The map can be completely changed to suit the player.

Ten months ago, 22Cans launched a kickstarter for their next game entitled ‘Project GODUS’. As the brainchild of Peter Molyneux, there was an expectation that he would make many promises on what fans could expect on the upcoming game, though for the most part he attempted to restrain himself this time. That came to a stop with the end of 22Cans first game, Curiosity, where Peter revealed the prize that the winner had obtained and how it was relevant to Godus.

Godus got a Steam early access release on September 13th. The game is advertised as currently being 40% complete, and it looks like it is mostly finished mechanically and only needs additional content. What there is to try right now seems to live up to the prototype video that was used in the kickstarter, though the game is single-player unless a player chooses to engage an opponent in a multiplayer battle.

The game begins on an island with two followers who begin building a hut. The player cannot control any of the population in the game, merely the terrain around them. There is no tutorial in Godus, though it quickly becomes obvious how the game works. A flag rises from the solitary hut signalling that a new follower has been born there and is ready to serve the player. A click on the hut will thrust him into the world where he will attempt to build another dwelling an increase the population further. A few more houses later, and the available land is consumed. This is where terrain manipulation come into play.

The scrapbook is where all collected cards are stored.

There is a sand bar under the sea that like the starting island to another. By clicking and dragging the edge of the island, a path can be formed that links the two islands together, increasing the space for new development. This is what a player will spend the majority of the time doing. New land must be raised up out of the sea, hills must be flattened, and the ground must be made level so that the ever increasing population can expand to new housing. A players ability to manipulate the world is limited by the amount of faith they have. This resource is generated by their population in the form of purple spheres above houses. Early houses generate faith little and often, but larger dwellings generate it slower and in greater quantities.

Eventually, the player will encounter an area of land that is beyond their ability to control. The land inside a players sphere of influence is brightly coloured, but outside it is dull and white. Followers need to find and convert shrines to increase the amount of land that a player has to work in. When converted, these shrines will award players a land card and open up a new area to work in. Cards are the primary way through which a player earns anything in the game. Achieving a population goal will often give the player a new society or science card. By themselves, these cards do little, but scattered throughout the world are chests that contain resources cards necessary to activate the growth cards. When enough growth cards are activated, the civilisation is advanced into a new age.

Godus has come a long way in ten months.

Early on, there is a giant shrine to be found. This event shrine opens some quirky AI characters to battle against and show how multiplayer games work. Another of the giant shrines need to be found to play against other human opponents. Battles send the player to a new map with a clear goal. This could be mining the most resources, building the largest population, or just decimating the opponent in a limited amount of time. Winning these awards the player more cards, including resources, and helps advance the game.

The world is quite large, though like Populous, only a small section can be viewed at a given time. Zooming out is an option, though it does not increase the amount of viewable space. The graphics are unlikely to tax older computers. As a civilisation advances, the appearance of new houses changes to match the society. There are some graphical issues with panning the camera too close to the edge of the map.

So far it is not obvious how the God of Godus will interact with other players in the game, or how his decisions will shape it. There are many other issues for the team to work on yet before the game is complete, first of which should be the faith system. Tying a players ability to shape the world to the amount of followers they have is all well and good, but having to stop work on a major project every few minutes to gather more faith is frustrating. Anyone thinking of purchasing this game should be aware that it is possible that progress could be lost while the beta is ongoing.

Anyway, I was left on one of the lists, apparently, and why not take advantage of the probable error to have the opportunity to spend an afternoon playing some unreleased games and then relay my experience to the glorified readers of Lusipurr.com? I could not think of a reason, so here goes.

I cannot tell you guys how good this looks in person.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

Let us leave the best for first. It is a little amazing and a little sad that – hands down – the best-looking Wii U game is an HD version of a GameCube game (yes, including Pikmin 3). It was the first game I went to, and I was not disappointed. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised. In motion and in person, the game is glorious to behold. It looks fantastic. I roamed around Outset Island and the vibrant colours painted the entire village with perfect draw distance. It gave me the sort of gamer excitement I have not had in quite some time. Insofar as the demo, some people’s reservations about the look of the character models is unwarranted, the game simply looks like a widescreen HD version of the charming GameCube title.

Gamers use the gamepad to control Link (thank goodness), and Link’s inventory is available intuitively on the touch screen display. It was an encouraging look into what a brand new Zelda title for the Wii U might feel like. Also, while I did get to try out the new, faster version of the sailing, it was restricted to a small area and therefore I really had no way of knowing how much faster it really was. But then again, I never minded the sailing too much, so the option is just a bonus to me, not a necessity.

