3D Dot Game Heroes is all about familiarity and nostalgia. The most obvious comparison to the game is The Legend of Zelda–the music, the enemies, the level design, the items (the list goes on) all bring Nintendo’s classic franchise to mind. That’s not the only game that From Software’s latest is honoring though, as there are countless references to old-school gaming and games scattered throughout the experience.

I’m not going to spoil any of that for you here, because that takes a lot of the fun away. What I can tell you is that 3D Dot Game Heroes leans very, very heavily on Zelda gameplay–specifically, NES-era Zelda, where dungeon rooms were all the same size and enemies walked back and forth and reacted when you got close. Now, that’s not to say that this game is a ripoff–that’s a word with negative connotations, the kind of thing we would rather use on a title that just isn’t very good so we can shoo it away. We’ll stick with “homage” here, because what I have played of 3D Dot Game Heroes, I love.

Think of it like Shadow Complex, in a way. That game was a love letter to Super Metroid, the kind that, in many courts, would result in a restraining order. That title was fantastic though, one of the best on the Xbox 360 last year, and 3D Dot Game Heroes is shaping up to be the same way. From Software understands what made Zelda and other classics into, well, classics, and they have used that knowledge to create their own love letter to a Nintendo franchise–I’m perfectly fine with that so far.

Gameplay should be familiar to anyone who has played Zelda in the past, and should be easy enough to pick up if you never have. You attack with the X button, and can swing your sword around in a sweeping motion by rotating the analog stick in the direction you want to swipe. When your health is full, rather than fire a bolt of energy, your sword grows to massive proportions that will fill up a lot of the screen’s real estate. You can customize your swords at the blacksmith shop as well, adding width and girth to it, as well as strength and the ability to pierce through objects with it.

The item acquired in the first dungeon was a boomerang–your fairy companion made obvious reference as to what it may be capable of, something you should get used to as you play along. The boomerang stuns enemies, turns switches on–you didn’t need the fairy to tell you that, which is why her role is more comic relief than anything. I’m curious to see what other kinds of items you acquire, but based on the HUD itself, you can see that bombs and a bow are eventual acquisitions.

Humor in the game is something that stands out, as the translation, even in the early goings, has made me crack more than a few smiles. There are easter eggs and references to old games all over the place, nestled within caves, out in the open, or found in the loading screens, which are based off of the cover art for old-school titles. Again, I don’t want to spoil anything, despite the fact that I’m bursting at the seams to share even one thing with you, but I won’t be responsible for ruining your trip down memory lane.

The character I selected was the default Hero, but there are loads of pre-created characters you can choose from. I say “pre-created” because you can also design your own–seriously, whatever you want to make is good by the game. One of the characters you can choose is a shark that now wields a giant sword, and he fits into the storyline as the descendant of the (human) hero of the past. If that isn’t classic video game logic, I don’t know what else could qualify.

Graphically, this game looks even better in motion than it does in screens. Everything is bright, crisp and colorful, and the effects for light, shadows, water–you name it–all look nice and pretty. It’s got a decidedly new-age sheen to it considering its retro feel, but my eyes appreciate it.

It’s still early in the game, but there are seven dungeons total to conquer on my way to save the world. We’ll have an early review of 3D Dot Game Heroes up later this month so you have plenty of time to save up for May 11 if you decide it’s your cup of classically trained tea. For now, enjoy the screens from early portions of the game.

Dragon Age: Origins was one of our game’s of the year from 2009, so it’s understandable that, when given more of the same just a few months later in the form of an expansion, we would be pretty pleased with it. That’s not to say this is as good as the original game, as there are reasons to like it less, but what is here is worth playing if you enjoyed the original, as it expands on the Dragon Age universe and allows you to return to doing what you liked best about Origins: slicing Darkspawn into itty bitty pieces.

Awakening allows you to build a new character from scratch–an Orlesian Grey Warden commander come to aid Ferelden–or import one of your Origins characters with their equipment, statistics and abilities in place. Personally, I enjoyed taking charge of my previous character more than using the new one, as Awakening is a 15-20 hour expansion, and not a 40 hour epic–reacquainting yourself with former companions and others you met on your adventure has more meaning than if you meet them with a brand new face, but that’s a personal preference. The tie-ins are also stronger if you import a character, since some of your past information is used within the game as well as in the endings, though it’s not as strong a correlation as in say, Mass Effect 2.

You have new abilities that you unlock past level 20, which means your strategy from the previous title has the ability to adapt and change to meet your new needs and to keep things fresh for you. There’s also an (almost) entirely new cast for you to befriend (or aggravate–up to you really). The one returning character was a favorite of mine who I felt wasn’t fleshed out enough in Origins, so it’s good to see that Awakening rectifies that by cranking his/her personality up to 11 and letting him/her loose. Also, as a Grey Warden commander, you now have the right of conscription, so if you meet an angry individual that you would like to be in the Wardens, and they want no part of it, then their other option is death. Have fun toying with people’s lives!

The basis of the story is that you are now (SPOILERS if you haven’t played Origins, but if you haven’t, what are you doing here instead of waiting in line at the store to get it?) that you are now the Grey Warden commander in charge of the now deceased Arl Howe’s lands. You have to govern the people there (some of whom want you dead for your part in the death of Howe) as well as protect the citizenry in both the farmlands or the city–it’s up to you to distribute the troops to where you think they are needed most. You have an economic advisor who you can listen to or ignore as well–again, it’s up to you. If you upgrade Vigil’s Keep to its full potential though, you will see the effects of your handiwork when the time is right and appreciate what you have done. As for story-changing decisions, outside of choices you can make with individual characters there is really just one major moment, but for a very focused expansion that’s not much of a surprise, even for a BioWare title.

The Darkspawn have not fled for the Deep Roads, as they always do after a Blight, and they seem even more organized now than they were when an Archdemon was leading them. It turns out they do have a new leader pulling the strings, and this leader, like many of the Darkspawn you encounter, can now talk–picture an Orc with a working brain, and you would be on the right track. Since Darkspawn were enough of a threat already before they were capable of organization, sneak attacks and strategy, you need to get to the bottom of things before all of Ferelden is faced with something even worse than a Blight.

While the lack of major plot decisions isn’t a turn-off for Awakenings, the lack of conversation with your party members is. They only talk to you if they have something to say–you aren’t going to be exploring their psyche, poking and prodding at them like you did in Origins. While on the field they are all business, and don’t have time to talk to you. One of the characters even just groans and says you’re like a nagging child every time you try to speak to her. While back at camp, they talk to you, but again, only if they have something to say–you can’t just go up and explore the character through conversation like you could in Origins. It’s a shame, and kept me from feeling as connected to certain party members, whereas in Origins, conversations allowed me to take a liking to characters that, based on my first impressions, I would never have bothered to use in battle or on the field.

Because of the lack of plot twists though–meaning that, outside of completing or not completing sidequests, there isn’t much differentiation between playthroughs–Awakening also does not have the replayability of Origins. My best advice would be to use your favorite character from Origins, and maybe play through again as the Orlesian commander, but, if anything, you’ll just want to play Origins again after completing Awakening. As an expansion of the brand, it certainly succeeds, but it’s not as successful of a standalone product as Origins, despite being better than all of the DLC released for that title thus far.

Blast Factor: If you were a fan of Dragon Age: Origins, then this is a necessary purchase that expands the Dragon Age universe and gives you another reason to return to the lands you’ve defended once before. If you weren’t sold on the idea of Dragon Age before, this game will not change your mind. It doesn’t have the same replay value as Origins, but it’s definitely worth at least one playthrough for fans of the franchise.

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening is available on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC, and retails for $39.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Travel around the Internet long enough, and you will come to two opposing conclusions: Final Fantasy games are amongst the leaders in innovation and the growth of the Japanese RPG genre, or, conversely, Final Fantasy games are everything that is wrong with the stagnating Japanese RPG genre. We’ll tackle the former in a bit, but as for the latter, this thought generally comes from some of the linked items that are seen throughout much of the series, such as chocobos, the use of a Cid character, and the fact that Final Fantasy games have seen many a remake over the past decade as Square Enix introduces their classics to new fans (or repackages them for old ones looking for a fix). Of course, that thought can also come from those who dislike JRPGs in general, and, seeing Final Fantasy’s standing in that community, lash out at the most easily recognizable name.

That’s a bit unfair though, as Square has been very good about branching out with their flagship franchise. To kick off their popular Playstation 2 era, they released Final Fantasy X, which removed the world map and created a more linear adventure that was fueled by its story, the first voice acting in an FF title, and an excellent battle system that combined turned-based combat with some impressive summons, a new leveling system, and the ability to switch characters in and out of combat on the fly. Final Fantasy XI was an online MMORPG, which was clearly a step in a different direction, and FFXII combined elements of the two to create something completely different: a single-player game that felt like playing an MMO in many ways. While the opinions vary on just how successful XII was insofar as creating an excellent game, there is no doubt that it helped pave the way for XIII, which, in this reviewer’s opinion, is a far superior outing for the long-standing franchise.

The story in FFXIII is part of what will power you through the game–yes, this is a mostly linear adventure, but somewhere along the way people confused linearity for being bad. That’s not the case with this game, as the reason for its linear nature comes through as you play–it’s a story of escape and running for your life for about 15 hours, so it’s no wonder you don’t have the ability to go wherever you please. It’s not like the game doesn’t present you with plenty to do, even if it isn’t giving you much of an option to do it. If you skip out on this game due to its being more linear than you would expect from an FF game, then it’s your loss.

The main character is Lightning, though as far as a “main” goes, XIII has more in common with VI than any of the other games in the series, as each character will take the lead at some point in the adventure as you focus on their story and character development. I don’t want to delve too much into the story and give anything away, but Lightning is a former member of the military who is trying to save her sister, who happens to be the fiance of another character, Snow. Serah, the fiance and sister, is in danger for reasons you will learn, and both characters are separately out to save her. There are other people in the mix for various reasons, and everyone eventually comes together until tragedy befalls them and they have their own problems to escape from, starting you on your adventure. Apologies for being vague, but it’s the kind of adventure that’s best experienced for yourself so you can see how everything develops and turns out, from both a plot and character development standpoint.

In fact, as far as character development goes, this is the most successful Final Fantasy in a long while. There may be a few characters who rub you the wrong way long enough that you feel there is no hope for them, but everyone has their chance at redemption, and by the game’s conclusion you will like the character that has grown before your eyes over 60 hours. Hope starts out like the cliche whiny teenager, but if you think about it, he has a lot of reasons to complain, and will have his chance to move on. Vanille starts off as a goofy, fun-loving teenager that rubs some people the wrong way, but she also has her moment of transformation, and you learn why she acts the way she does. Lightning is the gruff, militaristic type, but even she has her moments of tenderness, and because of the way she acted all the time before, they mean something to you when they happen. It also helps that the voice acting for each character is superb–Vanille’s voice seems out of place on occasion, but otherwise, your ears won’t mind the loss of the Japanese voice actors.

The Shin Megami Tensei series has seen many forms and focused on many sub-genres over the years. The previous (and first) entry on the Nintendo DS was last year’s underrated Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, a tactical RPG that utilized demon summoning and turn-based combat. This year, Atlus has released another SMT title: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey.

The latest will feel very familiar to those hardcore RPG enthusiasts who played one of Atlus’ other series, Etrian Odyssey. That’s because Strange Journey is a dungeon crawler with a first-person viewpoint. It’s not as tough as Etrian Odyssey, thanks to far more save points as well as healing stations, and, in comparison, an abundance of money, but that doesn’t mean this is an easy game. It’s an SMT game, which means it comes with the kind of tough battles that requires a thorough understanding of the battle system.

At its most basic, Strange Journey is a dungeon crawler with turn-based battles. While seemingly random, battles occur after a set number of steps–you can see when one is imminent on your HUD thanks to a color gauge. You control one character that you can name, as well as up to three demons at a time in your party. You recruit these demons through conversations and negotiations — you have to answer a few of their questions in a way that will make them like you, and then give them money, items, or health in order to convince them it’s worth joining your party. Questions are sometimes tough to gauge, but you can figure it out easily — don’t make it sound like you want to kidnap barely legal fairies for  pedophilic pleasure, and you shouldn’t have any troubles recruiting those types of classes. Make big, tough demons respect you by showing how tough you are (or admitting how strong they are) and they’ll join up–you get the idea.

You fight by plugging attacks, skills or item commands into the menu for your entire team, and then a round plays out. You can summon new demons to the fight as well in order to replace either fallen ones or those you just don’t want in the battle anymore. If you don’t feel like fighting, you can select auto fight with the X button, which can be stopped in between rounds. This happens quickly, so make sure you do it if you know you’re going to win anyways. You wouldn’t want to lose a match against some tough demon because you were too lazy to go through a menu.

The first time you encounter demons, they appear as blue static on your screen. Once you have fought them and collected information on them–their name, weaknesses, etc.–they will show up in their true forms. You continue to collect information on them after this–after battles, you may notice that your Analyze level for a particular demon went up. You can reference that information to know their weaknesses or what they are strong against, which is useful knowledge not only for fighting, but when you’re building your own party for a region or boss.

You can carry up to 12 demons at a time, though that number is smaller at the start. Capturing demons won’t be enough though–you need to fuse demons together in order to make more powerful ones. You can’t fuse a demon more powerful, level-wise, than your main character, but there are still some excellent combinations to be had at all times in the game. After you have leveled a demon a certain amount, they will give you their “source”, which is basically some of their skills that you can apply to a demon fusion in order to customize a bit. There is also special fusion, which requires three demons rather than two, but this makes some of your better fighting companions who have much better skill-sets and base abilities than your standard fusion.

The story and presentation in Strange Journey are also worth discussing. Graphically and artistically, this game is appealing. Environments are varied, despite the fact they are mostly just walls and alleyways for you to traverse in a maze-like fashion, and character animations (and designs) are splendid, as is normally the case in SMT titles. Conversations are menu-based using statis animations, but you don’t do a whole lot of talking unless you are in between missions or a new story element pops up while you’re out in the field.

As for  the story, you are part of an elite strike team sent to accompany scientists and researchers to the Schwarzvelt, an odd distortion of time and space that appeared in Antarctica and is threatening to swallow the planet. In addition to completely satisfying the quantum physics nerd in me with constant references to advanced sciences and theories, the story remains entertaining throughout thanks to the dialogue that permeats the experience–the main conflict is between humans and demons, and although demons are considered evil and terrible (as well as dangerous) their behavior and the world they live in is simply a reflection of human activities and the selfish desires of humanity. Sure, the demons are bloodthirsty, and many of them want nothing besides your death (or at least a sandwich made from your corpse), but their existence is tied directly to humanity’s treatment of the planet during the absence of the demons. For once, you can stop to think about what a JRPG is trying to tell you on a philosophical level–and that level is something besides, “As long as you have friends, no goal is outside your reach!”(and a cliche cast of friends, at that).

Strange Journey is a lengthy experience as well–you don’t necessarily have to level grind to succeed, but you will have to spend time searching out demons and leveling up sufficiently. No worries though–dungeons are long enough, and with plenty of goals in them, so you won’t have to do much running around outside of what is required of you from the story and side missions you can take on. You may fly through the early portions of the game as the game teaches you about recruiting demons, fusing them and the like, but as time goes on and you need to make sure your party is loaded with enough firepower to take on the demon clan’s heavy hitters, things get a bit more difficult and time consuming.

Luckily there is plenty to do outside of just fighting while you roam the mazes. Forma can be found using an application in your suit–forma is basically a material that is used in the ship’s laboratory to make items, weapons, accessories, and additional apps. Once you have the app for locating forma, an indicator will go off on your map once you are within range–it’s worth finding every piece of forma you come across, because chances are good the ship’s labs can turn it into something you can use. This helps keep your searches for battles and demons from feeling grindy, which is welcome in a game like this that requires so much fighting.

Blast Factor: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is a blast from the past in a lot of ways, but it’s a welcome one. The DS gets another lengthy RPG title to add to its collection, but it’s one time with. There’s an entertaining story, one that’s a little deeper than you would think from a handheld RPG, as well as the joy of fusing and creating new demons–and of course, it’s a challenge to complete, which is welcome news to those who follow the SMT games, or even those who can’t wait for Etrian Odyssey III.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is available exclusively on the Nintendo DS. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Perfect Dark, the widely-praised and critically-acclaimed Nintendo 64 shooter from Rare Ltd. is coming to the Xbox Live Arcade in just a few weeks and we chatted with Nick Ferguson, a producer on the project to shed some light on the re-release.

Marc Normandin: The original Perfect Dark was a hit with gamers and critics alike when it released nearly 10 years ago on the Nintendo 64. First-person shooters have come a long way since then, as far as level-design and immersion goes: everyone has their own opinion on this, but let’s hear why you think the design is timeless enough to work for gamers today, in 2010.

Nick Ferguson: Perfect Dark plays very differently to recent shooters like Call of Duty and Halo. Whereas COD is a tightly scripted rollercoaster ride, Perfect Dark gives players a huge amount of freedom in how they choose to navigate the levels and complete mission objectives. The visuals may not be as spectacular, but the mission design is very smart and the system of level objectives that change based on difficulty has never been bettered.

Halo introduced the concept of limiting players to use of two highly focused weapons at a time and built great, strategic gameplay decisions around that. Perfect Dark works at the opposite end of the spectrum – players can start levels with access to an incredible toolkit of weapons and equipment, including a gun that can fire through walls (Farsight), a laptop that doubles up as both a machine gun and remote sentry post (Laptop Gun) and a weapon that turns enemy characters into allies (Psychosis Gun).

Like both Halo and Call of Duty, Perfect Dark on Xbox LIVE Arcade also has a deep and engrossing multiplayer mode that rolls all the great content from the single player into competitive online play!

MN: Obviously the Xbox 360 controller is a different beast than the N64 pad, and not just because it doesn’t resemble a Star Wars space fighter. How will the game control, two generations later? Has anything significant been added or subtracted from the controls in order to make this work (or work more effectively?)

