This picture sums up almost everything one needs to know about Costume Quest.

Costume Quest is the story of Reynold and Wren, two young siblings on Halloween night. Shortly into their planned festivities, one of the two siblings is kidnapped by monsters, and the other sibling (chosen by the player at the beginning of the game) must head out to save them from the candy-hungry invaders. The main villain, a witch named Dorsilla, is not hugely threatening; she and her minions have but one goal: they are trying to obtain candy. The setting, characters, and story of Costume Quest are clearly meant to be simple and fun, and to those ends they clearly accomplish their goal. Furthering the simple fun aspect of Costume Quest is its gameplay. Non-combat situations have Wren or Reynold exploring the suburbs of Auburn Pines and surrounding areas and knocking on houses to trick-or-treat. Depending on who opens the door, the player’s party winds up either receiving candy (the in-game currency) or a battle for the troubles. Costume Quest‘s combat is an extremely simple turn-based affair with Mario RPG-inspired action timing for both offense and defense. The best part about Costume Quest is easily the costumes the party members wear. Depending on which costume one of the children is in, their abilities will be different. For example, the robot costume gives a ranged special attack, while a unicorn costume later on grants a healing ability. The introduction to every combat is shown through a (thankfully skippable) short cutscene wherein the player’s chosen character transforms from their cheap-looking child’s Halloween costume into a large version of whatever it is he or she is dressed as. Battles then play out in large-scale Sentai-style action, with both players and enemies dwarfing the scenery around them. The gameplay, like the story, is both simple and fun; battles in Costume Quest are typically extremely short and fairly easy and the areas are not particularly large or difficult to navigate.

Short and simple, the battles never really overstay their welcome.

From a technical standpoint, Costume Quest is about where a budget title should be. The cel-shaded cartoony graphics are perfect for the world and characters depicted, but the game as a whole is not graphically mind-blowing. The graphics, though simple, do work extremely well for the game, and the battle sequences really do feel and look like something out of a children’s cartoon. The music and sound effects, admittedly, are rather forgettable. The music, seemingly inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas, is atmospheric at first but does begin to grate on the ears after a few hours. Unfortunately, there is not much variety in the soundtrack; the player will hear the same three or four tracks extremely frequently throughout the game. For something as short as Costume Quest, though, a mediocre soundtrack is somewhat forgivable.

Costume Quest is the kind of game one would play through with a young son or daughter. It is not a game for the crotchety gamer or for one seeking a serious or emotional experience. For someone looking for a short and fun little game, though, Costume Quest is definitely worth taking a look at. This is definitely a good contender for “babby’s first RPG”; the simple story and easy-to-grasp game mechanics are useful as teaching tools for one looking to add newcomers to the gaming fandom. The five-hour or so length of Costume Quest is perfect, as the game manages not to outstay its welcome but also does not feel too short or rushed. The game also comes with a free DLC campaign, “Grubbins on Ice”, which adds another hour or two of Winter-themed antics to the experience. Unfortunately, Costume Quest is not quite worth the $15 price tag for the Steam version. Thankfully, the game goes on sale fairly frequently and is almost guaranteed to receive a significant discount when the fall Steam sale insanity begins. Any gamer looking for a moving and deep experience should look somewhere else, but for someone seeking a short and amusing little adventure, Costume Quest is a perfect choice that reminds its player of a simpler time, when kids were kids and candy was the number one source of currency among friends.

It begins here..

A lone traveller stands wrapped within a simple brown cloak, gazing out at a vast desert stretching as far as the eye can see. The harsh sun makes the rolling hills of sand glitter like water on a summer’s day. Only, there is no water here, only the scattered ruins of a long-lost civilization and, in the distance, a towering mountain split down the center. What choice does the traveller have but to move across the shifting sands towards that distant monument?

Journey, more than a game, is an experience. It throws to the wayside the strong-willed invdividual on a quest for self-fulfillment. It scoffs at the epic battles between good and evil and the end of the world. Instead, thatgamecompany thrusts players into a sparse world with no instruction save “x” to jump and “o” to let out the most musical of cries. And so the nameless, faceless traveller begins his exodus across the desert, drawn to each landmark as an escape from the emptiness of his surroundings, slowly unearthing clues about what might have happened to what must have once been a remarkable civilizaiton.

This is a game that strives to push the world of video games into the realm of high art. It does not impress its players with extravagant voice-acting nor does it drag them through hours of tutorials and flashy cinematics. Instead, thatgamecompany banks on the simplicity of awe-inspiring environments where players are left to explore, to feel dwarfed by their surroundings, and to slowly piece together a story by drawing conclusions from the clues planted within the game. There is no narrator to direct the path. There is no plot save the one created by the players and pieced together through a series of images remiscent of ancient wall paintings.

The Pensive Traveller

Players interact with the world around them by collecting fragments of ribbons. These ribbons allow to traveller to dance upon the winds– to feel, if only for a few moments, empowered. As he traverses the landscape, the traveller is able to collect various ‘power-ups’ which make the tail upon his cloak longer and allow him a few more seconds of flight. Through this ability to fly he must solve various puzzles to open the pathway toward the distant, towering shadow of the mountain. The puzzles themselves are not particularly difficult, in fact, they can hardly be called puzzles at all. They add a cursory challenge to the game, but players will not find themselves stuck for hours upon a single challenge.

Journey’s unique approach to online-play is, by far, its most powerful mechanic. As a general rule, I like to play my games alone. I saw my first fellow traveller and I turned away from him, racing farther into the desert, further into my forced isolation. Later, I found myself alone within a dark ruin and in the distance I saw the soft glow of a song, a beacon within the darkness. We traversed the caves together. I watched in helpless horror as my companion was attacked by a remnant of a long-lost civilization, as her ribbon was torn and she was thrown to the wayside. I rushed to her side. We could not speak, but we shared that silent moment, vowed to travel to the top of the mountain together. And near the end we huddled together behind a stone, frozen by the icy winds, sharing in warmth and shelter. This is the most powerful interactive experience I have ever had within a game. Strip away the voice-chat and rob players of their keyboards, the knowledge alone that the other traveller upon the screen is a person sharing the same experience is enough.

Journey’s graphics are remiscent of a watercolor painting. A desert world is brought to life, each grain of sand reflecting the sun, vivid red ribbons with blazing gold characters dance across the screen. An environment normally considered a wasteland is brought to life through towering ruins, intense blue-green skies, and the subtle details of the traveller’s cloak blown within the wind. Beautiful simplicity is the name of the game, and at times the sparse landscape of Journey is more stunning than the lush, colorful landscapes of other games.

No longer alone

The soundtrack swells and ebbs with the landscape, creates suspense and soothes anxieties in turn. The crunch of the cloaked hero’s feet the only sound that penetrates the silence. His voice is a series of musical notes; notes that he uses to awaken the magic sleeping within the world around him.

All in all, thatgamecompany’s latest release is an immersive experience that proves not all stories need to be told in words.

Resident Evil: Revelations Box Art

The story depicts the events shortly after the establishment of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance, more commonly know as the BSAA from Resident Evil 5. During the game’s events, Jill Valentine and Parker Luciani are sent to search for Chris Redfield and Jessica Sherawat, whose last know location was on the SS Queen Zenobia, which serves as the game’s primary setting. The secondary setting takes place one year before the Queen Zenobia incident during the fall of the floating city of Terragrigia. During the Terragrigia incident, the BSAA and Federal Bioterrorism Commission (FBC) sent agents to help evacuate the city since the break out of a new strain of the T-virus began infecting the people of the city. Behind this outbreak is the bioterrorist group “Veltro” instead of the series usual villainous organization Umbrella. In charge of the evacuation is the leader of the FBC, President Morgan Landsdale, who approves the use of the satellite weapon “Regia Solis” which completely destroys Terragrigia. Flash forward to 2005 and the aforementioned SS Queen Zenobia incident. With the disappearance of Chris and Jessica it seems that Veltro has returned with a surviving strand of the T-virus that was used to start the outbreak at Terragrigia. Now, Veltro is hellbent on bringing the truth of Terragrigia public and infecting the world’s oceans with the virus. At the same time, Chris and Jessica are actually in the north at an old Veltro base. After getting in contact with the BSAA, the plot begins to unfold, leading the games characters to believe that the FBC might be behind the reappearance of Veltro.

Resident Evil: Revelations Gameplay

Rated M for mature, this installment in the Resident Evil series is sure to please old and new fans alike with a fine mixture of classic and modern day series mechanics with a return to elements such as limited supply of ammo, emphasis on exploration, and puzzle solving. The game’s camera keeps an over-the-shoulder view from behind the playable character. The player may move the protagonist while aiming a weapon, and has the option to switch between a first-person and third-person perspective. A new element implemented to the series is the genesis gun. Players can use the genesis gun to explore every room of the Queen Zenobia to find hidden caches of ammo and health items. The genesis gun can also be used to scan enemies which will fill up a progress bar and once that bar is filled, the player will receive one health item. Some enemies will fill the bar faster then others; for example, a boss may fill fifty percent of the bar compared to a regular enemy which may only fill ten or fifteen percent of the bar. Resident Evil: Revelations makes use of the Nintendo 3DS’ StreetPass feature to send other Revelations in-game supplies for the games raid mode. The Raid Mode is the multiplayer mode for Revelations in which two players have to fend off wave after wave of enemies.

Overall, Resident Evil: Revelations translates excellently to the Nintendo 3DS. The game is able to port console quality controls and executes them almost seamlessly. The only problem with the controls is the dodging mechanic. When dodging, the player has to run up to an enemy as they are attacking and then right before they hit the character, the player has to hit the B-button at the precise second it appears on the screen before it disappears and you die in a hail of failed glory. The graphics are just about on the same level as Resident Evil 5 but are definitely much better then Resident Evil 4. For a portable handheld to have such a high degree of graphics is actually impressive since it was only a few years ago that we had portable games that looked like Nintendo 64 games. So if gamers are looking for a great survival horror game that they would like to have on the go, then one should seriously consider picking up Resident Evil: Revelations.

Title Screen

“Dear Esther. I have lost track of how long I have been here, and how many visits I have made overall.”

The player stands upon a rocky shoreline staring out towards the endless sea. He turns to reveal a well-worn, long-abandoned lighthouse. Red and white paint chipped with aged, wooden shingled battered by the wind, and glass windows long-since cracked and broken. Above him gray clouds stand before the sun who struggles to put forth his rays.

So opens Dear Esther, an interactive ghost story told through first person exploration. Where many modern games venture to push the limits of gameplay mechanics, Dear Esther instead focuses on the video game as a medium through which to tell a story. There are no puzzles to solve. There are no quests to complete. There are no enemies to conquer. Instead, players unveil the hauntingly poetic story of a man trapped alone upon an island and writing letters to a woman named Esther. As a result to Dear Esther’s curious lack of traditional game mechanics, gameplay itself consists of little more than guiding the first-person narrator across the island’s various landmarks. This camera is executed smoothly: in looking from left to right or up and down the game moved seamlessly. Players also have the added benefit of being able to zoom in, a nice touch that allows the opportunity to see all the small details right down to the labels on bottles scattered across the island. The only downside of this exploration-based style is that the pathways across the island are incredibly linear. A path will seem open and promising only to prove to be a dead end and a jarring jolt back to reality.

Gray Skies

At the heart of Dear Esther is a heart wrenching tale of sorrow and mystery. As players explore the often otherworldly environments of the island — spanning from the rocky beach to the very heart of the island’s many caves — the narrative unfolds through fragments of letters written to the mysterious Esther. Herein lays the game’s only challenge, as players progress through the story the narrator recounts moments from his own past and blends them with stories of Donnelly, a man who had once explored the island, and Jakobson, a shepherd who had once lived upon the island with his flock. Players, in a way, collect the fragmented letters and piece together the mysteries of the island. This is done not only through the epistles recounted by the narrator but by the stunning visuals that spread across the screen.

Key to Dear Esther’s success is its prose, and Dan Pinchbeck’s writing does not disappoint. Pinchbeck proves to be an artful wordsmith whose poetics often strike to the very core—sending chills down the spine. These flowing narrations pour forth like silk from the lips of British actor, Nigel Carrington. Carrington’s voice captures the raw emotions and torment of a man left alone upon an island with little company save burnt-out buildings, the distant red-pulse of the aerial, and his own thoughts. The game starts out with contemplative gray skies and a pensive narrator who, as he moves towards that distant red light, deteriorates in both mind and body. These disjointed narrations bring up a variety of questions: Who am I? Why am I here? Who are Esther, Paul, and Donnelly? Is any of this real? Rather than offer up these answers upon a silver platter, the game forces players to draw their own conclusions making a unique experience for each individual.

