REVIEW / World to the West (Switch)

 

Let’s start with a ratio: Wolfenstein II : Argo :: World to the West : The Chronicles of Riddick. In World to the West, developer Rain Games has crafted a game that some people are going to love. And while I am here to say that they love a game that is the very essence of mediocre, their opinion holds merit. Already I feel as though I am being far too harsh. On the game and people who will enjoy it. World to the West isn’t bad, it is simply okay. And you know what? That’s okay.

World to the West is now available for the Nintendo Switch, adding to the unending flood of indie games coming to the console. Taking heavy inspirations from the A Link to the Past, the game likes you play as four wildly different characters who are destined to fulfill an ancient prophecy of some sorts. It is charming in parts, which is all to really say of the story, but the dialogue was light and cute. An occasional welcome reprise. The rest of the game – from combat to the game’s structure – is decidedly less enjoyable. They say you steal from the best, but there is a severe distance between this game and that which it tries to evoke.

 

 

The beauty of the independent games, or even single-A titles, is that they bring a fresh perspective. I made the movie comparison above because the parallels of making a major blockbuster in Hollywood and making a low-budget independent game feel similar in end results. You’ve played a Mario game, and expect the next Mario title to tread some sort of familiar ground: you’ll collect things, there will be worlds, Peach will in be distress, they’ll make fun of Luigi. A Christopher Nolan film, similarly, will be $200 million, will have some time dilation, and you’ll argue for years about the true ending. These are institutions at this point. But the indie can do weird things, too; it can give us weird windows into a creative vision, play with expectations, and subvert them. This is all “flowery” speak so far. What point am I getting at? World to the West is not Call of Duty, Super Mario, Uncharted, and unfortunately it tried to be a bigger game than it was able to achieve.

Did you just read that I don’t think that World to the West is indie enough? That’s not what I am aiming for. The game is pretty and offers some unique ideas, however the concepts given to the players become too unfocused in the scope of the world. The world, reminiscent of Zelda, is a high mark for the game but ends up feeling vapid. Combat is a mixture of frustrating and boring. And finally, the story moves along at a lumpy pace, burdened by the game’s structure. These are things that could have been either honed in a more focused game. If the past two generations of games have pointed out, smaller games aren’t also short on quality, and indie games don’t have to be considered critically different from their AAA counterparts. World to the West is a matter of the vision exceeding the actual outcome.

 

 

World to the West centers around four characters whom have been inexplicably pushed to this adventure because it has been foretold. Nothing snazzy about this pretense. It’s a solid MacGuffin that has served innumerable stories well, and it mostly does for this game. Segmented into Chapters where the first five or six introduce the characters, setting, and unveil the purpose of your journey through this prophecy. The first few chapters where we’re meeting characters and new environments across the world runs at a nice clip, however once the game gets into itself it falls apart at the seams.

Mostly, there aren’t enough threads to keep the story together. The introduction of characters are so compartmentalized that there is no unifying plot line to bring them together. Sure there’s a big bad doing things, but when the four heroes come together, you immediately turn around and send them on their separate ways for the majority of the game.

 

 

And there is nothing in terms of objectives outside of you’re at point A, get to point B. Again, this is a serviceable device but the way it is implemented in late game is infuriating. You’ll be playing and exploring as one character until you run yourself into a wall–perhaps literally–because you’ll need the exploratory power of another character (more on that later). This causes you to find a Totem (which double as save points and fast travels) and change characters, which is okay but wanes later in the game when you need to constantly find Totems and constantly switch to characters around the map. From these Totems, you will then be force to move that character through the same locations to get to where your character just got stuck. The way that the game proposes exploration in service of moving the story forward is awful.

“Now, Brian,” you say, “maybe you should play the game for the exploration. Weren’t you the one that pined and got all mushy about Breath of the Wild for its exploration, falling into a world that you would be so engrossed in you’d miss your subway stop by thirty blocks?” Yes. But where World to the West fails to be a shining example of exploration is in the game’s core structure. The world is bright, cheeky, and filled with ups, downs, and turn-arounds that are mostly fun. If you could go through the game as one character, this world would be immensely enjoyable to fly around in. There are secrets hidden all over, there’s plenty of environmental puzzles to solve. Some of them are the simple hop-skip-jumps to get past, while others require a bit more thought. The world and the puzzles to navigate are absolutely the best aspect of World to the West, but it is categorically hamstrung by the mechanics of the game’s characters, and the abilities that each tout.

 

 

The game boasts four characters: The Mindbender, the Teslamancer, the Orphan, and the Strongman. Each has their own defined style of exploration and combat, along with their own quirks and idiosyncrasies. It breaks down that each character has unique way to travel through the environment; the Teslamancer can “blink,” the Orphan can skate along self-propelled ice skates (it makes sense in game?). When they’re introduced in their chapters, the tailored slice of traversal is fantastic. It feels great, it moves along at great pace that feels rewarding, and it is simply fun.

Take away that tailored slice and thrust these characters into the world at large. Fine. Until you get to a point where you get stuck and then need to switch characters: find Totem, switch characters, hope that you have a Totem near your first character or hike the same road all over again. World to the West does not deliberately obfuscate a character’s path–there are options available that you can (or eventually can) move each character throughout all environments. However it is excruciating in the endgame, to a point where the game may have been ruined for me.

 

 

I will be (minor) spoiling a bit of the latter portion of the game so skip out if you’d like to go in blind. Here we go: When you are sent on the last bit of your adventure, you make your way to an underground area that is blocked off by several layers of doors that need a certain amount of batteries to unlock. These batteries around hidden throughout the corners of the world. The game never tells you that these batteries are at all important to the completion of the game along the way. So, you quite literally run into a wall near the end of the game to go on a fetch quest. And you’re not going out for a few batteries–the first boss requires you to collect a total of fifteen batteries.

You can pay the in-game currency to get some points on your map where the batteries are hidden, but they’re just blips. Which is fine under normal circumstances. But let me repeat: you are physically unable to open the doors without running around for these things. A little bit of direction would be more than appreciated. This is where the game fell apart for me.

