Gamesugar

February 16, 2011

Review – Explodemon

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 6:16 pm

explodemon review
I was perhaps too young to fully appreciate classic platformers like Mega Man during their heyday; I certainly played and enjoyed them, but that was a time when I didn’t have the coordination to excel (or even succeed) at them. For me, the resurgence of these games in the market marks a second opportunity to explore that classic style of game and more fully appreciate those offerings.

Explodemon, like Shadow Complex before it, seeks to revisit that place with a contemporary twist and a unique property. The player controls the eponymous Explodemon, the unstable robot creation of Dr. Light Dr. Nitrous, afflicted in such a way as to spontaneously explode at regular intervals. Sealed away to protect the world, Explodemon is accidentally freed during an alien invasion, and sets out to defeat the invaders in the way you’d expect from an exploding anime robot: by exploding them.

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February 12, 2011

Review – Stacking

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 12:53 pm

stacking review
Stacking is one of those games that could only exist in the current generation of consoles—a labor of love the digital market allows for that, six or seven years ago, would have never seen release. In the vein of LittleBigPlanet, it often feels more like someone’s cute arts and crafts project than it does a videogame, characterized by sharp art and a carefully designed gameworld—however, in this instance the art unfortunately overwhelms the game, leaving the experience ultimately unengaging.

The player controls Charlie Blackmore, the youngest child in a family of chimney sweepers. The game begins as Charlie’s brothers and sisters are drafted as child laborers to pay the family debts; Charlie, too small to be of any use in such endeavors, is left behind, and embarks on a journey to reclaim his lost family. The story is told through silent-film style interludes, and the design here is impressively genuine—though the animation in these films largely consists of dolls shaking (to indicate speech), which becomes tiresome as the game progresses.

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February 4, 2011

Review – Dead Space 2

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 3:38 pm

Dead Space 2
Sometimes the front page is swallowed up by an array of posts about Japanese videogames, and that’s how you, the reader, can know that I will appear and offer relief by instead discussing a game that involves science, shooting, and outer space. Thus, we will now discuss Dead Space 2.

Visceral Games’ sequel opens three years after the end of Dead Space; Isaac Clarke is confined to a mental institution where the necromorphs have mysteriously returned. The opening sequence here is meticulously designed both as tutorial and introduction; Isaac is left to stumble through the halls, bound in a straight-jacket, frantically evading monsters and trying to get to safety. The sequence introduces the player to each of the Dead Space conventions as Isaac scavenges his key tools from machinery throughout the hospital, including a new plasma cutter cobbled together from a flashlight and surgical laser.

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Review – LittleBigPlanet 2

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 9:09 am

LittlebigPlanet 2
With the release of LittleBigPlanet 2, one might fairly ask precisely why a sequel was necessary—considering that the selling point of the original game was an infinitely expanding game world of community created maps and game-types. It delivered, with inventive creators forging a massive library of fantastic games. The sequel, however, builds impressively on the possibilities of the original entry, and brings critical new tools that expand what’s possible, with palpable results.

One could probably argue that the raw, base amusement of the campaign is designed primarily to tease players with what those game assets can be leveraged to create. However, there’s an element of charm and adventure that elevates what could have simply been a tech demo to perhaps the ultimate example of the party game. In that respect, the ideal environment is to play with friends in the same room, though online co-op is also a workable solution. Playing alone, however, noticeably diminishes the experience—it’s always more fun to laugh out loud in a group than it is sitting alone in your basement.

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January 28, 2011

Demo Report – Catherine

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 5:50 pm

Catherine Demo
Catherine’s recently available Japanese Demo opens with a separate slice of animation, a montage that offers glimpses from iconic cinematic genres, including the biblical, the love story, the monster movie, and the horror film – and then the brief bit of video ends and the game’s protagonist, Vincent, enters the screen to face the first of two tastes from Catherine’s puzzle-block focused agenda. Film genres linger though, every one of those seen in that quick sequence showing some influence within the game proper.

Catherine’s animation builds on the seductive eye-candy of the Persona series, with a color palette and design aesthetic that is visually arresting, but which also shows new signs of maturity – and not simply because of the sexual psychology at the heart of Catherine’s most immediate and deliciously kinky appeal.

Whether through scenes featuring Vincent and girlfriend Katherine talking over tea, or the way a crime scene pulls back into a television report, and then further still to the bar where Vincent and his friends can see that television emitting signals, every shot and transition brings stylish cinematic sensibilities to the screen.

And then there is the playing…

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January 23, 2011

Catching up with the Brotherhood

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 9:10 am

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood
It’s not easy to get behind a franchise that has made the decision to go annual. The knowledge that the machinery has aligned specifically to bludgeon every last dollar out of the property (and the consumer) is grave in its implications. As an adherent to the existing systems for emulating assassins and their creeds, Ubisoft’s decision to Call-of-Dutyerize Assassin’s Creed was, for me, an ominous sign; the gong of some distant bell signalling the end of all things, save a string of uninspired sequels.

Then, of course, there was the multiplayer. One recalls the dial-it-in multiplayer solutions for traditionally single-player games like Bioshock and Metroid Prime and would be forgiven for groaning audibly. Equally, the human capacity to defy carefully crafted mechanics and break multiplayer game design is well known. Surely, Assassin’s Creed would have no chance of maintaining a mechanic based on careful stealth and patience among the multiplayer community.

Rarely is being wrong so satisfying.

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January 18, 2011

Leaked Screenshots Unveil Terrifying X-Douche

Filed under: News Feed — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 5:16 pm

X-Men: Destiny
The destiny you’ve always fantasized about is to play a horrible Jersey Shore reject with the mutant power of extreme douchery, if leaked screenshots from X-Men: Destiny are to be believed.

You can check out a selection of art and screenshots at Comics Alliance, featuring an X-Bro apparently ripped directly from the pages of Modern Design Cliches: 101 Bags, Tattoos, and Beard Styles, who appears strangely out of place as he battles alongside elaborate, brightly colored heroes in his wife-beater. One recalls the original design for Cole in inFamous 2 and thinks “Well, I guess that wasn’t so bad, after all.”

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