Somewhere there’s a table, and on it are all the mechanics and systems of kart racing games. Joy Ride Turbo isn’t necessarily a kart racing game (there are no karts in it) but it definitely owes its existence to Mario Kart et al.

Two. Yes, just two sentences before the inevitable mention of Mario Kart. If you guessed that then come and collect your no-prize.

You see, it’s impossible to review Joy Ride Turbo without mentioning Mario Kart because everything in the game has its origins there. Short cuts, drifting, jump stunts, boosting, weapons, the championship structure, Joy Ride Turbo has hardly any original ideas of its own.

The “short cuts” are the biggest problem, because they’re short cuts in name alone; in practice they’re just alternative routes through tracks. They’ve been designed in such a way that navigating them takes exactly the same amount of time as just following the track would do, but yet they still retain that element of increased difficulty that all good short cuts contain. So all the risk, but with none of the reward. This means it won’t take long until the player just doesn’t bother with the short cuts at all and sticks to the track. There are hidden “car parts” on each track and the short cuts seem designed to hide these and nothing more; once the hidden item is found there’s no need to go back.

Then when you begin experimenting with the driving mechanics, it becomes apparent that they don’t really work either. There are two main systems, and both are used to build your boost bar, which can be activated with B (on a controller!) for a very short, well, boost. Of speed.

The first way to build it is by drifting, but drifts are very slow and cause you to take corners at such odd angles that the time you lose drifting is never made up for by the amount of boost you can earn. So it won’t take long before the player doesn’t bother with drifting, either. The second way to increase boost is jump stunts. When airborne, these are performed by holding either of the analogue sticks which spin and flip the car. The more stunts you do, the more boost you build. Jumping opportunities are usually found off-track in those short cuts, and the time spent in the air is often so slow that the boost you earn… well you can you see where this is going. Players will soon be ignoring any opportunity for jump stunts other than those that come in the normal course of the track.

The problem, then, is perhaps that despite its appearances and despite its mechanics, Joy Ride Turbo can’t be played like a kart racing game at all. In order to have the most success, players need to stay on track as much as possible and they need to ignore the temptation to build their boost bar. This means what you’re left with is not much more than a traditional racing game wearing the clothes of a kart racer.

And weapons.

Even if you’ve never played Joy Ride Turbo, you could still work out half the weapons in the game. Turbo? Check. Fake item box? Check. Shield? Check. Blue shell? Check. It’s not a blue shell, of course, but it certainly targets the leader, which is fine if you’re using it, but really annoying if you’re the leader. All the usual suspects are present and correct and it’s really these weapons which keep Joy Ride Turbo in the kart racing genre.

The Sir Mix-a-lot fans among you might be able to sense that there’s a `but` coming (or should that be `butt?) .

Joy Ride Turbo isn’t really a very good kart racer, but it is still a fun racing game regardless of all its faults. If you don’t try to play it as a kart racer, then the handling model makes the game very playable. Cars can handle quite erratically, but that’s no bad thing. It means that they’re always entertaining to drive, and you can never zone out because heading off track makes it very easy to lose control. Accept the game for what it is and there’s no reason why you can’t get a lot of enjoyment from its ten tracks and two stunt parks, especially when playing with friends.

The stunt parks are huge open areas, each full of ramps and half-pipes and hidden passages. They’re also full of trophies which hang in the air out in the open and you must work out how to collect them. Some of them are very well placed, requiring insane jumps from miles away and it’s almost a puzzle in of itself about how to reach them. Finally collecting one of these is very satisfying. Also present are crates full of “car parts,” and these are equally hard to obtain but as well as that, they’re often quite well hidden. More of these parks as DLC in the future would be very welcome indeed because the exploration aspect is unlike any other racing game.

These car parts must be collected in order to unlock the 40+ vehicles in the game. Each requires three parts to unlock, and then a number of coins to purchase. Coins are collected by winning championships, and the championships are split into different classes; 100, 200 and 300HP – this almost feels very familiar, for some reason. Who knows why. The same vehicles are usable in each class, though the later classes are faster and more difficult, of course. The AI is fairly stupid, unfortunately, so “more difficult” never actually means “difficult.”

Somewhere there’s a table, and on it are all the mechanics and systems of kart racing games. Joy Ride Turbo has waltzed up to the table but it’s forgotten to bring anything with it. Still, that’s not necessarily bad and for a service that’s been lacking a fun kart racer for seven years it’s almost welcome to have something try so hard to be traditional.

While it makes a whole load of missteps along the way it still manages to be enjoyable and, as with any kart racer, it can really shine in multiplayer.

