Etrian Odyssey Nexus is the franchise’s final installment for the 3DS and, so far, it is shaping up to be a fantastic celebration of one of the best RPG franchises today. Having already played a good amount of the Japanese release and 10 hours of the localised release from Atlus USA, here is everything you need to know (spoiler free) about Etrian Odyssey Nexus.

What is it?

Etrian Odyssey Nexus is the latest installment in the Etrian Odyssey franchise that began on the Nintendo DS. It is the final installment for the franchise on 3DS and it released as Etrian Odyssey X (Cross) in Japan last year. It is meant to be a celebration of the franchise.

Is this a good game to get into the franchise with?

Yes, but I’d recommend Untold 2: The Fafnir Knight for players who enjoy stories in games because that has a proper story that is peppered in through the labyrinths and exploration, versus Nexus that is more about exploration than plot. There is a story here but it is definitely not the focus. In terms of mechanics and gameplay, Nexus is great at teaching you things and assumes you haven’t played an entry before, so it’s welcoming to newcomers with its lower difficulty options as well.

Why should I care about Etrian Odyssey?

There are loads of dungeon RPG franchises across multiple platforms but none have bested Etrian Odyssey in terms of customisation, labyrinth design, music, and overall polish. The closest other platforms have to this is Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk. Etrian Odyssey makes superb use of the dual screen setup on the DS and 3DS, and Yuzo Koshiro’s music is too good for this world. If you own a 3DS, you should give this franchise a shot because it remains one of the best series across any platform. I can’t say I’m not sad about the death of the dual screen handheld from Nintendo, because while many games did a great job of using both screens, nothing comes close to Etrian Odyssey for basically being built around the hardware.

Does this entry support 3D since many newer 3DS games are just 2D?

Yes, thankfully Etrian Odyssey Nexus continues the tradition of Etrian Odyssey games supporting 3D on the 3DS, which is super to get even more immersed in the gorgeous labyrinths and to get some depth in other scenes and in combat.

Is there DLC?

Yes, there is a lot of DLC in the form of certain items and cosmetics. As of now the release schedule for the DLC hasn’t been confirmed but the DLC that is listed for the English release as of this writing is here. Atlus has started doing paid cheat DLC for the last few 3DS entries, and Nexus has something similar in addition to some interesting cosmetics.

The item DLC is as follows:

1. Inventor’s Experience: Complete this quest for an EXP boost and an accessory that triples EXP.

2. Inventor’s Fortune: Finish this quest for an Ental boost and an accessory that grants 100% enemy material drop rate.

You need to have beaten the first mission to be able to accept quests for both of those DLC.

The cosmetic DLC is as follows:

1. PROJECT Re FANTASY: Adds an amazing, new character portrait from PROJECT Re FANTASY artist Shigenori Soejima. This portrait cannot be edited. Atlus’ upcoming RPG gets its first representation in current Atlus titles with this portrait.

2. Bikini Armor: Adds two versions of the Hero class’ special bikini armor portrait. These portraits cannot be edited.

3. Etrian 1 & 2 Portraits: Adds class portraits from Etrian Odyssey 1 & 2 to change an explorer’s looks. These portraits cannot be edited.

4. Etrian 3 Portraits: Adds class portraits from Etrian Odyssey 3 to change an explorer’s looks. These portraits cannot be edited.

5. Etrian 4 Portraits: Adds class portraits from Etrian Odyssey 4 to change an explorer’s looks. These portraits cannot be edited.

6. Etrian 5 Portraits: Adds class portraits from Etrian Odyssey 5 to change an explorer’s looks. Most of these portraits can be edited.

7. New Adventurers: Adds portraits drawn for Etrian’s 10th anniversary so you can change an explorer’s looks. These portraits cannot be edited.

Is it getting a physical release?

Yes, it is getting a physical release in both North America and Europe. The North American launch edition is pictured below:

The European edition The EU release is pictured below at the end of the trailer from Deep Silver who has handled a ton of Atlus releases in Europe:

How’s the music here?

So far, the soundtrack has a combination of old and new music. This fits what the game has been going for well as a celebration of the franchise, with a lot of new stuff tying it all together. The battle theme is probably already one of the best battle themes of the generation. Just listen to it:

What about voice acting?

Atlus USA usually does English voice acting for sure and has recently started including Japanese voice acting as well when possible, but Etrian Odyssey Nexus has only Japanese voice acting. This is quite disappointing but sort of expected given the 3DS’ lifecycle right now. The only real annoyance is how a lot of dialogue in town that is usually just small greetings and comments is not subtitled. You notice this when you go to the store or the inn the most. These are non essential dialogues, but it is annoying not knowing what they are saying in most cases.

What difficulty options are available?

There are 4 difficulty options available in the base game. The following is quoted from the game verbatim:

PICNIC: For those who like a walk in the park. We recommend this difficulty for those who wish to enjoy the story but may be inexperienced. On this difficulty, you will be able to continue from your death, even should your party be defeated. Certain items will have unlimited uses, allowing for a more casual playstyle. Once Picnic is selected, the difficulty cannot be changed.

BASIC: For those who enjoy overcoming trials. This is the recommended difficulty for first-time players or RPG enthusiasts. In this difficulty, you will have one chance to continue in the event your entire party is defeated. The difficulty can be changed during the game through the Options menu while in town.

EXPERT: For the fearless who love a challenge. This difficulty is for those who enjoyed previous Etrian Odyssey titles or those who love a challenge. The difficulty can be changed during the game through the Options menu while in town.

HEROIC: For those who strive for great heights. This difficulty is the same as Expert but can only be selected from here. The difficulty can be changed during the game through the Options menu while in town…but once changed, you will be unable to go back to Heroic. Please be aware that you cannot carry over clear data to Heroic, either.

How is it so far? (Preview)

You know every band eventually has compilation albums or greatest hits albums? That’s what Etrian Odyssey Nexus feels like, but instead of greatest hits it is more like greatest everything in a cohesive package with classes, labyrinths, and more from previous entries with enough new stuff to be not only a great entry point for newcomers but a great celebration for veteran fans. Many classes from previous entries return alongside a new one in Nexus with enemies from older games as well. You can also customise character portraits like you could in Etrian Odyssey V.

In a similar vein to Etrian Odyssey 4, there is some form of a world map. You can move from point to point here for events and labyrinths. It feels a bit like the world map in earlier Atelier games that were on a grid. While this is the final 3DS Etrian Odyssey game, we still have another one coming soon in the form of Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth which is Etrian in everything but name. So far this is shaping up to be an amazing send-off for the dual screen iteration of the franchise. Stay tuned for my full review very soon.

The post Etrian Odyssey Nexus preview: Everything you need to know appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Every year, the Skylanders team somehow surprise me. Even in the year 2014, I expect games aimed at children to be average, or worse, yet every single year, Activision has released a Skylanders game that is entertaining for all ages – and to hell with my street cred, those toys are still cool, I’d have loved them growing up.

Where they once relied on the Spyro name to sell a new franchise, Skylanders has taken on a life of its own, and with the new consoles now on the market, they’ve taken a visual leap, as Trap Team looks gorgeous. The colourful imagery is everywhere, and it’s the antithesis of so many modern games. It’s vibrant, and the action pops off the screen for all to see like an explosion of sugar and sweets.

But the basics of Skylanders are now set in stone. Since Swap Force introduced a jump button, there’s not a huge amount that feels missing – though I’d still like to see camera control and online multiplayer at some point in the future. You’ll still go to levels, move objects about, go up lifts, and attack everything that isn’t nailed down.

So really, it falls to whoever comes up with the toy ideas to create something new and interesting that will make us want to collect them all over again. Initially it seemed an odd idea, too. The ability to trap your enemies and have them fight for you? Requires a new portal? Uh-oh, this doesn’t sound good, right? Luckily, the joy these simple touches bring to a child are better in action than they sound on paper, and create a whole new way to play and explore.

The basic concept is that you have traps you insert into the portal, and you can capture enemies instead of killing them, and there are around forty to trap. Once captured, you hit the L2 button and your Skylander will be swapped out for the baddie. This is amusing, but it’s when you start taking down the big bosses that it gets really interesting.

Of course, the characters are all daft and are there mostly for comedic value, but the first boss you fight (a weird little man who controls the Chompys) is enough of a challenge that it doesn’t resort to simple button mashing, and it’s rewarding because you’ll get to trap him and then use him against other enemies. Speaking of difficulty, while it’s not overly taxing (there are hard battles, though), it’s not too easy either – it’s well balanced, as you’d hope.

Thankfully, traps are reuseable, and you can go to a larger trap and swap out villains at your leisure, though obviously only one character can be in a trap at any given time. The portal talks to you, as well, and the bad guys will comment on things as you play along. Having a Sheep Creep “baa” at you randomly doesn’t get old, and Chompy Mage never stops being annoyed that he is incarcerated.

You can’t play as them forever, though, and each time you swap one out, you can only use them for a limited time, with damage taken reducing that time. What’s especially interesting is that the variation in attacks means you can have a Skylander on the portal that shoots (thus has ranged attacks), then swap to a trapped villain that is more melee based.

There’s a raft of new toys to collect, then. New Skylanders (series four), and now traps as well. Each trap is specific to an element, so you can’t use a life trap to capture an earth enemy. It might seem cynical, but as with previous games locking off areas to certain elemental Skylanders, it’s merely an extension of that idea. And there’s no shortage of content, with wave based modes like Doom Challenge, and Arena battle giving additional things to do outside the main campaign. The hard truth is that you’re going to want to collect them anyway, I’m sorry you had to hear that, but you knew it deep inside. As always, your previous Skylanders work on the new portal, and they keep their levels and skills from the other games. It’s a small thing to note, really, but one that is continually worth mentioning.

Kaos returns, as you expect, and this time there’s a band of evil-doers possibly more villainous than him. His plan is to undermine them secretly, so they fail and turn to him as the one-true king of evil. Being a bumbling fool, I’ll let you guess how that goes. It’s full of charm, and the voice acting is excellent, with returning characters everywhere.

Like The Simpsons (well, older Simpsons, anyway) there is plenty for all ages to laugh at, and even some more cheeky nods to the older audience. Some of the toys themselves will make you laugh – for example, Chopper is a small dinosaur with a helicopter on his back, and Food Fight is a small green chap that has a gun which shoots tomatoes. It makes no sense, but it also makes complete sense. There are minis to collect, too, and the giant called Eye Brawl is now available as Eye Small. Such a silly name change, yet for some reason it really tickles me.

It’s weird to think that with the fourth game, Skylanders has fully earned my trust. Games aimed at children don’t have to be rubbish, and they can engage with them on multiple levels. As well as the game itself, the toys are highly collectible (still) and there are even trading cards that come with each toy. I harp on about this because it’s true, but as a kid, the Skylanders would have been the coolest thing I could have imagined in game form, and the quality every year stays high.

The toys still aren’t cheap, and jumping in here (the new starter pack only has two Skylanders, as it also has two traps) means you’re probably going to want to get a few extra toys right out of the gate. But Toys for Bob continue to hold fun in the highest regard, and that’s worth championing. But Lord only knows where they go next.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Skylanders Trap Team Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

I have never been a huge fan of the more anthropomorphic incarnations of Pac-Man, if I am brutally honest. It is a bit like when Tom and Jerry started to speak – it just doesn’t seem right. To me, Pac Man was always about the 2D waka-waka. It is often the same with time honoured two-dimensional classics making the transition into 3D – for every Super Mario 64 there is a horrible three-dimensional talking Sonic the Hedgehog. Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 manages to combine both of the above conundrums, and also throws a dodgy television tie-in into the mix as its inspiration. The telly programme is as terrible as you would expect, and probably drastically over-estimates the popularity of the yellow gobbler in today’s climate of happy slapping, Flappy Bird and energy drinks.

The premise of the show is that Pac-Man is the last of his kind, a needy orphan consumed by guilt at having somehow released the vengeful ghost that threatens to destroy Pac-World. The ghosts from 1970s Pac-Man are present too, but here they feign allegiance to the baddies whilst secretly working with Pac-Man, in the hope that one day their souls will be redeemed and they can return to human form. It is some pretty dark stuff. But don’t let that upset you, kids – the first game based upon that sub-par cartoon was pretty good, and this sequel is more of the same, which is exactly what you would expect given that there is less than twelve months between the two releases.

Pac is once again in cahoots with his clunkily-named buddies Spiral and Cylindria, and once again the threadbare plot sees the happy-go-lucky trio face off against Lord Betrayus and his fiendish army of specters. The plot on this sophomore effort manages to avoid a lot of the separation anxiety and guilt from the source material and is another fresh, bright and breezy adventure that does not challenge your grey matter.

With mechanics straight out of Platforming 101, you explore your environs deciding on whether you look to uncover secrets and all of the hidden items, or simply get from start to fruit-piece finish without getting merked by a spook. Finding all of the hiding bits and pieces and waka-waka-ing up all of the glowing yellow consumables improve your end of level ranking score. In a nod to the games of yore, Pac has to hoover up pellets and fruit, can chow down on ghosts, and can access power-ups that give him special abilities. Some of these return from the previous game, but there are some new things to play around with, like the Ice-Pac, which allows you to create frozen platforms and stop enemies in their tracks with an icy blast, or the Magnet-Pac which allows you to access difficult-to-reach platforms or ensnare enemies using the baffling and impressive power of magnets. I searched desperately for a 2-Pac ability which transformed me into a doo-rag wearing gangster rapper, but this never materialised.

There is a lot to like about this Pac adventure. The simplistic nature of the platforming is very enjoyable, in a Skylanders or Ratchet & Clank kinda way. The way Pac Man can use a dash attack to chain together multiple ingestions of enemies and items is wonderful fun. It has excellent production values that elevate it beyond a lot of animation cash-ins, even if the voice acting is incredibly annoying. Some nice retro-y music, and of course the instantly recognisable noise when Pac Man gets killed, is present and correct. The new additions do not deviate it too far from its successor – there is an interesting rail shooter section, and an abundance of QTEs – and the new Pac-forms to experiment with.

This is another classic end-of-an-era title, the sort of thing that would have surfaced with regularity during the dying days of the PlayStation 2, albeit with a wildly inferior focus on quality control. Instead, Namco Bandai have produced another solid title that is an ideal distraction for the younger gamer, yet not insulting enough for an old timer to switch off and escape into for a few hours.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

It works. By some miracle, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS works. The speed, dexterity and focus demanded by Nintendo’s mascot brawler ensured that Super Smash Bros. for 3DS seemed doomed to failure in its attempt to squeeze Smash onto a screen the size of a business card, but by some glorious voodoo magic, it works.

That’s the crux of everything, ultimately, and it’s this message that you need bubbling away under any comments on the game – as a portable version of the Super Smash Bros. 4 fighting engine, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS is near flawless.

What is that fighting engine? Why, it’s the much parroted “halfway between Melee and Brawl”. For the uninitiated, Super Smash Bros. is a fighting game that features Nintendo characters, as well as a few third party guests, with the aim being to hit your opponents off the stage. Like 2D sumo, with plumbers, electric mice and yelping elves. The more you hit someone, the further they will be sent flying the next time you land a hit. At a rudimentary level, hit someone a lot and they will eventually fall off the stage. This idea of scaling knockback leads to a fighter more about reactions and inspiration than set combo recital.

Every character in the game achieves this goal through a mix of standard and special attacks, with each excelling in specific areas. Mario assaults with fireballs, punches and kicks making him effective anywhere, while a character like Link has bombs, bows and a boomerang to try to keep opponents at arms reach. Fox McCloud, meanwhile, has exceptional speed and can surprise with quick attacks and nippy rush-down.

There are many ways you can affect the vibe of the game, too. You can play one on one on the flatter maps for a “fair” fight, or throw four characters in at once, fighting in a stage such as Dr. Wily’s castle from Mega Man with all sorts of items appearing alongside stage gimmickry – in that case a huge boss – for a more frantic party vibe to the scrap. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS even acknowledges this in its largely lag-free online play (500 online matches later, I’d say I’ve had a great connection 90% of the time), letting you battle against others however you want at any time. Despite some grievances with the focus on the featureless, flat stage for “Pro” mode, this is a massive leap forward from Super Smash Bros. Brawl’s paltry, and effectively broken, online offering.

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS also mixes up the Smash Bros. formula, bringing some major mechanical adjustments to the franchise. For example, you can no longer simply hold an edge to stop an opponent getting back up – they’ll just grab the edge from you now. Because of this you must actively pursue a foe to guarantee a KO. Mix this with Smash 4’s universally improved recovery techniques and large “blast zones” (how far a character must travel off the stage to be “knocked out”), and you’ve got a more actively aggressive system. Super Smash Bros. for 3DS re-evaluates the relationship of the fighters off the stage and, while it’s early days, 30 hours of personal play and many more watching tournament streams hints at a far more interesting and encouraged off-stage game.

Alongside fundamental combat changes is a wider diversity of fighter archetypes. Brawl dabbled with new ideas, but Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS takes brave steps to design unique, interesting characters that ask you to re-evaluate how you play the game. From the grounded boxer Little Mac or puppet style team of Rosalina and Luma, to the slinky Greninja and the zoning intensive Mega Man, the range of fighting styles in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS feels more diverse than any prior Super Smash Bros. game. Even the heavy characters feel new thanks to invincible attack windups and other improvements all round. Donkey Kong has never been so viable, and Bowser has never looked this good. In many ways this is a smarter Smash, with more in the way of unique match-ups, giving further credence to its focus on being a more “legitimate” fighting game than Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Whether this pays off, only the community will be able to decide, but early indications are good. We may have lost the Ice Climbers, but the selection we have is the richest in franchise history.

But here’s the rub: content. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS is very light on distractions, which is a surprise considering this has been a very feature-rich series since Super Smash Bros. Melee. No adventure mode, no event matches, no Break the tabrgets. The list of distractions (outside of basic Smash and playing locally/online) is limited to Classic (essentially a ten minute arcade mode), All Star (a one life gauntlet), Stadium (Multi Man Melee, Home Run Contest and Angry Bir… Sorry, Target Smash), Trophy Rush, a cute StreetPass orientated minigame, and Smash Run.

Scan this QR code to grab the demo!

Smash Run is the poster child of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, and it’s a cute distraction if you can find human competition (you can play against CPUs, but they’re rubbish). Essentially, you run around a large maze for five minutes beating up Nintendo baddies and hoovering power-ups, and then you play a single activity with your buffed-up character that ranges from a basic brawl to a race up a tower, or even a health-based stamina fight.

It’s amusing, but somewhat frivolous. The fact you only play one match post Labyrinth gives the whole experience a massively anticlimactic feel. Were it a best of three it might have had more sticking power, but as an individual activity it can often feel like more work than it’s worth. As a curiosity you’ll likely play it a few times over and revisit with friends, but it’s no replacement for a classic match and ultimately a tad disappointing. It’s all the more disheartening when you realise that the many fight permutations that are normally freely selectable – Stamina mode, Giant mode, everyone being made of metal etc. – are locked behind the random selection of a post Smash Run match.

So why the overall lack of content then? What’s here is amusing, but there’s nothing to really “complete”, in the traditional sense. No big payoff. In truth the modes appear to exist purely for you to hoover up trophies and customisation elements, which are both worthwhile, monumental tasks, simply for the fact that amassing a pocket Nintendo museum is a good enough reason to Smash as any – there’s a lot of history to find in the game’s 600+ trophies.

If I was to hazard a guess, I’d point to the 3DS itself as the reason. The modes outside of core Smash are all somewhat “minor”, never needing too much dedication, but that fits the handheld. Ten Man Melee? That’s a fun way to kill a few minutes. Try and set a new high score as DK while you’re waiting for friends. Try and build your Global Smash Power by climbing the leaderboards. Indeed, the presence of a global ranking system for almost every mode for every character can become its own drive for personal improvement when not playing with friends online or off.

Ultimately, it’s in the fighting where Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS really comes into its own, simply because it works. Whether you play with the basic characters or delve into customisation (upping Sonic’s speed to silly degrees and hearing a friend’s reaction was a personal highlight, though the poor ‘hog could barely take a flick to the nose), Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS plays a lovely, smooth, responsive game of Super Smash Bros. that is mechanically in sync with its upcoming console brother. If you can find fun in simply playing Smash for the sake of playing Smash – which you should, as it’s a very satisfying brawler to play – then you’ll be able to accept Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS for what it is, not what is isn’t.

It’s not feature rich, and it’s not the perfect way to play Super Smash Bros. 4, but Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS does mean you can see if attacks link in training while in the queue for coffee. It means you can set a new high score in a home run contest while on the loo and save the replay to prove how you did it later. It means you can play Super Smash Bros. online without crippling lag, while waiting for pasta to boil, and then watch some replays of online Luigi players while you eat. It would be easy to sit and reel off a list of things Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS doesn’t have, but it’s better to focus on what it is. And what it is, is a functionally excellent, portable version of Super Smash Bros.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Super Smash Bros. for 3DS Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

If you were to give out awards for putting your best foot forward, Disney Infinity 2.0 wouldn’t be anywhere near even qualifying. A horribly long load time into the Marvel Super Heroes play set (included with the starter pack), and clunky, heavy-to-control characters dominate the opening mission which introduces us to Disney Infinity again.

The general idea is that our heroes have just unfrozen themselves and need to save Avenger/Stark Tower before it’s overrun by Loki’s Frost Giant minions. The combat begins and it’s pure button mashing repetition; everything is linear and you just go from corridor to corridor before ending the level, and choosing whether to continue the Marvel story, or be introduced to the Toy Box mode.

Thank God, then, that immediately after the dreary opening mission, the larger, more open area of the city is yours to play in. Suddenly you’re allowed to take to the skies as Iron Man or Thor and can explore the world with freedom, gathering all manner of collectibles, some of which add to the Toy Box mode, while others just unlock concept art. Interestingly, among the multitude of collectibles, there are crossover tokens, which, once ten are collected, allow characters to appear in each other’s playset.

Immediately, Infinity 2.0 feels a better game. Initial fears subside, and you start to enjoy the mechanics far more. Button-mashing combos are still prevalent, but as you progress through the skill trees and level up your individual heroes (the cap is twenty for all heroes, including ones from the previous game), more options become available. Super moves and changes to standard combos change things up, and you can improve core skills as well. One problem that rears its head early on is that the environments seem tailored towards characters who can fly. You can climb via jump pads and lifts, but overall, you’ll initially play more as Thor and Iron Man, just because they are more fun to navigate the world with – you’ll end up playing Black Widow mainly when you transition to the indoor missions, then later when you unlock a certain vehicle that lets everyone take to the skies. It’s an interesting way to add movement speed to the non-flying characters, because the motorbike you unlock first handles very heavily, and is best avoided.

There’s not a huge amount of variety to missions, either. There’s certainly an attempt to change things up, adding things like motorbike races or horde-style combat challenges – but they’re not enjoyable enough to make you want to come back and improve your time, let alone try and top the leaderboards. Indeed, most missions will involve going from place to place, beating up on some guys, then doing it all again in the next mission. The enemies do get progressively harder, but the techniques to beat them don’t really change.

Things are improved when playing with a friend (or one of your children), as you can both explore the world at your leisure, before joining up for a story mission. If you find it too easy, simply adjust the difficulty. There are also numerous mission nodes around the playsets that allow you to play competitively, and these are a surprising amount of fun. As Iron Man, facing off against your son as Thor is silly, especially when you both take to the skies in your enclosed battle arena, seeing who will blink and go to ground first, which is where the combat is really intended to be.

Thankfully, the technical issues that plagued the previous game appear to have been ironed out. The open-world sandbox area of the Marvel play set is hitch-free, and the frame rate is mostly solid, but prone to major drops in missions that take place inside. It’s not the most visually taxing game for the hardware, but it looks pretty when cutscenes play, and though the city itself is a little on the bland side, the colour comes from the characters. There are elements of humour, and occasionally the gags work really well, but there’s no mistaking this is a game aimed at children. That said, the voice acting is fun, and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury is a lovely bonus. Generally speaking, the atmosphere and character is there for all to see on screen.

Interestingly, both of my children jumped immediately into the Toy Box mode. This is a clean slate where you can add environments of your choosing, as well as characters, enemies and, well, basically everything that’s in the game. While the truly creative will go for the absolutely empty sandbox, you can choose from numerous presets to get you started. This time around, you can save and share your boxes with other people, and if you don’t feel like spending hours making missions and worlds for others, you can just download community created content. Some are better than others, and the devs have created a few to give everyone ideas. One platforming based level I tried was okay, but the controls aren’t precise enough to really make overly taxing jumping much fun.

Without question, the Toy Box is where Infinity still shines. A sandbox that truly lets your imagination run wild, only now you can share or download creations via the internet. But the play sets are a vast improvement over the first game and a lot of fun in their own right, while the technical performance is far better, too. Being able to bring your existing Infinity toys into 2.0 is a nice touch, but something you’d expect.

It’s going to cost you a fortune, though, because once you start to enjoy dashing through the air as Iron Man, you’ll want more of those pricey heroes to throw into your game, because they’re wonderful little toys that look and feel good. On that note, this seems an ideal time to remind you that we don’t accept any responsibility for any overdraft charges you may incur after playing Disney Infinity 2.0.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

When we pick up a game, it is generally to either play our dreams and aspirations vicariously or to escape from reality, suspending our disbelief in the fantasy worlds within. Would you want to play a game where you grind out a job, have to pay bills and look after yourself? Probably not, as it is too close to home. Fantasy Life manages to include all of these ostensibly mundane elements, but make them fun and compulsive. It manages to do this by wrapping up the idea of being employed with a healthy dose of RPG whimsy, some fun combat and a mixture of influences as heady as the many weapons, potions and spells you can concoct in the sprawling game world.

