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Mar

Heavy Rain

Categories: Review
Tags: david cage, Heavy Rain, ps3, qte, quantic dream, story

In the world of game storytelling, coming up with a good concept is one thing – telling it well is the other. I’m a sucker for a good story, and Heavy Rain focuses on just that. After seeing David Cage talking about it at Eurogamer 2009, I was anxious to get hold of a copy when it came out just recently. I preordered to make sure, and it turned up a day before release – excellent. After a fairly lengthy install (in which the game actually teaches you a little origami, cool!) the game was ready to play. So I sat down, turned off the lights and dove in.

The game follows four main characters. Ethan Mars, perhaps the “lead” character, is a fairly regular guy who finds himself torn as his son goes missing, presumably taken by the notorious Origami Killer – a mystery character who kidnaps children, and then dumps the bodies 5 days later, unexplained. Ethan will do almost anything to get him back, leading to the game’s tagline – “How far would you go to save someone you love?“. It really is that – the more Ethan works toward saving his son from the Origami Killer, the more difficult his choices become. And these choices become your choices – you can really find yourself wrapped up in the world, and I often found myself thinking.. “What would I do, given that choice to make?”. It’s very much about taking this into mind, and the more you invest yourself into it, the more enjoyable and tense the game becomes.

As for the other characters – there’s Madison Paige, a photographer who becomes closer to Ethan as she meets up with him during his quest, Norman Jayden, an FBI profiler working with the police to try and work out who the Origami Killer is, and Scott Shelby, a Private investigator looking to find out information about the murderer by seeking out and talking to people who’s lives were ruined by the Origami Killer and his previous victims. All of the characters suffer from their own personal problems – Ethan suffers blackouts leading him to question his own sanity, while Madison is an insomniac plagued by vivid nightmares. Jayden suffers an addiction to a drug “triptocane”, which is seemingly tied to his over-use of the “ARI”, a sort of ‘reality altering’ set of glasses that allow him to access virtual reality aspects and manipulate the way he sees the world around him – to aid his work, and help him focus. Shelby is an asthmatic, to complete the set!

The game generally works in two styles of play (Fahrenheit players will feel familiar with this) – the first being the more “exploratory” sections which involve walking around, interacting with people and objects at your own pace to a degree. This is where the bulk of the more “laid-back” scenes occur, such as walking around Ethan’s home at the beginning. The game uses a system with minimal HUD – where the only symbols you will see are the ones that tell you what you need to do in order to interact with the object in question – a Down arrow on a door handle indicates you must move the right analogue down to interact with it, or a curved arrow indicates a more rolling quarter-circle motion. Unlike Fahrenheit, however, the game makes much better use of these different actions, making them different depending on the action; getting a grip on something - such as taking hold of a huge bag of shopping with both arms - means holding several buttons at once, and releasing them too early or accidentally can result in dropping it. Some actions require you to do things slowly and carefully, or slamming the motion controller in a certain direction, to bang on a door for instance. Obviously its never 1:1 control, but it feels that theyve really tried to make each input relevant to the corresponding action. Also, in most cases the speed at which you perform the motion affects the speed at which the animation will work in game, which helps it even more.

The other main style of gameplay are action sequences – somewhat like really long QTE events. The characters will move by themselves in a more cinematic movie-like fashion, and you will have to react to the button prompts as they appear on-screen. The beauty of this, however, is that missing a button doesn’t necessarily result in failure, only the flow and outcome of the scene – missing a button one time may mean the enemy will get an upper hand in the fight, but get the following commands right and you could get some good punches in to reverse the state of affairs. Sometimes there will even be options – such as which way to turn or what action to do, meaning you have to make split second decisions that can affect the outcome of the event.

Often these sections have a couple of different outcomes, and it depends on your performance to how the scene commences. Sometimes this will affect the plot minimally, but other times it can be bigger things, such as character deaths. At some points, characters lives will be placed in your hands – at one point I actually killed a man by accident, and the character felt remorse for it later on. However, interestingly, some of the main characters can also die – if put in a life-threatening situation it’s possible to fail and for the character to meet their demise. The story will continue however, and in my playthrough of the game I did in fact lose one of my characters due to not acting fast enough. Don’t worry, however – these instances are fairly clear, and you won’t lose a character simply due to one slip of the hand on an action scene or anything like that. Usually you have a fair amount of chances to turn things around – but you can’t guarantee they’ll all survive if you don’t act!

