The War Of The Worlds Review (XBLA)

Game Review: The War of the Worlds (XBLA)
Release: October 21, 2011
Genre: Side Scroller
Developer: Other Ocean
Available Platforms: Xbox 360 (Ps3 later)
Players: 1
MSRP: 800 MS points ($10 US)
ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10 and up)
Website: www.waroftheworldsgame.com

It is only appropriate that our review of “The War of the Worlds” should post at Halloween time, the anniversary of the historic 1938 radio broadcast, which like this game, was an adaptation of the 1898 H. G. Wells book of the same name. This re-imagining is quite different from the radio broadcast or the popular movies, all set in New Jersey or California. Staying far truer to the book, this telling is set in London. For those who are unfamiliar, the story is about an invasion of Earth by Martians who are hell-bent on eradicating the human species.

“The War of the Worlds is a dark and breathtaking new vision of the classic H.G. Wells novel, retold as a single player side-scrolling action-adventure, narrated by the acclaimed and distinguished actor, Patrick Stewart. Set in London, the gameplay narrative parallels the timeline and events from the 1953 movie adaptation, but introduces a new story arc, characters, locations, and sub-plots. With gameplay paying homage to classic cinematic platformers such as Flashback, Out of This World and Prince of Persia, the game follows the exploits of an unknown everyman struggling to escape the Martian invasion of London and rescue his family. Forced to think through insurmountable odds, players will outsmart an army of alien tripods, spiders and drones as they make their way through a landscape of total devastation.” – Other Ocean

The game focuses on the survival efforts of Arthur Clarke as he searches for his family while the World crashes down around him. Our first glimpse of the invasion is in the background at he rides on a passenger train during the opening title sequence. Brightly lit meteors streak down from the sky, one finding the tracks ahead, derailing the train, and so our journey begins as we climb from the wreckage.

Even though the overall arc of the game is to find Clarke‘s family, the main focus is on trying to survive from moment to moment. You will leap from car to car, hide behind walls, dodge heat rays and outsmart alien probes in traditional side-scroller style. What is not so traditional is the level of difficulty that this game quickly ramps up to, and sustains after the first few chapters. As the story progresses it is obvious that our protagonist is not nearly as agile as the level designers had hoped, making him feel heavy, clumsy, and slow to respond.

One could not hope for a better narrator than Patrick Stewart whose theatre trained voice breathes life into the classic words of this tale. The story is told over top of the action as it happens, much like an audio book in sync with the events of the game. The artwork is dark and dreary composed of mainly black and white artwork with colored highlights. At first glance the game looks and feels much like Limbo due to the layered animation with out of focus action in the foreground, but the game mechanics set it far apart from the accessible likes of Limbo.

With such a widely loved intellectual property such as The War of the Worlds combined with the worldly voice talent of Patrick Stewart, it would seem that this game should be aimed at a rather broad audience. Unfortunately, poor controls and highly frustrating level design that calls for more accuracy than the main character can provide breaks this game completely. Add to this a useless checkpoint system that causes you to repeat long sequences of tedious maneuvers over and over again and you have a potential candidate for worst game of the year.

Be aware, downloading and playing the demo will give you a sense of the beautiful artwork in the game but fails to expose you to the any of the difficulty since the first couple chapters are there to establish the story and acclimate you to the controls. Just past the end of the demo the difficulty scales up ruthlessly.

Although The War of the Worlds is seductive; It’s wonderful to listen to and beautiful to look at, and the demo seems completely reasonable, this game is not fun at all. Casual gamers should steer completely clear of this game which must have been forged in the pits of hell for only the most masochistic of gamers with a consuming need to achieve the impossible. For the few extreme hardcore gamers that like this sort of thing, this game will provide you with hours of joy and mental anguish. For the rest of you, do yourself a favor; satisfy your craving for The War of the Worlds with the free book from Project Gutenburg  or the public domain audio book at LibraVox.