The Underground

Environment plays no less a role than that of Dear Esther’s narrations. It feels, at times, as if the game were taking place within a three-dimensional painting. The landscapes are crisp and range from the realistic to the sometimes unreal. The island’s landscape displays a world of decay with the ruins of ships, the remnants of ancient buildings, and a variety of discarded memorabilia. All across the island are scattered empty cans of luminescent paint, broken needles, bits of maps, and letters, and books. Here and there players will come across small candled shrines or mysterious graffiti painted and carved into the landscape. As the narrator ambles aimlessly across the island players hear his footstep, the sound of the wind through the grass, and the dropping of water within the caves. Dear Esther’s soundtrack, composed by Jessica Curry, at times floats subtly through the air to enhance the melancholy felt within the narrator or swells in a fury of emotions like a raging sea-storm.

In retrospect, Dear Esther may not be every gamer’s cup of tea as it is devoid of the ordinary tropes and mechanics consumers have come to expect from the industry. Instead, this first-person narrative bridges the art of experimental storytelling to the world of video games.

Bioware’s space opera trilogy Mass Effect has swiftly transformed from the little IP that could into a massively-marketed, highly anticipated event. The most obvious question, “does it live up to the hype?” has an answer that is unfortunately far less clear-cut. Mass Effect 3 takes steps both forward and backward for the series, with some missteps more notable than others.

Strangely, no good Femshep box art.

Thankfully, the series does not try to find a new way to “reset” Commander Shepard as the second entry did. It worked well for that title, but another attempt would have been contrived. Instead, the game picks up shortly after the conclusion of Mass Effect 2 with swift explanation of what took place in the interim. The game not only carries over Shepard’s choices and appearance from the previous games, but this time also her level and abilities. To deal with the discrepancy between players who might be starting the series with the final game, Bioware chose to let the game’s starting difficulty scale to the starting level of the player. It is a decision so simple and effectual, one wonders why it was not implemented for the second title.

Mass Effect 3 also wastes no time in letting Shepard’s past decisions influence everything that happens around her. It is one of the major selling points of the series, after all. Hundreds of choices made through the previous games serve to tie together in the final battle against the terrifying Reapers; sentient machines that harvest all advanced organic life every fifty thousand years. The way the result of these decisions manifest themselves range from brilliant to downright disrespectful to fans.

On the more pleasant end, Mass Effect 3 continues to lead the pack where it always has, personal relationships. From friendships to rivalries to romances, Mass Effect 3 is relentless in its ability to provide satisfying and moving conclusions to the relationships Shepard has formed over the saga. While Bioware’s writing is often highly praised, it can actually delve into the cliched and hyperbolic during the main quest. However, the praise is fully deserved when witnessing the carefully crafted personalities and relationships. There is no other gaming series with such deep and nuanced characters. Whether players love or hate a character, it is in a way that rarely exists elsewhere in the medium. Even new characters like James who might initially feel like a throwaway are given surprising depth. Players will soon realize that they probably know a person like him in real life. James, like most of the cast, is not a shadow of a character, but a complex personality.

It is this realism combined with the player being invested in his choices that makes for so many powerful scenes scattered throughout the experience.

The trade-off, however, is that Mass Effect 3 is far less focused on choice than it is with conclusions. The result is that a player who has chosen to play with an inclination toward a certain type of decision will have less reason than ever to change his mind.

For example, this reviewer made largely paragon choices in the first two games, but there were still decisions in those titles that gave any player pause, regardless of his previous decisions. Mass Effect 3 very rarely gives that feeling which was a staple in earlier titles. It feels like a thematic necessity, and it is often worth it for emotional payoff of long-running storylines, but it also still feels like a loss because players will likely be going through the motions in conversations instead of weighing every decision.

Robot birds are not friendly birds.

Losing the feeling of choice is a small hit in comparison to how all decisions feel entirely pointless in the face of the ending. First off, there is a War Assets station that is a little too literal. It essentially boils down to a progress bar showing the player which ending he will receive. However, no plot details are necessary to state that all available endings to Mass Effect 3 are very similar and all entirely antithetical to the series’ emphasis on relationship-building and world-shaping decisions. Considering the series’ strong story and intrigue, the ending is a slap in the face to fans. It extinguishes the otherwise exciting prospect of replaying the series knowing what an unsatisfying conclusion lies in store. It is akin to spending hours intricately building a beautiful sand castle only to have it washed up by the sea.

While the ending certainly casts a distasteful shadow over the series, it would be unfair to judge the entire game on this disappointing factor.

Mass Effect 3 puts in a valiant effort to both separate itself from previous games in the series while also feeling familiar. The results are mixed.

On one end, The Citadel is thankfully back. And while it does not fully return to its glory from the first game, there is certainly more size and variety when compared to the second iteration. In addition, the areas are given incredible life by including interactions by NPCs that continue throughout the experience. Characters that would normally just be stand-ins are often given stories that range from silly to interesting to legitimately sad or touching.

On the other side of the spectrum, reacquiring The Citadel came at the loss of any other “town” excepting the Normandy spaceship. There is no Omega, Illium, or any other location that is not a battle platform. This also works thematically, but it is a major letdown to finally visit major locations previously only talked about, just to experience nothing but steel platforms and waves of enemies. The environments are the most beautiful in the series but they only serve to tease of the nature and culture of the world.

Do not mess with Shepard, she has a good cinematographer

The original game was so captivating because of all the worlds and races that were introduced. Conversations and locations were rich with culture. The focus on humans and the war on the Reapers drain much of that intrigue. The game feels a little claustrophobic in that sense.

Even the return of a version of the Mako dune-buggy in the first game would have been a welcome return. The issue was always the controls, not its existence. In fact, the presence of such a vehicle greatly added to the scale and dynamic of the game’s world.

The music ranges from the excellent sci-fi techno mash-ups to the generic and passable orchestral tunes. Another area that the first game was never bested in.

Strangely, the biggest concern with the initial game – graphical performance – has returned after being largely fixed in the sequel. Mass Effect 3 is rife with texture pop-in, character model jumps during cutscenes, and occasional slow-down. The problems never touch the original’s state of disaster, but it is certainly strange to see the issue return in such form.

The RPG mechanics sit somewhere between the depth of the original’s and the watered down disappointment of the sequel. However, added to upgradeable and customizable guns, some great new powers, and super-tough enemy designs, the combat is easily the best the series has seen.

Most of these disappointments are within the context of the Mass Effect series however, which overall serves as one of the best written, most exciting, and most inventive franchises of this generation. Before the horrible antithetical ending, the final iteration makes good on wrapping up relationships and situations that were carefully crafted up until that point; all while giving Shepard more humanity and realism than she has ever had before.

It is certainly disappointing that no other game in the series lived up to the achievements of the original, but Mass Effect 3 is still certainly a must-play for fans. Well, as long as fans cop-out before the ending.

Full disclosure: the author was provided with a free copy of the game for review purposes.

Uncharted Drake's Fortune Box Art

Released in the year 2007, PlayStation 3 exclusive Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune brought developer Naughty Dog into the most recent generation of console gaming. Published by Sony Computer Entertainment of America, the first Uncharted is a mix of third-person shooter and 3D platformer. Players take on the persona of Nathan Drake who is the descendant of one Francis Drake. Francis Drake is rumored to have found a long lost treasure that could possibly lead to the finding of the lost city of gold, El Dorado. The game opens with Nate and the main female protagonist, journalist Elena Fisher, recovering the coffin of Francis Drake from the ocean floor. Quickly, things turn sour as the two are ambushed by a group of pirates who are on the hunt for Nate. A shoot-out ensues, but the pair are quickly saved by Nate’s mentor, Victor “Sully” Sullivan. After the trio are safely away, Nate reveals to Sully that there was no body in Francis’ coffin. There was only a journal Francis left behind, which Nate believes could lead to “Drake’s Fortune”. Sully and Nate quickly ditch Elena, and the adventure takes off from there.

Uncharted Gameplay

As previously mentioned, the gameplay of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is a combination of action-adventure elements and 3D platforming in a third-person perspective. Platforming elements allow Nate to jump, swim, grab, and move along ledges, climb and swing from ropes, and perform other acrobatic actions so that players can make their way along the ruins in the various areas that Drake explores. When facing enemies, the player can either use melee and combo attacks at close range to take out foes, or can opt to use weapons. Melee attacks comprise a variety of single punches, while combo attacks are activated through specific sequences of button presses that, when timed correctly, offer much greater damage. The most damaging of these is the specific “brutal combo”, which forces enemies to drop twice the ammunition they would normally leave. Nate can only carry one pistol and one rifle at a time, and there is a limited amount of ammunition per gun. Picking up a different firearm switches that weapon for the new one. Grenades are also available at certain points, and the height of the aiming arc is adjusted by tilting the Sixaxis controller up or down. Uncharted lacks an actual on-screen health bar; instead, when the player takes damage, the graphics begin to lose color. While resting or taking cover for a brief period, Drake’s health level, indicated by the screen color, returns to normal. The game also includes vehicle sections, where Drake must protect his jeep by using a mounted turret, and where Drake and Elena ride a jet ski along water-filled routes while avoiding enemy fire and explosive barrels. While players control Drake in driving the jet ski, they may also switch to Elena by aiming the gun in order to use her weapon–either the grenade launcher or the Beretta, depending on the chapter–in defense, or to clear the barrels from their path. The game also includes sixty treasures for gamers to collect, and one “mysterious relic” which, as in other games in the Uncharted series, is an Easter egg related to Jak and Daxter. The difficulty level of Uncharted is player-set, but even on the normal setting players may find the latter sections of the game increase in difficulty where the player is expected to defeat massive groups of enemies that can kill Nate in one or two shots. In terms of graphics, the game is still able to hold up, but within the next few years will look very dated with textures that do not fully load until after a few moments of looking at them.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was an acknowledged success, receiving high praise from many notable game review establishments, in addition to many game of the year nods. It began one of Sony’s most successful franchises of the current generation and spawned three highly regarded sequels, with the possibility of a movie in the works. The first two games are currently available in a dual Greatest Hits pack, which should serve for gamers who are looking for a cheap deal on two games beloved by Eastern and Western gamers alike. Naughty Dog is currently working on their second franchise of the current generation, entitled The Last of Us. The Last of Us promises to be a third-person, survival horror game set in a post-zombie apocalypse with mechanics similar to the third Uncharted. Players can expect The Last of Us in late 2012 or early 2013.

To the Moon Logo

In this world of ever evolving games, certain aspects seem to be losing their importance. Graphics have taken a front seat in the theoretical car that is the gaming industry, with elements such as story and music left in the back, sometimes not even in the car. So easy it is to become jaded as a fan of good storytelling. Often gamers are forced to sift through the indie gaming world, hoping to stumble upon a gem in amongst the mess. So great is the feeling when one stumbles upon a completely original title from a previously unfamiliar company. Such is the case with To the Moon. An amazing story and a great soundtrack more than make up for the lack of graphic superiority.

Graphics reminiscent of days long past.

In the world that is the setting for To the Moon, players take control of Dr. Eva Rosaline and Dr. Neil Watts. These doctors have a technology that allows them to step into the memories of their patients, altering them in a way that allows their patients to remember things that never actually happened. If it is the desire of their patients to have accomplished something truly great, then these doctors will alter their memory so that they believe they really did this amazing thing. The downside is that the new memories will clash with the old, ceasing the patient’s ability to properly function. Due to this, the operation is only offered to people who are on their death beds, giving them a final chance to achieve whatever they wished they had while still alive. This particular story takes place with the doctors attempting to fulfill the dreams of a dying elderly man who goes by the name Johnny.

The gameplay aspect is pretty simplistic. Players click a point on the map where they would like the doctor to move, with the cursor changing when specific important items or people are hovered over. The majority of the game takes place in the memories of Johnny, with the doctors slowly taking steps back into his memory to attempt to give him his dream: going to the moon. Each step back brings them closer to finding the root of his desire to achieve this goal, with new clues found at each step back. There is really not much that the character has control over. No battles take place (barring one mock battle that parodies many turn based RPGs), challenging sections to fight your way through. In each memory, players must locate five items of importance and then one key item that will take back to the next point in Johnny’s memory. between each memory is a small puzzle game where the player must flip certain tiles in as few attempts as possible to make a whole picture show. That is the closest the game comes to a challenge at any point, other than one silly section where the player is forced to shoot potted plants at what appear to be zombies.

These rabbits are one of the more eerie aspects of the game.