There’s not a lot I can say about the story without spoiling anything – it’s very much a personal journey where you should take each moment as it comes. The events along the story are done particularly well, Quantic Dream managed to really capture the characters’ emotions and instilled a real sense of despair or confusion in characters’ like Ethan, including some of the non-playable characters who are done equally well. With more than one possible ending, which I’m pretty sure is not always guaranteed to be a happy one, your performance during the game can affect the final scenes and decide the fate of the cast. Thich means you’re never secure to come out on top if you don’t really go for it and think about your actions. Although the game does have some parts that can change, it’s not a totally open story - so some critical events will always occur in the same order, in one way or another. There are odd scenes that can be different, and of course the characters can “drop out” of the story and the ending can change, but generally there’s an overall plot that will be followed to a degree. Although this is a good feature, it doesn’t mean you can re-play the game and have a completely different experience each time, more than each person who plays will have the plot tailored to them, and the outcome will be a result of their own choices and actions. It’s certainly interesting to re-play – especially to change the fates of those who lived/died, but the first time you play it will always be the best.

There were a few plot holes/continuity errors in places, which were a shame yet not game-breaking, I think perhaps this is to do with the slightly different storyline possibilities perhaps getting a few elements confused. If you don’t think about it too hard it’s not bad, and believe me the story is still well worth playing – but there were one or two moments I thought “how did that character know that?” or in hindsight a few of their actions didn’t make total sense when I knew more about the characters’ histories and motivations.

Overall though, the game was an incredible experience and it’s quite hard to explain how much I enjoyed it without going into detail about certain scenes! The game really does throw you into an emotional journey, and so long as you really go for it, the game is gripping and it really does make you think about your own morals and ideals. Really, the ultimate question is, how far would you go to save someone you love?

-Leon

Mar

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing

By Leon Leave a Comment

Categories: Review
Tags: all-stars racing, mario kart, ps3, sega, sonic, wii, Xbox 360

As many people will agree, Sonic games have been on a steady decline since they left the 2D roots – although I enjoyed Sonic Adventure, the games have seemingly gotten ever worse with SEGA trying everything they could to make him work on a 3D plane, and with each failed effort moving ever closer to his retirement. The latest installment, Sonic Unleashed, had me cringing at cheesy voices and boring gameplay, with some semi-enjoyable running scenes and a heck of a lot of awful “Were-hog” parts that separated the fun parts with some long, really boring rubbish. I quit the game soon enough, and finally accepted that Sonic was well overdue on his retirement, and had strayed too far.

However, I recently got hold of the demo of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. I don’t know why I did – I mean, I’m not a huge fan of racing games or 3D Sonic, so it didn’t have a lot going for it. Perhaps I was bored. Anyway – the single race the demo offered made me want to try a little more, being surprisingly decent and bursting with colour.

Come release day, I decided I’d buy it and give it a real shot – heck, I hadn’t bought a racing game since Mario Kart Wii, and I felt like picking up something casual to play between Heavy Rain and Final Fantasy XIII.

As Garv said in his demo review, S&SASR plays almost exactly like Mario Kart – with fast paced multiplayer kart-style racing set in colourful environments, with weapons, jumps and turbo pads. Almost everything feels like Mario Kart – but is this a bad thing? I don’t think so.

Thing is, I think Mario Kart is a real solid racer, especially good for casual fun with friends and equally good fun solo. However, since I’ve never been a fan of Mario, the cast was never something I really enjoyed – I picked my characters for their attributes since none of the characters appeal to me for who they were. So what have we got? Take the Mario Kart system and change all the levels and characters to that of Sonic and other SEGA titles – and pretty much what S&SASR is on a basic level. And that’s the end of the Mario Kart comparison (mostly) how does the game stand as a title of its own?

The cars in the game aren’t Karts, rather they’re vehicles specific to each character – Sonic drives a personalised blue sports car, Eggman (or Robotnik as he should be known) drives his traditional Egg Mobile kitted out with some monster-truck wheels, and Billy Hatcher drives an egg-styled car. Some characters, such as Ulala and Tails, have vehicles that don’t even have wheels, but they all play evenly and balanced - though they have different stats with some characters with better acceleration, while others are better at manoeuvering or have better turbo boosts. There are 20 characters in total (plus one or two extra depending on console), with racers from wide range of source games both old and new.