Here we are again – it’s reached that time of the month when we take a look at our picks for the best content from the other members of the Character Select Network from the last thirty or so days.

We won’t waste your time with waffle, you can find our selections below – happy readings!

Binary Domain Review

Joshua Garrity reviews Sega latest release, the western flavored sci-fi shooter with more robots and guns than you could shake a stick at.

Binary Domain does have its share of flaws, and a lot of its more unique ideas don’t really amount to much. Yet when it comes down to the basic fundamentals of what makes a third person shooter worth while this game really shines. And all that is wrapped up in a sense of style and characterisation you don’t get from most third person shooters.

 

Cane & Rinse podcast Episode 30: Eternal Darkness

Meanwhile, over on their podcast, the Cane and Rinse team take a look at seminal Gamecube title Eternal Darkness – arguably Silicon Knights finest moment.

In 2002 Silicon Knights produced this GameCube exclusive survival horror yarn. Leon, Tony, Karl and Darren Gargette return to the Roivas mansion to discover whether or not this Lovecraft infused adventure remains as startling as it was ten years ago.

Silent Hill: Downpour Review

Loz Masters takes a look at the latest entry in the Silent Hill series to see if it can resurrect its former fortunes or if it’s just a damp squib…

When you visit the same town over and over again, its hard to get still get wowed by anything it has to offer. Doing it in game has the exact same effect unless some real overhauling is done. The residents are weaker, the enemies are less original, and the attempts at making you feel isolated and vulnerable often just make you a little frustrated.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Review

While Dan Bendon takes a look of the updated console release of the Witcher 2 for Xbox 360.

The question of morality is also tackled in a more mature way, throughout the game you will be given choices that, even though you are well informed about the situation, will not be clearly defined as good or bad. Often it is just a choice that will lead to events playing out in a particular way that could not have been predicted one way or the other.

There’s always been a plethora of gore-laden titles for gamers to satisfy their blood-lust. From the modern granddaddy of them all God of War, with its man-child for a main character, through to the more refined and cerebral approach of Dark Souls, these titles push the right buttons for those looking for some hack and slash action. And now Climax Studios throw their own blood-soaked axe into the fray in the shape of their new Xbox Live Arcade release, Bloodforge.

Looking to take its inspiration from Celtic folklore, Bloodforge is your classic tale of loss, revenge and redemption, with lots and lots of red stuff spilt along the way. Make no bones about it, this is a game that positively revels in the macabre but crucially keeps its tongue firmly in its cheek, lest it become too po-faced and laughable.

The player controls Crom, a warrior who has wearied of the slog of battle and yearns for the simple life with his wife. What she thinks about him walking around wearing an animal skull is never discovered because she is brutally murdered. Full of loathing and loss Crom finds himself guided (or should that be manipulated…?) by Morrigan the witch who points him towards the target of his anger; the god Arawn. Thus starts a journey for vengeance that spans six or so hours.

The look of Bloodforge is slightly desaturated, giving it a distinctive, otherworldly feel that highlights the gore when the blood spilling begins. It creates a vivid contrast to the onscreen action, but crucially it works really well. It’s a pity that the locations don’t vary as much and, as the game progresses, it becomes apparent that it’s merely a case of reskinning areas. There’s no getting away from the fact that it becomes all too familiar.

The action itself is as expected for the genre, so anyone familiar with the likes of God of War or Ninja Gaiden will feel instantly at home. There’s a certain heft and crudity to how Crom moves, as he bounds from one area to another. There’s none of the swish acrobatics of a Kratos or a Ryu Hayabusa on display here, but that’s OK because Bloodforge seems determined to portray its characters as it sees fit, looking to pay homage to the genre but not trying to force round pegs into square holes for the sake of it. That’s not to say that Crom is a static target – he can duck and roll with the best of them, but it’s more about positioning him in such a way that he takes advantage of his surroundings when looking to strike the decisive blow.

Each area is littered with enemies to hack, slash and generally maim in new and interesting ways. The developers said they wanted to cater for everyone from button mashers to those looking for a more refined combat experience and it can be easy to spam mid to high level attacks if the player is so incline. But scratch beneath the surface and there is indeed a robust set of moves with which to guide Crom on his quest to drain every last drop of blood from the lands he traverses. This all adds up to a feeling of satisfaction in controlling him, learning the basics and progressing onto the more complex move sets, combining and executing them with relish.

