distracting. There’s nothing more frustrating that being in the middle of a platforming section, and a game suddenly starts stuttering while you’re trying to nail a tricky jump. You can actually see the framerate speed up and slow down at points, which is just odd.

This is one of those games that’s started off with a really good idea, one that shows a lot of promise. That promise is never truly realised by Typoman, as that original idea is enveloped by a game that just doesn’t do it justice. This isn’t an awful game by any stretch, it’s not nothing special, despite the feeling that it should be.

The post Typoman Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

The world of Mira is gigantic and intimidating in its scale, but each of its five massive continents is brimming with life and beauty. This is something that you’ll quickly discover as you engage in the main theme of exploration and survival in an alien world, hoping to help what’s left of humanity after Earth is destroyed during a battle between warring extraterrestrial factions.

As part of the exodus from Earth, gigantic ships are dispatched, carrying as much of the population as possible – many of which rest in a cryogenically frozen state. Of course, it wouldn’t be much of a game if it all ended there, so in mankind’s worst string of luck, many of these ships are shot down by aliens, with one in particular, the White Whale, crash landing on Mira, while the frozen humans are scattered across the land in escape pods known as Lifeholds. You are one of the these frozen survivors, thawed out and enlisted as a member of BLADE (Builders of the Legacy After the Destruction of Earth), a military organisation that is in charge of ensuring the exploration and colonisation of Mira.

And it’s a world you’ll learn to love. It’s unfortunate that this year saw the release of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt and Fallout 4, two games that featured such marvelous examples of living, breathing worlds, as Xenoblade Chronicles X is likely to be largely ignored when most people talk of open world excellence this year. That’s going to be unfair, because while Mira is lacking in memorable landmarks and set pieces, it’s a beautiful place to explore; with lush fields, magnificent waterfalls, overgrown rainforest and arid deserts. Whether you’re swimming through the lakes of Primordia as the rain showers down, admiring the beauty of a gigantic flying beast sailing through the sky under moonlight, or simply watching the sunset over the canyons of Oblivia, this is one of the prettiest games on the Wii U. The environments are far from flat as well, with hidden caves to be found, and almost impossible floating landmasses in the distance, which, when climbed, afford a breathtaking view.

You’ll likely be far too busy to savour these things however, as there’s an absolute ton of things to do. If I told you that there were only 12 main story missions, you’d assume that there was little content to this game. You are very much wrong. Even if you were to ignore the many side missions given to you by NPCs and the quest bulletin board, as well as the more narrative-based Affinity quests that help you learn a little more about the cast of characters you come into contact with – each Story mission has prerequisites you need to complete before you can even think of tackling them. Some might suggest a minimum level you need to be at, while others require you do have surveyed a percentage of each of the game’s five continents, or have finished specific Affinity missions, some of which you have to actively look for as they don’t show up on your map straight away. There are some people out there that might suggest that this is all filler content to stop you from finishing the game too quickly, and to a certain extent, it might well be – but I’ve been having far too much fun to care.

You see, Xenoblade Chronicles X is a game to be slowly enjoyed; like a fine wine, or a really tasty bag of posh crisps. There are so many mechanics and systems to delve into, it’s easy to get incredibly distracted by a random sidequest, locating and installing Data Probes to mine for precious materials and currency, or even investing in the companies that make your weapons and armour, to get better equipment. While the narrative is your typical JRPG affair (which, depending on your viewpoint, is either a good or bad thing), the dialogue is quirky and amusing enough to make you want to talk to everyone and finish as many missions as you can, just to learn more about everyday life in New Los Angeles, a colony created from the wreckage of the White Whale.

In the pursuit of completing missions, you’re going to have to get your hands dirty, and those who are familiar with the original Xenoblade Chronicles’ combat system will feel immediately at home, as it’s very similar, albeit with a few added elements. The auto-attack based fighting, and Arts, return, but you now have the ability to wield both a long range and short range weapon, which can be flipped between by a simple press of the X button. Several different weapon combinations are available, dictated by several classes you can freely swap between, which also have their own leveling system. Ranking up these classes will unlock even more Arts and attacks, and as before, you can upgrade these Arts to make them more powerful. The MMO-inspired battle system still works as well as it did in the previous game, and the new additions keep things fresh for returning players.

Combat isn’t perfect, however. While battles are fast-paced and action-packed, they can last a little too long, as foes leveled far lower than you can take a little too much time to kill. As a result, sometimes you just want to run past enemies to save a time (and that is sometimes a necessary option, although some creatures or enemies will actively attack you if they see you or hear you nearby, indicated by easily-seen icons). Even with a party of four, some of these enemies are damage sponges, which can be a little frustrating when you just want to get to a mission objective. There are also quite a few instances where enemies of varying difficulties are placed in areas, so it’s more than likely that you’ll have to sneak past some very high leveled enemies, just to get to the destination of a mission appropriate for your level. When you die, you’re taken back to the nearest landmark or fast travel location, which can be quite a way away if you haven’t approached one in a while.

There’s also an interesting system called Soul Voices. During a battle, either your character or a party member may say a phrase, which will cause one or more of your Arts to be highlighted in orange. Activate the highlighted Arts at the time, and they’ll activate various additional bonuses, including healing you and your party, or sometimes be prompted to additionally press B in a quicktime event for additional bonuses. It takes a little bit of time to understand and get used to, but with no specific Cure spells in your arsenal, it’s a great way to heal your party and keep them fighting. You can customise some of these phrases yourself, giving you access to a few easy combat bonuses or buffs.

But that’s just a smaller part of a whole heap of customisation options available throughout. From the very beginning, you can completely customise the appearance or your character, including your voice, which has a lot of options to choose from, including one that is similar to Shulk’s voice from the original game. All of your equipped armour and weapons make a cosmetic difference to your character, which also takes effect in cutscenes – always a cool touch in a JRPG.

Which brings me to Skells, those gigantic mechs that you may have seen. These badass-looking titans are Xenoblade Chronicles X’s most awesome addition, but you won’t get anywhere near piloting one until at least around 25 hours into the game. They’re worth it though, not only transforming into different vehicles, allowing you easier traversal through Mira’s five continents, but they also allow you to absolutely crush enemies. However, they’re not invulnerable, and have a finite amount of fuel (which thankfully replenishes when you aren’t in the pilot seat). You can acquire multiple Skell frames and customise them until your heart’s content, changing their colour (mine is coloured to look like Metroid’s Samus Aran), weapons and armour. Meanwhile, you’re given Skell “Insurance”, which are like extra lives for your mech – once they run out, you’ll be paying through the nose to salvage your wrecked unit. It’s in your interest to keep an eye on your Skell’s energy and be ready to get out of that thing before it’s totalled.

Often, there’s so much going on that you aren’t given good explanations of how to do everything, and it’s very easy to forget certain mechanics – I had largely forgotten the existence of the Follow Ball, a glowing sphere you can deploy that shows the way to your mission objective. I also experienced some issues with quests that involved gathering specific items or defeating particular enemies. You’ll be given an idea of what continent these things are on, but not always a specific location, and it can be a nightmare to find some of them, especially when a mission requires you to find a rare drop. I had to consult a Google-translated Japanese guide at times to find the locations of some things, after hours of searching massive locations. It’s even worse when these hard to find items are part of an Affinity Quest – a mission that once entered, stops you from making any story progress until completed, and can’t be abandoned either.

Another minor annoyance is the size of the UI text, which was quite small for my eyes, even on a 48” television. Playing the game on the GamePad screen was even worse. Also, regarding the Gamepad play, it’s a bit fiddly having to access the all-important map while playing in this mode, as you actually have to switch between on-TV and on-Gamepad play when you want to see the map. But it’s easily switched by just tapping on the Gamepad screen and then the icon for swapping displays. For some reason, all menus only respond to the D-Pad, not the analog stick, which is just puzzling.

In terms of the online functionality, a few of the more interesting-sounding aspects were locked in the review copy. It appears that it’s possible to send and receive scouting reports via Miiverse, which sounds very fun and useful. 4-player co-op was available, but is also a little confusing, and from my experience, seems limited to “Kill x number of monsters” type of missions. It is also possible to recruit AI versions of other characters into your party, which is also quite cool. I even spotted avatars of some members of my Friends List that are reviewing this game for other outlets, hanging around New Los Angeles.

There’s a nice mix of orchestral backing tracks on the OST, in addition to some guitar-driven rock tunes and the occasional vocal/rap track. There are some great pieces here, and the soundtrack in general is not too annoying upon repetition, which is good, considering how often you’ll hear the battle themes in particular. You can also expect vocal dialogue during cutscenes, and the delivery is comparable with other examples of the JRPG genre. However, the irritating trope of characters shouting the names of their attacks rears its ugly head, and it can be incredibly annoying to hear “TOOOOORNADO BLADE!” every few seconds.

I have enjoyed Xenoblade Chronicles X so much that I am planning to start it all over again from the beginning, so I can really take my time with this absolutely gargantuan adventure, and I rarely feel that way about any game, let alone one I’ve been playing almost non-stop for a month. This is an essential purchase for all Wii U owners who love the JRPG genre.

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This loose tie-in for the Peanuts movie sees the beloved beagle and his lifelong birdie friend Woodstock depart on a great adventure to find Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang, who have gone off to play hide and seek and left a trail of jellybeans to find. As the premise for a platformer it’s functional if mostly nonsensical, but serves as a good enough reason to guide Snoopy through six different worlds, avoiding traps, jumping on enemies, and collecting hundreds of McGuffins.

Blatantly designed for the younger gamer, Snoopy’s Grand Adventure is incredibly easy throughout, but still manages to be entertaining – mostly thanks to colourful visuals, a variety of environments, and a handful of different mechanics that keep the action involving – if not particularly fresh or new. For example, Snoopy can use his ears to glide across gaps, and a collection of unlockable costumes provide not only adorable little aesthetic changes but also temporary abilities such as freezing enemies to use as blocks to reach higher areas.

Collectibles are scattered around each level of each world in the form of Woodstock’s Beagle Scout buddies. Some are genuinely tricky to get to, but won’t tax experienced players all that much. Death is mostly non-existent as enemies aren’t directly aggressive, and landing on them incapacitates them for a little while. If you do lose one of Snoopy’s hearts, you’ll have a few seconds to leap up and snatch it back, similar to in Rayman.