 

 

All my gripes with the switching of the characters, running around until you run into a wall to then go back and switch characters and run all around again, come to a head here. There is no tailored exploration. The world is open to all four characters, but the batteries that you have to find are not. Try to get as much as you can with one of the four characters. Stall. Rinse and repeat for hours. I don’t understand the padding that developers may feel they need to do–make its budgets. We spent this money, make sure someone gets ‘X’ amount of time with it. Either way, it is there anyway, and it took out all the fun of the game.

Not only did the fun I was having with the game dissipate, but this is where the faults in the design of the game came to fruition. I found myself wondering about all the other games that make you backtrack, the Metroidvanias, the Zeldas; hundreds of games employ backtracking. The ones that employ it while still feeling fresh and great, I felt had something in common: the “badass” feeling. You walk around Hyrule loaded to the brim with high level equipment that no amount of enemies can stop you; your Dash in Castlevania is so powerful you can whip through each room at hyper speed and still kill enemies. Bloodborne will beat your ass into bonemeal, but you’ll eventually–git gud–get that level 10 Ludwig Holy Blade, and laugh your way from Yharnam to his castle.

 

 

You never get the God Complex in World to the West. When you’re fighting the same enemies throughout the game, and every encounter is the exact same, adding four to five to six hours of finding batteries is atrocious. To describe the combat more is to say it’s extremely hit or miss. I’ve seen “soft combat” be used to described certain games and I suppose it’s not a bad definition. It doesn’t feel good. Only the Strongman has combos of any sort, and they aren’t particularly effective because you can start a combo and an enemy can walk through it without consequence sometimes. The Teslamancer is really the only other character that is effective in combat. Both the Mindbender and the Orphan use different abilities to subvert or escape combat. The Mindbender in particular has the ability to “capture” enemies and use them in combat. Stuff like biting with a squirrel, riding a baboon creature with large claws–it’s fun, but still doesn’t feel great.

I want to go back to above where I felt that World to the West would have been better with a smaller scope. I still feel that way but I don’t necessarily believe in that concept. Personally, I’m always a shoot for the moon person; go “the underdog” kind of person. Commendation should go to Rain Games for going so big on their second game. They will get better. Their games will get better. And that’s being people who make creative endeavors. At least in a perfect world.

 

 

Bringing this game to the Nintendo Switch is a smart move–bringing any game to the Switch is a good idea (wink wink). There are some noticeable frame drops in large areas or areas with several enemies, but from what I’ve seen of the other versions, it doesn’t look to be too drastic. I played about an hour in Handheld mode and the rest in Docked mode. Initially I thought that Handheld mode had a serious performance issue but perhaps it was just at that time, subsequent Handheld use proved to be approximate to Docked mode.

When World to the West is doing things right are in the chapters where you have a quick, defined goal. You’ll run through events like fighting in an underground boxing ring, liberating a group of small orphan boys, and participating in a trials/race competition. The music is interesting in some areas where others I wish there was more. The underground mines in particular reminded me of the Lost Woods theme and I was sent for a nostalgic whirl. Some style choices like the ridiculous amount of vignetting were incredibly distracting in dark areas, and only added to the frustrating that was playing the game.

 

 

World to the West, in the end, is a good three hour game that takes ten hours to complete. It’s charming and goofy, but the way the game unfolds, the oddball charm escapes itself and there isn’t enough “stuff” to fill the areas that need to plug the padding. If you had a five foot hose and ran water through it, four feet of it would be springing leaks. What the game proposes itself as in the first half is nowhere near what the game plays as in the second half. Perhaps a second run through of the game would be an entirely different experience. The NieR crowd just screamed “thank you!” But World to the West was such a struggle to crawl through that I think it will be quite a bit of time before I consider dipping back into it. And by then, I’d have forgotten everything to do anyway.

If you got here and are still wondering, I don’t mind The Chronicles of Riddick.

 

 

 

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.

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Citadel: Forged With Fire channels their inner wizard with Broomstick League

 

Blue Isle Studios have announced that their massive online sandbox RPG, Citadel: Forged With Fire, is finding inspiration from the wildly popular Wizarding World of Harry Potter with their new Broomstick League update coming on March 7th. One of the most striking elements in whole magical world of Harry Potter is the popular wizard sport known as Quidditch; the soccer-style game played on broomsticks. This Broomstick League update to Citadel: Forged With Fire introduces a new sport to the world that shares quite a few similarities with the magical franchise.

Broomstick League takes teams of up to 5 players each and transports them to a soccer/football-style field. Each team flies about on broomsticks and implements new passing and shooting mechanics to score a goal in either a large main net for 1 point or on smaller horizontal nets for 2 points. There are currently no Golden Snitch auto-win equivalents in the Citadel world, so practice those trick shots if you want to attain those bragging rights.

Since Citadel is an open world sandbox, player are able to build their own stadiums to their liking and field their own teams. This opens up the possibilities for players arranging their own in-universe divisions and leagues for some interesting gameplay dynamics. The brooms and armor used during games of broomstick league are also fully equipable in the main game; allowing you to rep your broomstick team in quests. For Harry Potter heads that have been craving a quidditch experience since the middle of the road Harry Potter Quidditch World Cup game came out in 2003, Citadel: Forged With Fire offers an experience you can’t get anywhere else.

The Broomstick League update hits Citadel: Forged With Fire on Steam Early Access on March 7th. Citadel: Forged With Fire is also currently in development for the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One.

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Rebellion unveils brand new gameplay trailer for Battlezone: Combat Commander!

 

Today, independent UK developer/publisher Rebellion unveiled a brand new gameplay trailer for their upcoming Battlezone 2 remake entitled, Battlezone: Combat Commander!

This awesome new five-minute “What is Battlezone: Combat Commander?” video offers a thorough breakdown of the gameplay, features and modes included in the remastered PC strategy classic.