Normally all this limb separating and bloodletting would amount to nothing more than a grim satisfaction at being more adept with a sword than your enemy, but each drop is absorbed into a gauntlet that Crom wears which can be offered up as sacrifice at temples dotted around the landscape, helping to extend the life bar and abilities at his disposal. Other buffs are also present, for example Cairns are dotted around the landscape along with Mana Shrines that offer up the ability to charge up Crom’s Rune Attacks.

After the main campaign ends, there is the additional challenge mode to contend with. This user-generated content (for example a succession of enemies) seems designed to inject a bit of competition between friends. It may not be unique but it’s a nice diversion, even if it won’t be something that’ll seal the deal in terms of actually causing people to buy Bloodforge.

It might not reinvent the genre but Bloodforge does provide a tasty slice of hack and slash, allowing the player to check their brain at the door if they so wish and mutilate and eviscerate at their leisure. If the requisite friends can be coerced into picking it up as well, the excellent player challenges will provide longevity long after Crom has satiated his thirst for revenge.

There’s a fun thing you can try at home with your new copy of Trials Evolution. Play it for a few hours, fight through the frustration at how much you suck, then go back to the tracks at the start and gaze in wonder at how much your times improve. Then, hand the controller to someone new to Trials. Watch them play it, see their frustration at how much they suck – that used to be you.

All of this is to say that Trials is a difficult, frustrating game to get to grips with at first. It was the case in HD and it’s the case here too. You don’t notice yourself getting better, but every obstacle that takes 200 attempts to get over for the first time subconsciously implants some muscle memory into your brain. Next time you’ll pass it in 100. You’ll still be fairly certain you’re rubbish and, well, you will be, but then you’ll pass it in 50, 15, and soon you’ll be getting over it on the first attempt and wasting 200 faults on something else. It’s a game you get as much from as you’re willing to put in; there really is nothing more satisfying than completing a track with zero faults after a first attempt required 489, and that feeling is more than worth the effort.

The above could just as easily apply to Trials HD as it does to Evolution, and that’s because RedLynx haven’t tinkered with things that didn’t need to be tinkered with. Curved driving lines have been added and while these sometimes pose problems in that it’s slightly unpredictable where the bike is going to land, or whether a piece of scenery is part of the track, the issue disappears once the tracks are learned. Ultimately the only thing an experienced HD player will need to get used to is using slower bikes at the beginning of the game.

While Evolution can read save files from HD and offers rewards to those that have played it, including those few that managed to unlock the Marathon achievement, it doesn’t unlock any of the career. It doesn’t even offer the chance to go for Platinum medals until much later in the game, when the Extreme tracks are unlocked. This makes the first few hours feel like slow-going to those that have played HD but for everyone joining the series here, the structure is a godsend.

If you are joining the series here, by the way, Trials is essentially a 2D-platform game in which you control a man on a motorbike, using left and right to lean and RT/LT to accelerate/brake. Using just these controls, you must ride over a bunch of obstacles to reach the end of a course as quickly as possible. Well, with that covered…

The career is structured slightly differently now. While progress is still achieved by earning medals in Beginner, Easy, Medium, Hard and Extreme tracks, there are now license tests littered between them. To move on to the Hard tracks, for example, the player will first have to obtain their “A” license by passing a short course which teaches them how to bunny hop, and how to land on steep inclines – two skills essential for those harder tracks. They can be passed in under a minute for the experienced, but for beginners they’re invaluable.

All over, Evolution is more accommodating to beginners, and the difficulty is pitched slightly lower than it was previously. Extreme poses as much of a challenge as ever, but even an average player should make it through Hard without too much struggle. This would have been a criticism were it not for the new track sharing service the game includes.

Tracks are uploaded to Track Central where they’re sorted into Trials events, Supercross events and Skill Games. These can then be browsed either by the newest additions or by looking at the top rated tracks and downloaded almost instantly. Each track comes with its own leaderboard and while medals earned don’t count towards the career total, playing the tracks feels every bit like part of the experience. If the wealth and quality of content produced in Trials HD’s editor is reproduced here, then the top rated tracks could soon be a better go-to point than even the career mode itself, and will certainly provide any challenge that a player feels the game lacks.

The editor is more powerful than ever, so powerful in fact that it required 32 videos on YouTube just to cover the basics. It’s certainly daunting but even for those that just want to dabble, there’s a Lite editor which will allow tracks to be made in minutes.

There are two other additions to Trials Evolution, both centered on the social aspect. The game has always done leaderboards well and now includes a stat card that shows things such as restarts, how long you’ve played for, and how many times you’ve crashed. You can also compare your stat card to your friends’ and fight over little icons, such as who among you has been playing the most.