One of the coolest yet sadly underused elements is Woodstock himself. Like Murfy in Rayman: Legends, Woodstock can be used to activate switches and lifts – but he’s controlled by a second player. It’s not true co-op, as Woodstock can’t do a hell of a lot to help beyond manipulating certain objects, but it is nice for either a younger sibling or watching parent to get involved now and then. The costumes, Woodstock and unlockable abilities like a double jump encourage replaying certain levels to polish off all the jellybeans and Beagle Scouts you might have missed.

Most of the time, the levels don’t ask much of you or even really change beyond the environments, which follow fairly straightforward kids’ game templates like Jungle, Sewer and Moon base. That said, “piloting” Snoopy’s doghouse through the bright blue sky like a side-scrolling shooter is one of the highlights, and my daughter kept on going back to play the Skies of Paris and hardly touched the rest of the game for a few hours.

Because it’s so straightforward and easy to run through, Snoopy’s Grand Adventure isn’t going to take you long to finish – but then it’s not designed for adults, and younger children will find it a little tougher and, as a result, longer. There are enough collectibles to warrant revisiting levels, and enough variety to ensure that kids don’t get bored playing levels two or three times. The boss levels at the end of each world offer slightly more of a challenge, but they’re rarely fights, and often ask that you simply escape the boss rather than defeat them.

Graphically it’s sharp and lovely, but while the environments pop with personality, there are occasional issues with the framerate that really shouldn’t exist. Snoopy isn’t the most fluid mover, either, and although the jumping is functional, it never feels totally precise or instantaneous. It’s all so lovely and cute and non-threatening, though, and my children loved it – which is really the most important thing.

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Ultra Smash, however, feels decidedly lacking in options and reasons to come back. The gimmick here is that Mega Mushrooms will be thrown on from the side of the court, allowing you to grow huge, and thus hit the ball back with more power. It works fine for a while, giving a few laughs as each of the included characters become gargantuan in size, looking all the more silly for it.

It’s quickly apparent that this is a decent tennis game, with all the obvious shot options you’d expect from something like Virtua Tennis, which, in my case, means that Mega Battle becomes something you don’t want to play very often, mostly because every time you get one it cuts to a mini-scene showing you growing, and after seeing it ten times it does nothing apart from take you out of the flow of the match. It also often shows up the AI as being average, as it’ll sometimes completely ignore the Mega Mushroom that is right behind it. AI doubles partners often just stand still, too, as though waiting for you to slip up in order to bail you out.

But it’s because the fundamentals are good that Ultra Smash is actually so playable, because there’s so little content on here it’s a little shocking. Only having the one power up seems egregious on its own, but the fact there’s no career mode at all is just baffling. By all means build your game around local and online fun, but to have nothing here to keep the solo player coming back, well, that seems a like a poor decision.

Knockout Challenge lets you team up with an Amiibo in 2v1 tie-break matches, but the single stadium and that solitary power-up means that you still feel like you’re doing the same thing as the other modes. Mega Ball Rally offers some single player variety, asking you to hit an over-sized ball back to an opponent to keep the rally going, but your foe will be trying to score a point. It’s a nice challenge but it’s simply not enough. All of this gives you coins (cumulative per match in Knockout Challenge) which you can use to unlock other characters, AI difficulty (Pro and Ace), and the Ice, Carpet, Sand, Mushroom, Bounce-out, and Morph courts. I’d recommend you grab the courts quickly, just to add some variety to the options, because that one stadium gets old very quickly. The fact you can unlock these items with coins and they’re not just a reward for playing and progressing speaks volumes about the lack of content, too.

It looks good, as you’d expect, and while the characters utter their usual catchphrases, the music feels by-the-numbers, at times sounding urgent for no apparent reason. I hate to harp on about it, but it’s so light on things to do and see that there’s little else to say, it’s all serviceable, but no one moment stands out as looking or sounding great. This just feels passionless and lacking the soul that it should have.

There’s definitely fun to be had in performing an ultra smash that scores you a point because it’s a body shot, however, and online play works well enough. But the fun is best had in local play, as you’d expect. Switch off the power-ups and turn this into a standard tennis game that happens to have Mario and friends in it, and you’ll have a blast for a little while. It’s less technical than a Virtua Tennis or Grand Slam Tennis, but there’s nuance to the shots that rewards the skilled. Basically, if you plan to buy Ultra Smash for single player, you’re a fool. Get it if you’ve a gang of like minded friends to play with locally, but don’t expect many options or a long lifespan.

Ultra Smash is the most underwhelming Nintendo game I’ve played in a very long while. It feels utterly bereft of content, with a gameplay gimmick that wears thin after a few matches, and an online that works, but will (as usual) be dependent on being heavily populated – which just seems unlikely. As a full price game, there’s no real way I can recommend it unless you’re absolutely desperate for some Mario Tennis. The fact that it’s a mechanically solid sporting experience can’t save it from mediocrity or a lack of any real reason to come back, and that’s really the worst sin a sports game can commit.

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Visuals in Poncho are amazing. There’s no two ways about it. In a time where many indie games are going for this aesthetic, Poncho manages to look gorgeous with its lush colours, subtle animations in the environment, and lively look overall. Poncho the character looks rather commonplace in comparison to his environment. Every area manages to look unique as well, which is something I did not expect. The attention to detail with even the smallest of birds is exceptional.

Levels wrap around each other and as you play through them, you learn to stomp and solve a few puzzles based on the parallax mechanic to acquire gems and keys. These keys let you progress ahead and can be bought in-game with gems. There are also robots that you can bring back to life for another character you meet in your journey that add a nice side objective to each level.

The parallax mechanic encourages you to switch between planes to progress, but you’re introduced to moving platforms early on that make Poncho more of an annoying experience, letting down the great audio and visual design. These moving platforms get even more irritating when you’re required to move up, and there are multiple platforms each with different timers for switching planes. There is often a very tiny window in which you will have to execute various jumps across platforms that have their own timers to switch, which is maddening.

Expect to die often and respawn from the last platform you were on. There’s a bug I experienced where Poncho was in a neverending loop of death and respawning. Speaking of issues, the frame rate starts to tank in some locations, and this completely breaks immersion in a game that otherwise performs great.

I absolutely adore the little things about Poncho. NPCs often talk to you as you pass them and small birds fly across planes while you are trying to solve a platforming puzzle. The world feels alive and it makes me sad that those moving platform-based sections soured me on my experience with Poncho. It’s still worth experiencing for the art, music, and attention to detail, but the actual gameplay gets old and tiresome relatively quickly.

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One of the few things that really works in Rodea the Sky Soldier is the story. The sky kingdom of Garuda is being invaded by the Naga Emperor Geardo and Rodea, a machine soldier, stops him. This is where the prologue ends. A thousand years later, an inventor named Ion discovers Rodea, who wakes up and tries to catch up with current times. As expected, Naga forces come back, and you traverse through stages defeating enemies and collecting various things to help you on your journey to fulfil your promise of protecting Garuda.

Rodea starts off with one of the worst openings I’ve ever had the misfortune of experiencing. The prologue area looks hideous, and this is where the controls are explained. Imagine playing a point and click adventure mixed with what is seemingly meant to be a fast-paced game with only the buttons available on the old 3DS systems. It just doesn’t work as it should. Rodea has to fly from one island to another to reach his goal. This becomes very annoying thanks to the circle pad targeting system and the flight system that requires pressing A to propel you towards a target. Pressing L and R to rotate the camera by 90 degrees is all the control you have over that and this makes everything less fun overall. I would have enjoyed Rodea the Sky Soldier a lot more had there been proper Circle Pad Pro or C-stick support for free camera movement because many situations involve you being stuck in awkward positions made worse thanks to the horrible camera.

Once the prologue ends and you have some backstory, everything feels slightly better with brighter visuals, good music, and proper explanations of objectives. I had the prologue bug out on me twice and it feels so poorly designed that I couldn’t even tell what I was doing wrong initially. Every few stages of Rodea the Sky Soldier, you’ll face a Shadow of the Colossus-style boss fight. These fights are interesting, albeit a little annoying thanks to the camera again. There’s a lot of replayability thanks to lots of collectibles and some hidden areas, and you’re awarded a rank for each stage.

Voice acting in Rodea the Sky Soldier is a pleasant surprise: there is a lot of spoken dialogue and you have the option to use Japanese or English for voices. This is decided when you start a new game and can’t be changed later. I also really enjoyed the catchy, memorable soundtrack after the prologue ended.

I played on a New 3DS XL and the performance was poor. I noticed the frame rate drop in various areas and when you consider the bland visuals, that’s really disappointing. Rodea the Sky Soldier on 3DS is a poor version of what looks like an otherwise fun game on the Wii. If it had a better camera and controlled well, I would recommend it to everyone, but as it is, it just isn’t worth playing for the sake of a few interesting boss fights, a decent story, and a good soundtrack.

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Ubisoft has added some new modes to this year’s entry in the franchise, and while many of them don’t make a huge impact on the overall experience, they do try to freshen up proceedings a little. The new World Video Challenge is definitely a highlight; you can upload videos of yourself dancing and players around the world can watch and challenge them, resulting in hilarious dance battles that’ll be more fun than you probably anticipate. I took on a chap from the US and his uncomfortably weird dance was vastly entertaining, whether he was genuinely trying or not. Staying on the subject of videos, you can also create music videos (sort of) in Showtime mode and upload them to Just Dance TV for others to enjoy.

There has been a slight tweak to the Dance Party mode that lets you team up with a friend to earn more points as well. Dance Quest mode lets you undertake different 3-song challenges that, once beaten, unlock more quests and points, and the Sweat and Playlist mode allows you to fully customise a playlist to dance along to. On the surface of it, these new modes and modifications to last year’s Just Dance may appear to add more to a flagging franchise, but playing the game first hand only highlights how none of these modes do anything to bring back a freshness that has been absent for a very long time.

The songs have started to become more abstract and unknown; you can dance along to Lady Gaga, Jason Derulo and Bruno Mars, but there is also a lot of filler on the track listing, and after dancing to Uptown Funk for the twentieth time, you may find that boredom begins to creep in. In a way to combat this, Ubisoft has introduced Just Dance Unlimited: a subscription-based service that promises over 150 songs to dance to as many times as you like, although you’ll be expected to pay the kind of prices of services like PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold. If you love Just Dance, this service may be right up your street, but for a game that already sells for around £40, you may find these additional costs rather unnecessary, especially when the original track list is so poor.