So cute.

Super Mario 3D World

This is exactly what it appeared to be from its reveal at E3. It is a console version of the delightful 3DS title of a similar name. Therefore it appears to be a lot of fun, well-designed, and otherwise completely expected – much like most of the lineup present at the event. The addition of multiplayer feels very similar to Super Mario 3D World‘s 2D counterpart. It is chaotic and the level of fun is highly dependent on the quality of people playing. Players can be helpful or useless or annoying or complete assholes. For example, one stranger I was playing with was playing as Toad, the fastest character. He decided to grab the new (super-awesome, super-cute) Cat Suit which gave him extra speed, and then blasted forward in the level which effectively “bubbled” the rest of us into spectatorhood. That was annoying. Although probably very funny for him.

I played as Peach the whole time so as not to disappoint my readers’ expectations, and it was great to have the different characters control so uniquely. Peach is slow, but floats, Toad is fast as shit, Mario has the classic feel and Luigi controls like he always has, with higher jumps and lower friction. There were no surprises with this game, but it looks to be a blast.

Nostalgia-tastic

The Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds

I have never beaten Link to the Past, LusiMoblins. I have tried, but I have yet to do it. Even with that embarrassing fact, Link Between Worlds felt instantly nostalgic. It looks great – a pleasant mix between modern and retro – and it became instantly apparent that the game truly is interested in remaining in the beloved SNES world. Everything from the sound effects to Link’s shooting sword at full health to items like the wand to Link’s character design confirmed that Nintendo is really trying to make a worthy sequel with this game.

While Link’s new turn-into-a-2D-character ability was cool, what I really enjoyed was the fact that every item and ability appeared to use magic. Even bombs did not have a stockpile, but were instead infinite and used the magic bar. To offset its presumably heavy usage, the bar now auto-regenerates after a short time of not being used. From my short time with the game, the function left a very positive first impression.

After the decent Phantom Hourglass and the delightful Spirit Tracks, the conceit was starting to run dry, so I think Link Between Worlds is the right move for the 3DS. The system is powerful enough to make console-style Zelda games, but going that route is dangerous. Better to make stylistically different entries in the series on the handheld. Plus, while I did not mind the DS touch controls, it definitely is nice to leave the menus to the touch screen and to control Link with a control stick and buttons.

Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze

The thing is, guys, I am sure that Tropical Freeze will be filled with clever, challenging levels just like the Wii title. But the demo aggressively underwhelmed me. As mentioned earlier, despite being built ground up from the Wii U and coming from a capable studio like Retro, it looks closer to an upscaled Wii game especially when compared to the beautiful-looking Wind Waker HD. Also, gameplay was not available with the gamepad at the event. Hopefully it is in game, because shaking the Wiimote for half of Donkey Kong’s moveset does not interest me. It already made me nervous that one of the main selling points for this title is “dynamic camera angles”. Come on. Retro should be doing more with their talent.

Basically Shakespeare.

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team

I love this series, and it appears to be thankfully unchanged. I was worried after Paper Mario got gimped on the 3DS that the Mario & Luigi series would get the same treatment. It has not. It has a visual facelift in the form of mimicking the Super Nintendo’s Super Mario RPG, but otherwise it appears to have the charming style, addicting battle system, and actual RPG mechanics that the series has always boasted. The brothers’ special moves are still gimmicky use of the system’s capabilities, but they were easily ignored in previous editions and this title appears to be no different. I am very excited although it will be hard to top the hilarious Bowser’s Inside Story, the best and most recent entry in the series. Bring it on.

Pikmin 3

Yup. It sure is Pikmin alright. What is taking it so long to come out? It is going to be great, to be sure, and it is probably the only Wii U game that I would actually prefer to be using the Wiimote/nunchuck combo over the gamepad, but seriously, what is taking it so long? Also, it looks pretty, but not as pretty as Wind Waker HD. Release this game already.

Aaand, that is it! Those are all the games I played. For your safety, I ignored Wii Party U. Also, Wonderful 101 was there, but it was the same demo I played a year ago. Still, it was awesome then, so it should still be awesome now.

Prime World: Defenders is available on Steam from June 5th.

