Punch-Out!! (Virtual Console) review

About the Virtual Console reviews: I'm not rating these games necessarily by today's standards, otherwise my evaluation of graphics and lasting value might not do too well. But I'm also not reviewing these games by their original system's standards. Think of it as a combination of the two, and overall just if it's worth a download or not.

Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream (Virtual Console)

Developer: Nintendo IRD
Publisher: Nintendo
Date Released: VC: April 16, 2007 (USA)
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

The latest Punch-Out!! for the Wii releases today into North American stores. To celebrate this we have my review of Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream on the Virtual Console. The original NES Punch-Out!! frequents Top 10 NES lists and generally is the most popular and remembered of the games in the series. And for good reason: the gameplay's excellent, the puzzles are difficult, and the stereotypical humor is hilarious.

Punch-Out!! may be all about boxing, but it varies considerably from other regular boxing games. It'd be more suitable to call it a puzzle-action game than a boxing title. You play as Little Mac and are rooted in the middle of the rink. You have a decent amount of punches and dodges in your arsenal. Where the challenge and strategy comes in is with the various boxers of different speeds and skills. Learning exactly when to dodge and then deliver uppercuts and jabs becomes crucial when the boxers begin to only give you split second warnings. It'll take a lot of pattern memorization and multiple playthroughs of each stage.

Little Mac vs. Great Tiger

Additional elements to the Punch-Out!! formula are hearts and stars. You'll have a set number of hearts at the beginning of each round. You'll lose one each time you're punched and if you lose all of these your fighter becomes exhausted and unable to fight back. To gain back hearts, you will have to dodge a certain number of punches. Stars on the other hand are obtained by delivering blows to your opponents at certain times, usually when they're about to attack you. When you have a star you can unleash a devastating Star Punch on your foes for some big damage with the Start button (+ on a Wii remote held sideways).

The rest of the controls in Punch-Out!! are intuitive and mapped wonderfully. Left, right, and down on the d-pad are for dodges and blocks while B (1 on the Wii remote) and A (2) combined with pressing up on the directional pad make up your offense. It all controls great, and you'll be surprised with all that you can pull off with just a d-pad and two face buttons.

Punch-Out!! is all about Little Mac and his rise to overcome the odds and become the champ. He'll face foes like the weakling Glass Joe, the humongous King Hippo, and the insanely difficult Mr. Dream (Mike Tyson in the original version) along the way. The story's nothing to get excited over, but at least the character each have distinct personalities that's brought to life via animations and in between round verbal taunts. A drink (is it soda or alcohol?) swigging Russian named Soda Popinski? A Japanese fighter named Piston Honda that'll deliver a "TKO from Tokyo"? Yep, someone's bound to get offended.

In between rounds you'll get Doc Louis's advice and opponent's taunts

The game's definitely a NES game as the graphics show. Even with the two frame animations and basic colors, the game has a whole lot of style. Each of the characters has a wide range of expressions when getting punched, winding up for a punch, or delivering a KO inducing uppercut. The various animations when fighting and getting knocked out are done really well, even with the limited capabilities of the NES hardware. As far as audio goes, the various sound effects are fitting and add to the experience, but the Punch-Out!! theme is where it's all at. There's a reason the song's known to Nintendo fans and revered as a classic: it's good.

Overall Thoughts

Punch-Out!! is a fantastic game and really holds up in this day and age. The pattern memorization and timing mechanics are just as entertaining and brutal as the were 20 years ago. A definite download for Nintendo fans and is a great buy for those interested in the Wii version.

9/10

Bit.Trip Beat (WiiWare) review

Bit.Trip Beat (WiiWare)

Developer: Gaijin Games
Publisher: Aksys Games
Date Released: March 16, 2009 (USA)
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Retro gaming has definitely become more prominent in the last few years, with remakes of classic games like Bionic Commando Rearmed and whole new games with a retro styles such as Mega Man 9 or Retro Game Challenge paying off for developers by appealing to the old school gamers with their nostalgic gameplay and/or visuals and audio. While Space Invaders has been remade in Space Invaders Extreme, it's a bit surprising the granddaddy of all gaming, Pong has yet to see a remake with such a caliber of flashy visuals and nostalgic fun. But the first game of the Bit.Trip series is here, titled Bit.Trip Beat and while not exactly a sequel or remake of Pong, you can sure tell it's been heavily influenced by the game.

Much like Space Invaders Extreme is a lot like the original game on drugs with it's flashy graphics and hectic shooting fun, Bit.Trip Beat is a lot like Pong knocked up with a whole lot of illegal substances doing some crazy things (gameplay-wise). But this doesn't describe the game well enough, seeing as there's actually a lot more to it than the basic game of Pong.

The basics of Bit.Trip Beat involve you controlling a paddle on the left of the screen, and instead of another player on the right, a constant stream of different colored and different choreographed pixels known as beats that you must repel back. All of this is done with some of the simplest controls in gaming. Holding the Wii remote on its side and tilting forward and back controls your paddled seamlessly. It might take a little while to adjust, but once you get a hang of it, you'll be deflecting beats easily. While this may turn some people off, without D-pad control and all, I can say that this way works brilliantly, mimics the old-school paddle, and in the end is much faster than digital input. No other buttons are used other than 2 for menu selection. Though in game all the buttons on the Wii remote respond with different chiptune bleeps and bloops that are purely for fun and in no way affect the main game.

Deflecting little bouncing/flying pixels may not seem hard, but after playing this game I'm sure you'll be thinking exactly the opposite. Where the game really ramps up in difficulty is in the different types of beats (Pong balls) that fly across the screen at you. At first just basic yellow blocks that fly towards you are all you have to deflect, which is relatively easy. But from then on more and more beats are thrown at you with increasingly difficult patterns and speeds that certainly doesn't add up to a cake walk. There's such a variety of beats that even when nearing the end of the game newer ones are still blasting towards your paddle; there's fast beats, hesitating beats, beats linked together, beats that bounce off the walls: the list goes on and on.

Other than normal (relatively speaking of course) beats that all you have to deflect, there's certain power-up beats that can grow, shrink, freeze, or duplicate your paddle. Some are good while others are bad so you have the option of skipping them by merely not hitting them, but as all other beats it will still count against you. Count against you how? In the game, while playing, you'll notice two meters, the Mega and Nether, located on the top and bottom respectively. Fill the Mega meter by continually hitting beats back and you'll be transported to Mega mode with flashier graphics, more dynamic music, and the chance to get even higher scores by racking up the combos (think of it somewhat like Star Power in Guitar Hero). Miss too many in this and your back to the normal mode. In this one, miss too many and you're sent to Nether mode which is black and white, totally devoid of music and rhythm (other than the single monotonous sound that comes out of the Wii remote speaker replacing the normal beeps and boops), and very reminiscent of the original 70's Pong game. As you might have guessed missing too many beats in Nether mode and its game over for you.

At the end of each stage you face off with a boss that are one of the more memorable experiences of each level. Each stage's end level boss is different from the last, and I don't want to ruin anything, but they're very much inspired by Pong and Pong-like titles such as Breakout. Also included in the overall package is 4-player co-op which is a lot of fun to play with a friend. It does get harder the more players you add, as paddles become increasingly smaller with each new player. However, it's not all well: the different paddles differentiate in color but aren't staggered position-wise, so there's a lot of confusing overlapping to be had that makes co-op a whole lot less fun than it should have been.

But deflecting beats and facing off against pixelated bosses is only half of Bit.Trip Beat, the other 50% is the presentation, namely the style of graphics and engaging music. The music and sounds of the game are quite the showpiece, as the game relies heavily on the musical rhythm. There's always a background beat that holds the game together in a musical sense. Each beat that you repel adds a sound to the ever growing soundtrack. It's a really impressive thing to see, hear and play. Along with the audio are the fantastically abstract backgrounds and very Atari 2600-esque pixel style. Everything from the in game objects to text that's barely legible with such big pixels screams mid- to late-70's gaming.