In one of Just Dance 2016’s better moves, you can now use your smartphone to control the game (Xbox One, PS4 and Wii U only) which means that starting a dance is easier than ever. The app is incredibly responsive and it manages to capture every move you make while dancing along. It would be an idea to check compatibility before you buy, but my Samsung 5s worked without a single issue and it is available on both the Apple Store and Google Play.

Just Dance 2016 looks like a rainbow in a washing machine; colour encompasses every inch of the screen and its vibrancy makes the experience better for it. The dancers have some questionable outfits and moves, but on the whole the game offers a great amount of amusement. It is perfect to play with your friends, partner or kids because it wants you to have a good time with the ones you love. Just Dance 2016 may not offer anything original this time around, but it manages to retain the fun that has been there since day one.

I got 10,500 points for absolutely nailing the dance routine for the William Tell Overture; the onscreen dancers dressed as horseracing jockeys showed me a routine that proved a challenge, but I nailed it and felt pretty good about myself (and on reflection, I never thought I’d say anything like that in a review!). I even trod on my daughter’s pencil sharpener in the process and remained composed, even though the pain hurt like hell. Just Dance 2016 isn’t revolutionary or original, but it will make you smile profusely and give you, your friends and your family plenty of opportunities to make great memories.

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The story centres on Mt. Hikami, a mountain that towers over a river valley and, more importantly, a small village with a disturbingly high suicide rate. As the setting for a horror game, it’s got everything: dark woods, eerie caves, all-too-tranquil lakes and abandoned buildings galore. It’s Japan’s version of Silent Hill, a rustic Raccoon City, a place that reeks of death and that no one in their right mind would journey to at night.

Luckily for us, the trio of protagonists are clearly not quite sane in the membrane, as they seem intent on poking at things best left undisturbed, in the dead of night, alone, unarmed (mostly). It’s a recipe for facepalm-worthy disaster, but it’s not something you’re encouraged to think to hard about.

Their reasons for investigating Mt. Hikami are a tad cliched, but acceptable enough: author Ren Hojo has nightmares about a drowned woman, the Maiden of Black Water, and hires paranormal investigator and occult specialist Hisoka Kurasawa to find out what links him to Suicide Central. Hisoka and her apprentice Yuri have a powerful gift called “shadow-reading” that allows them to see and follow traces of the dead. When Hisoka initially vanishes, it’s up to Yuri and Ren to find her trail and uncover the horrifying truth behind the Maiden’s origins.

Both Yuri and Ren are armed with the famous “Camera Obscura”, a device able to see into the netherworld, capture images of ghosts and, if need be, destroy evil spirits by pulling apart their ectoplasmic residue. Or something. It’s explained, more or less, but ultimately it’s pure hokum designed to excuse the series’ central conceit of busting ghosts by snapping happy. And it does a damn good job, too, as the photography mechanic is excellent – especially when combined with the Wii U GamePad.

The narrative is divided into stages, which usually start innocuously enough. Your protagonists arrive at the location full of wonder and trepidation, which will usually turn to desperate fear by the end. You’ll explore the area in third person, picking up glinting clues that help the character and story, but don’t mean much to you as a player. You don’t need to examine anything you find to work out what to do next; simply reaching an area or finding a collectible will usually be enough to trigger a cutscene or find the next shadow trace to follow.

This is the first of Project Zero’s issues: it’s very easy to feel utterly detached to what’s going on, and hard to care about the characters. You rarely feel that you’re in their shoes, and it’s almost like you’re watching it all unfold. As a result, you simply can’t shake the knowledge that it’s a game, which is terrible for the immersion. It’s not helped by the grading of each stage in the usual S, A, B, C template, awarding you points based on performance to spend on curatives, aids and camera film between levels. Once you get into the habit of actively trying to earn the most points, even the initially tense and creepy combat becomes just another points-based shooting gallery.

There’s no denying that the atmosphere is unsettling in itself, but you won’t feel nervous for long with so much to occupy you. There’s also no fear of instant, gruesome death as with many modern horror games, as combat is either heavily scripted or signposted. Vengeful spirits rise at set moments to kill your protagonist for often unspecified reasons, or they’ll be drawn to you through the water if you get too wet. As you’re either knee-deep in water or getting rained on 80% of the time, combat is a little too common.

At first, fighting off the ghosts is exhilarating. As soon as you hear their tell-tale groan, you need to raise the GamePad like a camera and press X. At this point you’ll be looking through it, lining up the spirits with your viewfinder and taking pictures to defeat them. Every picture tears wisps of vapour from them, which will eventually return and rejuvenate them, so you’ll need to photograph them, too. Line up enough in a given shot and the lens will flash red, which allows you to execute a “fatal frame” and destroy the spirit for good. Sadly, it’s a little over-used, and what begins as a tense, exciting affair soon starts to feel tedious and a little irritating. New mechanics are introduced sparingly, and different cameras have varying uses (Ren’s, for example, can take multiple shots and strip a ghost apart quicker, but the film takes longer to reload), but it’s never as frightening as it wants to be.

The trouble is, we’ve come along way since The Ring, and the whole “faceless dead girl crying black tears” has been done to death. There’s not a lot of real horror in Project Zero, and the psychological aspects just aren’t immersive and unsettling enough. I’m usually a mess playing horror games, but Maiden of Black Water simply isn’t scary. The slightly sluggish controls and overall slow pace aren’t great, either, sometimes creating a tension that feels artificial and forced.

It nails the atmosphere, and the story is compelling enough that you want to unravel the mystery of Mt. Hikami, but sadly Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water fails at the horror. An over-reliance on combat, jump scares that miss the mark, and a catalogue of trite cliches we’ve seen a hundred times before hold back what could have been a great game. That said, horror titles – or adult titles in general – are uncommon on Wii U, and so Project Zero has its niche, not to mention a legion of franchise fans who’ll be chomping at the bit for it. It’s just a shame it’s not scarier.

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Split across land, sea and air, these vehicles break up the traditional Skylanders platform-puzzle gameplay with vehicular combat and race sections, adding a fresh twist to the series. Each handles in a similar manner, with R2 acting as accelerate and the face buttons taking care of your weapons and abilities. You’ll battle your way around arenas and other, more linear, tracks, fighting off enemies and chasing after bosses – it’s exactly what you would expect from vehicles in the Skylanders universe, but that’s by no means a bad thing.

Each type is subtly different. Packaged in the Starter Pack is a land vehicle, which is all you technically need to complete the game, but the air and sea ones are more interesting. As you’d guess, planes and helicopters allow for more 3D movement, swooping down and around obstacles and enemies, while sea vehicles can submerge to navigate water sections and dodge surface projectiles. They change up the pace from the standard Skylanders on-foot sections that link them up, with each level having at least one of each type.

Levels each have a twist on them. One takes place on the back of a gigantic dragon, causing platforms to move and shift, while a later area is obscured by clouds, which can be cleared for brief spells, allowing you to memorise your way forward. These twists tend to form the basis for most puzzles in a level, with a gentle difficulty progression in each one.

The stars, though, are the Skylanders and their toy counterparts. Each feels happily different from the others, and you’ll find one that suits how you want to play the game. In the Starter Pack is Spitfire, a dragon/demon guy who can get in close to enemies, and Super Shot Stealth Elf who’s armed with a minigun and can turn invisible for a short time, and there’s over 20 new Skylanders to collect, alongside the full complement of past ones who’ll work as well.

This individuality is helped by the animation, with each Skylander having their own style of movement and little quirks. The toys are great too. Of excellent quality as always, the figures strike action poses while the vehicles have moving parts: cars have working wheels and the helicopter’s blades spin. They are proper toys, and it’s great being able to race toy cars around the table, then pop them onto the portal and have them appear instantly in the game.

The whole game can be played in co-op mode as well. The on-foot sections are the same, albeit with two of you, but the vehicular bits see one of you take the wheel while the other handles the weapons. It works really well, allowing for more precision aiming.

Sitting on top of all of this are three upgrade systems that add a surprising amount of depth to the gameplay. Characters are customisable with new moves, vehicles with new parts and your portal pad levels up, granting bonuses to coin collection and such. With different currencies for each, and some upgrades only available by finding them in-game, it can be a little confusing though. Other bonuses can be found by pairing certain Skylanders and their vehicles, “Supercharging” them, while character types – fire, water, air etc. – are more powerful in certain areas, even if where and when seem a little arbitrarily chosen.

Still, the game is packed full of surprises. There’re various secret areas and side puzzles to discover, and you can find a host of items to customise your Skylander Academy base with. There’s even a Hearthstone-esque card game to take part in (by “esque”, I mean “carbon copy”).

As good a game as Superchargers is though, it has its issues. The gameplay, while fun, is repetitive and lacks serious challenge – although as a kid’s game it’s arguably unfair to complain about this – and the multiple upgrade systems are a little overwhelming, which as a 23-year-old is a very valid complaint in a kid’s game. My largest issue is a deliberate design one, however: Skylanders Superchargers makes you very aware of what you are missing. Vehicle sections blend almost seamlessly into the linear levels in the game, which is fine if you have one of each type of vehicle, but if you only have the Starter Pack’s Hot Streak car, listening through the dialogue about a water or air section up ahead only to find out you can’t do it and must look for a route around is frustrating as an adult, and I can’t imagine how it would be for a child.

Using children to open their parent’s wallets is nothing new of course, but in the past Skylanders characters have been totally optional – one may be better than another in certain sections, but you could complete the game with any. Here, it feels as though you’re missing out on large sections of the game if you don’t have a certain vehicle, which, to be honest, you are.

That you need all three types of vehicle to fully enjoy Superchargers isn’t really a surprise though, and even without them this is still a fantastic children’s game, one that they can lose hours to upgrading their favourite Skylanders and vehicles. There’s plenty for adults to enjoy too, provided you don’t go in expecting a serious challenge, and of course it’s something you can play with your child and both have fun with. Skylanders may be facing tougher competition this year, but with Superchargers it’s stepped up its game to match.

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For instance, opening the Bad Cop pack you’ll be met with instructions – but only how to put the figure himself together. After popping him onto the gateway (that’s what we’re calling the portal, here) it’ll instantly make an in-game instruction manual appear that exactly mirrors the real world ones that you’d find in a normal LEGO pack. Dimensions asks you to build a vehicle, or other character-specific item, and to stop playing the game, and start playing with the LEGO. It’s a marvelous, inventive idea, that absolutely takes advantage of everything great about LEGO. You can unlock abilities for vehicles (etc), and after doing so ten times, you’ll unlock a new instruction manual that creates an alternative take on the original build – up to three different times. Again, the idea is simple: it’s just what you do with LEGO, but I can’t imagine a better implementation, nor a more simplistically innovative way to make this Toys to Life game truly stand out from the crowd.

