The post Machinarium Review appeared first on Gamestyle.

Starting life as an iOS game, Neko Entertainment has given Kung Fu Rabbit a few alterations to make it more suitable for the Wii U. The most obvious of these is that in app purchases have been replaced by in game collectible currency in the form of carrots. The carrots can then be used to buy upgrades and new equipment to help you in your quest. The resolution has also been upgraded and the controls changed to make everything that little bit better.

The game is set out into around sixty small levels, with further bonus levels unlocked as you progress. The aim of each stage is not only to reach the captured rabbit at the end, but also to collect the three normal and one giant carrot found in each area. This starts out simply enough but soon requires real skill to achieve.

When you die you have to restart the stage from scratch and any carrots collected will need to be picked up again. This creates a nice risk/reward scenario where you will be always weighing up if you really need that last carrot right at the end of the stage.

Dying is also fairly easy. Enemies patrol the levels and will kill you with one touch. They can be taken out by our fearless rabbit, but each enemy needs to be approached in the correct way to despatch them. Attacks are carried out automatically and mistiming your approach will often end with the bad guy coming out on top.

Aside from the enemies there are numerous pits, spikes and toxic substances around to stop you as well. All this means you need quick reflexes and strong platforming skills to win the day. The main ability (aside from jumping), that our hero has is the ability to stick to walls and then hop up them. Using this technique is vital when trying to time your leaps properly. It also gives players time to assess the situation and plot their journey through the multitude of moving traps. When you complete the three worlds, even harder remix versions of the levels are unlocked to further test your skill and sanity.

Levels get more difficult quickly so you will need all the skills you have available. New dangers and obstacles are introduced every few levels and precise timing becomes more and more important as you progress. If things do become tough then you can take a trip to the dojo in order to stock up on items to help you. Items such as claws, extra chances and even an easier difficulty are available. You can also get new costumes for your rabbit and items to help reveal hidden passages.

Aside from the instant deaths, Kung Fu Rabbit is a beautifully cheerful game. The music sets a nice oriental mood (although one or two of the tunes could do with not looping quite so quickly).  The look of the game is also striking in a minimalist way. Graphics are clear and colourful and create a pretty, oriental, look throughout most of the levels. The design is simple but highly effective and it creates a focused style that works well.

Overall, Kung Fu Rabbit is a bit of a surprise. We didn’t expect much from it at first glance but this is a really good effort from the development team. Controls are intuitive and slick, and the game world is bright and charming. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable platform game that really deserves attention from Wii U owners and it looks great on the gamepad as well.

The post Kung Fu Rabbit Review appeared first on Gamestyle.

This is certainly one of the more unique collaborations to have happened. The game basically takes the story elements from the Persona team and adds in a fighting game developed by the makers of Blazblu. The music, art style and voice acting will be familiar to Persona fans and it certainly sets the scene very well.

The story is set a few months after the events of Persona 4 (and several years after Persona 3), and has our hero returning to Inaba to visit his friends. Upon arrival it soon transpires that something isn’t right, a feeling that’s confirmed when the midnight channel bursts into life once more to show all the main protagonists as targets for a strange new tournament.

From then on our team decide to dive into the world inside the television once more and soon become locked into a battle against each other. It’s fair to say that as plots go it’s completely crazy. It makes the plot of the original Persona 4 look positively normal and realistic in comparison. But it’s best not to think too much about it and just go along for the ride.

Along with the main playable cast from Persona 4 there are also a couple of the investigation team from Persona 3 and some new ones thrown in for good measure. The thematic choices in storyline and design of the boss character may ring a few bells with Blazblu fans and it has Arc Systems personality stamped all over it. That isn’t to say characters from Blazblu are copied over to here – far from it in fact, but there are certain times you can see the core of a Taokaka or Nu 13 spread across a couple of the characters move sets.

A fighting game lives and dies on its combat system and Persona 4 Arena has one unlike any we have come across before. Arc Systems have not created a Persona 4 version of Blazblu and have instead tried to produce something that fits the characters and game world more completely.

Along with the usual super and special moves there are a fair few unique things to look out for. Attacks are designed around the four face buttons with the square and X buttons making your character perform light and heavy attacks. The interesting part of the system comes with the triangle and circle buttons. These are used to summon your persona to attack. If carried out carefully and precisely it’s possible for both your character and their persona to hit at the same time. This opens up the possibilities for big combos if executed successfully.

It’s also possible to disable an opponent persona by striking them. Do this enough and they will need to recharge before being used again. This gives a major advantage to the attacking player as it effectively cuts your opponents move list in half.

The combat system is deep and will take a very long time to master. It is also not really comparable to other fighting game systems which means for hard core fight fans you are going to need to re-wire your brain to think in a new way in order to get the correct flow and timing. Luckily there is an extensive tutorial and challenge mode available to get you used to the new characters and the way the game works.