Probably the major complaint of Bit.Trip Beat would be the lack of lasting value. There's only three stages, each of which is about 12 to 15 minutes long. But don't let these number deceive you into thinking the game hardly lasts even an hour, it'll last you upwards of eight hours approximately to finish the game. The stages, mainly the second and third, are taxingly difficult and really stay true to the hardcore old-school by having you play them for hours and hours until mastering every beat pattern to complete them. I did find the stages to be a bit too long though, especially seeing how dying sends you back to the very beginning. All of this could've been solved by mid-way check points or even splitting the three stage in half into six smaller levels.

Another complaint I had with the game was how much went unexplained. The game does very little in teaching you anything. There's no tutorial mode, so you'll have to get a hang of it in the beginning of the first level. It also doesn't tell you that to keep a stage unlocked you have to get a high score in the previous one. I never had the problem, as you'll score somewhere in the high scores most of the time, but I'm sure it can get annoying to those who barely beat a level. Speaking of high scores, it's disappointing to see only local leaderboards. A game like this so centered around replaying stages to get higher combos and beat previous scores, it's unfortunate to not see online leaderboards.

Overall Thoughts

Gaijin Games really nailed the whole retro-revival style both graphically and with the impressive music that coincides with the gameplay perfectly. Bit.Trip Beat's a whole lot of fun and is a really unique WiiWare game that's perfectly priced at $6. One of the better WiiWare games to date and comes with my highest recommendation.

9/10

New Play Control! Pikmin (Wii) review

New Play Control! Pikmin (Wii)

Developer: Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
Date Released: March 9, 2009 (USA)
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Nintendo has decided to bring a number of their GameCube hits over to the Wii with the New Play Control! series. All the NPC! games have be reworked to play with Wii controls, whether it be IR for Metroid Prime and Pikmin or gestures for Mario Power Tennis. Nintendo's choice to do this made a lot of sense in a business view, seeing as a lot of these games haven't been played by a large portion of the Wii's audience, due to the Wii's success and the GameCube's unpopularity. Alongside Mario Power Tennis, Pikmin is the first New Play Control! game to be released in North America.

In Pikmin, you play as Captain Olimar, whose ship, the S.S. Dolphin, gets hit by an asteroid as he's flying along. He makes a crash landing in a nearby, unknown planet. Parts and pieces of the space ship scatter across the land. On the planet, Olimar finds there is a deadly gas in the atmosphere, oxygen, and the life support system will fail after 30 days. Thus he has 30 days to retrieve the 30 ship parts that were lost.

But he doesn't do this alone. On the strange planet he crash lands on, Olimar finds tiny creatures which he names Pikmin. These Pikmin join him in his quest to rebuild his ship and are cute little creatures that somewhat resemble ants with a flower on their head (or leaf or bud, depending on what stage of their life they're in). The Pikmin join Olimar and willingly obey his commands. In Pikmin, there are three different kinds of Pikmin: red, yellow, and blue. The red can walk through fire unharmed, so you'll often resort to them to both carry items through fiery places and attack enemies that shoot flames. The yellow Pikmin can both carry bombs and be thrown the farthest. And blue Pikmin can breathe under water, which means you'll turn to them to get underwater objectives and get to islands.

To get Olimar's 30 ship parts in the 30 day time limit, you'll have to resort your army of Pikmin. Olimar is virtually useless in attacking and moving things, thus he can command Pikmin to do what he cannot. Be it moving/destroying obstacles, harvesting pellets, or attacking enemies, the Pikmin's strength lie in numbers. Most obstacles and items require a certain number of Pikmin to move and those that don't will take a lot longer to do the less Pikmin assigned.

The game of Pikmin can basically be split up into two objectives: getting Olimar's ship parts and growing your army of Pikmin. The Dolphin's ship parts are either found guarded by walls, some light puzzle solving (using different Pikmin colors), and various enemies or with boss creatures that you must beat to obtain the ship part. While you'll want to get all of the Dolphin's pieces, you'll also need to raise and harvest Pikmin. Getting more Pikmin is done by bringing both pellets, which can be harvested from special flowers and dropped by enemies, and the bodies of creatures and bosses back to the Pikmin's homes, named (by Olimar) Onions.

One of the major complaints of the original GameCube game was the 30 day time limit. Since Olimar has to get all of the ship's parts in these 30 days, not doing this will result in Olimar's death and you losing the game. Each of these days takes around 15 minutes from sunrise to sundown, after which you'll have to board your ship (and the Pikmin, their Onion homes). This can add a certain amount of urgency to the game and makes the game feel rushed. With levels that are designed great and enemies to be fought scattering the landscape, it'd feel a lot nicer not to have the 30 day limit and the flexibility to explore. Even so, the limit will be liked by some since it's an overall challenge to beat. And while Nintendo didn't abolish this limit completely in the New Play Control version (like they did with Pikmin 2 for the GameCube), they did make it a bit easier. Now you can rewind to any day that you've played. So say you did really good up to about Day 6, but from then on you've been doing pretty bad, rarely getting ship parts and losing a lot of Pikmin, now you can start playing back up at Day 6 to try and do better. It's a nice touch that frees up a bit of the rush and urgency.

Nintendo redid the controls to fit the Wii's controller and make controlling Olimar and his army of Pikmin easier and more intuitive. It's extremely simple to command your Pikmin to attack enemies, harvest resources, separate into groups, and remain inactive with a few buttons and the Wii's IR. Pikmin on the GameCube was praised for finally "getting" real-time strategy controls on a console (albeit being a lot less complex than PC RTS's), but the Wii remote and nunchuk far outdo even those great controls.

New Play Control! Pikmin is a game with a decent challenge. The difficulty especially ramps up near the end for some hard but rewarding boss fights and puzzling. It's definitely nice to have both the improved controls and ability to restart from any previous day. The game has decent length that's definitely shortened a bit by the 30 day time limit, but overall it was a good 10 to 12 hour game. Increasing the replay value, there's also a very fun Challenge Mode to be played, which has you seeing how many Pikmin you can grow in a single day. It's pretty fun and will have you coming back for more with high scores and different levels to play.

Other than the 16:9 widescreen mode for folks with those TV's (see: not me), Nintendo didn't do much to improve the already solid GameCube graphics. Even with this, Pikmin's visuals can unfortunately stand up to a majority of the games available for the Wii. It just goes to show how Nintendo EAD was pushing the hardware at the time and how few developers today put that much effort into Wii games. There are detailed environments and crisp colors for the various creatures and items. Even so, there are some muddy textures, which are particularly visible when viewed up close. The soundtrack is soothing and very enjoyable. Mixing with this are the cute Pikmin sounds that never get old.

Overall Thoughts

Pikmin is a very fun and rewarding game, and with the new Wii remote controls, it feels all the better to control. Anyone who has never played this game should really do so, and with the New Play Control $30 price tag, the game is significantly cheaper than most Wii games. Overall, if you're itching to play Pikmin with motion controls or you've never played Pikmin at all, give this one a try. But otherwise, you may want to hold out for the longer and better Pikmin 2.

8/10

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...

MadWorld (Wii) review

MadWorld (Wii)

Developer: Platinum Games
Publisher: Sega
Date Released: March 10, 2009 (USA)
ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

The newly formed Platinum Games is filled with a lot of the people behind Clover Studios. Clover Studios, though now disbanded, was known for very "artsy" games, being behind Okami and the Viewtiful Joe series, which both incorporated style and substance to craft winning formulas. Platinum Games first title is here, MadWorld, and with it comes a very noticeable, black, white (and a whole lot of red) art style. But does it live up the the precedent of Clover Studios' past "artsy" games? Quite frankly, yes, and what results is a very enjoyable beat 'em up with some strikingly pretty graphics.