Prime World: Defenders was developed by Nival using assets from Prime World, another game of theirs currently in development. As the name suggests, Defenders is a top-down tower defence game in which the objective is to eliminate all the enemy forces before they reach their objective. Their objective is either entering the players base or stealing prime, a prized resource in Prime World. Defenders does little to change the fundamental way the genre works, but instead tries to blend collectable card game and RPG mechanics into the title.

The player begins with a single card, the Wooden Tower. The first few mission explain how the different types of towers work, while expanding the players selection of cards with rewards from battle. The fifth battle instructs the player to use all their knowledge to stop the first boss from stealing all their Prime. It is here that grinding, the staple of the RPG genre is introduced. Each level gets progressively harder and the player must level up their towers to remain competitive. This is done by fusing unwanted towers into one another, destroying the fusion material, but giving permanent stat increases to the fused tower.

For each story mission a player must complete, there are three randomly generated maps also on offer ranging in difficulty from easy to hard. Taking on the harder missions pits the player against stronger enemies, more waves, and fewer open spaces to place towers on the map. The upside though is that the rewards are higher. After each mission the player is shown five random cards (harder missions have a better selection). After being flipped face down and shuffled about, the player selects one to keep. More cards to be chosen, but each additional selection costs the player a progressively increasing amount of silver, the games basic currency earned from missions.

Collecting and upgrading cards brings a welcome change to clearing map after map.

After the fifth mission, the player is freed from the tutorials and the rest of the games mechanics are opened to them. First there is ‘evolution’. In the same way that fusing increase the stats of a tower, evolution does the same but requires the player have two of the same cards. The key difference here is that evolution does not increase the cards level, instead it allows the player to power up a tower during a mission but can only be used on an individual card twice.

Each tower has a base cost to place. If a player places many of a single type of tower in a mission it becomes more expensive. Powering up a tower is more efficient as the player only needs to pay the base cost to double a towers damage. If a player has evolved a card twice, a tower maybe powered up a second time for double its base cost resulting in a tower that is four times as powerful. Some locations on the field give buffs to towers placed on them, so a fully powered tower that is buffed soon becomes a force to be reckoned with.

The last mechanic opened to the player is the shop. Here a player can spend excess silver on addition basic cards, with a small chance to get a rarer card. Players can be guaranteed to receive rare cards if they purchase higher tier card packs, but these cost gold stars. Up to three Gold stars can be earned from each mission depending on how much life a player lost during it. With only the twenty-three story missions in the game awarding gold stars to a player, they become a very limited resource. Thankfully, they can rarely be found as one of the five random cards a player could receive after completing any mission.

Most maps have a single lane or a shortcut that can be opened if a player is not careful.

The dialogue in Defenders is fully voice acted, whether it is during missions or the comic book style cut scenes that accompany many of the story missions. While these are not terrible, at times it can seem like the voice actors were reading the line off a sheet of paper during their performance. It can be distracting at times, but it is nice to have plenty of dialogue througout the game.

All the visuals in Defenders Are bright and shiny. Paths that enemies will take are shown on the field. Even if there are multiple paths open to them, a player can see what route will be taken and can plan accordingly. Sadly, the only graphical option open to the player is the resolution size. Players with lower spec computers should ensure that their computers are suitable for the game. The number of maps available to random missions is limited by a players progress through the story. Early on this means there is very little variety on offer.

Prime World: Defenders is a game that will appeal to MMO fans. Many of the same mechanics are found in this single player game and can occupy attention for large periods of time without any real story progress being made. A daily reward is offered to players to keep them returning and missions take very little time to complete, so the game can be enjoyed infrequently between other titles. Prime World: Defenders is released on June 5th, but purchasing now on steam will give players access to the beta.

The featured games ranged from the recently released to the not-quite-yet-released, so I tried to focus on the latter. I gave three games in particular some extra attention.

The game is visually charming.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star

I rushed to the 3DS units first. Out of all the games at the event, I was most curious – and apprehensive – about Sticker Star. While I prefer the Mario & Luigi series for Nintendo RPGs, I have always been a fan of Paper Mario as well, particularly The Thousand-Year Door. Therefore the changes to the RPG mechanics had me skeptical going in. Thankfully, the demo was able to relieve some of my worries.

Most importantly, the sticker system proved itself to be effective and addicting even in the setting of a limited demo. Combined with the fact that Paper Mario‘s RPG leveling mechanics were always on the side of “RPG lite”, the loss of leveling up is not as big of a deal as I expected. Especially because of the way stickers are handled.