NF: We’ve worked really hard to preserve the original "feel" of Perfect Dark on a twin-stick controller, and we’re really happy with the results. The original game made ingenious use of the N64 controller, but there was a lot of advanced functionality that required buttons to double-up for actions like cycling weapons backwards or even reloading. We’ve put those functions on their own buttons on Xbox 360.

We’ve adapted the feel of Perfect Dark onto the dual analog layout that modern gamers are familiar with so if you never played shooters on N64, you’ll be able to pick up and play Perfect Dark with ease. We’ve even included control schemes based on Halo ("Spartan") and Call of Duty ("Duty Calls") so players familiar with those titles can dive right in. Having said all that, if you played Perfect Dark on N64 for hours and hours back in the day I think you’ll find the new controls will fit you like a glove.

MN: One of the things that kept people playing Perfect Dark for countless hours, even before online play, were the various game modes. There was a single-player campaign, a co-op campaign, a wealth of multiplayer modes and options, a shooting gallery, as well as challenge levels that were worthy of their name. Is all of this being retained? Has it been modified? Has anything else been added to this for the XBLA release?

NF: Everything players remember from the original game has been retained in Perfect Dark for XBLA. This includes the Firing Range and Device Training in the Carrington Institute to the use of bots (Simulants) in multiplayer. The biggest change that drags Perfect Dark roaring into 2010 is the fact we’ve plumbed LIVE functionality into every aspect of the game — from Co-op and Counter-Op modes which can be played online, to the Combat Simulator multiplayer modes which now support 8 players over Xbox LIVE.

Players who remember the glory days of couch multiplayer will be pleased to hear we’re retained all the split-screen game functionality from the original, too! In fact, players can even compete via split screen over Xbox LIVE. On top of LIVE multiplayer, we’ve added all the things players have come to expect from their XBLA games including Leaderboards, Achievements and a ton of unlockable content including Avatar Awards and an exclusive free Premium Theme.

MN: What tech benefits will we see by switching from our dusty cartridge to a download-title in 2010? The framerate in the original, for instance, was notoriously poor in multiplayer.

NF: Xbox 360 lets us run Perfect Dark at full 1080p HD resolutions at a solid 60 frames per second. The game has never looked better, and that silky smooth framerate also applies to the multiplayer mode — even when we’re running in 4-player split screen. We’ve updated every texture and remodeled all the characters and weapons to make them look great in HD. Locations have all had a lick of paint, from new skyboxes to updated geometry and level objects. Pipes that used to be flat polygons on N64 are now fully-rounded 3D objects. Finally, the game makes great use of 5.1 surround sound and original master recordings have been used to update the soundtrack without compression!

MN: Perfect Dark is known for its weaponry. Confession time: what is your favorite gun, and why? Favorite secondary function?

NF: love the Laptop Gun, not just because of the awesome sentry gun secondary function but because of the way it kicks off the action on Carrington Villa’s Perfect Agent difficulty setting. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I won’t spoil the surprise! A close second would be the Psychosis Gun. A weapon that turns your enemies into allies – what more can you possibly want!?

MN: Finally, not everyone has played Perfect Dark, so why don’t you tell the readers why they need to own this updated classic. The floor is yours.

NF: Perfect Dark is an incredible game that just got the tune-up of the decade. Some classic games don’t age well, and even when they do it can be hard to look past blurry graphics, outdated controls and a sluggish framerate without a healthy dose of nostalgia for the original release. We’re incredibly proud and privileged to be bringing a top-notch update of a legendary game design — one that was years ahead of its time – to Xbox LIVE Arcade in 2010 where a new generation of players will get to discover its unique charms all over again.

Perfect Dark comes to the Xbox Live Arcade March 17.

Perfect Dark, even in its original form, is worth playing today. The level design was (and still is) top notch, the array of weapons was as varied and imaginative as anything that has come to be since, and the game was stuffed with more game modes than most of today’s gamers would know what to do with. What does this mean for the repackaged version that released on Xbox Live Arcade? It means that a Rare classic is getting a second chance, now with a shinier coat of paint and online features.

If you played Perfect Dark Zero when it released for the Xbox 360, but haven’t played the original, please don’t judge the Nintendo 64 classic by its prequel’s attributes—this game is the reason Zero was such a letdown to many. Plus, for just 800 points, you’ll be picking up a game with more to do than many of today’s retail releases, never mind the fact that it towers over every single XBLA game—even Shadow Complex—in terms of depth and the hours you will sink into it.

Perfect Dark stars Joanna Dark, a British secret agent with gadgetry and weaponry at her disposal in a sci-fi themed future. She works for the Carrington Institute, who at present are investigating dataDyne, a wealthy corporation with their hands in some shady business. What starts as a simple romp through a near-future world turns into a race to save the president, shut down super weapons and end an alien threat in space. The voice acting is what you would expect from a game released originally in 2000, and the script is as corny (in an enjoyable way) as you would expect from a Rare release. Characters don’t open their hands, but flail fat looking fists around when they talk to let you know it’s their turn to speak—character’s lips don’t move with the words, so some kind of indicator was necessary.

That’s about the only thing that hasn’t aged well over the past 10 years though. The campaign is a bit short, but there are four difficulties—the first, Agent, is meant to familiarize you with the story and the levels. Special Agent adds additional enemies, moves some weaponry and shields around, and gives you more tasks to accomplish within each stage as well. This makes each playthrough a bit different, especially since the final difficulty does more of what Special Agent did, only harder. The game is also designed with speed runs in mind, thanks to some generous auto-aim, fast walking speeds and online leaderboards that can track your progress. Once you complete the game on Perfect Agent, a Perfect Dark difficulty unlocks as well, and you can unlock bonus levels through some of the other game’s modes in order to use previously non-playable characters.

Graphically, while not stunning by any means, Perfect Dark has cleaned up very well. The textures are highly detailed, the game was originally meant to run in 16:9 widescreen, meaning there is no weird transition issue, and the game’s art itself is also well done. This game was too ambitious for the system it was on—it required the expansion pack for the N64 just to play, and despite that still chugged along at an inconsistent 24 frames per second. Now it sits at not only 60 frames per second, but 1080p, full HD.

There are two areas where Perfect Dark shines as bright as any other first-person shooter on the Xbox 360, and that’s in the weaponry and the additional game modes. There are 32 weapons for you to choose from—the Carrington Institute weapons, which range from standard issue shotguns and pistols to sci-fi rifles, the dataDyne weapons, as well as an array of alien weapons from both the Maian and the Skedar. At their most basic, these are standard weapons, but each gun holds a nifty surprise—a secondary fire mode. Your AR34 assault rifle has a scope you can walk around with. Your Callisto NTG fires high impact shells rather than at an assault rifle rate. Your shotgun can have a double blast. The K7 Avenger becomes  a threat detector for locating mines, defense turrets and enemies. The Devastator, a grenade launcher, shoots sticky grenades. The Slayer rocket launcher has a camera-guided missile that you control to ram into targets. Most famously, the Laptop Gun becomes a turret that you can place anywhere, and it will fire until it runs out of bullets or enemies to kill. The thrill of experimenting with these guns will keep newcomers glued to their televisions, and veterans will do the same in order to excel with old friends and tactics.

As for game modes, there’s seemingly no end to them. You have multiplayer, which consists of six different game modes: Combat (death match), Hold the Briefcase, Hacker Central, Pop a Cap, King of the Hill, and Capture the Case. Capture the Case is basically capture the flag, Hold the Briefcase has you scoring points for holding onto a case the longest before losing it via a bullet to the head, Hacker Central has you invading enemy territory to hack into their computers, King of the Hill and Death Match are self-explanatory, and Pop a Cap has everyone targeting a specific person at a time. You can customize these matches to include stimulants (bots) as well, and these can be tailored to your preferences. Use the JudgeSim, whose only goal is to kill the current leader in order to keep the score even. The VengeSim wants nothing other than to attack the last person to kill them. The TurtleSim has a ridiculous shield to fire through. There are many others, and there are also difficulty levels for all of these sims—Meat, Easy, Normal, Hard, Perfect, and Dark. The Perfect and Dark sims are meant to move faster than you are capable of—you will find yourself shot at without ever seeing who did it, despite them being in front of you.

You can play these modes online now in eight-player multiplayer, but there is also four-player local, a godsend for those of us who want to revisit the days when we played nothing but Perfect Dark with friends at home. My one complaint in regards to multiplayer is that instead of eight simulants you can now use just four—this was most likely done to keep things streamlined so the game always maxed out at eight players, on or offline, but the original, despite its jarring frame rate issues in multiplayer, supported up to 12 players at a time thanks to the eight stimulants and four humans. [Edit: This is untrue--after completing the first eight Challenges, you unlock the ability to use eight bots in multiplayer  alongside up to four human players.]

The original game had maps from Goldeneye in addition to the Perfect Dark ones, as well as some unlockable Goldeneye weapons—these have returned, and are now available from the start. You can’t get Goldeneye on your 360 (or your Wii, for that matter), but you can play Goldeneye maps and use its weapons while playing the better game.

Perfect Dark also features 29 Challenges, which can be played with 1-4 players. These range from the simple (kill enemy bots with standard weaponry) to the slightly ridiculous (kill enemy Dark sims in a level without radar), but you unlock additional content for the game as well as a higher ranking for your profile by completing them. You can’t unlock things like the Dark sims in multiplayer until you have completed a certain number of challenges, so it’s worth your time to explore this portion of the game.

Additionally, there is a firing range for you to test out all of the game’s weaponry. There are bronze, silver and gold level challenges within the firing range, and you will find yourself sinking time in here in order to earn the best scores possible as well as unlock bonus levels. It’s also a great place to test out the secondary fire modes and capabilities of weapons without having to worry about someone trying to shoot back at you.

There’s still, amazingly, more to do: there is a co-operative campaign mode, as well as a counter-operative mode. Co-op is self-explanatory—I couldn’t care less that it doesn’t make sense from a story point of view to have two characters at once, because including co-op is a win. Counter-operative has one player take on the role of Agent Dark, while the second player uses a guard within the level—if the guard is killed, you simply take on the role of another guard until there aren’t any left.

One last thing—there are three control schemes. 4J Studios translated the N64 pad’s controls to the 360′s very well in the classic style. If you’ve played a lot of Perfect Dark, this is what you will want to use. If you’re more of a Halo guy, go with “Spartan”, and for Call of Duty fanatics, there’s “Duty Calls”.

Blast Factor: One of the most critically acclaimed shooters in gaming history is available once again with a new coat of paint, multiple control schemes, as well as all of the things that made the original great and then some. If you have played this before, go get it. If you have never played it, go get it. If the cartridge is sitting in your Nintendo 64 that’s kept in your bedroom on your other television (guilty), go get it.

Perfect Dark is available for 800 Perfect Dark is available for 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Arcade. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

The original Endless Ocean was a special little title that many people missed upon release. The aquatic explorer was unlike almost anything else on the market at that point—it was a game that, in many ways, wasn’t a game at all. You swam around in reefs, discovered, pet and fed fish, enjoyed the detailed, realistic scenery of the ocean–all while learning about aquatic life in the process. It certainly wasn’t the kind of thing you see on the wish list of today’s gamer, but despite this, it was a relaxing retreat from the missions and the violence we all love so much in our video games.

Endless Ocean was something of an ocean sandbox where you generally spent time free of direction, free to do as you pleased. This did not sit well with many gamers though, as even open-world games have some sort of structure to them. Endless Ocean: Blue World, this year’s sequel from developer Arika, fixes that issue by focusing more on story and giving you more direction in your gameplay. They do this without sacrificing the things many folks loved from the original as well, which makes this sequel a better purchase for both fans of the original and the uninitiated.

All of the things you love from the original are intact—you can still take photos, the descriptions of sea life that you can read as you discover them, hidden locations that you must dive to discover, and the multiplayer, which allows you to dive with a friend online. This time around though, Wii Speak is supported, so you no longer have to quietly dive underwater, as calming an experience as that may have been. Now you can talk with a buddy, which makes things easier if you’re trying to direct someone towards an area or creature.

As for the story, your character, who you create with the very simple character creation, joins the R&R Diving Service in order to learn more about the Song of the Dragons, which is a song of legend that is said to be cursed. Conveniently enough, the diving company has ties to the song through pendants left to the owner’s granddaughter, a fellow diver. The story is entertaining, though mostly because it’s ridiculous and good for the occasional laugh. The highlight of the game remains the diving and exploration under the sea.

This time around you have some gadgets at your disposal. First is the Multi Sensor, which is a sonar device that helps you locate treasures and artifacts—you’ll find many of these just by swimming around fish and aquatic life, but the sensor is appreciated for making this easier. Second is the Pulsar, which magically heals fish simply by giving them a few jolts of energy. Realistic? Of course not, but it’s still fun when a tiger shark is about to bite you and you shock him in the face with a pulsar to settle him down and save your hide. For those who are concerned that Arika has put headshots into your calm, ocean exploration title, don’t be alarmed: these moments occur infrequently, as the game certainly isn’t all fighting off tiger sharks and the like.

Just because the game is structured more than the original doesn’t mean you can’t swim as long as you feel like, taking your time in order to discover treasures and interact with all of the life underwater. The game still encourages you to lazily make your way through the very deep and very much alive diving stages. In order to build a better sense of accomplishment though, there’s a leveling system in place for your oxygen—the more dives you complete, the longer you can stay in the depths of the ocean. It’s a good incentive to keep playing for those who need a push to keep playing.

Graphically, Blue World is superior to its predecessor—everything that is underwater is beautifully rendered and detailed, and the sea life animates very well. Even when the camera zooms in close on specific areas or creatures, the visuals hold up. This may be a budget title, but its production values, at least graphically, outshine plenty of games on the system.

The one thing I dislike about Endless Ocean is the control scheme—it’s entirely pointed based, as you point at the screen and then hold B to swim in that direction. Nunchuk support would have been helpful, especially with a relaxing title such as this—I just want to lay on the couch and use my thumbs for something like this, not hold the Wii Remote aloft in order to stay aligned with the sensor bar. This is more of a personal complaint than something that’s wrong with the game though—it’s not the developer’s fault I want to be lazy. I just hope that if there’s an Endless Ocean 3, they give you the option of more than one control scheme.

Blast Factor: Endless Ocean: Blue World takes everything you enjoyed about the original and tightens up the offering with a more direct storyline, new gadgets to change up the pace of ocean exploration, and even more areas and sea life for you to discover and explore. This is not a game for everyone, but it is a game everyone should try—you never know, even the most cynical of you may enjoy the beautifully rendered environments and the calming sense of atmosphere.

Endless Ocean: Blue World is available exclusively for the Endless Ocean: Blue World is available exclusively for the Nintendo Wii, and retails for $29.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

The original No More Heroes is one of the better games in the Wii library. There are two responses to that out in the wild, the first of which is, "That goes to show you how poor the Wii’s game selection is" and the other, which is, "Absolutely, No More Heroes is just that awesome". It was different from anything else on the system—and still is, in terms of franchises—as it delivered Suda 51′s (Killer 7) brand of dementia and adoration for all things retro and nerdy while also steeping the player in ultra-violence, a la Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1.

I’ll be honest and say I fit into the latter camp, the one that thinks the original is a flawed masterpiece of sorts, working as both a creative gameplay experience as well as a smart critique on the present day gaming landscape. The game has its problems, yes, ones even a fan such as myself cannot deny the existence of, but when No More Heroes 2 was announced, and things started to take shape, you could see that Grasshopper had done its best to answer the calls of the original’s critics in order to deliver a tighter, more enjoyable, and more intense thrill ride. For many reasons, Grasshopper and Suda were able to deliver with No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, giving the Wii an early contender for its game of the year category.

Revenge is the theme, right from the start

Here’s the deal: if you loved the first game, then you need the second one. It’s not that much of a leap forward for those of us who already enjoyed the sadistic tendencies of Travis Touchdown, but for those who took issue with the first one—the pacing, the sidejobs, the repetitive nature of combat—you will be happy to know that these items have been worked on and smoothed over for you, in order to produce a much tighter, fast-paced and enjoyable experience. For those people, Desperate Struggle is a giant leap forward, and gives the franchise the credibility that those of us already in love with it had, simply by trimming the fat and replacing it with high-quality awesome.

The gist of the story is that Travis has returned, no longer the #1 ranked assassin as he was at the conclusion of the previous title. There are those who want revenge on him, and in order to get his attention, they murder his friend Bishop in cold blood. Travis goes into a rage and vows to end the life of anyone involved—conveniently enough, the #1 ranked assassin is the corporate mastermind behind Bishop’s death. It works well, just like in the original, with cutscenes delivering humor, violence, and very likable—though odd—personalities throughout.

Travis, after ending the life of one of those personalities

Combat is largely unchanged, with the direction you angle the Wii Remote in (high or low) still making for high or low attacks, while the A button does all of the swinging. The B button is still for melee and initiating your wrestling moves—leave it to Suda to include both lightsaber type weaponry and a Tiger Driver fluidly in a combat system. The one major change is that the slot machine system from the original has been tweaked so that you can see your progress on an "Ecstasy Gauge", which you can steal from at any time when there’s enough in order to deliver more powerful attacks. Also, if your gauge fills completely, you may turn into a tiger. Why a tiger? I asked the same, but then realized this allowed me to maul enemies in one hit as they crawled on the ground away from me, and decided not to ask any more questions and just get back to maulin’.  You also get a nice grindhouse sheen on the screen during these slot machine events, as everything looks grimy with that burnt-film quality to it.

The overworld, largely derided by critics, was scrapped in favor of a menu system that allows fast travel to any area you need to go to. No more driving across the city to retry missions over and over, and, for that matter, missions have been revamped as well. With the exception of one side job, you now play 2D, 8-bit NES style games in order to earn extra cash. This cash also no longer goes towards entry fees for fighting the next ranked assassin, and instead can be used for sword upgrades, new duds, and paying for training at the gym. You can do as much or as little of these as you want, but you will find yourself playing them not just to earn cash. They are a fun diversion after slicing heads off of countless anonymous thugs.