The other addition is multiplayer. It’s not as fleshed out as the career, offering the chance to play Trials events against ghosts in real-time, or far more exciting Supercross events. In these, four players race alongside each other over a number of heats to see who can make it to the finish first. Points are deducted for faults, and for taking too long once the winner has crossed the line, and the winner at the end is he or she with the most points. It’s a different way to play a familiar game, but ultimately it feels quite light and isn’t likely to replace leaderboard competition as the main thrust of the game.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There was much that was perfect in Trials HD, and things like bike physics have been left well alone for the sequel. Where improvements were needed they’ve been made, and the game is more welcoming to beginners as a result. Truly the greatest addition though is its track sharing service which promises a literally endless supply of new tracks – it’s everything you loved about Trials but now it lasts forever, and all they want is 1200 Microsoft Points?

Just don’t let anyone see your gameplay timer.

It’s important to point out that Fez is a title that comes with a little more coverage and anticipation then most Arcade titles, having been awarded many plaudits and high praise even before its release. It is, at its most basic level, a platform puzzler set in a expansive world that encourages you to seek out items. In turn these items allow you to open up previously inaccessible areas and locations.

You are Gomez, living a quiet and happy life in a bright 2D world. One morning you receive a package in the mail that summons you to the top of the village to meet one of its residents.
What happens next both bestows Gomez with a powerful magical artifact that shows a world so much larger then all he has known before, but also allows that world to come under threat.

That artifact is a Fez hat. It allows the wearer to see into the Third Dimension and sets the rules for the adventure to follow, separating it out from other games of its genre with an inventive new twist on the gameplay.

To say the game plays out in a 3D world would only be partly true. Although built in 3D from exclusively cube based structures, Gomez is still only 2D so you can now navigate in the 3D world using the rules of 2D platformer. Rotate the view of the world and you’ll find the layout changes in front of your eyes.

The way things are rotated and viewed dictates how they work. At the most basic level this means if something is too far away to jump to, then rotating the world might bring it closer and open up a new path. This is a simplistic, but deceptively deep play mechanic to build a game around.

Rotating the world allows for a new basis in level progression and puzzle solving, a foundation on which to build a complex world filled with ever more challenging problems and solutions. Each new location discovered is filled with freedom of experimentation that sometimes allows for multiple solutions. Tricks of the eye are implemented in such a way that their effect on the environment can actually be a rewarding revelation, one that helps to feed the thrill of discovery and the delight over a discovered solution. You’re challenged by what’s in front of you but not frustrated; a difficult thing to pull off, but Fez manages it perfectly.

Eventually new means to play around with this rotation mechanic are introduced, from gears and timed pistons that turn objects in the world create new paths, to bombs that blow open holes in walls to allow progress.

What’s most impressive is just how smooth things are when transitioning between different views. One moment you could be standing on the middle of a level and the instant you turn the world  you’re now on the corner of another. The game is also very forgiving – yes, you might attempt a leap when you think you’ve found the correct path of progression and tumble to your doom, but you’re always planted back in place, no harm done. There’s no lives or any sign of a derivative sidekick to berate you.

One of the things that you’ll take away from your time in Fez is just how meticulously designed the whole experience is. There’s a clear artistic vision here and even an argument that there’s a deep thought experiment going on. At several points in the game you are deliberately and cleverly taken out of Gomez’s world and given the option to use things in the real world to progress. The game is filled with fun `nudge-winks` to the player as if to say, “we know it’s just a game, let’s have fun”. These are mostly tied around the discovery of the games second collectable, the anti-cube.

Noted for being harder to find then normal cubes, these are used to play with the fourth wall to great effect. Look in the Achievements and you’ll find one simply called `Achievement Unlocked`. The only way to unlock this anti-cube is the act of doing something connected, but also separate, from the games main activities. Not everyone will be interested in Achievements and so some will discover it much later than others, but to those who look at Achievement lists in games, there’s the developers saying “Hey! Look here! Have this…”.

Fez is certainly all about the joy of discovery in the game world and that’s a theme it also wants you to apply in the real one. Via hidden messages posted on its walls and using our understanding of how we look at things in life, it brings with it a brilliant and entertaining way to interact with the game beyond a controller or camera. It rewards you for trying things you might not have thought of, by itself doing things that haven’t been attempted before.