The game offers 24 tracks in total, which are separated into 6 Grand Prix’s for the main solo mode. There are eight main level themes including Sonic “grassland/beach” style, Sonic “Casino” style, Billy Hatcher themed courses, House of the Dead and Samba De Amigo themes. Each of these themes has three courses, but they’re all individual in their own right – such as the HotD stages which include an outdoor course, a sewer run and an indoor/rooftop course. There’s a good mix of different arenas, from the snowy Icicle Valley (of the Billy Hatcher set), the psychedelic Samba De Amigo stages, and the urban Shibuya Downtown city course (as one of three Jet-Set Radio courses). The selection is quite vast, and it feels as though it encompasses a wide range of different areas and elements.

As you progress through the game, you earn “Sega Miles” which act as credits to unlock new characters (since only some are available to start), courses to play in the modes outside of Grand Prix, and alternate music tracks which can be selected to play when you race. Unlocking new characters is always good, and the other items feel worth unlocking rather than just garbage gallery content, too. Each character only has one car each, which at first disappointed me – until I realised that they all have their own unique vehicles, unlike the Mario Kart’s simple Light, Medium or Heavy class Karts – and all of their unique vehicles are actually well modelled and often intricate, which is quite impressive really.

As with a certain Kart game I’m no longer mentioning, the game has a variety of weapons, obtained from pickups around the course. There’s a good selection of weapons such as homing missiles, proximity mines, nitro shoes, and disorienting abilities such as the “Confusing Star” which flips the target’s screen upside down, and the “Pocket Rainbow” which temporarily obscures the vision of whoever is unlucky enough to hit it. There’s a decent selection, and they don’t feel too overpowered, either. There is one super-weapon, though – the All-Star move. Each character has a specific attack that they can access at random, usually when toward the back of the pack, and it gives them a temporary but huge advantage – such as driving at super speed for a while, or being able to fire barrages of missiles at anyone who gets in their way. The moves are really fun, and it’s quite exciting to see what each character does – Sonic turns into Super Sonic and speeds up the road, while Billy Hatcher runs on a giant egg and crushes anyone he rolls over. Although the moves are powerful and can make a big difference, they don’t feel overpowered so in the end skill is the main deciding factor to who wins the race rather than chance - it just gives a bit of extra fun and a helping hand to whoever falls behind.

The game has a decent challenge to it - the Beginner mode is easy enough that a skilled player should be able to win 99% of the time. However, once you progress to the Advanced level, the AI really ups it’s game and it’s a lot more challenging to pull out ahead of the pack. I have yet to attempt Expert, but I can safely say it will definitely need some skill to master – it’s required to learn how to drift and score extra turbo boosts if you want to keep up with the AI on the later levels, since they’ll be making use of it all the time.

The game has a solid base to it with a good cast and a decent selection of tracks, but one thing that does make it shine is the inclusion of optional extras. The time trial mode is included as with most racers, and allows you to race against the leaderboards, yourself, and also a Staff Ghost to give yourself a sort of par to set yourself to. One of the bigger modes is Mission Mode, which gives an assortment of different challenges with set rules, such as winning one-on-one race as Tails against Sonic, collecting rings and chaos emeralds down a course within a time limit as Eggman, or crushing as many birds as you can using Billy Hatcher’s special. This mode really adds some extra enjoyment, feeling like a real full mode rather than simply filler material, giving the game some extra depth.

Obviously with a game like this, Multiplayer is a big factor - and it goes just as well as it should. Offering up to four-player local split-screen, the game allows you to play all the courses against your friends, and also allows you to toggle weapons and AI opponents to tailor the matches to your needs. Sadly there’s no “multiplayer Grand Prix” mode, but the game does keep track of who wins each game so all that’s really missing is an end-of-set award ceremony of sorts.

Of course with today’s standards online modes are included, allowing for 8-player matches. This is great for playing against friends, and is also fun in random matchups, although I must say the lobby system might need some tweaking – I found myself waiting for over 15 minutes to get into a session before, but this may just be early-release kinks that will be fixed when there are more people playing. Still, when it works, its great fun and you can keep playing so long as there are people left in the lobby after each race.