Your Fantasy Life begins by designing and naming your own super-deformed avatar, before being thrown into the action via a fairly rudimentary sequence of plot events. Being a Level-5 title there are obviously some beautifully animated cutscenes, and in a splendidly par-for-the-RPG-course touch, there is obviously an Uematsu soundtrack. Not one of his better scores, admittedly, but there are some nice tunes. So far, so good.

Early on you get to select from one of twelve “Lives”, or options for gainful employment. There are a wide range of diverse professions to choose from, and as long as you are not embroiled in a segment of the story, you can visit the local Guild Office and change jobs at any time. Some of the Life choices are standard role-playing fare: a Paladin is a sword-wielding warrior who levels up by undertaking monster-hunting missions; a Magician can learn and cast spells, whilst the Blacksmith will hammer out new weapons and armour in the workshop. There are other more interesting roles to tinker with, such as the Angler who comes complete with a brilliantly cute fish head hat, or the Woodcutter whose job it is to seek out rare and valuable trees to hack into lumber.

The aim of each job is to level up and gain new skills. This is done by completing tasks allocated to you by the sensei-like figure who teaches you each skill, and racking up Stars. In a nice twist for the RPG genre, you could play through most of Fantasy Life without killing any monsters, should you wish. It is a pleasure receiving plaudits for catching a kick-ass fish, performing incredible deeds of haberdashery, or tracking down a rare piece of fruit. Each Life features pretty simple methods of carrying out your duties, which get spiced up by the addition of charge-based attacks and special skills when you reach certain levels. Woodcutters hit a button to swing an axe at the trunk, but you can encircle your leafy target and find a sweet spot that will enable you to take down the tree in quicker fashion for a nice bonus. Fishing involves balancing out reeling in and monitoring tension on the line. A super-charged strike manoeuvre allows you to deplete the “energy bar” of your catch significantly, but like every special action in the game, including the always-available dash ability, it will drain your precious SP bar.

Combat is something you can always engage in, regardless of your class, although like all of the jobs on offer you can only level up the role you are currently employed to play. If you have previous for chopping wood, fishing and mining, you can always take out your tool and carry out the actions associated with your former career. You just won’t level up or complete any of the tasks for those roles until you revert back to your previous Life.

Fighting monsters is carried out in real time, and is a fast paced, satisfying affair. From the start of the game you will encounter the full menagerie of beasties in each explorable area. Some different foes will only appear at night, and you soon learn that you begin woefully ill-equipped to take down some of the larger creatures, which is why it is handy that you can show a clean pair of heels to that murderous giant anthropomorphic carrot, or screen filling dragon you have just inadvertently awakened from its dormant state. Having said that, once you are suitably strong enough to start taking on the larger beasts of the field you get handsomely rewarded with Bounty chests which, if carried back to a nearby Bounty Clerk, will grant you oodles of the winningly-named in-house currency Dosh, as well as cool and rare items.

The secret to a better Fantasy Life experience is to ensure that you become a true Jack of all trades. Becoming reasonably proficient in any one Life takes on average an hour or two to accomplish, and will reward you in many ways. Money makes the world go round, as we all know, and things are no different here. Just like Nintendo’s own Animal Crossing, Fantasy Life allows you to purchase your own gaff. But these things are not cheap. Furniture is very expensive. Weapons and gear are pricey too. But learning skills help to pay the bills. Miners can extract valuable deposits from the earth, and sell them. But if you happen to be a Miner who previously worked in the Blacksmith industry, you can be canny and mine your own materials for a later switch back to beating out some new gear over an anvil. A Woodcutter can reap similar benefits for a later turn as a Carpenter, particularly given the soaring cost of furniture! It is very clever, and annoyingly addictive.

As if your Life tasks were not enough, there are numerous bounties and fetch and carry tasks open to you by talking to NPCs around the world. Flutter will also dish out commands which allow you to earn “Bliss” – effectively the in-game measure of happiness. Bliss allows you to purchase lifestyle upgrades like larger item pouch capacity, the ability to ride horses, and access to keep your own cat or dog.

Let’s get one thing perfectly clear off the bat, though: you aren’t playing this one for a rich and rewarding plot. In fact, a lot of the time, the story exists solely as a mechanism to unlock and introduce new skills and areas. That isn’t to say there aren’t some tremendous characters. Flutter is your textbook Navi-esque companion to the silent hero of the piece, and is a talking butterfly who naturally doubles up as a bow tie at certain intervals. King Erik is a diminutive regal figure who has some genuinely funny moments. I loved the way that you pick up fishing tips from the piscine-savvy cats.

There are hours of fun to be had with Fantasy Life. The free-play nature of the time you will spend in it gives you freedom to develop your lifeskills, and learn all of the trades that it has to offer. It is certainly rewarding doing so, and the more experience you gain, the further you can reach, the bigger and more satisfying the rewards. If I had to criticise what is otherwise a brilliant value package, it is the woefully disappointing story and the way it doesn’t warrant much emotional investment. Luckily the desire to max out your character and become a master of the many fun and diverse occupations more than makes up for it.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Fantasy Life Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

It seems odd that so many games on the 3DS are aimed at children, yet so few of them are entirely educational. They exist, of course, but are less hyped than your Mario Karts and Castlevanias for obvious reasons. Learning, no matter how schoolteachers like to dress it up, is rarely as much fun as squishing goombas, winning first place or saving the world.

But, that being said, seek out these rare educational treats and you shall certainly find them, and while they’re unlikely to be described as thrilling or compelling, some of them are nevertheless very good at what they do.

With illiteracy such an understated problem among young children, games that help with basic English skills should arguably be among the collection of any child under ten, hopefully balancing out all that supposed violence and evil that the Daily Mirror likes to complain about. Phonics Fun with Biff, Chip & Kipper is a great place to start, too, providing three volumes of increasing difficulty, which should be enough to keep any young mind suitably occupied.

Based on the classic children’s books by Roderick Hunt, Phonics Fun offers basic word and sound games to help teach and improve literacy and oratory skills, with various activities adding some small variety to proceedings. Games include Listen & Tap, which plays a noise you must link to the accompanying image such as an animal call or a vehicle sound; and Listen and Speak, which asks the child to repeat a word or noise. Some of the games require you to do nothing but read a short story excerpt from start to finish.

Alex Brychta’s visual style provides comforting familiarity, while the challenges themselves don’t ever become too taxing, even in later volumes. My six year old daughter had little trouble with any of them, while my four year old son found it just challenging enough to remain fun and engaging throughout each session, and the reading sections were great for us to work on together. Stamps awarded for completing sections add a collectible edge, each one a reward in itself for the child who is willing to play and learn at the same time.

VERDICT: Although a little too easy for children above a certain age, youngsters just learning to read and understand our wonderful language and its irritatingly charming nuances will find Phonics Fun with Biff, Chip & Kipper incredibly useful and entertaining. Loading times are surprisingly long and the sound and visuals are basic to say the least, but taken purely as it is this is a great educational tool and one that any parent of a young child should consider downloading if they own a 3DS.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Phonics Fun with Biff, Chip & Kipper Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

When is a sequel not a sequel? Why, when it’s Final Fantasy, of course. At some point that joke worked, honestly, but the point I’m already labouring to make is that there’s really not much difference in the core gameplay between the original Theatrhythm game, and Curtain Call.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Theatrhythm was a very good game, and a love letter to fans of Final Fantasy’s music. Curtain Call ratchets that love up to eleven by throwing an interesting new mode at us, as well as a ridiculous number of songs – a few of which appeared in the previous title.

So, the core gameplay returns, and Curtain Call is still a music game that has bizarre, probably over-complicated mechanics attached in an attempt to retain the Final Fantasy elements. You still pick four playable characters to level up and equip items to, and they still level up a rate of knots. In the opening hours you’re still bombarded with unlocks, tutorial messages, and all manner of high pitched audio stings to tell you what is going on, and it’s still gloriously absurd, yet enjoyable.

At the risk of repeating much of what I said in 2012, there are three types of song, backed with either an emotionally driven backing scene, a battle scene, or a adventuring theme, and the music plays out as you tap, slide, hold, and move the stylus on the touch screen. You can play without the touch screen in Curtain Call, using the buttons and Circle Pad, but while options are nice, the stylus is the best method.

Depending on which difficulty you attempt your chosen song on, you’ll gain Rythmia accordingly. As you collect more and more of this, you’ll unlock new things, be it a new character, song, mode, or even just an option in the menus. They come thick and fast, and before you know it you’ll have all the main modes unlocked, and your favourite characters will be set.

The star new addition, however, is Quest Medley Mode. While the actual method of playing doesn’t change, this wraps everything up in an old school map that you traverse, picking your route and completing challenges, collecting keys, and eventually facing a boss stage to earn Crystal Shards, which are the currency that unlock yet more of the sixty characters. This is where you’ll eventually spend most of your time, because otherwise you’ll probably just keep playing your favourite songs over and over again.

But that’s not to suggest the tracklisting is bad, in fact, it’s brilliant. The attempt to not only bring back the favourites, but add more games, is worthy of credit. Final Fantasy XIII is represented by all three titles, and every core game is here as well, but A Realm Reborn has a nine song set, too, which is interesting. What is far more surprising, however, is the inclusion of a few Mystic Quest tracks, four songs from Tactics, five from Crystal Chronicles, five from Dissidia, and even four from anime Advent Children, and under-rated PSP title, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. There’s even more that I won’t spoil here.

Rounding off the package is Versus Battle Mode, which is exactly what it sounds like, and a few smaller changes that only hardcore players will notice. A featured daily track rewards you with more XP for playing it, but once you’ve played a few of them, once again you’ll revert to Quest Medleys.

Difficulty wise, a little more challenge wouldn’t have gone amiss, as the hardest difficulties still won’t trouble music game experts, but that does mean all fans will find something to enjoy, even in a genre they may not be overly familiar with.

VERDICT: Some won’t like the piecemeal unlocking method that Curtain Call employs, but if you’re a fan of Final Fantasy (and why would you buy this if you weren’t?) you’ll be used to slow openings, as the game rewards your loyalty and time. The biggest question is whether you’ll want to revisit the Theatrhythm world to get the larger song-list, and new Quest mode, and that makes it a tough sell, despite its pick up and play nature.

The RPG elements are still too confusing and convoluted, too, but much like in 2012, Theatrhythm is a fun, heart-warming piece of fan service that offers better value for money than before, while giving fans plenty of museum-based goodies to explore and reminisce over. This is nostalgia that truly proves some things were better way back when, even if it perhaps wants to be a deeper experience than it actually is.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

With allegations of plagiarism, bad blood between games developers, comparisons to the excellent Flappy Bird, and a plethora of open-source tweaked versions, 2048 is certainly the most controversial nerdy maths puzzle on the market in 2014. Forget about all this, and the fact that it is eerily similar to Threes!, which surfaced just prior to its release, though, m’kay? You have to tip your hat to Gabriele Cirulli: he may have a lasses’ name, but the 19 year old whiz managed to drum up squillions of downloads (and probably even more clone tributes and HTML players) for his simple yet addictive take on tile-sliding puzzle fury.

For the uninitiated, 2048 is based around a very basic premise: a grid comprising sixteen squares, in which you slide numbered tiles. Each time you slide a tile it will continue in its intended direction until it reaches either the edge of the grid, or another tile. When you pair numbers together, they will multiply – so bonding two “2” tiles will create an “8”, and so on and so forth – until you eventually make the magic number of 2048. It provides an interesting choice over how you approach things, and even haphazardly flicking tiles all over the place can sometimes yield results. This is a classic casual title that can be dipped into for some quick thrills, yet you can also put your mathematician’s hat on (one of those black scholarly ones, innit) and approach the puzzle methodically with a view to maximising your score on your way to the prized four digits.

This 3DS conversion comes with some attractive features. There are three different modes, allowing you to aim for three different goal totals – 1024, 2048 and 4096. A set of tutorial screens guides you into the “action”, and will help if, like me, this looks like a Sudoku puzzle on the surface, as opposed to a brisk and actually mildly thrilling puzzler.

The 3D viewpoint is aesthetically pleasing and works well – this is the epitome of low-gloss, efficient functionality. Controls are well implemented, too, and there are options to use either the touchscreen or the analogue stick. The price point, and amount of space it occupies on your SD card, are both minimal. There are a bunch of achievements to unlock, and a decent sense of score attack, as your best total is always displayed on screen to spur you on – even though anyone with a basic knowledge of the way 2048 works will know that even when you have hit the required number, there is a maximum possible score.

VERDICT: 2048 isn’t particularly challenging, and doesn’t require zen-like levels of skill and concentration to defeat it. It is one of those games like Nokia’s “Snake” from the late 90s, Game Boy Tetris, and Lumines, that I can see myself dipping into regularly, a simple, casual handheld experience that doesn’t ask too much of me, and can easily while away half an hour waiting for a bus. Non-3DS-owning Nintendo fans take note: you can also enjoy a perfectly good game of 2048 using the Wii U browser.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post 2048 Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

LEGO, as a corporation, have their fingers in some serious pies. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Marvel, DC – and those are just the franchises outside of their own breeding grounds. Then you’ve got girl-pleasing Friends, anthropomorphic animal caper Chima and ninja-themed action-adventure Ninjago: Masters of Spin-jitsu. The last entry already saw the light of day in video game form with LEGO Battles: Ninjago a few years ago, and now returns in LEGO Ninjago: Nindroids.

Co-developed by Traveller’s Tales and Hellbent Games, Ninjago loops in characters from the TV show and throws them into an action movie-style conflict with the evil Digital Overlord and his army of Nindroids. Following the plot of the TV show’s third series, it sees you take command of various characters and take the fight to the enemy over the course of thirty-something levels, built around the central hub of New Ninjago City.

Fans of the show will find a lot to like. As with any LEGO game, the attention to detail is a premium concern – even more-so when the source material is their own franchise. Characters such as Nya, Sensei Garmadon, PIXAL and Cyrus Borg join protagonists Lloyd, Kai, Cole, Zane and Jay and a handful of supporting players both old and new. As with previous games, you’ll take control of different characters as the story requires, but will be free to revisit areas with other unlocked characters in Free Play Mode, accessible through the hub.

Aimed squarely at the younger fan, Ninjago: Nindroids is incredibly easy even for a LEGO game. Despite a predominantly isometric viewpoint, the tried and tested series gameplay mechanics are almost entirely untouched. The puzzles, while mildly taxing for younger gamers, are an utter cinch for adults, and the action is fast-paced but rarely challenging. That being said, this game is not exactly primed for anyone over the age of 12, and as such is tilted perfectly towards its target audience.

The levels are short, coming in bite-sized chunks that keep the pace high, interspersed with visits to the hub that are so uneventful as to be superfluous. This could have been a straight mission to mission adventure and it would have lost nothing. For players of a certain age, Ninjago will tick all the required boxes, but compared to other LEGO games it’s a fairly bland affair.

Puzzles might take the form of a rudimentary memory game, or will use the environment (such as asking you to destroy something so a harmless droid will come to clean it up and you can get through security), but they’re very straightforward. As with all games in the franchise, there is no fail-state, so you can die as many times as you want or fail a puzzle until the sun burns out and you’ll never see a Game Over screen or have to restart.

Each character has a skill – such as computer hacking or grappling – and switching between them when necessary is key to your success. Nindroids boasts a fairly small roster of playable characters, even with new folk added just for the game, but the relatively short lifespan means you don’t need that many. Also, this isn’t based on some sprawling franchise with scores of recognisable faces, so it’s not a big problem.

The trademark sense of humour we’ve come to expect from LEGO is present, as ever, but the script is fairly tame, filled with silly sarcasm and clichéd one-liners. Sadly the aesthetics are unremarkable, mixing dull, lifeless environments with characters that often seem interchangeable and distinguishable only by their colours.

VERDICT: LEGO Ninjago: Nindroids is a comparatively lifeless affair, clearly designed for the younger gamer but with little to hold the interest of anyone other than fans of the TV show. The rinsed and repeated LEGO mechanics become less and less compelling with every game, and Nindroids struggles to feel relevant as anything other than a money-maker. For younger gamers and show fans, it’s a decent enough romp; for anyone else, it’s not really worth the trouble.

DECENT. A 6/10 indicates that, while this game could be much better, it still has a fair amount to offer the player. It might be an interesting title sabotaged by its own ambition, or a game denied greater praise by some questionable design choices. Don’t avoid it outright, but approach it with caution.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post LEGO Ninjago: Nindroids Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Right, let’s have a show of hands. How many of you so-called Pokémon fans actually know how to play the original Pokémon card game? I am wagering that there are plenty of you – within a certain age demographic – who once spent their chump change on sparkly Pokémon cards. But what did you do with them? Probably collect them the same way you would football stickers, swap them with pals, engage in unarmed combat in the playground over that precious shiny Bulbasaur. I will admit to being one such philistine, and it wasn’t until the Gameboy RPGs dropped that I looked at my menagerie of cute pocket monstrosities in a different light. Which is a shame, because the original card system is great fun, and represents the last true link to Nintendo’s distant past as a manufacturer of playing cards.

Thanks to the Virtual Console service, veterans and newcomers alike can now check out Game Freak’s fine pixelated approximation of the multi-deck throwdown that started it all. You can’t help but think that Nintendo missed a trick in leaving it until the turn of the new millennium to allow Western gamers to play it. Released in Japan at the peak of Poke-mania, by 2000 the feverish popularity had dwindled slightly.

For the excellently cheap price-point, you get a near perfect version of the GBC classic, that gathers together all of the first three runs of Pokémon cards and presents them in wonderful digital glory. The cards represent the traditional stable of monsters you get to control; there are no instances of randomly generated battles or wild beasties in the field – and there is nary a Poké Ball in sight. This is a pure, stripped back, bite-sized version of what most players will know as a traditional Pokémon game.

Held together by a loose RPG structure, you take on the role of Mark – a boringly named yet pleasingly spiky young chap, who is tasked with obtaining four Legendary Cards. Naturally, in order to do this there is a series of opponents to defeat and a bunch of medals to get your hands on. The plot is merely an afterthought (although it is nice to play a Pokémon game and not be hammered with a series of lectures on love, life, ecology and all that jazz), and the meat of the game is the addictive series of card battles, as you look to win booster packs, create your own customised decks, and fine-tune your arsenal of critter cards to match the surprisingly varied playing styles of the many Masters and NPCs you encounter along your travels.

The combat system is a nice mixture of tactical nous and coin-flipping chance. Deciding which Energy cards to employ and which types of Pokémon to add to your deck, you eventually earn the right to use pre-organised decks that are obtained by taking down the Club Masters. The pre-ordained decks are themed after the elemental properties of said Master, meaning you can switch things up depending on who you are involved in a fracas with. The scope for tinkering with decks of your own creation is scary – if you really put your back into it you could end up creating a card selection so finely-tuned that it would be capable of destroying pretty much anyone.

Sadly, some of the features included in the original are absent here. The link-up and Card Pop functions – which enabled GBC owners to engage in incredibly entertaining one-on-one battles, and even earn two very special cards – are nowhere to be seen. This means that the release is two Pokémon short and, although that isn’t exactly a deal breaker, it also lacks a multiplayer aspect that even 16 years down the line would be fun to try out again. Look at how ace the online capabilities of X and Y were!

VERDICT: All told, you are looking at a cool 8-10 hours of fighting fun, the charming old-school sprites and bonkers ditties you know and love, and the warm feeling of being in the Poké-verse again. The Color was a wonderfully charming bit of kit when you look back on it, with some real under-the-radar classics. This is one of them.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Pokémon Trading Card Game Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Shovel Knight instantly encourages comparisons. Mega Man here, Castlevania there, Super Mario Bros 3 on the map; the town is a bit Zelda II, oh look you can pogo like in Duck Tales. But to talk about Shovel Knight purely in similarities does the game a huge disservice.

Not that it’s a bad thing to talk about Shovel Knight in reference to other titles. Doing so does succinctly outlines many of its components – it’s more that doing this and not then acknowledging Shovel Knight’s independent success is just simply rude.

So let’s get the comparison’s out of the way, shall we? Mega Man is the most key and obvious influence on Shovel Knight. You play a rather squat blue character as he traverses through stages themed after bosses, with each stage containing numerous platforming and combat challenges that are often unique and designed in a style specific to that level (as is expected of a great platform game). Some platform challenges feel identical to Mega Man, in fact, but the melee style combat and extra traversal techniques here (such as pogo-ing with your shovel off of an enemy’s nonce) give Shovel Knight some unique spice to distance it from being a direct rip off of the blue bomber.

As for Castlevania? Well, ignoring the instant thematic similarities with knights, necromancers, skeletons and the like, within each level is a relic. These relics, once found, can be used in combat and traversal, but will consume hearts as you use them, similar to Castlevania’s own sub weapons. What separates the relics from said sub weapons is that once you find one in Shovel Knight you can swap between them freely to give you an edge as and when you need it, like Mega Man’s suit powers. Smart relic use leads to smart play, but more on that later.

After making all of these retro references, I feel a need to point to one of Shovel Knight’s key ideas that will make the game more approachable should you not be the sort to enjoy 80’s style difficulty barricades. I don’t mean that Shovel Knight isn’t a hard game (making that point for those that do like their retro games to be solid), because it can certainly be challenging, but it’s got frequent checkpoints you see.

So while Shovel Knight may carry the hallmarks of some of gaming’s oldest heroes, it’s very much a game made in the here and now. Not only are checkpoints generous but the game has a nice, almost heartwarming narrative tone, too. Not award winning, but it’s a sincere tale and something you likely wouldn’t expect from a game so clearly born of gaming’s early days.

It’s simple: Shovel Knight is fighting back against an encroaching evil after finally coming to terms with the loss of his beloved Shield Knight in a previous scuffle – but the game goes a long way to make you want to care about his simple plight. Dream sequences in which you’re asked to try and save Shield Knight are quaint, endearing and, as said, something more sincere than you’d expect from such a retro fuelled title.

And just in case I’ve made the game sound soft don’t worry, Shovel Knight can be just as demanding as you want it to be. Similarly to other modern retro games such as Mega Man 9, Shovel Knight’s real teeth can be found in its achievement list (which is all in-game, in case you’re playing on Wii U/3DS).

Alongside simply playing the core levels, Shovel Knight contains extra challenges. These range from minor stages that put relics to interesting use, optional bosses that provide fresh challenge, and even some silly sub games and achievements that put your control of Shovel Knight to the test.

And if the game still isn’t tricky enough? Again, achievements have you sorted. Remember I mentioned those checkpoints? You can break them all, rendering them useless but dolling out some extra treasure (which can be used to buy upgrades), and one achievement asks you to finish the game breaking every one, essentially turning Shovel Knight into a true retro minded title. Another challenges you to finish the game in an hour and a half, pushing Relic knowledge to the limit. Yet another tasks you with finishing the game without picking up any relics, testing just how good you actually are with that basic shovel.

Of course all of this would be for nothing if Shovel Knight didn’t play well, so it’s fortunate that it’s incredibly well-designed. The knight controls beautifully, reacting to every nudge and twitch of the controls (though you’ll likely want something better than an Xbox 360 D-Pad if possible), and enemies and bosses alike are a pleasure to analyse, fight and beat. But more than that, the levels encourage replayability by being succinct but varied, and just entertaining to perfect.

Shovel Knight is a genuine success. While early play will entice comparisons due to its clear reverence of the past, the true mark of the game’s quality is that, upon completion, you’ll simply refer to it’s many levels, bosses, and ideas, as Shovel Knight. The wonderful modern retro classic, Shovel Knight.

SUPERB. This is the mark of greatness, only awarded to games that engage us from start to finish. Titles that score 9/10 will have very few problems or negative issues, and will deliver high quality and value for money across all aspects of their design.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by developer.

The post Shovel Knight Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

It must be incredibly hard to take an established, much-loved franchise and translate it into a video game that not only resonates with existing fans of the source, but also pulls in new interest from the outside. It must be hard, because so few developers get it right. An obvious example is Rocksteady, who did wonders with Batman, but a less-thought-of example is High Moon Studios, whose Transformers games (War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron) did a great job of bringing the universe to life without having to rely on Michael Bay’s movie adaptations.

Unfortunately, Rise of the Dark Spark – the third game in the series and the first by developers Edge of Reality – feels like a step too far. Attempting to link High Moon’s universe with Age of Extinction produces complications in a convoluted and barely coherent plot, and Edge of Reality haven’t really brought anything new of their own to the franchise.

It begins on Earth, where Optimus, Bumblebee and a handful of mid-tier Autobots are engaged in conflict with the Decepticons over the titular Dark Spark, the antithesis to the Matrix of Leadership. The story flits between different timelines as Optimus fights against both Megatron and Lockdown in his attempt to destroy the Spark. As in previous games, you’re forced into the treads of whichever Transformer is currently relevant to the story, so you’ll play as a wide variety of characters – none of which are particularly compelling until you finally get to run around burning everything as Dinobot Grimlock.