Battlezone: Combat Commander allows you to take command of treacherous sci-fi battlefields, all while constructing bases, harvesting resources and ordering units from the cockpit of your hover-tank – in which you’ll also fight in epic mechanized battles! Mixing a classic RTS design with epic first-person tank combat, this game is like nothing you’ve played in the past decade…or two.

The challenging single-player campaign sees you leading humanity’s resistance against the Scions, a dangerous new threat from the far reaches of space. With branching sub-campaigns and the choice to switch which side you want to fight for, you can take control of the Scion forces and their mysterious shape-shifting battlecraft.

This fabulous new remake will also provide substantial multiplayer content, with 8 modes of face-melting action for up to 14 players. Players can also scrap it out in co-op and versus modes, with play available both online and via LAN. Amazingly enough, cross-play between Steam and GOG Galaxy is also fully supported.

And once you finish what the developers have prepared in the main game, you can then tackle the game’s myriad mod content. Battlezone 2 has been a fan favorite for nearly twenty years and members of that community are already creating epic new content for Battlezone: Combat Commander. Imagine jumping into new maps, assets, HUDs, vehicles, custom scripts and much more, both for single-player and multiplayer when you are ready to see what other players have created!

Battlezone: Combat Commander launches Thursday, March 1st for GOG and Steam.

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REVIEW / Mercenary Kings Reloaded (PS4)

 

Mercenary Kings is a multiplayer, 2D, side-scroller released back in 2014 for the PC and PS4. Mercenary Kings Reloaded is the expansion enhanced version of this same game, recently released for Nintendo Switch, PS Vita, and the Xbox One with the addition of new content, new playable characters and a new shine. You play as a team of mercs enhanced by a serum called Mandragora Serum, developed by Dr. James Neil. The serum gives them super-human strength and extraordinary regeneration, which they need to combat C.L.A.W., a terrorist organization hell bent on world domination.

 

 

The game opens with C.L.A.W. kidnapping Dr. Neil in an attempt to force him to recreate the Mandragora Serum to enhance their soldiers. When the Kings successfully rescue Dr. Neil, they find out that they were too late! C.L.A.W. had already enhanced their soldiers making them more of a problem and that’s just the beginning.

Mercenary Kings has some unique gameplay mechanics that help to modernize the retro side-scroller; the game offers player customization, expansive weapon choices, and perks that add different buffs and abilities. All these features made Mercenary Kings feel like a brand new game that’s also a throw-back to 80’s retro games. The missions could sometimes be repetitive but they all were pretty fun. And to add to what I mentioned about the gun customization, one of my favorites being the Flusher, its a toilet. Or the trombone allowing you to murder your enemies with a marching band instrument. All these fun guns really added to my enjoyment.

 

 

I thought multiplayer was a little hard to enjoy because there didn’t seem to be a match-making system that would connect you with players of a similar level, so at a low level, I would constantly find myself with players that were much higher ranked. Which leads me to the second problem with the co-op. Most of the time you wouldn’t be the host and only the host can select the missions, which relates to the first problem. The high-level players I were matched with made the missions we played immensely difficult.

The plot, while humorous, wasn’t a big factor; this isn’t a game designed to be a smash hit for character development. The two new characters – buff lady Frigg and cute robot C-Zar – are a nice addition, though more notable for their speed-defying jumping and fall-slowing thrusters, respectively, than their personalities. Having four characters to choose from in a 4-player game makes identifying sprites notably easier, especially in such a fast-paced game.

 

 

The graphics were…good, to be fair, it’s really hard to judge a game designed to be retro 8-bit style. Some of the level designs were fun and refreshing, a nice change of pace from the straight-lined maps side-scrollers are known for. The developers spent a lot of time designing the maps to not be repetitive or annoying I, for one, really appreciated the details.

Tribute Games definitely dedicated many hours and lots of thought into character design and boss design. One of my favorite bosses was Blitzhound K9, which is a tiny dog controlling a giant robot dog that shot rockets out of its butt. Yeah, you read that right. Just one more thing that enhanced my experience in the game. As for the music, I liked it but it drove my fiance insane after a while of listening to it. The music was the cherry on top for me, possibly because it drove my fiance insane or because it was a catchy, 8-bit music.

 

 

Mercenary Kings was a lot of fun for me, I enjoyed the gameplay overall even though I did have my problems with it. I liked all the different gun combinations and the different bullet effects. I think that the missions, though repetitive occasionally, were enjoyable. The biggest problem I had with Mercenary Kings is multiplayer. Tribute Games needs to patch a matchmaking system to mitigate the effect of a Level One doing Level 25 mission. Maybe in the future add on some new missions or a game mode, something to KEEP it refreshing. Overall, I recommend this game. Maybe if you’re still on the fence you might want to wait for it to go on sale. But for $20 USD I think you will be happy if you buy this game.

 

 

 

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.

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REVIEW / All Walls Must Fall (PC)

 

All Walls Must Fall is an isometric tech-noir tactics game by inbetweengames that involves time travel, action, and an interesting plot, all set in a very, very gay East Berlin 2089 where the Cold War never ended. I assume I now have your attention. A disclaimer before we begin: I’m not much of a tactics player, so after I gave the game a good crack I unleashed it on my boyfriend, who is very experienced with tactics games, to make sure I wasn’t nitpicking anything that was typical of the genre that I wasn’t used to.

 

 

All Walls Must Fall begins with a nuclear strike on the east side of the Berlin Wall.  For 150 years, both sides of the wall had used time manipulation technology to observe and counter each other’s every move, yet neither side appears to be aware of who was responsible for the strike. As the state of affairs grew more fragile, both sides of the war scrambled to send agents back in time to find out who orchestrated the attack and how to prevent it.

When you enter your first mission, you (an unseen handler) are introduced to Kai, a big bear of a a secret agent with a metal arm. Mission Control explains that in each mission you will be taken back in time, something Kai is used to doing, to gather information about the attack in the lead-up to the strike and hopefully prevent it from ever happening. I’m honestly not sure why they needed to have the player character as a handler, since the only relevance it ever has is Mission Control explaining that you’re responsible for telling your agent, Kai, where to go.  Throughout the game you jump and loop through a single night in the city of Berlin to solve the case of the mysterious nuclear strike.