Although the game is available on all three major consoles, I personally went with the Xbox 360 version which is arguably the best, with the most characters. The 360 version includes Banjo-Kazooie as an extra character, alongside the ability to play as your Xbox Live Avatar – which works really well given the game’s graphical style. The Wii version includes Mii capability, and the PS3 has no extras (no idea why it got the short end of the straw).

The game is solid, and although it’s almost impossible not to compare it to Mario Kart it seems to be using the ideas to great potential rather than simply making a sub-par clone. The game is bright and exciting, and is really good fun with lots to do. Personally, I think that the courses, racers and modes elevate the game to a level even more enjoyable than Mario Kart, but then I am a little biased. Let’s just say, I own both – and I know which one I’ll be sticking to in future.

Although the game is fleshed out and definitely doesn’t feel lacking, it’s been said that DLC is also a possibility in the future – if the coming year finds us having access to an even wider selection of racers and courses to expand the game even further, this could easily be one of the best kart-style racers ever made. With Sonic 4 on the way, perhaps Sonic’s got something more to give us yet.

-Leon

Feb

Tropico 3, The Beanie’s Back

By That Bloke In The Beanie Leave a Comment

Categories: Review
Tags: PC, stratergy, tropico 3, turn based

The sun shone down on the golden sands of Tropico as I longed on the beach with a cool glass of coconut milk. Then, out of the blur that was the background, a figure approached.

“El Presidente, there is a man here to see you.”

“Urgh, tell the US ambassador I’m not going to praise them unless they give us the plan to the power plant!”

“Er, president, he is not an American, he is British, says he says he is your boss.”

“Garvaos? Bring him over!”

“Si presidente!”

I sipped my milk and re-adjust my beanie, trying to look somewhat regal.

“BEANIE!”

An angry figure storms up the beach towards me.

“Oh hey Garv, wassup? What can El president do for you?”

“El president my arse! What are you doing!? Where are the reviews you promised me!? Why is your face on ‘Tropican Rum’?”

“Hey man chill. I just landed a sweet gig here. They needed a leader and I was available. Sorry about the lack of reviews, Manuel is still learning English, but he’ll have one done by next week I swear!”

“Oh well that’s alright then…no wait, no its not! I don’t care if you’re king-“

“Presidente!”

“…president of some Caribbean island, you have obligations! Now either you start your reviews or I revoke your staff writer status!”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“Try me.” He said imposingly

“…Manuel! Escort Mr Gravaos to Ed international airport, see he gets a nice seat…”

“Si Presidente!”

“Not so fast! I brough some friends along to help persuade you to go back to work.”

“Oh yeah, good luck with that. What’cha gonna do? Force me to get on that plane?”

“Exactly.”

“You and what army?” I scoffed.

“Me and YOUR’E army!”

I looked down the beach in disbelief; all of the officers were lined up and weren’t looking happy.

“What did you do!?” I demanded.

“Oh they didn’t need much persuading, a few Xboxes and TV’s and they were only too happy to switch sides.”

“…Maneul, you won’t betray me for a game console will you?”

“Si president!” he said happily.

“…I’ll get my beanie…”

And thus begins my review of Tropico 3. I miss my personal dancing girls…

Tropico 3 is a society building simulator where you play the role of El Presidente, trying to hold onto power while you manage the needs of your citizens and your particular campaigns goals.

You can play any pre-generated dictator, like Castro or Guevara or create your own custom avatar. From there you choose your appearance from a painfully short list of options and then chose his or her traits as a ruler, how they come to power and their vices. While this is a nice addition from the previous Tropico games, it still feels lacklustre and unfinished. While I don’t mind playing a womanizing alcoholic man, it would have been nice to have some different options for a woman avatar, similarly, when the radio pronouncer Jaulito talks about in game events he doesn’t differentiate between male and female presidents.

I know it seems like I’m nit picking here, but I want you guys to realise that while Tropico 3 is a decent game, its let down by pretty minor annoyances and inconsistencies. Your citizens can also be incredibly unforgiving, especially in the later campaigns, becoming rebels if their every whim is not met near instantaneously. The learning curve is also pretty steep, even with the tutorial; it takes you awhile to get around the resource management in order to run your island economy. Are your citizens exporting Papaya and Bananas or eating them?