At first glance, the most noticeable thing about MadWorld is the beautiful, black and white art style. The game's locales, objects, and people are all colored with the contrasting colors of black and white, no gray whatsoever. Red also is a prominent color due to the over the top violence. Adding red to the otherwise monochromatic environments greatly improves the visuals. Besides black, white, and red, the only other color to be seen is yellow, which make up the various comic book-like onomatopoeias such as "VROOM!" (when starting up your chainsaw) or "THUD!" (when landing a jump). This adds a very comic book feel to the entire game. All in all, the art style masks the Wii's limited graphical capabilities well and ends up being a beautiful game that runs very smoothly.

What really surprised me was just how good the story in MadWorld was. For the longest time, very little was said about the game's story other than, "Jack is competing in a game show called Death Watch where you have to kill to survive." But once I played through MadWorld, I found there to be a deep and enjoyable story. It may be a little far-fetched in some areas, but I still found it good fun. Basically, terrorists have taken over Varrigan City, cutting off all communication and transportation in and out of the island, completely isolating the city from the rest of the world. The city has become home to a horrific game show titled Death Watch, where the competitors must kill to win. Jack enters the game show during the third day and quickly begins climbing the ranks, attracting a lot of attention from both sponsors and viewers. The deeper you go into the game, the more you'll find that not everything is as it seems; there are government conspiracies, and not all of the characters' motives are clear, including Jack's. On a side note, there's a lot of well done voice acting too, which is even more of a surprise seeing how this game was made in Japan.

MadWorld is, at its heart, a beat 'em up. It's over the top, comical, and just flat out entertaining. What do you expect from a game with a guy who has a chainsaw on his arm? There are many different ways to kill enemies due to the variety in weapons, melee attacks, and environmental hazards. You're encouraged to try new things, and comboing attacks and kills together is important in gaining points. Sure, chainsawing a guy in half is easy, but it doesn't do you much good points-wise. Stabbing a sign through a guy's head, shoving him face first into a barrel, and then picking him up and slamming him into a wall of spikes a few times will earn you a lot more points.

The funnest part about the game is just how varied the combat is. You have your basic chainsaw and punches, then you've got all the weapons and objects each stage offers. Next there's all the brutal attacks and finishers you can produce with these. And then there's the different "Murders" which require certain environmental objects unique to each level, such as slamming a guy face first into a toilet or throwing a goon into a tank full off piranhas. Many beat 'em ups and other games that rely solely on combat suffer from repetition, but MadWorld succeeds in banishing this generalization by letting you have hundreds of options of killing enemies. There's also a good amount of variety in stages and enemies. You'll fight regular thugs and punks in the city levels, werewolves and zombies in the haunted levels, aliens (which explode into bluish-green blood rather than the normal red) and robots in the Area-51 inspired levels, and ninjas and samurai in the oriental levels. It's all great fun.

MadWorld also controls very nicely. A and B are used for most attacks, while gestures and waggle (replacing the button mashing of games like God of War) are saved for the more cinematic moves and finishers. Jack's chainsaw attacks work wonderfully with the game, recognizing horizontal and vertical swipes with ease. Similar is the rest of the motion controls in MadWorld; they all work great and don't feel forced. The only complaint I had was with the camera and the lock-on system. To lock onto enemies you have to hold the C button for a couple of seconds until the game locks you on, then you can let go. It's too much of a hassle to bother with in early parts of levels since you'll be killing enemies left and right, though you'll definitely want to use it when facing bosses. It would've been much nicer for you to lock on while pressing C and take it off once you let go of the button. The camera also is a bit funky in the game. The only control you have of it is pressing C and it pops back to viewing directly behind you. It would've been nice to have some manner of analog control over it, but you'll be able to make due with it most of the time.

Each stage is structured similarly. The boss at the end is only unlocked after you earn achieve a certain amount of points. But along the way, points will unlock various things such as weapons, health items, Bloodbath Challenge minigames, environmental kills, and minibosses that offer a challenging break from the usual enemy fodder. It's fun and vital to use these point-unlocked things to your advantage, since they'll usually help you garner more points faster. The Bloodbath Challenges definitely are a highlight of the game. There are eleven in all; all brutally hilarious and all very fun. In one such Challenge, titled Man Darts, you'll hit enemies with spiked bat towards a dart board, with real darts points factoring into each hit. As I mentioned before, doing good in these boosts your score and gets you to the end level boss quicker. And how about them bosses? They're some of the best fun in the game (and trust me there's a lot of that in MadWorld). The best part about the fantastic boss battles are the finishers, which definitely are the greatest kills of the game.

The audio in MadWorld really blew me away. I was pleasantly surprised by just how good the music was in MadWord. I generally don’t like rap and hip-hop, but I loved MadWorld’s soundtrack. But the high point of the sound department has to be the brilliant commentary done by Greg Proops (Whose Line Is It Anyway?) and John DiMaggio (Bender from Futurama). It's immature, very well done, and plain hilarious. I'm pretty sure the game earned several of its ESRB details solely from DiMaggio and Proops and their very enjoyable commentating. Once you factor in the sound effects and in-game voice work along with the commentary and soundtrack, it can become too much. Thankfully you can turn up and down the different aspects of the audio. So in one level if you just want to hear the excellent music, you can. Or in another if you want to hear the hilarious banter of the commentators with nothing else distracting you, you can.

Besides the regular stages, you'll have motorcycle ones and boss-centric levels (where you'll do nothing but face the boss). Both of which are very fun, but I found the regular levels to be the most enjoyable. Another gripe I had with the game was that it wasn't particularly long. Granted it was a hell of a ride, but MadWorld clocks in around five to six hours. There is some incentive to go back into Hard mode, for new weapons are unlocked to play with, and the A.I. is brutally smart and a lot more challenging than their Normal counterparts. There is a multiplayer that is fairly enjoyable, though it only has you competing with another player in the Bloodbath Challenges. This is fun and all, but I can't deny how great the game could've been if it let you tackle the stages and bosses with (or even against) a pal. Unfortunately, there's still not too much to make you want to replay stages. All there really is to do is beat your own score. With a game so centered around getting points, it's sad to see no online leaderboards.

Overall Thoughts

Playing MadWorld, I had some of the most fun on my Wii I'd had in a long time. My only gripes with the monochromatic beat 'em up would have to be that it's not the longest of games and the camera has some positioning issues. Despite these very minor gripes, MadWorld is a blast with it's over the top, comical fun and pretty black, white, and red visuals.

9/10

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...

The House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii) review

Here's the long overdue review. And the scores are back! Mostly due to Everyview's Zac's request, and me feeling there was something missing. Enjoy! -Kyle

The House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii)

Developer: Headstrong Games
Publisher: Sega
Date Released: February 10, 2009 (USA)
ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

On-rails shooters have had a good run on the Wii with Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Ghost Squad, and The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return. And this on-rails shooting fun doesn’t look to stop anytime soon with both Dead Space: Extraction and Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles announced to be coming to Nintendo’s current console. HotD: 2 & 3 Return was (as you could probably guess) a port of both the second and third House of the Dead games. It sold pretty well and saw mostly favorable reviews. Though it was really just Sega testing the water, but now with an original game titled House of the Dead: Overkill, they’ve jumped all the way in with a cannonball and a slash.

House of the Dead: Overkill does a few things noticeably different from the previous arcade games. The most noticeable is the 70’s grindhouse style. The story is pays homage to the cheesy, zombie filled pulp horror films of the 1970’s. All of this is complete with cheesy dialogue, over the top violence, a hilariously clichéd and awesome plot, and a very unique graphical style.

The story is both well written and hilarious. As just about everything in the game, it seems the Headstrong gang watched just about every zombie flick they could get their hands on to craft the wonderful plot that Overkill presents. You follow the journey of the mysterious Agent G and profanity spewing Detective Isaac Washington on their way to take down the evil mastermind behind the mutant invasion, Papa Caesar. The story takes them to a variety of locales from a swamp with redneck mutants to a carnival with mutant clowns and carnies.