Hitting the square button continuously while your special bar is filled carries out an auto combo that leads into a super move. This may well be aimed at getting more casual players involved but it doesn’t really serve much of a purpose and can certainly end up being overused.

Something else that may need levelling out in an update is the ‘awakened’ mode that characters drop into when they fall below a certain amount of health. In our experience, both against the computer and other humans, this proved to be far too powerful. Opponents who simply weren’t in the contest suddenly managed to destroy our health bars, sometimes within seconds of awakening. We are all for leveling things up but we hate to think how this could be used by someone who had put hours into training.

The other thing that seemed to be slightly off was the games focus on trapping characters against walls. Again, whether playing against the computer or a human it seemed far too easy to be forced against the edge of the screen and simply be spammed over and over by the same cheap move (even the computer does this). The ability to attack as two separate characters often seemed to leave no way out.

We’re sure with training all these points can be counteracted but new comers to the genre may well be put off by the high entry level required to progress. That said, is Persona 4 Arena really the type of game that anyone other than a hard-core fan might buy? You could argue it isn’t. But then we can envisage a fair few RPG fans picking it up, maybe not that familiar with other fighting games, and being roundly ground into the dirt by it.

This frustration is also compounded by the fact the standard PS3 pad doesn’t seem to be up to the input requirement needed. An arcade stick works fine but this is certainly the most precise input we have come across in any console fighting game. When a Street Fighter veteran can’t pull off a double fireball input every time you know something is a little off. Again, this may well be worked out in a patch but for now perfect precision is key.

Negatives aside, there is much to like about this. The story mode in particular captures much the same feeling as that of the original Persona 4. The story itself is interesting and told in a dedicated story mode where players will take control of each of the characters as the mystery unfolds.

There has also clearly been a lot of care and attention into making this game feel a part of the Persona universe. All of the characters remain true to types and act in the way fans will expect. The presentation and art style is also of the highest of standards and ticks the boxes for both bringing up nostalgic memories of the original source material and excitement about seeing it used in a new way.

The game does throw up some truly spectacular battles as well. When you find a character you’re comfortable with and get to grips with the game system it really does open up into a veritable wealth of different attacking options. It certainly isn’t lacking in flashy special moves either and at times things can become a blur of sparks and colour as characters and personas smash around on screen.

This game will find fans with both Persona 4 players and gamers who spend their days mastering combos in Street Fighter, Blazblu and King of the Fighters. The fight engine is solid and the game is filled with charm. Be prepared to have to put the hours in though, this is a game that needs to be mastered in order to get the most out of it.

8/10

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The concept of Nun Attack is from your usual Sunday School Bible reading. Rougue Nun has a legion of demons and it is up to your own team of nuns to stop her and save the world. Well maybe not typical Sunday School stuff, but this is much better and much more likely to keep kids interested.

Nun Attack is essentially an action game that sees you battle various enemies on a series of single screen environments. You move between levels via a map that sees you navigate in a kind of reverse tower defense style, as you try and reach the portal for each new level, while fending off attacks from the sides.

The controls for the main battles are essentially a slide your finger to shoot mecahanic, making Nun Attack a game designed for the touch screen, which makes sense seeing as it was originally an Android game. The mechanics work really well and from the very opening level everything is fairly intuitive. Dragging you finger from a Nun to an area of the screen will see them move to the selected area. Drawing a line from Nun to enemy will see them unleash hell upon the selected baddie.

Each Nun has their own unique skills as part of the team. Eva is an all rounder who can create duplicates of herself to fool the enemy and gain an attacking advantage. Rosy is great for long range attacks, Olga is a big girl and can take a lot of damage, whilst also being effective at close range and Mandy, who is one of God’s healers, meaning she can heal the other Nuns, but the pay off is that she cannot deal much damage.

The skill is using the right combination of moves at the right time, balancing attacking and moving. Each Nun has a set of skills that benefits them, figuring out which to use and when seems easy at first, but as you progress you’ll find you need to really think about how you approach each level. It adds a lot of challenge to the game and keeps the repetitive nature from becoming too much to handle.

As is common with games of this type, you can level up and upgrade your team’s individual abilities, which is dependent on how well you complete the levels already played. Downed enemies will drop coins and you will need to tap the coins on the screen to collect them. Collected coins can then be spent in the upgrade menus. Basically, the better you do, the more you collect, the quicker you can upgrade, the easier the further levels become.

What really stands out is the game’s visual style. Graphics a wonderfully clear and crisp and the characters have been given a lot of life, with bright visuals with a cartoon styling. The game uses a lot of humour throughout and works well in tandem with the graphical style.