 

 

During missions you are allotted time resources, which you can lose and gain depending on your actions. You move Kai around the map with your mouse and/or WASD, and spin the camera with E and R. You can left click on squares close to or far away from Kai to tell him where to go, square-by-square, or during combat mode you can use the right click to dash, which eats time resources but allows you to avoid gunfire and other obstacles.

Time resource is also eaten by doing things like hacking drone terminals and weapons scanners. Discovering new rooms in buildings, successfully interrogating foes, and finding mission-critical items provides Kai with more time resource to use. Kai’s movements, and his walk cycle (or lack thereof, as he moves in the same few frames from square to square), look a little clunky compared to all of the faceless NPCs milling around and dancing. However, given that it’s a indie tactics game and not a big name adventure or action game, I feel the lack of smoothness can be forgiven.

 

 

Sometimes coming into contact with foes will begin an interrogation minigame where you have to select the right responses to allow you to pass through a blocked area, gain information or gain items crucial to the mission. You can win in a number of ways, whether it be by scaring them into giving you what you want, flirting with them, or having them respect you enough to let you go ahead. Because my tactics game skills aren’t fantastic, subsequent playthroughs of early missions relied much more on talking my way through encounters where possible and hacking unfriendly drones and weapon scanners to allow passage.

My boyfriend, on the other hand, took a more gung-ho approach and often ended up in combat mode. Combat mode freezes time and allows you to plan your actions, move-for-move, while the enemy does the same. There are a small variety of interesting enemies such as spectres, drones and general guards with guns (of which there can be many all at once). During battle you carefully choose to hide behind cover, choose routes that won’t result in Kai being hurt, and make careful use of your time reloading and waiting behind cover. At the end of combat you can “drop” the battle and watch as the whole thing plays out in a fantastic little video, which can make you feel like a real badass.

 

 

When I played through the first three missions of All Walls Must Fall, I was tasked with defusing bombs, finding dead drops in ash trays, and eliminating or sweet-talking guys in a club so they couldn’t escape. When I went to compare notes with the boyfriend, he reported stealing holographic statues and collecting feathers…what? On a briefly-shown screen as the game as loading up, inbetweengames report that All Walls Must Fall contains procedural generation. I wasn’t surprised, especially once I played through the first few missions. The buildings you infiltrate during missions all seem to be set on the same, identical street, and contain the same throng of club rats dancing to the same oontz oontz beats in mostly identical rooms. I figured the procedural generation would purely be limited, as it usually is in indie games, to the layout of the buildings.

As it turns out, when you load up a new campaign from the main menu, you will be randomly thrown into one of a few different campaigns which eventually intersect as you progress. Easy missions in my campaign turned out to be very hard missions later on in my boyfriend’s campaign. I was really impressed with this level of detail being thrown into such a small game; it definitely lends itself to much better replayability than previously expected.

 

 

At the end of each mission, you’re given a score which is paid out in credits (money) based on how many people you killed, how long the mission took and your remaining time resource. You are then transported to a shop where you can make upgrades to yourself and your weapon. This is another example of where replayability is maximised in All Walls Must Fall, as there are myriad options for customization.

I prioritized sweet-talking and getting positive reactions to my interrogation responses, as well as upgrading my body armor as far as possible. You could also buy any number of weapons, dual-wield guns, choose to go without and simply use your metal fist, or even add on strange augmentations like pheromones. The upgrade options feel really robust for a game of this size, and I really enjoyed puzzling out what would be useful for the next mission.

 

 

For all its good points, however, All Walls Must Fall has a few flaws that ultimately come down to needing a cut and polish. Put bluntly, the music and locales for each mission are just really, really boring. I understand that it was by design that this version of Berlin is very gay and almost completely made up of techno gay bars while also being very oppressed on the outside due to being in the midst of a war. However, every single building you infiltrate looks exactly the same, and a lot of the character models look identical to one another when you’re interrogating them.

A fresh coat of paint on some of the walls and a few extra character portraits wouldn’t go amiss in making the game just a bit prettier. In spite of this, the style of the character art is perfect for the concept and time period. As I said earlier when talking about movement around the field, Kai would look and feel so much more natural if he actually appeared as though he was walking. I understand that having a weird half-movement is better than just having him slide, completely still, from square-to-square, but it does still feel awkward.

 

 

I didn’t get this far in, but my boyfriend also commented that the option to interrogate and talk your way through problems becomes less and less of an option as the storyline progresses, so one may get caught out by that down the line if they decided to go with the same approach I did. In speaking of the storyline, while I didn’t see it all the way through to the end, I found it very interesting. It’s incredibly clear that a lot of thought was put into the setting and setting up intrigue in some parts.

While there is something lacking in some of the visuals and movement, All Walls Must Fall is quite an appealing title with incredibly satisfying battle and customization systems. It does feel a little like there’s something missing that would give it that little extra kick from “good” to “great” indie game. All Walls Must Fall is a fairly accessible tactics game with an interesting concept, and with a proper polish it could really shine. At the price it’s being offered for on Steam ($9.99 with a current, at the time of writing, discount to $6.99), I would recommend it to any tactics game players looking for a fun and appropriately challenging timesink.

 

 

 

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.

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RETRO REVIEW / Digimon Rumble Arena (Playstation)

 

16 years ago, on February 24th, 2002, Digimon Rumble Arena was released for the original PlayStation. Rumble Arena was one of the games that screams my childhood and one of the animes that brought many arguments between my friends. While Pokemon may have been the top choice for some, and Smash Bros. for others, stick with me to truly understand my appreciation for this game, despite all the years that have gone by.

Graphics & Tech Specs

Take your mind back to 2002, before the 4K gaming days. The controls respond well and the graphics aren’t too hideous (you do have to remember this is a PlayStation game). The game is full of vibrant colors, both on the Digimon’s pixelated bodies and within fights. The great variety of colors that were generated in 2002 for developing this game do show some great power. Technically speaking, for a PlayStation original title, it was good for it’s time. 