With the excellent story comes some great characters and hilarious chemistry between Agent G and Detective Washington. There are some funny jokes than turn into “inside jokes” with their frequency of use, particularly ones involving the G in Agent G’s name and elevators. Along the way the two meet up with a stripper named Varla Guns and she adds to the great dialogue even more. All of this is voice acted intentionally cheesy and it’s really enjoyable. My only gripe is Washington’s over the top swearing. It’s funny and some people will feel it fits the game and the grindhouse feel perfectly, but I found it to be a little bit too much at times.

As far as the gameplay goes, Overkill clings to some traditional mechanics, while bringing some fresh ideas to the table as well. First and foremost, the controls work great. The IR makes getting head shots and shooting tiny objects all the easier. It’s standard shooter controls for the Wii remote: B to shoot, to reload press A or flick the cursor off the screen light gun style, and the + button for grenades. It’s all very simple, intuitive, and a breeze to play with.

Each level in the game has you killings hordes of zombies, collecting items like health and grenades, and fighting bosses at the end of each. There’s a lot of fun zombie killing with heads bursting into unrealistic explosions of blood and gore and a powerup that instigates Slow Mo-Fo Mode for some excellent slow motion thrills. In between levels you can use money you’ve earned to upgrade and buy new weapons. The end level bosses were usually the biggest disappointment of each level for me. Generally, they’d be easy and predictable. There were only one or two that were memorable and fun. One of the worst had only one attack that he did over and over. With all the great level design Headstrong put into Overkill, it would’ve been nice of them to make some bosses of that same caliber of excellence.

House of the Dead: Overkill really succeeds in all the innovations it brings too. One being the Danger Cam, which lets you shift the screen a bit both directions so as to prepare for what’s coming and set up for kills, rather than having the screen locked in a position like most on-rails games. The other unique design that Overkill uses is a combo system that makes you fire with accuracy on your mind rather than pulling the trigger every time something moves. As the combo progresses higher and higher so will the bonus points that comes with each kill until you reach the awesome Goregasm that rewards you with 1000 extra points every kill and ensures you a spot high on the high score board if you can maintain it.

Speaking of scores, House of the Dead: Overkill handles retries very well too. In the arcades a continue screen that required credits was perfect for making the machines money and making players strive to not get a game over. But when these kinds of games are ported over to consoles the challenge is diminished, as it’s just a button press and you’re off onto the same level again. In Overkill it cuts your score in half, generally taking a lot of points, and returning that urgency and desire not to lose.

On-rails shooters aren’t known for their length, but House of the Dead puts up a fair fight. The story mode will clock you in around three to four hours, then you’ve got Director’s Cut, which has more zombies, extended levels, and an upped difficulty to play through. There’s also a coop mode that works wonderfully, three multiplayer-focused minigames that provide a short burst of fun, and Dual Wield mode, which is unlocked after completing both the Director’s Cut and the original Story Mode. You’ll want to play through levels again and again to beat high scores, get any little things you missed, and just play the addictive game some more. Unfortunately there aren’t any online leaderboards to speak of, so the only high scores you’ll be beating are your own. Headstrong really missed the boat on that one, seeing as it would fit perfectly with a score driven game like this one.

And finally we come to the visual and audio presentation of the game. In a word, it’s exceptional. The entire game has a visual look of a grindhouse, B-movie flick. Filters and lines indicating scratches and dirt marks are present through the entire game and make the game’s visuals really unique. The overall graphics are also really great and some of the Wii’s best, though the game suffers from some severe frame-rate problems. While I consider myself a versatile gamer and a gamer at that, I’m not quite like the journalists and game developers, meaning I can’t tell whether a game runs at 60 or 30 frames per second. And I generally can’t tell when a game stutters or not. But even I could see just how much slowdown there was in Overkill. Just about time a zombie was shot a something new appeared there was slowdown. But in the end it doesn’t take too much away from the experience and you’ll actually forgive it, seeing just how great the rest of the game is. On the audio side, there are some wonderful 70’s style songs and overall is a stellar soundtrack to compliment the gameplay and graphics.

Overall Thoughts

With it’s combo meter, Slow Mo-Fo pickups, and all the zombie blasting fun you could ask for, Overkill is a treat and an addictive one at that. Despite the slight issues of lackluster bosses and some prevalent visual slowdown, House of the Dead: Overkill is an entertaining on-rails shooter with a great grindhouse style and an enjoyable, well-written story (that is both intentionally cheesy and intentionally fantastic).

9/10

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...

Deadly Creatures (Wii) review

Deadly Creatures (Wii)

Developer: Rainbow Studios
Publisher: THQ
Date Released: February 9, 2009 (USA)
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Insects, arachnids, and the creepy crawlies are things games have rarely touched upon. There's been Bug's Life-esque, cartoony kids games, and spiders and snakes have been enemies and end level bosses, but never before has gaming seen something as unique as Deadly Creatures. The Wii is definitely home to some unique games whether it be because of innovative ideas or the rethinking of certain genres and mechanics. Deadly Creatures is here, and it's another of these games that's very different from the rest.

The game is split into ten levels. Each level alternates between the two playable characters, the scorpion and the tarantula. This results in five scorpion stages and five spider stages. Each level will have multiple goals, most being get to a certain point or explore a certain location. Every time you complete a goal, the next one will pop up. This turns out to make the game progression very linear. And that adds onto the already super linear environments that you traverse. This being said, most of the levels are still a blast to play as you'll crawl along walls and upside down on ceilings. Just don't expect a lot of branching paths throughout these stages.

Deadly Creatures definitely isn't a super lengthy tale. A normal play through will last anywhere from six to eight hours (maybe ten at tops). There's three difficulties, but not a lot of incentive to go back and replay parts of the game. There are collectible grubs and crickets, though they do nothing much except satisfy that completionist's urge to get every last thing. Though some artwork galleries and excellent interviews with Hopper and Thornton are in the extras menu and definitely should be checked out.

The story in Deadly Creatures revolves around two human characters, Wade and George Struggs, both brilliantly voiced by Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper respectively. The storyline is one of betrayal, and a buried chest of Civil War gold. It's interesting and plays out well, though it is fairly minimal, and it would've been nice to see more. As far as the scorpion and tarantula go, there's very little story if any. But what is cool is how the story of Struggs and Wade is viewed. Since you play as the scorpion and the tarantula, you'll view the story from a lower, different perspective and it's a very unique take on storytelling. It should also be noted that interaction between the two groups (creepy crawlies and humans) is pretty limited. It would've been great for more of this too, since there are a few human-bug interactions, and they're all really great and show a lot of potential for even greater things.

Deadly Creatures is an action-adventure game that clings to traditional mechanics of combat and a bit of exploration but throws in some completely new design choices. Most of the game you'll go through levels with a few puzzles and obstacles along the way, but most of your time is spent in combat. You'll continually unlock new moves and combos until the end. This results in what could be some pretty diverse fighting if it weren't for several moves of each creature being a lot more powerful than the rest, and in the end you'll tend to lean on said moves which makes the game feel a lot more repetitive than it should be.

The game's controls mix button presses with gestures for good effect. Most of it works well, you'll tend to button mash a bit and use motion controls occasionally for stronger blows. I did have some problems with the motion controls though. The game did well in recognizing the difference between horizontal and vertical gestures, it just didn't do it in a timely manner. It would usually take a second or two for the motion to register. Which is a shame as all of the other controls work great.

You take control of both a scorpion and a tarantula within the game. Both creatures have their differences. The scorpion is more of a tank and a fighter. It's not nearly as fast as the spider and doesn't have the agility to dodge and jump out the way like the tarantula does. The scorpion levels tend to have a lot more combat than the others. The greatest part of being a scorpion is the cinematic quick time events of finishing off enemies. They're brutal, in no way realistic, and very awesome. Seeing a scorpion shove it's stinger into a rat's skull or flip over an insect and stab it though it's appendix are some of the best memories you'll come away from this game having.