Nun Attack is available for a bargain price of £1.99 via the Playstation Store and for the price, you will be in for one hell of treat. A game that feels at home on smart phones has been perfectly ported to the PS Vita. Pick this up, enjoy it and confess your sins later.

The post Nunn Attack Review appeared first on Gamestyle.

Those who do happen to come across the his game though will be in for a bit of a treat, as Black Rock Shooter is a fun JRPG with plenty of action.

Whilst its influences come from an existing franchise there is nothing to worry about in terms of missing chunks of the story. Despite taking place in the same universe the various versions of Black Rock Shooter are all standalone stories, whether it be the Magna, Anime, or in this case the game.

The story for Black Rock Shooter: The Game is set in a post-apocalyptic world (we know, but keep with us), 19 years after an alien invasion has destroyed the world and humanity is all but defeated. The game’s heroine BSR is awoken from a slumber and thrust into the fight to save the human’s existence.

A lot of the story is told via communications between BSR and the various individuals who ally with her along the way. You may have seen the style this is done with before is you have played a certain Konami Stealth Em Up. It may be a direct influence, but it matters not as it does a job and drives the story forward. A story that whilst not amazing, does enough to keep your attention throughout, which is always a bonus.

Gameplay mixes traditional RPG elements with more section orientated battle sections. Enemies are encountered throughout the various levels, much in the way they are in a game like Persona, however once a battle is entered you lose the turn-based style of other games and instead find yourself in a real-time environment.

Armed initially with your gun, you will battle enemies with an analogue aiming system that has more in common with a third person shooter mixed with a touch of Ace Combat aiming. It is something that works really well from the moment you first go into battle, with the system being fairly intuitive. There are some moments of frustration with a lock on system, but you soon get used to it. As the game progresses BRS will unlock various new skills and find that she can level up areas of her arsenal. It is an RPG after all, so it is to be expected.

Rather than one long trek driven by a story, Black Rock Shooter is split into arena style levels that each have a bit of a briefing before each one. You’ll then navigate through and essentially take on and clear all the enemies. It nothing groundbreaking, but it does a good job of allowing gamers to play longer or shortened sessions, just as you would ideally want on a handheld game of this type.

This is of course a PSP game, so don’t expect huge;y impressing visuals native to the Vita. In saying that however, aside from a few low-res textures, Black Rock Shooter does look very nice scaled to the Vita screen and doesn’t suffer being a game designed originally for the PSP. Others do look better, but there a plenty that look a hell of a lot worse.

Black Rock Shooter’s main problem isn’t going to be with its graphics or gameplay. The main issues come from just what it is, a niche franchise, for a (now) dead system, released digitally only in a bit of a stealth manner. What you are looking at here is a game that should sell through word of mouth, picked up on the off chance, or by definite fans of the franchise.

There is a lot of fun to be had and it is a game that Gamestyle will happily pick up and play during those times between large Vita releases. It isn’t as long as some of the more established RPG titles out there, but in terms of value for money it does hit the spot. We urge you to take a chance on Black Rock Shooter.

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Originally released in 2009 as Draw Slasher: Dark Ninja vs Pirate Monkey Zombies on iOS the idea is that players use the touchscreen to slice and dice the various enemies on the screen. It is a game that was designed to fit the iPhone due to the lack of button control and did a fine job of keeping the action fast and frantic, but without being cumbersome and awkward. The move to Vita isn’t a risky one as such, but having buttons on the console means many people are wary of touch only control.

It matters not with Draw Slasher, as the game was designed from the ground up with touch control in mind, so using buttons just wouldn’t suit. To be totally honest too, having AAA titles and a barrage of Indies is wonderful, but having these quick pick up and play style games is also very welcome, as there are some excellent iOS and Android titles that the Vita is missing.

Draw Slasher is a very simple game to play, with levels that get increasingly difficult to play, but also continue to feel rewarding. The main mode is Story, that is told in different chapters, using this mechanic to essentially stop the game becoming overly repetitive, which due to the nature of the gameplay, is something that can easily happen. It is handled very well here and as said a welcome change to just trying to beat a highscore on the same level all the time.

Although levels are set in a single screen, they aren’t confined to simply the area of the screen. Players can move left and right to scroll across each level as they fight to decapitate and slice up the enemies. They will come from the background, from the left or right, singularly or in groups. Some will easily be dispatched, others will take a few more slicing motions to kill and bosses will take yet more effort.

There are a few issues with the touch controls though. Moving from left to right is a simple tap on where you want to move, which is fine, but to jump through the air requires a motion that is almost identical to the motion you need to make to attack an enemy. It doesn’t particularly ruin anything, but when the action gets even more frantic you can find yourself almost swiping away in hope rather than tactically.