Dual beam katanas is enough of a reason to own this game

As for the gym, these workouts have also been given the old-school treatment , though with a little less success than the side jobs. The treadmill works fine, as you just need to be facing the correct direction while mashing the B and Z buttons alternatively, but the muscle exercise, which finds you pinching and kicking free weights thrown at you, requires too much perfection in order to pass—this is a good way to waste huge chunks of money as you advance, as the price climbs and climbs. You don’t make much money in main missions either, so all of that cash is going to have to come from side jobs. This is the closest thing to grinding for cash in the game though, which is a big improvement over the first title’s system.

There are two other non-story diversions for you, in the form of Revenge Missions and your cat, Jeane. The Revenge Missions find you slicing up a number of baddies before the clock runs out, and then you have to find the boss of those particular thugs in order to slice him up and clean up the streets. As for your cat, Jeane has put on quite a bit of weight in between titles, and now weighs 24 pounds. By playing with her, lifting her, massaging her, and feeding her well, you can get Jeane to lose weight—drop her far enough over the course of the game, and you will learn a very My useful and powerful technique that’s activated by the Nunchuk. It’s more than a worthwhile reward for what are actually well-designed mini-games.

Graphically, the game is superior to the original, and not just because the overworld has been removed. Everything looks a bit cleaner and more polished, and the animations and lip-synching are all improved.  The sound is also wonderful, with various genre remixes of the main theme spread out across all of the levels and missions. The bad guys do not have enough catchphrases to keep their last words from being annoying after awhile, but it gets so repetitive at times that it’s hard to tell if it was done on purpose in order to mock other games with the issue, or because they didn’t put the effort into this one area. Either way, it’s an annoyance, but nothing major.

My only complaint with the game worth anything is that the bosses are nowhere near as interesting as those in the original. They lack the fleshed out personalities of their predecessors in most cases, and do not verbally spar with Travis for anywhere near as long prior to the fights. The battles are still tests of your abilities and the best part of the gameplay, so not all is lost, but it’s just a little disappointing that I don’t feel like I knew my adversaries as well as I did in the first, when they were given such powerful, unforgettable personalities. I guess not every assassin can be a drunken school girl with a fetish for baseball and gimps, but a little more spIotlight on who they are would have been appreciated.

Blast Factor: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is superior in every other regard to the first game though, and is a must-own for anyone with a Wii, a sense of humor, and a penchant for lightsabers. In what looks to be an impressive year for Nintendo’s white box, Desperate Struggle has set the bar at the outset with its entertaining story, lovable and despicable cast, and improved, tight gameplay. Desperate Struggle is not to be overlooked, even if you could do without the original.

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is available exclusively on the Nintendo Wii, and retails for $49.99. A copy of this game was purchased for reviewing purposes.

Good afternoon from Blast Games! I wanted to let everyone know that we have made a change to our scoring system–no longer will games be scored on a 0 to 10 scale, as we have decided on a few things about that system.

First, not everyone seems to be in agreement about what number constitutes a good or bad grade. That goes for both readers and writers, as we all have our own personal idea or cutoff for what means what, even with a specific system in place. Second, how do you consistently determine why one game is 0.3 better or worse than another game? Does it actually matter? The text of a review should be your true guide for a game’s worth, but it’s also nice to have a score there so you can put it into some context. Some people enjoy that very much, and it may mean a lot to more than others, so we didn’t want to do away with scoring entirely.

Letters work better than numbers, in our minds. We will end up using the entire scale now, instead of focusing more on the 5-10 range, which seemed to happen pretty often. I think this will better serve both our writers and you, our readers, as there will be more consistency in our grades. You all went to school, you know what the differences between A, B, C, D and F are, even when we throw in plus and minus options.

Just in case though, we’ll spell it out. A’s are obviously the cream of the crop–these are some of the best games you’ll play all year. Those who are in the A+ range are more likely, in our minds, to matter outside of the year of their release–these are your most memorable titles, and your most likely game of the year candidates.

B’s are games that you should definitely own, because you’ll enjoy them, but they are more easily forgettable than A’s, and may not be the same thrilling or unique (and well-done) experience. Maybe they are lacking in polish, or are a new entry to a series that needs some work but has a lot of promise.

C’s are closer to your average games. These are not must own like most B’s and A’s, but are something gamers should experience if they have the time, money, or desire. They are definitely playable, but lacking in some area or another in a way that keeps them from being higher rated.

D’s are games where there may be some good ideas tucked away, or an interesting concept or mechanic that’s worth checking out, but you’re not going to want to touch them until they hit the bargain bin or your local video game rental store. This is the kind of game that you either avoid, or pick up only when you have exhausted all other resources and need to play a game. Playable, but not necessarily what we would call a good time. Many, many gamers, unless they go through a few games a month, are never going to play these games, and should focus their money and attention on better titles.

F’s are broken, or devoid of interesting ideas or worthwhile gameplay. These are titles to avoid. There’s not much to say about them other than that if you play them, and it’s not for reviewing purposes, then you’re probably a masochist.

We’ll be rolling out reviews this afternoon with the new scoring system in place–it’s part of the reason we’ve been quiet during the holidays, as we wanted to get it up and running for you and figure out what improvements we can make.

With the new year on the horizon, it’s time for us at Blast to take a look back and see what the very best that 2009 had to offer was. It was a very strong year for gaming from a critical standpoint, with a few instant classics, a few very strong titles, and then a near endless supply of very good to great games across all three home consoles and both handheld systems. Looking back through the archives of our reviews, it struck me just how much depth there was to 2009–it was the year of the "above-average" game in many ways.

That’s not what we’ve come to celebrate at the end of 2009 though, as those games that qualify for Game of the Year are the very best of what released. While there were many candidates that fit the bill, we have selected our top 10 from consoles and another top 10 from handhelds, the first of which will run today. Agree? Disagree? Let us know what you think we got right or missed on in the comments. This was a group effort–for example, I have not necessarily played every single game on this list–so you will also see some commentary from Jason D’Aprile and Chase Gharrity, both of whom reviewed titles that made our final cut.

10. MadWorld (Wii): MadWorld was the first project by PlatinumGames (formerly Clover, the team responsible for Viewtiful Joe and Okami) to be released by Sega. It was feared that the game would suffer from style over substance–the black and white (and red, so much red) gave the game an original (for video games) look that made you think of Sin City, and shock value was a key ingredient to the game’s appeal. Those fears were assuaged once the title released. Sure, MadWorld was short, clocking in somewhere between 3-5 hours despite its $50 retail value, but the pacing was excellent, the visuals, as stated, looked lovely, and PlatinumGames showed that they knew how to build themselves a brawler. MadWorld used a combat system that relied on two things: your imagination and your sense of humor. The world was your deadly playground, and the enemies were your playthings. Sure, it may seem unsettling that you received higher scores for more imaginative (read: gross, overly violent) kills, but the game wasn’t going for realism–it was like playing a comic book, and it wanted you to strive to be as over the top as you could. Let’s be serious, Jack had a chainsaw attached to his arm, and kills with it were considered boring by the game. That’s how you know you’ve got a winner. -Marc Normandin

Its visceral action is to die for...

9. BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger (Xbox 360, Playstation 3): While the rest of the industry has focused on 3D fighting action for years now, a few hold-overs still appreciate the joys of 90′s-era cartoonish sprites. While SNK’s move to HD with their last King of Fighters was lackluster at best, Aksys Games gave old-school fighting fans a genuine love note with BlazBlue. The spiritual successor to their brilliantly bizarre Guilty Gear series, this is without a doubt the most impressive 2D fighter in years. The high-def hand-drawn characters are gorgeous, the backdrops creative and alive, and the controls are amazingly refined. The online play is smooth and reliable as well, and while Soul Caliber, Street Fighter and Tekken games have a lot more flash and marketing power behind them, BlazBlue reigns supreme for a fantastic presentation and wonderfully quirky gameplay. -Jason D’Aprile

You haven't played a fighting game this good in years.

The year is coming to a close, but Square Enix has one potential hit left up its sleeve in the form of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers. Now, we are suckers for anything Crystal Chronicles related around here, from the original GameCube offering that gave players a chance to link up their Game Boy Advance to their GameCube to the wireless multiplayer of the DS titles to the distinctive WiiWare games that put new twists on old genres, all while utilizing a now familiar universe.

The Crystal Bearers aims to be even more of an experiment for Square Enix than the previous games in the Crystal Chronicles series, as it doesn’t rest on familiar concepts and play styles, but does so within the confines of a full retail game rather than a downloadable release. We had the opportunity to speak to Akitoshi Kazawu, who worked on The Crystal Bearers, about the series itself and what we can expect from the last big game of 2009.

BLAST: The whole Crystal Chronicles series is different from the more traditional Final Fantasy games, though they both use a similar universe. How did the series come about in the last console generation? What prompted making the series a Nintendo exclusive?

Akitoshi Kawazu: Over the years, FINAL FANTASY has transitioned from SNES to PlayStation platforms, and the top quality visuals best represented in the in-game movies have become a staple feature of the series. While this quality has been embraced by core gamers, it seems to have distanced beginners and younger players from the FINAL FANTASY brand.  In the earlier days, Nintendo’s then president, Mr. Yamauchi, had asked us to create a FINAL FANTASY game that could be enjoyed by any player, no matter what age or gender; the resulting project was the first FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES game for GameCube. We have followed up since with several titles for Nintendo platforms, but feel that we haven’t been able to develop a game that fulfills Mr. Yamauchi’s request 100 percent. We’re going to stick with Nintendo platforms until we have achieved this. I think it’s a really "Japanese way" of thought, so hopefully this explanation makes sense.

BLAST: While the first few games were all similar, in that they were multiplayer offerings that focused on exploration and item collection, the series has taken a different turn on the Wii. First there was My Life As A King, and then this year’s My Life As A Darklord—each of which is one of our favorite WiiWare titles for different reasons. Where did these ideas come from, and how did they develop into games? Do you see this same sort of genre-bending experimentation in the future of the Crystal Chronicles series, either on WiiWare or as full retail games?

AK: In my mind, WiiWare is a platform of its own, different from packaged software both in terms of technology and business-model. In the beginning, the idea was to make an RTS game for WiiWare utilizing the graphic resources of the GameCube version, to shorten the length of development.  We were successfully able to incorporate the FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES world into the resulting game system, and FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a King turned out to be a great game. FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a Darklord was a sequel that was always part of the plan. At first we had planned for the two games to have the same systems, but wanted to change things up a bit, and transitioned to a tower defense oriented system instead. Moving forward, I would like to create more games for WiiWare with systems that would be difficult to realize with a packaged title.

BLAST: The Crystal Bearers takes that evolving genres cue a step further, as it’s a single-player game with a deeper story and a focus on adventure. What prompted the switch to more of an epic quest, rather than a Wii-exclusive multiplayer offering?

AK: Development for this title began around the same time as FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: Ring of Fates for DS.  The DS title got the multiplayer focus, as we felt the platform was more suitable for multiplayer action, and for FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: THE CRYSTAL BEARERS, we put more emphasis on the single player experience that Wii is known for.  With the GameCube version, we faced challenges in revolving a multiplayer action game around a single screen, so that was also one of the reasons why we chose this direction.

BLAST: Tell us a bit about the background of the game’s story, and what kind of adventure we are in store for this December.

AK: Annihilated in the Great War that took place ages ago, the Yuke tribe had completely disappeared, even from people’s memories. However, members of this supposedly extinct tribe appear and attack the passenger airship Alexis. Layle, the main character of this game, is hired as an escort to defend this airship. In this adventure you will play as Layle, discovering why the Yuke tribe is back, and what exactly it is that they want.

BLAST: The protagonist is very different from the create-a-hero setup in the other Crystal Chronicles titles, but he even comes off as more experienced than many heroes in the flagship Final Fantasy series. In a genre dominated by teenagers, children and inexperienced heroes, how did Layle come to be?

AK: FINAL FANTASY stories have always been about growth. The main character’s problems, struggles, joys, sense of accomplishment or sense of loss are all expressed throughout the course of the game. However, if the plot is set up with the same formula every time, we won’t be able to expand the breadth of storytelling. With this game, we wanted players to enjoy an entirely different type of story and main character. This hero is extremely "hero-like" in his actions. Layle is a hero that is constantly one step ahead of his enemies, and offers players an exhilarating experience.

BLAST: Gameplay wise, what’s different in the Crystal Bearers from past Crystal Chronicles titles? What stands out in The Crystal Bearers as your favorite addition to the series?

AK: The element that differs most from past titles is that players can interact with the game’s environment. Objects, people and creatures, among other things, are all part of this "touchable" environment. Everything will come back at you with a variety of reactions when you come into contact with them.

AK: Link with Force powers! That’s actually not too off-base. However, Layle is far more confident than Link, and is not as polite. Layle uses his powers instead of swords or bows and arrows, essentially to show off that he doesn’t need to rely on weapons. Layle’s powers bring about a huge variety of reactions. This is because you can use his powers on anyone, ranging from town’s people to guardsmen. These are things that Link couldn’t do, right?

BLAST: Did you run into any problems developing for a system with the Wii’s control system? Was there anything you wanted to work into the game that did not make it in due to these difficulties?

AK: There are certain aspects that we cut intentionally, but nothing that we were unable to achieve because of technical difficulties. For example, in the early stages of development Layle used to wield a sword, but because we were able to integrate Wii controls so well in the game, we decided not to include that feature. This way, Layle’s powers could be emphasized.

BLAST: Is there a possibility that The Crystal Bearers will develop into its own side series, as it differs so much from the traditional Crystal Chronicles and takes place so far ahead in the universe’s timeline? Is this something you would like to see happen?

AK: FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES is known for its multiplayer function and miniature character designs, and even though FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: THE CRYSTAL BEARERS shares the same world, it is a completely different gaming experience. We would like to continue with expanding the CRYSTAL CHRONICLES series, while also looking into a sequel specific to FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: THE CRYSTAL BEARERS.

BLAST: Lastly, tell our readers the one thing about The Crystal Bearers that they may not know to convince them to pick it up the day after Christmas.

AK: Step into the shoes of a daring hero, use his ability to control gravity at will, and interact with everything within the game world, from objects and people to creatures. That sums up FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: THE CRYSTAL BEARERS. Don’t miss out on this experience!

Let’s get this out of the way right now: if you like the original Excitebike, the NES version from long ago, then you’re going to love Excitebike: World Rally. It’s the same game, only now with better graphics, an updated art style that fits developer Monster Games’ other two Excite efforts, enhanced controls and–wait for it–online play. The main question is whether or not it’s worth the extra $5 to pick up World Rally when the original is available on Virtual Console–as someone who had the classic version prior to this game’s release, I can tell you that it’s worth throwing the money down to have both versions.

Excitebike is an arcade style title. You drive on your bike, racing against your own time in order to earn a better grade. You spend your time popping wheelies, using your turbo boost, hitting jumps, avoiding pits, jumping hurdles, flying ahead of other racers–World Rally feels like the original in that sense, but tighter and more responsive. There are 16 courses where you switch lanes, hit boosters and jump over hills, and they are progressively harder. You may think you rock at Excitebike after you drive through the first few courses, but once you get to the Gold and Platinum cups, the game will let you know what it thinks of you. In order to earn the best grades possible on those levels, you’re going to need to hit every jump the right way, hit all of the markers to cool off your boosters, and avoid crashing at all costs–it’s a lot harder to do than it sounds.

World Rally also brings you back to the days when all you needed to have fun with any game was two buttons–2 is accelerate, 1 is your limited turbo supply, and the D-pad is used to switch lanes and perform a wheelie. You also use the D-pad to align your bike for landings so as not to interrupt your speed. That’s the classic style though, as you can use the updated version that lets you tilt the Wii Remote in order to align yourself. Both work, and work well, but I eventually went back to the D-pad to avoid accidentally shifting in mid-air.

The other racers on the course are there mostly to get in your way, as you aren’t actually racing them. You can bounce off of their heads as you come down from a jump in order to cool off your engine, and you can also take them out of commission by switching lanes directly in front of them at the exact right moment–be careful though, as crashing will ruin your times, though you can get back up from that and from your engine overheating more quickly than before thanks to shaking of the Wii Remote, just like in Excitebots or Excitetruck.

Completing all of the courses with a grade of S in a particular cup (B is passing, A is obviously better, and S is the best) earns you a few different colored bikes. Their performances are all the same, but if you’re not digging the original colors or just want a change of pace, they are your reward for a race well run.

The track editor from the original game returns, but there’s a twist now, as you can trade levels with your friends. No longer do you have to rely on your own imagination in order to have more fun than what came in the virtual box, which is appreciated.

Graphically, the game is 3D now, but it’s a fairly simple 3D. The art style is more impressive, as the courses actually resemble the areas they are based in now, like in Excitebots, rather than simply being listed by letters for differentiation. Another update Monster Games snuck in was the ability to alter courses by hitting items, creating jumps and hills where nothing was a moment before simply by driving into them. Little things like that go a long way towards enhancing the experience and making this the superior product.

The most significant addition is online play though. Once you’ve mastered taking on the AI, try taking someone on online and see how well you fare–you may be surprised at just how good people are at Excitebike. My one complaint about multiplayer is the fact that there is no local play–sure, the original didn’t have it either, but if you’re going to include online, then it seems natural to have split-screen for those of us who maybe just want to rub our friend’s noses in our superiority face-to-face rather than through a headset or silently, like many online games.

Blast Factor: Your first thought may have been, “$10? Really?” but Monster Games packed this WiiWare sequel full of value that easily trumps what the original offers. The updates to the graphics, controls, and track editor, as well as the addition of online play make Excitebike: World Rally a must-own for fans of the series, and gives Monster Games its second Excite winner of the year.

Excitebike: World Rally is available exclusively on the Nintendo Wii’s WiiWare service, and will cost $10 or 1000 Nintendo Points. A copy of this game was purchased for the purposes of this review.