Mario’s inventory appears to be comprised only of stickers. I was only able to collect stickers for battle in the demo, but it was obvious that some would also be used as potions or items. In the demo, Mario’s sticker suitcase of sorts was two pages big, but not every sticker took up one slot. More powerful stickers were larger. This sort of inventory management is not new, but I think it is a good mechanic and I am excited to explore it further within the context of the game. There was no confirmation either way if the suitcase would grow larger as the game progressed, but my guess is that it is. My other assumption is that Mario’s HP will find a way to grow larger despite the lack of traditional levels.

Oh, Oswald talks now.

Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two

The original Epic Mickey was a great idea combined with an awesome art style and a truly broken camera. The lack of a second analog stick did not help, but games like Mario Galaxy 2 and Skyward Sword were able to overcome the challenge with minimal problems. It was truly sad to see such a great game squandered by a single technical issue. It was like seeing a chest full of gold behind a clear wall. The gold is obviously there. It is visible. But there is no way to get to it.

Anyway, it might be obvious that my attentions were placed firmly on the operation of the camera when I got a chance to try out the sequel for the Wii U. I am extremely pleased to say that the camera is fixed. And not just because of the second analog stick. It is tighter and more intuitive. Mickey runs around with Oswald now, which seems fairly inconsequential. A second player can control Oswald, but the game was designed – thankfully – as a single player experience, so “the power of two” is really still just the power of one with a few more moves.

The build I played was over a month old, I was told, and it was unfortunately easy to tell. The game controlled well, but there were a few moves that felt loose. Mickey has the ability to grab onto Oswald’s feet and perform a glide move similar to what occurs in the Ratchet & Clank series. However, the move seemed a little touchy. Something that should only take one try never took only one try. Speaking of Ratchet & Clank, I have been playing the original in HD on the PS3 and the controls are incredibly tight. If a new IP got it right ten years ago, I should think Epic Mickey could get it right on their second go-around.

Of course, the earlier build could be to blame, also the absolutely terrible framerate could be to blame. The representative brought up the issue before I had a chance to mention it, but although it is something they are working on and will likely be better for the release in a few weeks time, I cannot imagine that it will be anything more than competent for the final product. And that is if they work miracles. My guess is that the framerate is going to go from “practically unplayable” to “noticeably not great” in time for launch. Of course, this could also be an issue localized to the Wii U version.

The good news, however, is the addition of better persistence. Now if time is spent trying to re-paint or un-paint a section, it will stay that way forever until the player changes it. This lines up a lot more with Warren Spector’s “playstyle matters” motto. I believe this little change will add a lot to immersion. Let us just hope the PS3 version runs well.

Yup. Mario. Fun. Move on.

New Super Mario Bros U

What to say? It is more side-scrolling Mario. Lots of fun. The addition of the gamepad to play God in multiplayer is more of a hindrance than “bubbling” was in the original. Granted, the bubbling mechanic seems to be fixed, allowing players to “unbubble” themselves. But still, the gamepad player can create temporary platforms using the touch screen on the gamepad which shows the same action on screen. The mechanic makes the game too easy at best and an unhelpful frustration at worst.

Honestly, the only good use I can think for it other than helping really bad players is for somebody to intentionally try to slow the player down in order to create an extra challenge.

Conclusion

I am now excited for Sticker Star when I was not before, but nothing at the event inspired anything but continued apathy for Nintendo’s new system. I am looking forward to playing the new Mario Bros because those are always well designed, but I can do that at other people’s houses.

Zoya: She's like an assassin, only a thief

When I first heard that Trine 2 would soon be arriving to the world of video games, I was skeptical. Part of the charm of Trine lay in the fact that the game was so self-contained. It presented a clear beginning, middle, and an end. So, my questions was, how would Frozenbyte bring us back into the world when our three heroes had clearly had their happy ends? I recently had the opportunity to spend some time with the Trine 2 beta and I was not disappointed.

The kingdom is in peril, as kingdoms always are, and the mystical trine collects the souls of our three heroes to combat this newest threat. Amadeus, our witty wizard, protests that he has little time for world saving as he has children waiting at home. Pontius, our pot-bellied knight, oozes with enthusiasm at the prospect of impending heroism. Zoya, our shadow-dwelling thief, well, she just wants all the treasure– she is an entrepreneur, after all.