Developers also do an excellent job showing the multiple designs and breeds of Digimon. The resemblance to their anime doppelgängers are adequate for us to recognize from our favorite childhood creatures. As an added bonus, the characters movement in each stage shows exceptional fluidity and the usage of each characters individual skill, speed, and strength. Sifting through the issues that were underdeveloped or untouched, you’ll find the single-player mode to be an unsurprising unfulfilling. Naturally, it’s in multiplayer fighting where the real fun resides.

Battle & Evolution

I remember being in 2nd grade purchasing this game, ecstatic that I would soon be able to control all my favorite anime characters! Agumon, Veemon, Impmon, and more would soon be mine to control and battle! Rumble Arena was a game where I had a lot of fun fighting other Digimon, with a game mode very similar to Super Smash Bros. where players could move more freely compared to a more classic fighting game. Basically, you just fight other Digimon. What’s more, for those who love the anime, you find yourself battling with the Digimon from the show!

By attacking your opponent, or getting attacked yourself, your blue bar will fill up and once it’s full, your Digimon can Digivolve to it’s next form, supposedly becoming even more powerful. Though sometimes it feels like you’ve just become a different Digimon and power is nowhere into it. What’s more, there is only one Digivolution in this game, so don’t expect to see every Digivolutions for each Digimon. Another kink in this game is that new moves from an evolved Digimon don’t augment whatever that creature was originally capable of. Instead, limitations come into play in an extremely unappealing way; taking away the original powers that made your stock model Digimon so powerful to begin with. 

 

Nostalgic Classic or Not?

I played this game back when I was Digimon-obsession, when I was around 7 or 8 years old. I won’t deny that even now, after 16 years since the games release, this game still has its quirks. Unfortunately, the nostalgia is not there as much as you’d think.  Looking back, neither polished nor fair, Rumble Arena has problems to spare. The game brings short-lasted entertainment to the table, just as it did in 2002.

Truly, I don’t think it’s amazing fighting game for the era, but for Digimon fans it’s a classical masterpiece! Whatever potentially disastrous effects the “mon” craze may have had on you in your youth, there’s no denying their appeal in the here and now. There will always be a certain degree of likeability about Rumble Arena. It has a charm all its own – a kind of clunky quirkiness within a cloud of fandom. A long story short, despite my original impression on playing this game again after 16 years, it truly is fun to play, but does not hold up to what I thought it was as a youngster.

 

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REVIEW / Violet Cycle (PC)

 

I will always give a game a fair chance, regardless of it’s genre or my initial feelings on it’s style. I generally get an immediate sense as to whether I’m going to want to play through a title about 10 minutes into the game; either I’m instantly hooked, which usually bodes really well for the title as a whole, or I let out a loud sigh and know I’ve got a bit of work ahead of me. I will happily put my hands up and say I’ve been proven wrong and pleasantly surprised many times in the past and that not playing enough of any game is a bit like judging a book by its cover. Sadly, I’m not sure this was the case with Violet Cycle.

 

 

The basic premise of the game is great; you play a character called Unit 3 and are tasked with getting to the reactor core at the top of a multi-level ship which has been infested by a being called The Entropy. You have to hop from level to level removing traces of the infection and beating the bad guys as you go. As par for the course, you pick up fragments of story from terminals along your way and basically piece things together from there.

Violet Cycle also has some roguelike elements in the items that you pick up, the enemies that you face and the way the levels are built. I always love that a game can change on each run and this is a genuine plus for me. All good so far? Sadly, in my opinion, this is about where the good stops.

 

 

I’ll give points for the graphical choices that have been made here. There’s a real late 80s arcade feel to Violet Cycle which I find rather appealing. They’ve taken an isometric, blocky style and used loads of neon so you get a very classic view of what I think people thought the future would look like back then.

Everything in the game is rather understated and I don’t by any means think this is a bad thing. The issue is that it’s all well and good looking nice (though even this is subjective), but few of the other elements worked for me. This is kind of a case of make the game work before thinking about what it looks like, not the other way round.

 

 

Nothing about this game felt comfortable. It’s fine to make a game difficult, and as part of the roguelike genre Violet Cycle certainly is, but you should never feel physically awkward playing it. Keyboard controls are pretty much a no go; yes, I know you can change them but honestly, how often do you muck about with the settings? The ones in place here are by no mean fluid or intuative. Keyboard and mouse controls are something that I think any PC gamer worth their salt should be used to by now. Here you’re using WASD and JIKL for you movements and actions and your movements are not WASD. This doesn’t feel right.

Back when I started gaming, all of the controls were bunched up on the keyboard, and I can tell you from experience that they stopped doing that for a reason; this is not the retro feel you want your game to have. Pad controls are supported, but don’t feel a massive amount better, when they decide they want to work at all. I was using a brand new game pad and it was a case of the game reading what I was doing when it felt like it. Games have to feel fluid or frustration sets in really quickly and it’s really off putting.

 

Understanding the commands and performing them aren’t always the same thing.

 

Violet Cycle is definitely a challenging game, but it’s hard for the wrong reasons. The levels don’t seem to be particularly difficult to navigate and your foes aren’t impregnable. The problem is it’s really easy to lose track of what you’re doing on account of the dire controls. Sometimes it feels like a fight just getting your character to do what you want it to.

With this in mind you’re bound to get killed by even the weakest of enemies. You’re concentrating on pushing the right buttons and not enough on the game. I’m pretty sure this wasn’t intentional but it’s making something that is probably designed to have a difficulty curve, unnaturally difficult which spoils the experience.

 

 

I’d love to say I got a huge way into the game and be able to tell you all about the experiences I had, but to be brutally honest, I got a few floors in and gave up. It took me several runs to get even this far. I’m a fair gamer and I like to hope I’m a fair reviewer but I genuinely didn’t want to go any further. I absolutely love the roguelike genre and I love everything that comes with it. I’m used to getting killed over and over and starting from scratch but I always want that one more try. I didn’t feel that with this title and it’s a genuine shame.