• Classy artistic presentation
• Perfect narration by Patrick Stewart
• Impossibly difficult chapters
• Frustrating lack of checkpoints
• Sluggish controls
• Satan approved – 100% fun free

Final Score: 2 out of 10

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Sega Bass Fishing Review (XBLA)

Game Review: SEGA Bass Fishing
Release: October 05, 2011
Genre: Fishing / Outdoor Sports
Developer: SEGA
Available Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii
Players: 1
MSRP: 800 MSP or $9.99 US
ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
Website: http://www.sega.com/games/sega-bass-fishing/

Bass fishing is not the first thing that comes to my mind when thinking of video game content, but I do like to see games that stray from the highly saturated genre of shooters. So I loaded up Sega Bass Fishing, packed a lunch with a fried Spam sandwich and returned to the fishing trips of my childhood from the comfort of my living room sofa. Strapped into my virtual Bass Boat, I take to the lake to see if anything is biting.

Here is what Sega has to say about the game:

“In SEGA Bass Fishing, players can cast their lines at eight different fishing holes, utilising 14 unique lures while battling realistic weather conditions that affect fish behavior. Players also have the opportunity to master their angling techniques to catch as many fish as possible in four tournaments, where the best of the best cross fishing rods! In addition, exclusive to the PlayStation 3, you’ll be able to get that realistic fishing experience right in your living room with the PlayStation Move motion controller. Cast off and reel in with a simple flick of the wrist.”

At first glance, the game’s graphics will not knock your socks off. This is not a remake, but a port of the original Dreamcast game with some tweaking for HD widescreen. Once you cast your line into the water and see first hand how the control of you poles and speed of reeling effect the lure in the water, you will be hooked. It really feels like fishing – even if the fish always tend to be hungry – which makes for the best fishing trips. Am I right?

The game breaks down to three modes: Arcade Mode, Original Mode and Practice Mode.

• Original Mode puts you through a series of tournaments where you have limited windows of time in which to fish. Score is kept by the weight of you catch and placing in the (pre-determined) top 10 earns your progression to the next series. As you progress through the tournaments, additional lures are unlocked as rewards.
• Arcade Mode is exactly that.  This operates as if you walked up to a machine in an arcade and dropped in a quarter.  You begin with two minutes and must earn additional time by catching fish and meeting weight goals.
• Practice Mode is just kickin’ back and fishin’; no competition or time limits. This is the closest thing to a relaxing day of fishing, just jump in the boat, pick a time of day, a location and the preferred weather. This is my favorite mode.

The game mechanics are the star of this game. With the left stick you control the direction of your pole. The right trigger controls the speed of reeling. Combine this with the accurate rumble feedback and it’s not to hard to imagine that you are actually fishing. Getting a fish on the line is made truly enjoyable by the lure-cam, giving you an underwater view of the action. Getting the fish in the boat is a completely different challenge – just like real fishing. A meter constantly shows the amount of tension on the line – and if it is too slack the fish will get away, too taught and the line could break. The fight to get your catch in the live box feels just right.

Even though the game mechanics feel spot on, Sega should have gone further with the graphics. Even though this is an HD version (port) of a classic game, it would have been great to see the graphics completely overhauled with more detailed models and recreated menus and pictures. Many of the menu screens are just stretched to the HD aspect ratio unless the Display Mode is set to “Wallpaper” rather than “Full screen”, then they are displayed in 4:3 with a pad around the edge.

While this new HD version of Sega Bass Fishing is not all that much of an improvement over the original, it remains a fun-to-play game that is a pleasant departure from shooting stuff.  At 800 Microsoft points ($9.99) this is not a bad deal, but there is a better deal to be had.   Sega Bass Fishing is part of the Sega Dreamcast Classics for Xbox 360 (with three other games) at a retail price of $19.99 US (Amazon has it now for about $15 US).  Sega Dreamcast Classics also includes Space Channel 5 Part 2, Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure, so if you are also interested in these Sega remakes, this may be the way to go.