Another example of this delicate and deliberate design is in the world layout. The game’s 3D world map is built from little windows onto each location. At first it feels daunting and a confused mess of cubes and lines that would take forever to dissect. However, it’s easy to adapt to and becomes an exceedingly useful tool in locating places you have yet to go, and things you have yet to find. It’s impressive that the concept of world map design could not only be re-constructed so completely, but actually work to aid progress. For a game as expansive (in literally every direction) as Fez ends up, it’s frankly a necessity. You can freely rotate and move around this screen looking for clues and items – although it’s not quite perfect, sometimes it’s fiddly to move through unlocked locations and depending on the angle you’re viewing you can end up looking at a different areas than you had planned.

Another small issue lies with the games load times. Constructed from dozens of small locations, for the most part there’s very little issue with moving between each section, though over time there can be the ever increasing issues of loading. Some times this can just be a slight juddering to the visual transition between stages, other times it can actually slow down the game in a new area for a few moments. This isn’t game breaking but can cause some issues in the early navigation of a level. You might attempt the first jump in an area, only to suddenly slow down and miss a well timed landing. This doesn’t last for more than a few moments and is only occasional, but there have  been reports of some areas taking a little while to load or popping out and re-loading a moment after. We didn’t see this happen more than once during our time with the game, but a patch to fix this issue is also apparently in the works as we speak.

The highlight of the Fez experience is the world in which you are free to explore in; each door leads to a new place that’s utterly charming and alive, filled with history both a written and organic form that’s striking in its believability. From the small cube rooms that contain secrets or messages from the characters who dwell within, to new larger locations visible in the distance and full of potential adventure. Each place in which you arrive is lovingly detailed with vibrantly animated creatures, even down to having worms and caterpillars, all of it is beautifully and painstakingly animated. Just walking around any of the locations you stumble across is a joy and something that you would want to take in for as long as possible – if it weren’t for the new lands in the distance beckoning you on.

The soundtrack also helps sell the world, filling it with strongly haunting, deeply beautiful and naturalistic ambient sounds and tunes. Jungles feel moist and alive; a rain covered graveyard feels dread-filled and creepy and the sewer system echoic and muted.

You’ll likely finish your first journey through Fez without seeing everything. There are plenty of mysteries and the compulsion to return is strong. It’s also brilliant at giving you that motivation to come back, not only through the addition of New Game+ but in presenting a world you’ll never get tired of exploring and playing with.

Fez presents those who enter it with one of the most deeply heart warming and endlessly creative puzzle platformers ever crafted. Each moment is filled with a feeling joy, of being endlessly rewarding and utterly compelling. That’s before you’ve seen one of the (you must me warned here) most insane art house pre-credit sequences ever constructed. Really, you have been warned!

After such a long wait, it’s something of a relief that Fez earns all the gushing positivity its managed to garner before now, with the sheer quality of its experience. It all culminates in a deeply creative, challenging and joyous gameplay experience from start to finish and is well worth anyone’s time.

The Splatters is a physics-based puzzler, and comes complete with all the problems that someone familiar with the genre will expect.

You control the suicidal Splatters as they attempt to rid the world of bombs by, well, blowing them up willy-nilly. It’s probably not an accepted form of bomb defusal but when you’re a blob of goo, you don’t really have much else at your disposal. Thus the Splatters fling themselves at walls and explode into a gooey liquid and any of this goo that comes into contact with a bomb blows it up. Clear all the bombs in a level and the world is saved. Actual safety of the world cannot be guaranteed. The Splatters are colour coded (a colour-blind mode is present) and – you can see where this is going – will only be able to activate bombs of the same colour. Once all the bombs are gone, or the Splatters run out, the level ends, or the player is forced to restart.

The player will need to get used to restarting.

In a way, the gameplay begins in a similar fashion to Worms. You select the Splatter you wish to launch, aim with the left stick and then press A to fire. As soon as it hits a wall or some spikes it will explode into goo and rain down on whatever’s below it – hopefully some bombs. The Splatters have a number of other moves in their repertoire to keep things interesting. These stunts build the combo meter and performing them quickly is the key to massive scores. Pressing A in mid-air allows the direction to be changed, while pressing it again turns the Splatter into a missile which explodes with greater force on impact. Pressing LT changes a Splatter’s momentum, so if they were sliding right they instead slide left and this can be the key to success in many levels, though the results are often unpredictable.

This unpredictable nature courses through The Splatters and is an issue with any physics-based puzzle game. Although here it gets to the point where solving levels comes down almost entirely to luck beyond the games half way point. You can make a small amount of your own luck with a good shot but that will only take you so far. Once the bombs are bouncing around the landscape and goo is raining down, there’s very little to do but hope for the best. Sometimes all the bombs will disappear. Sometimes one will be left over. Sometimes they’ll be missed almost entirely. There’s no visible reason why something works one time but doesn’t the next – a tiny fraction of a second difference in the press of a button makes a massive difference to the outcome and is almost completely out of the control of the player.

