It has been a smidge over a week since I arrived in China. In that short space of time I’ve seen a lot, eaten a lot, and breathed a lot of foggy air.

From what I’ve discovered so far, the Chinese gaming scene appears entirely restricted to online games. As I’ve yet to see a single video game shop, or even a store that stocks video games.

Amazingly, even the big brand retailers don’t stock games…

Wal-Mart China, 0 Video Games.
Best Buy China, 0 Video Games.
Toys-R-Us China, 0 Video Games.

I have no idea what the hell is going on. I’ve found myself down so many back-streets, gone to far too many shopping malls, and I literally haven’t seen a single video game for sale. If anyone has been to Shanghai, and knows where to track down one of these fabled video games shops, I would be much obliged if you could give me some directions.

The closest I’ve come to trying my hand at gaming was at a really shady Mahjong club in an old part of Shanghai, which is pretty much the highlight of this, my first China Gaming Adventure post.

Before I start explaining what I was doing in a shady back-alley Mahjong Club, and for those who haven’t read my forum posts, I arrived in China early December from a lovely place known as Australia. The primary reason I traveled here was for my girlfriend’s (Stella) brother’s wedding, although my hidden agenda was to spend the entire holiday hunting for unique games.

I’m currently living in the Songjiang district of Shanghai with my girlfriend’s family, about a 2-hour subway trip to the centre of Shanghai.

Me unimpressed by the fog (photo taken from family’s apartment).

Stella showing off the fog in Songjiang, Subway Station hidden somewhere in the fog.

On my 6th day in China, with the brother’s wedding finally over, I felt comfortable to travel into the city to try and discover China’s hidden gaming treasures. So we boarded a pleasant bus outside of Stella’s family’s apartment, heading towards the nearest subway station. The bus paved its way through all the major sections of Songjiang before finally arriving at the subway, I was hoping I would see a video game shop on this rather long bus journey… but alas, it was not to be.

The subway ride into Shanghai was pretty uneventful, with the exception of that, if you are western and you are busting to take a dump, Chinese Subway toilets are quite a different style to western toilets, no toilet paper and nothing to sit on, instead you need to squat.

My Camera’s flash ‘accidentally’ went off, I got a few weird looks when leaving the stall.

As you can see the toilet comes equipped with a hole in the floor, a toilet brush and a garbage bin. And, if you weren’t aware, in China, toilet paper isn’t provided free at toilets, instead you have to travel with your own paper handy. Fortunately for me, I didn’t need to ‘offload’ anything, but I felt honest pity for the western tourists who could find themselves in a rather shitty situation.

But I digress, the subway carriage became extremely packed as we came closer to the city centre (think Sardines in a can, but with a policeman trying to push an infinite amount more Sardines in). Luckily, since we boarded at the start of the line, we managed to score ourselves some prime seats, which made it somewhat easier to guard my belongings from the pesky pickpockets.

When we finally arrived in Shanghai City, we were greeted by Stella’s friend who picked us up from the station, and took us to her humble home located about a 20 minutes drive away from the city centre.

Stella was able to have an in-depth conversation with her friend, friend’s husband, and their parents, apparently I was the first white person that they had seen in their district (yay), so the entire family all wanted to be there, and to be the first to welcome me. Sadly, due to my lack of Mandarin speaking skills, I was paired up with the baby, whom I nicknamed ‘Dumbo’ because his ears were so insanely epic. The family was trying to get the baby to call me white uncle in Chinese (prounced bai shishu), although the baby, at nine months old, didn’t have much luck comprehending it.

After about an hour, the husband got a little bit bored with the banter, and went to his nearby computer to play a Chinese QQ version of Hearts. I was slightly elated, as it was my first sight of any video gaming in China – even if it was just hearts. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to ask if I could have a turn.