One of the areas where this game truly shines is in the soundtrack. Composed by game creator Kan Gao, Each song fits perfectly with the atmosphere of the game. Often a rarity in the gaming world as of late, this soundtrack is really quite good. From eerie music during dark confusing scenes to swelling piano songs that touch the heart in ways that should be illegal, players will find themselves drawn that much more into the story by the music.

The strongest element of this game is, without a doubt, the expertly told story. From beginning to end, the player is drawn in and actually feels the need to progress the story to see what happens next. Many parts in the story will have even the thickest skinned gamers wiping at their eyes, while other parts of the story develop the characters of the doctors very well. Neil provides comic relief, while at the same time dealing with deep seeded issues of his own while Rosaline does her best not to get emotionally attached in any way to the patient. So tragic, yet so profound and ultimately wonderful a tale has not been woven in the world of gaming in quite a while.

For the players who are looking for high budget graphics and challenging gameplay, this is not something that will hold their interest. For those among the world of gamers who appreciate a well told story with a good soundtrack, this is most assuredly something to look into. At the small price of $11.95, To the Moon is really something that everyone should give a chance. Most gamers will find that they are not disappointed.

Full disclosure: The author was provided with a free copy of the game for review purposes.

The triumphant tribesman has no idea what the player has suffered to get him to his goal.

From Dust places the player in the role of a faceless, nameless deity, whose goal is, for reasons that are never given, to protect a tribe of humans and guide them on a quest to colonize various lands. The story, as in most “God-game” simulation genre entries, is extremely minimal, and neither contributes nor detracts from the game experience. From Dust‘s story gets the job done, and that is all that can really be said. The gamer looking for a deep, fulfilling storyline will certainly not find it here, as From Dust may as well have no story at all.

The gameplay of From Dust has the player using a tool called “The Breath” to pick up sand, water, or lava and depositing it in other locations to build bridges, create dams, dry up lakes, and perform various other tasks in order to clear a path for the tribe members to reach their destinations. By sending enough people to the monoliths in each level, the player builds settlements and unlocks new abilities. These abilities are admittedly a great deal of fun to play with; “Infinite Earth” in particular sees some amusing uses. Unfortunately, however, there is very little variety to what the player does with the abilities. Most of the game is spent building bridges of sand, creating dams using lava, or drying up pools of water by turning them into gelatin (no, really). The core gameplay of From Dust is mediocre, and the controls unwieldy.

At least the water is pretty.

The PC port of From Dust has sloppy controls and poor handling. The camera scrolls at an unintuitive pace, and it is distractingly easy to miss a target by scrolling it off-screen. The mouse controls for The Breath are decent, but the “left-and-right-click simultaneously to drop everything that is currently held” mechanic requires unintuitive timing. The pathing for the tribe members is wonky and inconsistent; usually three or four of the five required people will arrive at the target with no difficulty, but there will almost always be one or two people who try and take the long way around a lake of lava rather than the short and easy path laid out before them. The inconsistent pathing is extremely frustrating, and at times the villagers are the game’s biggest obstacle. Worse still, however, is the player’s greatest enemy: the game itself. From Dust needs authentication through Ubisoft, an Ubisoft Uplay account (even if the game was bought through Steam!), but even this is not the worst aspect of the game. From Dust is prone to crashing for almost no reason, thanks to Ubisoft’s brilliant DRM additions. It is not unusual for From Dust to crash before the player even has a chance to start playing; this reviewer recalls at least three instances of the game doing just that.

From Dust is not a wholly negative experience. The game looks good, and the water in particular is beautiful to look at. The game is not particularly colorful, but when the world is as barren as the world of From Dust, this is not a major offense. Musically, From Dust is very minimal, with only a few songs to speak of. The sound effects are neither great nor terrible; they contribute roughly what the player would expect. Sadly, the graphics are the only truly favorable thing about From Dust.

The final point of this review? Do not buy From Dust, especially not for PC. The only gamer who should by this less-than-lackluster PC port is a masochistic gamer looking for bad games, and even that type of gamer should look elsewhere for their games. From Dust is sad example of an interesting concept done horribly wrong, and the terrible PC port only exacerbates the problem. Gamers who are interested in the God-game simulation genre wherein followers must be guided are highly advised to pick up a copy of Lemmings or The Sims 3 instead of From Dust. At about five hours, From Dust is mercifully short, at least. From Dust is a game to be avoided at all costs, both because supporting it supports Ubisoft’s ridiculous DRM policies, and because the game itself is terrible. But what of your experiences, readers? Have you played From Dust, and if so, what were your thoughts? Are the 360 or PSN versions better? Is the game simply horrible in all its forms? Let me know in the comments, dear readers!

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future North American Boxart

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future begins with Professor Layton, his young apprentice Luke, and many other notable members of the London community – including the current Prime Minister – previewing the world’s first time machine. But, good readers, do not be confused with another recently-released time-traveling game, because in this instance, the time machine fails to work and then explodes. In the aftermath of the explosion the attendees realize that the Prime Minister and the scientists who built the time machine are missing. An investigation is immediately launched and at the same time the Professor and Luke receive a mysterious message from what seems to be a future Luke. He tells them that he needs Layton’s help and that Layton must travel into the future. In the message is also an address where an actual working time machine resides. So Layton and Luke make the jump and decide to travel forward in time! What mysteries will Layton and Luke face when they travel into the future? Will they figure out what happened to the Prime Minister and the missing scientists? Play the game and find out!

Professor Layton Unwound Future Art 1

The gameplay in this Layton game remains the same as in the other games in the series, with adjustments only being done to different styles of puzzles, but not to the gameplay (which is still that of a point-and-click adventure game). At the time of the game’s release, Unwound Future hit an all-time high for sheer number of puzzles in that series, with the final count reaching about one hundred sixty-five puzzles, with more and more being available to download in the weeks following the game’s release. To help players solve the puzzles Level-5 spread throughout the game hint coins for players to collect, which as one could gather are there to give players hints to the puzzle they are trying to work through. One hint costs one coin, but players can also buy super hints which cost two hint coins. The game continues the long-standing scoring and rating system of picarats: the more picarats a puzzle has, the more difficult it is; and the total score of attainable picarats goes down if the player fails to correctly answer the puzzle. At the end of the game, the player can unlock secret puzzles based on the number of picarats that they have attained. As part of the ingame rewards for solving puzzles, the player may play one of three mini-games that support additional puzzles in Layton’s Trunk that can be attempted at any time. One mini-game is based on sticker books, placing the correct stickers at locations in the book to make the story make sense. Another requires training a parrot to carry items to a character using a series of ropes to act as perches or rebounding walls. The third mini-game is a toy car that the player must drive across specific tiles on a map using a series of directional indicators. Layton’s Bag also contains details on the story, characters, and a list of completed puzzles the player can review and try again.

Overall Unwound Future keeps the Layton series feeling fresh and fun even when other franchise begin to feel stale by the time of their third game. The game’s puzzles are constantly fresh and mind-bendingly fun, and will keep players up at night if they cannot solve a puzzle that will continue the story. The story keeps pace with the other two, and in the end is able to tie all the mysteries together quite nicely, giving players old and new a satisfied feeling upon completion. Any collector of Nintendo DS games would be strongly advised to purchase this game–and perhaps the other titles in this fantastic puzzle adventure series.

The box arts for XIII and XIII-2 look really nice side-by-side

The story of Final Fantasy XIII-2 picks up three years after its predecessor. Players take the role of Serah, Lightning’s younger sister, and Noel, an admittedly somewhat generic Sora knock-off new to XIII-2. The two companions, accompanied by a horde of monsters, journey through different times and locations on a quest to find Lightning and change the course of history. The storytelling of Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a massive improvement over its predecessor; despite the non-linearity of the time travel plot, the narrative still manages to be more cohesive and interesting than that of the original XIII. The characters who do return from XIII are, for the most part, far more likable than they were in the first game. The new characters, including the academic Alyssa Zaidelle and the absolutely insane shopkeeper, Chocolina, are simply delightful. Unfortunately, Serah and Noel are given rather boring characterizations, but even they manage to stay far more likable than the vast majority of the original Final Fantasy XIII cast. The non-linearity of the Final Fantasy XIII-2 storyline is confusing at first, but the plots of the areas are episodic enough that they can be done in any number of orders without being too difficult to piece together.

It seems odd to say this about the sequel to Final Fantasy XIII, but the best part of Final Fantasy XIII-2 is easily its non-linearity. The game is absolutely loaded with sidequests; simply playing through the game is a short fifteen-twenty hour affair that will only take players through about half of the game’s areas. Fully completing the game’s sidequests is a much longer affair that will more than double the game’s playtime. The maps in Final Fantasy XIII-2 are quite non-linear; exploration makes a triumphant return. Many of the maps are somewhat small, and many of the maps are reused, but the areas in Final Fantasy XIII-2 are still a joy to explore.

The battle system of Final Fantasy XIII-2 draws elements in from its predecessor; the roles and paradigm system are retained from the XIII combat. New to Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the alteration of the third party member. Noel and Serah are the only two characters with the ability to change roles in the same way as XIII. Replacing the third party member is a collection of monsters, each of whom are locked into one single role. The player can add into their paradigm deck any three monsters, so the combat feels largely unchanged from the original.

Finally, the Crystarium system returns, though it is a vastly different beast this time around. Gone are the days of storyline Crystarium restrictions; expansions are now given when the player reaches the end of the current stage.

Monster dress-up is a new game mechanic.

Graphically, there is little to say about Final Fantasy XIII-2. The graphics engine is clearly the same as the one used in the original Final Fantasy XIII, and the game looks similarly excellent. The Final Fantasy XIII-2 soundtrack, with a few exceptions, is phenomenal, with new and returning tracks combining to create a pleasant musical experience. Final Fantasy has always been a series noted for its technical quality, and the latest entry is clearly no exception.

As a complete package, Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a must-buy for JRPG fans. Final Fantasy XIII-2 improves on the original in almost every way. The storytelling is better, the characters more likable, the exploration far greater, and even the music is an improvement from the original’s often forgettable soundtrack. Even small improvements, like the ability to save and load paradigm decks or the save-anywhere functionality make Final Fantasy XIII-2 into a much better experience than Final Fantasy XIII ever was. For people who were lukewarm about the original, and for any gamer who enjoys JRPGs, Final Fantasy XIII-2 is absolutely a game worth purchasing. Now if the readers will kindly excuse, this reviewer has some sidequests to attend to.

Metal Gear Solid 2 US Box Art

The game is split into two sections, The Tanker and The Plant. The Tanker section is set in the far off year of 2007 and features the long time series protagonist of Solid Snake as he sneaks onto a United States Marine tanker to obtain a picture of the new Metal Gear that is being developed. To give a bit of back story to this, The Tanker section is set a few years after Metal Gear Solid 1 and since the events at Shadow Moses the secret Metal Gear projects have become public and everyone and their mother are trying to develop the best Metal Gear first. The second section of the game, The Plant, features the series lesser protagonist Raiden two years after the events of the first section of Metal Gear Solid 2. In Raiden’s part of the game he is sent to “The Big Shell Plant” which allegedly is used to clean up the oil spill and other such chemicals from the Hudson River because of the events of two years ago. Raiden is sent to Big Shell because a terrorist group called Dead Cell have kidnapped the US President and are holding him hostage until their monetary demands are met. With the help of Cr. Campbell and Raiden’s girlfriend Rose, Raiden begins his mission but what he does not know is that he is walking directly into a plot that is much bigger then he is. Players will spend the majority of the game proper with Raiden but if gamers so choose they can partake in side missions called Snake Tales. The Snake Tales missions are side missions that play out the story of MGS 2 HD if Solid Snake was the protagonist. Also packed in with the HD edition is the VR missions that were featured in the Substance release of MGS2.

Raiden Art Work

In regards to gameplay, MGS2HD retains all the controls that it had in its PlayStation 2 iterations and takes no control whatsoever of the PS3 sixaxis controls, which is a good thing. Compared to the controls of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD players will find it very easy to transition from one game to another with only slight changes to button layout that are easily adapted to. Although a staple in the current MGS games, MGS2 was the first game in the series to incorporate the first person perspective to take out and look around for enemy soldiers. The game does feel dated when it come to movement, especially when it comes to sticking to a wall to hide from soldiers. When sticking to a wall the camera repositions itself, in doing so the movement controls become reversed and staying in one place to not be noticed becomes very hard. The HD upscale, like Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD, does leave something to be desired. Although cutscenes are in HD the textures of the PS2 at the time do not do the upscale any service and makes the game look even worse than it once did in many respects.