• Realistic Lure Use
• Varied Locations and Time of Day
• Three Modes of Play
• Blend of Crisp HD Port with Outdated Models and Graphics

Final Score: 8 out of 10

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Space Channel 5 Part 2 Review (XBLA)

Game Review: Space Channel 5 Part 2
Release: October 05, 2011
Genre: Music / Rhythm
Developer: SEGA
Available Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3
Players: 1-2 (Off-line co-op)
MSRP: 800 MSP or $9.99
ESRB Rating: T for Teen
Website: http://www.sega.com/games/space-channel-5-part-2/

Up, down, up, down, chu, chu, chu.  If this resurrects memories of infectious club music and dance combat then you are no stranger to Space Channel 5 Part 2.  Who else would you choose to save humanity from invading aliens but anime dream girl, and dance reporter, Ulala.

Here is how Sega describes the game:

In Space Channel 5 Part 2, follow Ulala, a dancer and reporter from Space Channel 5, on her quest to take down the Rhythm Rogues and their leaders, Purge and Shadow. The dancing Dreamcast diva must prevent them from creating the all-powerful dance-control weapon and ultimately end their pursuit of world domination. Along the way, enlist the help of Space Michael, based on the King of Pop himself, to prove Ulala’s prowess in rhythm and rescue Space President Peace!

The gameplay here is easy to learn but difficult to master.  Dance moves are represented by buttons on the controller.  The D-pad is used for up, down, left and right, the A button is “Chu” and the B button is “Hey”.  Battles consist of running into groups of aliens and doing battle through these dance moves.  First the aliens perform a dance routine then you need to repeat it using the correct keys at the correct time.  The difficulty ramps up quickly with longer and more complex dance sequences making the game fun and challenging.

If you can’t clap your hands or tap your feet to a beat then you should probably just move along citizen as this game will only frustrate you and make you miserable.  The sequences have some fairly complex rhythms and you are expected to not only press the correct buttons in the correct order, but you also need to get the rhythm dead on.  There isn’t much room for error.  I have been a drummer most of my life and I still found this game to challenging at times.

The great thing about this dance game is that you don’t have to stand in the middle of the living room, flailing around.  Your dancing is all done via the game pad so you never have to leave the comfort of your couch.  Having Ulala showing off her moves in HD is always a plus and is a welcome update to this classic game, even if the character models are still very noticeably blocky and angular.

Even though the game is being marketed as being in HD now, the absolute minimum has been done to get it there.  It appears all of the original character models are still being used, so don’t expect graphical miracles here.  Also, it would have been nice if Sega would have invested the time and effort to re-render the cut scenes in HD, but they are all still in fuzzy SD and have a 4:3 aspect ratio.

While this new HD version of Space Channel 5 Part 2 is not all that much of an improvement over the original, it remains a fun-to-play rhythm game that doesn’t require you to buy into the recent wave of motion controllers.  At 800 Microsoft points ($9.99) this is not a bad deal, but there is a better deal to be had.  Space Channel 5 Part 2 is part of the Sega Dreamcast Classics for Xbox 360 (with three other games) at a retail price of $19.99 US (Amazon has it now for about $15 US).  Sega Dreamcast Classics also includes Sega Bass Fishing, Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure, so if you are interested in these Sega remakes, this may be the way to go.

• Infectious soundtrack
• Easy to learn / Difficult to master
• Not for the rhythm challenged
• Recycled SD cut scenes

Final Score: 7 out of 10

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BurgerTime World Tour Being Served On XBLA 11/2

Xbox 360 owners will get to step up to the grill first for their serving of BurgerTime World Tour.  This re-imagined classic will appear on PSN, WiiWare and PC later this year.  No specific date for these additional platforms has been announced yet.  Check out the trailer below for a peek at the new game-play.

The new BurgerTime experience introduces fresh and meaty additions to the franchise. With challenging platforming elements, online multiplayer, avatar support and boss characters, this is a BurgerTime experience unlike any other. BurgerTime World Tour will be affordably priced at 800 Microsoft Points.