What I will say is that my painfully short time with the game (in comparison to other titles I’ve reviewed and spent literally hours with) is down to personal dislike. To be completely honest, I’d suggest giving Violet Cycle a bit of your own time; you might end up sliding into the comments to tell me what I’ve written here is total nonsense. I don’t want to put anyone off completely. As I always say, this was my experience and you may have an entirely different one.

 

 

If you don’t mind persevering and you’re willing to go through the pain of learning the controls and actually forcing yourself to get good, then you might want to give Violet Cycle a try. There are actually elements of a really good game in there and a lot of effort has clearly been made in its making.  If you want a good roguelike, though, there’s a massive list of other games that I’d be pushing your way before this one.

 

 

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Rick and Morty are set to appear on PSVR

 

Many of you who have a silly sense of humour and like adult cartoons will at least be acquainted with Rick and Morty. Those of you that love the show will probably be quite pleased to be able to get a little bit more intimate with the pair in a virtual reality setting. Sound interesting? I sincerely hope so or the bit of news I’m about to bring you is going to be slightly pointless. The cartoon couple are going to be coming to your PSVR on April 10th in Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality.

Appearing in North America at local stores on the aforementioned date, Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality will be getting a price tag of $29.99. Fans of the show (and hopefully the game) can also pick up the limited Collectors Edition. This package will of course include a copy of the game along with a Funko Pop! Rick and Morty vinyl figure and an exclusive double-sided poster featuring Rick and Morty comic book cover art.

As this title is coming from Adult Swim games, I think we can safely say you’ll have to suspend any notion of normalcy along with your belief when you enter the game. Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality is a cutting edge VR adventure which invites you to solve puzzles, step through portals into strange dimensions, and of course get yelled at by Rick. None of this is particularly strange, however, you are also invited to fight aliens, press buttons, and quite obviously drink detergent. All I can say is thank you for the weird Adult Swim. It looks like you’ve done it again.

So what features can we expect from the game, then? Well, we’re going to be meeting our two friends in full 3D virtual glory and exploring iconic settings with them such as Rick’s garage. You will learn how to fix an intergalactic car and help Rick (or don’t) as you explore a series of strange dimensions. Oh, as this is VR, you can also expect some very real fake floors.

While you lot salivate over the strangeness that is sure to be coming in April, I’m going to go for a lie down while I contemplate my life and try and make sense of anything I’ve just written. I’m hearing whispers of massive interest floating about the TVGB office, by the way. I would definitely expect to see more on this interesting looking title in the not-so-far off future.

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REVIEW / Smashbox Arena (PSVR)

 

With so many small VR “experiences” and gallery shooters coming out for all VR platforms, it’s hard at times to ween out the good from the bad. Smashbox Arena, developed by BixBox VR, falls somewhere in the grey area many people aren’t willing to explore. The game has a lot of good things going for it, but unfortunately in this case the cons within it outweighs the pros.

 

 

Smashbox Arena has an amazing concept. It’s essentially VR dodgeball. They accomplish this by having a 3v3 setting where every person has a gun. By people I mean AI since nobody plays this game, but more on this later. Each player is equipped with a “gun” that allows them to pickup a dodgeball that is randomly spawned on the map and allows them to shoot the balls at their opponent. When attacked by someone, you can catch the ball mid-air and attempt to shoot it back. You can also block incoming attacks if you’re holding a dodgeball yourself. All in all it makes for a fun experience, if you can get past the fact that the “Story Mode” id just about 5 matches of playing the game with AI.

 

 

The Story Mode within Smashbox Arena is one of the biggest jokes in any VR game. When you think of a “Story Mode” within a video game you tend to lean towards thinking of there being an actual story. Sorry to disappoint, but this game has absolutely ZERO story. When you select Story Mode in the main menu it then asks which difficulty you’d like to play it at. Regardless of difficulty the game seems to play the same exact way. Regardless it places you in what seems to be a test match agains another team with 3 AI against yourself and 2 AI. This mode is not fun at all. I completed the entire thing, 5 matches, on easy in about 15 minutes. aside from the trophies, there seems to be no reason to go back.

 

 

The multiplayer is one of the most interesting, and only other, portions of Smashbox Arena. This is what is expected when reading the description of the game. Two game modes seems to be the main way most of these smaller VR games tend to go. The multiplayer was non-existent. Sure you can boot up the game and get into a lobby. However, finding even one other person to play with tends to be the real issue. Unfortunately for both the potential players and the developers, this game is dead. Not a single person was online and able to join a game other than myself.

 

 

The lack of population online aside, Smashbox Arena has one really cool aspect going for it. When you are eliminated for the given round, you can still see what everyone is doing on the map in real time. Not only this, but it essentially makes you a giant above the map and you have the ability to see what everyone is doing and can move the map around as you see fit. The few maps this game has were also pretty cool. They all had almost a paintball arena vibe and were a good size for the small 3v3 games that are had on them.

 

 

In the end I don’t think Smashbox Arena warrants whatever price point it is currently at. Even at $1, the game itself is completely pointless unless you’re out to get some easy trophies. If this game still had a healthy multiplayer population this may have been a completely different review, but it doesn’t; the most important component of dodgeball is having other players to dodge the balls.

 

 

 

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.

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Harvest Moon: Light of Hope Special Edition now available for pre-order

 

In Harvest Moon: Light of Hope, players begin the game as most Harvest Moon protagonists do: looking for a fresh start and new surroundings that happen to lead to farming. During their voyage, a storm breaks out and the ship goes down. They wash up on the shores of a small harbour town which is now in shambles from the storm and set off to rebuild the town and save the lighthouse. With all the usual staples of Harvest Moon included; such as growing crops, tending livestock, and gathering materials for repairs; players will be able to make new friends, start a family, revive the lighthouse and save the town.