All things considered equal, the storyline is at least fit for purpose, but sadly the game suffers elsewhere. Guns lack impact, despite the variety on offer, and although we’ve all watched Transformers take a serious pummelling in the movies, here it takes a frustratingly small amount of direct damage to reduce you to a pile of rivets and cogs. As a result, the combat leaves you feeling cold – which is a major issue as there is so much of it. Inconsistent checkpointing is a hitch, too, as you can often find yourself overwhelmed by hordes of infinitely-spawning grunts while you try to complete some menial objective or another.

When the primary positive in a shooter campaign is that it’s quite short, you know you’ve got problems, but for most of Rise of the Dark Spark I found myself gritting my teeth and ploughing on despite the fact that I simply wasn’t enjoying it. At times, it’s simply lifeless – and a whole section a few hours in where you’re trying to shoot flying and leaping Insecticons that you can barely keep up with is rage-inducing. The writing is also cheesy, and above-par voice acting can’t prevent the occasional cringe when characters drop irritating one-liners or the same looped dialogue over and over again.

Graphically it’s a mess. The environments are bland and featureless, and the animations don’t seem to have moved on at all since Fall of Cybertron, while the cutscenes have a horrible, washed-out grainy quality that reminded me of the PS2 days. Visual glitches like enemies that fall through the floor and occasional slowdown are just unacceptable in a shooter that, frankly, shouldn’t be taxing the PlayStation 4 in the slightest.

If there’s a saving grace it’s the multiplayer. Escalation mode returns, which is basically Horde Mode renamed. You and three others defend against increasingly hard waves of enemies, using turrets and barricades to set up tactical chokepoints around the map. Although the appeal starts to wear thin after a while, the huge number of unlockable characters (over forty across the two factions), guns, and perks offer a decent amount of variety. Running around as a Dinobot feels different to tearing up the skies as Starscream, for example, and the hacks (difficulty modifiers you apply either pre-match or at weapon lockers) allow you to add an extra layer of challenge in both Escalation and the campaign should you need it.

Similarly to Mass Effect 3, levelling up (or completing passive challenges) rewards you with gear boxes, which contain random items, characters, hacks, and abilities. You never know what you’re going to get when you open one, and there’s always a moment of excitement when you spring a new character or weapon upgrade.

In fact, it’s a shame that Rise of the Dark Spark doesn’t make a bigger deal of its upgrade and Gear Box system, as the option to improve each weapon (available across any of your unlocked characters) and the difference made by special abilities and hacks add a great deal to an otherwise very vanilla experience. Sadly, most of the cool stuff is hidden away in menus and you’re never really talked through it or taught how to maximise efficiency and, as a result, you could easily play for hours before you even realise you can improve yourself.

VERDICT: Rise of the Dark Spark is a step back from Fall of Cybertron, and that’s an utter travesty. High Moon did wonders with the last game, and this feels almost like a tacked-on expansion rather than a decent game in its own right. Bland visuals, uninspiring combat and a messy story can’t be saved by an enjoyable multiplayer mode or a set of underused sub-systems that even Edge of Reality seem to have forgotten about. Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark isn’t an awful game, but it’s a long way short of the bar set by High Moon.

AVERAGE. The epitome of a 50/50 game, this title will be unspectacular but inoffensive, charmless but amiable. We aren’t condemning a game by scoring it a 5, but we certainly aren’t championing it, either.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

For most of us, the relationship between colours was part of our formative years of education. From mixing paints, we know that blue and yellow make green, and red and yellow make orange. Learning the different combinations of colours is a simple act of discovery for a child that sticks with us throughout our lives, which makes the basic concepts of Just Colors very easy to understand.

Quite simply, it gives you circles of differing hues, and tapping one releases an explosion of colour. If other circles are in the radius of the nearby explosion, they will also explode, with circles of different primary colours (red, green, blue) mixing together to make explosions of secondary colours (magenta, yellow, cyan), while those of the same colour will merely continue the chain. Each level requires that you mix all of the circles together in some way, so that they all explode in a chain reaction and disappear.

Certain circles can be moved, while others are static, and you’ll need to figure out which position will achieve the desired results, as well as which circle you need to tap to start the chain reaction, as this can only be done once per level.

It’s a simplistic premise, and it’s built upon very well, with each of Just Colors’ 50 levels upping the previous stage, with new mechanics slowly introduced every couple of levels or so to keep things fresh. Starting with the basic red, green and blue primary colours, things seem pretty easy, until the three secondary colours are introduced, when you’ll learn that mixing a primary coloured circle with a secondary coloured circle will cause them to repel each other, turning the game into a physics-based puzzler.

There are some really challenging levels here, and you’ll spend ages scratching your head on some of them, but thankfully if you struggle too much, you will eventually be given hints. It’s nice to see a puzzler that requires some real thought rather than just blind luck to get by.

But it’s the presentation that really lets things down here. Graphically, it’s as bare-boned as you can get, thanks to black screens with tiny circles of colour. while audio is limited to the one badly-compressed, crackly soundscape backing track, and basic sound effects that are inoffensive but is far from a reason to keep the sound turned on. It’s a puzzler so you can’t complain too much, but some sort of stylisation or uniqueness would go a long way to make this a more attractive game. It would also be nice to be able to instantly restart a stage once a mistake is made, instead of having to wait ages for circles to slowly explode and for the visuals to slowly fade out.

VERDICT: Just Colors is as simple as puzzle games get, but with a good approach to building upon a basic, easy-to-understand idea. It’s not the most compelling puzzler, neither is it much to look at, but it’s a cheap way to pass the time, and isn’t that what mobile gaming is all about?

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Just Colors Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

There are only so many variables a line defence game can change to differentiate itself from the crowd. Cocoro’s big sell is “more than 90 unit combinations” tied into an elemental war taking place in “mythological Japan”. Is this enough? Not really.

You’re introduced to the story by a short animation. The four elements – fire, earth, water and wind – are warring for control of the world, taking turns at narrating their side of the story. This could have been the standout feature Cocoro needs: multiple perspectives on the same story showing the age-old adage that history is written by the victor. Sadly though, this is all the narrative you’re given.

When you switch between sides you’re treated to a panel showing one element’s storyteller interrupting the one you’ve just been controlling, with a variation on “that’s not how it happened”. It’s just a confusing mess of alliances and contradictions with no real plot. It’s impossible to tell who is winning or losing the war – especially given that you control all the sides, and thus they all win at some point. But if the story is a mess then perhaps the gameplay can salvage Cocoro: 90 unit combinations have to count for something right?

Well the best I can say is that it’s not bad. As per a standard line defence game, you have a 2D level with a base on each side, yours on the left, your opponent’s on the right. You spawn units who start at your side and move right, while your opponent does the same in reverse. The winner is whoever destroys the enemy’s castle first. Simple.

Challenge comes in the various units you can spawn. There are four base warriors, from quick but weak through to slow but tough, which unlock as you progress through the story. The unit combinations come from the choice of weapon, starting of with a sword of the respective element to bows and arrows and the like. Units generate automatically; the better they are the slower the timer, and you can change the next unit’s weapon while it is spawning. It’s all simple but efficient: all these options are mapped to the touchscreen while the main screen shows the battlefield.

When a unit spawns it appears in your base, and from there you have to fling it into the battlefield. This is Cocoro’s best feature: most line defence games will just spawn units from the base, but there is an extra tactical depth to proceedings – you could bypass a brute and go straight for the weaker archers behind him – as well as skill involved in judging how far to fling a unit.

Which makes it all the more tragic that Cocoro involves almost zero challenge. Tactics never come into it: weaker units can be one-shotted by tougher enemies, meaning you have to at least match the units your opponent is using, at which point it comes down to weapons. This is further confounded by the need for multiple archers or spear throwers to make the units effective – although they will be slaughtered if they’re not behind a melee soldier, and with such slow spawning times for higher end units they become impractical.

After each battle you’ll often receive a new unit or weapon, with the following battle easily winnable if you spam that one unit, normally the toughest. If that doesn’t work then the second option it to max out all available weapon upgrades, bought with points gained from battle. In practise, you either steamroll a level or lose and still gain enough points (you get some from a level no matter what) to fully upgrade your weapons until you win. It’s worse towards the endgame where you may have to grind a battle several times to afford the upgrades needed to win.

The upgrades you have don’t carry over between the four sides you flit between, either. In fairness the opponents are similarly levelled – it won’t expect you to beat an enemy with the toughest warrior when you only have the basic one – but it means that you have to go through the entire process of grinding and levelling four times. It would perhaps be understandable if the armies were wildly different, but they aren’t. That “90 unit combinations” is inaccurate: with four of the five available weapons for each side the same, each element only has one differentiating weapon, a fireball for Fire or a health-giving lute for Earth. Why not just have one upgrade path for them all?

The answer, of course, is padding. Cocoro does everything it can to make you forget that you’re playing the same level over and over again. You spam the best unit repeatedly, win, get upgrade, spam the new best unit, win, get upgrade, etc. Even the campaign features the same battle from various perspectives, just to make the experience longer.

VERDICT: The bottom line is that Cocoro doesn’t do anything that you can’t get from the hundreds of free line defence games on the net. It tries to set itself apart, with a storyline and customisable units, but it all rings a little hollow. After grinding for the umpteenth time, you’ll realise it’s the same thing, over and over again.

AVERAGE. The epitome of a 50/50 game, this title will be unspectacular but inoffensive, charmless but amiable. We aren’t condemning a game by scoring it a 5, but we certainly aren’t championing it, either.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Cocoro Line Defender Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Oh Japan, you be so crazy. I have no idea what is going on with One Piece Unlimited World Red. The adventure starts when the Straw Hat pirates spot an island, set off to explore it and are instantly kidnapped. The main protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy, Captain of the Straw Hats, sets off to save them from the clutches of what I’m assuming are series regular villains – he seems to recognise most of them anyway. And that’s the first barrier to entry: you’re very aware Unlimited World Red is part of a wider series.

Introduction to each character amounts to a few lines of text that flash briefly during the opening cutscene, and with several anime seasons alongside a staggering 35 other games in the series you can understand why – Ganbarion expects you to know who is who.

This should matter, it really should, yet somehow it doesn’t. Perhaps as a legacy of the volume of content to draw upon, each character has a unique personality. All are a little bit silly, but you have the big, hulking idiot, the more serious samurai, the giant talking squirrel. The cast is varied and great.

All of which is tied to a really satisfying combat system. You’ve got two attacks, mapped to square and triangle, which can be combined in combos and with a jump to defeat your enemies, and while this may sound sparse, the ability to swap between two other party members – chosen before you leave the central town – means you never get bored. Luffy uses his elasticated body to bounce around a battle, while the shipwright Franky can lay down a turret for other characters to use. When you’re not directly controlling them the A.I. does a good job of managing them, and battles become chaotic, enemies flying across the screen, your three heroes’ focal points drawing opponents in and then knocking them away. It feels like you’re playing an anime cartoon.

As you fight you’ll build an SP bar that allows you to unleash a special attack by pressing R1 and a face button, either by yourself or with all three characters. This triggers a short attack animation and most enemies just disappear.

There’s a plethora of baddies to beat up as well. There’re the standard goons, alongside some knight-type guys and, for some reason, a race of desert-dwelling seals, to name but a few. Boss battles dial things up a notch, too. At one point a dragon casually appears, which Luffy attacks for something to eat (because he’s just badass) while at another point a mad scientist has created a giant jam monster. It’s imaginative to say the least. There’s also a levelling system and “power words”. The latter are basically buffs you can assign to a character, boosting attack or a particular resistance.

Ganbarion have also included a town-building metagame to sink your teeth into. Plunder you find on your adventures, plus a little money, can be used to redevelop the town that serves as the hub for all of your adventuring. First construction is the tavern, where you can pick up side quests, while other options include a pharmacy to purchase health capsules (read: potions), and a factory that can upgrade your items.

The items in question come in the form of a bug net and a fishing rod that you can use at specific points in the wild to gain new items. Each triggers a mini-game that’s usually a variation on rhythm button pressing which, while not hard, do provide a bit of a refreshing break from the normal gameplay.

One cool feature is the option for a second player to jump in and control another party member. They’re able to freely roam the same zone as you, and obviously help in battle. For some reason the screen splits into two windows rather than half and half, wasting about a third of the screen in the process. It’s not too bad, but I can’t see why it couldn’t have just been split vertically.

Gameplay-wise, One Piece Unlimited World Red is more than solid, a case supported by the visuals. Everything is rendered in 3D animation, with the rippling clothing particularly impressive, and everything is bright and slightly exaggerated. The environments are diverse, featuring lava, ice and desert locales to show off the game’s breadth. It’s not challenging GTA V or the Uncharted series anytime soon, but it does look good, and on the smaller screens of a 3DS or a Vita it should look fantastic.

The original Japanese voice acting has been kept, something I know a lot of fans will be happy with, but the subtitle translation is solid, and it perfectly fits the over-exaggerated nature of Unlimited World Red – an English dub just wouldn’t sound right. You do have to be a quick reader though: a second or two longer on screen for some of the subtitles would have been nice.

It’s not perfect – after a while combat becomes a little one note, with you simply button mashing until everything on screen is dead, and the wider plot is a little hard to follow – but Unlimited World Red is consistently enjoyable.

VERDICT: If One Piece is a series you follow, my words aren’t going to impact your choice to buy this. But if, like me, you’re new to the series, Unlimited World Red is surprisingly enjoyable. It’s all silly and over the top, full of daft enemies and exaggerated characters, and it positively screams “I am a game! Have fun with me!” Sometimes, though, that’s exactly what you want.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post One Piece Unlimited World Red Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Those of you who bemoan the lack of new IPs released by Nintendo should spare a thought for Chibi-Robo. This cute little robot cleaner has featured in only a handful of games, beginning on the Gamecube in 2006, and each one is a cult classic in its own right, despite never getting the attention they deserve. Chibi has starred in some very experimental games, consisting of unusual mechanics married with oodles of charm and weirdness, and his latest appearance continues this tradition.

This time around, Chibi-Robo finds himself in the employ of Mr. Curator, an expert and collector of NostalJunk: everyday objects from the past (our present) that seem to attract visitors to his own museum of tat. Mr. Curator is on the look out for more objet d’art to display, and Chibi is the tiny robot to do the job, finding objects with a particular silhouette and taking pictures of them. You’ll be doing all the snapping, as you’re asked to take shots of all manner of real life items like rolls of toilet tissue, electrical sockets and CDs.

However, before you can take pictures, you’ll need to buy film of each silhouette, and this is paid for with Happy Points. Chibi-Robo earns this currency by helping a colourful cast of characters with a variety of unusual oddjobs. Chibi can get out his toothbrush and mini-vacuum and clean up all of the game’s locales for Happy Points, but he’ll also get some slightly stranger requests from some characters, such as guessing lengths using a tape measure for a giant toy robot, or shooting balloons for a superhero.

Going back to the main focus of photography, you must take shots that match the silhouettes as accurately as possible, as photos taken with less than a certain accuracy are unacceptable and can’t be used to collect Nostaljunk. It’s a system that can easily be cheated, as it’s all too simple (and tempting!) to just grab a picture of the required item on your phone. In fact, sometimes that can be quite a necessity, as trying to get a decent picture from the 3DS Camera is an incredibly frustrating experience, unless you have absolutely perfect lighting to capture your subject. You get 9 attempts for each roll of film, and while that seems like a lot of tries, you’ll really need them to get that tricky 60% accuracy.

Unfortunately, when the film runs out and it comes to getting Happy Points to purchase more, you’ll end up having to grind the same few mini-games and tasks, watching the same overly long and slow dialogue, just to be able to progress with your photography quest. There are only so many times you can pull a measuring tape or find ingredients in a fridge before even the most surreal of situations start to become a pedestrian.

VERDICT: Let’s Go, Photo!’s biggest stumbling block is the Nintendo 3DS itself. Its poorly spec’ed camera has always been pretty useless, even for taking pictures – trying to use it for a game is a mostly fruitless endeavor. While Chibi’s charm is still just about intact, the repeated interactions and grindy mini-games wear the whole experience very thin. It’s good to see the tiny robot back, but it’s a real shame that it’s in a rather frustrating game.

DECENT. A 6/10 indicates that, while this game could be much better, it still has a fair amount to offer the player. It might be an interesting title sabotaged by its own ambition, or a game denied greater praise by some questionable design choices. Don’t avoid it outright, but approach it with caution.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Chibi-Robo! Let’s Go, Photo! Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

The core Pokémon games are brilliant. There’s no denying the continued popularity of the genre, and the latest editions are always met with praise and enjoyment and the fan base is huge and dedicated.

Pokémon spin-offs are often like spin-offs from popular films or TV shows: new ideas that try to hold on to what made the main show so loved, but try something new to make it stand out, with varied degrees of success. Pokémon spin-offs share this methodology and have historically been hit and miss in their execution. So how does Pokémon Art Academy fare? Is it an old master, or a paint-by-numbers disaster

Firstly, those expecting any kind of battling, capturing, breeding or exploring should step away from the 3DS. This is more akin to the delightful Pokémon Snap on the N64 than the main series. In all honesty, this is all but Art Academy with familiar Pokémon faces, but this is by no means a bad thing.

It’s charming from the outset. You are the newest student to join the Pokémon art academy, hoping to one day to be good enough to draw Pokémon on the trading cards themselves. Your teacher (who wears a red cap very similar to a certain plumber) instructs you in the form of lessons to teach you how to use the various pens and brushes and colours to produce mini works of art, with the difficulty increasing with every lesson.

In the main lessons, you will learn various techniques on how to draw and colour preset Pokémon. As you draw more and learn new skills you unlock other lessons and challenges. The lessons are very well broken down and the guides are excellent, and there is a real sense of achievement in seeing your Pokémon finished.

The “free draw” mode allows you to pick a Pokémon to draw without any guidance whatsoever, essentially a free rein to do as you wish. You have the choice to draw with a guide picture or without and it’s a real test of the skills you have accumulated.

The “quick draw” mode is the weakest of the three, allowing you to draw using solid colour shapes and guidelines, and without the need to select the colours. It’s less enjoyable than the other two modes, but still fun for a very quick blast of Pokémon art academy.

The interface is very simple to use, and it becomes second nature to change your colours and brushes, zoom in and out and even undo your mistakes after a short while of playing. The lessons do their best to guide you and it never frustrates. Being an old fogey who prefers a pencil and paper over this digital magic, I found the tools very easy to become accustomed to and, all in all, Pokémon Art Academy is a very relaxing game.

The only frustrating area of the game is the speed in which you have access to the lessons. You have to learn them all as you go without the ability to jump from the novice lessons to the more advanced lessons more quickly. This can mean being forced to draw Pokémon just to unlock the next level. I know it’s trying to link the “catch ’em all” Pokémon mantra, but I’d have liked the choice to decide how quickly I progressed, not have it dictated to me. Though, in fairness, every picture is fun to draw.

It’s also not entirely clear how you earn your gold, silver and bronze medals for each picture you complete, though to be honest, it doesn’t seem to be something that really impedes your progression.

I’m not sure owners of other Art Academy games will see the value in investing in a spin-off, even though it’s the kind of game you can easily play for hours to relax – and you’ll get a real sense of achievement to boot. It’s extremely well designed, well presented and charming to play – it’s even had me consider buying one of those proper electric drawing tablet things.

VERDICT: Pokémon Art Academy is a polished, enjoyable time sink, with intuitive controls. It’s very easy to pick up and play, and uses the Pokémon licence well to introduce a new group of potential artists to the Art Academy series.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Pokémon Art Academy appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

If there is a reason that the hardcore Nintendo fans are so loyal, it’s because of “The Nintendo Difference”. It’s the company’s biggest X-factor, a stubborn desire to do things their own way, no matter whether it’s successful or not. Granted, Nintendo are known more for their reliance on long-running IPs, but every once in a while, something comes along that’s just… well, different. The kind of thing you can’t imagine anyone else attempting to do.

Released in 2009 for the original Nintendo DS, Tomodachi Collection was one such game, a Japanese-only release that was a surreal hybrid of The Sims and Animal Crossing, where players could watch their Mii characters go about their daily lives. Originally deemed far too “Japanese” for a Western audience, Nintendo have brought over it’s 2013 sequel to Western shores, and it’s unlike anything else you’ve seen. It’s a game that manages to be incredibly engaging, despite asking for little interaction from the player.

But I’m a little ahead of myself here. The entirety of your Tomodachi Life is set on an island, which you name yourself. Your first inhabitant is supposed to represent yourself, in fact the other islanders refer to you as your Mii’s doppelganger. From then on, you are left to discover things mostly on your own, adding more Miis to your very own apartment block. Each day, you’re given monetary donations from each of the inhabitants of your island, so the more Miis you make, the more money you receive each day.

This cash you receive goes towards keeping your Miis happy, which is essentially as close to a goal as Tomodachi Life gets. Each one will regularly have some sort of request or issue that needs your attention and assistance, from the basics of food and clothing to help with their social lives. Completion of these tasks will increase the happiness of your citizens, levelling them up and also giving you a little money back. Essentially, all the rewards you receive are put back into giving your Miis the best life possible.

Occasionally, your Miis challenge you to a game of some sort, such as card matching or guessing an item from a pixelated image or silhouette. Success in these short mini games results in receiving a treasure, which can be sold for more money. As you can imagine, more money means more expensive and luxurious goods.

Other than a few other minor interactions and buying gifts (clothes, room decorations and food), most of your time is spent watching the people you’ve created interact with each other. You’re able to configure every part of their personality, from their voice to whether they’re caring or direct, unique or normal, and more. Each Mii is an individual and will act and socialise as such, making for some funny and surreal interactions. They’ll make friends, have arguments and even fall in love with each other, hopefully having children. You’ll see their dreams as they sleep, and even see them as the subject of regular news reports that are as hilarious as they are crazy. Every interaction paints a vivid picture of the lives of these virtual people, telling new stories each day that never fail to raise a smile. Each Mii’s unusual computerised voice continues to give them all a distinct sense of personality.

But eventually, there comes the realisation that this isn’t a game in the traditional sense, and that might put many people off. Much like the 90% of Animal Crossing players who lose interest in their towns after a few weeks, the same will no doubt be true of Tomodachi Life, as the constant compliance with the Mii’s requests may prove too repetitive for many. Despite the odd flash of the unusual, most of the time you will be performing the same tasks, buying clothes and food, with the occasional break for the same few minigames. It’s strange that, for a game that prides itself at being imaginative and unusual, the time when events and requests start repeating is far too early, sinking the actual gameplay element of Tomodachi Life into monotony.

Still, it’s the unexpected events that are the payoff for the repetition, along with the constant sense of discovery as you see the results of plonking your Miis in different locations and giving them different items, just to see what they do with them. Much like Animal Crossing, there are events that you can partake in, depending on the real-world time, such as Rap Battles and a daily market. Then, there’s the concert hall where your Miis can perform the songs you teach them, based on genres they earn when levelling up in happiness.

VERDICT: Ridiculous, hilarious and full of the unique surrealism that Nintendo does so damn well, it’s hard not to fall in love with Tomodachi Life and the characters you create. The sedate pace and minimal interaction might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but this is guaranteed to be a cult hit. Worth experiencing at least once to see something genuinely funny and unusual, this is the kind of game that reminds you how imaginative Nintendo can be.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Tomodachi Life Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

If you have ever played a Picross game before, you’ll know exactly what to expect from Picross E4. It gives you a series of puzzles, the aim of which is to fill in squares on a grid depending on the numbers around the outside. Doing so unveils a simple pixel picture. That’s it.

But let’s assume you don’t know the details. Starting off with 5×5 grids and working up to 10×10, each column and row has a number that corresponds to how many squares in that line are coloured in. 4 would mean 4 in a row coloured in, while a 2,3 means 2 in a row and then 3 in a row.

The complexity comes from working out where the squares should go based on how the numbers for each row and column intersect. Complete it and the squares you’ve filled in will colour and create a picture, a lamp or a bird for example. It’s a nice payoff, but it only lasts a few seconds.

Technically each puzzle is timed, the aim being to fill them in as quickly as possible. Attempt to fill in an incorrect square and a time penalty is applied, which increases with each subsequent mistake, 2 minutes at first, then 4 etc. It’s nice that there’s a sense of challenge, but I can’t imagine there’s a massive temptation to replay a puzzle – once you know the picture you’re trying to make it becomes pretty easy to solve it a second time.

There are two other twists on the formula in Micross and Mega Picross modes. Micross has you solve an 8×8 Picross puzzle, then a separate 10×10 puzzle for each square filled in the 8×8 overall grid. It creates a larger and more detailed picture, but is essentially the same mode on a larger scale. Mega Picross, meanwhile, is more challenging. The numbers around the edge can span two rows, the line having to be continuous across them both.

You’re helped in solving the puzzles in two ways. The most obvious is the colouration of the numbers. Black are regular, but as you put numbers in they turn blue, indicating that solving them may be slightly easier. There are also optional hints that can be turned on at the start of every puzzle, which solve one row and one column for you. I didn’t really see the point of the latter – you play a puzzle for the satisfaction of solving it yourself; asking for help to do so feels like cheating.