Much of what you get from Dimensions is down to how much you like the source material, as with the other titles from TT Games. But there’s so much here, with such a broad appeal, it’s hard not to imagine someone liking something. Starting out with Yellow Brick Road (perhaps an obvious choice), moving directly into The Simpsons, then some LEGO Ninjago. After meeting him, Homer nails it straight away: “It’s not selling out, it’s co-branding”. It’s funny, it’s clever, and shows an awareness of the person playing, but it also shows that like those early seasons of The Simpsons, Warner and TT understand that something can appeal to both adults and children, and still be clever enough for both.

It’s obviously not the best story you’ll ever experience, though it’s well written and original while using the characters you know and love. A weird bi-dimensional guy wants to be an all powerful despot, and heroes and villains from all manner of properties have been sucked into the fight between good and evil, with WyldStyle, Gandalf, and Batman (from the LEGO Batman games, not The LEGO Movie) at the centre, fighting back. It made me laugh multiple times, though, thanks to the characters and situations, and special mention goes to the trophy names – some of which are genius.

Make no mistake, however, this is very much a LEGO game. I don’t mean that in a negative way, just that if you’ve played any of the plethora of previous games in the series, you’ll know what to expect. The silly humour, the fact there’s no penalty for dying, the faithful representations of the source material: it’s all what you expect. And, to a degree, so is the gameplay. It’s designed to be played by all ages, and is best enjoyed in co-op with two people who aren’t going to get too angry at one another. You’ll spend much of your time smashing enemies and LEGO to pieces, only to rebuild it into interesting structures that let you progress.

Where Dimensions differs from stable-mates, and where it excels, is the gateway itself. Unlike the competition, the gateway can take seven different toys at once. This means you can have two cars, a scooby snack, Batman, Homer, WyldStyle, and Marty McFly all accessible at once, and instead of (as in Skylanders) you just swapping them out when one of them dies, TT has put them into different categories that allow you to clear a path to otherwise gated sections of the levels. It’s not a new thing, and you can finish every level with the starter pack, but right from the get-go there is an incredible amount of packs available to purchase, that you’ll need to consider if you want to 100% the game. There’s no elemental separation here, and the categories are many.

To break it down further: Gandalf is magic, so can use that on certain areas. WyldStyle is acrobatic, so can double jump and reach higher places – she’s also a master builder so can make bigger, better objects. Batman has his grapple-hook and batarangs, so he can use those on the environment – he also has the Batmobile, so your gang can use that when needed, too. If you choose to buy them, it expands further. Homer is a strong man, so can smash through walls. Bad Cop shoots a laser gun that’ll unlock other areas. It’s worth mentioning that most of these areas gated by the need to purchase new figures are for collectibles, and most categories have at least five characters within them (some are more like ten, and some include vehicle powers that can substitute for them), so you don’t need to buy every figure.

The gateway itself offers up rudimentary (but always fun) puzzle solving. The often used one is that you have three colours on the floor to paint your characters (red, yellow, blue) which will then correspond to an image in the background. The idea is that you have to match those colours up on the gateway, thus causing damage to a boss, or opening a door, that kind of thing. The bosses themselves are always great, and TT isn’t afraid to hit you with three of them on the bounce. As with the rest of the game, the challenge is minimal, but it does make the tried and tested LEGO formula feel fresh, purely thanks to the real life interactions with the portal. I can see people being frustrated with the (sometimes constant) swapping around, but I found it a welcome change.

It feels weird saying this, but LEGO Dimensions made feel so happy. Starting the game and realising that after placing a character down, it’ll ask you to build their accessory was always – and I say that categorically – a joy. LEGO is one of the oldest toys I can remember, and building the Mystery Machine before playing with it in a videogame is an experience like no other. The building is actually more fun than the game itself, but the fact it marries both together so well means that for a game-loving LEGO fan, it’s a bit of paradise.

There are issues, of course. An odd sound bug that causes the sound to go very low, before having the disc spin up and bring in the audio again is just plain bizarre, not least because it seems to happen around incidental dialogue. Switching characters is still awkward unless you hold triangle and manually select, and there’s some fiddly platforming, too. Sometimes characters will get themselves stuck, which is rectified by removing them from the gateway and re-placing them.

There’s no question that this will be an expensive hobby, but in (ever-so slight) defense of it, LEGO isn’t cheap, full stop. But to those of you who love it, and enjoy the series (those frightened for their wallets stop reading right now), then really, this is kind of an essential purchase. It revitalises TT’s own series of games, and at a time where I felt the Toys to Life genre was reaching Guitar-game level of progression and exhaustion, makes me think there’s room to manoeuvre once again. Make no mistake: this is a LEGO game with a few minor new additions that is successful because of the actual LEGO and the gateway portal, but it’s a great LEGO game nonetheless, and the most fun I’ve had with LEGO in years.

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Pumped BMX+ is a prime example of this. Previously designed as a mobile game, its simple, uncluttered gameplay is pure score-chasing fun, now transported to the Xbox One with graphical and performance boosts and burst of new content. It’s a welcome arrival, don’t get me wrong, but when I first started playing it I was wondering how many people would choose to pay for something so basic on a next-gen console. After about forty-five minutes I stopped asking myself such stupid questions, and realised I hadn’t blinked for almost an hour.

Like many games of its ilk, Pumped BMX is dead straightforward and hugely moreish. Holding down A will accelerate your little BMXer, and releasing it as you crest a ramp will give you a boost of air. Once sky-bound, the right stick and both bumpers will perform tricks. Chain tricks with grinds, wheelies and jumps increases the score multiplier, and your obvious goal is to score as much as possible. Poor timing and/or judgement will see your rider come crashing to the ground in painful ways, made even more comical and occasionally wince-inducing by the ragdoll physics and your rider’s relentless dead-eyed smile. Seeing him hurtle into a wall face-first and drop to the ground, lifeless, still, and SMILING, is just a little bit creepy.

Performing tricks couldn’t be simpler, but there is a definite are to maximising your airtime and learning which tricks transition best. For the longest time I simply turned the sticks randomly and held down a bumper, grinning as my score climbed. After a while I started to realise that by taking my time to perfect a transition here and there, I could score higher. Of course, sometimes there’s a cathartic kind of thrill to spamming whatever you can before you hit the floor again, but that’s a question of preference.

The levels range from quaint, summery woodland to frozen, snow-draped hills, but neither the weather not location has any bearing on what you’re doing, how you perform or indeed whatever your rider is wearing. Each stage comes with three difficulty levels, specified by the challenges offered, and completing all the challenges in one difficulty automatically unlocks the next level.

Aesthetically, Pumped BMX+ is bright and cartoony, almost charming. Sadly, the soundtrack is maddeningly irritating as the same handful of tracks loop over and over again. There’s no commentary or voice-acting, although little banners drop down in response to your actions either with words of encouragement, praise or hashtagged insults. There’s definitely a sense of humour in Pumped BMX+ that adds a sense of personality to the fun. If you’re after a quick burst of fun, Pumped BMX+ delivers, but there’s nothing overly exciting going on beyond the straightforward thrill of chasing your high scores.

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A 2D, pixel-art beat-em up, the arcadey premise is incredibly simple: kill the crowned ghost that appears in the single screen room stage, repeating over and over until you’re left with the Game Over screen and – hopefully – a new high score.

The twist is that the ghosts you must slay are literal ghosts of your previous selves. Every move, every double-jump and (most importantly) every attack is copied, through to where you killed that round’s crowned ghost, before being reversed and so on until you finally kill them. When there’s only one or two of your past selves running around it’s easy enough to keep track of what they’re going to do, but at four or more it becomes a challenge just to stay alive, let alone seek out your target.

Your survival is helped by the myriad weaponry you have at your disposal. Pistols, mines, and bazookas are mixed in with throwing knives and magic staffs, of which you can hold three at once, with them all firing at the same time as well. Such an arsenal adds to the chaos, but you’ll want to avoid spraying bullets in every direction – you’ll be coming up against yourself in the next round after all.

Should things get a little too frantic, the exorcism power-up appears every so often, allowing you to permanently banish any ghosts caught in its radius. The combination of this with enemies that you can direct with enough forethought means that Extreme Exorcism demands a surprising amount of strategy. Being careful with your trigger finger and clever with you exorcisms is the key to success.

The arcade mode sees you unlocking new levels and weaponry when you get certain scores, making your way through the haunted house that serves as the setting. It’s quite cool, with the stages set in each room offering a new type of obstacle – flames in the kitchen, moving books in the library etc. The ultimate aim it to make your way to the altar in the basement, where you’re faced with a boss fight. Throwing everything that makes Extreme Exorcism different out the window, it pitches you against a giant demon, dodging its movements and the ghosts it throws at you until an exorcism power-up appears. It’s a sour note on which to leave the game.

Luckily the inclusion of four-player local co-op makes up for it. Playing through the game with a friend makes things even more chaotic, with their ghosts mixing with your own, making them unpredictable. Admittedly it becomes a little easier overall – with more of you to take out the ghosts in each round and the ability to respawn your partner after their lives are gone by killing a certain amount of ghosts, but it is still fantastic fun.

The visuals are what you’d expect from a pixelated indie game. Despite all the chaos that can happen though, it’s always relatively clear what’s going on, with ghosts bright colours – the same as the hunter they are from – and weapons the are easily distinguishable on their spawn pads. Collision detection can be a little wonky, especially with the flames in the kitchen area, but on the whole the graphics are a joy.

A Towerfall-like deathmatch mode is also included (where you have to kill your mates, gaining a ghost of your previous round if you win), as is a challenge mode, which tasks you with getting a high score using only certain weapons. Nice distractions from the core arcade mode, the latter doesn’t offer much beyond score hunting, so if that doesn’t float your boat it’s maybe hard to recommend.

If you’re looking for a dip in and out arcade fix though, Extreme Exorcism ranks among the best I have ever played. Its fast and frantic nature allows anyone to play – and to feel good at it – while at the same time offering enough depth for score hunters to master the perfect strategy on it’s various stages. This coupled with its excellent multiplayer makes Extreme Exorcism well worth a look.

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In the modern day, we’ve got the internet, and we’ve got Super Mario Maker, which lets us create our own levels from four core Mario templates: Super Mario Bros. Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and Super Mario Bro. U. We can share them among friends and strangers alike, and we can rate them. It’s glorious, and succeeds where almost every other level creation toolset fails.