Contrary to the scorpion, the tarantula is much more of a stealthy character. He's a lot more agile as he can jump, dodge, and attack from afar. Overall I found the spider to be much more enjoyable to play due to it being a lot more versatile. The tarantula has melee combat moves like the scorpion, but the more effective moves include shooting webs and the ability to pounce on unsuspecting enemies from a distance. I found these levels to be a lot more fun. Plus early into the game you gain the ability to shoot webs and pull yourself long distances (like Spider-Man) that make those levels even more fun.

Throughout the game you'll constantly be fighting enemies. The enemy lineup is fairly varied and you'll fight all different sorts of insects, arachnids, lizards, and rats. All have different fighting styles with some being able to fly or charge. They're all a great deal of fun to fight, but the real fun comes in with the boss fights. These encounters are fantastically done, specifically the last two (though I won't ruin anything) which occur in Chapters 9 and 10 (the last tarantula and scorpion levels respectively). It's just a shame that they didn't make more of these encounters, as you'll only fight four or so bosses throughout the game. Making a boss at the end of each chapter would've been great. That said, you'll still have a lot of fun fighting rattle snakes and giant lizards throughout the boss battle encounters.

The best thing Deadly Creatures has going for it is the great atmosphere. This is due to some great level design and artwork, an exceptional audio side, and some great graphics. The soundtrack and audio in Deadly Creatures definitely deserves some praise. There's not much music so to speak, more of an ambiance that really fits the levels. Complimenting that are some realistic sound effects from the bugs and mammals alike. I found nothing to complain about on the sound side of things, it's perfect and does a great job of immersing you in the game.

The game also sports fairly good visuals. And being zoomed in at a bug's level, it does hold up with textures. All of the different bugs are animated perfectly and move much like the real things. The lifelike crawl of the tarantula is sure to send arachnophobics running in fright. The greatest part of the game though is being at such a tiny level. Crawling on walls and ceilings is great and fighting on them is even better. You'll be exchanging blows with an insect only to have it lose footing and fall sideways to what is actually the ground breaking the illusion of gravity. It's also great to see everything from bike tire to a doll house at a scorpion's view. You'll find yourself crawling inside a large structure only to get out of it, look around, and see that it was actually a worn out, holy shoe.

While on the presentation side of things, the game certainly is nice, there are some bugs and parts that feel unpolished that bring down the game a bit. Frequent load times pop up in the middle of levels and the game can stutter in the framerate area from time to time. I even had a couple of load times happen in the middle of fighting enemies that really breaks up the action and are annoying. Another issue I had was with all the different surfaces. Sure, it was great to crawl upon all different sides and angles, but sometimes enemies wouldn't fare so well and get stuck in the environments. Though the biggest complaint I have with the game is the clunky camera. It works decent most of the time, but occasionally it'll freak out disorienting you while trying to center on something. It also had the tendency to catch on walls and stay there while you get farther and farther away until at last it jumps back to you. The game definitely could use some polish, and it does feel like a couple more weeks or even a month of ironing out the bugs (the technical kind) would've done this game well.

Overall Thoughts

As I said earlier, Deadly Creatures has it's bugs and unpolished areas, but as you climb upside down and along walls, pounce on unsuspecting enemies as the spider, and pull off brutal finishers with the scorpion, most of this nitpicking is forgotten. The game's great atmosphere is reason alone to experience this unique game. Despite it not being the longest of games, I'd recommend a buy to anyone who can stand the game and it's arachnaphobia inducing graphics.

7/10

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...

N+ (DS) review

N+ (DS)

Also for: PSP, Xbox 360 via XBLA
Developer: SilverBirch Studios
Publisher: Atari
Date Released: August 26, 2008 (USA)
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

N started as a flash game many years ago that soon gained a cult following. It was a great platformer that used a bare, minimalist visual style and a deep physics engine to its advantage. A console version, available for download as an Xbox Live Arcade game, was released early 2008 titled N+ and was positively received by reviewers and critics alike. Later into the year, portable versions of N+ were released. Now, I've put many hours into the hundreds of levels and beaten the game entirely. Does the DS version live up the the great legacy of N, or does it fall short to its untimely death?

The premise of N+ is simple. You are a ninja. You must get to the door at the end of each level by running, jumping, and dodging enemies and obstacles. You must not die or have time run out. Collect gold along the way to boost your time limit. It's that simple. And it's exactly this that made both N and N+ for the Xbox so appealing. Like many games, it's simple but very addictive. The game definitely hearken back to the simple sidescrolling platforms of days past. Not having a unnecessary story that stretches out for long parts of the game or tons of gimmicks to make it "fresh" really work to N+'s advantage.

N+'s main single-player mode is split into a number of episodes, each containing five levels. The total number of episodes is around 45, which results in more than 200 levels on the cartridge. Each level has one overall goal, get to the door at the end. It's what happens between that makes each vary from the last. Some rooms are filled with enemies to dodge. Others are completely void of bad guys that really test your reflexes with tough, bomb-dodging platforming. While others consist of hitting certain switches that open doors to other switches that add an almost puzzle aspects to some portions of the game. In the hundreds of levels, variety is present and very much welcome.

Other than the basic single-player modes, there's multiplayer, both cooperative and competitive, and level creation options. It's the level creator that is really interesting. It may not be of LittleBigPlanet caliber, but I still had some great fun making great levels, (including a slightly challenging "World 1-1" stage). All the options are there, and it's entirely possible to make every level already in the game. With those kinds of tools, you can make some truly great levels. And while it may have all the tools and options to make any kind of level you want, it's entirely accessible and I grasped the concept a mere five minutes after starting up the mode. Though it would've been nice to have some sort of level editor tutorial mode. Even better there's a great online sharing community to share and download custom made stages.

The game will last you a reasonable time. There are hundreds of levels to tackle and other modes like the level creator and multiplayer. Plus some of the later levels are astonishingly difficult that'll have you playing a single stage over and over for even a half an hour at a time. You'll get a lot of bang for your buck with N+ as it's definitely not a short-lived game.

N+'s gameplay is still very much like the beloved N. The ninja controls precisely, making quick, reflex-heavy platforming possible. The great physics engine is intact as well. Though if you have played the original N, you'll notice your ninja controls a bit heavier and your jumps don't have the distance they used to (though they are still pretty big). It's still a blast to play N+ as the platforming is really good. It's precise, quick, and responsive.

The whole catch in N+ is there's no lives, no health meter, and you have infinite retries on levels. It may seem easy with all these restrictions gone, but really it's anything but. One hit from anything, an enemy, bombs, or falling too far will result in your death. It's this that makes the game so difficult. Some of the later levels are almost brutal in just how much they test your reflexes. But the rewarding feeling that comes from completion of these punishing stages is second to none.

In N, you had a full view of the entire room. You saw every obstacle, every enemy, and could plan a safe route to the doorway at the end. What the DS does is even better in my opinion. The top screen shows a view of the entire room, much like the original just fitted onto a small screen. While the bottom screen shows a zoomed in version of your ninja. This results in some skillful use of both. Using the up close screen to make your jumps precise and dodge enemies by mere pixel-distances, all the while using the top screen as guide in progressing the level as a whole. It's a great take on N that really couldn't be done on anything but the DS.

N+'s presentation is much like the original: basic. Menus are bland and the graphics use a very minimal approach. Though it may be simple and not pushing the hardware, it's still very nice to look at. You also have the options of switching between the new updated graphics with more detailed sprites and animations (appropriately titled Plus Mode) and the old, primitive graphics of the original N (deemed Pure Mode). While the graphics may be simple but bearable, the music is horrid. There are some flat-out bad tunes in there. I'd recommend just turning off the music, which is thankfully an option since the sound effects are great. The effects of beeping robots and the clinking of obtaining gold are very pleasant on the ears.