VERDICT: Despite all of this, something about Picross E4 is timeless. People don’t complain Sudoku doesn’t change, they’ll complete the one in the paper day in day out. And that’s what Picross E4 is, more of the same. If you enjoy a light puzzler this collection is for you, but it won’t change your mind about the series if you’ve already decided it’s not your thing.

DECENT. A 6/10 indicates that, while this game could be much better, it still has a fair amount to offer the player. It might be an interesting title sabotaged by its own ambition, or a game denied greater praise by some questionable design choices. Don’t avoid it outright, but approach it with caution.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Picross E4 Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

It is vital that a game manages to grab your attention quickly and keep you entertained throughout its early stages. If the early game is boring, you’re just going to turn it off and play something different, even if you know the later stages are good. Unfortunately, the first five or so hours of Inazuma Eleven Go: Light are tedious beyond belief, filled with pointless movement, boring conversations and an introduction to a story that seems uninteresting and poorly written.

Set 10 years after Inazuma Eleven 3, the world of football has changed. The sport is now governed by a group known as Fifth Sector, who dictate the scores of matches and decide who will succeed and who will fail. You play as Arion Sherwind, an eager youngster who just wants to play football for his favorite school, Raimon. A series of very fortunate events see him jump straight into the first team and, after realizing football is fixed, he tries to convince his teammates to defy Fifth Sector. Returning characters from Inazuma Eleven 3 also join the party to set up a full scale revolution to bring back proper, competitive football and destroy the Fifth Sector dictatorship.

The story is actually quite entertaining once it gets going, but it takes an age for this to happen. Whilst things improve further down the line with a few unexpected twists, getting past the initial story set-up took some serious will power on my part. Had this been a film, I might have walked out.

Perhaps the most noticeable change between the Inazuma 3 series and Inazuma Eleven Go is the switch to a more 3D world, much like the change between Pokemon Black and White and Pokemon X and Y. Cosmetically it looks a lot better: having a full 3D world to explore is great but it just doesn’t feel quite as large as in previous games. The 3D world also means a lot more loading – often you will walk for no more than two seconds in an area and have to wait (only a second or two) for the new area to load. Sure it’s not a massive issue, but it is annoying.

The smaller areas also make the “quests” you have to do seem pointless. A few times you will have to talk to someone to advance the game, but this person will be a 5-second walk away through a door. The short walk just seems unnecessary; why do I need to waste 5 seconds to walk to someone, surely they could have just been a part of the original conversation.

Speaking of conversations, there are a lot of them and very few are voiced, so expect a lot of reading. Even on the occasions where the conversation is voiced, some of the acting is terrible. And the Geordie character, my god, I don’t think I understood anything he said, even the parts that were written down.

Fortunately, the on-the-field action fares much better. The full 11-a-side games are great fun to play. Controlling the action on the lower screen, by drawing runs and tapping to pass and shoot is as good as it has ever been. The small addition of being able to tap on an opposition player to force your team to run towards them makes defending so much easier and the special moves look as amazing as ever, especially with the 3D on.

Perhaps the biggest on-the-pitch additions are the new fighting spirits. Certain players have the ability to summon a fighting spirit to get a massive stats boost and access to new special moves for a limited time. Selecting the right moment to use these is key, as realistically the only way to counter a fighting spirit is to summon another one to fight it. The fighting spirits are a small addition but change the way matches are played, and it makes it quite a bit more entertaining and tactical.

Small battles also return that task you with scoring a single goal, winning the ball or not losing the ball. These will help increase the levels of your teammates, and will need to be done regularly if you don’t want a mammoth grinding session at the end of each chapter to stand a chance in the 11 v. 11 games. Winning battles will result in players wanting to join your team, but again there is little point in recruiting them as the default story players will always be the best and most rounded options.

VERDICT: Inazuma Eleven Go: Light is not a particularly bad game at its core; the actual action is highly enjoyable, while the new visual style looks great but has a small negative effect on gameplay. The biggest issue that the first few hours of the story areincredibly boring and predictable, and it takes too long for anything to happen. Admittedly, it does get better, to a respectable level, but if a game like this takes 5 whole hours to become any good, is it really worth playing?

DECENT. A 6/10 indicates that, while this game could be much better, it still has a fair amount to offer the player. It might be an interesting title sabotaged by its own ambition, or a game denied greater praise by some questionable design choices. Don’t avoid it outright, but approach it with caution.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Inazuma Eleven Go: Light Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

It is sad when you can tell something is fundamentally wrong with a game from looking at the icon on your 3DS dashboard. Turtle Tale is a cheap, basic, poorly produced platformer, the likes of which were churned out in their zillions during my formative gaming years. The kind of stuff you could buy on cassette at a petrol station, or to give a latter day example, spunk an impulsive 69p on using an Android or iOS device, only to be disappointed as balls at what you have done. Yup, the strangely unlovable anthropomorphic turtle just screams into your face: this isn’t going to be very good. And it isn’t. So why do I feel like history’s greatest monster in delivering a damning review?

Because it is colourful. It is cheerful. The nice multi-layered backdrops are more colourful than Mr Tumble’s Spotty Bag, for goodness’ sake. Someone out there believed in the pun-tastically named Shelldon, the hero of the piece. And for about half an hour I almost believed, too, as I worked my way through several of the short, not-particularly-challenging levels, just to see what would happen. Nothing much did. The aim is simple – get from one end of the side-scrolling stage to the other, using your water gun to shoot the unimaginative enemies whilst looking to collect all 100 pieces of fruit that are placed so obviously, so within easy reach, that it is probably harder to avoid them than it is to snaffle them all.

The platforming physics are unforgiving and rigid – touching an enemy will knock you instantly backwards, leading to some ridiculous deaths in areas where enemies do not actually reveal themselves until you are right on top of them and they pop out of the ground. There is no incentive to pick off all of the enemies other than the occasional health boost, but even if you decide you do want to kill each and every last one of them, your pathetic water pistol gun – which never gets powered up – can only shoot horizontally in a downwards-arcing trajectory, like you’re taking a whizz. Some of the enemies are airborne, and while they may feature swooping downwards among their limited movement repertoire, it is just a pain in the arse to try and time it so your water shots connect.

There is no variety – later stages have environmentally diverse themes, but these are bog standard platformer 101 material, and generic in the extreme. The enemies may look different, but you soon realise they are palette-swapped, rendering the different environments meaningless. The lack of effort stretches past the design . While the game looks pleasantly cartoon-like, someone forgot to do the sound properly. I actually thought there was something wrong with my 3DS until I realised that the game has inherently quiet, tinny sonics that can barely be heard above the general hubbub of a family home.

VERDICT: It is admirable that small independent developers like Saturnine Games are in a position to flog their wares on the Nintendo eShop, but you have to question how a game with such poor production values and deathly dull gameplay managed to find itself sitting alongside the likes of Kirby Triple Deluxe or even the old-school likes of Super Mario Bros on the list of current downloads you can snap up for your 3DS. Even at just shy of three quid, this feels like poor value. Small developers should be taking these opportunities to create interesting and worthwhile ideas, not pointless relics like Turtle Tale that belong on a Mastertronic cassette in the darkest recesses of gaming’s past.

BAD. Ugly, lazy, and unpleasant, if we’ve scored a game so low then it has serious issues. A 3/10 game will suffer from a combination of uninspired, lacklustre design, unfixed bugs and poor presentation.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Turtle Tale Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Playing the cheerful, clever third instalment in the Denpa Men series, you find yourself wondering why it isn’t more widely enjoyed, and why Nintendo aren’t pushing it to the masses more aggressively. Genius Sorority are a development company that collectively have former staffers and links to a plethora of well received classics such as Earthbound/Mother, Dragon Quest, and Pokémon. They have created some ace little spinoffs, such as the terrific Pokémon Typing Adventure. Their own stab at a cutesy RPG, however, is comfortably their best IP.

Unless you are an excitable child, the concept of augmented reality can be a tiresome one – us older gamers generally prefer to enjoy our RPGs sedentary, in a comfortable nook, expending the minimum of energy. Rise of Digitoll immediately casts these lazy notions aside, requiring that you scan the room you’re in to capture yourself a quartet of Denpa Men lurking in your environs. Depending on where you are, wireless signals will generate different stats and different crazy all-in-one outfits. We drew the line at taking the 3DS out in the street to go hunting, but it is encouraged, so don’t let my inherently English sense of public embarrassment prevent you from trying this out.

Sometimes, the Denpa Men aren’t too happy about being caught and will shoot gooey projectiles that obscure the screen. It can be a tricky old job netting the little blighters, so the game also throws in the occasional treasure chest full of goodies.

It is your job to recruit from a wonderfully designed gamut of diverse little men to rescue the princess and save the world. The plot – involving repeatedly-kidnapped series mainstay, Crystal – is hardly Zelda-esque in its scope and proportions, but once you have selected your team, you embark on a resolutely old-school JRPG style series of dungeons, where you initiate turn-based combat with your monstrous foes. As well as standard attacks, you can go all-in and have your whole party attack mob handed, access special “antenna powers” or even harness the special abilities within some Denpa men that allow them to employ Poké Ball-style capture abilities, allowing you to ensnare bad guys and turn things to your advantage by summoning them in battle.

As well as traversing the main quest, you find yourself embroiled in the surprisingly deep, wider economic universe within the colourful land of Digitoll. The game has a cruelly compulsive materialistic streak that goes beyond mere equipment, weapons and item-buying. Tom Nook would not feel entirely out of place in this universe – as you soon discover there are lots of ways to make, spend, and share money. You can fish, which allows you to level up your Denpa buddies, but also to hook aquatic fauna that can be flogged to earn you some dough. A Coliseum can be entered to battle and earn medals to swap out for items. You can, of course, also sell these. You can buy seeds which can be planted and their spoils harvested for more financial and material gain. You can even visit the Bazaar Island, which allows you to hook up with other Denpa Men players online to buy and sell items. Interacting with other players goes beyond the exchange of items, as you can also pimp out your Denpa men to be hired by other players – for a tasty little financial stipend, of course.

Best of all, you can fix up a home for your Denpa men in true Animal Crossing style, and share pictures of it with other players around the globe. You are soon taken in by the desire to have an MTV Cribs-worthy pad, and then use the screen capture to lay down some wonderfully Japanese braggadocio. I haven’t even started on the Jewels yet – obtained in the AR minigames, by StreetPassing other players, or by making a dreaded in-game purchase – that can be used to access new levels.

VERDICT: The actual combat can become repetitive – but the same could be said of any JRPG, particularly those where grinding enters the equation. The endless pursuit of cash puts Denpa Men 3 firmly in that category, but thankfully, just like the stellar Pokémon canon titles, it has a wealth of distractions to keep your interest. The very definition of a well crafted, slept-on series, this is punching well above its weight, and for the budget price will appeal to a wide section of the Nintendo fan-base.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post The Denpa Men 3: The Rise of Digitoll Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it. Let’s do it. Let’s mate and make beautiful Star Children together, so we can fight demons. Big, bloody demons.

Conception is just so damn weird. Starting you off as boy at an academic establishment that tries to keep demonic hordes from destroying the world (so far, so Persona), it is from then on you make social bonds with your classmates (so far, so Persona once more), which in turn, allows you to mate with them, spawning party members that you use in combat (so far, so “what the f*@k is going on?”). Yes, you see, Conception is about procreating with as many women as possible, or, as the game refers to it: “Class-mating”. You got it, it’s pretty much a dating game, complete with more rampant sexism and objectification than you can throw a huge, wobbly bosom at. I could waste this review criticising the entire Japanese culture for this stuff, but needless to say, if you’ve bought a Japanese dating sim, you know what you’re getting yourself into and you probably didn’t come just for the free food.

The meat of Conception II is battling through various dungeons, known as Labyrinths, plus a few sub-Labyrinths in which you can find better equipment and level up your party. Consisting of several floors, as you reach the higher levels, you’re occasionally able to leave the area to save your game, buy new equipment, make more babies, etc. You can then re-enter the Labyrinths from these exit points and carry on your progress.

It’s unfortunate that these areas have very little to differentiate themselves, other than a different repeated paint job in each one. There is a definite feeling of repetition as you tackle Labyrinth upon Labyrinth, eventually fighting (and hopefully) defeating the big boss of each one, before progressing through the story and eventually accessing the next Labyrinth.

In-between these excursions, you’ll be socialising with the students and faculty at the Academy, saying nice things and giving presents to the ladies so they’ll give birth to more powerful offspring, with different classes available. With three customisable teams available in combat at once, there’s a great number of combinations available to you, and part of the fun is seeing which Star Children work best for you. You’re also able to take one of your female colleagues with you, who also have their own abilities.

The combat is also sort of interesting, with turn-based battles introducing a mechanic where you can attack enemies from the front, left, right and rear, with different locations causing more damage via a weak point. A chain meter will also fill to varying amounts after each attack, eventually allowing combos that give you more Exp and GP. There’s a little depth to the combat, but once again it eventually gets a bit samey.

This repetition is Conception II’s biggest problem. The constant cycle of going to a Labyrinth, going back to the Academy, rinsing and repeating, becomes incredibly yawnsome. Even the social aspects lack any sort of depth, as the characters themselves only exist to give birth, which you’ll spend most of the game trying to make them do. Their interactions are immature, and the risque nature of the conceptions themselves (multi-coloured silhouettes of the teenage student writhing around, which are mercifully skippable) just means that the game as a whole is a rather hollow experience, with the narrative never hitting any sort of gravitas.

All of these negatives overshadow a game that has some solid JRPG mechanics as a base. It’s just that the way these mechanics are tied together is so incredibly repetitious, soulless and immature. Everything just feels like a skeleton with so very little flesh on the bones, feeling quite Persona-lite in places, but with none of the character that the superior series is so beloved for.

VERDICT: Putting aside it’s controversial nature, Conception II is okay as a JRPG. If you can handle the identikit dungeons and by-the-numbers gameplay (and if you haven’t played the many other great JRPGs on both 3DS & Vita), then you may find some enjoyment here, but it’s unlikely to last very long.

DECENT. A 6/10 indicates that, while this game could be much better, it still has a fair amount to offer the player. It might be an interesting title sabotaged by its own ambition, or a game denied greater praise by some questionable design choices. Don’t avoid it outright, but approach it with caution.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Arguably the finest videogame based around a fishing rod, and with nary a big-mouthed bass in sight. A game that rewards mastery of a fishing line, but doesn’t actually involve catching fish in the conventional sense. What is this madness? I am talking of course about the slept-on Super Famicom treat, Umihara Kawase – the first title in a platforming series that has become a beloved cult franchise with import and retro game fans, spanning several consoles with adventures starring the pink rucksack-wearing protagonist, exploring a dreamlike world inhabited by aquatic creatures.

It perhaps comes as no surprise that it had never seen the light of day in PAL land up until now – the concept isn’t exactly an easy one to sell – but that is overlooking the supreme, highly original gameplay which is a nice break from bog-standard platforming fare. Sayonara Umihara Kawase – pleasingly given a title that respectfully retains the original Japanese – has been out in its country of origin for a while now, and it was great news to hear of a surprise, quietly slipped-out PAL 3DS port.

Gameplay has not evolved beyond the 20 year old original: the aim is to negotiate the quirky platforming stages, reaching the goal at the end, or employing other hidden exits that you can hunt down to warp through levels at an even brisker pace – there are always multiple ways to progress through the stages. The twist is in the employment of the fishing rod and line; like Capcom’s classic Bionic Commando, it is used as a grappling hook that can fix onto any solid surfaces – or the fishy enemies that patrol the landscape. You can then swing, catapult and hoist yourself to your desired destinations, as well as using the line to attack and “catch” foes by reeling them in for a points bonus. Mastering the physics of the fishing line is not easy and beginners will struggle to get to grips with it – indeed, there are YouTube videos and game guides from Japan dedicated to maximising graceful usage of the angling peripheral. It is extremely difficult to say the least, but very rewarding once you get to grips with the controls.

The difficulty will be too much for some players to contend with. As well as the complex level layouts, annoyingly placed enemies and difficult to grab hidden extra lives and exits, there are other obstacles straight out of platforming 101 – spiky things, pits, conveyor belts and slippery platforms, which lead to many undeniably fair yet soul destroying deaths. There are boss encounters which feature an emphasis on interesting use of the fishing rod, which break things up nicely – but they are granite tough at times. With each stage recording the number of times attempted, fastest clear time (with online leaderboards!) and number of deaths, there is a nice competitive edge to proceedings. You can even record videos on your 3DS of level run-throughs – although this is something of a missed opportunity given you cannot actually save them to your SD memory or share them in all the right places. But, y’know, it is a nice little quirk. It is proper old school and no mistake, and a title that requires concentration, dexterity and attention to how the deep physics of the fishing line propel your avatar around the many stages.

Aesthetically, the game looks pleasant with some nice cutesy sprites and a colourful palette informing the strange landscapes. Don’t expect anything too fancy from the in-game stuff or the bare bones front end, which does nothing to inspire the senses when you boot it up for the first time. The action is backed by some gentle, inoffensive muzak, which can be eventually traded in for some unlockable retro tracks from the 16-bit days and beyond, a nice touch given the previous lack of support for Umihara Kawase in the West.

VERDICT: Like its predecessors, this is most definitely an under-the-radar, cult title which is unlikely to be troubling the charts – which is a damn shame as it features a fresh take on how a platform game can be played, something that almost becomes an art-form in the right hands. It isn’t pushing the 3DS by any stretch of the imagination, but is terrific proof that there is still a place in this crazy mixed up world of ours for some resolutely retro fun.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Sayonara Umihara Kawase Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

“Smack upside the head.”

This was the point at which The Amazing Spider-Man 2 lost me. It happened fairly early on – and I wasn’t holding on particularly tight even then – but it lost me. It’s Spider-Man who delivers the line, and he isn’t being sarcastic, it isn’t a joke. No, he says it, straight faced, to a random goon in a cut-scene. We’re through the looking glass people.

With writing like that you won’t be surprised to hear that the plot is a shambles. It begins with a Russian gang – comprised of one dude copy and pasted X amount of times – starting a gang war in New York. A private military corporation is brought in, leading to tanks on the streets and drones in the sky. It’s exactly the plot of Saints Row the Third, except where that was satire, this is meant to be serious. Even then, the city officials in Saints Row realise it’s a terrible idea in the end, while here a post credit sequence shows a telephone conversation with the mayor on how good an idea it is to keep this “task force” around. If a deliberate piss-take can’t keep a straight face with this plot, how the hell can The Amazing Spider-Man 2?

Of course, there’s more to it than that. Villains from the Spider-Man mythos are drafted in; every character that gets any detail at all you will eventually have to fight. Black Cat, Green Goblin (the one from the movie), they’re all here, with terribly written lines and hammy acting.

Oh God (whom art a geek), the cut-scenes. I don’t even know where to begin. Spider-Man fidgets and lunges like a junkie in need of a fix, with dialogue that barely makes sense at times. Same goes for the handful of random lines he’ll say during gameplay. I get that Spider-Man is meant to be an arrogant, cocky teenager – that’s his personality – but he even manages to be a patronising dick to the player – try and web swing without any buildings nearby and he’ll smirk: “Oops! I need something to swing off!” Silly player!

Ah, the swinging, the best part of being Spider-Man. Get that right and nothing else really matters. Well, they got it wrong. The triggers control the left and right arms respectively, which, while giving a bit more agency to you, makes getting into the rhythm of swinging a little difficult, particularly turning. One button was enough for Spider-Man 2, and that was a decade ago.

That’s when The Amazing Spider-Man 2 lets you swing of course. There’s a mandatory reputation system in the game, to get you to do the random tasks scattered around the city; rescue people form a fire, catch a stolen car, etc… But neglect these things and your level drops, with the police and task force harassing you when all you want to do is explore a bit. It doesn’t help that the tasks are mind-numbingly dull, but after each main mission the game seems to set your reputation at a predetermined level – aka low – so you exit a mission and immediately have to do some tasks or you can’t just do what you want. The missions are no better: linear slogs through confined areas, beating up everyone you can see.

And all of this is a shame because there is potential here. The devs have clearly been inspired by Rocksteady’s Batman games, and that is only a positive thing. Spider-Man has an attack, a counterattack and a web-shoot button, although most fights, including boss-battles, devolve into hammering square until everybody’s dead. But the way Spiderman flits between targets – basically at random due to atrocious aiming – is almost seamless, bouncing off one, sliding behind another. It’s almost good. It could have been.

Also borrowed from the Dark Knight are cavernous rooms full of baddies to pick off. In theory, Spider-Man 2 is almost more suited to this that the Bat: he can stick to walls rather than relying on gargoyles being the must have decor feature of the season. Sadly, these bits are let down by poor controls on anything other than the ground, a lack of aiming and a stealth button that only works within a few feet of the enemy, even if you’re perched directly above him.

Despite this glimmer though, there’s worse to come. Bugs are everywhere, Spider-Man clipping through himself, enemies that can see through walls, and enemies that – if you perform a finishing move on them – can go through walls. Texture pop in levels are dreadful, too, and at times you could mistake it for a PS2 game, and overall there’s a lack of polish. For a game setting you back £50 on a next-gen console, you’d expect more.

VERDICT: There is potential here. I don’t know if it was time, money or the will, but it could have been special. The combat isn’t far off decent, it’s just a shame that it’s tied to the rest of the package.

Let me put it to you this way. I actually stopped playing The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to do some other work. I’d play a mission, decide I couldn’t take any more and go do something else instead, just to get away from it. Quite frankly, that’s the opposite of what a game should be.

BAD. Ugly, lazy, and unpleasant, if we’ve scored a game so low then it has serious issues. A 3/10 game will suffer from a combination of uninspired, lacklustre design, unfixed bugs and poor presentation.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Etrian Odyssey games aren’t supposed to be about simple narratives, they’re meant to be about getting lost. Etrian Odyssey games are titles formed on the premise that human error can screw a player as much as game design, and that poking your way around a maze, ferreting out its secrets, and working out how to survive its trials with your rag tag group of stats is all the incentive you need to enjoy yourself.

I say all this because Etrian Odyssey Untold’s big “thing” is that it’s got a story mode. This is a remake of the original DS Etrian Odyssey title, yes, but it’s a complete overhaul. New systems, new visuals, new areas and a “proper” story. This is much less a re-make and more a complete re-imagining.

Etrian Odyssey games of the past have contained narratives, but they often happened around you rather than directly to you. You are an agent of progressing the world’s tale, and there is a cast of characters there that your guild chats to, but your mute force of custom faces is a personal creation that works under a personal banner, simply doing whatever is asked by the people dishing out the quests. The narrative that blossoms around your dungeon plundering is just icing on the maze-probing gameplay.

Because that’s where Etrian Odyssey’s focus lies, in the dungeons. As you plod around the mazes of any Etrian Odyssey title, Untold included, you have to make annotations on the touch screen. Walls here, healing zone there, trap in that corner. The mix of exploration and cartography is both unique and intoxicating; it’s unquestionably satisfying to slowly unearth a zone and leave your own information around as you discover secrets, and that gameplay, mixed with smart turn-based JRPG combat, has always been a far bigger concern for the Etrian Odyssey titles than the stories they tell.

So when I say that Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl has a “proper” story, what I mean is that your party is a group of pre-determined characters who have revelations and are generally intertwined with all that’s happening around you. There’s still your silent protagonist, in this case a “highlander” that you name yourself, but the other members of your party are named and voice-acted personalities, including a beer-swigging defender and an amnesiac girl with a gun. It’s more like a traditional JRPG in that respect.

The characters and associated plot are perfectly enjoyable, if not groundbreaking, and as an experimentation in traditional JRPG storytelling within the Etrian Odyssey gameplay foundations, Untold is wholly successful, and this will certainly be the necessary hook to encourage some previously wary onlookers to finally pluck up the courage and delve into franchise.

Of course, you can always play Etrian Odyssey Untold in the classic way, with a personal troupe of vagabonds, and this “classic” mode will cut out the extra cutscenes and personal plot stuff, leaving you with the fat-free Etrian Odyssey feel that fans are used to. In fact you can carry save data from Story mode over to Classic post completion, and doing so will unlock some extra toys to play with. There’s certainly an incentive to try the game in both forms. Combine this with a few different difficulty options, and you’ve got an Etrian Odyssey that tries, and succeeds, to appeal to a rather large JRPG demographic.

That’s not to say that the game is the perfect compromise, however. Coming off the back of last year’s Etrian Odyssey IV: Legend of the Titans, Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl can occasionally feel somewhat lacking in its sense of scale. This is a remake, though, so you’ll almost feel obliged to let it off for the sudden reduction in scope, but it can be slightly jarring nonetheless.

Etrian Odyssey Untold is all about delving into one huge dungeon, and exploring a new side dungeon, like some JRPG Diablo, whereas Etrian Odyssey IV was a sprawling world in which you flew an airship, encountered great dragons, conquered huge individual dungeons, and were finding side dungeons with unique gimmicks all the time. It’s a different overall feel and while the game isn’t really worse for it, it does feel smaller. The combat is still as smart, and the art and music are still gorgeous, but it all feels a bit more reserved.