Take LittleBigPlanet, for example. The biggest problem it faces in comparison to the Mario series is that the platforming itself just isn’t tight enough. It’s simply not as good. The level creation tools may have given people the change to forge some crazy creations, but I’ve never wanted to actually get involved. The idea of moving objects around with the analog stick isn’t appealing, and it’s neither responsive, nor quick enough. Mario Maker fixes all of this by being one of the few Wii U titles that makes the GamePad feel vital to its being. You are drawing your own levels. You are creating with your own fingertips, which means everyone can get involved. Isn’t that fantastic?

Doling out the mechanics over a period of nine days may seem like a terrible idea, but unlike with, say, Splatoon, it works well. It’s a little slow (I’d have preferred a large reveal over, let’s say, a week, though you can change the system clock to get around this roll-out), because as someone who plays a lot of games, I felt I had exhausted not so much what I could do with the tools, but what I wanted to do. I knew there was more to come. I knew that soon I could create my own Super Mario world 2, with branching lower levels via pipes. But to the younger audience and people who aren’t as familiar with games and their systems, it’s a smart idea to tempt them back over the days, each time giving more reason to keep creating.

And there’s some lovely stuff here. You can create self-completing levels that take an enormous amount of dedication to design, or you can create obscenely hard courses full of giant Goombas and Koopa Troopers. You can add your own sound effects so that when your friends hit a question mark block it shouts “Arse” in a Father Jack manner (though be aware these revert to standard noises once online), or you can have six massive Bowsers shooting flames at you from every angle while multiple giant (why wouldn’t they be giant?) Kameks also throw projectiles at you, like in some crazy, warped bullet hell version of Mario. Incidentally, thank Dalagonash for most of those courses… the sadist. Hell, you can even have a Bill Blaster that fires masses of coins, if you want to.

What it truly teaches, however, is just how hard it is to make a truly great Mario course. Would-be creators might think they’re the best, but venture online and it becomes abundantly clear there’s always someone cooler than you out there. Miyamoto is a genius, and at times Mario Maker almost feels like he’s saying “Go on then, you bloody well make it if it’s so easy”, because this is a reminder of the exultant joy that can be beholden from the great man. Despite this, its intuitive and approachable. The second you want to test something, you can do so with the tap of a button, before instantly being back in create mode to fix it up and perfect it.

But this is also a funny game. For no apparent reason a dog will be riding a rocket across the screen, and every new day you play will show a mini-skit taking Mario off the screen and plopping you down into the creation mode. Silly, quirky musical cues that play out as you add something to the course are pure Nintendo magic, and there’s something inherently amusing about seeing Super Mario Bros. look like, well, not Super Mario Bros. at all. It all works so well, and switching between each game type or preset background is instant, and always impressive. A block containing Yoshi in Mario World of Mario U will give you a Goomba’s Shoe in Mario 3, and the end-level flags will instantly change to match the theme. Each style has individual physics to it, but the older games feel slightly more modern, control-wise, and look visually spot on, with smoothed out pixels.

Jumping online, Nintendo has nailed it here, too. Curating appears to be heavily community involved, as you can favourite creators and courses. You have a default of ten courses you can upload, which can be increased as you’re given coins from people enjoying your creations. There’s the 100 Mario Challenge, which gives you a hundred lives and asks you to go through eight community designed levels. The offline mode is the 10 Mario Challenge, and features Nintendo creation courses, but the online hosts some truly hardcore challenges. You can’t just upload any old rubbish, though, and as you attempt to send to the community, you’ll have to complete the level yourself to prove it can be done. Simple really, but sensible all the same.

With no system level achievements or trophies, there’s no benefit to designing stupid courses, here. The only issue is with Amiibo. In Super Mario Bros. levels you can pop one of the highly collectible figures onto the GamePad and hide them in a question block. Appearing as a mushroom with a question mark on it, once grabbed you’ll transform into an 8-bit version of them. A few levels already appear to be runways full of question mark blocks that feature every available Amiibo. It’s a form of showing off your collection, I guess, but hopefully this will be the minority, and there won’t be lots of levels like that.

Super Mario Maker feels like the game Nintendo’s Wii U was designed for. It’s harsh to wonder if fortunes could have been different if it had been a launch title, but it’s also a stark reminder that Nintendo is out there taking risks. An online third-person shooter involving Squid came earlier this year, and now we have something that you’d assume was some crazy ROM-hack. Only it’s not. This is real, and brilliant. It’s the possibility of a thousand new Super Mario World levels, hundreds of mini-sequels to Super Mario Bros. 3. It’s the chance to challenge yourself and try to match the master of platforming with his own tool-set. It’s magnificent, it’s crazy, and it’s for everyone to enjoy. Truly inclusive, Super Mario Maker is the game you’ll smile the most at this year, and worth every penny.

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To call Devil’s Third a “bad game” would be far too neat for such a messy experience. There are stages of bad in Devil’s Third – there are layers of bad. For instance, Ivan (the protagonist) is a six-foot-four, shaven-headed, heavily-tattooed, chain-smoking Russian. Just read that sentence again. Visually, it’s even worse. It’s hard to imagine the meeting of executives where this design beat off the competition – but then you wonder if that’s the point. Did someone say, “I’m sick of action heroes looking like Nathan Drake. Let’s go nuts!”? And how many times do we have to see him nonchalantly light a cigarette mid-firefight before we accept that he is the coolest soldier ever to walk into a war zone topless? It’s almost painful to watch such awkwardly macho posturing.

The story plays out as though it desperately wants to be Metal Gear Solid. All the world’s satellites are destroyed by a terrorist organisation called the Sword, whose cadre of lethal assassins – including a blonde whose body suit might as well be painted on, and a Mickey Rourke lookalike called “Big Mouse” (seriously) – used to employ Ivan and a sniper code-named C4. When Ivan and C4 refused to take part in the murder of innocent civilians, children in particular, Big Mouse turned on them. Although C4 helped Ivan escape, she was shot and presumably killed, while Ivan himself was arrested by the UN and thrown in prison until the events of Devil’s Third.

It all kicks off when the bad guys start dropping satellites out of the sky, resulting in a complete information blackout and leading to a global war for supremacy, because that’s the only possible outcome of any worldwide catastrophe. Regardless of the silly premise, all roads lead to professional hard-nut Ivan going on a suicide mission with a squad of veteran marines to get his revenge and, if there’s enough time between vengeance and drinking, maybe save that world thingamajig that everyone’s so concerned about.

Oddly, mirth aside, there are surprising story beats to Devil’s Third that hint at the possibility of a deeper, more emotive plot. That they’re side-lined almost instantly every time in favour of another one-liner or another gargantuan boss to fight is more disappointing than infuriating. I’m not suggesting Devil’s Third has the foundations to be much more than it is, but there are occasional flashes of emotion, the odd line here or there in the script, that makes you believe it could have been greater. Whether it could have or not, it damn well should have been.

Everything is just sloppy. The shooting is imprecise, the melee combat messy and unfocused. You can switch seamlessly between guns and whichever melee weapon you’re currently rocking mid-fight, which would be really useful if it wasn’t all so hit and miss. Without a dedicated target lock or responsive controls, melee combat isn’t the joy that Valhalla want you to think it is. It’s taken pains to include a different execution animation for every weapon, and some of them are satisfying the first few times they happen, but they soon get old. Actually, they’re kind of indicative of Devil’s Third as a whole: everything is cool for about five minutes, then you realise that this is a game without a single original bone in its body.

The graphics swing between passable and awful, with low-detail textures, bland environments, and decidedly last-gen animations. Nothing really has any impact and within a few hours I found myself just button-mashing through the identikit stages, jumping on a mounted gun here, lasing a target for airstrike there. The missions are far too long, culminating in boss fights that range from mildly entertaining to horrendously cheap. One knife-wielding boss fairly early on had me rage-quit three times before I managed to fluke my way past him. After that I kind of resigned myself to the fact that Devil’s Third was never going to be real fun, but at least forcing myself through it might feel like an achievement.

Things that should be present in action games nowadays simply aren’t here. Environments are indestructible, and even cardboard boxes and wooden barriers can weather a sustained barrage of weapons fire before they finally disintegrate. There’s no substance to it all, no real context to coherently tie it all together: every mission consists of walking forward while shooting any enemy dumb enough to poke his head out – which is all of them.

If there’s any fun to be had at all, it’s in the multiplayer. While you can opt to join one of two factions or remain a factionless mercenary with no loyalties, there aren’t a great many differences between sides. The trick is still to kill your enemies quickly and brutally, while earning one of three different in-game currencies with which to buy cosmetic upgrades, new weapons and mods or special abilities like airstrikes. The multiplayer works surprisingly well, in fact, mostly because it takes the stuff that Devil’s Third gets right – manic, balls-out action – and removes all the clumsy, posturing storytelling and unleashes you on each other in arenas designed for going crazy in.

It suffers no less stuttering, glitching and slowdown as the campaign, but you mind less because it’s so mindlessly cathartic. Even some of the unlockables are bonkers, adding psychedelic chickens and artillery barrages to the mix. The messy controls work well here, too. Charging up walls with the weird jump-scramble move is a great way to get the vantage point, and it makes the maps wonderfully vertical. Melee kills are gruesome and brutal – and highly satisfying with it. The various modes aren’t anything particularly interesting, but Battle Royale’s free-for-all insanity might be the best option available.

While a decent multiplayer element just about saves it from being complete failure, even that can only deflect so much ire. Devil’s Third is an ugly, unoriginal, archaic adventure that seems determined to sabotage everything good in it. The mid-game bait and switch is heavily signposted by the second boss fight, so even the potential “what the hell” moment is dampened.

The sad fact is that Devil’s Third is not good enough in 2015, regardless of which console it’s released for. The Wii U may not have the horsepower to match PS4 and Xbox One, but this is the console that gave us ZombiU and Bayonetta 2. It can handle a lot more than Devil’s Third is dishing out, and Valhalla’s game simply under-performs in every area that counts.

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The Swindle is a 2D platformer, when you boil it down, about breaking into buildings and stealing all the cash without getting caught. If you do get caught, you can usually still get out – it’s just much harder. It’s great fun, wholly addictive, yet undeniably mean-spirited.