This is certainly not a problem unique to The Splatters, but the game feels far more random in the way things bounce and slide around than other physics-puzzlers. In Peggle, which this game borrows from in places, a shot can be repeated twice with identical results should the player desire. The same can’t be said here.

Beyond a set of tutorial levels, there are two different modes in the game, based around similar mechanics. The first, Combo Nation, is simply about building combos and high scores. Levels are split into a few stages played one after the other and the combo carries across from stage to stage. When a stage is failed it can be restarted, though the combo is reset to zero. Reaching the final stage in a level with a combo in place and then missing out through little fault of your own is incredibly frustrating, as the effect it has on your final score can easily run into tens of millions. These points are the difference between a two-star or three-star rating and going for that third star means starting the level again, repeating stage after already completed stage and hoping for more luck this time.

Master Shots is more of a puzzle mode, requiring the player to destroy all the bombs with a single Splatter, while performing a number of specific stunts. Usually there will be one solution to these levels as the terrain will have to be used efficiently to collect all the bombs in one place before attempting to cover them in your goo (which, apparently, is what ‘she’ said). Working out a solution in this mode is fun, performing it is not, with the random-feeling nature of the physics letting this mode down most of all due to the precision it requires.

The problem isn’t that The Splatters is a bad game. It starts off very well, the levels are simple and the player has a perfect level of control to deal with everything on screen; it’s a game that leaves a very positive first impression. Unfortunately, when the going starts to get tough those once perfect controls start to feel inadequate, and the player is forced to perform the same solution over and over again until they get the lucky bounce they needed to complete the level.

The title retains a fun element of puzzle-solving throughout, but it simply isn’t satisfying to carry those solutions out once the difficulty ramps up.

April’s come crashing down on our heads like the seasonal showers… well, unless you’re in the parts of the UK which are suffering a hose pipe ban… anyway, terrible analogies and rambling intro’s to one side, another month means it’s once again time for us to take a look at what we think is the best content from our other partners in the Character Select Network.

So wrap your eye holes around the following:-

Going Silver

Darren Gargette toys with the perils of dropping your Gold Xbox Live Subscription down to Silver…

After about a weeks worth of a Goldlessness I am beginning to see the benefits of remaining a paid-up member but only really to those who buy and play videogames on Xbox 360. With a capable PC and the upcoming release of Blizzard’s Diablo III I don’t really feel the need to.

There are however some cracking XBLA titles on the way and if the multi-player turns out to be a riot for Trials Evolution then maybe I’ll resurface for the months I want to pay.

Quick Rinse: The Darkness

Meanwhile, to tie in with their fantastic podcast about the gory Darkness games, Leon Cox has a good sit down with the first game

PlayStation Vita: The Verdict

Over on Gamerdork, Delb2K takes a lengthy look at the Sony’s new endevour, the PlayStation Vita

From a useability perspective the unit is incredibly impressive, from the touchscreen to the physical inputs on the front of the console everything has been cleverly designed to provide a real sense of quality that is actually backed up when the device is used. What is less successful is the OS implemented.

Bit.Trip.Complete Review

Sarah-Lou Costley takes a look at Gaijin Games disc based released of their WiiWare titles, which we had a real soft spot for here at Console Arcade

To add to the excitement of the highly addictive yet excruciatingly hard games are the smattering of extras available. The collection gives you a further 20 levels per game, a free soundtrack of 18 songs and plenty of videos and artwork which can be unlocked. You also get an online leaderboard so you can see how well you do against your friends.

Sine Mora Review

We loved Sine Mora here at Console Arcade, and so did Danny Russell over at Ready Up

Sine Mora has more content and wow factor than any shoot ‘em up of late. There is plenty here for casual onlookers seeking a wild ride and a harsh but not completely unforgiving challenge, while enthusiasts of the genre have a meaty amount of content to hone their skills to. It’s clear that the arrangement between Digital Reality and Grasshopper Manufacture in terms of planning and developing has worked wonders here and everything has slotted together perfectly.

Hello there! Are you from the past? Would you like to be able to revisit those lost years? When games were simple and built in a way that’s different from today, for better or for worse? Well, Wheels of Destruction allows you to do just that, constructed as it is from antiquated design ideas that now feel out of place and bland.