Overall Thoughts

N+ is the perfect portable game. You can pick it up and play it for five minutes alone, beating one episode, and then put it down. Or you can play hours on end trying to beat every last stage. It may not be anything particularly new, but it succeeds with some great platforming fun. Bare presentation complaints aside, N+ is a great DS game and a fantastic platformer.

8/10

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...

No More Heroes (Wii) review

Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
Publisher: Ubisoft
Date Released: January 22, 2008 (USA)
ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

Suda51, director and writer of No More Heroes, has been behind quite a few crazy games, most notably killer7 for the GameCube. More recently he helped bring Fatal Frame IV out to the Wii in Japan. No More Heroes is quite possibly his craziest game yet. But does crazy equal quality?

In No More Heroes, you're an lucha libre-loving, otaku punk named Travis Touchdown. He lives, near broke, in a small hotel room in a fictional, Californian city named Santa Destroy with his cat Jeane. He meets a pretty girl, named Sylvia Christe, in a bar one night. She offers him the job of an assassin for the United Assassin's Association, or the UAA. He's tasked of killing the top eleven assassin and become number one. The story's actually very good, the characters very insane and awesome, and there's a good enough number of twists (mostly near the climax) that you'll want to stick with it to the end.

Another thing that needs to be noted is the assortment of amazing characters that Suda51 created in the game. From the bosses and villains to the store clerks and gym masters, there are some awesome characters to be found. There's psychopaths like Travis himself and less crazy yet still weird people like Destroyman, a postman who dresses up like a superhero to duke it out with you. If you're looking for a wonderfully zany cast of characters, No More Heroes will certainly satisfy.

The gameplay is broken up into two different sections: boss battles and open world. The former is where the game shines. You enter the bosses level at some checkpoint throughout Santa Destroy, from there you have to dispatch room after room of goons until you reach the highly memorable and difficult boss battle. You'll usually be fighting upwards of eight to ten enemies per room. It's a pretty standard, linear fare. You kill all the enemies in room. Door opens to next room. Repeat until at boss. But it's still really entertaining. Plus there's variations in certain levels, such as having to run over enemies on your bike or use the remote Wii Sports-style as a bat and hit a ball through a line of enemies.

It can get a bit repetitive and feel like a chore. But once your reach the boss battle at the end of each, you realize it's definitely worth it. The boss battles are definitely the highlight of the game. Each one will challenge both your skill and your determination. Plus every one is drastically different from the last. If there's one thing that No More Heroes does the best, it's the boss battles.

While the boss battles are entertaining and memorable, what about the other part of the game: the open world between each battle? Is it as good? Not exactly. Santa Destroy isn't really that great of a city. There's very little to do without stepping onto icons to start up missions. Nothing like GTA or anything. Outside of missions, all there really is to do is ride your bike around. The controls of your bike take some time to learn, but it entertains a bit. That being said, there's nothing to do on your bike either, except just ride around. Any pedestrians or cars are practically moving props. Cars will actually stop if you stand in front of them and just wait for you to move. No honking, no yelling, no lifelikeness at all. And the most fun you can have with pedestrians is run them over, which gets old quick, since you can't talk to or interact with them in any other way.

Since there's not much to do in the open world, it's pretty much a hub. But instead of being a good hub world (like Super Mario Galaxy's), it's way to open. With far distances between each place you need to go, it does feel lacking. But in the world there are several shops (such as a clothes store, a video store for learning new moves, and a gym for working out), your motel room (where you can save, change clothes, watch videos, or play with your cat) and two places to earn money.

The first is where you'll gain part time jobs, which are unlocked after beating bosses. These include working at a gas station, picking up trash, rescuing kittens, killing scorpions, and mowing lawns. Do good in these and you'll unlock assassination missions. These missions can be accessed through the second mentioned building, the UAA assignment building. The missions that you can take range from killing the head of a pizza joint to killing as many goons as you can in a set time. Besides these missions you get from the UAA, driving around on your bike you may notice several other assassination missions you can undertake while away from the head offices of the UAA.

But even if the part-time jobs and assassination missions are entertaining, they are lacking to. Mainly they're lacking a retry option. Say that either you failed a mission, or you want to redo a mission because it earned you some big money... Once back in the open world, he mission icon is gone, so you can't restart a mission. So you have to hop on your bike and head back to open up another mission, and it's a major annoyance.

In an action game like No More Heroes, where a big portion of your time is spent fighting hordes of enemies, room after room, the combat either makes or breaks the game. In NMH's case, the combat is super entertaining and super stylized. It's some of the best fun I've had in a while. Basic combat is a mix of your laser sword moves, which can be upgraded later in the game, and lucha libre wrestling techniques, which you learn more of as you progress.

Mostly though, you'll attack with your beam sword (think lightsaber ripoff). Attacking with it is mapped to the A button. No Zelda-sword-swinging-gestures in this one. Generally, you'll button mash the A button until the enemies life is down to almost zero, then the screen turns gray and action stops. A pixalated arrow appears, prompting you to gesture in a certain way finishing the enemy off. The position of the Wii remote, whether it's pointing up or down when you're mashing the A button, determines whether the attack is high or low. Some enemies and bosses guard especially to on position, so you'll have to change it up to get the best results.

But the combat options don't end there. If you hold the A button, your laser sword starts the glow and shake; when you release the button a powerful attack is unleashed. Again, whether it's a high or low attack determines the outcome. But wait! The combat doesn't stop there! If you happen to lock blades with another sword-, crowbar-, or baseball bat-wielding enemy, a Wii remote appears on screen and circling it are a bunch of giant pixels. This prompts you to move the Wii remote in circles as fast as you can. If you win the blade lock, you'll get a chance at a finishing move right then and there. Using the laser sword too often results in the loss of battery. When this happens you'll have to press 1 and waggle the Wii remote back and forth as fast as possible to recharge it. This adds even more depth to the combat as you'll have to charge it in strategic places. Every time you kill an enemy, three slot machine icons appear. If they match up you get a super-powerful ability called a Dark Side move, which will devastate the battlefield with huge attacks and slow-mo finishers.

Another part of the combat is the wrestling moves. Pulling these of are a lot like finishers with the laser sword. To activate them you have to stun an enemy with a kick or punch with the B button, which doesn't always work, especially when the enemy guards against high or low attacks. When an enemy's stunned, little stars will circle their head. This is the time to press B again and start up a wrestling moves. Two pixelated arrows prompt you to move the remote and Nunchuk in certain directions. These do a sizable amount of damage and are especially useful when fighting bosses. No More Heroes combat is a whole lot of fun and is something every gamer needs to experience.

Just like the combat and story are out of this world and awesome, so is the game's style. NMH is filled to the brim with style and personality. The game's cel-shaded and in your face. For crying out loud, to save, you have to find a toilet so Travis can take a dump! That's how wacky this game is. The game has a huge retro feel, with tons of things like menus and the HUD make up of over sized pixel blocks. Whenever you pull a Dark Side move, instead of a countdown time or load bar, a pixelated tiger walking towards a finish flag shows how much time you have left with that move. It's crazy things like that that make the game's visuals so memorable. Even if the game's style is enjoyable, the graphics are lacking in some areas. Especially in the open world where frequent pop-up and lack of textures are noticeable. That being said, I still really enjoyed the game's style.

The game has a ton of pop culture references, especially from media like Star Wars, with a famous quote (yes that quote) and the lightsaber-esque sword. As for music, what there is original and very enjoyable. I said "what there is" because there's not a whole lot of variety in the game's soundtrack, which is disappointing.

As for lasting value, the game will probably last you upwards of fifteen hours. There's not a whole lot to do once you've completed the main game. You can collect T-shirts and Lovikov balls which can be exchanged with a drunk Russian for new abilities, but that's about it. The game starts off with two difficulties, Sweet and Mild, Mild being the harder of the two. But once you beat the game on either difficulty, you unlock the Bitter setting, which is pretty dang challenging.

