Gamesugar

September 4, 2010

Catching Up On Bullets

Filed under: News Feed — Tags: , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 12:20 pm

Akai Katana
Cave’s latest dose of upcoming arcade bullethell has been getting some small updates, on top of videos from the location test that are worth another viewing. The stage 1 map of Akai Katana was made viewable while I was dozing off, along with a handful of enemy sprites that may make some long for the good ‘ol days – so check it out.

If you’re looking for something import worthy on a console, you could check out DoDonPachi Resurrection – Cave’s posted a trailer for the game, which releases for Japanese 360’s this November.

July 3, 2010

Review – Sin & Punishment: Star Successor

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 12:58 pm

Sin & Punishment: Star Successor
Soldiers scramble through the ruins of a forgotten yet familiar city, finding footholds in crumbling buildings as swarms of genetic mutations fly across the skyline like scurrying schools of fish darting through deeper waters. In the foreground, futuristic helicopters and mobile infantry patrol broken stretches of freeway, filling the screen with missiles and bullets as Isa and Kachi make a desperate break for freedom.

Exactly why Isa and Kachi are on the run is unclear, along with the motives of the shadow organization pursuing them – staffed by ominous assassins who speak with the comfort of established relationships that forever remain a mystery to the player.

(more…)

June 30, 2010

Catching Up With Half-Minute Hero

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 1:45 pm

Half-Minute Hero
While perfectly suited to quick traveling bouts of play, it wasn’t hard losing an entire day to Half-Minute Hero when I finally caught up with the 2009 XSEED PSP release last week. The game offers four primary modes of play, allowing it to boast a marketing pitch that unites a shooter, RPG, and RTS on a single UMD, all thematically tied together by the thirty-second hook that makes this release the bat-shit crazy and addictive game it is.

Evil Lord 30 mode sunk its teeth in the deepest, an RTS campaign wherein players partake in a summoning spree while guiding the vainest Evil Lord in existence toward returning the only woman he may love more than himself back to human form after being transformed into a bat.

Each quick stage along the path to victory allows players to summon four monster types and seek out elemental gods to overcome armies while blood crazed techno-rock music breathes heavy in the ears – I want to suggest it’s that heavy sort of breathing you get when more familiar gaming tunes go bar hopping with the Future Sound of London.

(more…)

January 4, 2010

Review – PixelJunk Shooter

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 9:03 am

PixelJunk Shooter
Talking about the physics of a videogame, or at least the way in which elements and objects physically react to the player, leaves me thinking of pop cans rolling down hallways, the splinters of wooden crates, or bodies flailing before flopping on the ground – and afterward if stepped on. I think of little eccentricities that mean to draw me into a world made more convincing by their presence, subtle additions that nourish the reality of the world within the game.

If said game avoids confronting me with an endless series of puzzles meant to force my appreciation of the effort, so much the better.

Beneath the shooter exterior, PixelJunk offers a subterranean world of environmental puzzles as a focal point, distinguishing itself with a playground of experimentation that directly drives the solutions and pushes the player forward. It isn’t a world made more realistic because of the physical elements within it, rather a world made more compelling and interesting because of the depth found in the interaction between elements that the player is allowed to interact with and manipulate.

What we’re left with is a game that is at all times inherently playful, a sensibility sadly missing from so many current releases.

(more…)

« Newer Posts

Powered by WordPress