Admit it, you still toss a Super Mario Bros. cartridge into your NES every now and then or boot up Super Mario World on your Wii thanks to the wonders of Virtual Console. These timeless classics have wowed gamers and brought a smile to the face of millions over the years, but there has not been a true sequel to the 2D Super Mario universe on a home console for over 15 years. Mario’s move and success to the world of 3D–Super Mario 64 is the blueprint from which all 3D platformers were developed and judged after–killed the 2D Mario platformer, at least outside of handhelds. Thankfully, Nintendo is revisiting the past using the technology and knowledge of today to create a brand new 2D Mario title, one that combines all of the things Nintendo has utilized and learned throughout their years as the most successful 2D platform developer in the world, and brings them together in one game–and then lets you play that game cooperatively with your friends.

Outside of the fact that this is a Mario game in the classic style, that’s the big hook. You can play this game along with up to three others, all at the same time. It’s total chaos on occasion, but it’s also some of the most fun I’ve had playing a game in a long time. You can work together in the story mode, grabbing every coin, assisting your friend’s jumps, not rushing through the level so that your slower friends can keep up, but don’t worry, there’s also room for the more competitive side. New Super Mario Bros. Wii offers two competitive multiplayer modes that work so well that I’m almost retroactively upset the older games didn’t include them.

Graphically, New Super Mario Bros. Wii looks fine, but it’s not a stunner like some of 2009′s other sidescrolling efforts, like Muramasa or A Boy and His Blob, or even Nintendo’s own Wario Land: Shake It. You won’t notice though, because you’ll be too busy running around trying to collect every coin, find every hidden room, or if you’re playing with friends, just trying to stay alive and out of harm’s way.

This is classic Mario platforming: run, jump, collect item suits, use suits’ abilities. You’ve got the old standby suits, such as the Fire Flower and the Mushroom that makes Mario grow, but in addition there are some new suits. The Penguin suit allows Mario to shoot ice balls that freeze enemies (that he can then climb or throw like a shell) while also giving him the ability to slide on ice and swim effectively, while the Propeller suit lets Mario fly–unlike the Raccoon tail or Cape though, this is more vertical than horizontal. Flying horizontally at fast speeds would result in the death of everyone without that power, so it’s a logical design choice to eliminate those powers.

The level design is on par with Mario’s peak as a 2D platformer, during the Super Mario Bros. 3/Mario World phase, where loads of enemies, platforms, pipes and difficult jumps were placed everywhere for you to navigate. You can already tell that this is a game you can replay again and again, and you will find something new all of the time, whether it be hidden coins, hidden boxes, rooms, ways to clear jumps or dispose of your enemies–there are multiple ways to do everything, and that sense of exploring the game will keep you enthralled with the title.

The fact that you can replay the levels in multiple modes makes finding secrets easier too. As stated, you’ve got your cooperative story mode. Besides that though, you have Coin Battle, which gives you somewhat of an alternate version of the game’s levels that are littered with coins. There’s no counter for individual coins as you play, just the team’s total, so you aren’t quite sure who is in the lead, which makes every coin matter. When you finish the level, you see your total and your champion; the game will also keep track of how many levels you have won if you play more than one round, so you could replay the whole game this way and check out the splits afterward.

The other mode is the aptly-named Free For All. This is Mario Bros. Wii at its most chaotic, as four people battle it out to see who can score the most points. Extra lives are worth points, coins are worth points, and of course, killing enemies and collecting items are both worth points as well. You are ranked at the end of each level, and just like Coin Battle, can play every level you have unlocked in the story mode this way. Depending on how close you and your friends are, this is either the greatest game mode you can imagine or the quickest way to get yourself punched in the face. There is nothing quite like the look of death you receive for using someone else’s head to propel yourself to an item, and then finding out that your makeshift trampoline pal fell into a canyon and died because of it. At the same time though, it’s worth that glare for the laughs.

And that’s why you won’t hear me complain about the lack of online play in this game. Sure, it would have been nice for some, and more modes are always welcome, but as LittleBigPlanet taught me, the most enjoyable experiences come from booting up the game and playing with people in your living room. The laughter is louder, and the experience is more enjoyable. You may disagree with me, but you can adjust your own personal score accordingly–just know that, online or no, this game is a must-own.

Borderlands is not what I would describe as a complex game. You get guns, you shoot those guns, and you pick up what the people on the receiving end of those gun’s bullets drop as they die.  Sometimes, if you’re lucky, that’s more guns! You do this, over and over again, for maybe 30 hours, assuming you put time into leveling and fulfilling the sidequests. Despite its simplicity though, it works, and you will want to play the game all the way through. There’s nothing quite like a loot-based game that draws you in, and that’s just what Borderlands is. This is, quite simply, Diablo with guns. It’s not a first-person shooter so much as it’s an RPS–a role-playing shooter.

I wasn’t kidding when I described the gameplay above. That’s the bulk of the experience. You get missions to do from job boards in towns and settlements, or from talking to certain people scattered across the expansive game world. When you finish a mission, you return to wherever you earned it and pick up a reward, in the form of items, experience and money. You can take on as many quests as you want at a time, and can complete as many as you want before you ever return to claim your prize, so you don’t need to run back and forth constantly. These missions do fall into a somewhat small set of categories though–kill this thug, kill this beast, collect these items, kill this guy and collect these items, etc. You don’t really mind though, because each kill means experience, and experience means leveling, and that is the metaphorical crack pipe upon which addiction to this game relies.

Even within the first area of the game, there are certain sections you are not going to want to visit until you have sufficiently leveled. You may find some of these places in your random travels though, and when you do, you could very well be killed, and fast. You want to be very close to your enemy’s levels when you engage them, so the missions become important so you can always stay ahead of the curve, or at least with it.

Plus, you get more stuff. There’s a never ending supply of stuff for you to pick up. Some of it is better than your current stuff, much of it is worse, but it can all be sold so you can buy even better stuff. Certain characters use certain gun types better than others, meaning that when you play multiplayer, stuff should be shared for more reasons than just fairness.

The single and multiplayer experiences are similar in many ways. You still run around completing missions, leveling up and collecting loot, but now you get to do it with a buddy (or a stranger, but that’s not as much fun, especially in a game where picking up items is so pivotal). If you play with someone over Xbox Live, whoever hosts the game is going to be the one whose story is played, meaning you can replay missions you may have already completed in order to boost your character’s levels further. You can also keep multiple characters saved to your hard drive at once, meaning you can play online with a friend using one of the four character classes while playing alone on your own time with another. All of the items, experience and money you acquire in multiplayer carries over to your single-player experience, so even if you have to replay certain sections later, at least you will be well armed.

Each class is, at the simplest level, different thanks to their special skill. The Soldier drops a shielded turret, the Hunter has a war hawk that can attack far off enemies or those behind cover, the Siren can turn invisible and invincible for short periods of time, letting out a wave of energy when the shift occurs, and the Berserker, which, as you may have guessed, excels at being a damage absorbing tank that can punish enemies with melee.

There is more to the class differences than that though, as you earn skill points that can be used to differentiate them further. There are three separate paths to take, and you don’t need to stay within a single one–you can also cash in all of your skill points and re-align yourself however you wish, for a small cash fee. Let’s use the Hunter as an example. One path has him becoming more of a pistol wielding gunslinger, while another has him becoming more of a sniper. If you take the Sniper path, you will earn bonuses through skill points for things like experience bonuses on critical kills, faster reload times on rifles, or shield penetrating bullets. If you take the gunslinger route, you can get some similar bonuses, but also some very revolver/pistol exclusive ones, like chance to fire two rounds with one press of the trigger on pistols. You can customize them into all three groups and get an all-purpose blend, or you can focus heavily on one section–each time you upgrade a skill five times, it opens up the next level of skills for that designation. Shield penetrating bullets don’t come for the Sniper until you’ve used at least 15 skill points on Sniper related skill, which means 15 levels (20, really, as you don’t earn any skill points your first few levels) in a game with 50 tops. As I said though, you can get them back for a cost, so don’t fret if you change your mind 15 hours in.

For those of you who have already played Dragon Age: Origins, you know that Ostagar is the site of a great tragedy that helps shape the narrative of the entire game. You could never go back there during your time with the disc-based version of the title, but now, with the Return to Ostagar DLC pack, you will be able to learn more about the events at Ostagar, fleshing out the story of Dragon Age and Ferelden even further.

"We are very proud of the phenomenal launch of Dragon Age: Origins and we’re pleased to announce the next installment of downloadable content that will be available to fans of the game," said Ray Muzyka, Group General Manager, RPG/MMO Group of EA, and Co-Founder, BioWare. "The Return to Ostagar DLC pack is a prime example of BioWare’s commitment to give fans a game that continuously offers new experiences and further enriches a storyline that has already received critical acclaim and positive feedback from the players."

The first two packs of DLC were solid additions to Dragon Age–you picked up some exclusive items and abilities, and also got a chance to earn some more experience for your party, something that’s definitely useful on harder difficulties. I won’t turn my nose up at more of DLC, especially at a $4.99 price point. It gives me an excuse to go in with both of my characters too, especially since they play and act so differently. There’s no set date yet, but it’s releasing this holiday–somewhat vague, but at least we know it’s soon.

Those of you with an itch for nostalgia might want to pay attention, as Atlus has released a trailer for the upcoming 3D Dot Game Heroes–and this time we can actually read the language it’s in!

This is very clearly a tribute to Zelda by From Software, the company that brought us what is potentially 2009′s best RPG in Demon’s Souls. Sure, there are other titles that this game is pulling from, but even the imagery in this trailer reeks of Zelda–I’m not complaining though, because if you’re going to find your inspiration in gaming’s past, you may as aim as high as you can.

Ratchet & Clank is a quality series of run-and-gun platforming, but with so many releases in the past few years (and so many overall–this was a series that had loads of output on the Playstation 2 as well) a change to the formula was necessary to keep things fresh. Insomniac did just that with A Crack in Time, giving Clank his own level set and abilities while keeping Ratchet plenty busy with a variety of tasks on his way to find his lost robotic companion. The end result, while not a game of the year type holiday effort, is still noteworthy–you could say this is the definitive Ratchet & Clank experience, which is quite the accomplishment on its own.

The first thing you will notice after popping A Crack in Time into your PS3 is the graphics–this is highly polished, very colorful, very creative stuff. During cutscenes, it looks and sounds like a cartoon, maybe even something Pixar would have made. During the actual gameplay, the physics, explosions, guns and the worlds you play on will also impress, as the game is loaded with graphical effects (heat coming off of lava, snow and rain falling from the sky, etc.) that really pop thanks to the PS3. Enemies animate wonderfully, while living and while dying, everything just flat out works. It’s one of the better looking titles on the system thanks to strong art direction and wonderful animation.

Gameplay wise, there’s plenty to love. With Ratchet, you have multiple modes with which to play. The first of these is somewhat standard to the series, as you have different levels on different planets, each with its own distinct look and feel. These planets have a fair share of shooting along with platforming–while the platforming in these areas never gets to be too difficult, the number of enemies (and the difficulty of said enemies) increases as you go through the game enough that you don’t get bored. If you’re playing this game on Hard, you will need to be on top of your game in the later levels, or you will die fast.

The second Ratchet mode reminds me of two different Mario experiences–Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy. When you land on the moons that are scattered throughout each solar system, you have the opportunity to collect more mods for your weapons, rare items and Zoni–all of which will be explained in detail later. These moons is where you will find the platforming challenge, as they are designed to be more skill-based than the planets themselves. The Sunshine reminder comes from their increased difficulty and variation from the standard gameplay–remember the hidden stages in Super Mario Sunshine, where you no longer had the water pack and had to do things the old fashioned way? The Galaxy portion comes from the spherical levels–yes, I know Ratchet & Clank have had spherical levels before, but the design reminds me of Galaxy in many ways. While optional, these are worth your time, and not just for the rewards that they hold. Completing them is a reward on its own, given the increased challenge and lengthening of the gameplay experience.

Last, and very much least, you have space. You fly around in your ship from planet to planet (with pit stops at moons along the way), but there are side missions for you to complete that are sometimes worth it, like towing a downed ship in order to get a few thousand bolts (the game’s currency). Most of the time though, you can’t be bothered. There is very boring fighting in space, as you just hold R1 and L1 to fire beams and missiles in the hopes of hitting something and getting back to the good stuff. The enemy ships don’t do much to fight back either, and they don’t do a very good job of getting out of the way of your shots; it just wasn’t necessary. Maybe space will evolve into a worthwhile frontier in another Ratchet & Clank game, but A Crack in Time is not the one where this happens. Thankfully this is the portion of the game you will spend the least amount of time on, especially if you just quick jump from place to place.

Besides Ratchet’s ever-present Omniwrench, which is both weapon and tool, you have a massive arsenal of guns at your disposal. You’ve got your basic laser gun, grenades, a rocket launcher, a shotgun, and then you’ve got the guns that let Insomniac show off their imagination. How about the equivalent of a space pig with a trigger that burps enemies to death? Or a chargeable ball of electricity that you can roll around effectively using Six Axis controls while you run from danger? Maybe a sniper rifle with a bioscope that marks enemy weak points for you–shooting stuff in the head isn’t always the answer, you know. There are tons of guns to choose from, and also plenty of ways to improve them. You can pick up Constructo Mods, which alter the way your weapon fires, whether it explodes on impact or not, the type of damage it will cause, etc. You can also level up your weapons by using them–this increases damage, rate of fire, area of effect, ammo capacity and the like. Once a weapon reaches level five, it morphs into an even more powerful version of the previous weapon. Your grenades get schrapnel, for instance, while your rocket launcher fires three rockets per round rather than one.

The strange thing is that I would find myself moving on to another gun despite creating a super powered one, because I wanted to see what else it had to offer me through use. There’s nothing that can be pointed at as useless in Ratchet’s arsenal–you will find a place for everything, even in the weapons that may seem odd at the point of sale.

Clank’s levels may be the best portion of the game though, as they are time-bending puzzles that will require you to take off that Lombax battle armor and instead use that robotic intellect. It’s somewhat tough to visualize, but here is Clank’s gameplay in a nutshell: you have puzzles where Clank needs to be in multiple places at once in order to open the door out of the room. There could be anywhere from one to three door opening switches in the room, plus additional switches that open up pathways to reach those door switches. Each of these switches works only when Clank is standing on them though, which is why he needs to be in multiple places at once.

In order to do this, you need to use the Timepads to record Clank stepping on the switch–after recording, you can play it back, and a copy of Clank will perform the action you just recorded while Clank goes off to a different time pad to record yet another instance of platforming. Early puzzles are simple–there’s one switch and two Timepads, so make a copy to get on the switch while you run through the door. The later ones though require a lot of trial and error in order to progress, as you will need to make copies that open up pathways that lead to switches that lead to new pathways for previous copies so that they can step on a switch that clears a path, and so on. These are very satisfying to complete, and are just the right level of difficulty where you want to keep trying at it without wanting to throw your controller elsewhere. My biggest issue with them is that there were just not enough of them–Ratchet is still the star, despite Clank’s superior gameplay. That’s not a knock on Ratchet either, but it goes to show you how fun Clank’s sections are.

When you combine the multiple Ratchet elements with Clank’s puzzling, you end up with a fine Ratchet & Clank game that makes you want to play often. The game features multiple difficulties as well as a challenge mode, and with loads to collect in the form of Contructo Mods, gold bolts and the Zoni that upgrade your ship’s weaponry and abilities, there’s plenty to do outside of the standard levels. The Argonian tournaments may be my favorite part though, as they throw you into some ridiculous gladiator challenges that will require a full knowledge of your weaponry and enemy weaknesses if you want to win. The rewards–bolts, weapons and upgrades–are worth the price of admission, but you’ll find yourself here just for the challenge too. Plus, the game is just funny, no matter which character you use, so it’s worth it to you to extend the game to find all of the humor in it.

Blast Factor: While there are still some things to iron out in the form of space, and Clank could have stood to get a little more spotlight, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time holds up as the definitive Ratchet & Clank experience, one that should delight fans of the series while also converting holdouts and making them believers. It’s a quality title that should not be overlooked in this busy holiday season, and despite its cartoon appearance, it’s a game that people of all ages can enjoy.

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time is available exclusively on the Playstation 3, and retails for $59.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

It’s that time of year, when you get to run to the store, wait in long lines in the bitter cold and push people around to grab the presents of your choice before it runs out. What better way to be more organized than those around you than by having a little cheat sheet, like a buying guide for which games you want to be on the lookout for?

This is our first year with one of these, and it’s pretty comprehensive. We’ve broken the guide into multiple categories: Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Playstation 3, Playstation Portable, Xbox 360, and then multiplatform titles. There’s a solid number of titles on each list, though the PS3 and 360 lists are somewhat shorter due to the long multiplatform page–don’t miss that page, since there’s a lot to it. Exclusives are the only thing you will find on the system pages. There’s also a Kids and Family guide, with a few of the games we reviewed for the younger crowd that we actually enjoyed.

As of right now, games we have reviewed (or games that in the review pipeline) are on the list–a few more holiday titles may be added assuming they stand up to our scrutiny. There may also be a few that we have not reviewed, but one of our writers at one point or another played through it and vouched for its awesomeness, so we decided to pass their opinion on to you through this guide.

Nintendo Wii Gift Guide

Nintendo DS Gift Guide

Playstation 3 Gift Guide

Playstation Portable Gift Guide

Xbox 360 Gift Guide

Multiplatform Gift Guide

Kids & Family Gift Guide

Last year EA and Hasbro teamed up to release a Nerf blaster and light-gun style shooter for the Wii. The game was mostly a collection of shooting gallery type minigames, but it came packaged together with a Nerf blaster that doubled as a Wii blaster, meaning you could use it for other titles as well. This time around, EA Salt Lake has developed more of a light-gun adventure for kids, that’s a lot heavier on the action and has the kind of story that only a pre-teen could appreciate–given that’s the target audience though, that’s not such a bad thing.

I won’t ask why the evil enemy’s robots are capable of being shot down by foam darts and soft balls, but we’ll just use video game logic here to say that it works and you best not question why. Regardless of what they are using for ammo, the four friends team up to take down this evil-doer, and they pick up loads of blasters along the way, blasters that they can customize to their liking. You purchase upgrades with items you find scattered around levels and hiding inside your enemies, just waiting to burst out when you blow them up. This adds to the replay value significantly–light gun games like House of the Dead and Time Crisis suffer on occasion from not having enough incentive to replay them, but when you’re given a reason (like this spring’s House of the Dead: Overkill, with its achievement and upgrade systems) then you’ve got yourself a keeper, as playing through it again isn’t painful.