Overall Thoughts

No More Heroes is pretty long game with a whole lot of personality and graphical style. The high points of the game, the awesome boss battles and entertaining combat, more than make up for the game's low points, most notably the lack of graphical polish and poor open world. I'd recommend a buy to almost anyone who loves action, are "allowed" to play M-rated games, and wants a solid twelve to fifteen hour experience.

8/10

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...

Tetris Party (WiiWare) review

Developer: Hudson Soft
Publisher: Tetris Online
Date Released: October 20, 2008 (USA)
Players: 1-4
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Alongside Pac-Man and the original Super Mario Bros., Tetris is one of those games that if you've ever played a video games, you've likely played it. It started its fame on the original, monochromatic Game Boy. And since then the Russian puzzler has been on pretty much every PC, handheld, console, cell-phone, and other electronic device to date. It's the most famous of puzzle games and the simplest to learn: try to make lines with various shapes. Tetris Party is finally available on WiiWare. Is another Tetris game worth the money? Or are you better sticking with the excellent Game Boy and Nintendo DS versions?

If you buy the game solely for the core Tetris experience. You won't be disappointed. Marathon mode is intact. It's the basic Tetris mode where you clear away lines by matching up seven different shapes, called Tetrominoes, into complete lines. The goal of Marathon mode is to clear 150 lines, thus ending your game and recording your record. But if you turn on Endless, you'll keep playing, regardless of how many lines clear, until you lose. Every 10 lines, the speed increases, making the game more difficult every minute.

Making the game easier is the ghost of each Tetrominoes, a outline that shows exactly where the piece would go directly below it. This can be turned off, for the Tetris purists out there. Holding pieces is another gimmick that cannot be turned off. I found it quite useful, and used it whenever I couldn't find a good place for a piece. But if you're a Tetris purist this can unfortunately not be turned off. If all other modes disappoint you, this one's is a definite winner and my most played.


Along with Marathon mode come three other single-player modes: Field Climber, Shadow, and Stage Racer. The first, Field Climber, was my favorite and an ingenius variation on Tetris. Instead of clearing lines, it's your goal to build a staircase for a little man to climb. This little man can only climb a single block at a time and must collect all the flags in the level before making it to the top of the stage. Normal Tetris rules apply, so if you make a complete line or build over the top boundary, expect some nasty results.

As for Shadow, this mode is another fun variation on Tetris. The goal of each level is to fill in the shaded gray area to form some sort of picture (be it an apple, hamburger, or smiley face). Again, normal Tetris rules apply here, so if you accidentally make a complete line, you could screw up your picture. You can hold up to 10 pieces in this mode, and going out of the lines results in a lesser percentile at the end of each level.

The final mode is Stage Racer. In Stage Racer you control a single Tetris piece down a tunnel. You have to watch out for blocks that stick out to trap your piece. And when you get caught in certain situations you'll have to rotate the piece the right way to get out. Later levels get pretty difficult, but out of the three newest modes, this was the most lacking in my opinion.

Also included in Tetris Party is Beginners Tetris. A simplified version of Tetris with bigger blocks and a smaller playing field. While definitely for little kids, it can provide some challenge by cranking up the speed. And please note that since I don't have a Balance Board, I didn't get to try out any of the Balance Board modes and options.


As far as local multiplayer goes, there's a lot to do here. All single player modes, Marathon (dubbed VS Tetris here), Stage Racer, Shadow, and Field Climber can be done in Multiplayer. Plus there's several new modes titled Hot Lines, Duel Spaces, and Co-op Tetris. Hot Lines has you clearing certain lines on the grid before opponents. While Duel Spaces has you trying to enclose more space than opponents. The third mode, Co-op Tetris, is just that: cooperative Tetris. This one's really fun as you have to work together to get the best effect. All the modes are pretty addictive in multiplayer and will have you hooked for hours to come. There's a reason the game is called Tetris Party.

While local multiplayer is awesome. That can't exactly be said for the online multiplayer. Here you can play with either one or five other player(s) in a regular VS Tetris match. That's determined by whether you opt to have items or not. No items? 2-player online. Items? 6-player online. The mode is still fun and records your wins/losses in the same way as Mario Kart Wii and Dr. Mario Online Rx, with 5000 points that either increases or decreases by how much you lose or win by. While it's fun and all, so much more could have been done here.


Tetris Party's graphics are minimalist. The backgrounds are cool and the gameplay is colorful enough for a puzzler, but the menus are pretty boring. With only primary and secondary colors and little tabs for each option, the menus won't impress much. The music is good as always. And that addicting Music A is still in there!

There's supposedly 18 different modes throughout the game, and they'll all keep you entertained for a while. While a lot of Tetris games include modes that are unnecessary and boring. Almost all of Tetris Party's modes (except Beginners Tetris, but that's more of a tutorial than anything), are fun and lengthy, at least for a puzzle game.

Overall Thoughts

Whether you've come looking for the basic Tetris Marathon mode, local multiplayer, or new Tetris modes, you'll be satisfied. While the graphics may be simplistic and the online lacking, Tetris Party's local play is excellent. This WiiWare title is a must-buy for Tetris fans, puzzle fans, or someone looking for some good Tetris fun, single- or multiplayer, online or off.

Gameplay: 9/10 All the normal Tetris options are here, along with some other great single- and multiplayer modes.

Graphics: 6.5/10 The menus are simple and bland, while the backgrounds and gameplay is a bit better and more visually appealing.

Sound: 8.5/10 Some addicting tunes complimented by nice rotate, drop, and cleared line sound effects.

Lasting Value: 8.5/10 All the modes and extras boil down to quite a bit of long lasting fun.

8/10

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...

Wario Land: Shake It (Wii) review

Developer: Good Feel
Publisher: Nintendo
Date Released: September 22, 2008 (USA)
Players: 1
Genre: Platform
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

2D platformers have become a rare thing today. They're usually limited to either downloadable services like XBLA and WiiWare (Braid, Mega Man 9, etc.) or handheld systems like the DS (New Super Mario Bros., etc.). Wario Land: Shake It! breaks that mold by appearing both on a home console, the Wii, and in retail form. Some people may be turned off by a $50 2D platformer in this day and age. Read on to find out if Wario's latest outing is worth it.

The story of Wario Land: Shake It! is very short, spanning about two 5-minute cutscenes, one at the beginning of the game, the other at the end. It's very Mario-like with it's simplistic nature and simply being there to have a reason for Wario to get to the end of each level. In the game, there's this distant land (located in a globe) named Yuretopia. It's been invated by a pirate known as the Shake King. He imprisioned the Queen of Yuretopia, Merelda, and her loyal subjects, the Merfles. He also took the legendary Bottomless Coin Sack, a bag that, when shaken, will spit out endless amounts of coins. Captain Syrup and a Merfle come to Wario and urge him to free the land from the Shake King. Uniterested, Wario is about to shoo them away when he hears of the Botttomless Coin Sack and his greed takes over.


Yuretopia is split into levels, just like almost every other 2D platforming game. The goal of each level is to get to the end, rescue the Merfle, then make it back to the beginning under a time limit. You control Wario with the Wii remote held sideways. As you'd expect the D-pad moves him, 2 is to jump, and 1 is to make a dash, which can break certain items and defeat certain enemies. The game controls wonderfully and the different moves of Wario are tight and responsive.

As the "Shake It!" subtitle implies, a few motion controls are thrown in, here and there, but they're most aren't overdone. I say "most" as the basic motion, shaking, is a bit overused. Basically whenever you obtain a bag or get a hold of a stunned enemy, you waggle (I know, it's a horrible word) the remote to gain massive amounts of coins or items. Though it's kind of cool, for the most part, the shaking is a bit overdone. The other uses of the motion controls are much more subtle and enjoyable in my opinion. You use the accelerometer in the Wii's remote to tilt and control submarines, carts balancing on a single wheel, and the direction of fire for cannons. To expand on the cannon shooting, imagine this. Yoshi's Island's aiming, just instead of a cursor moving up and down, the cursor is controlled by how much or how little you tilt the Wii remote. It's an awesome concept that works very well in the game.