When it comes down to it Metal Gear Solid 2 is still not as good as some of the other MGS titles but still can stand the test of time better then its three predecessors. Fewer series have stood the test of time as Metal Gear has to create a highly original and dynamic story that spans many console generations. To have been a MGS fan when this game was first released must have been a horrible. One had to deal with the introduction of the most complex story any video game series has had to date and very little reference material to go back to and piece together what Kojima was trying to do at the time. Only until later did things in MGS 2 start to really make sense and come together. If nothing else can be said about this game, it is the game that brought Metal Gear into the twenty first century and did it with a huge splash.

Soul Calibur V NA Box Art

When a series of games has reached its fifth installment, there are bound to be attempts at “changing things up” to keep the series feeling fresh and new, while at the same time trying to hold onto some elements from previous games to please those afraid of change. The key to being successful this far into the game is finding a good balance between old and new. If too much is changed, previous fans of the series will drop the series, and if not enough is changed, people will complain that it is just a re-release of the previous games. SoulCalibur V has found a decent balance between the two, with changes to the combat system that are not too daunting to learn, the return of most of the most memorable characters in the series, and the addition of a few decent new characters as well.

The story mode in SoulCalibur V takes place 17 years after the events of SoulCalibur IV, With Siegfried having shattered the Soul Edge, defeating Nightmare and bringing about a short era of relative calm to the world. The player is not given a choice of which character they will be playing through the story mode with, as each “chapter” in the story has a specific character already selected. Most of the story has the players controlling the two new characters, Patroklos and Pyrrha Alexandra. Patroklos spends most of the story looking for his kidnapped sister, while Pyrrha attempts to survive in a world she feels has cast her aside. Along the way, players will be introduced to all of the new characters, all while experiencing possibly the most in-depth storyline in the series so far. Previous installments in the SoulCalibur series allowed players to go through a series of random fights with whichever character they chose, each character having a different ending upon completion. With the loss of character selection in the story mode, the story itself becomes the focus. Told through a combination of cut scenes and a storybook style of narration, the story mode familiarizes players with the new characters while giving a good taste of how the world has changed.

Patroklos, the game's main protagonist.

The most important element of a fighting game is, of course, the fighters. While many fighters from the previous games have returned, there are some slight changes to the roster for SoulCalibur V. First is the addition of Patroklos and Pyrrha, the son and daughter of Sophitia, a character Soul Calibur veterans are quite familiar with. They each have two different incarnations: Patroklos Alpha and Pyrrha Omega. Along with these two there is the addition of Z.W.E.I., a broody and mysterious man who can summon a werewolf spirit named E.I.N. He has a companion named Viola, a fortune teller who uses a metal claw and a floating crystal ball as her weapons. There are also a few replacements for some of the older characters. Kilik has been replaced by a young man named Xiba, with a typical silly personality who is always looking for a meal. Taki has been replaced by Natsu, an apprentice to Taki who is searching for her master. Xianghua has been replaced by her daughter Leixia, who is a Chinese general. Ezio Auditore da Firenze of the Assassin’s Creed series is available as a guest character to the series.

Ezio makes an appearance as an overpowered monster.

Patroklos uses a sword and shield combination style, while his alpha form uses a quick striking katana style. The first incarnation is relatively simple to use, although lacking in reach. The quick striking form is extremely fast, but suffers from short reach, lack of power and little to no combination moves. Pyrrha uses a sword and shield style for both of her forms. Both are pretty fast, and also quite powerful. Z.W.E.I. is not very powerful, but has many combinations and a good amount of speed. Viola is ridiculously fast, with some pretty mean combinations involving her floating crystal ball. Ezio is, of course, very fast and very powerful. He makes use of every weapon you acquire in the Assassin’s Creed games, including the crossbow and hand cannon. His power and speed make him extremely formidable. Each of the replacement characters plays almost exactly like their predecessor, with only small variations to their move lists. All in all, the character list is quite strong, with the new characters being decent additions to the series for the most part.

Many changes have been made to the gameplay for SoulCalibur V. The “critical finish” system has been removed entirely, along with use of the soul gauge. Instead, players will slowly fill a special meter known as the critical gauge that will allow them to pull off a super move for each character known as a “Critical Edge.” typically a very powerful move, these can be game-changers if executed properly. Also available are Brave Edge moves, using less of the critical gauge and enhancing character-specific moves. Guard impact has been tweaked a bit as well; instead of requiring the player to press guard and the direction of the opponent’s attack at the precise moment it happens, players now quickly tap the guard button and either forward or backward. Consuming a small portion of the critical gauge bar, the guard impact stops a move no matter if it is high or low unless the move is unblockable. Another new guard mechanic is included, called Just Guard. if a player hits guard the second a move is about to connect, a just guard happens, granting a slightly faster recovery and action from the guard stance.

Probably the coolest critical edge in the game.

Each of these new systems is an improvement on the system that it replaces. The Critical Finish system was extremely broken, allowing anyone who used a fast character to easily break the guard and then finish an opponent with little to no effort. The addition of the Critical Gauge system gives the game a more arcade feel. Each of these moves, while powerful, are all capable of being blocked or dodged. The loss of Guard Impact as a move that can be executed at any time is a little disheartening, but the new Guard Impact works better if you have the critical gauge to pull it off. Just Guard is almost unnoticeable, with a small flash of blue light being the only indicator that you have done it properly.

The only ill-conceived changed, in this reviewer’s eyes, are those made to a few existing characters. Nightmare, as well as most of the other large and strong characters, has been given a massive boost in speed while keeping his great strength. Anyone who knows what they are doing can select Nightmare and completely dominate almost any other character. The new stages are relatively pretty, with some of them having special changes that occur during battle. On certain stages, if a fighter achieves victory via ring out the two combatants will fall to a different area and see new scenery. Some stages just change as the fights progress, giving a little bit of depth to the environment around the players.

he will devour your soul...

Another big change in this installment is the character creation system. Far more involved than the system from previous games, players are given the ability to change just about everything on their characters. the limbs and torso can all be individually changed, with a selection of faces and hair that is still a little limited. The costume pieces are generally unlocked by simply playing the game. There is also a sticker system that allows players to put decals on their character or their armor. With so many options, recreating a favorite character from a favorite series is well within the ability of the players.

If you use Tira then you are a cheater.

Overall, Soul Calibur V does not stand out too much from it’s predecessors. The new mechanics are nice, but the new characters are pretty forgettable when put next to their counterparts from the previous games. The combat is more or less standard Soul Calibur fare, which of course is not a bad thing. The addition of the Critical Gauge gives it a feel like something you would expect from a Street Fighter game. Most of the specials are pretty cool, but a couple of them are weak and quite useless in comparison. Still, this game carries the name of SoulCalibur well. Any fan of the series will undoubtedly spend hours making custom characters and showing off their creations online. While the new elements do not really stand out, the game itself is still solid. The gameplay is as good as would be expected from a SoulCalibur game, the music is enjoyable, the story, while short, is worth playing through. If anyone is a fan of the series, then this is a solid addition and should be picked up and enjoyed!

Lightning is bland, but so cool looking

After the flashy introductory sequence, Final Fantasy XIII-2 attempts to very quickly reveal how different its design philosophies are from the controversial original. If the opening section was not so fun and not executed so well, it may have appeared desperate. Thankfully, it instead properly sets the tone for an engaging experience. The two main characters meet almost instantly and the player begins battling, Paradigm Shifting, and gaining rewards from battle immediately after. All tutorials can be skipped, but even if the player chooses not to do so, the information is concise and helpful.

The game continues to feed the player its mechanics at a brisk pace after that. The hub world connecting all locations and times – known as the Historia Crux – is introduced, followed quickly by the addicting monster-taming mechanic. With so many mechanics introduced so clearly within only a couple of hours, it is more than a breath of fresh air from the hand-holding of XIII.

The story in Final Fantasy XIII-2 remains as high concept and melodramatic as it was in its predecessor, but the big difference is the improvement in focus and character. The poor writing and time-travelling jargon is a lot easier to follow from the more dynamic new heroes.

Serah is a little flat, but she has an arc that is far more clear than Lightning’s ever was in the first game. Hope’s return as a prominent character is far from the groan-fest many may have expected. He is older now and comes well-equipped with more maturity and an improved voice-actor; he graciously feels like an entirely new character. Newcomer Noel is the best of the lot, however, with more complexity to his inner workings than the combined cast of the original. He is not immune to the unbelievable and eye-roll-inducing speeches about hope or human nature or his struggles with his own emo whatever, but the difference is that XIII-2‘s characters rise above the less-than-par writing. This is a welcome returning trend that used to set the Final Fantasy series apart. It is important to note that XIII-2 is not a full return to the timeless characters of the past, but surely a step in the right direction.

This guy isn't the worst.

There are other good characters and moments worth praise, but none that could be properly described spoiler-free. However, gamers can rest assured knowing that it is far easier to be invested in the story and characters in this sequel than it was in XIII proper.

When Final Fantasy X-2 started the trend of direct sequels to Final Fantasy games, it uprooted the entire battle system of Final Fantasy X to devise something new. The result was one of the greatest battle systems in the series. However, in the case of XIII-2, the original already had another contender for top spot, so the sequel only needed to make minor tweaks to its mechanics. Of course, having full customization so soon into the experience should make it a lot easier to swallow for many of the critics. Minor changes can also go a longer way than expected. Faster Paradigm Shifts allow players to use the mechanic as not just the strategic core of the system, but also a tool to make timing-based decisions. Swapping to a defensive Paradigm the moment before a huge enemy attack and swapping immediately back to an attacking or balanced Paradigm is not only very effective, but incredibly satisfying.

The largest attack launched on Final Fantasy XIII however, was regarding its linearity. Despite XIII-2 still not really having “towns” in the most traditional sense – the engine was not designed for characters to move particularly well in tight spaces – the “tunnel” has most certainly vanished. Locations have multiple paths and are given personality and purpose instead of merely being means of getting the party from Point A to Point B.

In fact, similar to its semi-sister title, X-2, Final Fantasy XIII-2 incorporates a multiple-location and mission structure while maintaining an over-arching story to tie it all together. XIII-2 is more successful at it, however, by including far more new areas and breathing new life into the old ones by presenting them in different time periods. Players will feel pleasantly overwhelmed with the choices in front of them. Side-quests, mini-games, countless monsters to tame and upgrade, and even entirely optional locations are present throughout the experience and after the credits roll as well. This feels like the game Final Fantasy XIII was supposed to be.

Cute, but sharp.

The game is not perfection, however. In addition to the wonky writing and tendency to drift into melodrama, the game can feel a little unpolished. The framerate is hardly consistent, areas can feel cheapened by some DLC-centric design, the camera goes to weird places during cutscenes, and the otherwise improved Crystarium has a few minor late-game frustrations. Thankfully, none of these issues come close to the original’s flaws which shook the title to its core.

This reviewer would be remiss if the music in the game was not mentioned. Final Fantasy XIII-2‘s soundtrack is again similar to X-2 in its attempt to be vastly different from the rest of the series. Once again, XIII-2 is more successful in this regard. While there are a few spectacular duds, the soundtrack as a whole is unique and often powerful. The frequent presence of vocals surprisingly adds more to the experience far more often than it takes away.

This is truly the HD Final Fantasy game that fans have been waiting for. Meaning and emotional weight finally have a place in the Final Fantasy XIII universe. Critics of the original’s battle system or general mood will find no solace in this sequel, but fans of the series who were frustrated at wasted potential in XIII have many reasons to accept Square Enix’s well-crafted and addicting apology in Final Fantasy XIII-2. Oh, and none of the characters turn into air-headed pop stars. So that is also a plus.

Full disclosure: the author was provided with a free copy of the game for review purposes.

Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker Logo

Set in the midst of Costa Rica during the Cold War, Metal Gear Solid‘s story starts up this time with the infamous and legendary Big Boss, which players soon come to find out that he just wants to go back his original code name Naked Snake! But before I go further into the story be forewarned that the original Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker was released April, 2010; so while I will try to avoid massive spoilers there might be a couple sprinkled throughout! So the story is as follows, Naked Snake (aka Big Boss) has left FOXHOUND and The Patriots to form his own mercenary group entitled Militaires San Frontieres or more commonly known as MSF. The player also sees the first chronological appearance of Kazuhira Miller who is the very same “Master Miller” in the first Metal Gear Solid. So whilst there fledgling group are training Kaz drives up with a couple “visitors” for Snake, these visitors turn out to be Paz Andrade and “Professor” Galvez, both of which claim to be from the University of Peace. They claim that one of Paz’s friends has been captured by a CIA run Military group that for some unknown reason are in Costa Rica and to further thicken the plot Paz also has a tape of her “friend”" running away from said Military group but on this tape a strangely familiar female voice catches Snakes attention. It is the voice of his old mentor The Boss who he killed ten years ago during the events of Metal Gear Solid 3. The two ambassadors of peace then offer Kaz and Snake that if they help them out the two can provide them with an off shore base to expand and grow MSF. Kaz wants to accept right away but Snake very hesitantly accepts even though he has already figured out that the “Professor” is really KGB. So from here on out Naked Snake and the men/women of MSF go out on “Tactical Espionage Operations” to get the CIA out of Costa Rica!