Set in a retro-futuristic, steampunk version of Victorian London, the Swindle sees your gang of notorious cat burglars threatened by Scotland Yard’s powerful new surveillance system, the Devil’s Basilisk (I know, right?). You have 100 days until it fires and renders your nefarious nighttime capers impossible, giving you 100 days to steal enough money to set yourself up for the greatest swindle of your career: stealing the Basilisk itself. I say “gang”, because every time one of your thieves is caught or killed they are replaced immediately by another one, but it’s not really clear who they are or where they come from. They all have a randomly-generated name and appearance, but The Swindle isn’t big on exposition or story.

In fact, the few lines of text at the beginning are all you get. You start in an airship, drop to Earth in a little pod, get your sticky fingers on, then escape in said pod when you’re done. And you do this over and over until you have enough money to upgrade your thieves. Abilities and power-ups are universal to your crew, so if you buy an upgrade for one thief it applies to every subsequent character. In that respect, The Swindle isn’t really a “Roguelike”. Death or failure will result in you having to use a different thief, but they’re all the same, and every level is procedurally generated anyway.

What’s mean-spirited about it is that it throws obstacles at you with no discernible pattern whatsoever. For example: one level might see you faced with a few patrolling guards and a floating camera. You scale the outside wall, smash a window, knock out the guard, destroy the camera, hack the computer and escape. Easy peasy. The very next level might present the exact same enemies and loot, but put them in odd places. If you get seen by a guard (whose line of sight is handily signposted by a massive yellow beam), the lights all go red, a siren goes off and you’ve only got a few seconds to get the hell out before the police show up. If the only way up a building is over a window, and the level generator has dropped a guard behind the glass on a platform that’s only a single tile wide, you’re going to have less than a second to jump up the window when his back is turned. If the controls were precise and responsive it might not be a problem. Sadly, they’re not, and one mistake can be enough to ruin or end an entire heist. Sometimes doors don’t open if you’ve just closed them, forcing you to step back and forward again first, which costs valuable time. Sometimes your thief will stick to a wall and slide down it, while sometimes they’ll fail to do so and fall to their deaths.

It’s not merely a question of getting good either. You just don’t know what’s coming, and after every heist the difficulty increases and new stuff is thrown at you with no explanation of how to get round it. Little cute robots that explode, brutish guards that have to be hit three times before they sleep, mines that have to be hacked. Sometimes you might enter a heist and have no way to get into the building without setting off an alarm; early on, when you first unlock the second area, you may not be able to even enter a building because you didn’t realise there would be locked doors that you need a special ability to bypass. Given that most upgrades are hugely expensive (a few are £5000, and they become astronomical pretty quick) and you will struggle to earn more than £600 – £1200 in the first few heists after you’ve unlocked hacking (which takes at least one heist), you may find it tricky to progress early on.

At times, it seems that The Swindle assumes you already know how to play it. It assumes you’ve examined the skill tree and know what you’re saving for. It’s probably deliberate, as the keys to a successful robbery are preparation and planning (or so I’ve heard), but it’s still initially infuriating – especially as early levels contain areas you can’t reach without skills you don’t have yet, computers to hack when you can’t possibly have unlocked hacking. It’s irritating, as you can’t go back due to the random level generator and clean up what you miss. You can’t learn anything, which kind of puts paid to the theory that you should be prepared for any eventuality. You can’t be. You go into every heist utterly blind, so there’s no wonder you fail so often.

The busy (admittedly very stylish) aesthetic makes it hard to see what’s happening sometimes, and it’s easy to get smacked by a guard if you’re not lightning-fast enough with your cosh. The double-jump doesn’t always register. These are all minor things that wouldn’t matter so much if your success didn’t depend so heavily on reflexes, timing and precision. Every new heist knocks a day off your 100-day limit, too, and it’s remarkably easy to waste them in quick succession. But the art style is wonderful and the tick-tock music creates a sense of tension that puts you immediately on edge. It’s just a shame that The Swindle doesn’t quite have the nuanced gameplay to pull off what it’s aiming for, and instead leaves us with a game that’s fun and different, but slightly undercooked.

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As you’d expect, the reason for the adventure usually pales into insignificance compared the journey itself. The mischievous Kamek has decided to kidnap an abundance of woolen Yoshis, reduce them to yarn and head off to various locations, hiding the stolen yarn as he goes. It is your task to head through the six worlds on offer – each containing eight levels with varying degrees of theme and challenges.

Yoshi has a couple of abilities in his arsenal to help him through. He can eat enemies and turn them into balls of wool which he can then throw. He can flutter jump which allows him to jump that tiny bit further and higher to reach the more difficult platforms. His ground pound can squash enemies and flatten scenery to help you progress or find secrets. It’s nothing that you haven’t done before (even if you have never played before), and it’s all very intuitive.

The levels you play through are some of the most beautiful, colourful, and inventive you will see grace any console. For those looking for a break from the browns and greys and dullness of what the new machines offer, Wooly World is one full of vibrant life, with time spent on making sure the wool finish of Yoshi is outstanding. You will spend time looking at the levels themselves as you traverse through them, from how Nintendo has handled water effects using string, to lava monsters made out of red and orange scarfs. Every single area has had such a large amount of thought placed into not only what to base the theme around, but how to reproduce the areas using various materials. The obligatory ice level seems to be made out of blue silk, which you skid around on, while the Sky level has an abundance of cotton wool that you cloud hop.

Every last enemy is made out of wool, which unravels when Yoshi takes his tongue to them. Yoshi himself displays his yarn DNA whenever he tries the floaty jump. His legs transform into little wheels when he picks up enough speed. To use the phrase ‘Nintendo charm’ is a bit off, as charm to me betrays the amount of work Nintendo must have put into each level in order to make it look like you are living in a material world. See a little bit of thread sticking out? Try grabbing it with your tongue and watch a secret area be revealed by the unraveling wool in front of you.

What elevates Wooly World above your normal platforming fair is that getting from a-to-be of a level is only the beginning. Yes, you can finish a level within ten minutes – and a world will fall in a hour with ease. But Yoshi has always been about hidden secrets and collecting everything within those levels. Finding five balls of wool will give you a new, different coloured Yoshi to play other levels with, though there are no advantages to playing with different ones. Finishing a level with all your health, collecting hidden stamps and finding all the daisies will give you level stars. When you reach the end of the level you have the chance of entering a mini-game to increase your overall jewel score. Complete some levels and you will be given a badge which grants you a power to be used on a whole level. The badges will let you run faster, give you constant watermelon seeds to spit, increase the power of your ground stomp, or let you see where hidden stamps can be found embedded in jewels within the level. These badges are designed to give you options on how you tackle later levels or how you revisit previous levels for that one missed item. Seeing the end of the game is just the beginning.

On every world you will have two bosses to overcome, and for those who have played any of the previous Yoshi titles, these will be very familiar. Do not expect to be overly challenged by any of them; at most you’ll be figuring out the right timing in which to knock them down and stomp on their weak spot. There were only two in the whole game that caused me any real difficulty and even then they weren’t that tough. The intention is to be fun and accessible to everyone, so one of the key additions is a Mellow mode, which gives Yoshi wings in the level to allow you to simply soar around, reducing the challenge considerably and making the game open to some of the younger or less experienced gamers of the household.

A special mention should go to the music, which is sublime and different across every level. This game deserves to be played loud for the sound that Yoshi makes, and so much of the soundtrack is nothing short of outstanding. It is testament to the amount of work that has been put into Yoshi’s Woolly World in order to make sure it reaches the standard we have come to expect.

If you are the type of person who plays a game just to finish it and see the end credits, then there is a possibility that after six to eight hours of solid play, you will see the end credits, the smile will disappear from your face and you will feel slightly disappointed that it ends so soon. However, for those secret hunters, for those who boast a full roster of Pokémon on their 3DS, a complete collection of Amiibo on the shelf, or for those with young children they want to play games with, then Yoshi’s Woolly World promises to be a real treat.

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From the offset Badland is a curious title, for multiple reasons. Reason number one is that, after not much of an introduction at all, you are presented with a forest location and no clue as to what to do. A twiddle of the analogue stick on my Xbox One controller brought a little fur ball alive, and the screen started to shift endlessly to the right. No hints are given as to what the goal of the game is, or what the controls might be, so I decided to mash all of the available buttons to see what’s what. The A button seemed to make my fur ball flap his little arms, sending him upwards. Gravity then pulled him down, so I knew how to avoid objects. OK – getting the hang of this now, I floated onwards, through the excellently drawn and animated forest towards the levels end goal, a pipe, which sucked me up and took me to the next level.

Hopefully that gives you an idea of what sort of game Badland is, it’s an ‘endless runner’ of sorts, with a close resemblance to Flappy Bird, though to compare this title to Flappy Bird is probably doing it a bit of a disservice, but that is the general idea here. There is a little more to Badland than just tapping the A button mindlessly thankfully, and that extra complexity starts to show itself a few levels in. Our furry on screen friend isn’t alone on his journey, he can be joined by more..whatever he is. The other furry fellas’ are spread around levels in a dormant state, awoken by the presence of your on screen avatar.

You can drag literally hundreds of these guys along for the ride, using them as battering rams to get through certain obstacles, or cannon fodder for putting off enemies and working out a puzzle without risking your own life. The more of these little dudes you can make it to end of the level with, the better your score will be. You can collect items that make your character smaller, or larger, and the size of your character dictates its control characteristics. Large fur-balls are hard to control, using the triggers to flap wings independently is a requirement, while little fur-balls are erratic, but easy to get through tight spaces and past deadly objects.

I have explained all there is to see and do in Badland after playing what felt like the same, or at least very similar level over and over 100+ times. Tap tap tap, die, repeat, make it through, tap tap tap, puzzle of sorts, blag it, tap tap tap, on and on, am I on the bus? No, i’m in my living room, I could be playing something else.. Sod it, I’m playing something else…

Badland is a visually appealing game, with its expertly crafted locations and characters bringing to mind Ubiart games like Rayman and Child of Light. The translation from the little screen to the big screen has done this title a world of good, showing off the great work that has gone into making its environments interesting and thought provoking. It’s a shame, then, that none of the visual concepts are explained in anyway, leaving to guess at what on earth is going on in this dark, fragile looking world.

Badland’s trip from the palm of your hand to console-land is a nice enough translation, but is it a worthwhile one? No, it isn’t. Play it on your mobile, where is makes sense, and leave your Xbox One for more worthwhile endeavours.