The game is broken into five continents, each holding four regular levels, several hidden stages, and a boss battle. The regular stages are pretty easy, and I'll be surprised if you have any trouble with those. The hidden stages are unlocked by finding special maps through out the regular stages. These are definitely a bit more challenging, plus you have to find the map to unloack them first. The bosses really range in difficulty. The first two are so easy, it'd probably take most people two, if not less, trues to defeat them. But from there, the difficulty really ramps up a considerable amount. Both the fifth boss and the final boss are pretty damn difficult.

That being said, other than the last several boss battles, Wario Land: Shake It! is an easy game. You'll fly through most levels without meeting a Game Over screen. And the ones you do will probably be because of some mission (like collecting all the coins in the stage, which I'll get to later) and you run out of time instead of you running out of lives. This is one of the game's main faults, as you'll cruise through most of the main game easily.


One of the high points of the game is replay value. Most gamers will rip through the game in five to eight hours easily. But in no way does the game end there. There is so much bonus content to do in each level. Other than completing each level and unlocking every hidden level, there are three hidden treasures to find in each level. These will test your skills as a gamer, as they're usually hidden in some way or another. Other than that, there's also missions which are somewhat like Xbox Live Achievements. Each level comes with three to six missions that make you do certain things within each level. Every level will come with simple tasks like get back to portal within 2 minutes or collect 30,000 coins. But then there's others like jump on three enemies in a row, don't lose a life throughout the stage, or detonate all the bombs throughout the stage. In Wario Land: Shake It!, it's a long and hard road to get that 100% completion.

Another of the bad aspects of the game is originality. Besides the few motion controlled segments of the game, the Shake It! doesn't really do much to innovate the age old genre. But is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. Why fix what isn't broken? Despite that fact it would've been nice to see some new things in the 2D platforming, the game's still a blast to play. Plus, it has a visual style that's really unique and definitely differs it from platformers found on the Virtual Console.

Wario Land: Shake It!'s graphics are beautiful. They're all gorgeously hand-drawn. Everything, from the characters and enemies to environments and cutscenes look exactly like classic hand-drawn cartoons (the ones before computers and Macromedia Flash). Production I.G. really outdid themselves with this one. On the music side of things, the soundtrack is pretty nice and you'll never tire from Wario's grunts and exclamations.

Overall Thoughts

While Wario Land: Shake It! doesn't do much for the genre and its core game isn't all that long, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't have some fun with the game. The motion controls are used nicely, albeit the shaking in some parts. The hidden depth of game, and the flat out amazing visual style make this one heck of a game and definitely worth your purchase.

Gameplay: 8/10 True 2D platforming. It may not innovate much, but the motion controls are used nice (most of the time) and the level design is top-notch.

Graphics: 9/10 Gorgeous, hand drawn animation is to be found here. Everything from the characters to the environments are beautifully stylized.

Sound: 8/10 The Wario sounds are amusing and the music is actually pretty nice.

Lasting Value: 9/10 A long game? The main game? Not so much. But where the depth really is, is in all the hidden treasures, levels, and missions through out the game.

8/10

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...

World of Goo (WiiWare) review

Developer: 2D Boy
Publisher: N/A (Independent)
Date Released: October 13, 2008 (USA)
Players: 1-2
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

World of Goo is one of those games that's great for services like WiiWare, XBLA, and PSN. It was made by a two man team (later three, but mainly two people worked on it). It's a simple, compelling concept that can be priced lower than retail games for the sake of download. But is it all that great? I'll break it to you know, the answer is "YES!", but read on to find out exactly why...

Each level has you picking up various balls of goo, connecting them to each other, and constructing large structures. You must build these towers/bridges/etc. towards a pipe located somewhere in the level. The goal is to have a certain amount of goo left over to beat the level. It's a really cool idea that started as a simple physics simulation titled Tower of Goo (which is actually featured as a level somewhere in the game).


Besides the basic concept, there are quite a few things to mix of the gameplay so that each level feels fresh and new. Other than the basic, dark-gray goo that is used to build solid structures, there are a variety of goo types to use. For example there's the green goo which can be reused by detaching it whenever you need more. There are also goo that can stick to things, that can't be destroyed, that inflates into balloons, and that can be lit on fire (usually to ignite something).

Each level will have obstacles in the way and not to mention gravity. The physics in the game are pretty good and you'll find that you need to balance out towers and build supports on bridges to be successful. It may be frustrating at times, nothing really beats the thrill of your tower started to tip, only to have you even out the goo and save it. Other than gravity a variety of spikes, fire, and rotating gears will ensure the road to the finish is challenging.

You'll be amazed at how much fun the game is. And for good reason, each level will delight, amaze, and challenge you. Plus almost nothing is done twice, and if it is, there's still so much fun to be had. The level design is top-notch. You'll be building a simple tower up the the pipe way up at the top, hoping to god your tower doesn't tip in one level and in the next you'll be building a bridge over to the other side, attaching balloons along the way. Some of the stages are super-wacky and have you almost think abstract. The gameplay in World of Goo is some of the best fun I've had in a while.

The difficulty is pretty nice in the game. It's starts out fairly easy and with each level it gets a bit more challenging. The last three levels of the last world are super hard and I still haven't beaten them myself.


I can barely find anything wrong with World of Goo, it's just a great game. But there are several things I do need to mention. First off when playing with separate goo types, it's hard to pick a certain one. The only way to have done this easier would be to assign different goo balls to different buttons but it'd make the game more cluttered and complicated. Also with the green goos, which could be taken off of existing structures and reused, I found that sometimes when trying to pick an unused goo ball, I'd of pull one already solid and the structure would crumble. And finally, though it's more a matter of what isn't there than what is, where's the level editor? The PC version gets it, why not us WiiWare people? The game would be perfect for one and 2D Boy really missed that one.

The story of World of Goo really needs to be mentioned. It's wacky and creative. I won't ruin anything for you, but expect some little twists and turns involving the "goo balls" and their quest to find a greater meaning of their life. The signs that litter different levels from "the Sign Painter" are both humorous and philosophical, plus they expand the story a bit too.

World of Goo is a fairly long game; I clocked around seven to ten hours in the game. A notable feature is the ability to skip levels and come back to them later. A feature I used on occasion. The game is broken into four worlds and an epilogue. Each world has around ten or so levels in it (and four levels in the epilogue). In each level there is also a higher goal titled OCD that will bring back the hardcore fans. These require something like 40 goo balls or to complete the level in 10 moves.


Other than the basic game, there is a metagame called World of Goo Corporation. All the extra goo you collect goes here. With that goo you try to build the biggest tower. It's somewhat like a game that's also a leaderboard. Once you get high enough, clouds will appear. In them are stats of other players with towers similar in height to yours. The clouds tell you what country the people are from and how many goo balls they used to build their tower. It's a cool little distraction within the overall game.

World of Goo's style is exceptional. The crisp, colorful graphics are great. The almost Dr. Seuss style works very well with the game. The music is also notable. It's funky in some levels and serene and beautiful in the next. Definitely don't put your TV on Mute while playing this WiiWare game.

EDIT: As a reader mentioned to me, the style is more Tim Burton that Dr. Seuss, though there'sa bit of Seuss's style in there too. Thought I'd make that clear.

Overall Thoughts

World of Goo is one of the best games I've played this year and a great WiiWare title overall. With enough content and fun to be priced as a full retail (or slightly lower), World of Goo is a must-have. It tops downloadable favorites of mine in both style and presentation. Though it has very minor flaws, the $15 game is well worth the Wii Points.

10/10

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below... Still can't decide whether or not to purchase it... (though as I've said, the answer is yes) check out 2D Boy's PC demo here.