To add to that, you can also play with another person, even if they don’t have their own Nerf blaster. They can just use the Wii Remote (or another peripheral like the Wii Zapper or Nyko Perfect Shot) in order to play along–some areas are only available to you if you are playing co-op, so there’s good reason for Little Timmy to invite Little Billy over to blast some robots.

Outside of blasting everything in sight, the big hook for N-Strike Elite is the Red Reveal–there’s an attachment for the Nerf blaster that you look through at certain parts of the game, in order to reveal secret codes that you can use in various places. The places where you need Red Reveal could not be anymore obvious if they had signs with fingers pointing surrounding them, but it’s hard to read the text without the Red Reveal, and it is the sort of thing that your little pre-teen adventurer will eat up due to it’s undercover, secret agent mystique.

The one knock the game has is that it’s very non-violent, but that may also be a selling point to many parents who want their kids to be able to enjoy video games, but don’t exactly want them sawing off aliens heads with a chainsaw bayonet just yet. The kids don’t die; the game just sort of stops and you get the chance to restart from your last checkpoint. Foam darts and balls will also not be mistaken for bullets anytime soon; it’s not like they go inside the robots, they just sort of bounce off, but then again, that would happen if you turned and blasted your co-op buddy with the fully functional Nerf blaster you’re playing with anyways, so it makes sense.

The Nerf blaster is a better product than the Wii Zapper, though I would put it a step below the Nyko Perfect Shot; the grip on the handle is not long enough for comfort if you’ve got big hands, but otherwise it’s well-made and works perfectly for its intended Wii related purposes. Considering you’re getting it with a game without too much of a price hike, it’s not a bad accessory to have around for other games.

Blast Factor: Nerf N-Strike Elite made a great design change from the original, going for more of a light-gun adventure than an arena-based series of challenges. It makes for gameplay that immerses the player into the experience more, and with the loads of customization options and many blasters to collect (and don’t forget co-op) there are plenty of reasons to come back to this title. It’s $60, but it comes packaged with a peripheral that works better than most similar products on the market alongside a quality game.

Nerf N-Strike Elite is available exclusively on the Wii for $59.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

We just told you that the multiplayer demo for Battlefield Bad Company 2 would be available to Playstation 3 owners in two weeks, but now we’ve also got something shiny and pretty for you stare at whilst you consider your eventual downloading of said demo.

The trailer doesn’t show gameplay in motion, but instead is a series of frozen moments from multiplayer, with voice overs and music playing in the background. While you don’t see it as it happens, it’s cool to see what is essentially an animated screenshot of multiplayer–the game also gives you a good sense of some of the destruction and squad elements, despite the lack of footage. It’s worth a look.

Atlus today announced that Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey would be making its way to North America in the spring of 2010. This game is very different from previous Shin Megami Tensei entries, as it is a first-person affair in a sci-fi setting, though it still retains RPG elements despite the different viewpoint.

In the near future, a mysterious, growing, black void appears at the Earth’s southern pole. Unable to determine its cause and powerless to stop its deadly encroachment, humanity sends an elite team of explorers into the heart of the phenomenon, just as Strange Journey’s look and feel represent a return to the heart of Shin Megami Tensei, bringing to mind the all-time classic Nocturne™. With over 300 demons to bribe, coerce, and negotiate with to gain assistance in battle, Strange Journey is every bit the deep, rewarding RPG experience fans have come to expect from the SMT franchise, yet delivered with a fresh new sci-fi story that taps into mature themes of morality and introspection.

The game received a 36/40 from Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu upon release overseas, the highest rating any Shin Megami Tensei title has ever earned from the mag. Considering how much we loved Atlus’ previous SMT effort on the DS, we’ll be keeping an eye on this one as more information releases until its March 10 release. For now you have a bunch of screens and art work to gaze upon, so gaze away.

The original Bad Company is a fun and different Battlefield title, and the second looks to continue that by focusing very strongly on the multiplayer component. That’s why it’s no surprise that the demo for multiplayer in this squad-based shooter will be available for PS3 owners on November 19, assuming you reserve the game at Gamestop, either in stores or online.

“With Battlefield: Bad Company 2 we’re looking to raise the bar across all aspects of our multiplayer experience, setting a new standard for online play,” says Patrick Bach, Senior Producer on Battlefield: Bad Company 2. “From the graphics to the vehicles, weapons and destruction, we are delivering the best online multiplayer game next year, and we want gamers to experience it themselves by playing the beta and demo.”

If you were thinking about getting the game anyways, I suggest you plop the $5 down for the reserve in order to secure the code, as I haven’t been able to pull myself away from the demo whenever I see it at a convention or press event. DICE looks like they may have a winning multiplayer component on their hands–dare I say–one that is more intriguing than Modern Warfare 2. See for yourself in a few weeks when the demo hits–you’ll be able to compare apples to apples for free.

For those of you sans PS3, don’t worry, as demos will hit the PC and Xbox 360 in the future. This is just a timed-exclusive demo for PS3 owners.

Smackdown vs. Raw is never a bad game; it always serves its purpose as a piece of WWE entertainment outside of the shows themselves, but it was in need of some new features in order to keep things interesting and improve on the ground that’s been treaded over and over again by the series. There’s always more you can do–more modes, more characters, more costumes, more features–and thankfully, Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 adds plenty to the series while building on its strong foundation.

There are a few new gameplay improvements that bear mentioning. For one, the animations have improved, so things look a bit more realistic now than they used to. Wrestlers react to being struck in specific areas more, and you can use things like the ropes to great effect in order to take your opponent out. Strong grapple transitions are now manually performed, which means you can switch from one grapple position to another without having to let go of the grapple first–considering that THQ wrestling games from 10 years ago made you do this, it’s about time this change came about. There are also new positions to attack from and grapple from, which gives you even more options per Superstar when it comes to your move set.

Reversals have received a makeover too–now you have to press the right trigger to reverse everything, but it is timing based, so you can’t just spam the button and hope you reverse it. The window for reversals is pretty small, but with some practice it works effectively. Of course, if you aren’t able to reverse, you’ll take a beating; the good news is that now you will be able to see that beating’s effects on you and your opponent’s body. Give someone a hard chop to the chest? You’ll see their chest redden, which is a cool damage effect that mirrors real life. There’s also a lot of blood in this year’s edition–while the cuts start out small, the blood keeps on coming if you beat them down, so things will get messy.

The bulk of the Smackdown vs. Raw experience is the same as previous editions, but there have been some cool additions that make this much more than a roster update with a fresh coat of paint. The Road to Wrestlemania mode features multiple storylines that have been developed with the mindset of replicating a WWE experience. Copyright logos show up at the same time they would during the actual Raw or Smackdown shows, you go to the backrooms to talk to other wrestlers and view cutscenes, and there’s much more going on than just fight, fight, fight. They also do a very good job of harnessing these Superstar’s personalities–Edge is the kind of guy you’re going to love or hate, just like in real life, as he tries to take over Smackdown in his scenario. He’s presented as a twisted, sick-minded (but talented) wrestler who should not be given the reins to Smackdown, and even the announcers get in on that kind of information as they call his matches. These scenarios are well done and feel very much like a WWE experience.

The Royal Rumble has had some work done to it, as there are now different minigames for eliminating opponents. These change depending on where you try to throw an opponent out (or where you’re being tossed out). These are simple, like tap X repeatedly then tap Y repeatedly until you get back in, or sometimes they are more quick-time event oriented, but they are easy to grasp and make the Royal Rumble a more frantic and fun experience.

Maybe more interesting is the Championship Scramble though, a new match type that has five wrestlers going at it at the same time. You can put the different WWE championship belts on the line in these matches, which have an intriguing concept: two wrestlers start, and the three others enter the ring at set times. Each time someone is pinned or falls via submission hold, the wrestler responsible becomes the new champion; the twist is that there is a time limit, and the last one standing holding the belt is the champion. This becomes very difficult though, as there are five of you in there at once, meaning there are three people ready to stomp on your face every time you go for the cover. The matches are loads of fun though, especially given their difficulty–you aren’t just going to throw a few strong grapple moves around here and come away victorious if there are four others in the ring that all want to hurt you.

The create-a-wrestler mode has also seen improvements, with options for creating entrance movies using highlights that you have saved; you take these highlights, splice them together, and add sound and screen effects in order to come in to a badass theme. Taking a cue from the 2009 edition of the game, custom finishers are back, but you can now also create your own aerial finishers–those of you that love the high flying Superstars are sure to be pleased by this development. The obvious thing to do is to make everyone perform a hurricanrana, but you can string together your own preferences before the final blow. There is also a paint tool that you can use to create custom tattoos and the like for your Frankenwrestler, so you aren’t limited by what comes with the game any longer.

If you don’t want to create a new wrestler, then you still get to toy around with create-a-wrestler features, as you can now customize the Superstars that come with the game more, changing their colors. For me, that meant that John Cena had to wear girly colors, but you can mock or improve whichever wrestler you choose in the way you want to (P.S., make Cena like girly things). You also have the option of downloading other player’s created wrestlers, which means that you don’t need to struggle to create the legends of the WWE hiding in the costume designs if you don’t want to, because someone else already did.

While these modes are all well and good, with either improvements or totally new features that enhance the Smackdown vs. Raw experience, the meat of the game for many is going to be the WWE Story Designer. You don’t need to even make one yourself in order to enjoy this, which is probably its greatest strength–you can simply download other people’s scenarios over Xbox Live, which means you have a limitless supply of brand new stories to play through. While the chances that all of them are memorable experiences is slim, the fact that you will have some serious hardcore fans writing their own stories–this is basically a fan fiction generator–is great news for those who love their WWE.

You may be shocked at the breadth of options you have at your disposal in this mode. You’re basically scripting a 10-year show instead of just playing General Manager of either Smackdown or Raw, so you not only set the matches, but you get to create backstage scenes, start rivalries, create alliances, or, if you’re feeling frisky, create some Diva/Superstar relationships. You write the scripts, and you use the over 100 animations you have at your disposal to emote the lines.

You not only have the entire WWE roster at your beck and call here, but you can also use your created wrestlers, meaning there’s no shortage of talent for you. This also allows you to give your created Superstars some personality that can be played out somewhere besides your noggin. This gives you a lot to do after you’ve finished the story modes included in the game, and as stated, if creativity isn’t your thing, there is always other people’s work to play through. That shared content isn’t restricted to just created-wrestlers and the Story Designer though, as you can download pretty much everything from other people that you can create yourself.

Blast Factor: There is no shortage of things to do in Smackdown vs. Raw 2010. The game that comes packaged has loads of game modes, from the traditional career stuff to a more story-oriented Road to Wrestlemania, and let’s not forget about the enhanced Royal Rumble and the brand new Championship Scramble. Outside of that though, creation is the name of the game, from characters to entrances to your own WWE storylines–and of course, if you aren’t creative or don’t have the time, you can always download other people’s work to extended your Smackdown vs. Raw experience.

Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 is available on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Wii and Nintendo DS. A copy of the Xbox 360 game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

“Epic” is a word that can just be tossed around sometimes, often on items that don’t necessarily deserve it. Dragon Age: Origins is not one such product, as it has the feel of a true epic; it’s an engrossing experience that warrants attention and not just one playthrough, but multiple ones. This is a very deep title, in ways you may not comprehend your first time through, but will come to appreciate as you play again and realize just how much more there is to do than you thought. That’s a good thing too, as BioWare has designed this game to be played multiple times in various ways before you ever discover all of the content that it hides. Will you get your money’s worth if you just want to play through once though? In short, yes; that’s part of the beauty of the game and it’s world, as you will get what you put into it back.

Dragon Age: Origins takes place in Ferelden, a land that is suffering at the hands of the Darkspawn. The Darkspawn were created by mages that sought to step foot in the Golden City of heaven; they became twisted, hideous creatures that stole men and women from their homes, killing and burning everywhere they went in their attempt to rid the world of all races. They were held back by the dwarves, since they made their home in the underground, but eventually the Grey Wardens, a force of knights, mages, rogues and anyone else that can wield a weapon that was made up of all races, helped push the Darkspawn back, ending the Blight. They failed to kill the Archdemon though, and now the Darkspawn and a potential Blight loom once again on Ferelden–this is where you find yourself at the start of the game.

Well, once you go through your origin story anyways. While many games, especially in the genre that Dragon Age is in, allow you to create your character, make them male or female and whatever race you would like, be it elf, dwarf, or human, none allows you the kind of backstory and full-on immersion of Dragon Age. There is a backstory for each character class–the human noble, the city elf, the forest elf, the mage, the two types of dwarf, one casteless, the other not. For the magi, you can pick either human or elf as well, and any of these characters can be male or female. The origin story gives your character a true backstory, making them a part of Ferelden and the Dragon Age universe, rather than just giving you some character you created with a stock history that never changes.

Each of these origin quests is a few hours long, and the game will treat you differently depending on what you pick. I won’t spoil anything for you, but here are some generalizations: as a human noble, you will have a score to settle later in the game that originated early on, but if you happened to pick an Elven mage, you can face the same scenario later without that emotional, personal element to it. On the other hand, you will have your own prejudices to deal with as not just a mage, but as an elf, as they are looked down upon in a racist manner in Ferelden, so it’s not like you miss out by picking one over the other. It just means that to experience all that Dragon Age has to offer, you will have to test out these different angles. Hell, if you don’t want to play through the entire game again, at worst you picked up another 12-15 hours of gameplay just so you can learn all of the different backgrounds playing through the origins, expanding on the world that BioWare has created.

It’s quite the world, too. It’s deep beyond belief, especially for an original property and the first in what may turn out to be a franchise. The characters–good, bad, and everything in between–are believable. There are no mustache twirling villains in Ferelden, tying innocent girls to railroad tracks–these are people with legitimate beliefs and ideas, and you may agree with them, you may not. Also, even those you think are pure and pious may have a hidden history that you can uncover, should you choose to do so–it’s certainly not a world focusing just on the black and white. You will pick up many documents, books and notes along the way, each of which will be added to your Codex. The Codex is a collection of those aforementioned items, plus information on enemies, friends, foes, towns, kings, history, the Wardens, the magi–you name it, it is in the codex. You could, no exaggeration, spend hours reading everything that the Codex holds. You get the impression that Dragon Age wanted to create this believable world with a full history, much like Tolkien and his Lord of the Rings novels and expanded works. They very much succeed, and in many ways that I don’t want to spoil here. Just know that if you’ve got a love for fantasy, you will adore the world created by BioWare.

In a move that’s sure to make many fans happy–including this guy right here–Capcom has brought Mega Man Maverick Hunter X and Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower to the PSN today, meaning you don’t have to slog through used bins searching for a copy if you would prefer to download it from your couch.

I don’t know much about Darkstalkers, as I have not played this version, but Morrigan is in it, which means it’s probably worth at least looking at for many.

As for Mega Man Maverick Hunter X, I’ve been meaning to get a copy, as the original version is one of my favorite games from the Super Nintendo; just by reading the announcement the level theme for Storm Eagle popped into my head, and it’s back again as I tell you about it. Remixed music, 3-D backgrounds and enhanced effects? You can be sure I’m heading to the PSN to snag a copy as soon as I hit submit on this.

Today’s the day you’ve been waiting for, as both The Ballad of Gay Tony and Episodes from Liberty City are available for Grand Theft Auto fans that own an Xbox 360. You can pick up the brand new DLC for one of our Game’s of the Year from 2008, Grand Theft Auto IV, over Xbox Live; you’ll be fabulous in no time as you enter the world of Gay Tony and the club scene of Liberty City. Don’t own Grand Theft Auto IV? Or maybe you missed out on the first expansion, The Lost and the Damned? Rockstar has you covered on that note too, as Episodes from Liberty City is a standalone Grand Theft Auto experience, with its own multiplayer component and no GTA IV requirements whatsoever.

We’ll have a full review of the new packaged title, Episodes from Liberty City, in the near future. Personally, I’m looking forward to it for the same reason I love Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars: it looks completely over the top and like Rockstar pulled out all of the stops on both a humor and action level.

"We’re thrilled to share the final chapter of this epic Liberty City tale," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. "The team at Rockstar North has exceeded every expectation with The Ballad of Gay Tony, creating an explosive conclusion to the Grand Theft Auto IV saga."

See, explosive. Explosive is good.

You can pick up Episodes from Liberty City for $39.99 at retail, or The Ballad of Gay Tony for 1600 MS points.

Nostalgia is aptly named, for a few reasons. The idea of the game has existed for over a decade, though development of it on the DS did not begin until much more recently. As you play through the game, you will see a varied set of influences from an expansive and rich period of gaming in the genre–you may have played many of the games Nostalgia’s developers got their muse from, but you’ve probably never played them all together in one place. At times, this makes Nostalgia a special RPG, as it pays tribute to the past while using its own ideas to craft a memorable and long-lasting experience, but at other times, it makes the game feel like Dƒ©jƒ  Vu was a more appropriate title than the one on the box.

You play as Eddie Brown, the son of world-famous adventurer Gilbert Brown. You’re in search of your father, who has gone missing–the opening to the game finds you in control of Gilbert, so while Eddie isn’t aware of what has occurred, you, the gamer, are. You decide, using the same character traits that make Gilbert who he is, that you will go out on your own to find out what’s happened to dear old dad, and make a name for yourself as an advennturer while you’re at it. Your first task as an adventures involves clearing rats out of London’s sewers–the game uses real-life locales in the 19th century (with a steampunk twist)–and you meet your second party member there, Pad. From there you get your airship, find out a little more info about what happened to your father, and then spend the rest of the game exploring caves, dungeons, towers, ruins, jungles and the skies in search of your father and eventually, as the force capable of defeating an evil organization bent on world domination.