Harvest Moon: Light of Hope Special Edition is the console release of the original Steam edition of Harvest Moon: Light of Hope, which is now available for pre-order at Gamestop. Pre-orders of Harvest Moon: Light of Hope Special Edition will come with a 6 inch plush of the series’ iconic barnyard friend: the cow (now in chocolate!). Harvest Moon: Light of Hope Special Edition will feature the chocolate cow plush as a pre-order bonus with the standard boxed retail version that is launching on the Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4 (retail and digitally) in May 2018.

The Special Edition version of the game has some brand-new features only available in the console versions. More information about these features will be revealed leading up to the launch in May.

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Total War Rome II getting new Desert Kingdoms content pack

 

Total War is known for their expansive, sprawling overworld and staggeringly large battles. Rome II is, of course, no exception. Until now it has not included several territories of the sprawling Roman Empire at its height. Finally, on March 8th, you’ll be able to play one of four new factions from the broader context of one of the greatest empires of all time: The Kush, Saba, Nabatea, and Masaesyli.

It never ceases to amaze me how huge these battles can be

These are complete new factions, with new unit, building, and tech rosters. Not only that, but the release of this DLC will coincide with an update to the base game. This update will, in effect, introduce female characters into the game. Cleopatra, Teuta, and many others will be available for anyone with the base game on March 8th.

I wish I was half as jacked as this woman

If you’re curious about the exact mechanics of these additions (which are in-depth and really interesting), you can check out this blog post on the update. If you still aren’t sold, check out the announcement trailer below:

If you are sold, you can actually pick up the Desert Kingdoms DLC right now on Steam for 10% off! This deal is only valid until the release of the content pack.

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Code: Realize limited editions announced

 

The visual novel is a great thing to come out of gaming. This quintessentially Eastern art has come a long way over the years. Fans of this format may well be interested to know that Aksys Games have just announced that their otome (story-based adventure) is going to be getting two special North American editions. Code: Realize is heading for the PS Vita and PS4, and will be landing on those consoles March 30th.

The Vita version of the game will include the Code: Realize –Future Blessings- game, a full colour cloth banner featuring all of the gentlemen you will meet during the story, nine exclusive character pins, eight collectable bromide character cards and a custom sleeve so you can unite Future Blessings with Code Realize: Guardian of Rebirth, which is sold separately. The PS4 version of the game grants you the banner, pins and cards but Code Realize -Bouquet of Rainbows– will also give you both of the aforementioned games on one disc. So no need to buy a further game to complete the set.

Fans of all things Steampunk should quite like this one, as 19th century Victorian London is very much where this story unfolds. You take the role of Code: Realize‘s protagonist Cardia. Isolated and alone in a mansion on the outskirts of steampunk London, you are an outcast who is shunned as a monster. Cardia is cursed. Her blood is highly poisonous and a single touch from her can be instantly lethal. Through a number of events, some more significant than others, Cardia will be pursued by the Royal Guard, kidnapped by gentleman thief Arsene Lupin and joined by a host of other handsome figures taken from the best of Western Literature. With these new found friends (and suitors), Cardia will set out to unravel the mysteries surrounding the definition of her very existence.

“Code: Realize fans have been waiting patiently and we’re excited to finally present them with a beautiful package of premium items that celebrate the gorgeous artwork and setting of the story,” said Akibo Shieh, founded and CEO of Aksys Games. “With more titles coming up this summer, it’s a perfect time to fall in love with the visual novel again.”

More titles are indeed in the pipeline. Aksys have also announced their plans to release three other otome titles over the next few months. These are namely: 7’scarlet, Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly, and Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk. Each story is said to be brimming with mystery, suspense and of course as is somewhat typical for this genre, a wee bit of romance.

This is really good news for two reasons. This will all obviously appeal to fans of the visual novel as an art form and many will be very happy to add four new titles to their library. Those of you that may not be as into this form of storytelling or may be new to it but love a good collectible might also want to be adding these special editions to your hoard. The additional items packaged with these games look really nice in their own right before you even chuck a disk into your console. Either way, you only need to wait till the end of next month to be able to grab a copy (or copies) for yourself and keep an eye out in the coming months for those other titles we’ve mentioned here. Of course, if we happen to come across any individual news in that time, your TVGB friends as always have your back, and we will of course let you know.

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EA Originals title “Fe” now available worldwide

 

EA, Electronic Arts Inc., announced alongside Swedish studio Zoink Games that Fe is now available for download worldwide. Fe is named after the game’s protagonist.

In the game, players will navigate through a Nordic like forest as Fe, a cub like creature in appearance. The player will run, jump and glide through the forest in order to uncover the secrets of the origin of Fe. The forest is inhabited by machines known as the silent ones, who seek to disrupt the ecosystem that Fe is attempting to protect. Fe will learn the language of the forest by singing in-tune with various plants and animals, each providing a benefit to Fe’s journey.

Fe is now available on Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Origins for PC.

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Slice, Dice & Rice from Arc System Works is out now on PS4

Arc System Works (Guilty Gear, BlazBlue) and Polish developer Dojo Games have come together to proudly announce the release of a new and unique fighting game Slice, Dice & Rice.

Slice, Dice & Rice is touted as the fighting game without health bars that has dancing along the blade’s edge for survival. Players are tasked with finding an opening in an opponent’s defense and ending the round with a single, clean hit, rather than punching and slashing over and over until their foe is defeated.

Hit points are a thing of the past in Slice, Dice & Rice – each scratch will impair your movement and every wound may be the one that seals your defeat. This is no Tekken – the tension never, ever stops. This unique little game is perfect for the discerning fighting game fan looking for something a little different.

Features

• EASY TO PLAY, HARD TO MASTER
  An intuitive set of basic abilities removes the need for memorizing inputs and move-lists, while retaining strategic complexity.
• STYLIZED GRAPHICS
  Winning never looked so good! Slick, comic book like graphics make the action pop.
• SIX UNIQUE STAGES
  Battle across an alternative version of the Japanese underground.
• EIGHT DISTINCT FIGHTERS
  Choose one of 8 characters, all with their own stories and unique fighting styles.
• PARRY & CLASH
  Blocking is for the passive. Take the fight to the enemy!