That said, it is a great way to grab a bit of short term entertainment, especially when you add in the other modes such as challenge, which has some set rules that you have to beat. Beating a combo target to earn one, two or three flames (note the change from stars). These add some nice longevity to the game and to get three flames on every challenge does require a fair amount of repeat play.

Draw Slasher isn’t a system seller, but it doesn’t claim to be. What it is though is the sort of game that the system needs, quick pick up games that made iOS as successful as it is today. At £3.99 it does seem expensive when compared to the 69p types on iOS, but you will easily get more than your money’s worth.

The post Draw Slasher Review appeared first on Gamestyle.

After his exploits in the previous BIT.TRIP games Commander Video is back to running in everyone’s favourite retro themed series. To try and describe the madness of the plot is somewhat pointless but we can say it’s something to do with our hero crashing his spaceship in a strange place and then deciding to run a lot.

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Let’s Fish! Hooked On from SIMS Co tries to recreate the fun that was to be had with the Dreamcast game. What we have here is an arcade fishing game that adds a story mode to drive the game forward. It has some nice ideas, but fails to deliver on the whole.

First off, what made SEGA Bass Fishing so good, was the use of the fishing rod that came with it, using this really drew you into the game. What Lets Fish! tries to do is recreate that sense of involvement by moving the action from just a series of button presses and using the Vita’s touch screen abilities.

The problem here is that this doesn’t quite feel intuitive enough. The layout is fine and the on screen prompts are clear, yet something just feels a little off, the game plays a lot better using the optional button controls. You can react quicker and the inputs feel a lot more reactive than the touch screen.

The game plays out much how you’d expect, you cast your line aiming to the general area you want, then using a power gauge you work out your cast length and accuracy. You dangle and tease your bait under the water until you get a bit, then enter a series of Quick Time Events as you attempt to reel your fish in. You need to reel it in, while keeping your catch on the line as well as making sure the line tension doesn’t go too far and end up snapping.

It has been a formula tried and tested many time previously and as said the touch controls offer nothing ground breaking, keeping you playing with the buttons instead. The other area the development team to to make Let’s Fish! stand out is the story mode progression. You pick your character and essentially the idea is to take them to the number one fisherman in the world. Players are presented with a calendar of events from which they can enter, each varying in difficulty.

Each event has a series of objective, which range from simply winning the tournament with the biggest haul, or meeting challenge criteria which help the player level up. All fairly standard stuff, but it is well presented and does a decent job of moving players through the game. Again it isn’t groundbreaking and just gets the job done.

There is a tutorial included, but it simply just takes you through the control system. It fails to explain the different baits and where they are useful. Nor does it tell you why you should do certain things once your line is cast. There is almost a view here that people are playing this and that they have come in from a fishing background. Not explaining what different baits will attract different fish is a major oversight. There isn’t even a library or compendium of the different types of fish.

That being said, it isn’t a bad game, once you feel your way around for a while, you do start to work out the little quirks and what you should be using, where you should be using things and what effect it will have on your ability to catch fish. The World Tour mode is fairly meaty and there is a lot of variation to the locations (well as much as you can get with lakes) and the moments you catch a fish are rewarding.

The Anime style cut-scenes work really well and is the real standout part of the game. Nothing new again, but the stories are well presented and have moments of humour that work really well. It is a nice attempt to break up the game and stop it becoming repetitive and monotonous. We are not talking Persona 4 levels of story telling here, but better than some attempts.

Let’s Fish! Hooked On is simply an average game, one that you will go back to once in a while, but not one that you will seek out to play. It is a game that does the basics well enough, but could have done with more time engaging the player. It is by no means a game you should avoid, but neither is it one that you should rush and download.

The post Let’s Fish! Hooked On Review appeared first on Gamestyle.

Wired Productions are bringing eJay back under the name eJay Pure and have a Kickstarter in place to get the project off the ground.

One of the best things about the original releases, was that anyone was able to pick it up and try their hand at making music. With the eJay coming to iOS and Android Wired Productions hope that bringing this package to a whole new audience could help uncover some talent that people never knew they had.

eJay Pure will be free for everyone to download and enjoy. You will get the full eJay experience from the first moment. If you enjoy what you create, you will be able to further your experience by purchasing additional features and buying many thousands of samples which will be constantly created.

eJay Pure is being developed from the ground up for touch screens so that the user interface is intuitive and the experience is fast and seamless.

Wired have been working on eJay Pure for 9 months, and have completed pre-production, technology tests, R&D, and have even started making some of the cutting edge samples that defined the eJay experience.

If you know about eJay products, you’ll know what is coming. Anyone that has had an eJay experience remembers it fondly. These products were fun, innovative and probably had a huge impact on your life! If you don’t, then you are in for a treat. A productive app, that has all the feel good elements that will have you shouting from the roof tops.

You can find their Kickstarter page here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wiredproductions/ejay-pure

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