The characters are generally likable, though there are some issues. While there’s no groan-worthy character in your main party, none of them are particularly endearing either–this may have more to do with the dialogue than the characters themselves, as there isn’t that much talking in Nostalgia, or a least, not that much exposition to expand on the character’s personalities. This causes the story to have less of an impact on you, since you don’t have as much of a connection to the characters.

One thing I do enjoy is the fact that a fifth member of the party often joins, and it rotates among many of the game’s important NPCs. While you can’t control them, it’s just one more layer of strategy for your battles, as they either heal you (freeing up your healer for attacking) or are very powerful attackers, which helps you finish battles more quickly. There are stretches in the game where you will always have a fifth person, even if it’s a bunch of different people filling that role.

The story, while predictable at times given its obvious hat-tips to the genre, stands on its own two legs and succeeds, in spite of the lack of particularly interesting characters. Whether you like the characters or not, the game does push you to what to find out more about what is going on in the main story. You also get the chance to flesh out the main characters through side stories: Fiona has memories of a past life, Pad doesn’t know who his mother is, and Melody was an orphan in a village full of wizards–it’s up to you to learn more about them. These side stories open up brand new locations not available to you in the main story, and they also give you chances to take on some difficult bosses and earn loads of experience and money. What’s also nice is that you don’t have to do any of that before beating the last boss–the endgame allows you to continue with your save so you can complete Nostalgia at 100%, regardless of whether you’ve saved the world or not yet.

Setting is a strong point of Nostalgia. The use of real-world locations gives the developers more freedom than you would expect, as they can give their own steampunk version of London, St. Petersburg, or New York. While the cities themselves are not affected much by the steampunk elements, the locations near them–high-tech, secret bases, airships, magic and the like–make the surrounding areas that much cooler to explore. The developers also did a wonderful job with the music in this title. The soundtrack is great, from each city’s respective music that fits the setting–eastern-influenced tracks for Japan and India, fitting jungle tunes and desert songs for South America and Africa–to the battle, boss and dungeon music. It’s one of the highlights of the game, and one of the better RPG soundtracks I’ve heard in awhile.

Graphically, Nostalgia looks much like of Matrix Software’s other DS efforts (Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV) though sometimes it looks better or worse depending on your location. The 3D models are nice to look at though, and the art direction for the game–including enemy, dungeon and town design–works well. Some areas can be a little more boring or graphically behind than other parts of the game, but they don’t detract from the experience too much overall.

Monster Hunter is huge in Japan. Huge. Over here in North America? Well, it’s not as huge, though it’s pretty popular thanks to the slew of PSP releases over the past few years. While these PSP games are quality titles that give you a near endless amount of content to play, there a few things they are missing that keep this from becoming the next big thing in the States. Monster Hunter 3, or tri, as its often referred to, aims to fix many of those issues to make a more accessible and enjoyable game that still retains the hardcore factors you know and love from Monster Hunter.

For instance, the tutorial in the PSP games takes hours. I’m not exaggerating. Every time I thought I was finished with the tutorial, it turned out that I was still learning how to do things by going out on much easier missions than I maybe wanted to. Basically, the game kept you out of the hardcore action and the monsters you want to slay for far too long, which kind of kept people from getting into it if they were impatient. It doesn’t help when it looks like you have hours upon hours of learning to do before you can even kill a monster that wants to hurt you as bad as you want to hurt it.

In tri, the hand-holding is less evident, and you will be out there in the fields fighting impossibly huge creatures before you know it. The tutorial is much more in the vein of, “Hey there, let me tell you about that sword you’re holding” then it is “Now before you can wield a sword, I need to send you out on this overly simplistic sword-based mission”. This lets you learn as you play, and also allows you to dive in to the meat of the game much earlier–I’ll admit I’m a bit of a Monster Hunter rookie, but I’ve played Freedom Unite on the PSP, and I can tell you this is a welcome change.

There are also a lot of little changes that are worth noting–you can now change your gear inside the meeting hall where your online compatriots can see it, rather than going outside to change your equipment and then coming back in. This is nice for showing off some gear you’ve picked up, or if you just need to make a last minute change to your equipment and don’t want to hold your buddies up. Harvesting plants and digging are also much easier now, as a context sensitive button will appear next to these items and let you perform the action–no more stopping and going through your inventory to equip your pick axe before you start mining. This all makes for a smoother experience, and keeps you from having to muck around in your inventory every time you see something you want to dig.

The biggest change is the fact that you now have split-screen co-op and online multiplayer, rather than the more limited online of the PSP titles. In Japan, this service requires monthly payments, but as of now, the American side of Capcom has not made a decision. One reason they can do this in Japan is due to the popularity of the series–people would probably pay way more than Capcom charges to get their hands on it–but that may not fly over here, considering it’s just not as popular. Regardless, the game will be on Capcom’s own servers, and will not require Friend Codes. It’s much more like playing an online game on the Playstation Network or over Xbox Live, which works for me.

I played two levels during my time with Capcom–the first of these had us fighting a brand new monster that would call for help from other monsters if we stopped attacking it for too long. The obvious solution was to beat the thing into submission, but the monster didn’t just stand there and take it, so it’s easier said than done. With four of us working on it though, the fight did not last too long–it showed off how important teamwork can be in a Monster Hunter mission though. I got to mess around with a brand new weapon during this mission, the switch axe. It’s either a huge axe or a massive sword, depending on which mode you choose to use, and you can switch back and forth using the right bumper on the classic controller. Both have their positives and negatives, as axes are obviously swung slower than swords but do massive damage, and vice versa.

One other thing I noticed during this session–you get up from being knocked down significantly faster in the Wii version than in the PSP one, which is great. Monsters won’t be able to get as much of a head start on you if they run, you can get back into the fight faster–nothing bad can come from speeding that up a bit, especially since it took so long to get back up in the older versions.

The other level I demoed was meant for the hardcore Japanese audience that is used to playing Monster Hunter, meaning I had little to no chance of completing it. It did show off the new underwater combat though, which means I needed to give it a go. Water combat is a lot like combat on the ground in some ways–get near your enemy, use your weapon, rinse and repeat–but also very different. Since you need to angle yourself in the water, the combat is more 3D, since the monsters can come from behind, in front of you, on top of you or underneath you. There’s also a layer of strategy here–if you can harass the monster until it gets out of the water, sometimes you help your chances. Not everything that swims fast is as adept on land, and you may be able to turn a once difficult foe into a sluggish, easier target on dry ground. That’s not always true though, as some enemies that you find in the water excel on land, so you will learn when this is a good tactic to employ and when you’re better off fighting aquatically.

Don’t worry about running out of breath, either–you can dive for around 20 minutes without any problems, and there’s an item you can take just like a potion that will allow you to breathe underwater indefinitely.

Lastly, the graphics in this game are fantastic. Despite the gargantuan beasts, Monster Hunter utilizes a realistic graphical style, and it looks like the Wii finally got their graphical showcase for that style of game. Everything is brightly lit, with light and shadows playing an important part in the landscapes (especially underwater) and everything also looks very, very smooth. You can see for yourself in the screens, but the game looks better in motion.

Monster Hunter is one of those series that always intrigues me, and I want to love it, but there’s always something that gets in the way of me either picking it up or diving in as much as I want to. With tri, Capcom seems to have done away with many of these barriers to entry, and may have set themselves up to release their best effort yet on the Wii. We’ll have more info on this game as it nears release, but for now, just know the series seems to be headed in a positive direction.

We’ve previewed The Darkside Chronicles in the past, and the gist of our coverage was that Darkside Chronicles needed some work, but it was looking like it would be a superior effort to the bestselling Umbrella Chronicles. I got the opportunity to play a brand new level as well as another one that has been floating around demos for much of the summer last week.You’ll want to check out our previous hands-on to get certain details, as this preview will be concerned mainly with the levels and where the game has progressed.

The latter was a Code Veronica level, with Claire Redfield and Steve Burnside doing the zombie killing on Rockfort Island, as Claire searches for her brother Chris in his pre-boulder punching days. The gameplay was similar to the Resident Evil 2 level demoed earlier this summer, though there was a lot less running from zombies given you were in a more secluded area than a city’s streets.

Here are the basics–the game is on rails, but this has a more cinematic feel to it than Umbrella Chronicles did. There’s a lot more looking around at your environment, a lot more going on in the way of dialogue–it feels much more like a standard first-person game at these times than an on-rails shooter. The shaky cam adds to this feeling, especially since the game doesn’t wait around for you to kill every bad guy in your path. If Umbrella Chronicles was like House of the Dead, then Darkside Chronicles is more like the recent Dead Space: Extraction.

Except for when it isn’t, and after exposure to EA’s latest “guided first-person experience”, Darkside Chronicles may have some catching up to do, at least on the gameplay side of things–the Resident Evil mythology and universe may carry the day as far as story goes, given how much deeper and longer the history is for this franchise. There isn’t much dialogue during the actual gameplay; for the most part, it comes during cutscenes, which affects the games flow. Whereas in Extraction it felt like you could be attacked at any time, from anywhere, because the game did not make distinctions between cutscenes and gameplay moments, the line seems to be drawn pretty thick in Darkside Chronicles–you have a good idea of when you will be attacked, even if you don’t know from where. That being said, what gameplay is here does work, though it’s to be seen if it will stand up to Extraction when we get a full copy of the game for review.

The Code Veronica level was enjoyable, but the highlight was the brand new locale, meant to fill in spaces in Resident Evil history. Those of you that played Resident Evil 4 are aware of the rivalry between Leon Kennedy and Jack Krauser–the history isn’t exactly clear or revealed during that game, but Darkside Chronicles looks to fill in some of those gaps. Krauser and Leon work together in South America in broad daylight, in an area that looks more than a little bit like the African lands that Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar traversed in Resident Evil 5. A Capcom representative even mentioned that developers from Resident Evil 5 were impressed with the way the Wii handled these scenes, and that they felt it meant the system could have handled Resident Evil 5. Mind you, that’s not a confirmation that it’s coming or anything, just an observation from an impressed developer.

This was visually impressive in a few ways–it was well-lit, and despite being essentially a ghost town, had that same feeling that it used to be vibrant, much like the African setting in RE5. On the other hand, without the shadows and darkness to conceal some graphical shortcomings, the stage’s rough edges showed up a bit more–of course, there’s still a few weeks left of development for this game, and this demo was originally from the Tokyo Game Show, meaning it could already be cleaned up.

One thing I could not get direct confirmation on was whether Darkside Chronicles would feature some of the level types that Umbrella Chronicles did, where you were able to play as series’ villain Albert Wesker. It would make sense to have them again, and a “no comment” is more of a positive than a “no”, so keep your fingers crossed.

As a fan of Resident Evil, I’m excited for The Darkside Chronicles. From the looks of things, I may not be as enamored with the gameplay as I was that of Dead Space: Extraction, but the Resident Evil backstory–including new sections created for this game that are meant to fill in the gaps–should do wonders to make this game a quality holiday title on the Wii regardless.

In a move that surprised many, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars came exclusively to the Nintendo DS earlier this year. All these months later though, PSP owners finally have the chance to get their hands on one of handheld gaming’s most critically acclaimed titles. The PSP edition of the game features the same core title, with some new bells and whistles on the graphical side, as well as some new missions. There are other new additions, and not all of those work as well as we would like, but this is still a fantastic game and a necessary addition to any PSP owner’s library.

You play as Huang Lee, a member of the Triads whose father has just been killed in Hong Kong. He’s in Liberty City to deliver a sword–Yu Jian–to his Uncle Kenny, who is vying to become the new leader of the Triads. Huang is ambushed by unknown assailants along the way, and is thought to be dead. You are tasked with finding out where the sword has gone and who killed your father, and like in any Grand Theft Auto game, you will meet a cast of characters with missions for you to carry out on your way to reaching these goals.

While the story is good enough, it’s certainly one of the weaker parts of the title, especially when compared to other recent GTA games. “Weaker” is a relative term though, as almost everything else works incredibly, and there is so much to do outside of the story that you would be forgiven for ignoring your Uncle Kenny’s wishes for hours at a time. The characters you meet are also entertaining, so it’s not like this is a blight on the game or anything–there have just been better GTA yarns to spin in the past.

Despite what screens have led you to believe, this game is fully 3D, and seen from an aerial perspective. The camera rotates at 360 degrees, showing off the 3D models and interactive environment. The little things, like mail boxes, street signs and lamp posts all use realistic physics to react to your crashing and bumping into them. You will crash into a car, and that car will flip through the air just like it would on a home console–this is the moment where you realize just how powerful Chinatown Wars is graphically. It was impressive on the DS, but on the PSP, with a wider screen and higher resolution, the game’s graphics and physics stand out even more. Rockstar Leeds also went back and added some lighting effects, which are especially noticeable at night or when you’re driving around the city.

Chinatown Wars uses a semi cel-shaded style that works very well on the system, and cutscenes, though told through text and character portraits, have that trademark GTA art style down, and they work effectively. The PSP version cut down on the thick black lines that some of the DS characters had around them, and also presents the cutscenes in a much higher resolution that makes the images much, much cleaner. My one issue on the graphical side of things is that occasionally it feels like the game can’t load the road in front of you fast enough when you’re speeding–the entire road just sort of appears in front of you out of a mass of black nothingness. It doesn’t happen a lot, but it does happen, and it resulted in a few crashes into cop cars I couldn’t see until I was literally on top of them. This wasn’t an issue with the DS version, so this may just be a UMD issue.

Though characters and cars may appear small at first, you shouldn’t lost track of what’s going on, and you can tell what is happening on screen. Driving, for example, is easier than you think it would be given you are using a single analog stick; your car can auto-align to center itself, and you can use the shoulder buttons as brakes to make turns more effectively. You can also set your GPS routes to appear on the city roads themselves, which is useful while learning your way around the city–I know I’m always overwhelmed the first few times I boot up a GTA game and have to find my way around.

Rockstar promised this would be the most action-intensive GTA we have seen, and they were not lying. Everything happens very fast, with more arcade influence than some of the game’s console cousins; there are tons of explosions, bullets, police officers, gang members, fires–if it’s dangerous, there’s a lot of it around Liberty City. Ridiculous weapons like the flamethrower and chainsaws are back, and they are a blast to use, especially when you start to get cornered by gang members jumping out of speedy cars. Missions will see you accomplishing a variety of tasks, but there is an emphasis on taking down entire groups of gang members before they can get you, as well as high speed car chases where guns are fired and Molotov Cocktails are tossed out windows to slow your pursuers. If it’s action you are looking for, I’m happy to report that Chinatown Wars delivers in spades. Even better, you can now replay any mission you have completed by checking out the white board in your apartment; you are able to improve your times and scores on these missions from here, which can then be uploaded, along with the rest of your stats, to the Rockstar Social Club, where Rockstar will hold contests for prizes. Those who participate in the Rockstar Social Club will also have access to some exclusive missions down the line, a nice bonus and incentive to keep playing.

What really ups the action in Chinatown Wars though is the new police evasion system. Rather than simply outrun the cops when you cause trouble, you must now actively engage them to impede their chase. When you get a single star (or are back down to one star) you can utilize the old system of laying low, but you will find yourself in far more trouble than that given the level of action in this game. In those cases, you will need to “disable” the cop cars by ramming into them, causing them to crash into buildings, walls, other cars, or just smashing them around with your vehicle while at high speeds. This kind of turns things around, making you more of the hunter than you are used to. Remember, the goal is not to blow up or destroy the cars, so don’t think you will be off the hook by tossing hand grenades out the window at oncoming cruisers. Instead, you just need to get rid of those who are chasing you by taking out their vehicles–they can’t very well catch up with you if they are on foot and you are in a sports car.

A Boy and His Blob was always more of a good concept than it was a good game; this was true back when it released in the late 80s, and holds to this day. Wayforward (Shantae, Mighty Flip Champs) realized this, and decided that a re-imagining of the now 20-year old title was in order, one that would bring A Boy and His Blob into the minds and living rooms of those who wanted to give the series a second chance, as well as to introduce the ideas of the game to brand new gamers. In doing so, they finally crafted a game that was worthy of the wonderful concept behind the boy and his blob and their jellybeans.

The game is a bit light on story, but here’s the short of it: the Blob lands on Earth, and he needs help to save his planet of Blobolonia. The titular boy finds him, and they set out on a journey full of danger, puzzles, jellybeans and hugs. Yes, there’s a button specifically used to hug Blob, and it’s as adorable as it sounds. Don’t laugh, you’ll catch yourself using it.

The game is presented via beautiful handrawn artwork in a 2D style. It’s 2D, but it isn’t simple–think of Wario Land: Shake It! as this game’s closest kin, presentation wise. The game animates very well, and the real star of the show is Blob, as he morphs into loads of different shapes throughout the game, fluidly and impressively. This morphing process occurs when you feed him jellybeans–different beans give you different abilities, like the jack, for lifting objects and enemies, a trampoline, a bowling ball, a rocket–the list goes on and on.

In the original game, you had a limited number of jellybeans, and the game was a bit more open-ended. In this update, you have unlimited jellybeans, and the game is broken into levels–there are 40 of them, plus 40 bonus levels. You are given a few specific jellybeans for each level, which is basically simple platforming combined with puzzles that grow in difficulty the further you proceed in the game. There are also three treasure chests in each level–they are easy to spot and pick up at first, but this grows more difficult as time goes on as well. You will not find all of the treasures on your first playthrough unless you scour the game world for each and every one, but you can return to a level at any time to replay it as well. Picking up all three treasures in a level unlocks a challenge level for you to visit (more on that later).

These puzzles are very satisfying to complete, especially as you progress through the game. Eventually you will need quick reflexes and to do more than just toss a jellybean anywhere in order to proceed. You can throw jellybeans by holding the B button and checking the angle at which it will land and bounce, and Blob will give chase. You can call Blob back if you miss too, using the C button. This also works if Blob is stuck off screen; the Blob’s AI works most of the time, but for the odd time when he (she?) doesn’t follow you when they are supposed to, you can press the C button a few times to start an automatic return process.