“MonkeyPaw Games has always believed that classic gaming experiences should transcend their original space and evolve into a larger world for the current gaming generation,” said John Greiner, President of MonkeyPaw Games. “We’re thoroughly excited to bring a maturation of a classic game like BurgerTime and give fans a taste of our recipe for retro evolution.”

The New Multiplayer Gameplay Trailer for BurgerTime World Tour 

Check out www.burgertimeworldtour.com and www.monkeypawgames.com for more info.

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SkyDrift Review (XBLA)

Game Review: SkyDrift (XBLA)
Release: September 7, 2011 (PC TBA)
Genre: Arcade Racing / Flight Simulation
Developer: Digital Reality
Available Platforms:  Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Players: 1 – 8 Online Multiplayer
MSRP: 1200 MS Points / $14.99 US
ESRB Rating:  E (10+)
Website: www.SkyDriftGame.com

Racing fans that are tired of driving cars will be thrilled with this new plane racing experience.  Ever wanted to fly an X-wing fighter through the trenches of the Death Star?  This is the next best thing.  SkyDrift puts you in control of 8 distinctively different racing planes to fly in thirty-three different racing events where you will race through industrial structures, caves and valleys in some of the fastest and smoothest flying machines I’ve ever controlled.

The game begins with a single plane available to you; additional planes are unlocked by completing events.  Each plane also has its own distinct characteristics for speed, agility and armor as well as four paint schemes to unlock, similar to the boats in Hydro Thunder.

SkyDrift’s racing events fall into three categories: Speed Races, Power Races and Survivor Races.

Speed Races as the name states are all about speed.  Along the race course there are boost rings that give you a speed boost when you fly through them.  The object is to hit as many rings as possible to maintain top speed.

Power Races have the usual group of power-ups scattered throughout the course that include missiles, machine guns, EMP bursts, mines and shields.  A nice touch in SkyDrift is that picking up a second power-up of the same type makes that particular weapon of shield more powerful.  Also, any unwanted power-ups can be converted into boost at any time to give you an extra push when needed.  Boost is also earned by performing stunts and flying low to the ground.  Overall this mode feels much like Blur in airplanes.

Survivor Races are eliminator style races with a timer that ticks down, and when the time runs out, whoever is in last place is eliminated,  All of the features of the Power Races apply here also, so if you can’t pass your opponents, just shoot ‘em down.

The courses are beautifully designed and rendered making them worthy of a slow, losing fly through just to take them all in.  Some events use the same courses, but in reverse, helping to keep the environment familiar but the courses fresh.  Three difficulty levels keep the game accessible to flyers of all ages even though it is rated for 10+; my four-year old loves flying in SkyDrift.

The best thing about SkyDrift is the controls.  They are not standard “flight simulator” controls, as these are simpler and very intuitive, making control of the planes an absolute joy.  The left stick controls up, down, left and right while the right stick controls the orientation of the plane.  For example, to make a sharp right turn, just push both sticks to the right and the plane executes a knife-edge turn through a narrow gap in the canyon.  This keeps the turns fast, exciting and fun to execute.  The third person view from behind the plane, as opposed to a cockpit view, is key to making the controls feel so smooth, because the controls are always relative to your view (the horizon) and not the plane, so up is always up, even if your plane is inverted.

The online multi-player allows up to eight to race at once and I did not notice any lag when compared to playing the single player campaign.  The only difference is that real players are a little easier to beat than the AI racers in the later levels.  My only wish is that it had a local split-screen multi-player mode.

The only thing I found irritating is that when I would stray a little off course, the game would “nudge” me back onto the course as if I were flying in an invisible tunnel.  Many time this would “nudge” me directly into an obstacle I was trying to fly around.  As I got better at following the intended course of each race, this problem went away.

My final word is to go buy this game.  It is a gorgeous, fresh take on the familiar power-up racing genre that is fast and fun without frustration.

• Well designed controls
• Exciting courses and flight paths
• Up to eight players online
• No local co-op

Final Score: 9 out of 10

You can follow SkyDrift here on Facebook and Twitter.

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