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September 29, 2012

Review – HELL YEAH! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 5:02 pm

Review Hell Yeah Wrath of the Dead Rabbit
To say that Arkedo’s latest creation bursts with color and creativity falls short of capturing the artistic madness of their work. Prince Ash’s quest to eviscerate the 101 monsters that have laid eyes upon his incriminating photographs offers a world, not quit as organic in the flow of life as last year’s Rayman Origins, but gushing with an attitude all its own and a degree of more comic minded artistry that ensnares the eyes just as easily.

In a sea of releases where minimalism offsets the truth that detailed art is extremely time consuming and expensive, Hell Yeah is a punch to the retina that also brings a much needed dose of unbridled batshit crazy design to the table – that feeling that no idea was too crazy in whatever subterranean development space allowed this game to be created.

With great madness comes great risk however, and the play mechanics of Hell Yeah favor a safer and more familiar road, which on the one hand limits the mileage, but on the other goes a long way toward offering a title that may convince some that the Sega Genesis is alive and well in the year of gaming that is 2012.

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September 19, 2012

Review – Mark of the Ninja

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 12:08 am

Review Mark of the Ninja
While not quite as overcooked as our friend the zombie, the Ninja certainly qualifies as a familiar enough videogame character to stir a collective sigh whenever a new title bearing a protagonist with the requisite sword and black pajamas appears.

But hold your breath a moment longer dear Sugarfriend, because the latest release from Klei Entertainment justifies the familiar trappings by placing said protagonist firmly in the stealth genre here, leaving one only to question why that hasn’t happened more often.

Mind you, I’ve given the thumbs-up to a fair number of lightning fast ninja titles, never really questioning the lack of a ninja game that focused on the most basic principles of the silent and invisible weapon the ninja represents at its core. The experiment warrants more than a few words, and that Klei has also created this ninja tale in a 2D environment that manages to freshen up ye olde stealth genre to boot only strengthens the sales pitch.

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September 18, 2012

Review – Jet Set Radio

Review Jet Set Radio
Sega plays the funky dealer for another revisit to the golden age of Dreamcast with Jet Set Radio, which like Space Channel 5, remains one of the most romanticized titles from those gaming days gone by, now back by popular demand with an HD makeover.

Players are once again invited to strap-on their magnetically driven in-line skates to hit the chaotic streets of Tokyo-To, while listening to what scientists largely agree is the greatest soundtrack for a videogame, ever.

If however, you weren’t a card carrying member of the Dreamcast faithful and find yourself new to the graffiti tagging play mechanic, let’s get scratchin.

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June 16, 2012

When Dirk the Daring Met Kinect

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , , , — Jason Westhaver @ 2:34 pm

Dragons Lair Xbox LIVE Arcade Kinect
Since first releasing in 1983, Dragon’s Lair has seen a ridiculous number of ports and adaptations, for everything from the MSX2 to the PlayStation Network. But few, if any, of those releases have attempted to update the experience beyond visual restoration. In the last five years alone, we’ve seen no less than thirteen ports featuring the same mechanics, the same HD video transfer and the same QTE-styled hints.

While these present improvements over the original arcade LaserDisc, they do little to make the game appeal to modern players, and even less to excite fans for new releases. For a while it seemed like Digital Leisure had done all they could to squeeze money out of the property, but then they did something surprising – they added Kinect support.

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June 12, 2012

E3 2012 – Hands On with Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 11:08 pm

E3 2012 Hell Yeah Wrath of the Dead Rabbit
Sega’s booth at E3 finally offered me a chance to catch up with Ash, the rabbit prince of hell who has his dignity compromised when an embarrassing photo surfaces online. Learning that one hundred monsters have seen the photo, Ash promptly sets out to accomplish the only reasonable course of action, killing everyone who saw said photo.

With brush strokes reminiscent of the works from inmates at a Guatemalan insane asylum, Arkedo has created the most vibrant digital offering shown on the floor of E3. Hell is a honeycomb maze where cartoonish gore constantly splashes the screen, shiny gems glisten in the muck, and one hundred beautifully drawn monsters wait for Ash to bring about their violent end by the most ridiculous means possible.

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June 11, 2012

E3 2012 – Hands On with Mark of the Ninja

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 12:56 pm

Mark of the Ninja E3 2012
Few years slip by in the gaming industry without a healthy dose of Ninja themed releases, offering familiar means to slice through enemies, run up walls, and embed a few shuriken in the skulls of adversaries. But for those gamers looking to romance the more stealthy elements of the ninja lifestyle, there’s rarely much to chew on aside from minor moments, most recently illustrated by Ninja Gaiden 3, which introduced stealth kills only to promptly drop the feature.

If this depresses you, one hot minute with Klei Entertainment’s Mark of the Ninja should put the jelly back in your donut with an experience built entirely on emphasizing the stealth skills of the silent ninja.

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June 2, 2012

Mr. Kyatt’s Wild Ride

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , — TJ "Kyatt" Cordes @ 8:54 am

Joy Ride Turbo
I haven’t played very many Avatar-based games on the Xbox 360, but I suppose if I played a lot of games with decent Avatar awards, or spent a lot of money on purely cosmetic items for the things, I might care more about that annoying little Mii knock-off that vaguely looks like me and appears whenever I start up my console.

I want to keep the comparisons to Mario Kart and its ilk to a minimum here, but seriously, the appeal of playing a Mario Kart-type game where the only playable character is that Avatar is lost on me.

Races in Joy Ride Turbo sound remarkably sterile; say what you will about Daisy announcing her name ad nausea – that annoyance is preferable to an eight-man race where none of the characters make a peep and are only able to express themselves via fist pumping.

There is a moderate level of variety to the tracks, at least, though half of them sport enough red cliffs to make you think that you’re playing a TF2 racing game.

(Note to self: Make TF2 racing game. Choose Heavy and laugh at whoever chose Medic and has to constantly be behind me.)

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