It was starting to get late and I was hungry, so Stella’s friend and husband decided to take us to a popular eating joint for foreigners, which apparently is normally packed with white folk. I happily went, hoping to be able to have a somewhat-intellectual conversation with someone other my girlfriend. We get to the restaurant. I get a little excited about having a conversation in English. But, alas, there wasn’t a single English speaking person to be seen. They figured it might have been because all the foreigners had gone back to their countries for Christmas… sucked, but the food was decent, except that damn chicken head looking at me from across my plate of fried rice.

Yep, that’s a chicken head nestled away in my fried lice. Why they would put a chicken head in my beef fried rice is extremely puzzling; my guess is that the staff wanted to see what reaction a foreigner would have to a chicken head. Surely they didn’t want me to eat it?

Yet after about the fifth time of Stella’s friends quizzing her regarding why I hadn’t touched my chicken head, I had a little nibble. The flavour wasn’t great, and it sure enough tasted like chicken, but it wasn’t for me. Although, compared to the pigs’ brains and ducks’ blood (yes, seriously), which I was eating earlier in the week, it wasn’t too bad.

After dinner, I was taken on a tour of the Shanghai nightclub scene; enjoyable, but alcohol at nightclubs is damn expensive here. The highlight of the evening was when we ended up at a nightclub where they had an African-American singer. From what I gathered, all the Chinese thought that it was a pretty big deal, and worth the exorbitant prices.

By the time we finished our nightclub crawl it was about 2am, and by then I was pretty damn tired and drunk. Stella’s friends (at her request) dropped us off at a seedy looking place called Motel168, where, as it’s name implies, you can stay the night for 168 yuan, which is close to $25 USD (very cheap for Shanghai).

Please excuse the bad photo join.

You pretty much get what you pay for: a junior size double bed, a bathroom with no door, and a strong cigarette odour wafting through the ventilation system.

The next day we did the usual touristy stuff around Shanghai (which I will leave for facebook). Towards the end of the day we were pretty trashed from having a poor night’s sleep, a hangover, and spending the day non-stop walking. Hence, we decided to take Stella’s Mum up on her offer of picking us up and taking us home.

To get to the Mum ‘pick-up’ point, we had to catch a sardine bus, similar to the sardine subway mentioned previously. This time, I wasn’t lucky enough to get a seat. Now, I come from a relatively quiet island off Australia, known as Tasmania. Buses, when they are full in Tasmania, are still comfortable. This bus was the opposite; people were packed in so tight that their faces were pressed up against the window. It was highly uncomfortable, and I kept getting a feeling someone was trying to snag my wallet out of my pocket…. joy.

The bus trip took a good hour, and, oddly, it was heading away from Songjiang district (home). So, after an uncomfortable hour-long bus ride away from our target destination, we ended up in an almost slum area of Shanghai. I wanted to take a few photos, but Stella advised against it because she thought someone from the crowd would try to nab my camera (…seriously). It wasn’t a pretty place but this was where Stella’s Mum was waiting for us.

Last photo taken before being told not to use my camera (or it’ll be stolen)

After navigating the slum streets for half an hour, we found the place we were looking for: a run-down 10-story building with the number ‘9′ on it. This is where Stella’s mum was waiting for us. Well, not really waiting, she was there playing the popular gambling pastime of China: Mahjong. Upon entering the building, I honestly felt like I was walking into one of the slum buildings from Hollywood movies. You know the ones where they are riddled with druggies, very poor lighting, people hanging around at the doorways to their apartment, random rooms with loud music coming from them. Well, it was exactly like that; what I would call a slum, but apparently a good place to play Mahjong.

We took the stairs (the elevator wasn’t working, unsurprisingly) up to the fifth floor where Stella’s Mum was playing Mahjong in a tiny room with three other mature-aged Chinese ladies. The windows were all covered with paper, and there was a heavy fog from the excess smoking. In the corner of this room is where I spent a good two hours waiting for her to finish her Mahjong game so we could go home.

I got offered a seat at the table when one of the ladies was leaving, but since I have no idea how to play Mahjong, I declined. And that, as anti-climatic as it is, is the closest I have come to playing a game in China.