Just because you have a specific set of jellybeans for each level does not mean there is just one way through many of the game’s puzzles or enemies, either. Lots of enemies charge at you from a distance–you could try to peg them with the bowling ball if it’s available, drop an anvil on their head if there’s a ledge above them, drop a hole in the ground, or jump over them as they charge with the trampoline. Oftentimes your jellybean inventory will be full or close to it, so these options are close at hand assuming the environment cooperates.

Even boss fights are puzzles, kind of like in Braid. Once you figure out what to do, it’s very simple, but until you do you may have a bit of a problem. It’s nice to combine action with the puzzle every now and then, so these are satisfying moments in the gameplay.

This slow-paced, puzzle-based gameplay is something you need to be aware of before you throw money down on this game. If you’re looking for a fast-paced platformer where you can run and jump around, then this isn’t the game you’re looking for. The boy is basically helpless without the Blob–he doesn’t run very fast, doesn’t jump very high, and needs the Blob to get around even some of the most basic looking levels. That’s not to say it isn’t a great experience, because it is, you just need to be aware that this is, first and foremost, a puzzle game with platforming elements, not the other way around. My one complaint with this setup is that the hint system–signs with painted Blob objects on them–detracts from some of the satisfaction of solving the puzzles. There are fewer of them as you play, but an option to turn off hints would have been nice.

Then again, Wayforward may have just been saving the bigger challenge for the post-game play. When you complete the initial 40 levels, which takes more time than you think it will–levels extend in length as the game goes on, and as they rise in difficulty the amount of time you spend completing them will also rise–you can play 40 challenge levels, assuming you’ve been discovering the treasures in each level along the way. If you’re unfamiliar with Wayforward games, let me tell you that they don’t kid around when they say “challenge”. These levels will require your reflexes and quick thinking in order to complete them, but once you do, you can unlock concept art and storyboards–this is a great looking game, and you get what you put into the story, so those are two fun additions outside of bragging rights. I played through some of the challenge levels for this review, and they are aptly named–I’ll be happy to pick up the rest of the treasures and complete as many challenge levels as my brain and thumbs can handle now that this review is done.

Blast Factor: Wayforward and Majesco’s A Boy and His Blob is what a remake or re-imagining should be–it keeps the core concept of the original, but improves on enough that the game feels fresh and new. The artwork is gorgeous, and shows off just what the Wii can do with inspired art direction and capable artists, and the gameplay is worthy of the excellent concept of shape-shifting puzzle solving, something the original game has a harder time claiming.

A Boy and His Blob is available exclusively on the Wii, and retails for $39.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

We could save ourselves a lot of time if I just told you straight up that you need to get Uncharted 2. If you have a Playstation 3 and don’t own it yet, why don’t you stop whatever you’re doing and just go get it. If you liked the first one at all, then you’ll love this one–it’s better in every way. If you don’t have a Playstation 3 yet, then this is one of the best reasons for you to go get one. For those of you that are still here and need a bit more convincing, read on; Uncharted 2 is one of the best games on the Playstation 3, and a serious contender for Game of the Year on any platform.

Let’s start with the shiny and fun stuff: Uncharted 2 has the most impressive graphics I’ve ever seen on a console game. If that sounds like hyperbole, then you haven’t seen Uncharted 2 in action, so quit your whining and go find out for yourself before you contradict me. Animations are fluid and realistic. The environments, which were part of what drew people to the original game in the first place, are brighter, colorful, and just feel alive. There are parts of this game that approach photo realistic, and the cutscenes use the in-game engine (Naughty Dog Engine 2.0, an upgraded version) to tell the game’s story–the seamless transitions between cutscenes and in-game events is impressive, to say the least.

The music in the game is wonderful in its ambient nature, rising and falling at all of the right times to increase tension and keep you focused on the game world. Sound effects are satisfying to hear–explosions, gun fire, the chatter of Nathan Drake as he rolls away from grenades or pops a guy in the head with a shot. Most wonderful is the voice acting though–the writing and acting are of such high quality that the game is almost as entertaining to watch as it is to play. Nathan is a lovable lead, but the supporting cast is just as entertaining–old favorites in Sully and Elena return, along with newbies like Harry Flynn and Chloe, two characters who have a history with Nate that are with you through various means throughout the adventure.

The story is well done (just like in the first game) so even if you begin to tire of shooting from behind cover at your enemies, you will want to keep playing to hear that next line or see the tale unfold. I won’t spoil a thing for you, but the game begins in the midst of the action, with Drake falling out of a train car that’s suspending from a snowy mountain. Flashbacks bring you into the past, and you play your way right back to the scene after a significant number of hours. It’s a neat mechanic that is not seen very often in games, and it worked to great effect here as you re-lived the events of Drake’s life leading up to his being half-dead in the snow.

Uncharted 2′s gameplay is split into three distinct sections: platforming, puzzles, and shooting. The puzzles in this sequel are improved from the first–they aren’t as painfully obvious, and you now get to flip through a few pages of your journal at a time in order to figure out just where Nate has seen this puzzle before. They are still simple though, but enjoyable to solve. The platforming is the more significant part of the gameplay, as you will spend a huge chunk of your time in Uncharted 2 climbing, jumping, and trying your best not to look down. Climbing isn’t as easy as it was in say, inFAMOUS, where you automatically latch on to everything, but that’s because there are more specific paths for Drake and company in this game than in that one starring a super powered protagonist. Climbing is satisfying, and sometimes finding the right path is a puzzle unto itself–a more challenging one than the actual puzzles at times. There’s a hint system in place if you take too long, and you can press up on the D-pad when notified one is available to see it. It’s helpful, especially your first time through the game, as it just points you in the right direction without actively telling you what needs to be done.

You’ll spend more time shooting than anything in Uncharted 2, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. Luckily, the controls are tighter, and for this reason you’ll have much more fun blasting away mercenaries than you did in the original. For one, grenades are now thrown by holding L2 to create a throwing arc, and then releasing it to toss your grenade. Need a quick explosion? Naughty Dog’s got you covered there too, as you can now blind fire a grenade using your reticule as a quick and dirty guide; hold L1 and press L2 to fire your grenades this way. I use this more often than the more accurate system, just because there isn’t always time to setup a grenade lob. Plus, it’s a hand grenade, and almost counts here; you don’t need to be spot on with each one to do damage.

One thing that never gets old is killing zombies. Sure, you can get tired of shooting them, or tired of beating them down with a bat or what have you, but the act itself of tearing through a crowd of zombies is one that just does not lose its luster over time. That’s part of what made the original Dead Rising so appealing–you had a lot of freedom to take care of zombies however you wanted to, which kept the game appealing throughout, and for multiple play sessions.

Okay, so maybe Frank West and his freakish fivehead are not part of Dead Rising 2, but Blue Castle Games and Capcom are doing their best to make us forget that. Chuck Greene, a former national motocross champion, is stuck in Fortune City, which is basically Las Vegas with zombies. This means a brand new environment, brand new weapons, and, thanks to advances in technology, loads and loads of zombies. Part of what made the original Dead Rising impressive was the number of shambling, muttering undead on screen at once; this time around, Blue Castle has cranked the knob up to 11 and is telling people that 10,000 zombies can be on screen, at the same time. The zombies are also a lot more animated than they were in the original Dead Rising, so this massive number is even more impressive. Exponentially more zombies with additional animations and more life-like movements? Yes please. Let’s not forget to mention that the camera has been improved so that you don’t lose Chuck as easily as you may have lost Frank in a crowd–zombies now appear see-through when the camera pans in close enough, so you can see what you have to do and where you need to go as you fight with the brain-craving masses.

What stuck out to me about my time with the single-player mode in Dead Rising 2 were the weapons. You had some old favorites–the katana, chairs, trash barrels–but there were plenty of new weapons that demanded attention too. The katana has been overhauled a bit, with improved physics–whereas in the original, if you sliced away, the animations just had zombies fall away from you sliced open with a katana, you now see the exact spot where the zombie was hit slice open and fall away. I just managed to scrape against a zombie’s head with a glancing blow at one point, and part of his scalp came flying off before the blade separated his shoulder from his body.

As for the new weapons, I tried out a few things like the roulette wheel, which acted much like any other large, blunt object from the first. Smash first, ask questions later. More interesting was the chainsaw paddle. This was two chainsaws, duct taped to a pole. You started both chainsaws up and went after the undead like you were Darth Maul and they were mindless, bleeding Jedi. The duct tape is something important to note; it quietly confirmed that you can create brand new weapons by combining other weapons, which, even if there was not a single new item in the game to start, would give this sequel a better weapon selection than the original.

This particular portion of the demo was a mission–I was supposed to kill 300 zombies in 10 minutes in order to unlock a bonus round, which the Capcom reps told me I did not want to miss out on. Heeding their advice, I surpassed that total before time was up, which allowed me to partake in the bonus round. The bonus round gave me a wheelchair. With assault rifles duct taped to it. Did I mention it was a wheelchair that drives itself? Because it was a wheelchair that drives itself with assault rifles attached to it.

You can guess how much fun that was to use–one of the Capcom reps even pointed out that you could see how happy the wheelchair made me as I used it (my poker face was nonexistent, apparently). Like I said, wiping out crowds of zombies never gets old, especially when you do things like equip a motorized wheelchair with high-powered weaponry and tell me to go crazy.

I’m very impressed by the progress of Dead Rising 2′s single-player mode, as this feels like it could be a very different game from the first while still retaining the over-the-top zombie thrashing that drew so many people to the series in the first place. Multiplayer was also a good time, which took me by surprise.

Four games (the only four that have been announced, and Capcom was silent on details of future info on the subject) were available for multiplayer–Ramsterball, Headache, Pounds of Flesh and Slicecycles. Ramsterball may have been my favorite–you were placed inside of a rolling ball and told to run over as many zombies as you could, along with three other players. The twist was that just one player–the one whose ball was lit up–could score points with their kills, and the other players had to smash into them at a certain speed or higher in order to take that advantage away. The player with the points could bank their points by going to one of a few pedestals littered around the playing field, but it appeared as if your points multiplied the longer you held them and killed more zombies, adding a layer of strategy to the game.

Headache was entertaining as well–you slammed colored blenders onto zombie’s heads, with the intention of starting them up and making zombie juice with the press of a button. You also had a stick of dynamite, which you could plant in a zombie near an opponent’s blenders; blow that up when you press the button to nullify their progress and enhance your own.

Pound of Flesh was the only one of the four that left me without a big smile. You have antlers on your helmet, and you charge at a row of zombies by holding X, then press X quickly to flick those zombies onto a scale. There are fat zombies and skinny zombies, so with some practice and finesse you can put the heftier drones on the scale and improve your chances. This was the only one of the four mini-games that didn’t have you interacting with the other players, which may be why I didn’t like it as much.

Slicecycles was my second favorite of these games–you drive around a motorcycle that has two blades attached to it on the sides. Whoever was leading from the previous three games got a few seconds to themselves to start the match as well, which is nice incentive. Drive through the zombie horde, slicing up as many of them as you can by accelerating with the RT and using the LT as a brake–if you tapped the LT correctly, it worked as a handbrake, which allowed you to skate through the crowds at an angle and let the bike turn itself around, saving you valuable seconds and giving you more chances to wipe out zombies. This game also came with a bonus round, where certain zombies had pink balloons on their heads–they were worth bonus points, so you want to nail them.

As our scores were tallied up, a dollar amount also showed up. There wasn’t any word on what that money was for, but it’s obvious it’s going to be used for something–otherwise the game would just use points as a guide for success.

Both the single and multiplayer experiences are shaping up to be good fun, which is good news for those of you waiting for your next go-round of zombie mashing mayhem in an out-of-control controlled environment. We’ll have more info on this game as it nears release, but for now, enjoy the screens–apologies for the lack of zombie slaying gun chair pics.

The game continues to grow, with the addition of legendary coaches, real-life, current players and legends of the game, but there’s one thing I’ve been looking forward to testing out that is finally working: the fantasy points and leveling system for your players and your team.We’ll get to that important point momentarily.

If you missed our initial hands-on, you can read it here; just know that a lot has changed since I wrote that, as the camera has zoomed back a bit for a better view of the field and the action, the game runs smoother (the framerate was locked in for most of my time playing, whereas it skipped around often in the alpha), and the pacing feels a bit better, as the clock has been tweaked and fixed so that it doesn’t run at random anymore. These are normal things to clean up as a game approaches launch, but it’s nice that you can feel the game getting closer and closer to completion, improving along the way.

The legendary coaches are for single-player matches; you can earn points in these bouts (and a future update will ensure that you keep the points even if you quit early, since it’s just the computer and not a fellow person). It’s a good way to help yourself along to the next level, as well as a place to check out some different plays so you can what they do–and what your team is capable of doing effectively. Legendary players come into play a bit more often, as you get two on your created team when you start it. These players will be more experienced than your other, made-up players, and are selected based on the style of play you choose; for example, if you want to be pass heavy, you’ll probably end up with a legendary quarterback or wide receiver, and if you want to run, you will probably get a running back.

The game feels more and more like a coaching simulation as time goes on, and since it’s more accessible than EA’s foray into that field with their Head Coach series, it also feels like it will stick. You don’t need to be a football genius in order to succeed at Quick Hit–if anything, the game might teach you a bit about play-calling and the like, which can only make you better at it, but it isn’t required.

The fantasy points are the thing I want to focus on, as stated. You earn points for successfully completing plays–such as passes, runs, touchdowns, field goals, etc.–but also for little things. Your linemen can earn points for successfully blocking the opposition or running through them if they are on defense. You pick up points for sacks, picks, extra points, even successful punts. Every action builds towards you earning points and leveling up, and once you have leveled up, the game switches to its more RPG/MMO aspects. You earn coaching points for every level you gain–these coaching points are then distributed among your players as you see fit. You can organize them by worst players, best players, position–you have a lot of options for filtering, and it’s all easy to use. Every few levels, your players unlock new skills which are automatically used in games. Say you have a lineman with a skill that helps the linemen around him block a bit better–that’s valuable, especially when you need to use coaching points on other parts of your roster in order to stay balanced.

It’s a system that I can see getting addicting–people complain about having to level grind in MMOs or more traditional RPGs, but there’s one important point here that you need to remember: level grinding is playing football. I can’t stress that fact enough. If you want your team to be better, you play a game. You don’t have to do anything special, just play, and you will earn points. You don’t have to win–as long as you play, you’ll earn points for what you have done right. Facing harder teams is actually good for you too, as there is an experience multiplier for tougher opponents. You don’t even have to focus on a particular player, like you would if you were playing the franchise mode of Madden. If your running back is awesome, abuse your running game, rack up fantasy points, and use your coaching points on other positions. That kind of freedom isnt’ found in any other football title I can think of, and is a huge positive for the system in place in Quick Hit Football.

Brandon Justice, the Director of Design for Quick Hit Football, let me know that they are working on an update to make rage-quitting a non-issue, for those of you who are wondering if you are going to be screwed out of earning points by other people. The plan is to setup the game so that whoever quits loses their points, but you, the non-quitter, get to continue to play against the computer in order to pick up a victory for your record (assuming you can continue to win) as well as continue to earn fantasy points. There has even been talk of making it so that those who quit, once the computer has taken over, will still earn the loss if the AI is unable to beat their human opponent. Since rage-quitting and whiny opponents are the main reason I get away from online football (and online sports games in general) after a time, this is news I can welcome with open arms.

Quick Hit is looking better each time I play it, which is good news considering the team is still hard at work improving the experience and listening to their fans for feedback. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I suggest you get going and join the open beta, especially since you can start to earn fantasy points now for your team.

This generation has been great and all, but there’s one thing that no one can deny: we’re severely lacking in traditional RPGs that you can play somewhere besides a handheld. The Wii has not been exempt from this either; sure, you’ve got a few tactical RPGs and some action RPGs, and even a few rogue likes, but outside of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years–a WiiWare title that’s like the Mega Man 9 of classic RPGs–there hasn’t been anything brand spanking new to get our attention within the genre.

Ignition, in conjunction with Marvelous Entertainment, aim to change that, as they are bringing Arc Rise Fantasia, a very promising looking turn-based RPG that I’ve been keeping an eye on for ages now, to North America in summer of 2010. The title, developed by Image Epoch (Luminous Arc and its sequel) is turn-based, but has some new twists to it that should keep battles fun and engaging. You are not required to use all of your party members like in most turn-based RPGs, but can instead pick and choose until you use up your Ability Points–there are lots of bonuses for using certain members for certain things too, so there’s a deeper level of strategy than in your traditional turn-based title.

“In Arc Rise Fantasia, we’ve implemented a fun and quick paced battle system to give gamers an enjoyable RPG experience” said Hiroyuki Kanemaru of Image Epoch. “Ignition Entertainment has a great track record with bringing established Japanese experiences to new western audiences and we’re delighted to be able to team up with them to publish Arc Rise Fantasia.”

Check out the first screens for the North American version below, most of which show off characters or some of the bright and colorful effects of the game.

Bust-A-Move, Puzzle Bobble, whatever you want to call it, is a time-tested, addicting and fun puzzler from Taito. It has appeared on various consoles over the past 15+ years, and has now made its way to Xbox Live Arcade, following the release of Bubble Bobble Neo a few weeks ago. There seem to be two camps when it comes to re-releases of classics on newer console hardware: either the game is clearly tossed out for a quick buck based on reputation, or the developers add something to the title to make your second, third, or whatever the count is purchase of the game worth your while. Luckily, Bust-A-Move Live! is much more of the latter than the former, making it a fun puzzler you should pay attention to on the XBLA service.

Here are the basics: there are various colored orbs hanging from the ceiling, and you shoot them down by blasting more of these colored balls from below. Chances are good you have played Bust-A-Move or one of its variants in the past (Snood, perhaps?) so most people should be familiar with the concept. Three of the same color orbs touching means you’ve cleared those from the puzzle–continue to do this to clear the entire puzzle in single-player, or do this as much as you can to stave off losing and outlast your opponent in multiplayer.

There are different orbs with different powers as well–the flame burns away whatever pieces it touches, while the rainbow turns into the color of the object it was touching when they are cleared–and they are simple to use, as you just shoot them like any other orb. The most useful may be the crystal, which when shot eliminates every ball of that color along with it–this is also a great piece for multiplayer, since your cleared pieces make their way over to your opponent’s screen.