The post Badland: Game of the Year Edition Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

The inhabitants of Inkopolis are obsessed with being ‘fresh’, to the point where you can’t get served in a shop without meeting their freshness requirement. This extends to gear being locked behind higher levels. If you haven’t already guessed, this is your standard shooter leveling up system hidden behind a friendly veneer. So, yeah, competing in online matches nets you ‘freshness’ and coins. Freshness grants you the right to buy items, while coins give you the means. At level one, your access to items is non-existent, but you’ll be able to put up enough of a fight to start earning your way.

You see, splatting (never killing) members of the opposing team isn’t the goal here. Instead your goal is to cover as much of the arena in your team’s ink colour as possible. Splatting an enemy makes them explode in a shower of your team’s ink, coating a rather large area, but taking out your enemies is still secondary to the main objective. As such, this ensures that anyone can jump right in and start painting the town red (or blue, purple, or green).

Nintendo have certainly spent a while on making sure that they’ve got their weapon balancing right. Once you’ve graduated from the Splattershot Jr. there’s an extensive arsenal to fulfil your splatting needs. The Splat Roller may seem overpowered due to its ability to paint large areas in a short amount of time, but that is easily nullified by a long range weapon like the Aerospray MG or the Jet Squelcher. The former has a high fire rate and long range, but low damage, making it great for coating areas quickly, but also taking out people with weapons like the roller that are more effective at close range. The Squelcher, meanwhile, is more like a sniper rifle, having excellent range and damage, but it’s terrible for inking.

Other than weapons there are three categories of clothing to wear: head, torso, and feet. These carry buffs, when the item has earned enough freshness it levels up and opens another buff. More expensive items carry more buffs to unlock, but require considerably more freshness to unlock them. You can buy these from their respective stores, or, once you’ve spoken to the rather shady character in the alleyway, you can investigate other players and order items they have that you like. He’ll then procure the goods for you, but with different perks. Outside of that there’s no way to actually interact with other players in the hub, it only really exists to save you staring at menus.

There are six arenas in total, a mixture of large open spaces, thin walkways, and funneling points designed to bring opponents together to encourage splatting. They’re tightly designed, allowing routes to work around if the middle is being dominated, so that there’s always a way for the team behind to turn the tide. Being able to launch from your team’s respawn point to the location of a team mate to back them up reinforces the fact that most matches aren’t lost causes.

The biggest problem is the number of arenas themselves. Six isn’t enough, and at any time only two are available in the normal online play, and ranked battle mode (which is unlocked at level ten) also has only two arenas available, albeit different ones. It may not sound like such a big deal, but the rotation takes quite a while to change to the next set of maps, and with only two available, you can repeat one map until you finally get to the other (on one occasion I played the same map five times in a row before I got a change of scenery). To make matters worse, the news report that tells you which arenas are available can’t be skipped, you have to watch it every time, which is infuriating.

This problem worsened by the lack of game modes. Turf War is your regular online battle mode, where both teams vie to cover as much of the ground with their team’s colour as possible, and whoever covers the most before time runs out is the winner. Splat Zones are only available in ranked mode and require the teams to control a specific area. You do this by making sure it’s coloured mostly in your team’s colour. They at least encourage more in the way of battling, forcing players to be in a single area fighting to control it rather than spread out throughout the map, but the general victory condition is the same. There is a third mode which has one player use the gamepad screen and another use the TV with a standard controller setup; you can compete in a match to pop more balloons than your opponent. Unfortunately this is only available in local play, and it is only available as 1v1 mode. Considering Nintendo’s history with offering four player split-screen multiplayer modes, it’s surprising that Nintendo haven’t fleshed this out more.

In fact, it’s surprising that Nintendo haven’t fleshed out the multiplayer more in general, I’ve already bemoaned the lack of arenas and game modes for it, but the structure outside of this is so archaic that it’s stuck in the early 2000s. Matches have to be 4v4 and anything less than eight players sees the player search abandoned, so you then need to rejoin a lobby. While you’re in a lobby waiting for it to gather seven other people to play with there’s nothing to do apart from the cute little Doodle Jump clone (Squid Jump) on the gamepad. You’re literally left to sit and wait until enough players are gathered and a match can start. There’s not even the option to configure loadouts, which can only be done outside of lobbies – it’s frustrating. One minute you can have a definite group for the next round, but you want to change your equipment, so you’re forced to quit out, and when you’re done you have to wait for a whole new lobby to gather, and this isn’t even taking into consideration that you cannot exit a lobby once you’ve joined unless you want to completely power down your Wii U.

It gets worse when you consider what content is due after launch. We’re expecting new arenas and game modes (naturally), but also coming later (August to be precise), is the ability to create four player teams to go out and battle with, or sort out your own 4v4 matches amongst your friends list. Why this isn’t available at launch is baffling. Looking at what is missing from day one makes me wonder why Nintendo (of all developers) didn’t look into delaying Splatoon by a couple more months to ensure the game had this content straight away. Considering their philosophy on delayed games, it’s a massive oversight.

At least accompanying there’s a story mode, though. It’s a decent companion to the multiplayer which helps you learn the basics. The Octarians have kidnapped Inkopolis’ Great Zapfish, and yet no-one seems to really care, except for one Captain Cuttlefish, who recruits you into his secret organisation to rescue the zapfish and return it to Inkopolis. You’ll find yourself moving around Octo-valley, finding kettles (nope, no idea either) that transport you to worlds of floating platforms and obstacle courses. Each segment of a level ends with a launchpad that evokes feelings of Mario Galaxy as they launch you through the air to the next checkpoint. It’s a lovely sight to behold.

Completing all the levels in an area opens up the boss. These are cute, colossal creatures that require you to use all your inkling skills to get around and defeat. As long as you’ve had enough practice, none of these should pose a problem. Victory grants you access to the next set of kettles and a blueprint to hand to the gun shop owner who uses them to craft new weapons to sell.

In the five or six hours the campaign takes there are only a few frustrating moments, which tend to come in the levels themselves – but persistence pays off and you’ll get through them. The final boss is a considerable challenge, though, an amazing spectacle and very lengthy battle. The campaign doesn’t overstay its welcome, but the meager run time doesn’t add enough to the threadbare online component. Yes, there are your usual small secrets off of the beaten path, which, while entertaining to see, are in no way compulsory, but they don’t take much in the way of exploration to find either, so you should have many of them by the time you’re done.

In true Nintendo style, the graphics and sounds are top notch. The characters and locations are beautifully rendered, with terrific design and bright, bold colours. Functional good looks are Nintendo’s bread and butter, and here they have proven themselves once again to be masters of their craft. Sound design is also up to their usual lofty standards with excellent toe tapping tunes. Sound effects are equally nice, the denizens of Inkopolis speaking in a Sims style gobbledegook, the noise the ink makes as it splats against a surface, and the squelching sounds as you zip through ink in squid form, it’s all sublime.

Splatoon is a game that I desperately wanted to love. This is the game that convinced me to buy a Wii U, and it’s disappointing to see that Nintendo haven’t really built on the promise. In fact, it’s not disappointing, it’s heart breaking. That may sound strong, but in retrospect it’s obvious why Nintendo time limited the demo in the way that they did. That way, they could control how much of the game you had access to, and how long you had access to it – a canny move on their part in that respect.

This is a fun game, it really is. There’s so little meat on the bone, and doesn’t feel complete. It’s impossible to review potential, I can only comment on what is in front of me, and while what’s there is fun, there just isn’t enough of it.

It’s a shame. It’s a damn shame.

The post Splatoon Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

On track, it demands that you become at one with the car, intimately knowing its limits and making them your own. The challenge of keeping the car on the track gradually evolves into nailing the perfect racing line through corners, not only staying on the track but going around it quickly. Only then comes the proper racing. When you know what your car can do you can push it to the edge; late braking down the inside of your opponents, trying to take them on the outside before switching back for an undercut, and when you’re ahead doing your best to hold onto the racing line.

And you’ll need to push it to the edge to win. The AI will attempt their own risky overtakes, and vigorously try to keep you behind, forcing you to take your own risks if you want to get past. Somehow Slightly Mad Studios has made offline opponents feel incredibly realistic. Like you they’ll occasionally overcook it into a corner, losing time as they run wide, or muck up a gear change. These tiny chinks in their armour always make you feel like you have a chance. This creates a tense, honest racing experience, with any mistakes you make being your own fault.

Then there’s the rain. In most racing titles the wet stuff will mean a slightly slippy track, at worst all it takes is an F1-style tyre change to sort it out. But not in Project CARS. Treat a wet track like a dry one and you’ll be in the wall. Full throttle will only cause wheel spin, braking times need to be adjusted dramatically and you can barely see a thing. The risks are bigger then, but that also means the rewards for getting it right are even greater. As I have said previously, it’s reminiscent of the Souls series: one mistake can mean undoing all your good work up to that point, but you’ll want to jump straight back in and have another go, and when you do succeed it’s that same sense of elation.

Had Slightly Mad created this racing experience in a single racing discipline it would have been impressive, but they have got it spot on in several. Karts, road cars, GT racers, and LMP1 prototypes all handle differently, and require time to adjust to when you jump from one to the other, which you will do frequently in the career mode. Their aim from the start was to let you choose where you begin, so if you want to jump straight in with the GT3 Championship you can. I would definitely recommend starting off with Karting, though, and working your way up through the various tiers. At first you’ll only compete in a series of Cups within your chosen discipline, but perform well and you’ll get new invitations on your calendar. Nice breaks from competing against the same drivers in the same vehicle, these allow you to test some of the other options available to you, so when the season ends and you get new contract offers in different disciplines you already have a taste of other types of racing.

The races themselves are your normal fare, though some may have practice or qualifying sessions, or have one start position determined by where you finish in the previous race, and you can adjust the length from a handful of laps in a Kart up to a full, real time Le Mans 24 Hour race.

Other game modes are typical of the genre, single race and a randomised quick race equivalent, a time trial mode that puts your control scheme next to your time for the world to see (getting a good time on Nurburgring Nordschleife using a wheel without going off track once in the 13 miles is incredibly difficult it turns out), and multiplayer races that work off a lobby system. There’s also changing Community Events that challenge you to get the fastest time on a track with a certain car and in certain conditions. Basically, there’s plenty to keep you occupied then.

It would be hard to critique Project CARS without talking about the track roster, not least because it is incredibly impressive. Spa, Imola, Donnington, Laguna Seca, and the Circuit de Catalunya that plays host to this weekend’s Spanish GP are all included in the thirty-plus locations and a staggering 110 (or more) variants for you to race across. This is the most comprehensive track list of any recent racer.