This isn’t helped by a few new assists that speed the gameplay up, but reduce the danger. Being able to run in dungeons is a fine new feature, and very welcome, but the floor skip is more contentious. Map the majority of a floor and you’ll be able to instantly warp to the entrance or exit of a floor with a tap on the touch screen, avoiding all danger. This does dull the fear of spelunking somewhat, considering the point at which you’re safe comes much sooner. That said, it also helps alleviate some of the cruelty of the Etrian Odyssey template, and makes resource trips to and from the city much less of a grind. My ultimate opinion? It ultimately dulls the beast’s fangs somewhat and, overall, I found this to be a misjudged concession to the series’ unique design. It might help more people get into the title, mind…

And that’s his game’s ultimate success: it’s a great introduction to the series. Even with these “lacking” facets, Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl is still a unique and compelling dungeon crawl. Many improvements are actually most welcome, such as your character’s making noises as you pass an interesting spot in the dungeon, or the new Grimoire stones that allow you to augment character classes to use moves outside their remit. Despite the reigning-in of the game’s overall scale there’s still a huge amount to enjoy in Untold, and it’s still got some of the smartest turn-based combat on any system.

VERDICT: Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl is a welcome experiment within the series’ unique framework of JRPG combat, dungeon skulduggery and careful cartography. The new Story Mode and reduction in scale may confuse long-term fans but are exactly what the series needs to attract new blood, and even with these new attractions the classic mode and rock solid core gameplay will be enough to keep old hands happy. Is Etrian Odyssey Untold a better game than Etrian Odyssey IV: Legend of the Titans? No, but it’s a far better introduction to the peculiar designs of this superb cult series.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

You might not know this little GIAG fact, but probably the first “name” title I ever looked at for the site was the glorious fabric-woven Kirby’s Epic Yarn for the Wii. God knows how many moons later and here I am again with the splendidly monikered Triple Deluxe – a game that sounds remarkably like a delicious hamburger. Rather than clogging your arteries and dripping with oozing grease, the latest outing for the cutesy, transmorphing pink fella is a healthy treat for the soul and the senses, that perks you right up from the moment you start playing. It may lack the supreme gimmickry that set Epic Yarn apart from all other adventures in and around Dream Land, but it’s certainly worthy of your hard-earned cash.

HAL Laboratory guide you in beautifully with a charming introductory sequence that explains what is going down to spark off the latest shenanigans in Dream Land. This time out, young Kirby is woken from his slumber to find that his home and everything around it – including the castle of his arch-nemesis King Dedede – has been hoisted up into the ether by an enormous beanstalk. We find out soon enough that this is the work of a crazed insectoid creature called Daranza – who sounds like a Brazilian centre forward but is in fact hell-bent on messing Dream Land up left, right and centre – and that includes taking former badass number one Dedede hostage. Of course, it is up to the puffball with attitude to inhale things right again – and your job to guide our hero on a mission to restore order to Dream Land.

You do this by usual Kirby means – jumping, floating and sucking things up to absorb their abilities – on a gorgeous 2.5D platforming plane. There is a crazy amount of abilities to be absorbed this time out – including old favourites like fire, swords, speeding wheel and cracking whips – as well as some ace new ones like the Rhinoceros Beetle and the unusual yet effective Bell, which allows you to weild two bells as weapons that can beat enemies upside their head, shield the puff ball from attacks or generate sound waves that stun baddies.

New to the Kirby-verse is the ability to enter Supernova form, wherein Kirby can inhale huge objects and chunks of scenery, which are usually incorporated into basic yet fun push ‘n’ pull puzzles. At times you can jump in and out of the screen between two planes, even shooting cannon balls from the foreground into the distance to clear objects and destroy enemies. It works brilliantly with the stereoscopic 3D element. I particularly liked seeing a huge gloved hand on a spring squish Kirby into the screen, but that doesn’t make me a bad person.

Like any platformer worth its salt, Triple Deluxe (man, I could go for a burger right about now) has a number of collectibles. Each stage has three stars to find, some of which can be quite tricky to locate. Each sequence of stages is rounded off by a boss battle, with some unique and genuinely fun encounters to be had. There are also a shedload of collectible keychains, fashioned after objects and characters from Kirby games past and present. It is a genuine thrill when you find hidden keychains, particularly as they are rendered graphically in the same style as their source. You can also purchase one of the 250+ chains using Play Coins or pick them up using StreetPass, so make sure you start taking your 3DS out and about with you to build these up regularly.

Longevity is also found in the remarkably generous additional content. King Dedede’s Drum Dash is a reasonable rhythm-action based platform minigame which provides a welcome break from the normal Kirby fun. But Kirby Fighters is the champagne inclusion, a pared-down version of Super Smash Brothers in which you can select and assign a Kirby with a specific ability and then enter into SSB-style brawls on stages based on classic Kirby levels from ages past. Supporting download play and four-player scraps, Kirby Fighters is a ridiculously generous minigame that could have quite easily been flogged on its own as an eShop download. Throw an additional Arena boss rush mode on top, and you will be spending many hours with ol’ Kirby, once you have iced the 4-5 hours it should take you to defeat Daranza once and for all.

VERDICT: Triple Deluxe is a solid platformer bookended by some great extras, even if it is pretty easy, give or take a couple of tricky boss encounters. It lacks the sense of wonderment that Epic Yarn generated with its incredible use of texture, humour and verve, yet is still well worth a look -and is perhaps the finest handheld outing for the cerise sucker. Another understated triumph for Nintendo, then.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Kirby: Triple Deluxe Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

A great Mario sports title is one that crafts a solid foundation in the advertised sport before plastering Nintendo’s world of plumbers, princesses, apes and reptiles over the top. Like ketchup to a plate of chips, Mario and buddies should be there to embellish the fun; you should be able to imagine it being perfectly serviceable without the extra, but all the better for it. A bad Mario sports title is one that seems to use the ‘tache and company to justify itself, trying to hide lacklustre gameplay behind their raw star power. That situation is like ketchup to a plate of burnt chips: even the wonders of pulped fruit can’t redeem the bad taste.

The 3DS now plays host to one title from each category. Mario Golf World Tour belongs, thankfully, to the former.

One note before this review goes any further, mind: Mario Golf World Tour does not include a true RPG mode. There is a golf clubhouse to toddle around as your Mii, with a few nice secrets and bits of dialogue to find, but this is little more than a glorified menu. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but those expecting to take their Mii on a life-affirming Golf-based adventure, akin to previous handheld Mario Sport offerings, should know that Mario Golf World Tour will leave that itch un-scratched.

There is a stat-altering meta-game to Mario Golf World Tour but, much like its “predecessor” Mario Tennis Open, all of the number tweaking is done through unlockable attire and tools rather than traditional levelling up. But before you start pulling grumpy faces it’s worth pointing out that ability tweaking here is stronger than in the Tennis title. Even if you suit up with one of the unlockable character kits there are still four other items (club set, ball, under shirt and under trousers) that you can change to tweak every element of your swing, leading to a game with much stronger customisation, even if it’s not handled in the traditional manner.

The real triumph of Mario Golf World Tour comes from just how good its ball thumping game is. Anyone who has played prior Camelot-developed Mario Golf titles, or other games of this ilk such as Everybody’s Golf, will likely refer to them with that predictable phrase – easy to learn, difficult to master – but it’s absolutely true. Anyone can enjoy Mario Golf World Tour, but there’s more than enough meat here to make the learning curve from novice to master an enjoyable and rewarding one.

Lay of the land, type of land, wind direction, wind speed, shot curve, where to hit the ball, how hard you should hit the ball, which club you should use to hit the ball, whether or not now is a good time to spend a power shot – Mario Golf World Tour gives you a list of things you need to consider with every shot, and that’s before you even begin worrying about timing the button presses to actually hit the dang ball.

Mario Golf World Tour does a fairly good job of suggesting a shot straight away, but you’ll never pull off a hole in one if you blindly follow its “recommendations”. There’s a methodical, mathematical precision to each and every swing of the club in Mario Golf World Tour which helps make every shot something truly satisfying, or something painfully devastating should a brave punt turn sour through a slight miscalculation.

Of course, it’s worth reminding you that all of this is presented with the friendly, cushioned veneer of Mario, making it easily approachable. In fact I consider some of the individual character animations in Mario Golf World Tour to be quite inspired. Having Bowser slobber on the screen after a solid shot is a 3D-justifying moment if I’ve ever seen one, and DK’s putting motions are comedic gold. But it’s the fact that under that PEGI 3 approved rainbow of colour is a golf game that is exactly as deep and rewarding as it needs to be.

It’s a good thing hitting the ball is such considered fun, really, because you’ll be doing an awful lot of it. There are plenty of courses. Three 18-hole “traditional” courses are joined by six 9-hole Mario themed offerings, all of which add “zany” elements and items that thankfully embellish play rather than pervert it. Items, such as fire flowers and bullet bills, work purely to help your next shot, and their implementation feeds into the logic of golf surprisingly well. As, too, does nailing a tricky shot into a Donkey Kong Rocket Barrel.

There are over 100 individual greens for you to play, and that’s before factoring in the “one on and one in” challenge holes, or even the putting, driving and approach mini-games. Oh, and then there’s the fact that each course has ten “star coin” challenges, too (for a total of 90) that ask you to do odd things like collecting out-of-the-way star coins, shooting the ball through score rings, ignoring the green altogether to hoover up hundred of coins, or forgoing stroke counts for a focus on time (it’s surprising how pressured golf can feel under the glare of a stop watch).

Then there’s the list of unlockable costume parts and character sets, some of which make up an achievement-like checklist, and the promise of on-going online tournaments to sustain the game post-release (which includes stipulation situations such as specific character events, or ‘near pin’ and ‘driving’ tournaments) alongside an online structure that supports friend communities (akin to Mario Kart 7) for ongoing competition. Even without access to the online portion of the game it was easy enough to break the 20 hour mark with oodles of content left to unlock. It terrifies me to think how much more time will be lost to the fairways once I have access to online multiplayer, local multiplayer, and StreetPass features.

Honestly, if considered ball bothering is your idea of fun then Mario Golf World Tour is bursting with content that’ll keep you amused into the tens of tens of hours. Even if golf isn’t so much your thing, but you still like the look of the cute exterior, then you should give it a go. The satisfaction of evaluating a situation and then successfully chipping a ball into the hole from half way down the fairway is incomparably satisfying.

VERDICT: Mario Golf World Tour offers a methodical 3DS sports title that fills a niche on the console more than adequately, and it would have been a compelling and satisfying golf game regardless of whether it built courses in the Mushroom Kingdom or not. One of the best plates of chips I’ve had in a while, regardless of the ketchup.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by by publisher.

The post Mario Golf: World Tour Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Given the success of LEGO: The Lord of the Rings and the continued appeal of the ongoing Hobbit trilogy, it was only a matter of time before worlds merged once more and gamers were treated to another foray into the block-built version of Tolkien’s fantasy universe.

It sounds trite to say it, but if you’ve ever played a LEGO game, you’ll know exactly what to expect. Returning to the world of Peter Jackson’s epic adaptations is a welcome move, but the gameplay mechanics are still sorely in need of a revamp. Following along with the events of the first two Hobbit movies delivers the same familiar sense of not-quite-nostalgia as we’ve come to expect from the series, but unfortunately unfinished source material means an unfinished story, something that only compounds the feeling of disappointment that pervades the experience.

Still, it’s not all bad. Far from it, in fact. This is a LEGO game after all, and remains as playable as any that came before it. The story mode sees you guiding Bilbo, Gandalf, and the Company of Dwarves on their quest to rid Erebor of the dragon, Smaug, passing through by-now familiar locations such as Bree, Rivendell, and the eponymous subterranean city itself. While the story dictates which characters you control at which point, returning in free play mode allows you to switch between the 100+ characters at will to use their abilities to reach tricky collectibles.

The world of Middle-earth, while oddly comforting, makes for a less focused hub than LEGO: Marvel Superheroes‘ New York City. Even with the fast travel, it’s a little too sprawling and the added graphical density of the next-gen versions makes finding your way around a bit of a chore in certain areas where the environments are simply too busy. It’s also worth pointing out that TT have had to dig deep to fill the character roster this time around. Besides big names like Legolas, Gandalf and Saruman, it can be hard to tell the figures apart – especially among the thirteen dwarves – and you rarely get the same level of unexplainable joy controlling, say, the fat ginger one, as you did slipping into Aragorn’s well-worn leathers.

As with all LEGO games, The Hobbit is a series of straightforward puzzles interspersed with button-mashing combat and light platforming. Picking the right character for each element of a given puzzle accounts for 80% of the challenge, which at least is made a little trickier because each of the main story characters has a unique ability. One of them can mine, for example, while another can use his sling to activate switches. Gandalf is the only one who can go into dark places (the dwarves rather amusingly run out of the shadows screaming), and Legolas is nimble enough to swing on embedded arrows.

Charmingly, you can use certain areas as foundations for a “dwarf stack”, which is exactly as the name suggests. You stack two or three dwarves atop one another, and allow a different character to climb up them. The Master Builder minigame also returns from The LEGO Movie Video Game, whereby you choose the missing parts of a large build from a selection wheel, with the aim of creating an environmental feature like a lift or a giant key.

Occasional set-pieces are enough to amuse rather than excite. Climbing the Stone Giants as they pelt one another amidst a raging thunderstorm, or out-running a pack of warg-riders as Radagast the Brown are among favourites – or there are always the floating barrels for fans of the second movie. Ultimately, though, this is a very simple game aimed at younger gamers – even the humour seems angled more towards the under-tens this time. Without the appeal of a universe like Marvel’s or the novelty of an original storyline, there’s little beyond the gentle comedy to truly capture anyone’s imagination.

But despite the negatives, the only real issue that holds The Hobbit back is that it is a LEGO game – a double-edged classification at best. The franchise barely changes more than its clothes from one iteration to the next, and the joke started to wear thin several adaptations ago. The mass appeal and wealth of characters found in source material like Star Wars, DC or Marvel can’t be matched by the comparatively small cast and plot of The Hobbit, and it’s becoming a little disheartening to see TT churn out similar mechanics with different skins so quickly.

VERDICT: LEGO: The Hobbit is not a bad game. It’s not even a bad LEGO game. In fact, it’s one of the stronger entries to bear the name for quite a while. It looks great, the gameplay has enough variety to remain interesting and the sampled movie dialogue (and that mesmerising score) add an air of gravitas to the whole shebang. But, it is still just another LEGO game and, as such, does little to make it stand out from its ever-increasing crowd of peers.

Although a decent jaunt for fans of either franchise, this is an example of a game created purely because the developers had the means to create it. This franchise is no longer essential, and there is serious work to be done if TT want their over-fed baby to remain fresh and current, and not merely soullessly lucrative. An enjoyable romp in of itself then, but by this point no one but kids and fans need really apply.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post LEGO The Hobbit Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Football management is a strange beast. Not only do you have to manage your players, give them training regimes and devise game-winning tactics, but you also have to find and bring new players into your team and then, after all that, you have to win silverware. To say it’s not an easy task is a massive understatement. Nintendo Pocket Football Club aims to simplify management into the main key areas, and it does it very well.

Mind games with other teams or youth squad scouting are nowhere to be seen in NPFC; instead, the core areas of management are your only options. Training, signing and playing is what the core of the game involves, with occasional trips to the Federation Building to check on upcoming fixtures or you managerial career record.

Training takes place in the aptly named Training Camp, located in the north east of your footballing town. Take a visit there and you can edit your team’s starting line-up along with set-piece-takers and default tactics, or you can watch replays of saved matches and goals. However, the main reason to visit the camp is to improve your players with Training Cards, which are gathered by playing matches.

These cards come in many different forms, ranging from shooting, dribbling and passing through to weight-training, sprinting and even gaming. Each player can use up to three cards per week to improve their stats. The more experienced managers will quickly learn that combining certain cards will result in special training options that will improve stats even more. Some combinations are obvious and make sense, whereas other will leave you scratching your head searching for the link. Discovering a combination is not only extremely helpful in regards to player development, but is also very satisfying, making you feel like a real manager who just came up with a killer training session.

When you first join your team, which you can name and design kits for, you will be given a group of players who will need a lot of work in order to climb to the higher leagues (although for the first season they will serve you well). Should you feel that your team needs more depth (which it most certainly will once you gain promotion) or one more killer player then you can head to the office building to sign new talent. You are given a very reasonable budget in order to enhance your team, which makes bringing squad numbers up quite easy, although some players will be just out of financial reach.

Combining training and signing new players is the real key to success, tactics play a very small part in each individual match but generally the team with the better players will come out on top. Once you get a solid team you are happy with, signing players becomes almost irrelevant, as training up your team will be just effective.

Obviously, the most important location in your small town is the stadium. Mandatory league and cup matches occur almost every week, but if you find a free Saturday you can arrange practice or friendly matches in order to gain more training cards and give the fans something to watch.

Somewhat annoyingly you are forced to watch every single game, each of which last about 8 minutes, and there is no option to speed it up. At first each game has an air of excitement when watching, but soon having to sit through often boring matches becomes tiresome. The pixelated art style combined with incredibly cute animations makes the viewing a little more entertaining, but often the quality of the football will counteract this.

When in the lower leagues the long-ball style of play, which is horrible to watch, is the only thing players appear to know. Although not eradicated entirely in higher leagues it does get better and therefore more entertaining, but getting to that stage will mean watching a lot of awful football.

The on-the-pitch action certainly isn’t enjoyable and quickly becomes more of a chore. Unless a player is injured or fatigued (which isn’t often) there is little need to make substitutions unless you want to change tactics, which doesn’t seem to do a lot. You can set the main zone of play, select a player to mark and choose whether to go on all-out attack of wait for opportunities, which all seem to be ignored for the most part, except for zones which the players stick to religiously (and stupidly) at times.

VERDICT: Building and training a team in Nintendo Pocket Football Club is a blast, and seeing players develop and climbing up the leagues is insanely satisfying. The use of training cards and their combinations is a great idea that is implemented in a simple way but still makes you feel like a masterful coach. Where the game falls down is on the pitch itself. Being forced to watch 8-minute games not only feels like a waste of time but also becomes incredibly boring after the first season or so. A simple option to sim a match or even speed up the play would fix this issue, but alas it is not to be.

With four leagues and three cup competitions to win there is a lot of playtime on offer and most of it will be enjoyable, providing you can put up with watching every single game your team ever plays.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher. Both local and online multiplayer will be featured on release, however this was unavailable to test at the time of review.

The post Nintendo Pocket Football Club Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Firing up Tappingo for the first time, you cannot help but think about Picross, Nintendo’s puzzle series appropriated from the popular nonogram logic puzzles popularized in 1980’s Japan. It involves “colouring in” pixel art compositions by extending coloured blocks in accordance to the numeric value on each one.

Unlike its obvious inspiration, Tappingo will tell you when you are doing things right or wrong. Correctly stretching a “6” block horizontally along six empty spaces on the puzzle will result in the “6” changing to a satisfying “OK”. The game changer comes from the fact that once you drag a pixel-block in a particular direction, it will extend until it reaches another solid pixel, or the outer edge of the lower 3DS screen where the action takes place. Although the top of the clamshell shows you the progress of your little pixel-art masterpiece, it is seldom referred to in completing the puzzles. The drawing is governed by closely planning your moves, thus ensuring that each block reaches the correct length, with the top screen only informing you of what you’re constructing.

Things start out small, with a tutorial level asking you to fill in a pixelated love heart (aww). Once this stage is out of the way, you have carte blanche to take on any of the 100 levels Tappingo has to offer. As you may imagine, things get suitably tricky with the difficulty spiking quite significantly after about the fifth stage. The further you progress, the larger the pictures; the longer you play, the more apparent the the subtle flaws become. Firstly, the gameplay is hamstrung by its lack of any possible variety other than in the complexity of the artwork. Your movement is restricted to the four cardinal directions, and at any particular stage all your brain is really forced to work out is which direction a pixel needs to be aimed in, and how you are going to halt its trajectory to satisfy the strict numeric value required.

The other problem that threatens to derail what is otherwise an inoffensive puzzling experience is the screen layout. Annoyingly, there is no option to zoom in and out on the lower screen. When you are working on something small, like a padlock, or a clownfish, that is fine, but as soon as the puzzle pics start filling the entire screen – like a particularly frustrating octopus – the game zooms out of its own accord, shrinking the pixels down to a miniscule size. The controls are already fairly awkward when using the stylus, and you will find yourself accidentally touching the wrong block time and time again. This wouldn’t be an issue if there was an “UNDO” option, however the lack of such a function means that touching the incorrect pixel will retract the line, and potentially set off a chain reaction with any other connected moves you have made, thus knackering your progress and forcing a restart of the entire level. The diminutive pixels when the action is zoomed out make these mistakes even more likely.

As everything is unlocked from the jump off, there is very little in the way of reply value. Levels are against the clock, yet there are no incentives for finishing in super-quick time. Sure, you could challenge your own personal best – but how badly do you really see yourself wanting to shave milliseconds off that pixel-art watermelon slice? It is also begging for some kind of level editor or creative function. How fun would it be to draw your own mini-masterpieces, and then challenge your friends and family to fill in the blanks?

VERDICT: You can’t knock the simple charm of Tappingo too much – it is still a cheerful and breezy little number, and some of the pictures will genuinely make you smile (one of them depicts a much-loved Ninty console of yore). Just don’t expect oodles of options, and be prepared for the controls to cause you some degree of annoyance.

DECENT. A 6/10 indicates that, while this game could be much better, it still has a fair amount to offer the player. It might be an interesting title sabotaged by its own ambition, or a game denied greater praise by some questionable design choices. Don’t avoid it outright, but approach it with caution.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Tappingo Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Professor Layton Vs. Phoenix Wright is a combination that you would expect to work, and it does. Sort of. But it’s still a very mixed bag.

Starting off, the story serves to gel the two series together sensibly. There’re no magic portals between universes (I’m looking at you Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe), and instead we’re shown the two characters in London, just missing each other while on the same case. I won’t spoil anything, but their paths finally cross once they find themselves in the mystery town of Labyrinthia, whose fate is dictated by the Storyteller. There, they must defend a girl accused of being not only a witch, but the Great Witch. Those capitals make all the difference.

Moving to a magical location new to both series helps connect the characters, as both are put on the back foot: Layton challenged by the introduction of magic that combats his logic, and Phoenix having to work with a law system he doesn’t know. It adds up to make their teamwork and more necessary and believable. The overarching story is to save the girl, but along the way the narrative throws up some surprising twists that are genuinely unexpected. To sort the mess, you end up unravelling the mystery of Labyrinthia, and in all it’s pretty original.

The crossover isn’t just an excuse to have both puzzles and the trial aspect in one game, either. Evidence found by Layton and Luke can be crucial in court, with the Professor and his apprentice gentleman even interjecting in the courtroom to help Phoenix. Likewise you’ll spend time exploring the town as Phoenix and his assistant Maya, solving puzzles and finding clues.

The gameplay itself is what you would expect. The Professor sections have inventive puzzles, which contextually make sense with what’s going on at the time; a door will lead to a lock and key puzzle for example. There’s a nice variety to them as well, only a handful of times is a puzzle repeated out of the 60+ on offer. But while they’re all entertaining, they rarely challenge, and there’s often no punishment for getting them wrong. The hint system, making the jump from previous titles, throws this into sharp relief; at no point did I have to use more than one coin on a puzzle. It’s almost as if the developers were scared of making it too difficult, giving you more coins than you’ll use right from the start, on top of the two or three that litter every point and click section.

The flip side of the gameplay is the courtroom sections. I’d never played a Phoenix Wright game before now, but I easily enjoyed the trails more than anything else. You hear a testimony, then cross examine the witness, picking holes in their argument either through evidence or other testimonies. When it all aligns – finding the contradictions in a witness testimony, using evidence to clear your client’s name – you feel as though you’re flying.

It’s the “when it all aligns”, bit that’s the problem, though. While at their best the courtroom sections can feel slick as oil, at other times they can feel like a slog. Tapping through each witness testimony, then pressing each one and roaming through that dialogue, all the while trying to find the right moment to present evidence is just not that much fun. One later trial has you questioning ten witnesses at once. Each can be pressed and within that they can be cross-questioned from their reactions to each others’ testimonies. Sounds confusing? It is, and it smothers logical thinking, instead wading through textboxes to find the one statement that contradicts another.

Presenting the right evidence at the right time can be equally challenging, as sometimes the game will expect a leap of logic that just isn’t there, requiring the use of a hint coin to provide a clue. Other times you’ll reach the conclusion before you’re meant to; once I tried presenting evidence too early and received a penalty. Instead I had to move one frame further and present then. It takes the shine off an otherwise great system.

The crossing of series would also make the tutorial system a little more natural, with the Professor being new to a courtroom atmosphere for example, were it not for the fact you are taught how to play each side of the game separately back in London before the characters meet. This wouldn’t be so bad – Phoenix’s cluelessness is explained by it being an English court, the puzzles by it being Luke rather than Layton solving them – but the game decides to painstakingly explain how to play it again once you get to Labyrinthia, under the guise of explaining to the characters. While it is useful for some techniques (multiple witness questioning for Phoenix for example), it kills the pacing, with drawn out, un-skippable descriptions stopping it dead.

Pacing is the biggest issue for Professor Layton Vs Phoenix Wright. While story is essential for this kind of game, at times it feels like you’re clicking through textboxes for ages. This is coupled with the point and click sections that amount to scrolling over the screen for a few seconds until the icon changes. It all starts to feel monotonous. It’s a shame as well that chasing the story leads to this, because not only is it well written, but the occasional cutscenes thrown in are downright gorgeous, and the voice acting that accompanies certain climatic moments is superb.