Wheels of Destruction is, as you may guess from the name, an arena based car combat game. Picture a sort of budget price Twisted Metal, but mix in a bad take on the Warthog sections from Halo and the design and narrative from Dreamcast classic Trickstyle (a game that felt dated even back in the day). Then you’ll begin to get an idea of what to expect.

It’s an entirely multiplayer game with options for playing online in the standard ranked and unranked modes. There’s just three match types to pick from, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag. Having trouble in finding a game online? Well, you can also play offline by yourself against bots. These can also be used also in online multiplayer but really defeat the point of playing online at all.

That’s because their AI is exceptionally simplistic and overly aggressive. Some matches can just a case of every other car hunting you down relentlessly, with no variation between how each one behaves, or mindlessly sitting in one area shooting at random. Solo player games against bots end up feel unfair and lacking imagination, while team games lumber you with worthless opponents and worthless teammates. For solo play offline or even a training option, they’re sorely lacking to say the least.

No matter what mode you pick, even if your fortunate enough to find a good game with or without players, the game is so utterly awkward that playing with any competence is a fluke. The control scheme is the sole problem here, working out as a mix between a racer and an FPS, it’s made terrible use of the buttons on offer. Much like the aforementioned Warthog in Halo, the cars turn and move based on where the reticule faces. While this is OK as long as you’re moving forward, if you become stuck in a corner and need to turn you’ll find reversing a clunky experience. Instead of turning left to twist your car right (like in a racer) you have to point the other way.

It’s a simple issue that, after a little while, can be worked around and even adapted to, but it’s enough in the first matches to sour your experience. It’ll always bother you too, if you happen to play any other car based game at all and then come back to this, you’ll instantly have problems again.

It’s easy to see why the game is like this, allowing for free aiming of the selection of weapons on offer. You’ll find yourself starting out with a machine gun with infinite ammo but can pick up a rocket launcher, flamethrower and plasma weapon. The missile launcher is the only weapon that gets used though, as it’s overly effective and ends fights in seconds.

The second control issue comes in the management and deploying of your weapons. While R2 is your accelerator and L2 your brake, R1 is you primary weapon button. Yes that’s right, R1, which is right next to acceleration, is used for attack. On top of that every weapon has a special attack mapped to, you guessed it, L1.

This requires you to shape your hand into a highly uncomfortable claw like shape on both sides to enable full access to the necessary controls. If the game had been on the Xbox 360, the pad might have been better suited, but the closeness of the four shoulder buttons on this PS3 exclusive make it too much of a strain on your hands over an extended time.

The arenas on offer are based on real world areas, not that you could really tell. Apparently the game is set in a post apocalyptic future and everything has been laid to waste. At least that’s the best excuse that the team seems to have come up with for the bland and confused level design.

So far the only level even close to recognisable is London; we can only ascertain this from the inclusion of the Big Ben clock in the level. Which has apparently been relocated to a cave underground and then surrounded with acid… No buildings or other recognisable markings. It’s just the clock face.

Exactly what the level designers were thinking during the design stage boggles the mind. If you were to ask anyone, anyone at all, what they pictured of a future London after an apocalypse, they could not in their wildest dreams have come up with this.

It’s not even that the level layout is interesting, since many sections are just filled with greys of different tones. Often levels are sprawling and without direction. You might find yourself battling eleven opponents and not seeing any of them for extended sections of time, thanks to badly thought out respawn points and level design.

Let’s not forget the soundtrack either, seemingly looted from older dance-centric game soundtracks of the 90’s. Almost all the music in the game is terrible. At best you could call the musical quality what you might expect if you went to a junkyard rave, should such a thing exist. Actually it may be the one element of the game that’s quite fitting, conjuring up images of junk as you play this garbage pile of a game.

That’s the overall thing about Wheels of Destruction; nearly every aspect of the game is frustrating. Unlike the games it’s modeled on, it lacks even the most basic charm to pull you through. The smallest parts feel boring or outright annoying. Every play is filled with little issues that chip away at the intended fun. Every moment feels like one you could have spent doing something else.

With that in mind, do yourself a favor and give this a wide berth.

There’s a simple truth when it comes to Strategy titles on Xbox Live Arcade and that’s Defense Grid is the benchmark on which all titles are judged such is the quality, breadth of content and sheer unadulterated fun that it offers. So when a pretender to the crown surfaces it needs to be prepared to offer something different to even come close to the quality of that particular title. 11 bit Studios feel confident they have something special with their release, Anomaly: Warzone Earth.