With the release of Batman: Arkham Asylum this week I couldn’t help but replay and revisit all the old Batman games in anticipation, although most of the Batman games are utter rubbish there are a few gems among them, and these are the top 6.

6. Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu – XBOX

Rise of Sin Tzu is a back to basics brawler and is very similar to the classic brawlers like Double Dragon. The main villain is Sin Tzu a never before seen character making his debut appearance in this game, although not to leave out the regulars, 3 villains from the comics make appearance as end level bosses, the Scarecrow, Bang and Clayface.

The playable roster is Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing and of course Batman, most feel very similar to play but they are great for cooperative play.

It’s a pretty decent game if all you are looking for is to mindlessly beat up thugs for a couple of hours.

5. Justice League Heroes – XBOX

Although this game is based around the ‘Justice League’ Batman is one of the primary characters.

Justice League Heroes was created by the same developers and on the same engine as the hack and slash game ‘Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance,’ thus it comes unsurprisingly that JLH plays like a Hack & Slash game, as you progress you can level up and gain new ability for your characters, although instead of item collecting they have replaced it with Jewel collecting as I guess it’s hard to imagine Batman wearing a + 1 Luck Ring *ahem* anyway the jewels can be used to augment your characters and improve the stats of your choice, there is a bit of depth to jewels but I wont go into it.

Batman sadly isn’t playable throughout the entire game, although whenever he is playable it’s great fun whooping out some Batman kick ass action.

4. Batman – NES

Batman, just Batman. No lengthy title was needed to sell this game, no gimmicks, no expensive cut scenes just pure Batman induced carnage.

Batman loosely follows the 1989 movie, the villain is the Joker and Batman is on a mission to lock him up.

It’s not a particularly great game by today’s standards and some of the stages difficulty are trauma inducingly hard, but I still love it for nostalgia’s sake and because it was the first Batman game I ever played.

3. Batman: Vengeance – XBOX

By far the best Batman 3D game to be released, the storyline is based in the Cartoon series continuity, Batman is the target of a conspiracy after being framed for attacking Commissioner Gordon. Now it’s up to Batman to figure out who is behind this before Gotham City is destroyed!

The graphics are very nicely done and almost look like they are taken straight out of the animated TV series, and the in game cinematics definitely give the feel the you are playing through a ‘feature-length’ episode.

The boss battles are great fun and are definitely the highlight of this game, street roaming is quite good although the first person sections let the game down a little.

2. The Adventures of Batman & Robin – SNES

My personal favourite 2D Batman game, ‘The Adventures of Batman & Robin’ is a side-scrolling action platformer, there is no overarching storyline in this game instead each level has its own storyline, setting and villains. Each stage is remarkably different to the previous and each feels like your playing through a different episode of the cartoon series.

The gameplay is where this game really shines, you can do the usual punch, kick and throw but you can also use the bat utility belt which comes with a plethora of equipment, including a grappling hook, stun grenades, night vision, flashlight, smoke bombs, grenades and Batarangs!

The levels are very varied going from a carnival to a museum, to even fighting on a chess board, each level is very detailed and is a blast to play through.

Fortunately for Robin haters his role is minor in the game, as he’ll just chip in occasionally to help you when you are in trouble. Nearly all the main villains from the series make an appearance including The Penguin, Clayface, Poison-Ivy, Two-Face, Catwoman, Scarecrow and of course no Batman game would be complete without the Joker.

1. The Obvious…

To quote Chris from Gamer Limit

Simply put, if you’re a Batman fan, and don’t have Arkham Asylum yet; save your allowance up, trade some games in, Goozex it: the bottom line is somehow, you need to buy this game. Action fans may be left wanting more, but for the studio’s first foray into the Batman franchise, it’s a solid title.

Read the full review here.

Really bored? Go outside. Really, really bored? Come play Tetoris.

As you can tell by the screenshot, it’s Tetris in a super-zoomed out playing field. It’s taken some gamers 34 hours to lose at Tetoris. Of course, you can pause the game whenever you’re un-bored and come back to it. Enjoy the “fun”!