Professor Galvez Art Work

In terms of the gameplay in Peace Walker everything is entirely pick and choose mission based with more missions unlocking as the player clears missions. There are two sets of missions: the Main Operations, which contains all the story based missions, and the Extra Operations which are all sidequests and have very little to do with completing the main story line. The Extra Ops are really where skills as a stealth action player are tested, with multiple perfect stealth, marksmanship, increased difficulty boss fight missions await. In addition to the Extra Ops and Main Ops there are also NPC run Ops called Outer Ops which you can send the solider of MSF into battle. As previously mentioned Snake and MSF received an offshore plant that they christen “Mother Base”. The player can go on missions and forcefully recruit enemy soldiers to join MSF, and through the recruitment can put soldiers into one of many departments of Mother Base which include Combat, Research/Development, Mess Hall, Medical, and Intel. As these departments level up players will have access to more advanced weapons and items to put to use on the battlefield.

As it comes to controls I must say that any issues that were brought up in the PlayStation Portable version have been addressed and are gone thanks to the PS3′s second analog stick now being put to use unlike when players tried to use their PS3 controllers with the PSP edition. Also during the course of the story MSF starts to build their own Metal Gear to combat the Peace Walker units that plague the nation. Players are also able to trade items, weapons and soldiers with friends via the PlayStation Network and go on verse ops together to see who has the better Mother Base.

On the topic of the HD upscaling the game does have many moments where one can tell some textures were not upscaled and are still the same from the PSP version, but overall this is still a good looking game.The story overall does have some of the Metal Gear plot confusion but Peace Walker does more clarification then trying to confuse fans unlike the past couple of entries. It gives fans a better look at Big Boss and begs the question “Is he a villain or a good guy?” Overall the game is an excellent port and and instant classic in the franchise, if a fan of the Metal Gear series passed the game up because of one reason or another they should really pick up the HD Collection and start playing!

North American box art.

Final Fantasy XIII tells the story of six people trying to save themselves and their world from being destroyed. In the process, the characters each become marked as “l’Cie”, giving them an unbreakable quest called a “Focus”. If the six fail, then they become shambling crystalline zombies. The ones giving these “Focus” quests are known as “fal’Cie”, the guardians and protectors of the world. If the plot of Final Fantasy XIII seems unnecessarily convoluted and silly…it is. The plot is hands-down the weakest aspect of Final Fantasy XIII, a nonsensical and pointless mess. Sadly, the characters are not much better; while their backstories are intertwined, none of the characters are particularly interesting or exciting in and of themselves. Mercifully, every cutscene in Final Fantasy XIII is skippable, so players are not forced to sit through the boring nonsense. Still, it is highly disappointing to play an RPG – particularly a Final Fantasy game – with such a disappointing plot.

The one good character in FFXIII.

The gameplay of Final Fantasy XIII is an interesting beast. Final Fantasy XIII is, for much of the game, painfully linear; the player is railroaded into a tunnel of cutscenes and battles. Midway through, Final Fantasy XIII suddenly becomes overwhelmingly open, but finishing the game requires a trip back into the tunnel. The battle system of Final Fantasy XIII is by far the best part of the game. Using a modified version of the traditional ATB system, Final Fantasy XIII uses a heavily-simplified job system. Taking one of six roles, characters can perform different in-battle jobs and actions. By shifting “Paradigms”, the player can control the party’s job make-up in a very similar manner to the shifting in Final Fantasy X-2 battles. The player controls the party’s leader; the other two party members are left to A.I. control. Remarkably, the A.I. in Final Fantasy XIII is decently intelligent; if an enemy has a weakness, the computer-controlled members will react accordingly, and the computer-controlled healers will prioritize the party leader and those who are lowest on health. The party is fully healed after every battle, and any battle can be retried. Surprisingly, though, Final Fantasy XIII is by no means an easy game. While not obnoxiously difficult, battles in Final Fantasy XIII are challenging, and the enemies in the linear portions of the game are well-balanced for the party’s capabilities.

The combat in Final Fantasy XIII is fast-paced an interesting.

Clearly inspired by Final Fantasy X‘s “sphere grid,” the “Crystarium” system for leveling allows the player to level each character’s job individually. Nodes on the Crystarium are filled using “Crystogen Points,” the Final Fantasy XIII version of experience. The Crystarium is appropriately linear, with few branching nodes breaking off from the main path. Roles on the Crystarium are, for most of the game, locked to certain characters, and each character has a unique version of each Crystarium role. Different levels of the Crystarium unlock as the party defeats certain story bosses, setting a cap on the player’s ability to level grind. This means that, for most of the game, the party and enemies will be appropriately balanced. It also means that, for most of the game, the player actually has very little input on how his or her party will develop as they level up.

The Final Fantasy series has always been known for its excellent graphics, and Final Fantasy XIII is certainly no exception. While the Xbox 360 version of the game does have some graphical issues, the PS3 version of the game looks spectacular. The game is colorful, and the world looks vibrant and interesting. It is a shame, then, that the player is railroaded onto a linear path for so much of the game. Final Fantasy XIII also sounds good, though admittedly most of the soundtrack is forgettable. A few tracks, like “March of the Dreadnoughts” and the introduction theme, do stand out, but the music of Final Fantasy XIII is largely unmemorable.

Final Fantasy XIII has received a great deal of praise and hate, for various reasons. For a gamer seeking an interesting RPG battle system, Final Fantasy XIII is definitely a game worth picking up. However, the story-seeker would be much better off avoiding Final Fantasy XIII and its convoluted mess of a plot. If one has the choice of version, the PlayStation 3 version is easily the one to pick up, as the game simply looks better on the PS3′s Blu-Ray over the 360′s three DVDs. Final Fantasy XIII is, in this reviewer’s opinion, a solid entry in the franchise that is a great deal of fun to play. As for you, readers, do you think I am wrong? Is Final Fantasy XIII good, bad, overrated, or underrated? Discuss Final Fantasy XIII in the comments, dear readers! As for this reviewer? Final Fantasy XIII-2 has already been pre-ordered.

Yup.

It is 2012 and Peter Molyneux, fabled game developer and liar-at-large, is now respected as one of the most successful game developers of all time. Molyneux’s Lionhead (pronouned Lyin’ Head) Studios has, in the past decade, produced three extremely successful role-playing games. This series–the Fable series–has earned itself an enormous, diehard fanbase which is willing to defend the games in the series to the bitter end. It is that bitter end which this reviewer eagerly looks forward to, even as Fable: Pony Training is currently still in development. The reasons why can be seen in the beginnings of the series.

This review cannot begin without declaring a simple fact: Fable is a bad game. The opinions of this reviewer have been reiterated over the years on websites such as CatFancy, where those opinions earned the admiration and agreement of countless thousands of readers. Nevertheless, after striking a Faustian bargain with the readership of this site in exchange for funds to keep the lights on, this reviewer has no choice but to delve into the festering, turgid shithole that is Fable. And shithole it is.

The plot of Fable begins when an incredibly ugly young man (who has no set name, so let us call him “Stinker”), apparently suffering from some kind of hydrocephalic disorder, is confronted by his equally handicapped sister. The year is A.D. ‘vaguely medival fantasy’, and the people are all bad caricatures of cockneys from the London dockyard–or perhaps that should be Londinium, for the setting is called Albion, a poetic term for the island of England. In this Dick-Van-Dyke-besotted universe, Stinker’s spoiled and demanding sister Theresa desires presents, for it is, unhappily, her birthday. With a screeching voice and a stomp of her foot, Stinker is sent to search for the expected gifts and it is then that fate intervenes. For the village of hydrocephalic imbeciles is attacked and, presumably, the Stinker’s parents and sister are–mercifully–slaughtered.

Behold the beautiful land of Albion!

But alas, all is not lost! After growing up in the Heroes’ Guild with his dismal friend, Whisper, Stinker discovers that both his sister and his mother are alive. Soon, Stinker learns who destroyed his village (a fellow named Jack of Blades), and he swears vengeance. Jack of Blades, it turns out, holds a sword unimaginatively called the “Sword of Aeons,” which gains power as it receives the blood of the line of Archon. No prizes for guessing whose the line of Archon is. Jack endeavours to kill Stinker’s sister and mother, and Stinker must intervene. Though he is unable to prevent the death of his mother, Stinker is able to prevent Jack killing his sister and, in the process, Stinker becomes the new master of the Sword of Aeons. At this point, he can either kill Theresa and further empower the sword, or he can cast the sword into a void, destroying it forever. This reviewer killed Stinker’s sister, because she is a whiny bitch.

The theme to Fable was composed, possibly in a moment of drunken madness, by Danny Elfman. Consequently, it is passable. The rest of the music was composed by Molyneux’s music maestro, Russell Shaw, who has none of Danny Elfman’s capabilities. Nevertheless, the soundtrack is the best part of Fable. This is not much of a feat, however, as the rest of Fable is lamentable. The morality system is absurdly bifurcated (KILL YOUR SISTER to absorb her power in the sword, or SAVE HER); the vaunted ‘character actions have effects on the gameworld’ system actually boils down to ‘light coloured clothing makes you good; dark coloured clothing makes you evil’; and the combat system is more or less ‘mash attack to win’. Meanwhile, the world of Albion is filled with cockney idiots who annoy, rather than delight, guv’nah. Usually, they demonstrate their Genuine British Nature(tm) by ending every sentence with guv’nah, guv’nah. This quickly becomes annoying, as you are probably beginning to see, guv’nah.

But if Dick-Van-Dykery is not sufficent to dissuade the potential player, allow this reviewer to add that the PC version, which is technically being reviewed here, has even more of the exceptional crapitude which the console release has. For in The Lost Chapters, Jack of Blades returns with yet another magical sword and, in a twist which surprised no one but Molyneux himself (in one of his “Eureka! I’ve got it!” moments), Stinker is once again set upon the task of slaying Jack. Who is now a dragon. With a mask. And upon slaying Jack, another Big Moral Dilemma(tm) takes place: whether to destroy the mask and Jack, or to wear it, Diablo-like, and become Jack. Oooh, tough one there, Molyneux.

Peter Molyneux, OBE

There’s more to Fable, but all of it stinks. There’s a murder mystery that no one gives a tinker’s toot about, and a Bandit King who saves Theresa, and some extra areas in The Lost Chapters. But to explore all of this would prolong the experience of Fable and, as it is a profoundly dissatisfying experience, players will more likely hurry on and–quite rightly–ignore the nonsense which festoons the game like so many peacock feathers in a lady’s overburdened hat.

But the worst part of all are the lies which Molyneux told about Fable, the promises he made and on which he could not–and did not–deliver. Players, giddy with expectation, laid down pre-orders for Fable, excited to see ‘real morality’ systems and ‘an ever-changing world’. What they got instead was a simplified RPG with stupid characters and a simplistic ethical system, all stifled by a bare-bones combat system and a difficulty level only slightly above Barbie’s Horse Adventures. And whilst playing the game with open eyes here in 2012 might well save one from the defeated expectations which attended the game’s release, doing so will only prolong the life of the series and the success of its creator–both of which, this reviewer hopes, will soon end.

Deadly Towers

At the end of 1986, Lenar’s Deadly Towers was released in Japan, followed by an American release the following September. Yet, despite the release coming near the end of the year, Deadly Towers was nevertheless a best-selling title on the NES in 1987. Of course, these were early days for role-playing games on Nintendo’s console, which was yet emerging in terms of its popularity. Clearly the success of the game owes more to the dearth of available RPGs than to its content, because what Deadly Towers doesn’t have is satisfying music, sound effects, gameplay, plot, characterisation, graphics, or, indeed, anything else.