Before I even made it past the title screen, the game’s visuals had already caught my attention. The first game’s vivid and lush fantasy settings are back and are packed with so much detail my eyes hardly knew where to start. So, I’ll start with the character models. Trine’s character models were not very detailed compared to the environments they travelled in. The first thing that struck me was the level of detail to both our heroes and the goblins they fought. The characters take up more of the screen. Amadeus’ robes are filled with golden runic embellishments that glimmer and glow. Zoya is no longer composed of white blocks and long legs, but instead is a mysterious woman wrapped within white robes. The goblins were a treat; I had been expecting another endless parade of unvaried skeletons and instead found myself assaulted by armored goblins toting spears and arrows. Finally, the environments are also endowed with new levels of detail. I stumbled across rainbow-colored leaves, sparkling waters, and massive snails.

Looking forward to squishing some spiders!

The basic mechanics of switching between the thief, wizard, and knight to traverse 2D environments and solve puzzles remains the same. Players collect experience in the form of little crystal containers and use this experience to buy abilities. The abilities in Trine 2 have been upgraded. Zoya is able to buy an ability that will make her invisible to enemies. I was able to buy an ability that allowed Amadeus to pick up enemies, an ability that was not available until the final stages of the original Trine. The puzzles have also become much more dynamic and challenging. Where in the first game I could use the wizard to get me through most obstacles, here I was forced to make use of all three characters to progress through the level. The puzzles were engaging; in one, I needed to divert the flow of water to make a plant grow. In another, I found myself twisting pieces of pipes to change the direction of the wind.

The biggest new development in Trine 2 is the online gameplay. Players can now grab their friends (or enemies) to traverse the game’s many puzzles. For the most part, online gameplay seems to be solid. It is easy to connect to and host games. The only drawback being that once players are in a game two individuals are not able to control the same character. There can only be one thief, one wizard, and one knight. So, if only two players are in a game there is a lot of “Let me be the thief so I can get through this part” and “let me be the knight so I can fight these”. Still, Trine 2 is a great game for online play. There are plenty of puzzles that are made easier by the addition of another player rather than having to switch between the three characters alone.

Punkins, great for jumping!

Overall, my experience with Trine 2 has left me even more excited for the full release of the game this coming December. The addition of co-operative play also increased the replayability of the game by adding a little more variety to the gameplay. I am looking forward to spending more time with Amadeus, Zoya, and Pontius over the Christmas holiday.

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

Misfortune

Recently, I have been spending time with Misfortune, a browser-based RPG by LoadinGames. Granted, this is not something I would have stumbled across on my own – I received a kind invite from the creators to try the game out. I probably have not played a browser-based game since I was under the age of twelve, but nonetheless, I was intrigued enough to give Misfortune a try.

The premise of Misfortune is simple enough: while on a cruise ship, the player’s character is pushed off by an unknown attacker – and then washes up on the shore, near a town named Rodnia. Rodnia is quite a colorful town, rife with pirates and mercenaries. The player quickly falls in debt to a notorious cutthroat – and must now make his own way in the town of Rodnia, taking on odd jobs in order to pay off debts.

The setting and personality of Misfortune seems to be its strongest aspects. Quests are found in the Dancing Piano Pub, and are always accompanied by some introductory dialog upon accepting, and then more dialog upon completion. So, then, every single tiny quest has a unique personality, which is nice to see. During these quests, the player will often run into some randomized dialog event. Some of these are simple diversions, such as the ability to get a little drunk or place a bet on some random game. Others, though, become recurring plot threads, such as Tim, the lovestruck wannabe musician and his quest to woo the girl of his dreams. Dialog sequences generally include multiple responses for the player to choose from, which can alter the course and outcome of the conversation at hand. Misfortune is quite a verbose experience, and placing heavy emphasis on dialog and plot elements – and since the dialog is clever enough and well-written, this is assuredly to its favor.

AVAST!

Gameplay in Misfortune is quite simple, largely boiling down to first-person tile-based dungeon crawling. Barrels and piles of trash can be clicked on to search for keys and loot, and occasionally enemies will attack. Combat is accomplished simply through clicking on the enemy rapidly, but it is worth noting that combat is also fairly sparse, and thus can be considered a small diversion. More variation in mission structure would certainly be welcome, but Misfortune is clearly more interested in delivering clever dialog than deep puzzles or combat.