Other uses for Tetoris:

• Seeing how dirty your screen is
• Alt-Tabbing to make it look like you’re “enriching your mind” with a puzzle game

Enjoy your racing games? Enjoy making tracks for your racing games? Enjoy Online gameplay with other 80 other people?

Trackmania Nations Forever is the game for you. I have played this fast paced racing game for over a year now and I am still not bored of it, this free game has a good balance of gameplay. Trackmania also gives you the choice to buy an upgrade known as Trackmania United Forever if the game takes your liking..

There are 2 parts of the game as i mentioned before, the racing and the track making.

The Racing

Upon registering your account you have the option to tell them your country and area, this allows you to have an official rank within the game. You can work on your rank by doing the premade tracks offline where you have certain times to beat.. On the other side of things there is the online play where clans/independent people create servers with their maps for you to play and compete with other players on the server. When i first got the game my main concern was with having so many players on one server you would have to avoid crashing into other players, i was wrong they use a ghost type system where you can see the players while acing but you can go through them, this in my opinion was the best way to do it.

The controls are very simple, all you need are your arrow keys and maybe 1,2,3 to change views. The car you use in Nations is a fine tuned F1 car it is the most responsive car in the United cars.

Track Making

My favorite part of the game is making tracks, Trackmania comes with a huge variety of track pieces which you can place anywhere on the stadium map. From ramps to boosts the dynamic track builder simply works, there is a way of connecting each type of track piece together. Among the track parts there are also scenery to add to your maps to make it more appealing or make it a part of a track, anything is possible.

Summary

Trackmania will provide you hours of fun for months on end not only competing with others but with yourself, i seriously recommend you try it out. As for purchasing Trackmania United Forever i think that decision is based on your needs of the game as there are plenty of thing on the free verison to do. I myself bought it and don’t really use most of the features apart from the 3D car skins.

Trackmania Homepage / Trackmania video

Jets N’ Guns is a fast-paced 2-D action side-scrolling shoot ‘em-up released in 2004 for the PC by RakeInGrass Software. It was later released for the MC OS X in ‘06.

The game play in Jets N’ Guns is, well, pretty much the same as any other game in the genre but still insanely fun. It has all the best things a shooter could possibly have, awesome music that really gets you into the action, great weapons and upgrades Your ship has space for bombs, missile’s, and three guns on the front and one on the back.

In-between each level you are given the option to buy new weapons or upgrade your previous weapons and equipment, the upgrades can increase the power of the weapon or they can increase the rate of fire or even the velocity, depending of course on the weapon. But you have to be careful when using the more powerful weapons because they can overheat rather quickly if you just hold down the fire button, which is a problem when you have to wait for it to cool down… cause it leaves you out in the open for anything to get you, although once you upgrade your cooling system it is much more tolerable.

The amount of enemies on each stage is truly astounding. There is always something to shoot at or drop bombs on. It gets specially gory when you start blasting away the little men around, who are either shooting at you from a platform in space, falling out of storage containers or, in some levels, flying around on rocket packs blasting away at you with lasers. It feels really good to shut them up with a nice big bomb.

To give you the gist of the storyline you start out in the game as a freelancer, hired to get rid of some space Bandit’s. Afterwards you get in contact with your old C.O. Colonel Troubleman (Yes, all of the names in this game are horribly cheesy) on the USS Impotence, who asks you to rescue the scientist Prof. Von Hamburger from the evil dictator Xoxx. From there on you begin to assault Xoxx’s forces over and over again.

The Graphics are nothing big. They’re what you would expect for a game like this, sometimes they become blocky and pixilated, but they do have their moments of being beautiful and crisp. From my experience the game had no lag or slowdowns from the large explosions or when there were a hundred little things going on onscreen which makes the game very impressive.

The control setup is pretty basic and nothing too amazing, basically use the arrow keys or the mouse to move around while cramming the space bar down to shoot. Again, nothing original but it is a tried and true control scheme, very responsive and its done very well.