The gameplay is generally typical of NES-era, top-down adventure games. The player controls Prince Myer, a knight, who appears to be clad in some sort of bluish hoodie. The Prince of the Hoodlums has been set a task (according to the instruction manual) by a spirit, who has revealed to him (also in the instruction manual) that Myer’s Kingdom of Willner will be destroyed by an army of demons led by the fearsome Rubas. To prevent this deeply unpleasant situation coming to pass, Myer must sally forth to the mountains of the north and destroy the seven sacred bells in the sacred flame–after which he must destroy Rubas (with a sword, not the sacred flame). Prince Myer leaps into action; his coronation is on the morrow (so the instruction manual relates), and he can’t allow the festivities to be ruined by something as disagreeable as the end of the world. Morover, in Myer’s little Germanesque country, the coronation is probably heralded by the Teutonically officious execution of their ethnic minorities; Myer musn’t delay or the demons may bump off his intended targets first!

The Opening Area

Desperate to ensure that his thousand-year-rule gets off to a ringing start, Myer dons his sacred blue hoodie and picks up his dirk. There are demons to slaughter. Unfortunately for Prince Myer, staying awake all night (as the instruction manual claims he does) to contemplate the future of his kingdom has left the young dictator feeling a trifle groggy. Luckily for gamers, Lenar has a keen eye for this sort of detail, and they have made Prince Myer extremely difficult to control. He slowly plods through the land, throwing little knives that travel only slightly slower than an upset tortoise. But Myer is not irresponsible!–to ensure that each knife meets its target, he refuses to throw another knife until the first has landed. Thus, with one knife on the screen at a time, the plodding prince perambulates persistently towards his pious purpose.

Upgrades may be found–but not easily. For purchaseable upgrades are hidden in dungeons, and by hidden this reviewer means hidden. The entrances to the dungeons are completely invisible; as are the exits from those dungeons within the dungeons themselves. Within the dungeons, the exits are in different rooms than their entrances. Moreover, all of the dungeons wrap around–and, their layout is what some might be willing to call ‘excessively confusing to the point of insanity’. A player could easily blunder into a dungeon purely by accident and never find the way out–for the room the player enters in is not the room the player can exit from. Each room is full of monsters which respawn, and Prince Myer has virtually no way to recover his life. When he dies, the game restarts. He will likely die long before he reaches the exit of the dungeon: the first dungeon has 167 screens whilst the last has nearly half as many again.

Map of Dungeon 4

If Myer is slow, and his sword slower, the enemies of Deadly Towers are not at all so encumbered. Moving with great accuracy and speed, no doubt as a result of being rested for millennia, the demons flap and flutter around the screen entirely unpredictably. Curiously, Deadly Towers has an extremely well developed randomiser. Unfortunately, this renders the game nearly impossible. Enemies move much faster than Prince Myer’s floating butter knife and they also move in entirely unpredictable ways. Rewinding the game in emulation will result in different enemy behaviour each time, so that the game is teeth-gnashingly difficult even with an unlimited ‘undo’ feature. Meanwhile, the repetitive beeps and boops which pass for a soundtrack grind endlessly into the mind of the player, cutting sawtooth grooves along the neural pathways until screaming, endlessly screaming, seems the only escape. The NES was capable of wonderful soundtracks–the Mega Man games, for example, prove this point. Deadly Towers does not have a wonderful soundtrack. It is an auditory torture chamber in which the player is immersed and then ground slowly into dust.

As Myer works his way through the castle, the mountains, the dungeons, the cave, and eventually the towers, he may blunder into a secret ‘Parallel Zone’–a gateway to which exists in each of the towers. In the Parallel Zone, Myer can get equipment which is usually helpful. An exception is the double shot, which shoots two daggers instead of one, and which cannot be shut off. This might seem like a positive boon, but one of the daggers always seems to miss the intended target, leaving the player forced to wait until the other dagger finally ambles to the edge of the screen–only then can the player shoot again. The entrances to the Parallel Zone are as invisible as those to the dungeons–and their exits likewise. It is entirely possible to get lost in the Parallel Zone and never find one’s way out unless one is capable of stepping in literally every available place in the hope of finding the one place which will teleport the player out.

Memorable Boss Fights

The bosses in Deadly Towers have a load of life and take forever to kill–and the final boss has several forms with a significant degree of randomisation to it. As Myer cannot recover his life by any means other than killing normal enemies and hoping for a life-up–and as these do not exist in boss fights–the battle system may be accurately described as ‘punishing’, ‘unforgiving’, and ‘bloody awful’. The reviewer was forced to rewind battles thousands of times until, through sheer luck coupled with manual dexterity, he managed to just squeak through to victory–after which he was forced to descend the entire tower, burn the bell, and repeat the process for the rest of the seven towers which comprise the areas before the final tower itself.

A note on the combat: Prince Myer is not rendered temporarily immune when struck–not even for a moment–though he is knocked back. With monsters that move quickly, Prince Myer can be knocked into the monster itself, and again, and again, so that he can be killed from full life to naught in less than two seconds. For, once hit, Myer cannot be controlled again for a full second or more. Worse yet, the game is full of ‘Deadly Ledges’, which Myer (in his sleep-deprived state) will plunge down if he gets anywhere closer than, say, thirty yards. This results in an instant game-over as well. Monsters can (and will) knock Myer over these ledges, making the chasms far more dangerous than any enemy in the game. Also, bosses respawn–including the mini-bosses in the opening section of the game. Going back through a door that had a boss in front of it will place Prince Myer squarely inside that boss, usually killing him before the player has realised their blunder.

This is Deadly Towers.

The rooms and the monsters all look the same, and the bosses are all badly-animated chimeras which leave little impression upon the player (there was a ghost, and a hydra… maybe?). The music is the NES equivalent of an industrial estate’s ambience, the difficulty level is sufficient to wring tears from the most hardcore gamer’s eyes, and the controls are the digital equivalent of trying to pilot Nate Liles through a ball pit whilst hanging on his back, shouting directions into his Lady Gaga-deafened ears. Meanwhile, the littlest Teutonic prince has no in-game backstory and what we do get–from the instruction manual–is the most barebones of outlines, none of which is referenced in the game. And when the game is completed, the player gets a single screen of congratulations in text, along with a picture of the future genocidal maniac secure on his throne, waiting to deport undesireable segments of his population to the work camps where they can be made to produce for the Fatherland and then be made to disappear.

In short, Deadly Towers is a bad game. But more than that, it is the worst game which Lusipurr has played in many years of playing terrible games. Avoid it–avoid it like the plague it surely is. Avoid it if you value your sanity. Avoid it if you enjoy games. Avoid it because, for a game that actually works, it is amazing how the fine people at Lenar have managed to get everything wrong. Other broken games have done worse–but they are broken. Deadly Towers is not broken and, in the end, that removes any excuses it may have had.

This is not the box art for Fable II, surprisingly.

Fable III was released in October 2010 for the Xbox 360 and in May 2011 for the PC via Games for Windows and Steam. The storyline of Fable III is the story of the unnamed player character, the younger son or daughter of the protagonist from Fable II. Fable III follows the player as the player character leads a rebellion against his or her older brother, Logan, the tyrant king of Albion. Along the way, the player learns some (not really at all) surprising facts about Albion and about Logan and must later choose how to deal with these new pieces of information. The story of Fable III is fairly unremarkable, with little to say about it that is exceptionally good or bad. The major twists of the plot are all predictable, and the player’s moral choices throughout the game do virtually nothing to change the way events play out. The rebellion plot used here, while a bit cliched, is not a bad plotline, but storytelling inFable III is shallow and unrewarding. Additionally, the static and bland characters contribute very little to the plot. Like the narrative and characters, the dialogue and writing are also bland and unmemorable. Overall, then, the story elements of Fable III are empty and seem almost pointless. They are not particularly bad, but then they are not particularly good either. For a series so frequently hailed for its moral choices, the fact that the player’s moral choices do virtually nothing to change the plot of Fable III is somewhat alarming; morality in Fable III seems to matter even less than in the first game.

Magic basically dominates everything in Fable III.

Gameplay-wise, Fable III is again fairly unremarkable. The combat elements are action-driven to the point that the game barely feels like the action-RPG the series was billed as, and there is honestly little to say. As with other games in the series, the player has three combat styles to choose from: melee, magic, and ranged combat. Unfortunately, Fable III is not a particularly balanced game; magic is the clear winner in basically any combat situation, as it has the most versatility and no cost whatsoever to cast. There are two notable mechanics to the Fable III combat experience, however, and one is good and one bad. The good mechanic that Fable III uses is “spell-weaving”, the ability to equip two spell gauntlets so the player can combine the effects of two spells at once. Sadly, Fable III also features a literal inability to be killed; if the player runs out of health, the character will fall down for a few seconds before standing. As a result, Fable III is insultingly easy, with even the chance of being knocked down being fairly low. The fighting in Fable III is admittedly solid, but the player’s complete immunity to dying removes all tension from combat situations. Leveling in Fable III is handled fairly well, at least. Leveling is done in an area called “The Road to Rule”, wherein the player unlocks treasure chests by spending “Guild Seals”, which are earned through combat experience, quest fulfillment, and interacting with the citizens of Albion.

No Fable III article on Lusipurr.com is complete without a painful reminder that this picture exists.

Technically speaking, Fable III is decent. The graphics are smooth, and while the colors are often very bland, this is to be expected of a vaguely-British medieval European setting. The character models, unfortunately, are still extraordinarily ugly; the people of Albion seem less like humans and more like trolls. The voice acting has improved greatly from the days of Fable and the characters sound legitimately English instead of ridiculously cockney. The music is largely forgettable and does little to affect the game for better or worse. In a sense, then, the music is a perfect summation of the full Fable III playing experience.

The real issue with Fable III is not that it is a bad game. Fable III is a bit too easy, sure, but the mechanics are solid and it is decently fun to play. No, the problem with Fable III is the problem that the Fable series as a whole as long suffered from: the game has a huge amount of unused potential. The morality system could give players a number of options for how their character handles the rebellion against Logan’s tyranny, but instead, the story proceeds in the same direction regardless of the player’s choices. The gameplay is decent but could be better, the characters are forgettable, and the overall experience just seems flat. Fable III is not a bad game, but it is also certainly not worth the full price of admission either. In many ways, this is perhaps even more disappointing than if the game had been terrible. Fable III is a game that had great potential, but sadly did not live up to what it could be.

Sid Meiers Civilization V US Boxart

Civilization V is the fifth main installment in Sid Meier’s acclaimed Civilization series. It is a turn-based strategy game in which the player chooses a famous historical leader and attempts to build a civilization to the point where it is superior to all others in the world. Civilization V has 5 victory conditions: Time, Diplomatic, Conquest, Science, and Cultural. A time victory tallies up players’ scores in the year 2050 AD and the player with the highest score wins. A player achieves a conquest victory by capturing all other players’ original capitals. A science victory is won by the player that builds the game’s spaceship and launches it into space, and a cultural victory happens when a player builds a wonder called the Utopia Project, something that can only be built when a player finishes five social policy trees.

Like its predecessors, Civilization V tracks a civilization’s happiness and the amount of money in gold that it possesses. In this game, however, happiness is a far more valuable thing to have than in previous games. Happiness adds points toward a counter on the top of the interface that indicates how close the player is to a Golden Age, which increases the production and gold output of cities that the player controls. Too much unhappiness and/or too much negative gold per turn will give military units an attack penalty adding an interesting amount of depth to the game. The player is forced to watch their economy in order to keep their military strong if they desire a conquest victory. Happiness and unhappiness are on a measurable continuum, with happiness gained from things like access to luxury resources and trade routes between cities within a civilization. Unhappiness is a byproduct of population and number of cities. This means that players need to be wary of how much their civilization is expanding in order to keep their happiness high. At first, this seemed inconvenient, but it became clear that a smaller civilization was more manageable and defensible.

A screenshot of regular gameplay.

One very welcome change to the game that allows cities to become more defensible is the removal of the players’ ability to stack units in tiles. A player may only have one combat unit and one non-combat unit on a single tile at any given time. This drastically reduces the military power that a player can possess, which means that it is far less likely for a player to become overpowered. Cities themselves have been revamped so that they now have their own defense ratings and health bars, giving them the ability to defend themselves without any garrisoned units. Because cities can now defend themselves and players can no longer stack units, it is now far more difficult for a smart economic powerhouse to be conquered by the local warmongering bully. The game becomes more challenging for the military-minded and more playable for the economy-minded. Another drastic change in the game is the hexagonal grid system that replaced the square grid system from older Civilization games. The hexagonal grid changes movement in the game and opens up new squares for players to attack units and cities from, helping to balance the inability to stack units in the game. It also allows a city a wide area in which it can expand and station citizens.

Pictured Above: A screenshot of a player meeting Montezuma.