The art style is great throughout, in fact. The two series bring their own styles with them, most of the game taking Phoenix Wright’s lead with its more traditional manga roots. It means that Layton and Luke stand out to start with, but you soon get used to it. The animation brings the world alive, witnesses breaking down under questioning or the opposing lawyer getting riled up all add a bit of character to the text. Professor Layton Vs. Phoenix Wright is value for money too. It would be fair to expect a regular length title, half-Layton, half-Wright, but in reality it is more like two full length games, one from each series.

VERDICT: Fittingly, the combination of the two series is a logical one. You use puzzles to find evidence to support a case, and it all makes sense, which is vital for this kind of crossover. Similarly, creating a new setting blends the world together better than making only one of them a fish out of water. But while the crossover may make sense, neither the Layton or the Wright sections are perfect. It’s all a bit too “entry level” on both counts.

This would be forgivable if the story was engaging enough to drive things, but it tends to devolve into a slog from one puzzle to the next, with the occasional trial in-between to brighten it up. It’s worth a go if you’re a fan of either series, and you won’t be disappointed by the story – just be prepared to invest plenty of time to see it through.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

A large number of Nintendo 3DS owners will be too young to have watched The Mysterious Cities Of Gold in its original incarnation. A French-Japanese joint production, the series ran in the early 1980s and came to an end in 1983. Of course, repeat showings kept it relevant for much of that decade, but since then it has been largely forgotten. That was until a new version of the television series was launched last year, and has actually remained pretty true to the heart of the original. As could be expected, there is a tie-in video game.

The game follows the plot of Season Two of the re-launched cartoon pretty closely. Esteban, Zia and Tao (who all featured in the first run of the show) are searching the globe for the lost Cities of Gold, using the sun Medallion Esteban possesses as one of the Children of the Sun. We follow the group as they begin their search in China, and the game includes six worlds each made up of several smaller stages. The levels are punctuated by short cutscenes that make use of actual animated scenes from the series.

Whilst these are nice to look at and tie the game into the series well, they are all very short and their excerpt nature makes the plot quite hard to follow – not that it’s particularly thrilling anyway. Strangely, although these cutscenes are great quality, and the general in-game art and animation are also strong, Secret Paths makes no use of 3D at all. This is probably more down to the multi-format nature of the game, but it seems strange that no attempt was made to integrate the technology.

The gameplay is puzzle-based, and makes use of the three main protagonists to present players with a series of co-operative brain-teasers. You can hot-switch between the three at will, and need to pick the right character and skills for each situation. For example, Zia can fit through smaller gaps as she is slim, Tao can translate ancient tablets for clues or use his pet Parrot Kokapetl to fetch objects, and Esteban can use his Sun Medallion to activate certain switches that the others cannot.

Unfortunately, even though there are quite a few levels to play through, the conundrums are derivative and all amount to two or three basic puzzles dressed up slightly differently. Once you get the hang of it, they are all pretty repetitive and won’t cause you much trouble. Each stage has a selection of optional objectives in an attempt to add more of a challenge. These include a time goal, a number of scrolls to collect (some of which are colour-coded and can only be collected by a specific hero), and a capture count.

As part of the puzzling, there are also stealth sections where our protagonists must sneak past dangerous pirates. This is pretty easy as they move in defined patterns and can only see directly in front of themselves, and because if you get spotted for a moment you’re allowed a few seconds to hide quickly, after which the pirates luckily seem to forget you were ever there. The only penalty for getting caught is a strike against your counter – which only effects your end-of-level score – so this takes away from the challenge a little. That said, if you repeatedly get caught, then completing the level in the target time and collecting all scrolls becomes increasingly harder.

You can choose how to take control of things, using either stylus controls, which offer a more tactile experience for pushing buttons and moving boulders, but can be slightly imprecise when moving characters (particularly in stealth sections), or using the circle pad. Each player will likely have their own preference, but both work well. Perhaps touch controls will appeal to younger players more – who can also choose to have hint dialogue boxes pop-up to provide help – and older ones may like the precise button control. Either way, the controls certainly support all kinds of players.

VERDICT: The Mysterious Cities of Gold: Secret Paths doesn’t fall into the usual trap of film and television adaptations, where it bears little or no relation to the source material. In fact, the storyline and adventuring themes of the cartoon are borne out through the gameplay pretty well. Whilst the title does sadly feel a bit too simple, Secret Paths possesses a lot of charm and tries to offer a range of challenges for all levels of skill. In the end it skews a little young overall, but that age group will also probably be more forgiving of the repetitive nature of the puzzles throughout the game.

DECENT. A 6/10 indicates that, while this game could be much better, it still has a fair amount to offer the player. It might be an interesting title sabotaged by its own ambition, or a game denied greater praise by some questionable design choices. Don’t avoid it outright, but approach it with caution.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post The Mysterious Cities of Gold: Secret Paths Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

There have been many Pokémon spinoffs over the years, but none deviate from the regular franchise more than Pokémon Link, a match three-puzzle game. The first game was entirely forgettable, but the series is back with a brand new battle mechanic that changes a great deal.

The core of the game itself hasn’t changed all that much, however, and you are still tasked with lining up three or more Pokémon on the 3DS’ bottom screen in order to make them disappear from the “Link Box” (the name given to the bottom screen). Matching up these Pokémon will add points to your score.

Pokémon can be dragged from anywhere in the Link Box and swapped with another Pokémon. Providing there are at least three of the same Pokémon on the screen a link can be made, but finding these links in a timely manner is the challenge. The gameplay is quite addictive to start with, and results in a great feeling of satisfaction, but after a while it becomes stale. The Pokémon you link may change but the interaction doesn’t, resulting in a lot of repetition.

Link Battle! differs from the original mainly because of the Pokémon battles that occur on the top screen. When you manage to link up three or more Pokémon the linked ones will start an attack on the wild ones you are currently battling. If you manage to link more Pokémon in quick succession, the damage multiplier on the attack will increase.

Each area sees you fighting multiple Pokémon in a row, sometimes facing multiple enemies at the same time. Fortunately, linking 5 or more Pokémon will result in a scatter attack that will hit every enemy on the screen. This is where the strategy element starts to creep in: when fighting multiple enemies it is key to use scatter attacks in order to dispose of the wild Pokémon as quickly as possible; going one by one will not only take up time but will make you take a lot more damage.

Another strategic element is using a Pokémon’s weakness against it. As any seasoned trainer will know, water type Pokémon are especially effective against fire types, and fire types are especially effective against grass. By making sure to link a Pokémon who is strong against an enemy first you can guarantee your attack will be super effective and will deal a lot of damage. Often linking a Pokémon you know is weak against the enemy is a bad move, as in the time you take to do minimal damage the enemy will hit you hard.

Fortunately you can chose support Pokémon to accompany you on each stage. These Pokémon can be chosen from those that you have previously defeated in battle and will pop up with the other, area specific, Pokémon in the Link Box. Choosing the right support Pokémon is important – for example, taking a Charmander to fight a Squirtle is never going to work, but taking a Bulbasaur will give you a massive tactical advantage. The addition of support Pokémon certainly makes the game more interesting, as finding the right combination of supports to take into each zone provides a welcome challenge, one that Pokémon Masters will easily solve. For those new to the series, it’s a great way to educate them about the advantages and disadvantages of each Pokémon.

Sadly, even the best support Pokémon wont prepare you for the major difficulty spike around zone 7. Up until then, most battles aren’t particularly challenging and can be beaten providing you don’t mess up. The first level in zone 7 ramps up the difficulty and had me stumped and frustrated for quite some time – it was only after I equipped the perfect support Pokémon and got a bit of luck in the final battle that I beat it, hoping that it was a one off. But it wasn’t. Each level past the first in zone 7 is insanely difficult and feels unfair, which is the total opposite of all the previous levels that could do with a bit more challenge.

The overall meta game revolves around trying to defeat or link all 718 Pokémon, a challenge that will take some time. The safari zone will need to farmed daily to be able to complete this challenge, as new Pokémon are available every day. You will also have to have cleared every zone of every Pokémon, many of which have a random chance of appearing in each battle.

Visually, the Pokémon are quite cute and are instantly recognizable to anyone who has played a game in the series, although some do look very similar when you are rushing to link them together. Attacks have very basic animations, and unfortunately none really take advantage of the 3D effect on the top screen.

VERDICT: This is a fun game to play in the early stages but the difficulty spike around area 7 makes the game frustrating form thereon in. The gameplay is frantic but has key strategies that need to be applied and the support Pokémon add to that. The meta game of collecting all the Pokémon will surely keep many people playing for hours, but the difficulty spike will turn even more away.

Pokémon Link Battle! has a surprising amount of charm with the cute character sprites and animations, but while the gameplay is somewhat addictive to start with, it quickly becomes repetitive. Taken in tandem with the other issues, it makes Pokémon Link Battle difficult to recommend.

AVERAGE. The epitome of a 50/50 game, this title will be unspectacular but inoffensive, charmless but amiable. We aren’t condemning a game by scoring it a 5, but we certainly aren’t championing it, either.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Pokémon Link: Battle! Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

The problem with many Nintendo games is that they don’t lend themselves well to trailers. Take last year’s phenomenal Super Mario 3D World for example: screenshots and video footage made it look like a solid and attractive game, but neither successfully communicates the game’s astounding variety, or accurately showcases its masterfully honed gameplay. To the casual onlooker, the new Mario game looks like every other Mario, but there’s often much more innovation and depth in most Nintendo titles than their disarmingly cute aesthetics would suggest.

Sadly, with Yoshi’s New Island, what you see is pretty much what you get. Developed by unproven new studio Arzest under the supervision of series veteran Takashi Tezuka, this 3DS sequel opts for more of the same rather than reinvention, and picks up where the much lauded SNES classic left off – with you jumping and eating things.

After surviving the jarring aural assault of the intro music, and sitting through a slightly cringe-inducing cutscene involving a child-delivering stalk and baby versions of your favourite Italian plumbers, Yoshi is finally thrust into your capable hands. As you may have gathered from the stalk and the inclusion of a baby version of Mario, the overall aesthetic of New Island is aimed pretty squarely at children – and the difficulty level reflects this.

With accessibility being the name of the game (no, not literally), Yoshi’s New Island tasks you simply with making your way through to the end of each colourful level. While merely completing each level can often be a pretty easy and brief affair, it’s discovering each secret area and finding all the hidden collectables that provides the bulk of the challenge.

While jumping and bouncing your way through the levels, you will often encounter winged clouds emblazoned with question marks. As any Yoshi’s Island veteran will know, firing a half digested enemy at them provides you with a reward, ranging from a few dropped coins to a beanstalk leading to a secret area. Taking the time to collect every coin and sunflower, or to discover these secret paths is completely optional, but also one of the most enjoyable parts of Yoshi’s New Island. Aside from these clouds and secret areas, the levels consist of the usual moving platforms and Mario staple enemy (Shy Guys) and while there are a few gems later on, the level design here overall is pretty safe and unremarkable.

In order to keep the game accessible, your ability to withstand enemy damage is pretty generous in Yoshi’s New Island, as when you are hit, instead of dying, baby Mario slowly starts to float away from you. The stars you collect throughout each level equate to how much time you have left to reclaim the floating toddler, and its not until your counter hits zero that he is whisked away and you’ll lose a life. This means that as long as you take the time to track down the stars in each level, it’s pretty rare that you’ll die from contact with enemies.

If you mistime a jump, though, the game isn’t quite so generous. When you plummet to your death and lose a single life it can often be equivalent to an instant game over, as mid-level checkpoints seem to be randomly placed throughout the game – and are even absent entirely in some levels. This can result in massive frustration as you are forced to re-do the whole level after a death near its end. To counter this, after a certain number of deaths you are rewarded with a set of tanooki suit-esque wings, enabling you to fly higher than before – and then if you continue to fail, a set of golden wings. On some of the later levels, if you’re like me, the appearance of these patronizing wings will often make you feel like the game is mocking you, and will spur you on to beat the level with only your basic abilities. Take that, condescendingly helpful developers!

While the sporadic check points can occasionally be frustrating, overall this is still a relatively easy game. The amount of lives you receive is generous, and you’ll get through the majority of levels on your first or second try. During my twelve hour playthrough I didn’t see the game over screen once – which, with my less than pro platforming abilities, is somewhat surprising.

While Yoshi’s New Island doesn’t add a lot to the series, the two new additions it does bring provide most of the highlights. The ability to turn a giant 3D Shy Guy into a ridiculously oversized egg and destroy large parts of the environment is hugely satisfying. Singing Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” while doing so is purely optional, but definitely adds to the experience (you’re fired – Ed).

The other major new feature in Yoshi’s New Island is the inclusion of the gyro-sensor mini games. Every world will provide you with a new vehicle transformation for the little green dinosaur, ranging from planes to carts to bobsleds. These gyro levels are a fun little distraction, and are reminiscent of Donkey Kong’s Crash Course in NintendoLand. Their inclusion is a welcome one and, while simple, these enjoyable little sections help to add a bit of variety between the platforming levels of old.

VERDICT: Nintendo are famous for reinventing the wheel with their games, and throwing new ideas into old series that should have long become tired and repetitive but, sadly, Yoshi’s New Island just isn’t one of these titles. It’s enjoyable enough and has its own sense of atmosphere as well as a few unique ideas, but overall this actually feels like one of the decent but highly-iterative sequels that Nintendo is usually unfairly criticized for making. It is still fun, though, and while it may not innovate or be a classic, its joyous aesthetic and “pick up and play” nature make it at the very least a good choice for getting through the daily commute.

DECENT. A 6/10 indicates that, while this game could be much better, it still has a fair amount to offer the player. It might be an interesting title sabotaged by its own ambition, or a game denied greater praise by some questionable design choices. Don’t avoid it outright, but approach it with caution.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Yoshi’s New Island Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Castlevania used to be a hugely important franchise for Nintendo’s handhelds. Post Symphony of the Night, the 2D ‘Metroid-vania’ designs made frequent appearances on the GBA and DS, with a new instalment lurching to life every few years. However, since the Lords of Shadow reboot, and Koji Igarashi’s extended vacation from the franchise, Castlevania has only paid one visit to a Nintendo handheld in the form of the mostly disappointing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate.

Clearly someone at Corecell Technology saw this wrong and wanted to make it right, and Aeterno Blade is their, admittedly somewhat thrifty, attempt.

AeternoBlade’s narrative is pure shlock. You take the role of Freyja, a character who has sworn vengeance against Beladaim, a huge, cloak-wearing, fireball-throwing demon who has destroyed her home. You begin the game viewing Freyja’s death, and every level is pitched to you with a message telling you how many days are left before Freyja cops it. It’s not a whole lot of framing, but it works.

When you first take control of Freyja, impressions aren’t too good. A single, lacking jump is accompanied by very basic attack strings, and with no sort of defence or dodge available the whole thing lacks oomph or pizazz. The Castlevania comparisons rear their head instantly, mainly through the artstyle, but when you begin AeternoBlade the gameplay won’t give you much enthusiasm to carry on.

Within a short while, mind, you’ll begin to invest yellow orbs (obtained from killing enemies) into upgrades and new skills. Among these skills is a dodge for your L button (very ‘vania) and a host of extra attacks for your combo that will give the combat a lot more flow and verticality. In truth, the game shouldn’t make the dodge an unlock considering how much of an essential technique it is. It’s like offering you an Ice Cream and asking if you want a flake. Of course I want a blummin’ flake, otherwise it’s just bland old vanilla! But with flake (dodge) in ice cream (hand), it becomes a far more palatable offering.

Customisation also includes relics. You can find lots of these from slaying enemies, and you can then equip a certain amount to apply buffs to your stats. Furthermore the levels contain power-up relics that can be assigned to further improve the main relics. All of these things are hidden around the levels, and you’ll need to backtrack and solve the more complicated puzzles to find them. These buffs are not only meaningful, but fun to track down.

So there’s running, hacking, slashing, and a few RPG levelling-up mechanics. So far, so ‘vania. There’s also a lot of platforming, too, and it’s here that the game’s unique time manipulation elements come to the fore. The first key ability you find allows you to reverse the world around you while you retain full control, while the second is a teleport rune – leave it somewhere and you can zip back instantly with a button tap.

The teleportation admittedly gets a far richer workout than the rewind, but both have their place, particularly in exploration and boss fights. The rewind, for instance, can be used to exploit the vulnerable animation loops of larger foes, while some boss attacks require forward planned teleportation to avoid. These techniques are governed by a mana meter, however, which means you can’t abuse them.

While we’re on the subject of bosses, though, let’s talk about the big boys. Often a highlight of this sort of action adventure, the bosses in AeternoBlade are a mixed bag. Design wise the majority of them are a muddy mess – true for much of AeternoBlade’s low-budget presentation – but some of their attack patterns are just simply obnoxious. It’s normally a case of indistinct tells, or poor animation clarity, but it’s a shame to admit that most of AeternoBlade’s bosses are hard to fight not because they demand skill, but because they’re frustratingly designed.

The janky presentation, too, is a frequent issue. Putting aside a few key areas, in particular the final level, the stages in AeternoBlade aren’t too remarkable. Screens and screens of unavoidable enemy encounters abound, making AeternoBlade’s puzzle-focused diversions and more platform-intensive sections a welcome change of pace. Oh and, another note for the Castlevania fans, a few of the platforming areas certainly give clocktower vibes…

AeternoBlade is certainly a worthy diversion. It’s a chunky adventure, clocking in somewhere around 8-10 hours with a smidgen of backtracking, or closer to the 15-20 hour mark if you want to uncover everything. It’s a game that does quite a lot quite well, so it’s worth digging past the wiggly sword animations and lacklustre boss designs to find it.

VERDICT: Aeterno Blade is Castlevania on a budget. Messy visuals, whiffy animation, endlessly recycled enemies, middling bosses. The combat starts a bit bad, too, but gets significantly better about thirty minutes in. All that said, Aeterno Blade is still worth mentioning in the same breath as Castlevania. Some cute time manipulation adds puzzle-y fun to the platforming, and while no element of the game is outstanding it’s all still worthwhile entertainment. Aeterno Blade is particularly recommendable to anyone hungry for the Castlevania/Metroid-like experiences that the 3DS has been so criminally denied. And as far as Metroid-vania goes, I actually enjoyed it a bit more than Mirror of Fate, so there’s also that…

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post AeternoBlade Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Pac-Man is somewhat of a known quantity. Before you even begin the majority of games in the series you have a relatively good idea of what you’ll be doing. Some entries have changed the formula slightly, but not significantly, but Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures takes everything you thought you knew about Pac-Man and throws it out of the window.

Gone is the traditional maze-based gameplay, instead replaced by a 3D platformer; gone is the silent and simple protagonist replaced a 3D character with a can-do attitude and gone, at least in part, is the fierce rivalry between Pac-Man and those pesky ghosts.

After booting up Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures you are introduced to the world and characters by way of a simple cutscene announcing that there are three globes that need power in order to gain access to some temples, and that Betrayus has launched an attack on Pacopolis. This is effectively as detailed as the story gets, the meager plot funneling you to various locations in order to grab different artifacts and defeat some of Betrayus’ minions. As the game is aimed at a younger audience the uncomplicated plot is understandable as a design choice, but even so the story is poor and the questionable voice acting certainly doesn’t help.

After the brief cut-scene you are dumped into Pacopolis with the task of reaching the piece of fruit at the end of each level. Each area is covered with the familiar glowing yellow pellets that are required to enter some levels. There is also Slimetanium to collect (which can be used to add extra hearts for Pac-Man), as well as eyes of the ghosts you eat, which can be redeemed for extra lives. Don’t worry, I don’t really see how eyes mean extra lives, either.

The platforming areas are solid apart from the first handful, although this is down to the power berries adding unique gameplay mechanics. If Pac chomps on one of the power berries he will change form; some berries change him into a giant ball, others a fire or ice Pac and one even turns him into a chameleon. Often areas will be impassable unless you are in a certain form, but fortunately the required berry is never far away. Some enemies, such as the ice ghosts, can only be defeated when Pac is in a certain form, which can be annoying.

The power berries change the game entirely, and some of them – such as the chameleon berry or the giant ball berry – are brilliant changes of pace, albeit slightly underused. Throughout the six worlds, two of which revisit previous worlds, you will only become a giant ball or a chameleon in a handful of levels, whilst the slightly less awesome transformations such as Fire Pac or Rubber Pac are much more common. If the adventurous power berries were more frequently used, Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures would be a lot more fun.

Although the power berries increase the enjoyment of the game, the standard platforming sections with normal Pac are still tight and pretty decent. Levels are full of challenging platforming sections but will not be impassable for experienced players, although the younger market at which the game is aimed may struggle at times.

Unfortunately, the camera isn’t quite as tight as the platforming. Occasionally the camera will move to an angle that doesn’t show what needs to be seen, or is angled in a way that messes with the depth perception, leading to you try to make an impossible jump. This doesn’t happen all that often, but it’s enough to be noticeable and annoying. You can change the camera angle with the right sick, but often the damage has been done before you have a chance.

The ghosts that fill each of the levels could also use some work. The incredibly basic AI makes them predictable and none of them are particularly difficult to counter or kill. Strangely it was Inky, Pinky, Blinky and Clyde who alerted Pac to the attack on Pacopolis, yet it is their ghost brethren that are attacking the city and being killed by Pac.

A throwaway multiplayer mode sees up to four players being ghosts and having to chase Pac-Man around a maze in the classic style, albeit in 3D. This mode is fun at first but quickly loses all sense of fun as the repetition creeps in.

Visually, Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures is what you would expect from an end-of-generation title. There’s nothing particularly amazing but there is also nothing massively ugly. The soundtrack is nice and upbeat for the most part but a lack of tracks means the same tunes pop up over and over again, and eventually become somewhat irritating as you hear them so often.

VERDICT: Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures is a game that is clearly designed for the younger market yet may be slightly too difficult for many kids to enjoy. The platforming can be tough at times and the camera only makes thing worse. The poor story and voice acting, straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon, will alienate the older audience, too, which really leaves Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures with no real market – which is a shame, as some of the ideas and platforming sections made for some of the best fun I’ve had in years.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

I have no trouble admitting that The LEGO Movie was one of the most enjoyable films I’ve seen in recent memory. It invoked a child-like sense of wonder with an entertaining and meaningful story, the comedy was spot on and the characters were lovable and memorable. It’s no wonder then, given my already obvious enjoyment of the LEGO series of games, that I jumped at the chance to have a look at the video game adaptation of the film, a chance to rejoin Emmett, Wyldstyle and, of course, Batman in an attempt to save the world from the evil Lord Business.

Is everything still awesome though?

The LEGO Movie Videogame follows the story of the film rather closely. In fact, it’s so close that you really don’t need to see both. You could easily see the film or play the game and feel like you’ve gotten all of the story that you need. However, if you’re going to make a video game adaptation of a film, then it’s a pretty good idea to go to the guys that have been doing it for years.

Following the story as closely as it does means that in a similar way to Lord of the Rings, The LEGO Movie Videogame takes entire lines of dialogue from the film and uses them in the game, creating a sense of immersion, while using the original voice actors.

When it comes to the LEGO series of games, there’s not much to talk about on the graphical side of things. They all look the same as each other and the fact that we reviewed this particular game on the PlayStation 4 makes no difference in the visual department – which may help inform your purchase choice. Still, that doesn’t mean that the game looks bad, but given the graphical power of the next-gen console, when the game does switch to video footage of the film, you’ll no doubt start to wonder why you can’t play a game that looks like that. Unless you feel the need to stream or share your gaming footage with the world using the PlayStation 4/Xbox One’s built in video capture options, then you’re not missing anything.

Aside from the obvious inclusion of the film’s main song (Everything is Awesome) the music is often rather annoying and, at times, absolutely infuriating. The music which plays through most of the levels, especially the Cloud Cuckooland levels, is hugely overbearing. Often to the point that you can’t actually hear what the main characters are saying. I even found myself searching through the game’s options menu to find a way to turn the music volume down, but the only option is to either turn the music off altogether – which I eventually found myself doing – or to turn the entirety of the game’s audio down; vocals and sound effects too.

When you can actually hear what’s going on, the game’s audio is often as humorous as the film with moments of hilarity. LEGO games often bring a sense of joy to many gamers, but thanks to its entertaining story, talented voice-cast and precise comedic timing, this one works hard to bring this enjoyment to a whole new level.

The gameplay works in exactly the same way as it does in all of the other games in the LEGO series. When you’re not in the hubworld – a sort of interactive world map where you’re able to go around purchasing the Minifigs that you’ve unlocked in the levels, replaying old levels a visiting other areas of the world – you’re in one of the game’s fifteen levels, using a combination of teamwork and brick-building knowledge to get to the end. There’s plenty of collectibles for you to find on your way too, with each of the levels containing a hidden pair of pants, a selection of Golden Instruction Manuals and the obligatory collection of studs in order to reach ‘True Special’ status.

While the AI functions perfectly well, helping you when it’s required and then standing to one side when they would otherwise get in the way, there’s nothing quite like playing a LEGO game with another person, and the drop in, drop out functionality of the previous LEGO games makes a welcome comeback. The biggest downside of the co-op feature is the split-screen, which instead of being a static line down the centre of the screen, is a dynamic split which moves around the screen as your character does. This is fine a lot of the time, but there are times when this can get a little too distracting and disorientating.

