Gamesugar

December 1, 2010

Review – Disney Epic Mickey

Disney Epic Mickey
The Wasteland is a refuge, a place where forgotten cartoon characters can live on within Junction Point Studios’ heartfelt tribute to the house that Mickey Mouse built. Freed from ownership by Universal Studios, even Oswald the Rabbit can find new purpose in this place, acting as both mascot and ruler for this world, providing shelter for his fellow ‘toons while obsessing over the popularity of Walt’s favorite son.

The sincerity drips from every digital brush stroke, and remarkable seems like a word worth using to describe the amount of attention given to the details. Junction Point has created a living, breathing world for characters few players are likely to readily remember. But the devil in those details is whether this labor of love offers an opportunity and incentive for players to truly immerse themselves in this world, or if this epic undertaking merely offers a lightly pulsing museum, one which assumes that the care of content can counterbalance significant design problems, which Disney Epic Mickey unfortunately offers in spades.

If this quick appraisal leaves you making a sad face beneath your Mouseketeer hat, join the club.

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November 30, 2010

Review – Auditorium HD

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 8:55 am


Having grown out of a flash game, Auditorium has perhaps hit the big time with this high-definition console release, and it’s not difficult to see why. A curious puzzling experience that’s as interesting to listen to and look at as it is to play, Auditorium HD brings an entirely unique sensory experience to players.

The objective is simple: move the colored light into the appropriately colored receptacle. The path (and later, color) of the light can be changed through the use of a number of spherical pieces afforded to the player in each stage. By changing the position and size of these spheres, the light can be directed to fill the appropriate receptacles, completing the stage and unlocking further stages. Auditorium supports the PlayStation Move controller, but I reviewed with the standard controller.

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November 23, 2010

Review – Donkey Kong Country Returns

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 1:56 pm

Donkey Kong Country Returns
Marathon playtime with a casual audience caused one observer to remark that I was more boy than man despite my age, which possibly owed in some small part to the fact that I’d begun banging my chest after surviving a particularly hellish level.

Two straight days in the jungle have created a time machine, the latest cog in Nintendo’s flux capacitor bringing players back to the age of Super Nintendo, taking advantage of an evolved 2D palette and a long absence that brings characters back with a vibrancy I fantasized about while playing the original titles so many years ago.

Perhaps the key is that the visual seduction inspires the same level of awe now as it did then, so that even if everything new is old again, it’s hard to complain about the result.

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November 18, 2010

Review – Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 8:22 pm

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
I’m riding on the back of a long-dead dragon, the size of a skyscraper, animated through dark necromancy and thundering through the sky. I’m clawing my way up the massive spine, balancing precariously when it rears its head and tries to shake me loose. I slip, and pull the right trigger just in time to jam my ridiculous crucifix-weapon into the bone and save myself from the fall—and this is about the time when it hits me just how much I like this game.

This is the last of three titanic boss encounters in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow; battles that have seen me scaling massive creatures in elaborate platforming puzzles. Like many elements of this game, this may draw comparisons to the defining hack-and-slasher, God of War, and these aren’t unwarranted. Castlevania, when considered piece by piece, is a wholly derivative affair, but as happens so rarely, it manages to provide a unique and worthy experience all the same.

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November 13, 2010

Review – Guwange

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 1:47 pm

Guwange
Cave’s bullethell blast from the past hit Xbox Live Arcade with all the trimmings this week, plus a few features I wouldn’t have anticipated. Running through modes and stages, I can’t shake the thought that Guwange would make a spectacular Wii title. That isn’t intended to veer completely off topic, but has just been floating around in my brain while tackling the core of this game – controlling two physical objects on screen simultaneously.

Each of the game’s three playable characters is linked to a shikigami, an entity that player’s can summon at their leisure, and also one that each character seeks to free themselves from, the driving bit of narrative beneath the barrage of bullets standing between the player and that goal. At first this can result in several shades of retina overload, keeping track of two objects on-screen while Cave’s fine sprites vanish beneath the chaos of color changing bullets and loose change, until survival seems like sheer luck while pushing the analog sticks of the 360 controller in all directions. But a one size fits all difficulty setting, generous screen display and co-op options, as well as three modes to suit all possible tastes should help the uninitiated quickly discover an elegance at work that speaks to Cave’s well earned legacy as shooter royalty.

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November 10, 2010

Review – Fable III

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 9:02 am


The design imperative represented in most games on the market is simple, and nigh-universal: give the player one thing to do, and develop and fortify this mechanic until it is strong enough to engage the player for the bulk of the experience. The addition of the odd mini-game (driving a tank in Gears of War, for example) serves to break up the action, but the focus of the design is still to provide a mechanic that can be successfully repeated for the entire game without becoming tedious.

Fable III represents the opposite extreme, and an entirely alternative design philosophy. Here is a game that provides a myriad of game options, with the caveat that each is relatively simplistic. The effect is that Fable III feels like a game made up of mini-games; an exploration mini-game, a finance mini-game, a combat mini-game, a social mini-game, and so on. The dilemma lies in whether players will find the sheer number of these mini-games to be sufficiently engaging as to offset the fundamental simplicity of the mechanics.

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November 6, 2010

Review – PokéPark Wii: Pikachu’s Adventure

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 9:56 am

PokePark Wii: Pikachus Adventure
Caught between the release of HeartGold & SoulSilver this year and the waiting game for the new Black & White editions next year, Pikachu and the gang have opted to get away from rigorous training and stat grinding for some relaxation on the Wii via the PokéPark. It’s a vacation easily labeled and largely written-off as kid friendly, a description that earnestly sounds a bit ridiculous given the number of children I’ve watched swarm handheld stations at events for the more portable offerings the house that Pikachu built is known for.

Perhaps we could label this release more free-range, with players turning the WiiMote sideways to take direct control of Pikachu, exploring the zones that comprise the PokéPark and grasping at another opportunity to touch the franchise by different means.

The priority of the PokéPark isn’t to catch them all, rather to meet them all, and if possible to become friends with them all. Certainly that touchy-feely angle sounds more childlike, but the label is more properly grounded in the simplistic design and approach, from the controls to the specific objectives on Pikachu’s todo list.

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