Graphically, the game is much more intensive than even Civilization IV, which can lead to difficulty running the game in later turns. Fortunately, the game has a new strategic view, which simplifies the graphical qualities of the game, allowing it to be run much faster. Strategic view is a much-needed and welcome addition to the world of Civilization. The introduction looks phenomenal.

The music in the game is very good, but perhaps the most impressive thing about the game is the voice acting. Whenever a player contacts an AI opponent during a singleplayer match, that opponent is voice acted. The AI leaders speak in the native language of whatever civilization that they belong to, from Caesar’s impeccable Latin to Oda Nobunaga’s surprisingly accurate formal Japanese. Linguists are bound to enjoy this aspect of the game.

While Civilization V can be fun to play alone against AI opponents, the game is far more fun online with friends. It is a great way to kill about ten to fifteen hours, and the game can be configured so that players are able to join and leave at their leisure, with the AI taking over for players that have left and players choosing to take over for an AI when they join mid-session. Players can choose to play on teams or in a free-for-all game, and games can be set as public (anyone can join) or private (only friends and those who are invited by the host are able to join). It is available on Steam or in stores for both Mac and PC. One of the nice things about the game is that it has been patched so that Mac and PC players can play together. Civilization V is a fun, if long-winded, strategy game that is easy to play but hard to master.

Trine 2 Cover Art

Zoya, Amadeus, and Pontius are reunited once again in Frozenbyte’s Trine 2 to save the kingdom from from a new danger. While our three heroes are battling goblins and solving puzzles, gamers are posed with questions of their own: does Trine 2 live up to its predecessor? Does it improve upon its flaws? What about the graphics? The puzzles? The abilities? The problem with sequels is that it is impossible to play them without making endless comparisons to the games that came before. Does Trine 2 improve upon the first game? Yes and no. But more important is how this game holds up in the competitive and growing world of indie platformers. Trine 2 brings players into a world of vivid fantasy settings, whimsical storytelling, and challenging puzzles to deliver a unique experience.

Once again, players will find themselves switching between three characters – a thief, a wizard, and a warrior – to confront the challenges of this side-scrolling adventure. Each character has unique abilities and their own health bar. In a single-player game, this can pose a bit of a problem. If a player finds herself down a warrior and a thief in the middle of a mass of goblins, there is little a wizard can do aside from stand and be slaughtered. Or summon boxes and planks. Luckily, Trine 2 also features an excellent online cooperative mode. Multiplayer games are easy to connect to and finding other players a breeze. A girl can either play with her friends or play a quick game with strangers, without the stress of worrying about whether or not she’ll successfully connect to a game. And if players are worried about the puzzles being too easy in multiplayer mode, fear not, because the puzzles offer enough of a challenge to warrant a helping hand every now and again.

The Witch's Lair: Not at all foreboding.

The storyline, while more engaging and involved than that of the original Trine, does leave some room for improvement. The game starts with players being transported by the Trine to a forest filled with goblins. They come across a darkly-clad witch, who implores them to aide her in defeating the Goblin King who has overtaken her palace. Along the way, the story of two sister princesses unfolds. It tells like a classic fairytale. There is little depth. The conclusion is open-ended. But the story is whimsical and when paired with the stellar visuals make for a satisfying experience. Not all stories need to have layer upon layer of intrigue, and Trine 2 gives just enough flavor to keep a girl hanging on for the next level.

In closing, Trine 2 may not be the king of side-scrolling platformers but it offers players a gorgeous world to visit for a few hours on a rainy afternoon.

Full disclosure: the author was provided with a free copy of the game for review purposes.

3D Dot Game Heroes boxart

With everyone going crazy over Skyward Sword, it seems fitting to review another amazing Zelda game! One so amazing that it does not even have The Legend of Zelda in its title! 3D Dot Game Heroes does such a great job mimicking the classic top-down Zelda games that it almost feels odd that the player’s character is not set to Link by default. Dungeons play out just like one would expect from a not-quite-Zelda game, and the various sidequests and NPCs in town all parody other gaming classics. However, despite all of its 8-bit charm and retro game nods, 3DDGH feels strangely empty and railroaded compared to the older Zelda games it tries so hard to impress.

The dungeons in 3DDGH are just like what one would expect from The Legend of Zelda. The player, who is definitely not-Link, runs around the dungeon, hunting for the boss key. In each dungeon, not-Link finds a new weapon to use throughout his journeys, but unlike the newer Zelda games, the boss of each dungeon does not require the player to use the dungeon’s treasure. Instead of the puzzle-like boss fights of newer games, boss battles involve bashing the boss with a sword until he dies. The first two bosses can prove to be somewhat challenging, due to the players low amount of hearts, but as the game progresses and the player gets access to a larger health bar, potions, and magic, the bosses get easier. By the end of the game, it is possible to simply chug potions while slashing the final boss to death.

3DDGH lets players design any kind of 8-bit hero they want!

Sadly, 3DDGH lacks many puzzles throughout the game, unlike its Zelda role-models. There are a few puzzles in the game, such as simple block sliding puzzles and a labyrinthine forest, but the bulk of the gameplay lies in smashing things with a sword, an area which 3DDGH makes some interesting improvements in. Rather than having one or two swords, such as a wooden sword and Master Sword, 3DDGH features a ton of swords, ranging from the stereotypical “hero’s sword” to a giant fish. Each sword can be upgraded to do more damage, have a farther reach, or do various magical effects. The sword upgrade system is tons of fun and lets players have different weapons for all kinds of situations, but in nearly every case, the player needs to be at full health to use the upgraded swords. With even half a hearts worth of damage, all of the strength and size improvements to one’s sword vanish. Yes, it is possible for players to grind up a sword with strength high enough to top bosses in a few swings, so one could argue that requiring a full health bar for all those upgrades to work balances the game out, but that does not make it any less frustrating!

Believe it or not, that is one of the smaller swords.

3DDGH features all of the locations one would expect from a Japanese fantasy game. A magical forest, a volcano, a desert, and so on. And with those locations comes a cast of characters all heavily inspired by other popular retro games. Nearly every NPC features some kind of joke our reference about another game, of course, the bulk of the jokes will not be understood by any sane video game fans, since they are almost all Dragon Quest related. Catching a reference or two when chatting with NPCs is always a little funny, but it also makes it extremely hard to differentiate between an NPC who simply exists to spew out jokes and an NPC who is giving the hero information about a sidequest; 3DDGH features a lot of sidequests. Ranging from grabbing an item for a hidden cave, to playing tower defense minigames, to running items back and forth between NPCs, and more, these little fetch quests usually give the hero a heart container or sword, and the best part is that many of them are time sensitive! While it is perfectly possible to beat the game without hunting down every little heart piece and bonus sword, players paranoid about finding everything will definitely need to use a guide.

While, unlike Metroid, Zelda-like games are known for exploration, 3DDGH really drops the ball when it comes time to adventure. The game is always eager to point the player in the right direction, and anytime the player must trek through the world to find a new dungeon, the game is nice enough to put a marker on the player’s map, right where the dungeon entrance is. A few of the dungeons end up being pretty far from towns, but there’s a massive lack of anything interesting between towns and dungeons. Players may find an item shop or fairy fountain along the way, but other than that, the game spends no time trying to entertain the adventurous. It is by no means a game breaker, but keeping the time sensitive sidequests in mind, players might beat themselves up as they scour every inch of the game, paranoid about missing any bit of extra content.

3DDGH still manages to be an enjoyable experience, especially for anyone who has been playing games since the early days of the NES. The dungeons and bosses are all very fun, and they all prove to be a pleasant challenge. The constant retro references always make chatting with NPCs worthwhile, and the whole sidequest issue will only bother perfectionists. Unlike the newer Zelda titles, 3DDGH uses a regular controller! So should one find themselves with broken arms after flailing through a session of Skyward Twilight Sword, 3DDGH is the perfect alternative!

FUS RO DAH!

This writer will admit that it was incredibly hard to remain objective for this review, for a reason that may be quite unpopular on this site in fact: Emmori loves Western RPGs more than their Japanese cousins, at least for the past few generations of consoles. This could be blamed on any number of reasons: art design differences, storytelling structure, characterization, a dislike of grinding, or maybe simply because of a crippling case of ethnocentrism. Games like Mass Effect and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic have always appealed to this writer more than game series such as Final Fantasy and Disgaea ever could. But despite all of this, it may make for a better review. After all, what better to invoke higher standards of criticism than a game that is hyped to set new standards in a favored genre?

The subject of hype, of course, being Betheseda Game Studios’ newest addition to the infamous Elder Scrolls saga: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Set in the titular land of Skyrim 200 years after the events of the previous game (The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion) the game focuses on the player-named main character, a fugitive that has been sentenced to death amidst a civil war that engulfs the land. After the player’s execution is interrupted by a semi-convenient attack on the town by a dragon, the player escapes and make his way into the open world of Skyrim, where his adventure unfolds. The player soon learns that their character is a mythic being known as the “Dragonborn”: the ultimate dragonslayer, and prophecized savior of the world. Although the main plot is indeed interesting enough to warrant playing through, the game (like its predecessors) does not make the player focus on or even pay attention to the main storyline. The game is a giant, open sandbox with a huge number of quests and places to explore, some of which come with their own sets of minor plots and story archs.

The player-made Dragonborn himself (or herself) is not characterized by then game. Rather, it is up to the player to decide how the voiceless Dragonborn reacts to a situation or approaches a problem. Other characters are different, however. Although the voice acting is perhaps the best it has been in an Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim‘s non-player characters all suffer from somewhat wooden voice acting, which is especially noticeable in extreme situations. This occasionally leads to somewhat humorous, yet flow-breaking moments; villagers may find themselves locked in a life-or-death battle with a dragon and emerge victorious, but with bodies of their friends strewn about, but will show no sign of worry or anguish – except for when they stop to look at and ponder the bodies.

Ice trolls are among the many dangers player will face.

The gameplay of Skyrim has been drastically improved and evolved since Oblivion. Though many of the series’ classic features–such as leveling individual skills to level up, enemies that grow stronger as the player does, and crafting and improving equipment–make a return, Skyrim has streamlined combat and gameplay to remove unnecessary features, making way for new and interesting features. Many skill trees have been consolidated and combined, so that making a character with a certain set of skills is easier. Gear no longer becomes damage with use, alleviating the need to repair equipment at annoying intervals. Playing the game in a third-person view, as opposed to the classic first-person view, has been altered and improved as to be useful. Skyrim has also let players fully customize their character by removing classes from the game, no longer punishing characters for choosing a race or trying to level a skill that is counter-intuitive to a class’s purpose. The game also features the addition of perks that improve abilities and allow a character to specialize even further in one or several character directions, no doubt borrowed from Bethesda’s previous Elder Scrolls-eque Fallout series. And finally, the inclusion of giving player the ability to assign different commands and items to separate hands allows players to experiment with and develop strategies and playstyles, such as allowing the player to wield two spells, a sword and shield, two weapons, or any combination of these. There are many bugs and glitches in the game, but few detract from the experience of the game to call it a problem. Combat feels much more fluid in Skyrim than than ever, and as such the gameplay is, in this reviewer’s opinion, the best in the Elder Scrolls series to date.

These giants do not like it when others mess with their herds of mammoths.

As a primarily open-ended RPG, one should hope that Skyrim‘s environments should be beautiful and wondrous to look at. And like its predecessor Oblivion, the land of Skyrim is indeed marvelous. For a game set in a wintry, harsh landscape, Skyrim is incredibly detailed and verdant, with several areas that are distinct in atmosphere. Even the dungeons the player must traverse are creepy and moody, with dim illumination and ancient-looking decor that dot the dangerous depths of caverns and fortresses. The game’s soundtrack is subtle and rarely calls attention to itself, only helping to strengthen the mood; triumphant music plays when a discovery is found or a level is gained, calm music plays in peaceful towns, and fast-paced war-drums play whenever an enemy charges or a dragon roars in the distance. Players may rarely wish to utilize the game’s fast-travel system, so that they may explore and take in the landscape of Skyrim fully.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an excellent game and players should feel excellent for playing it. It is a big, beautiful world filled with enough things to do to keep even the most completionistic of gamers occupied and entertained for a very long time. It is definitely worth a purchase, especially for those with little to no experience with the Elder Scrolls series that are interested in what all of the fuss is about. Skyrim is available now on Steam, as well as on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, so go, and play it with utmost confidence in your purchase!

The Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days North American Box Art.