There’s no doubt that the LEGO series has been resting on its laurels for quite some time now, using the same gameplay over and over. This makes it all the more exciting to find new game functionality inside The LEGO Movie Videogame. This comes in the form of the Master Builders being able to create giant LEGO objects using pieces of the environments. By standing in a green circle in pre-set areas, and selecting the multiple LEGO pieces, the Master Builder will then get to work creating the new object to use – as well as construction workers’ ability to create objects when given enough pieces of the instructions. If you’re building an item from a set of instructions then you’ll be treated to a small mini-game where you’re shown an object, which has a flashing missing piece, you’re then tasked with finding the missing piece from a radial dial of possible choices. The faster you perform this action, the more studs you’ll get.

As with any other LEGO title, the longevity of the title depends entirely on whether you are a completionist. There’s a hell of a lot of characters to collect, from the ones that are only known to the most avid LEGO collector, all the way through to characters such as Batman. Then there’s the list of trophies/achievements to get through too, which will take you a good while to get through. However, if you are only interested in getting from the start of the game through to the end, then the game’s fifteen levels will take you around six hours to complete. Unless you’re planning on going back through the levels to find the Golden Instruction Manuals, Pants or hidden characters then you won’t find yourself going back through it for the story.

VERDICT: If you’re already a fan of the LEGO series, then you’ve probably already seen The LEGO Movie. You’ll know the characters, the premise, and you know how these games work. Being a movie tie-in makes no difference at all, because this is a LEGO game through and through. The addition of new features brings a slight breath of fresh air to a formula that was starting to feel a little bit stale.

There are a few more misses this time around, and if you’re not already a fan of the film then you may want to skip it entirely, but if you absolutely love LEGO games, then it’s another game in a well-made, well-presented series. Just be advised that the bright colours of Cloud Cuckooland, coupled with the overbearing music, can cause more than a few headaches. Everything isn’t always awesome, but in small doses it can be.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post The LEGO Movie Videogame Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Confidence is an admirable quality in any piece of media. It’s great that a game like Dark Souls is confident to be harsh and force the player to learn. It’s fantastic that a children’s movie like UP can have the stones to start with a heartbreaking montage. It’s wonderful that the books of Jasper Fforde feel comfortable paying reverence to classic literature. And y’know what? Senran Kagura Burst is certainly confident, and happy, to be exactly what it wants to be: an action game with large-chested ladies, a hokey script, fun characters, and frequent knowing winks.

“The plan for Senran Kagura originally started with [the idea of] breasts that can be shown in stereoscopic 3D and beautiful women that can be shown in stereoscopic 3D”. The words of series producer, Kenichiro Takaki, there, proving that Senran Kagura Burst was initially all about the breasts and not much more. It’s almost surprising, then, that the action game that accompanies the mammeries is surprisingly compulsive.

Indeed, Senran Kagura Burst may have begun life with the simple, puerile thought of ‘boobs in 3D’, but it’s to the game’s credit that it manages to be more interesting than that, and that’s in no small part because it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Let’s be honest, if Senran Kagura Burst did take itself seriously then it would be a much harder proposition to swallow.

Senran Kagura Burst deals with the tale of two rival Shinobi schools, Hanzo and Hebijo. Hanzo are “good” Shinobi, fighting for all that is righteous and what not, while Hebijo are the self-proclaimed “evil” Shinobi. Senran Kagura Burst is actually the second, expanded release of the original Senran Kagura title, and so contains a story mode for both Shinobi schools, with five characters in each and plenty of plodding plot to wrap your head around.

The characters on both sides are typical anime fare: The plucky, worrying all-rounder, the quirky, shy no-hoper, the sly-eyed and quiet wise one, the outrageous tom-boy, the older, studious disciplinary. The rote character archetypes aren’t going to win any awards, but they are surprisingly well fleshed-out. Both good and evil Shinobi alike, in terms of motivations and back stories, are far more than just pretty faces.

It’s also very interesting to see the story from both sides and actually grow sort-of sympathetic to the Evil Shinobi. The Hanzo storyline paints the Habijo as one thing, but playing their view of events lets you see these ruthless killers at their school, chilling out and getting along. Sort of. The ability to play the story from both sides gives the narrative a whole bucketful of heart, soul and impact you simply wouldn’t expect it to have.

That said, the bulk of Senran Kagura Burst’s tale is told through slow text over images, as is the norm for many Japanese titles, and the tale can occasionally move at a snail’s pace (quite contrary to the action). This isn’t a negative so much as a polite heads-up – there’s a lot of story here for those interested, but text over images isn’t the most riveting of ways to digest the plot, even if some of the artwork is excellent. Oh and, yeah, expect innuendos.

But before we get to all that, let’s talk actual gameplay. Senran Kagura Burst is a hack and slash. I’ve heard it described as many things, some unrepeatable, but the most appropriate would be ‘Sexy Streets of Rage’. You select a fighter and then proceed to mash the X and Y buttons to execute pre-designed combos in order to slay the tens of foes in each level.

Combat is flavoured through an evasive slide on the A button alongside the ability to “chase” launched enemies into the air upon landing a complete combo string. You also have Ninja Arts that you can unleash after you fill a super meter by hitting lots of things, in order to hit lots more things all at once.

It’s not the deepest design in the world, and it’s never truly difficult. Its closest cousin would likely be Dynasty Warriors, with Senran Kagura Burst working on similar principles of corralling foes into a tight pack so that you can commit effective combo based slaughter. There’s no blocking, but you will always be able to spy an enemy that will be capable of particular types of attacks, informing you that you might need to dodge accordingly.

But it’s not the difficulty, or lack thereof, that makes Senran Kagura’s combat so compelling: it’s the combo meter. Seriously, that thing can hit ludicrous numbers. 300? 500? 1000? Pah! Once you get into a groove with a certain character you’ll find you can push, and easily exceed, 2000 hits.

There’s an unquestionable satisfaction to be found in herding foes into a big clump and battering them all at once, and there’s an equal joy in chaining an entire level into one long string of violence. The more you play, the longer your character’s basic combo strings become, too, and the more effectively you can combo. What’s more, the ten characters on offer do all manage to feel a touch unique, even if they ultimately play to the same design book.

Problems? It’s unquestionably repetitive. The “Sexy Streets of Rage” label only gets you so far, and doesn’t address the fact that the levels – and there are a lot of levels – are largely bland in their design, rarely more than differing backdrops framing the same combat. The rival encounters are also far too easy, and the game lacks any really memorable gameplay set pieces. Most of the revelations and shocks come from pre- and post-scrap narrative elements.

And then yeah, there’s the whole boobs thing. Transformation sequences (to change from school girl to Shinobi) feature ridiculous jiggle physics as the character is reduced to their underwear before their Shinobi duds burst on, while sustaining damage in combat can lead to your clothing “shredding” in a rather lecherous scene of the female attempting to cover their modesty. What’s more, hit L and R before a level and it starts in Frantic mode – you are faster and deal more damage, but your defence is low and you, well, you play the entire level in bra and pants.

Alongside this you can choose the clothes and accessories your cast wears during play – with these being the main unlocks of the game alongside artworks. This customisation includes the aforementioned under garments.

Thing is, you can also elect for characters to spend the entire level chomping on toast, or change their shinobi suit from hip ninja gear to a giant fluffy teddy bear. It’s also worth pointing out that while the game features one character that’s smuggling a pair of unfathomable watermelons under her shirt it also includes characters far less gifted in the chest department, they’re just not featured in the advertising. Yes, the game has some painfully pervy scenes. On-lookers on the bus are going to raise an eyebrow so high it will threaten to leave orbit, but Senran Kagura Burst has a light-hearted sense of fun about everything it does, boobies included.

VERDICT: Senran Kagura Burst is silly. Its presentation is silly, its combat is silly, and its whole reason for being is silly. Yet somehow, it’s compelling. Alongside the gratuitous boob and panty shots there’s a nice pair of intertwining stories here with amicably fleshed-out characters. Next to the ability to choose the colour of your girl’s skirt is a combat system that ditches difficulty in favour of ludicrous high-score combo strings.

Senran Kagura Burst does occasionally feel as if it’s a few features short (two player co-op isn’t here, but is confirmed for the sequel), and the framerate has a tendency to take a nose dive in busier scraps. But this is a game that knows what it wants to be and delivers on its core concept with admirable confidence, and you can’t say fairer than that.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Senran Kagra Burst Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Inazuma Eleven 3: Team Ogre Attacks is the third available version of Inazuma Eleven 3. Bomb Blast, part of the initial duo, was already reviewed here on God is a Geek and much of that critique still stands in regards to this slightly expanded Team Ogre version (it’s got some extra cutscenes, and some super tough matches not found in the other versions).

The key criticism, that of the game’s pace, is still a hefty burden upon the title’s shoulders. Inazuma Eleven 3: Team Ogre Attack’s opening is painfully sluggish. You’ll play about two short games of football in the opening forty minutes, and the first full eleven player match doesn’t occur until about an hour and half has gone by. The emphasis on narrative really is horrifically intrusive, especially considering the inanity in much of its dialogue, and could likely deter those not invested in the characters from prior titles or other media.

The plot is the same as the previous releases too, for the most part. You’ll still primarily play the role of the excruciatingly enthusiastic Mark Evans (which is a hilariously pathetic name incapable of being said with any sort of menacing conviction, no matter how hard the voice actor’s try) and his merry band, and the crux of the story still focuses on the Japanese Inazuma National team’s efforts to win the first ever junior world tournament. The titular Team Ogre are a pleasantly absurd addition, however, bringing both time travel and humorously exaggerated rage to the tale. Seriously, these guys are using unbelievably sophisticated technology in order to make sure football never existed…

It’s a worthy criticism though: the narrative sections are just too long and they get in the way of the pure fun of Inazuma Eleven’s football. When you’re on the pitch, however, the strengths of this part Subbuteo, part Pokemon sport RPG come to the fore. You play on the touch screen, drawing paths for your players and tap on the screen to pass and shoot, but when there’s a situation – an interception, a tackle, a goal shot, etc. – the action will freeze and you decide how to react, choosing from two universal options (one more likely to work, one less likely but with advantages) and, if your player has them, special moves.

Like an RPG, however, players have limited capacity to use special moves, affecting when toyou use them. The results of these “situation” sections are derived from all manner of stats and dice rolls, even including an elemental factor that means certain players will have an advantage over others. The matches start a little staccato and confusing as you get used to the stop-start action, but there’s a real sense of pride to be found in developing your team, learning about each member’s special moves and strengths, and then using the correct players in the correct position at the correct time to pull off a beautiful, special-move-filled play up the pitch that ends with the ball in the net. Inazuma Eleven 3 Team Ogre Attacks offers a genuinely unique spin on the game of football that, due its preposterous stylings, you don’t even have to like the sport to enjoy. That said, you’ll still get punished for being offside, so it helps to know a bit about the rules…

The only other glaring grievance I feel inclined to level at the game is that of visuals. Inazuma Eleven 3: Team Ogre Attacks is a port of a DS game, and you’ll know it the moment you see those ham-handed character models. You’ll especially know it if you watch a trailer of the recently-released-in-Japan Inazuma Eleven Go Galaxy. Not that it ruins the fun of Inazuma Eleven 3: Team Ogre Attacks, as its gameplay is quite measured and its touch controls are fine and dandy so polygon counts don’t have a bearing on this, but it’s still not the best looker. It includes some rudimentary StreetPass features, too, so it’s not a completely lazy port. Oh and there are perhaps too many “random encounters”, but the gameplay is fun so I personally let them off.

VERDICT: Why is Inazuma Eleven so good? Because it’s exciting, even if no-one is scoring. This is a game of football where players can dart through inter-dimensional tunnels. Where they can summon massive fists to punch the ball away from the goal. Where two players can engage in tag team acrobatics and launch a ball ‘together’ to apply more power. Where malicious players will perform a bicycle kick combo to a rival’s gut as they take the ball past them. Where seeing a huge massive phoenix joining in with a goal kick is just par for the course.

The story may be a bit too much, and the gameplay beats can be a touch clumsy to begin with, but Inazuma Eleven 3: Team Ogre Attacks is a mighty entertaining sports RPG that – just like its lead Mark Evans – has a big heart, and an infectious enthusiasm for what it is.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Inazuma Eleven 3: Team Ogre Attacks Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Falling somewhere between a sequel and a re-imagining, A Link Between Worlds is a fine return to traditional overhead adventuring for the Zelda series. A streamlined structure and some new gadgets freshen up a visit to the very same incarnation of Hyrule we first saw more than twenty years ago in the enduring Super Nintendo classic A Link To The Past. With the pseudo-sequel currently garnering tremendous critical acclaim, there couldn’t be a better time for Nintendo to re-release the original on Virtual Console, so veterans can re-live their 16-bit glory days, and those who have never experienced it can enjoy not only one of the finest entries in the beloved franchise, but one of the finest videogames ever made, full stop.

First impressions upon booting up the Virtual Console are that this is a stone-cold classic that has aged as impeccably as the finest wine. The graphical style epitomises the beauty of the SNES – Hyrule and its inhabitants are wonderfully realised, full of colour and burnished with lovely little touches like the subtle use of the console’s lauded (and often over-employed) Mode 7 trickery. It is an iconic-looking videogame, and indeed, the style laid down in A Link to the Past went on to heavily inform many other top-down Link outings that followed.

Koji Kondo, working alone, fashioned an utterly incredible score to accompany the dreamy visuals. Some would argue that it was his finest work: the opening chimes that accompany the Triforce coming together onscreen lead into a booming title salvo, and later on we get the vintage overworld theme. But there are similarly brilliant, more subtle motifs at play. Check out the urgent, brooding theme that ushers Link through the storm at the outset of the adventure, the regal march that backdrops your run through Hyrule Castle, and the unforgettable Sanctuary theme – these are all fabulous pieces of music. This is before we even mention the “Get Treasure Fanfare” – a sound that anyone who has ever set foot in any version of Hyrule, or even has a passing interest in Nintendo, will instantly recognise.

Aesthetically a masterpiece, then, but A Link to the Past remains a landmark work in terms of its gripping, intuitive and utterly brilliant gameplay. A staggeringly huge world to explore, with multiple dungeons, hidden Heart Pieces and devious puzzles to figure out, it is a joy to revisit. Structurally, this is classic Zelda – you take on each dungeon in a pre-determined order, and obtain the treasure, usually a cool new item that is then used to solve puzzles and defeat the boss. The gradual introduction of new gear opens up new areas of the world map to Link, and there is a beautiful sense of achievement when you finally obtain full freedom of the land and waters of Hyrule.

The introduction of the alternate Dark World is a stroke of utter genius – it may be just a simple palette swap in technical terms, but it creates a whole gamut of puzzles and situations for young Link, as you use the Moon Pearl to flip between the dual worlds. Like the best old-school games, there are some tricky puzzles and sections that are extremely tough to beat, but seldom will you become completely bamboozled, especially within the expertly designed dungeon sections, which are wonderfully diverse and always entertaining.

VERDICT: Nintendo raised the bar to incredible levels with their third Zelda adventure, just the same way that they launched their 16-bit console with perhaps the finest 2D Mario platformer. Many would argue that A Link To The Past represents the pinnacle of the franchise, and playing either on-screen or on the Wii U GamePad certainly proves that the passage of time has done nothing to dull its magical impact.

INCREDIBLE. This is the pinnacle of our scoring spectrum, reserved for games that truly affect us, that capture our imagination so completely that they affect the standard by which we measure future games. 10/10 is not a declaration of perfection, but an assurance that the game in question is of amazingly high quality and has exceeded our expectations.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Wii U Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

The power of phenomenon cannot be overrated. The very idea of combining hugely popular mobile physics game Angry Birds with the Star Wars uber-franchise must have actually spawned fresh, crisp bank notes out of thin air – so the fact that it was free to play on Android devices when it first launched was pretty staggering. I don’t know anyone with an Android device (or indeed any smart device, as the asking price stayed fairly low) who hasn’t had a dabble with Angry Birds: Star Wars.

Problems arise, however, when indie devs Rovio decide to bring the same game to home consoles. Angry Birds: Star Wars on PlayStation 4 is the same exact game (plus about twenty bonus levels) as you played on Android devices for free, except it now costs 35 quid. There’s really no way Rovio can justify this price, and it makes this version of the game incredibly hard to heartily recommend, despite its inherent quality.

Conceptually nothing has really changed. The ordinary Angry Birds “characters” have been replaced with Star Wars versions, and so are equipped with cool force powers and such. There’s a Skywalker bird who can slice through scenery with a lightsaber, a Han Solo fella who can blast pigs Greedo-style, Obi-Wan and his force push, etc… Levels that mess with gravity fields and orbital rotations borrow ideas from Angry Birds: Space but put them to better use here.

Unlike some license crossovers, however, nothing about Angry Birds: Star Wars feels half-arsed. George Lucas’ sci-fi fantasy universe is absolutely core to the game, from the sound effects and music to the little static comic-pane cutscenes that lampoon moments from the trilogy. It’s wonderfully tributary and the utter respect that Rovio have for the legendary franchise is always apparent.

You can use the Dual Shock 4’s central touchpad to launch your poultry missiles should you choose, but it lacks the precision of an actual touchscreen and tends to be slightly too sensitive. It’s nice to have the touchpad option, especially for purists, but for more precise shots you’re best of using the left stick and X button to kick things off.

Graphically it looks pretty on the big screen, clear, crisp and vibrant – and, of course, it’s beautifully smooth – but it’s no great visual leap from the smartphone version. That said, we never expected it to tax the PS4, and the colours are striking and attractive in every stage.

VERDICT: The great gameplay we all know and love is present and correct, the graphics are sharp and appealing, the extra levels are a welcome addition and, of course, Star Wars. But I can’t help but get hung up on the insane price of the PlayStation 4 version. There’s just no real way to justify the purchase unless it’s your only possible way to play this game – and even then, despite its appeal and addictiveness, it’s still not a truly essential experience, particularly if you’ve played an Angry Birds game before. Angry Birds: Star Wars is good-looking and great fun to play, but simply not worth the best part of forty quid just for the sake of playing it on a next-gen console.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Angry Birds: Star Wars Next-Gen Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Whenever a gimmicky quiz show breaks through into the wider public consciousness and becomes a phenomenon, those who license it decide that rather than rest upon the piles of cash their successful format has given them, it would be a great idea to come up with tie-ins. Even as a kid I was savvy enough to realise that the Blockbusters board game I got for Christmas one year wasn’t a patch on watching the latest wacky student ask Bob Holness for a “P”.

In video game form, telly tie-ins are equally idiotic, unless they take place on a pub quiz machine. The reason why is that nobody wants to invest themselves in a game of this type unless there is a chance of being rewarded. Anyone who has played the soul destroying Who Wants To Be A Millionaire home titles in any form will know what I mean. If you reach the million quid, you may feel like a bit of a smart-arse, but the big winner is Tarrant and his minions who you paid to play such turgid crap.

The Cube is the latest in a long line of successful afternoon gameshows that has managed to gain a market share of a viewing audience split between those yearning for a more innocent time (word to my homie Henry Kelly and his excellent Going For Gold) and those looking for something to fill the yawning time gap between Jeremy Kyle and Emmerdale. Pitching itself as the ultimate evolution of the skills ‘n’ physical tomfoolery of a Krypton Factor or a Crystal Maze, the Cube is watchable stuff, and easily the most fun you can have involving Phil Schofield and a four-metre-odd square perspex box. In the show, people win big money by completing genuinely enthralling mini-games, all held together by the excellently authoritative narrator, underrated character actor Colin McFarlane.

The Cube for 3DS is the latest in a long line of terrible video games based upon game shows. You get an accurate representation of the no-frills set, the same killer, threatening-sounding voice-over, and then gameplay that represents the worst that the medium has to offer. Bordering on offensive, in fact. On TV, tasks such as throwing a ball into a bucket from a spinning start, or stopping an imaginary blue line in a designated end-zone within the Cube require skill and generate tension. On the 3DS screen, all you have to do is press a button, or swipe the screen, yet there is no instruction on how you should carry out this motion.

One game which involves pinging a red ball into a cup is the epitome of frustration, until you realise that it requires a ridiculous amount of speed and force, almost taking your finger completely over the edge of the lower screen to achieve the correct velocity. Other games involve stopping a timer at the correct moment, counting things, hitting pillars with balls, and nearly all of them involve just one motion each. Some of them are frustrating because of the lack of tutorial – all of the games are introduced by FMV footage of scenes from the show – so you will actually find some of them will eke an extra few minutes as you repeatedly lose all of your lives until the point you work out just how to slide your digit up or down the lower clamshell.

VERDICT: Inside the real Cube, with money on the line and a studio audience enjoying the tension, the simplistic games work brilliantly. When you’re sitting on your own with a handheld games console that has been home to some of the finest video games of the past year, the level of challenge here is incredibly poor. You ask yourself – why would anyone want to play such a nonentity of a game, when there are so many better alternatives?

Even a casual-assed gaming relative would sniff at this one over the Xmas turkey and demand you stick the Wii back on. As poor a cash in as this reviewer has ever had the misfortune to play, it should come as no surprise that the classy Schofield hasn’t got his trademark silver locks anywhere near this one.

TERRIBLE. A step up from “diabolical”, but a minor one. A 2/10 will have at best one or two positive features that, alongside its catalogue of disappointments, just aren’t enough to render it playable.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post The Cube 3DS Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

The overlapping between two console generations is always going to be a strange time for video gamers. On one hand you have to decide whether a multi-gen game is worth waiting for on next-generation machines or better on current, while on the other hand the voice in the back of your head is telling you to flesh out your brand new console’s library. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is one of those games, having been released for both generations; however, unlike games such as Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Battlefield 4, which also straddle the line, there’s not much that can be done to make a LEGO game different with new technology.

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes on the PlayStation 4 is almost exactly the same experience as you’ll find on the PlayStation 3, the only differences being on the system level, not the game itself. This could be seen as good news for those people who may not have any of the next-generation consoles yet, knowing that they can buy the game for their current systems and not be missing out, but those players that were waiting for the next-generation version in the hopes of seeing that added shot of adrenaline to a game series that is in long need of an overhaul may find themselves a little disappointed.

The core of LEGO Marvel Superheroes is exactly the same as the previously released last-generation versions. The story is the same, the characters are the same and even the visuals are the same. When you’re deciding whether or not you should get the game for the PlayStation 3 or PlayStation 4 – for example – the decision is going to come down to not how you want to play the game, but what kind of things you’ want to do with it outside of the gameplay itself.

If you’re the type of person who enjoys live-streaming what you’re playing and interacting with any kind of community you may have built up, then purchasing the game on the PlayStation 4 over the PlayStation 3 is a no-brainer. The same can be said if you want to capture footage or screenshots (although neither of the next-generation consoles can boast a particularly efficient way of capturing footage). Then there’s the ability of both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 to go do something else on the console, and come back to the game exactly where you left it.

The biggest check in the “Do Not Buy” column for the next generation versions of LEGO Marvel Super Heroes stems from a problem with all versions of the popular LEGO game; there’s no online multiplayer. This means that you’re forced to find someone to sit next to you and play the game. This normally wouldn’t be a problem (I’m sure each of us have at least one person who wouldn’t mind sitting down for half an hour or so), but problems arise when you realise that most versions of the consoles come with a single controller, and buying a second one is very costly.

Personally, as someone who always plays through LEGO games with my wife, this automatically meant that I had much less fun on the next-generation version than I would have had on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3; purely because I only have a single controller for the PlayStation 4 and had no choice but to go it alone unless I wanted to play on the Vita using remote play, while my wife played using the single DualShock 4 controller (which is what we eventually ended up doing, but it’s not perfect). Obviously this won’t be a problem for everyone but, at least at this early point in the eighth console generation, I imagine it will affect more than just a few.

The biggest win for the next-generation versions of LEGO Marvel Super Heroes comes with the PlayStation 4’s ability to stream the whole gameplay to the PlayStation Vita using the Remote Play feature. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes works perfectly, especially given that the R2 and L2 buttons – which obviously aren’t there on the Vita – are rarely used and I was able to play entire swathes of the game on the Vita without problems. The Vita can also be used as a second controller, for those couch co-op sessions, but almost everyone would prefer a second DualShock 4 controller. Still, it’s nice to see that the option is there should you want to give it a try.

VERDICT: So, should you go out and buy LEGO Marvel Super Heroes on the next-generation consoles? The answer comes down to a few simple questions. Do you intend to live-stream or otherwise record your gameplay from the game? If yes, then of course you should be getting the next-generation version. If you want to play with another person and don’t want to put down the cash – just yet – for another Xbox One/PlayStation 4 controller, or if you’ve previously bought LEGO Marvel Super Heroes on any of the other consoles, then the answer is a resounding no. It would be nothing but a waste of money. It’s a good game, and it’s something I can see any comic book/LEGO fan playing through until they’ve got that elusive platinum trophy, but there’s just not enough difference between the last-generation and current-generation to give me enough reason to recommend it.

VERY GOOD. An 8/10 is only awarded to a game we consider truly worthy of your hard-earned cash. This game is only held back by a smattering of minor or middling issues and comes highly recommended.

Our Scoring Policy

Download code provided by publisher.