The music, now here is where the good part starts. The soundtrack of this game was produced by Machinae Supremacy, a Swedish metal band. This is honestly one of the best fitting soundtracks to a 2-D shooter in my opinion and while sometimes the music is drowned out by whatever is going about on screen it is well worth the times when you can just bang your head to the games in the quiet parts of levels. The style of music is of course metal, fast and hard metal. Very well done and honestly the best aspect of this game.

Last but not least, the lastability of this game isn’t the best, Once you play through it and beat it you are able to start from the beginning of the game with all of your previously acquired goodies and money. The point of this is to collect four weapons to use in an ultimate combination. Unfortunately after you have acquired all of them then it is just the same thing over and over again.

If you want to try this game out for yourselves then the link for the demo is below!

Ever have those days at work where nothing went right, your boss was riding you about a certian project or deadline that was looming over your head? Did you just wish you could slam someones head into your computer? Well Whack-Your-Boss is there to help you get all of those frustration of a hard day on the job out in a more productive, less illegal way.

Whack-your-boss is a delightfully violent game aimed at helping you get out all of your frustrations. The goal is to find the 17 ways of taking out your superior as he is telling you that you’re not measuring up, you’re getting a pay cut, you need to completely redo your project without overtime and that there is only going to be one flavor of ice cream from now on(lol). All while he sits in his office and naps.

Of course you do not have to listen to the whole speech, once you find a suitable item, which is highlighted as your cursor moves over it, you can take out your anger and make him suffer. So if you fall into the category that I talked about above or you just want to play an insanely gory and funny game then i suggest you click the link below and let the blood bath begin!

A little tip: It’s the little things that matter!

Amberial is an interesting and challenging puzzle game that involves the player controlling a ball with their Directional buttons to get it from point A to point B.  But it isn’t as easy as it sounds…

The brilliant and original level design makes for quite a fun and sometimes frustrating game. It has all the classic feel of a retro puzzle game with a bit of platforming thrown in. The object of the game is to get the swirly yellow ball to the solid yellow ball, be it through bouncy off of platforms or launchpads and having to find switches that activate the goal ball.

There are twelve main levels to the cave in Amberial which increase in difficulty and skill as you advance, There are also three bonus levels that, to unlock, you must collect “Ace’s” throughout the other levels.

All in all this game is fun and will keep you busy for atleast an hour while you try to get a feeling for each level and what it takes to pass it.

Blast your way through the seemingly never ending army of the undead with “DeAnimator”.

Loosely based on the stories of H.P. Lovecraft, DeAnimator is a simple yet fun point and shoot flash game. Your mission is to send as many of the zombies back to the grave as you can using your revolver and shotgun before they overwhelm you and, well I’ll just leave it to you to find out what happens then. Make sure you keep the volume up for this game, it sets the mood perfectly!

So if you have a free night and are looking for some entertaining times, then click on the link below, plug in your headphones, crank up the volume and enjoy the zombie blasting action that is . . . *Que deep grizzly voice* DeAnimator.

Ah Jumpman. The classic title for the Commodore 64 gets an indie rehaul. In this game, you’ll find a simple solid platformer that uses some Echodrome camera flip techniques. It’s definately worth checking out.

There really isn’t a whole lot to say about Jumpman. It’s a pretty standard platformer that controls very loosely (think Meatboy: friction be damned). If you look at the image below, you’ll see future levels outside of the current level “ring” you’re in. Every ten minutes or so, Jumpman gives you a “new platforming concept”, keeping the gameplay fresh and exciting. Give it a try, it’s a free download!

Remember that demo level for Mirror’s Edge 2D? Well now the final build is out, and you can check out the link to the game after the jump.

Mirror’s Edge 2D is an independent project that takes the essence of the current-gen console releases of Mirror’s Edge, and distills it in browser form. There are 3 levels, time trial modes, and leaderboards. Be sure and find all the case-files to unlock an additional mode:Baddie Rush. Promised updates are confirmed, so keep running around Faith’s virtual (retro) metropolis in the months to come.