There’s plenty of single-player fun to be had here. Start with one of a few puzzles (named A, B, C, and so on) which then branch off into different options, and continues that way until you reach the end of the alphabet. You can replay this mode a few times without repeating puzzles, but even repeating them is worthwhile as you can improve upon your scores and times–the game tracks this information for you, and as any puzzle addict can tell you, things like that add a lot of replay value.

Multiplayer is also great, as you can play locally with a friend or over Xbox Live. There are various game modes here–different object sets, different ways of attacking your opponent with cleared pieces (traditionally from the top, more annoyingly from the bottom)–and matches are not one off events either, so don’t be discouraged if you get wrecked online or have a bad match the first time around, as there’s another chance for you right around the corner.

The music can at times become a little annoying, though there are parts of the song that plays again and again I enjoy–these parts sound like they belong in Chrono Trigger rather than Bust-A-Move, but it’s appreciated just the same. Like the music, the graphics can be hit-or-miss; they are bright and colorful as they should be, but the menus are bland with giant, ugly font, and the inclusion of avatars in multiplayer is just a bad decision–their fat, exaggerated heads get in the way when you’re trying to make shots down in the corners. You know, in some of the most important areas for accuracy in an entire Bust-A-Move match.

Blast Factor: It’s hard not to like this game, as it is Bust-A-Move. The next-gen additions don’t add a ton to the title–as stated, avatar inclusion is more annoying than fun, and the bland presentation takes away from some of the graphical high points–but you’ve got a time-tested puzzler available for you with online and local play, and chances are good that some people out there have not experienced the addiction that is Bust-A-Move as of yet. Now’s your chance to fix that issue.

Bust-A-Move Live! is available exclusively on the Xbox 360′s Xbox Live Arcade service for 800 Microsoft Points. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Imagine, for a moment, that the world as you know it has had a terrible tragedy befall it. Demons, of all things, have spilled into the real world, and most of the people you know have died because of them. With nowhere to hide from these abominations, you do the only thing you can: attempt to survive each day. In present times, that would mean finding some means of defending yourself, like a gun, a place with food (c’mon, you’ve all seen zombie movies)”"during the time that Demon’s Souls takes place in, that means you would need to use a sword, shield, spear, bow, or whatever other medieval weaponry you can get your hands on. That’s the exact situation you find yourself in as well as you start the game”"you have the intentions of being a hero, as you have come to the fallen city of Boletaria to slay demons, but in reality you are just a regular guy or gal with the same kinds of weaknesses a person in the real world would have.

This is a fantasy RPG, but you are not some kind of powered-up super soldier that swings a sword larger than they are to cleave through any foe. Nor are you some kind of dexterous, agile creature that can run and jump without tiring, avoiding the blows of the enemies around you. You’re a regular person with regular weapons and you can (and will) bleed. And you will die. You think that giant axe looks awesome? You’re probably only strong enough to swing it if you use two hands, which means you can’t use a shield. No problem, right? You’re sure to cut through anything in your path with it. Well, assuming you can swing it often anyways”"which you can’t, given its heft and the energy required to swing it once. You power up as you play (more on that later) but you can’t just start off as a force to be reckoned with. You have to earn that through the lessons the game attempts to impart on you, but this learning process is part of what should draw you into the world of Demon’s Souls to begin with.

Here’s the story in non-spoiler form: you’ve come to Boletaria to either save the world from the demons or use their power for your own ends, but either way some demons are going to pay. You can pick from a variety of classes, all with their own strengths, weaknesses and strategies for playing. Want to overpower your foes? Become a knight, fully decked out in an armor suit. Maybe you want a bit more movement”"become a soldier with lighter plate armor, but less strength and protection. Maybe you want to attack from a distance with a bow (Hunter) or spells”"that last category has multiple options all its own. You have to approach each situation differently depending on your class, but there’s no wrong answer. You just have to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each class”"they will become apparent to you soon enough”"as you progress through the game, or else there will be no progression for you.

You attack with your primary weapon using R1, and utilize strong attacks with R2. You can equip a secondary weapon on the same hand if you want a sword/spear combination or something like that, and in your other hand you can carry a shield or another weapon, like a crossbow, bow or wand for magic. You run by holding down the Circle button, and you can also roll and take a quick step back using the Circle and a direction on the left stick. Items are used with the Square button, and your on-hand items are rotated using down on the directional pad. The controls are easy to use once you get used to where everything is.

Just like many of today’s RPGs, you have to deal with inventory and equip weight; too much on hand means you won’t be able to show off your agile rolling and running effectively, so be mindful of this. Unlike many of today’s RPGs, there is no pause button, so you can’t just hit pause and equip a more powerful weapon or heal yourself while a bad guy tries to lop your head off. Always be prepared is right up there with any other personal rule you can come up with for surviving Demon’s Souls.

The original Wii Fit was a commercial success, but it also was an important step in getting many gamers off of the couch and into better shape. Nintendo has never claimed that Wii Fit is the be all, end all of weight loss solutions–or that you are even guaranteed to lose weight by using it–but as a companion to additional exercise or as a way to keep yourself limber thanks to aerobics, yoga and strength exercises, it’s a success. It’s less expensive than most workout and exercise materials (never mind a gym membership) and you can use it from the comfort of your living room when it’s convenient for you.

Wii Fit Plus is an extension of Wii Fit, meant as an upgrade to replace the original. The question here is whether those who have already purchased Wii Fit can find anything worthwhile in this version, or if there is now enough included to bring in some of the skeptics from the past.

The short answer: Wii Fit Plus is a better exercise tool than the original, and a better game. There’s more emphasis on the game portion this time around, with 15 new activities–many of which are mini-games exclusive to Wii Fit Plus–and more attention paid to multiplayer and competition. Sure, they aren’t the most strenuous exercises around, but the key thing with them is that you have fun while you’re exercising–anything that keeps you from noticing you’re doing something healthy is good by me. Think of Wii Fit Plus as a Fitness Ninja that gets the job done without you ever noticing while it’s happening.

The new games are meant as a fun diversion though, and not as a replacement for strength training and aerobics–don’t expect to lose weight by replaying Rhythm Kung Fu or golf over and over again, even if they are fun and working modes. There are plenty of other enhancements to Wii Fit Plus that make it a better workout tool. It’s more family oriented now–you can weigh your pets and babies if you want, which is fun in its own way even if it isn’t necessary. There’s a calorie counter, which tracks how many calories you have burned during your workout. This is done by using METS (metabolic equivalent of task) which basically measures the amount of time you work out by the METS number for said workout to give you an idea of what you’ve accomplished. To give the calories some context, you can also compare the total to different food items within Wii Fit Plus, or pick a food item equivalent worth of calories you plan to burn each day. Have a need for a soft serve ice cream every day, but don’t want to put on extra weight? Make that your workout goal and burn those roughly 200 calories. This also serves as a wonderful reminder of how awful fast food can be for you–see how willing you are to shove two cheeseburgers from your favorite drive thru into you after you see that it will take you half a day of exercise to work it all off.

Have a certain area you want to work on? Maybe you have a schedule of workouts you want to rotate if you use Wii Fit Plus all the time? Thankfully, you can now create custom routines or use ones that the game has in mind for you, rather than just mindlessly choosing exercises and programs like in the original. This is something I enjoyed, as I don’t mind doing the aerobic exercises daily, but like to switch up yoga and strength training so I don’t overdo it. This is also good for those of us who may not want to use the mini-games very often, but prefer using this for a legitimate workout tool.

I’m not a fan of the Wii Fit Age setup. It worked well for Brain Age, but when you just do a few of these per day and at random–and I, like many others, probably do this early in the morning when their body is awake but their brain is still napping–the results are going to be negatively skewed. I already have tools to measure my brain’s age, so let’s stick with how my body is doing in the future instead of linking them up. Thankfully, you can always skip these and just get your updated weight and progress.

For those of you who do not work out everyday, you can install the Wii Fit Channel on to your Wii Menu, and check your daily weight from there. This is also nice since you don’t have to switch discs a bunch of times if you want to play a game right after your workout. With SD card support, you also have no excuse to not have room for the channel.

Another issue with Wii Fit Plus is that it uses BMI still. The weights it estimates for many users, including myself, are not always as healthy as the game thinks they are thanks to BMI. I’ve been at the weight the game suggests before, and it’s a good 5-7 pounds below my own personal comfort level. That being said, you can make the mental adjustment–like I just said, I know I should be about 5-7 pounds above what Wii Fit told me–and still appreciate the software for what it does right rather than focusing on what it doesn’t do.

If you already own Wii Fit and have a Balance Board, Nintendo has not forgotten about you. Wii Fit Plus is available in standalone form for $20, which is a great deal considering that it is the superior software and has loads more to do than the original.If you are sans Balance Board, you can pick this up for $100, $10 more than the original. I’m not pleased with that price increase, but it’s also much less expensive than workout equipment or a gym membership, as previously stated, and worth the money.

Blast Factor: Wii Fit has shown itself to be much more than a passing fad, and it now has an updated version that fixes many of the original’s issues. The calorie counter, the food comparisons, the customizable workouts, and the emphasis on making this more of a game help the Plus version of Wii Fit stay true to its name. If you already own Wii Fit, you should pick this updated version up, and if you haven’t jumped in yet but need an excuse to get off the couch, then Wii Fit Plus is the answer for you as well.

Wii Fit Plus is available exclusively for the Nintendo Wii, and retails for $19.99 by itself and for $99.99 with a Balance Board peripheral. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for review purposes.

Chances are good that if you use headphones with any kind of regularity, you’re hurting your ears. Subway too loud? Crank up the volume. Playing your Nintendo DS or Playstation Portable in the same room as someone watching TV? You’re probably constantly turning things up to block out the noise around you. The same goes for PC gaming; sometimes you’re in a loud environment, and your natural reaction is to turn things up.

Able Planet, as they have always looked to do, is looking out for your ears and your future hearing, and developed the PS500MM headphones for PC gamers. As you can see in the image, these are a small pair of headphones–you don’t have to carry around or store a big, bulky pair like you find in many noise-canceling headphones–and may be a necessary expense for those of you that game on PC’s often.

The noise-canceling effects built into the headphones means that you don’t need to turn up the volume in order to hear over your environment. They work well too–I’ve tested them on my PC playing some old-school games where sound is important to the experience, I’ve used them in my Nintendo DSi, and I’ve even checked them out on a plane, flying back and forth from Seattle to the Penny Arcade Expo. In each instance, I found that you never needed to put the volume all the way up, as you could hear the sounds and music with great clarity. This is nice for someone like me that has bludgeoned their ears with years of playing guitar with their amp turned up to 11, as I can still hear things without damaging my ears any further.

If you plan on traveling with them as I did, they come with a soft-carrying pouch to stick them in. The microphone that comes with the headset is very flexible, so the headphones fold up nice without any parts sticking out when you need to put them in the bag. Additionally, if you don’t need the microphone, it easily bends out of your way.

The headphones are comfortable as well, thanks to their being very light. The adjustment band on top is thin as well, so unlike some massive headsets, you won’t feel these on your head that much when you wear them. The headphones weigh in at 2.64 ounces, and to make things even nicer, the ear cups are leather and made to fit on your ears, not completely around them. I wore them most of the way from Boston to Seattle and back, and unlike when I use ear buds, I didn’t mind keeping them on for that length of time thanks to the way the cups fit.

A pair of PS500MM ships with a USB adapter in addition to your standard headphone and microphone jacks. You can pick up a pair of PS500MM headphones from Able Planet for $99. You can find them through Able Planet’s website, along with their other audio products.

Blast Factor: Headphones can be pricey, but $100 isn’t too much to ask for when it comes to saving your hearing. If you’re an avid gamer for PC titles–or even someone like me who spends a lot of time with a DS or PSP in their hands–then the PS500MM headphones are a comfortable and worthwhile addition to your gaming accessories.

The Dead Space franchise is probably my favorite new one of the past year. I awarded the original game five out of five stars in our old scoring system, praising it for its attention to detail, brutal gameplay and the limits it pushed the survival horror genre to. Visceral Games had crafted a dark and futuristic universe that needed to be expanded upon, because the story of Isaac Clarke was just a portion of what occurred on the flagship mining cruiser, the Ishimura. How did the Necromorph disease get there? What was it like for those who sent out the distress signal that Isaac and his team responded to in the first place, as they tried to escape a horrible death for as long as possible? Dead Space: Extraction sets out to answer those questions, but does so from not just a different character perspective, but also a different viewpoint.

Extraction is, as EA puts it, a “guided first-person experience.” While many people scoffed at the notion, and claimed that EA was just dressing up the term on-rails shooter so that the opinion of this Wii prequel would be higher, those who have now played through Extraction will have to admit that EA was not full of it, and the game is much, much more than your standard on-rails shooter. The first-person perspective, the focus on action and atmosphere and the constant dialogue from your characters makes this game much more Aliens than Alien, but it’s still Dead Space in every way.

In order to make this feel like it belonged in the Dead Space universe, Visceral needed to accomplish a few goals. First, they needed to nail the atmosphere. The original took its cues from games like Resident Evil 4, Doom 3 and the Metroid Prime series to create a sci-fi world where you would feel isolated, helpless, and very, very scared, and these feelings permeated the entire experience. With ammunition at a premium, every battle with the Necromorphs was a struggle as you tried to dismember their limbs and push on through the halls of the Ishimura. Visually, the game was stunning, with attention to detail in things like shadows and lighting that helped you scare yourself when the game wasn’t busy doing it for you. The audio was also fantastic, and helped to keep the mood thick with tension that you couldn’t get over even when the coast appeared clear.

While Extraction is not as much of a horror game as Dead Space, it still managed to meet the expectations for atmosphere–enemies attack you in large numbers from all directions,‚  you need to keep an eye on your ammunition, and, despite the stop and go nature of an on-rails title, there are plenty of surprises thrown your way thanks to the developer’s control over the action. The sound is also excellent, with text logs and reloading effects coming through the Wii Remote speaker and plenty of bumps and thuds in the dark to keep you on edge. I’m also happy to report that this game is a visual stunner–there was not a single moment in my entire playtime of Extraction where I wished the game was on more powerful hardware, because Visceral Games did a fantastic job recreating the visuals. Remember–this is a game that places place in the same exact areas as the original Dead Space, so the fact that Visceral was able recreate those areas and environments without forcing the player to think negatively about them in a negative sense is a huge achievement. Seeing the same rooms also helps shed some light on how certain areas ended up covered completely in the bodies of the dead, or destroyed by blasts and so forth. For those who have played the original, it’s a very nice, subtle bit of fan service and story expansion.

Besides that, Visceral also would need a compelling narrative; while the characters themselves fall into horror movie stereotypes–the calm, collected leader figure, the veteran soldier, the helpless girl, the shady, self-important guy that won’t reveal his past–the story itself is right up there with the action as far as being compelling goes. You’ll keep playing Extraction to learn what happened to the Ishimura and its crew, as well as those people from the colony you’re in control of,‚  not just because blowing the limbs off of mindless creatures is exhilarating. (though that has its merits as well!)

The game is broken up into 10 chapters, and you’ll control a slew of different characters throughout depending on what needs to be done and who has been separated from who. To keep you on your toes, many characters you travel with or are controlling are killed off without warning as part of the story–you’re never quite sure what’s going to happen next, which helps build the tension. You’ve got loads of Dead Space standbys at your disposal, like the Plasma Cutter, the Flame Thrower, the Ripper–which by the way, works much more effectively in Extraction than in the original thanks to pushing and pulling on the Wii Remote to aim the spinning blades–as well as a few new weapons, like the Rivet Gun. The Rivet Gun is used for its tool purposes–you’ll seal off barricades by riveting them into place–but also as your basic “pistol” type weapon that does not run out of ammo but is clearly weaker than your other options. Secondary fire modes are enabled by twisting the Wii Remote, and the only motion you’ll deal with is intuitive: to enable the flashlight-esque Glow Worm, you’ll shake the Wii Remote–this will often need to be done while in dark hallways in the middle of battles, so keep an eye on it and feel that tension build–and in order to throw a Necromorph off of you as it tries to devour your face.

You have recharging stasis shots that come in handy for environmental puzzles as well as slowing down faster enemies or dangerous ones in your peripheral vision. You’re able to grab ammunition, weapons, health, audio and text logs from afar using Kinesis; you can also grab projectiles from enemies and explosive canisters that can be fired off with the B button. You can do all of this in single-player, or pair up with a buddy anytime with drop-in co-op–on the harder difficulty levels, some people may find co-op a necessity just so you can fire twice as often and at different targets. Even on Normal, the second half of the game is challenging. You’ll most likely live through it, probably without dying even, but it will get hairy on occasion. Given the game has four difficulty levels, you’ll be able to test for yourself just how good you are at Extraction. It’s a good thing too, because the game may run a little short. It’s long for an on-rails title, clocking in at 7-8 hours, but still short as far as a shooter goes.

Besides the difficulty modes, there are a few more extras that will help you get your money’s worth out of the title though. You’re graded on each level you complete, and you unlock additional health and weapon upgrades by achieving higher scores. Challenge modes unlock as you complete the story; the title is not misleading, as you face wave after wave of Necromorphs as they try to tear you limb from limb in order to make you like them. You can also check out some Dead Space comics in motion comic form, which is a neat extra, especially for those that are very much into the Dead Space universe and all of the non-game content.

Blast Factor: Dead Space: Extraction had a lot to live up to in order to be a worthy entry in the Dead Space series, but it succeeded in many huge ways while only failing in minor, negligible forms. It has more depth than any on-rails title you’ve ever played, a great and engaging story, and many reasons to come back; namely, more difficulties, the Challenge modes, and the motion comics. I hope this is the start of a companion series for the Wii used to flesh out details of the Dead Space universe, but even if it is not, this game stands up on its own as a great Wii title and one of the system’s better releases in 2009.

Dead Space: Extraction is available exclusively on the Nintendo Wii, and retails for $49.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for review purposes.