 

Slice, Dice & Rice is available now on the PlayStation Network for PlayStation 4.

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REVIEW / Mutant Football League (PC)

 

In my 36 years on this planet I have come to a very simple realization: I’m absolutely horrific at sports. I’m big and gangly and my arms and legs never do what I want them to. So when you can’t play sports physically, it makes sense to have a go in the wonderful world we call video games. Which has brought me to another realization: I’m not very good at video game sports, either. All this to say that the review you’re about to read on my time in the Mutant Football League is going to be as hilarious for you to read as it was painful for me to write. Did this ruined my enjoyment of the game? No it bloody hasn’t and I’m about to tell you why.

 

 

Mutant Football League is a semi-reboot of a classic Genesis title. It was actually one of the only sport games I had in my collection back then, being one of the few sports video games that I played a lot and actually didn’t completely suck at (after an absolute age of practice). So I obviously had to get my mitts on this 2018 iteration and see if it was worth a punt. Not to mention one of my favorite games of the past few years, Bloodbowl, is essentially MFL except it involves dice rolls instead of real time play. I thought it might be interesting to see how the two compared as they’re both a lot of violent fun and…oh, they’re both spoofs on the same sport: American football.

 

 

The first thing I need to tell you is that I know absolutely sod all about American football, other than it’s kinda like our rugby just with more armor. Showing me screen after screen of little colored blobs, crosses and lines isn’t very helpful. I’d much prefer the approach of “pick up the ball and run that way, dummy!” I know where I stand with that.

Between every turn there’s a round of playmaking. This will determine what the rest of your team does and is broken into several types of plays, which differ depending on your team. For a sports fan, this is brilliant as it allows for planning and a certain amount of strategy. For someone like me, it’s a case of push-something-that-looks-clever-and-roll-with-it. I know this isn’t the best way to play, but this kind of tactical thinking requires a different kind of brain power than what I’m used to. I’m playing for the action, so it’s not as important to me personally.

 

 

You choose from a bunch of starter teams – with more unlockable ones to come for winning matches – comprised of a mix of mutants, aliens, skeletons, robots and the like. Then you go out in an attempt to play football. As you’re playing a team of psychopaths, it’s sort of a massacre-waiting-to-happen first, sport second. From here, American football rules apply. However, while trying to win the match, you’re also trying not to get killed off by your opponent or obliterated by one of the booby traps on the pitch. Excuse me, field. If any players get offed mid-game (and believe me, they will), they will need resurrecting between matches.

To enhance my chances of winning, I’ve been playing Mutant Football League in season mode. I’ve chosen a team called the Croakland Invaders, which is mostly made up of skeletons. I have to admit I’m not faring very well, but I’m having fun being useless so I’m happy to be left to my own devices. You can also choose to go to the playoffs or jump straight into the Mayhem Bowl dependent on what takes your fancy. There is also the option for online play. I haven’t touched this personally yet. I don’t mind being crap, but I don’t want the rest of the world seeing the train wreck that is my play style.

 

The last person you want to be in the middle of this mess is the ref.

 

I have to say, the matches are fast and furious; you really need to be on your toes at all times. Not only do you have to worry about what you’re doing –  you know, the running, catching, scoring bit – but also about what your opponent might be up to. And by this I mean not just what plays they might be considering but also whether they’ve smuggled any weaponry onto the field or decided to bribe/kill the ref.

You too have the chance to cause a bit of bloodshed. Some of the dirty tricks at your disposal include the use of a chainsaw, making one of your players really hard to grab by setting them on fire, and running shotgun … with a fully loaded shotgun. You only get so many dirty tricks to employ in each half of the game and when they’re gone they’re gone, so you have to use them sparingly and smartly.

 

The players have character … when they’re alive.

 

Different stadiums also offer different obstacles. Once you finally get used to the controls, there’s nothing more entertaining than kicking the ball so the receiver catching it doesn’t see the landmine underneath them. Another favorite was watching a very good run by the other team abruptly ending when the runner didn’t see an incoming buzzsaw. One half of him kept running and the other, not so much. This is obviously a lot more hilarious when it’s not happening to you. But still, really entertaining stuff.

So, let’s get down to the proverbial nuts and bolts shall we? Starting with the controls, you absolutely need a gamepad to play MFL. This isn’t a game that gives you a lot of thinking time, so you need to be on your toes. Considering that you need quick response times, it’s absolutely best for the controls to be at the end of a quick button tap. I still managed to get finger-tied using a pad, so I’d hate to see someone trying to play comfortably using keyboard controls. When you finally get used to the manic pace of the game, the control system feels more intuitive, but it’s hard going at the start.

 

 

The graphics in MFL are gorgeous. They have a cartoon feel to them but use a 3D style. This makes everything a bit more grown up, which makes sense as this isn’t a game for kids. It’s all about gore, violence and foul language, and depicting this in the right way is really important. Every stadium looks very different, too; there aren’t any copy + paste levels happening here, which is a total plus.

I don’t usually go too deep into sound design on games. I know some of you absolutely love your soundtracks and music is really important but for me, it either gets on my nerves or it doesn’t. Generally, if I’m noticing things like music and sound effects it’s because they’re annoying me. In this case, I have to say I loved the music; some really good rock bands are playing as part of the score. The sound effects largely come down to the commentary, apart from the basic grunts and thumps. The commentators are hilarious. When you break concentration enough to hear what they’re saying, they’re really witty and thankfully aren’t just repeating the same four of five lines over and over.

 

Nothing about this game is fair.

 

All in all, I’m really glad I picked up Mutant Football League. I loved my time with the game even if I did spend a certain amount of it chewing holes in my gamepad with frustration. I can’t and won’t blame the game for this – I’m honestly atrocious. I think I you love sports, especially American football, you’ll love this and can probably add a bit to my score. If you’re like me just give it a go; it’s a massively fun experience no matter your stance on the real life game.

 

 

 

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.

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