The post LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Next-Gen Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

When the first Scribblenauts title launched in 2009, it caused a stir in the gaming industry as it was unlike anything else on the market. The premise of the game was simple – the gamer was presented with a series of short levels, each of which are made up of relatively straightforward puzzles. The twist was that in order to solve those puzzles, you couldn’t just use items you found in-game, you had to create them yourself. Armed with your Nintendo DS stylus and a notepad in-game, you could write the name of an object which would then be created for you to use on-screen.

For instance, there might be a cat stuck up a tree – but how do you get it down? You could write the word “ladder”, and a ladder would appear for you to climb and save the cat. Or you might prefer to write “axe”, and cut down the tree. Further still, a jetpack would help you reach the cat even quicker. There were huge possibilities, although the game could only understand fairly simple objects and names. The concept evolved with Super Scribblenauts and a later Remix version, which added many more words to the in-game library, as well as the ability to add tags and adjectives to the words. Now you could use your stylus to create a blue house, or an angry Emu, for example.

Strangely, for the latest game in the series, Scribblenauts Unlimited, the Nintendo 3DS has been pushed away a little and the Wii U has been made the lead platform. Presumably to make use of the greater power and potential for making a massive database of words, as well as the fact that the Wii U Gamepad now acts in the same way as a 3DS in many ways. Unlimited has broken down the walls from previous titles: no longer do you tackle levels in an ordered, regimented way – now the game is almost an open world (admittedly with some areas only being unlocked as you collect more Starite). This feature is present across all versions of Scribblenauts Unlimited and does improve the game greatly.

Although, it does tend to eliminate a degree of challenge from the game: where you would previously have to beat progressively harder levels to get to the next, now it is more dependant on how you prefers to play. This provides a nice level of freedom, which also allows the game to be played quite casually – where you can dip in and out of areas and levels for as long or as short a time as you please – which is perfectly suited to a handheld machine. The puzzles may also be a little less difficult and have less urgency about them, which can make it feel at times that the game is skewing a little younger than before – but there is still a layer of comedy running through it that will keep adults amused too.

The use of 3D in the handheld version is minimal. The title screens and cutscenes are all presented in three dimensions, allowing for some quite impressive depth in the cinematic sequences, but these are all flat images with no movement, so they still aren’t all that dynamic. The 3D isn’t used at all in the actual gameplay, which leads you to believe that the game could have simply been released as a DS cartridge, rather than a 3DS one. A bit of a missed opportunity there, although it is negligible how much it would have really added to a game that works very well in 2D.

Speaking of looks, the game is still charming no matter which machine you play it on. The visuals are very similar across all formats  (though a little crisper on Wii U and PC, of course) because the sprites are simple, bold and colourful. This means that they work equally well on any system, and can be scaled easily. This does create a uniform look for the series, and anyone who has played a previous entry will recognise characters and returning popular objects from other games. Sounds, too, are simple, and all of the characters in the game speak in a Sim-like gibberish, so this also translates well cross-platform. Whatever you play Scribblenauts Unlimited on, it will look cute and fun, and will sound jolly and upbeat.

The main differences between the versions on offer is that the Wii U and PC versions allow gamers to use a new object editor, which really expands the customisation options and freedom in the game no end. This feature allows users to change colours/textures for an item, add and attach different objects together, and change the size and shape of things. In theory, it allows you to build your own items, environments and characters, buy layering different items together. Players have already begun to take this idea and run with it, and many licensed characters who are obviously not allowed to be included in the game have been built – in quite some detail. A fully realised Arkham Asylum, filled with Goons and Batman himself is a fantastic example of what is achievable with the editor. Unfortunately, whereas this is probably the greatest step forward in the new game, the Nintendo 3DS version of the title doesn’t feature this at all, due to memory constraints and the additional power afforded by the Wii U and PC.

One great feature on both Wii U and 3DS is the inclusion of popular Nintendo objects and characters in the in-game dictionary. Originally, the 3DS version was developed initially as the lead release, and as such these characters were only available on Wii U. Thanks to the extended delay, however, licensed characters such as Mario and Zelda – as well as objects such as Fire Flowers and Mushrooms, for example – can be summoned by players of both Nintendo consoles. It adds some extra comedy and a bit more excitement to proceedings on Wii U and 3DS, and makes perfect sense. At least PC users can use the object editor to create custom versions of Mario, et al.

VERDICT: Scribblenauts Unlimited remains a solid improvement to an already entertaining title. Some of the problems of the past have been improved upon, and the game is much more open and free than ever before. Of course, more words than ever have also been added into the dictionary, so there is a smaller chance that any word you type will be unknown to the title (aside from swear words, crude words and proper nouns). Gamers who enjoyed the past Nintendo DS games will find plenty of new content and ideas at play to encourage them back – especially as the extra 3DS development time has brought the features more in-line with the Wii U version.

If you have the luxury of owning all three platforms, the Wii U version is the obvious winner, supplying great creation tools and better customisation options. But if the game is something you want to quickly dip in and out of every now and again, a handheld version makes perfect sense. Why boot up your console and TV when the 3DS will provide immediate gameplay? So grab your stylus and put on your creative hat – there is an unending variety of ways you can tackle this title and make the experience your own personal story.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

 Our Scoring Policy

Review copy provided by publisher.

The post Scribblenauts Unlimited 3DS Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Motion sensors and the rise of all-singing, all-dancing party games and fancy peripherals have led to a decline in the number of straight-up rhythm action games in recent years. This is a shame when you consider some of the brilliant series of old that would work wonderfully well on modern hardware – particularly the handhelds, as the 3DS oddity Rhythm Thief & The Emperor’s Treasure demonstrated recently. In the absence of a modern sequel to Parappa, Lammy or the mighty Gitaroo Man, we have to make do with this sequel to Natsume’s 2011 Wiiware title, as we become reacquainted with the cutesy Gabrielle and her menagerie of spooky pals.

Gabrielle is a sassy, wide-eyed cartoon lass who is pitched stylistically in the same ball park as Coraline, Sanrio and Scarygirl. For all her gothic posturing, she has a unique problem: she has literally sneezed herself to death, and her spirit has started to work its way out of her body, ready to join the ghostly plane. Naturally, the only way to prevent this from happening and to restore herself to her former physical glory is to bust some moves and throw down the “Ghostly Groove” – a dance style so fly that it enables her to elicit screams from the other denizens of Monsterville.

Harking back to the tremendous rogue’s gallery of loonies from the wider Parappa-verse, the ghoulish characters here are beautifully designed cel-shaded creations. With a bird’s nest full of fluffy yellow chicks sat atop his bonce, Frankie is the cutest version yet of Mary Shelley’s famous monster. Lovably pathetic Vladd is the finest cowardly video game vampire since Disgaea’s Valvatorez, and even shares the aversion to blood, sucking down tomato juice instead.

Great characters are pointless if the core rhythm shenanigans are not up to scratch, and thankfully the basic gameplay is your usual familiar mix of swipes and taps in time with the musical accompaniment, and works well. Nabbing screams allows you to unlock extra bits and pieces – like dress-up items to personalise your Gabrielle avatar, some entertaining minigames and some collectible badges and artwork to put in a scrapbook. The playlist that forms the basis for the dance sequences is full of pleasantly jaunty tunes with a supernatural bent, and while there aren’t compositions here that could live with the hip hop mastery of Chop Chop Master Onion, they are fun and jolly and fir perfectly with the excellent visual style.

As fun as the touchscreen action is, the whole thing is very easy to beat, especially if you’re a fan of the genre. Once you complete a stage you have the option to return to it and have a go on two higher difficulty settings. Sadly, there is a distinct lack of actual dancing on offer and an inordinate amount of lengthy, wordy cutscenes. There are reams of text to plough through, and while some of it is undoubtedly witty, you soon find yourself longing for more actual gameplay. The plot is far too silly and packed with random occurrences and encounters, zipping all over the place like the Cartoon Network with ADHD. They sure do talk a hell of a lot in Monsterville, and having a bit of voice acting would have been welcome.

VERDICT: It’s a shame that the developer took this approach; it‘s as though they decided to almost completely eschew the best part of the game in order to present what they obviously felt was a worthy stab at an interactive cartoon. The reality is, when you pay for a retail title you expect something a bit meatier. And while this looks, sounds and plays great while it lasts, you will find yourself screaming for more.

DECENT. A 6/10 indicates that, while this game could be much better, it still has a fair amount to offer the player. It might be an interesting title sabotaged by its own ambition, or a game denied greater praise by some questionable design choices. Don’t avoid it outright, but approach it with caution.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove 3D Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Natsume are past masters at providing gamers with a gentle, pastoral experience – thanks to their work on the Harvest Moon series, their slept-on Legend of the River King titles, and their long running Reel Fishing franchise, which dates back to 1996. Their latest fish-‘em-up brings virtual trout tickling to the masses in stereoscopic 3D, but Reel Fishing Paradise 3D isn’t going to be challenging those end of year lists by any stretch of the imagination.

Proper fishing involves a number of factors: perhaps getting up at the crack of dawn, maybe setting up an overnight bivvy, negotiating the quiet, military green horror that is the bait and tackle shop, surrounded by men in waders eyeing up brightly coloured lures and expensive rods, while presumably teetering on the cusp of almost certain divorce from their long-troubled spouse. Thankfully here you don’t have to worry about this – the kindly owner of the fishing lodge will see to that.

There are fifteen stages or “days” of fishing to negotiate. The aim is to progress by catching a set number of fish in each of the locations, with new fishing spots serving up different species of aquatic beasties to tempt onto your hook. The new locations – and new fish – are only unlocked by progressing past the previous stage, and you are told in no uncertain terms what kind of lure or bait to use to catch each type of fish. To begin with you have a lure that can be waggled and maneuvered to mimic the movements of the tasty prey the trout are after. Later on you get to go old school with some worms, which are the favoured foodstuff of the carp (even though any fisherman worth his salt knows that boilies or sweetcorn would work better).

Sometimes you’re challenged with catching a fish of a specific weight, but other than that there are no other parameters or arcade-style conventions to worry about. Some fishing games, like the bass-oriented slew of titles that seemed to be around during the late 90s (and yes, I owned Get Bass with the rod peripheral during the Dreamcast era) compensate for the potentially mundane nature of the sport by adding time limits and other challenges. Not so here, as proceedings are far more laid back and leisurely. You can take on each location – represented beautifully with a picture postcard image on the top screen – completely at your own pace.

Once you’ve cast your line using either a swipe on the touch screen or a button press, the task of catching the blighters is underway. You can jiggle your lure or bait around in the water to entice the fish, which you can see swimming about in the murky depths. You can pull the line back and re-cast at will, to ensure that you drop hook in an area where your intended catch may be lurking. The camera can be zoomed in or out to view the underwater scenes, but that is as far as it goes. You could moan about this and ask why the camera isn’t more expansive, but then you’re lucky to have any camera at all – in the real world fisher-people have to get by using their wits and instincts alone, right?

Once you hook a fish, reeling in is done by using either the face buttons or swirling stylus motions, and you can move the rod around using the circle pad. There are three speeds available when reeling in. Reel too quickly or use sudden jarring motions and the fish could escape or the line may snap – so it is all about playing the fish carefully and paying attention to the bar on the left of your screen that indicates how close you are to pulling it out of the drink. It soon becomes apparent that it isn’t actually that difficult to land any of the fish you go after. Whereas in real life, you could ostensibly face a lengthy battle hauling in a wily carp or other tricky sporting fish, here it doesn’t take much effort before the fish are safely ensconced in your virtual aquarium, a kind of boring fish equivalent of a Pokedex, if you will. Watching the fish swim about or observing them as you fish has the benefit of some 3D slider depth, yet it becomes migraine-inducing during the sections where the fish is frantically trying to fight against man and rod.

VERDICT: There is a lot of fishing to do here, however due to the lack of any real challenge it soon becomes a bit of a trudge. There is plenty of variety in fish types and tackle, but none of it makes a huge amount of difference tactically when confronted with fish who seem to enjoy chowing down on anything put in front of them. Anatomically correct models of recognisable fish are all well and good, but this is a fishing sim desperately in need of an injection of excitement and a bit of purpose. Not terrible, but not enough to wrest me away from Extreme Fishing With Robson Green.

AVERAGE. The epitome of a 50/50 game, this title will be unspectacular but inoffensive, charmless but amiable. We aren’t condemning a game by scoring it a 5, but we certainly aren’t championing it, either.

Our Scoring Policy

The post Reel Fishing Paradise 3D Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

It’s been some time since Final Fantasy VII finally convinced the West that JRPGs were great, leading to a renaissance of the genre from the late 90’s to the early 2000’s. Square-Enix led the charge, with Final Fantasy of course being the jewel in their role-playing crown.

But those days seem like so long ago, now. While the genre still continues to be a permanent fixture of Japanese sales charts, it has started to lose favour with gamers on the other side of the world. Other than a few notable series (Kingdon Hearts, Persona, Shin Megami Tensei, Tales), there doesn’t seem to be quite so many of these games around, and with recent Final Fantasy entries quickly becoming a mixed bag, even Square-Enix aren’t the JRPG force they used to be.

But wait – in true JRPG style, here’s a random encounter! It’s something called a Bravely Default, and it’s using the “Mimic Final Fantasy” command successfully! A spiritual sequel to the Nintendo DS’ Final Fantasy: Four Heroes of Light, it adopts many elements of earlier entries in the series, but adds some interesting features that will appeal to RPG fans of all types.

In a story that should be familiar to anyone who played Final Fantasies I-V, the world of Luxendarc is being shrouded in darkness. Four crystals, representing the elements of Fire, Wind, Water and Earth, are losing their power, causing a global catastrophe. Each crystal is guarded by a vestal, and the Wind Vestal, Agnès Oblige, must embark on a quest to restore the crystals to their former glory and save the world from ruin. With the standard Final Fantasy tropes intact such as airships and crystals, there is a definite sense of deja vu to Bravely Default’s setting and characters, but the narrative is not without merit, mainly due to the excellent localisation and whimsical dialogue.

This cribbing of what has come before extends to the gameplay itself. Turn-based combat is the order of the day here, but there are elements that add depth to the now familiar commands. Each of your four party members is able to “store” turns using the Default command, which also acts as a defence against attacks. Storing up to three turns, you can use them all at once using the Brave command, allowing you to perform multiple commands in one single turn. Brave also allows you to take turns in advance, again allowing you to use multiple commands in one turn, but in this case that party member won’t be able to do anything until those used turns have passed.

It’s a clever way to add some tactical depth to the traditional turn-based systems of old. It’s more than possible to defeat weaker enemies in the first turn by instantly using several Brave commands, but tougher battles like boss fights may require use of the more defensive Default command and making your attacks count.

Once again in keeping with the inspiration from classic Final Fantasy, the Job system from FF III and V returns. Throughout the game, different Job Classes can be unlocked, which your party can adopt. In levelling these classes, new abilities can be earned, some of which can be assigned as a secondary Support Ability when playing as another Job Class. With this system, a melee-fighting Monk could be given some useful Black Magic spells after the Black Mage Job is suitably levelled up. This allows you to tailor your party to your style.

So far, so old school. But these retro throwbacks are joined by a host of new features that breathe life into these worn down genre conventions. There are a variety of options to make the game suit your preferences more. Battles too slow? Set the game to fast-forward through the combat animations. Too many/too few random encounters? Tell the game to increase the encounter percentage, or turn off random encounters completely. Battles too hard? Change the difficulty to suit your abilities. The result is a JRPG that is as welcoming to newcomers as it is challenging to genre experts, especially as Bravely Default features some excellent tutorials that explain every feature and mode, as well as a Quest menu that rewards you for trying new features or abilities.

There are also some unusual features within Bravely Default that are clearly inspired by casual mobile games. One of your party members, Tiz, is charged with rebuilding his village, which results in a mini-game where you must clear paths and erect buildings. These tasks take in-game time, so you’ll want to leave your 3DS on sleep to complete these buildings and earn regular rewards. You can also receive extra villagers to reduce the time it takes to perform tasks.

Streetpass is used in combat situations as well, and you can record commands and send them out to the world via Streetpass. These commands can be collected by others and used in their game. In addition, your own weapon-specific special moves can also be created using various parts found throughout your adventure, with even their names and associated dialogue editable. It’s a very cool idea and I can’t wait to see other player’s custom moves.

However, there is one mobile-inspired feature that I could do well without. You guessed it: micro-transactions. In combat there is a feature named Bravely Second, activated by pressing the Start button or pressing S on the Touch Screen. This is a consumable attack, which freezes the enemy and allows you to freely attack them. To earn more Bravely Second instances, you must either leave the game on sleep mode for eight hours, or pay a small fee for three SP Drinks. It’s meant for those who really struggle with the game, but there are enough ways to make the game easier already without needing to spend money.

For a game that was released in Japan a year ago, Bravely Default sure is gorgeous. Super-deformed polygonal characters adorn environments beautifully rendered like a watercolour painting. In 3D, some areas feel like you’re walking around a beautiful pop-up book, which is an absolute joy. The occasional Augmented Reality cut-scene also impresses; with use of some included (or printable) AR cards, you can see game events play out in your surrounding environment and view them from any angle. It’s clever and it’s great to see someone actually use the 3DS’ underutilised AR features. Meanwhile, the audio keeps with traditional JRPG conventions: lots of lovely orchestral overworld tunes, sleepy town themes and exciting battle music. Quite a lot of Bravely Default’s dialogue is fully voiced as well, which combines a reasonably well-written script with some incredibly hammy voice acting, proving that not every RPG tradition works well in modern times.

Bravely Default is also a pretty beefy game, with a ton of content and a lengthy narrative. With the difficulty options, you can make this game as easy or as hard as you want, which should please those who believe they don’t have time to play RPGs any more. I count myself as one of those people, and I haven’t been able to enjoy a game of this genre in years, until this one.

VERDICT: It’s a brave (geddit?) move on Square-Enix’s part to not stamp Bravely Default with a more popular title, because ironically, Bravely Default is one of the best Final Fantasies in years. Taking the very best of 8/16-bit entries of the series, and bringing them up to date with some beautiful graphics, clever features and engaging gameplay, this is a must for someone looking for a more traditional JRPG. On a system that has been lacking some meaty RPG action, this is a superb combination of old school gameplay with modern day additions that makes for an adventure you don’t want to miss.

SUPERB. This is the mark of greatness, only awarded to games that engage us from start to finish. Titles that score 9/10 will have very few problems or negative issues, and will deliver high quality and value for money across all aspects of their design.

Our Scoring Policy

Review code provided by publisher.

The post Bravely Default Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Despite this being the umpteenth LEGO video game developed by TT Games, it boasts the most ridiculously huge roster of characters to date, the sprawling Marvel universe coughing up over 150 iconic villains and vigilantes for you to build and smash apart. Such is the wealth of known entities that there aren’t many that seem particularly obscure; indeed, the last decade of cinema ensures that even younger gamers coming into LEGO Marvel Super Heroes will be acquainted with a large percentage of the line-up. It’s a sense of familiarity that pervades the entire experience, and one that proves to be both a blessing and a curse.

For a start, if you’ve ever played one of TT Games’ LEGO titles, you’ll know exactly what to do and how to proceed. Levels are spread around a central hub, and you’ll enter each with a selection of three characters of varying abilities. What follows is a sequence of switch-hitting and rudimentary combat, interspersed with “puzzles” that will barely trouble an 8-year-old. The rock-bottom difficulty is great for youngsters and those who just want to idle away a few hours, but for serious gamers the allure of the LEGO titles has never been the gameplay. It’s TT’s interpretation of each universe that appeals, and once again they’ve proved that simple charm and likability can carry you along way – even if the distance grows shorter with each instalment.

The hub in question this time around is in two parts. The first is the S.H.I.E.L.D. Heli-Carrier, manned by Nick Fury, Agent Coulson, Maria Hill and a lot of random LEGO folk who do an admirable job of making it look like a bustling hive of activity. Here you can select story missions to replay, view your unlocked characters, create your own LEGO hero from bits and pieces of everyone else, and enter into free-play mode by sky-diving off the edge of the gargantuan troop transport. The second part is New York City itself, where you can run around completing a ton of side-quests and checkpoint races, or hoovering up the vast amount of collectibles that litter the world.

It’s an interesting aside, and although in places it feels very vanilla – almost as if TT had bits left over from LEGO City Undercover and wanted to use them up – there’s plenty of idling activities to get on with. You can jump into vehicles to get around quicker, which seems at odds with the universe in general. Why does Iron Man need to steal (well, borrow – this isn’t GTA, after all) a taxi when he can actually fly? Why would Spider-Man drive when he can swing through the city faster? That said, there is a fair bit to do, and being able to switch between your unlocked characters opens up opportunities to use each hero’s powers to gather pick-ups and reach new areas. The vehicle handling is far too loose and unrefined, though, which means you won’t bother using cars for the majority of the time.

The actual story is a bit throwaway, and is really just an excuse to roll all these little sub-universes together. As such, it does a grand job, and the humour holds it all in one piece despite occasionally grating due to its repetitiveness. Set some time after the events of the Avengers movie, it centres on a race between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the “good guys” (The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, etc) and a host of villains including Dr. Doom, the Brotherhood of Mutants and Loki to find all the pieces of the Silver Surfer’s surfboard. Nicknamed “Cosmic Bricks”, these pieces hold a great deal of value to arch-villain Galactus, and the game is split into a series of chases and encounters based around their acquisition.

Beginning as Iron Man, The Hulk, and Spider-Man, you’ll soon get through an impressive line-up including Wolverine, Jean Gray, Black Widow, Beast, and Storm. The rich Marvel universe yields some great special abilities including wall climbing, swinging, flying, invisibility and, of course, clobbering and smashing. The “BIG LEGO” characters like Hulk, Juggernaut and Abomination control like the others, but they can’t assemble items from scattered bricks or use switches, and are instead just there to destroy stuff and throw things. As always, many characters share powers but usually the combinations are fairly unique. For example, Spider-Man and Wolverine can both climb certain walls and use heightened senses to detect the way forward, but Spider-Man can shoot web and swing around while Wolverine can flip heavy switches and destroy concrete walls. Iron Man’s flight works very well, and Magneto’s ability to manipulate metal objects is reminiscent of magic-use in LEGO Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.

None of the puzzles are in any way taxing, though, and most people will breeze through the story in a matter of hours. It’s always a question of finding the switch and working out which superhero can manipulate it, then moving on and repeating it until the mid and end-level boss fights. These, too, are incredibly simple, and the lack of any kind of fail state means you can just exercise trial and error until you find a solution or fluke your way through. They each present a different challenge, for example: Venom requires you to use loud noises to subdue him,  but Sabretooth needing a good chunk of scenery in the face. The McGuffin nature of every item you’re tasked to assemble begins to irritate almost immediately, however, when you’re smashing up objects and assembling huge water cannons out of nowhere to defeat the Sandman during a showdown in Grand Central Station. The fact that you can simply build anything you need with zero thought or effort is almost insulting (you can even construct a giant boombox to hurt Venom, which just seems ludicrous, even in the context of the universe).

It’s a shame, because such simple mechanics actually detract from the fun. It all feels very by-the-numbers and, in a game that’s already following such a well-worn template, that equals large periods where you can deactivate your brain and go through the motions with your eyes half-closed. It’s great to play as so many of your favourite characters, and teaming up heroes from different sub-universes like The Thing, Cyclops, Thor, and Spider-Man is always crowd-pleasing; it’s just all very “been there, done that”.

Graphically, Marvel Super Heroes is very strong. The character models are unmistakable, the environments as colourful and blocky and busy as we’ve come to expect. That said, the interpretation of New York City is too bland at times, and you may often find yourself wishing for the more confined spaces of the missions. The music borrows theme tunes from several franchises, particularly the stirring Avengers Assemble score, and does an admirable job of conveying the desired atmosphere, but the script is so-so. Occasionally it’s very funny, and the voice actors do well to impersonate the many character ticks and idiosyncrasies made recognisable by the recent spate of Marvel movies, but the script is composed almost exclusively of one-liners and the set-ups for one-liners. It has moments of gold, but the constant hamminess can become tedious.

VERDICT: There’s no denying that TT Games have once again done a well-loved universe justice with Marvel Super Heroes, but the lack of any real challenge and the instant-win feel of every encounter and low-rent puzzle means that there’s little actual play value for gamers over a certain age. The characters are represented with aplomb, and the simple but enjoyable story keeps things ticking along nicely, but it’s hard to escape the feeling that this franchise needs a serious overhaul going into the next generation. There will always be a place for LEGO games as long as there are iconic franchises to re-dress, but it’s time TT took the concept back to the drawing board and shook up the core mechanics.

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is proof that both franchises have their place and appeal in the video games industry, but it’s also horribly exposing of the repetitive, tired mechanics employed to actually create a workable gameplay experience. There’s so much easy, cutesy charm and friendly appeal about LEGO Marvel Super Heroes that it’s easy to find yourself bewitched by it, and lose sight of the fact that there’s not really much substance beneath the flashy suit.

GOOD. A game that scores 7/10 is worthy of note, but unworthy of fanfare. It does many things well, but only a few of them incredibly well and, despite a handful of good qualities, fresh ideas and solid mechanics, it fails to overwhelm.

 Our Scoring Policy

Review copy provided by publisher.

The post LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.