Misfortune features a pleasantly simple yet effective graphical presentation. Most of the game is presented through hand-drawn artwork, which is quite pretty, and one of the game’s stronger points. Graphics for the dungeon crawls are less impressive, being very simplistic and lacking variation, but they get the job done.

Misfortune is a clever and well-written little game that clearly has had a lot of heart put into it. I have rather enjoyed my time with it thus far, however, and I do intend to continue playing until I feel I am qualified to give it a comprehensive review – so, look forward to that, and in the meantime, feel free to try the beta for yourself over here.

Xbox X11 Game Menu

Gears of War 3

There was an entire room dedicated to Gears of War 3. As far as I could tell, none of the stations featured a campaign mode. Instead, Epic Games appeared to be focusing on the new Beast mode. It is essentially Gears of War 2‘s Horde Mode, except now the user plays as a locust fighting off waves of humans. My companions were very quickly bored and found a way to instead access the actual Horde Mode.

We did not play for long, but I was actually intrigued. Instead of just more Nazi Zombie-esque wave-based gameplay, “Horde 2.0″ is far more strategic. There are outposts scattered across the map which – once captured – unlock a wide array of defense options in the immediate area.

At the end of the day, however, Gears of War 3 struck me as just more Gears of War. Fans will dig it, but people with a general apathy for the series will not give it a second glance.

Mass Effect 3

I got to the event early to ensure that I could play this game. The demo was very action-oriented. I blasted enemies in the face, gave my party members – including Liara – commands in battle and it all ran smoothly and felt nice. That was not what I was looking for, however. I was far more curious about finding out if the game’s RPG mechanics were still watered down from the first title.

Luckily, I found a few clues. At first glance, the leveling-up screen appeared to have a few more options than in Mass Effect 2. I did not get more than a first glance, however, so I am taking that observation with a grain of salt.

A more concrete clue, however, was the weapon-modding station. The feature was not fully implemented, but the Bioware representative was quick to point out that the team put it in the demo very intentionally. He cited it as one of the steps taken to put more customization back into the series, and the developers wanted critics of Mass Effect 2‘s watered-down mechanics to take notice.

It has yet to be seen if this is an empty promise, but I was encouraged at the very least.

The only other new information I gathered was confirmation of the removal of the hacking mini-games. I – for one – am disappointed.

Will it be enough to counter the tunnel?

Final Fantasy XIII-2

I got stuck at an underwhelming Assassin’s Creed: Revelations demo and thus got less time with Final Fantasy XIII-2 than I wanted, but let me cut to the chase.

I talked to more NPCs in my 6 minutes with the demo than I did during my entire 60+ hour experience with the original game.

Although the demo took place in a linear dungeon, it had more branching paths than 90% of Cocoon’s dungeons.

Quick Time Events are never, ever fun. Ever.

Two steps forward and one step back it would seem from my brief time with the game. The menu was locked, unfortunately, so I was not able to tinker.

I was also not able to hear the music properly, but the Square Enix representative says that it already has audiences torn. The OST apparently consists of largely rap and rock music. My guess is that the soundtrack is another failed attempt to connect to Western gamers, and only fans with an appreciation for kitsch-value will enjoy the music.

Still, the game looks promising despite the OST and Quick Time Events. To drive that sentiment home, I did not see Snow once.

Forza 4

It looks fantastic and plays like a dream. This should be news to nobody.

Wacky. Pretty. Fun.

Rayman Origins

What a pleasant surprise. Rayman Origins is a sidescroller with an incredibly appealing art style, but that was not what was surprising as I already knew that information from trailers. What did surprise me was that the game controlled as well as a Nintendo platformer, but held far more depth and challenge than of all them with the exception of the very difficult Donkey Kong Returns.

Approximately 5 of 50 levels were shown in the demo, and they exhibited varied environments, beautiful animation, and top-notch level design.

I was able to blast through the first level, and so the rep took me to the most difficult level in the demo, and we proceeded to die many, many times before finally beating it; without finding all three secret areas hidden in every level, mind you.

The deaths were not frustrating, however. They were fun, and I gained experience and skill each time. Even casual fans of platformers should have their eyes peeled for this one.

At the end of the day

While I had positive impressions of a number of games, the only game that I am truly excited for that is an exclusive to Xbox 360 is Forza 4. In short, the event made me excited for a number of games, but it did nothing to make me want to turn on my Xbox again.

What about you, Lusi-sprites? Do any of these games interest you? Do my impressions line-up with your expectations? Comment away!