Unfortunately the car roster isn’t quite up to the same standard. While there are plenty to play around with, because of the various disciplined there are only a handful in each class, and these are each closely matched. Yes races rely mostly on skill rather than who has the fastest car, but a little more variation would have been appreciated. They look glorious though, as does the entire game. Sometimes, when the sun dapples through the trees as you streak along a track, Project CARS looks fantastic. It’s no DriveClub (at least not on PS4), but that doesn’t mean it isn’t pretty. Rain effects compared to Evolution’s game are particularly poor, but strangely they may be more realistic, with blinding spray being thrown into the air. The cars sound spot on, and engine noise has clearly been something Slightly Mad has wanted to perfect, from the high-pitched whine of Karts to the deep grumble of V8s.

Handling works brilliantly on both pad and racing wheel, though I would heartily recommend the latter. Project CARS recognised my wheel straight away when plugged in, and there’s a variety of tweaks you can do to get it exactly as you like it. Getting things set up will take a little while, but once you’ve sorted it Project CARS really is one of the best racing experiences around. Menus could be a little more polished, there’s a feeling that they’ve been optimised for PC rather than console, but that’s only a small issue really.

Project CARS won’t be for everyone. If Need for Speed Underground or Burnout are your favourite racing games, then a sim like this is probably not for you. But if, like me, you grew up on Gran Turismo, where trying shaving seconds off a lap time is pleasure, then you will love this.

The post Project CARS Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

It’s the cuteness that does it. From the opening cutscene, it’s dialed up to eleven. Kirby is seen wandering through dreamland with one of his buddies, when a hole in the sky opens up and a mean character swoops in and robs the world of its colour. This is when a magical paintbrush appears and helps Kirby see the baddies off, in the process restoring colour to this one corner of Dreamland. That is the top and tail of the story, really, it’s simple fare but it does the job well enough of framing what is going on in Kirby’s magical world.

All of the in game action takes place on the GamePad screen, requiring use of the stylus to draw rainbow paths which Kirby follows like a train on a track. Kirby can’t stop himself from rolling, and the little fella doesn’t know how to walk, apparently, so it is up to you to keep him safe. Drawing the rainbow lines on the screen, you can guide Kirby towards the multitude of collectible stars and through the levels. Tapping on Kirby causes him to dash ever so slightly faster, making him dangerous to passing enemies. Forget to tap on Kirby before colliding with an enemy, and Kirby will lose some life. The levels start out simply enough, in fact the game is a little too easy for the first third of the story mode, with things slowly picking up from around this point.

There are some brilliantly designed levels to be discovered, though. Swooping through the clouds, escaping from a bomb blast, or even guiding Kirby through underwater sections, each new world seems to offer just enough to keep Kirby’s latest adventure feeling fresh. Nintendo get away with creating a game that is all about performing the same basic actions from beginning to end, because there is an artistry to this Kirby game. The further into Rainbow Curse you get, the more in tune with your brushstrokes you become, and the more fluidly you are able to make Kirby dance about the screen, flinging him this way and that.

The joy that grabbed me while exploring Kirby’s world came not only from the simple yet satisfying gameplay, but also in the visual and audible delights it has to offer. As we have come expect from first party games on Wii U, the visuals are an utter feast for the eyes. It’s a tribute to stop motion Play-Dough animations from yesteryear, with every character model, scene and backdrop oozing charm and colour. Some of the charm is lost on the GamePad’s screen, which is a shame because you are never allowed to take your eyes off of the little screen and admire the HD glory that has inhabited your TV. The rainbows Kirby rides on are just that, rainbows, and it is hard to put into words what the combination of endless rainbows, gorgeous animation and brilliant colour can do to a man. It’s shocking, really.

Levels in The Rainbow Curse are broken up into worlds, each with its own theme and visual style. Worlds are book-ended by boss levels, in which Kirby must defeat some truly challenging foes. Quick reflexes and patience will be required to get through some of these levels. It’s fine though, because it’s all just so damned relaxing.

Aside from the standard levels, there is a challenge room with around a hundred puzzling rooms. These will test your skills to the limit, with the reward being a few more unlockable trophies and music tracks to add to your growing collection from the game-proper.

The cutesie nature and visual aesthetic won’t be for everyone, but for those willing to give it a go, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse offers a dose of pure joy that very few developers seem capable of creating. Things get a little stale and samey towards the end, but that wasn’t enough to wipe the smile off of my face.

The post Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

The premise is simple: you’ve booked a holiday with a space-tourism company after seeing their incredibly slick advert, who will give you a small ship and transport you to a different planet for a couple of days, all for a cheap price. It’s quite funny, and you could imagine it as a real advert for this sort of thing. Of course it all goes wrong, the transport ship crashing, leaving you to find help.

Finding that help isn’t easy, though. Controlling your ship is deceptively simple: moving with the left stick, the right directing your flashlight – but it soon gets harder. The touch-screen becomes an instrument panel, with engine levels, scanning equipment, anti-gravity generators, and more unlocking as you progress through the story, all of which can be combined in different ways. Early puzzles have you navigating basic obstacles, using your mass generator to sink in some water, or hitting switches through narrow gaps with a flare, for example.

It’s when you meet enemies that Affordable Space Adventures gets really interesting, though. When you first scan an enemy, dials appear on the GamePad showing your heat, sound and electricity levels, and what level will set off the enemy. With no weapons available, you must balance your output levels to sneak past baddies, forcing you to think inventively and eke out every ounce of power in your systems, crawling past at the slowest speed or cutting your engines entirely, free-falling past but switching them back on before you plunge into a laser. Luckily when you make a mistake (and you will) the check-pointing is generous, often not far from your last position.

Puzzles slowly get harder, forcing quick actions and the very finest of manoeuvres. It’s to KnapNok’s credit that Affordable Space Adventures continues to throw new challenges at you as you go, dealing with heat, damaged systems, and multi-part puzzles as you push your craft to its very limit.

Then there’s the local co-op. Two other players can join you in your adventure, taking the role of pilot and navigator. This hands control of various systems to them, moving the actual ship and firing the flares, for example, while leaving you to manage systems on the GamePad. It changes the nature of the game. Gone is the frantic multitasking, instead it becomes about communication, discussing how to approach a puzzle or when to swap power about.

There are a few flaws, however, not least the aforementioned multitasking. Needing to keep an eye on the screen as well as keeping track of what you’re pressing on the GamePad can cause a few failures (alleviated somewhat by some button shortcuts that unlock in the final third), which is frustrating, as are one or two of the puzzles that require completely new approaches to things you’ve seen before. Pacing is a little iffy as well: you’ll race through the first ten missions in less minutes, which is a decent chunk of the 38 contained here – although later on multi-part ones will have you working for a while. The constantly updating tool-set, while mixing things up, also means that it’s a fair bet you’ll be needing that function for the next few puzzles, making it easier than it needs to be.

The bulk of Affordable Space Adventures doesn’t look fantastic, either. Dark and oppressive at times, just you armed with a flashlight, the atmosphere is deliberately set against the jovial video messages from the tourist agency, but several levels towards the end show just how good-looking it can be, bright and colourful, and it feels a shame the whole package couldn’t be like this.

This really is nitpicking though. Affordable Space Adventures is exactly what the Wii U was designed for: a clever little puzzler that uses the GamePad to the best of its abilities. Arguably mapping functions to buttons could mean it could be played on PC, or on a 3DS, but something would certainly be lost in the translation. For the first time the Wii U has something truly unique, and for that reason alone means that this is well worth your time.

The post Affordable Space Adventures Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

What follows is a story that shows the dangers of trusting only to logic and the madness it can lead to. The facility is dark and oppressive, with human and droid corpses strung up and left to rot by the mysterious Caretaker – the robot who seems to run the place. He is only following his programming, as you see from the various notes and snippets hidden around the levels, but it has led him and the droids under him to their current state.

But while it is easy to see your adversaries’ strange form of madness, ARID begins to walk the same path early on. The suit has various capabilities, but they can only be activated by a human pilot unless said pilot is in mortal danger, at which point ARID’s programming forces her to override them. In this way you unlock new abilities such as a camouflage, but it is more than a convenient gameplay device, as it drives the plot; ARID deliberately places her pilot in danger to unlock powers to save their life. It’s a logic loop the AI struggles with, commenting that she must recommend herself for decommission once her pilot is safe before countermanding that with the notion she was doing it for a greater good. I won’t give too much away, but it is scary how easy it is to follow ARID’s twisted logic, and you begin to see how the facility’s droids went insane.

If only the gameplay matched up to the story, however. Harking back to the point-and-click adventures of yesteryear, The Fall has you running around levels solving puzzles with the occasional firefight thrown into the mix. You aim with the right stick, shining your flashlight to highlight points of interest, which you can interact with in the right conditions. Early puzzles take the form of finding a power-cell to turn on a terminal, tracking back and forth across the level until you’ve done A to get B, which unlocks C which gives you the power-cell. It’s never a challenge – with enough time you’ll be able to pass any puzzle – but the answers are more-often-than-not vague, and have you running across fairly large areas between things you need to do, which is made worse when you miss something first time around.

Fighting is a little more enjoyable. Once you’ve unlocked a gun you again aim with the right stick, pressing it in to switch to a laser sight, and shooting with the right trigger. While pretty standard, the twist is that you are much weaker than the enemies you’ll face, so the use of cover – and later your camouflage – is essential. Once you learn the rhythm of your opponents’ attacks they’ll never be a problem, but it adds to the sense of your fragility.

Presentation wise, The Fall is pretty slick. Graphically, it’s fairly simple, all taking place on a 2D plane, but the backgrounds are very well drawn, as are the robots, and it all has a run-down feel that matches the story perfectly. Sound design is similarly excellent, with the little noises building tension; dripping water or a sparking light in the distance. It’s no Alien: Isolation, but what is?

Unfortunately, I encountered a number of bugs during my playthrough, with audio cutting out frequently – including different parts at the same time on the GamePad and the TV. The larger issue was the dialogue skipping that kept occurring, large chunks of text passing by before the voiceover even had a chance to begin. Hopefully a patch will sort this out – and other issues I’ve seen reported elsewhere – but in a story-based title this is a major problem.

Coming in at around four hours, it’s important to view The Fall as what it is; the first part of a planned trilogy. The story is certainly worth your time, especially as I can’t think of anything similar, but the poor puzzling and simplistic combat mean it is hard to recommend, and the bugs make it even less so. Hopefully the next instalment will be better.

The post The Fall Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.