Set between the two numbered entries in the Kingdom Hearts franchise, 358/2 Days finally brings to players the full story of Roxas, the playable character from the first few hours of Kingdom Hearts II. 358/2 Days tells of Roxas’ introduction to Organization XIII, the shadowy villain group of the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Along the way, Roxas makes friends with two of the group’s members and ventures through a number of Disney worlds on adventures. The most interesting part of the plot of Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days is its characters; playing as Roxas gives players a look into the motives of the people behind Organization XIII. Unfortunately, however, one character does feel tacked on and unnecessary: Xion. Added to Days as the fourteenth member of Organization XIII, Xion spends most of the game as an unfitting addition to the plot. While her reason for being a part of the plot, and not part of any other Kingdom Hearts game does become clear later on, Xion still feels like a character uncomfortably wedged into the franchise’s narrative. Admittedly, though, the plot of Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days is still a welcome addition to the Kingdom Hearts series narrative; the actual story is interesting and aside from Xion the characters are fantastic.

Showing some Heartless who's boss.

The gameplay is easily the area in which Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days disappoints the most. Like other series entries, 358/2 Days uses an action-RPG battle system, but with several modifications to the Kingdom Hearts formula. Rather than equipment, items, or MP, 358/2 Days uses a panel-based grid system wherein the player equips the items, spell charges, and levels that are accumulated throughout the game. Being forced to equip level-ups makes the battle system feel restrictive, but panels are easy to come by and the player will have more than enough to equip any desired upgrades. Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days uses a mission system rather than a world map; by talking to one of the Organization XIII members, Roxas undertakes missions to advance the story and gameplay. The mission system works extremely well for a portable system; missions are short and allow for a few minutes of gameplay on-the-go. The missions can at times make the plot feel a bit disjointed, but the cutscenes and story sequences are integrated into the missions well enough that this disconnect is rarely noticable. Also notable is the addition of Mission Mode outside of the story, which allows players to use the DS’s local multiplayer capabilities to do missions with friends; this makes Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days the first in the series to allow cooperative multiplayer. The worlds of 358/2 Days are small, even by Kingdom Hearts standards, and the setting proves extremely disappointing as a result. Overall, the gameplay of Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days is good, but not great, and falls disappointingly short of the standards set by the PlayStation 2 Kingdom Hearts titles.

The Dream Team in action.

Aesthetically speaking, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days is more than adequate. While many 3D games on the DS look bad, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days does everything it can with the handheld’s limited graphical capabilities. The gameplay graphics are admittedly a bit pixellated, but 358/2 Days is easily one of the best looking games on the system. The cutscene graphics are phenomenal, and the Kingdom Hearts art style is wonderfully preserved both in and out of the cutscenes. One looking for a graphically pleasant experience on the DS would be hard-pressed to find a better title than this.

The Kingdom Hearts has always had excellent music, and 358/2 Days is definitely no exception. With many tracks returning from Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II and many new tracks, 358/2 Days arguably has the best soundtrack in the series, and the sound quality does amazingly not suffer from being on the DS. The soundtrack is phenomenally strong, and many of the new songs fit the game and the series as a whole extremely well. While Kingdom Hearts as a franchise has never had a weak soundtrack, 358/2 Days is fantastic even when compared to other series entries.

Unfortunately, good graphics and an amazing soundtrack do not save Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days from mediocrity. 358/2 Days has a good story and decent gameplay, but something about the experience just feels a bit off. Fans of the series are recommended to pick it up, but gamers who are not fans will not be converted by Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days. The middling scores and gamer opinion that 358/2 Days has received are completely justified, and the game is very much a love-it-or-hate-it affair. What do you think, readers? Have you played 358/2 Days, or has this one slipped under the radar? And if you have played it, what were your thoughts? Is it a welcome addition to the series, or an unnecessary storyline that only further delays the release of Kingdom Hearts III. As always, comment and let me know what you think about the first DS Kingdom Hearts title, and I look forward to reading your thoughts!

Kirby's Return to Dreamland US Boxart

The Kirby series is one of the most iconic Nintendo-exclusive franchises in the world. Developed by HAL Laboratories, Kirby has spent years fighting for for food, fun, and the safety of the world. The latest game released by HAL, Kirby’s Return to Dreamland, is exactly what one would expect a Kirby game to be: lighthearted and fun, not terribly difficult, and featuring an interesting array of copy abilities. Set on the world of Popstar, the game follows Kirby, King DeDeDe, Meta Knight, and an enthusiastic Waddle Dee as they try to help a space traveler repair his spaceship with parts that they find scattered about the world.

One of the most appealing things about Kirby’s Return to Dreamland is its multiplayer capability. Up to four players can play simultaneously in the game’s story mode. A player may enter the game at any time by selecting either King DeDeDe, Meta Knight, a Waddle Dee, or a Kirby of a different color. Upon entering the game, one of the first player’s lives is consumed. Instead of each player having lives of their own, all the party’s lives are stored in a pool that they all draw from. The game places emphasis on the first player remaining alive. If another player dies, they can reenter the game by taking another life from the pool, but if the first player dies, the party is moved back to the last invisible checkpoint within the level where the player died. It is slightly odd that the only real progress loss results from the first player dying, but because it is a Kirby game, it is not really difficult enough to warrant frustration. It is definitely a refreshing change of pace from Kirby’s Epic Yarn, which had no real penalty for players dying. Though it does not make the game extremely difficult, it does force the players not to be reckless with their characters.

A comparison of two possible multiplayer combinations in the game.

The cooperative story play is very similar to that of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Characters can bounce off each other’s heads, suck each other up in order to use each other as projectile weapons, and even jump on each other’s back to perform powerful team attacks. A character being used as a projectile is invincible until they strike a terrain object, which makes cooperative play very handy for boss battles in copy abilities are lost and the boss does not spawn a lot of projectile objects. The game also has a “super-inhale” ability, which allows Kirby to inhale multiple objects and allies, and some objects that would otherwise be impossible to inhale. Unlike New Super Mario Bros. Wii, however, it is very difficult to use the cooperative game mechanics to intentionally cause another player to die. Whenever a player who is not the first player begins to move too far from the first player, they are automatically transported back to the first player. This mechanic, while not a great annoyance, seems to suggest that multiplayer in Kirby’s Return to Dreamland is a bit of an afterthought. Regardless, the multiplayer in the game is every bit as fun as that of New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Graphically, Kirby’s Return to Dreamland is a solid game. It is done in a typically cartoony Nintendo style, and character models look polished. If it can be said that a game looks good on the Wii, this game looks good on the Wii. Kirby has many fantastic-looking super copy abilities that he can grab in some levels that destroy enemies and terrain elements on the screen in flashy displays. These are well drawn, and many of these are highly comical, such as a Kirby that turns into a giant snowball and rolls allies up into the ball while destroying everything else in his path.

As Kirby games go, Kirby’s Return to Dreamland has a decent story. There are a variety of short cutscenes throughout the game that tell the story of the space traveler and his reasons for crashing in Popstar, as well as how Kirby and friends handle the traveler’s dilemma. Like any other Kirby game, there is no dialogue by any character except the space traveler, so the story is told visually. This does not make the game bad by any means. HAL has become skilled at dialogue-free storytelling over the years.

Kirby uses his Super Sword in the screenshot above.

The game also has two delightful minigames and several enjoyable challenge levels. These are unlocked by collecting Energy Spheres within the game’s normal levels. Energy Spheres are the Kirby equivalent to Star Coins in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The challenge levels force Kirby to beat a level entirely using a certain copy ability. They are fairly challenging, but not too difficult for any gamer experienced with platformers. The two minigames are highly entertaining, but are best played with multiple players. The first unlockable minigame is a competitive game in which the players must hit moving targets with shurikens in order to obtain points. The player with the highest point total at the end of a few rounds is declared the winner. The second unlockable minigame is a cooperative minigame in which players fire guns at an armored boss enemy in order to destroy the boss within a specified time limit. The boss will fire rockets at the players in order to prevent them from attacking. These games are quite fun as short party games and offer a nice break from the game’s story.

Kirby’s Return to Dreamland is a wonderful game for gamers of all kinds. It provides a fun cooperative experience to groups of friends or family. It reminds Nintendo veterans what Kirby used to be like while still adding new elements to the game. It takes the spirit of New Super Mario Bros. Wii and applies it to the Kirby universe. The game is truly a delight, and is a must have for any Wii owner.

Mario Kart 7, more than ever, is an example of a solid foundation that has been bogged down over the years by a lack of innovation and refusal from Nintendo to let a franchise grow with its original audience. Also, the blue shell breaks the game.

Mario Kart 7 Box Art

While the Super Mario and Zelda series’ are making changes – albeit minor – to their long-standing formulas, the changes are largely positive and the games are still able to hold their place among the top tier titles of this generation. With Mario Kart 7 however, the Mario Kart formula has proved itself embarrassingly behind the times by limiting its few innovations and allowing an easily fixable mechanic ruin the game.

There are positive elements about the game when not considered as part of the whole. The graphics are some of the best on the system, and the 3D effect is even more smoothly integrated than it is with Super Mario 3D Land. Of course, the 3D does not add anything to the gameplay like it does with 3D Land. Also, Super Mario 3D Land is a good game.

Another positive addition when considered in isolation is the return of speed boosting coins from the Super Nintendo and Game Boy Advance titles. In contrast to the short boosts of speed that the mushroom item or speed panels provide, these coins can be collected to a maximum of ten to give an overall boost to a kart’s top speed. It is an excellent mechanic in theory, as coins are often placed off the optimal path so the player must choose whether it is worth it to sacrifice an early lead for a more long-lasting benefit.

Before this facade of a game worth playing is broken down, there are a few more illusions of positivity to add. Mario Kart 7 boasts some excellent track design. Shortcuts are many and are often refreshingly skill-based. If a player does not tackle a shortcut in precisely the right way, the path will often slow his progress more than if he had opted to not attempt the alternate path.

In addition, a handful of tracks drop the three-lap formula and instead opt for a much longer non-looped track divided into three sections. The change makes for some appreciated variety and requires players to become truly familiar with the layout to take full advantage of the design. The only downside to this new take is that there are so few instances. There are also sixteen classic tracks, so surely it would not have been too big of a risk to design all the new tracks in this manner.

Oh yeah, also there is flying.

Finally, Mario Kart 7 continues Mario Kart DS‘ trend of harboring one of the only competent online Nintendo games. The online functionality is quick, intuitive, and reads the player’s overarching 3DS friend list, eliminating the need for those annoying separate friend codes. However, there is no option to turn off items in general online play and that is where the very fabric of Mario Kart 7 begins to unravel.

Because unfortunately, items are not always on just in online play, but in the single-player Grand Prix challenges as well. These two modes are the meat of the franchise and the return of the heat-seeking blue shell and – to a lesser extent – the lightning bolt break the experience. The blue shell is not merely an annoying presence that must be ignored. It literally renders the rest of the game irrelevant. Mario Kart 7 might as well be a dice-rolling simulator. It would serve a very similar function.

It is possible for a player to be in first place with ten coins in hand when, in the middle of a jump, a lightning bolt shoots him out of the air scattering a portion of his coins and all his items. Then when he lands (losing more coins for falling off-course), it is possible that he will get hit again by a blue shell that was tracking him. This causes him to lose the remainder of his hard-earned coins while watching his position fall to near-last through absolutely zero fault of his own.

That scenario is not only possible, but frighteningly common. In fact, the lightning bolt/blue shell combination happened to this reviewer on frequent occasion while playing. It is a mechanic that rewards bad play and punishes good play. That mechanic has no place in a game. Especially when these items are impossible to avoid or defend against. Even the far-fetched strategy of intentionally starting poorly to hope for an invincibility star item for later use is rendered void by the item-removing lightning bolt.

People complain about a small roster.

All this is made more frustrating when it is considered that the 150cc Mode would be a legitimate challenge without the presence of items. It is made more frustrating knowing that the online multiplayer could have been a legitimately competitive experience.

Mario Kart 7 has tight controls, clever track design, and tough-as-nails AI at the hardest setting. When a player loses in a very rare legitimate race, it is encouragement to brush up on his skill. He can review his play and find ways to improve in the future. However, when he loses far more often by literally no fault of his own, he feels deservedly shafted. The point of the game becomes futile as skill ceases to be a factor.

The incredibly easy remedy of an item switch option is, sadly, nowhere to be found in the single-player and online modes. If the Super Smash Bros series did not have an item switch option, there is no way that so many people would still hold fevered tournaments of its various games to this day.

Mario Kart 7 is a game that has great elements that are made entirely irrelevant on account of blind, stubborn, and easily amendable design choices. Mario Kart 7 is a frustrating experience. Any gamer who would like his skill to impact his results should pass on this title without a second thought.

Full disclosure: the author was provided with a free copy of the game for review purposes.