Their take on the genre sees the player in command of a near future squad of vehicles, sent to investigate a comet that has landed on Earth. But the question that Anomaly: Warzone Earth asks the player is both strange and rhetorical all at the same time; What would happen if this comet contained aliens that have crash landed in Baghdad (of all places)? It has to rank as one of the more unique settings for a game ever, but that is merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of where it takes the story as it twists and turns, eventually relocating to Japan in the run up to its thrilling climax.

That the game’s narrative ends up as compelling as it is, acts as a testament to 11 bit and what feels like determination not to fall victim to the usual video game storytelling tropes. While it’ll never win any awards, it engages and is a pleasurable experience which, for a change, doesn’t cause the player to reach for the button to skip ahead.

The action itself , set across fourteen levels in the main campaign, is a departure from how most Strategy titles play out in that the player guides their troops along a series of configurable paths while taking out Alien emplacements, with only direct control over the commander avatar who orchestrates the path of the vehicles in the convoy. The initial class choices of an APC, Crawler, Tank and Shield soon evolve to include the fearsome Dragon, a slow moving colossus that spouts plasma on nearby enemies, or the ever handy Supply truck, which absorbs energy from fallen enemies and converts them into abilities to add to the stock the commander carries around. Each and every one of these units can be upgraded, but the convoy is limited to six, meaning its makeup is of paramount importance. Thankfully there is the ability to sell units if a particular configuration isn’t working.

Being a noticeable moving target makes it difficult to survive for long, so there are additional abilities which provide much needed help, or distraction, depending on what is chosen. Repair does exactly what you expect it to, while smoke can distract enemies for a short period of time. Decoy is invaluable as it will cause all enemies within a given area to concentrate their fire on this until destroyed. Finally Airstrike will drop a bomb which does a fine job of devastating enemies in a given area, but is by no means a win button. Careful use of all options available to the player is required for success.

Actually plotting a course through enemy territory instead of predicting and placing units can take a bit of getting used to, needing to strike the right balance between offensive and defensive postures, especially when each successive enemy dispatched results in a care package drop from friendly Stealth Bombers. While it might sound as if it plays itself, keeping careful track of the health of the convoy and plotting on the fly course changes to a given route can prove to be a slippery process. Having to be on alert at all times is a prerequisite for victory, requiring full concentration. The rewards of medals for combat and ruthless efficiency at the end of each mission just adds the cherry to the cake, encouraging the player to always aim for the Gold standard.

When the main campaign is finished, there are Tactical Trials to contend with. Taking the vector graphic look of the tactical map used in the main campaign, these little slices of action require the player to clear all alien towers in an area or, in this reviewers particular favorite, take part in an ever-changing set of events which involve protecting a VIP in the convoy or finding the fastest path through an area set against a timer which is constantly counting down. While it still might be a dirty word to some, there’s the feeling that this is a game that would benefit from Downloadable Content in future to help add more value to the package. Because the premise is so strong, it almost screams out for the concept to be continued.

There’s something about Anomaly: Warzone Earth that sticks in the mind long after it’s been switched off. New and more elegant paths that should’ve been chosen, or perhaps challenges that could approached in a more efficient manner come to mind, which is always a sign of a good game.

While it might not take Defense Grid’s considerable crown, it certainly ranks alongside it in the quality stakes and is highly recommended.

The new game from Tequila Works for XBLA looks like it out does Shadow Complex and also decides to take a pot shot at Limbo.

It’s currently still scheduled for release during the summer of 2012.

After a false start last week where it never appeared, this week XBLA users can finally download Pinball Arcade for 800 Points.

How will it stack up against the almight Pinball Fx2? Only time will tell, but it’s already off to a good start with a stack of classic tables such as Tales of the Arabian Nights, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Theatre of Magic, and Black Hole.

Also out today is Kinect enabled Diabolical Pitch from Grasshopper Manufacture, also priced at 800 Points.

And don’t forget this week’s XBLA deals which include:-

King of Fighters 98 – 400 Points
King of Fighters 2002 – 500 Points
King of Fighters Sky Stage – 400 Points
Metal Slug 3 – 400 Points
Metal Slug XX – 600 Points
Trouble Witches NEO! – 400 Points

Two new notable releases this week on PSN (for both sides of the Atlantic too).

First up is Ubisoft’s survival title I Am Alive, fresh from it’s rather brief stint of exclusivity on Xbox Live Arcade. You can read our review of the title by clicking here to see if it’s worth your cash.

Also out is car combat title Wheels of Destruction – we haven’t reviewed that one just yet, but stayed tuned for a full review very soon.

Also it’s worth noting that Canabalt, the popular iOS game is also out on the Minis for download and well worth a look for the couple of pounds it will cost you.