However! Once you get over these petty annoyances and cracks, you have an interesting and, well, quite addictive game in your hands. The island is beautifully rendered; the samba and jazz from the radio station may get a bit repetitive but really helps to give it that great Caribbean atmosphere. You can abuse your power to siphon off money into your Swiss bank account for your retirement, use your secret police to organise hits against those who would stand against you. But the most fun to be had is with the events that pop up during the campaign, such as when you discover that you are a hidden cyborg made by the FBI to rule an island.

The combat is unfortunately lack lustre and by the numbers, you can’t control your forces and it seems like as long as you have more men you’ll win unless it glitches out. The other campaign modes offer some variety and replayability to the game which is a welcome addition and you can upload your scores online to compete with other like minded dictators.

So ultimately tropic 3 is a mixed bag, for those who enjoy pretending to be a dictator and running an economy and population, this is the game for you. But if that doesn’t sound like your bag then give it a miss. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a score to settle with my manservant…

- That Bloke In The Beanie

Feb

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete (Blu-Ray)

By Leon Leave a Comment

Categories: Review
Tags: advent children, blu-ray, cloud, complete, denzel, Final Fantasy, hdtv

Of course Plus XP usually reviews games – but seeing as it’s game related, for the first time ever I’ll be reviewing a Blu-Ray DVD instead. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete.

It’s been a while since the original version of Advent Children came to Europe in DVD format – sadly coming straight to DVD rather than hitting cinemas, it was arguably one of the best pieces of CGI animation I’d ever seen. Set two years after the end of Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children saw Cloud once again fighting to save the world and his companions against the evil that threatened them – chock full of fanservice, fantastic fight scenes and motorcycle chases. I figured it probably couldn’t get much better than that.

However, I was wrong. It turns out that one film that could beat Advent Children was, well, Advent Children. Re-released in Blu-Ray format, I expected it to be improved – higher resolution, a few extended scenes here and there – but it turned out to be even better than I thought it would be. ACC comprises of an extra 25 minutes of footage, extending the running time to just over 2 hours of full CG goodness, and some special features to boot.

If you’ve watched the film already – you’ll probably have a good idea of what the plot was all about. However, I did feel that a few parts were a little unclear or confusing – such as the origins of Denzel living with Cloud and Tifa, and the exact causes and effects of Geostigma. ACC has expanded upon the storyline, with some extended dialogue, and some extra scenes that cover more of these issues, as well as generally fleshing it out a bit more. This gives a bit more insight into characters such as the Turks – Elena managed to even be in the film long enough to actually see her!

But it’s not just dialogue and backstory – there are extended fight scenes, such as the motorcycle chase which has been fairly expanded, with more crazy bike-back stunts and collapsing bridges, and also the all-important “final battle” of the film. At some points, the scenes have even changed slightly – but don’t worry, it’s all well done and I didn’t feel as though any decisions were made for the worse – all of it just made it feel even more exciting than the original cut.

Good news for fans of FFVII: Crisis Core as well – there’s some flashbacks to some of the most memorable scenes of the game, and Zack gets a bit more screen time than before. It really helps tie his influences into the film and FFVII, and explains Cloud’s motivations and thoughts a little more in-depth.

But seeing as the film is a CG production – it’s not just like a normal movie with some new scenes, some of the existing parts have been improved, with cleaner effects, some really nice touches to the original CGI, and is really finished off with more detail to blood and dirt on the characters skin and faces. Obviously, the musical score remains much the same – but there are one or two extra bits of music to fit the new length – and it’s all kept up to the awesome standard of the original.

The bonus features are quite good, not too different from the original – including some retrospective looks at the original plot of FFVII, as well as some edited footage of the FFVII saga as a whole – including clips from Before Crisis, Crisis Core, and Dirge of Cerberus. One of my favourite features, however, was “On the Way to a Smile: Episode Denzel“, which is a short animated film covering Denzel’s past before AC. As well as filling in some missing backstory (which was partly also included in the re-cut main feature of the film), it’s actually a nicely written piece of work with a few laughs and some touching moments that made it enjoyable to watch. Denzel is now one of my favourite characters in the film, with my newfound understanding of his roots.

Overall, if you liked AC – this is improved in pretty much every way. The pace is slightly slower to start, but it takes the story to a new level with extended plot and deeper look into the storyline. As the film progresses, the action-packed scenes have been improved with longer, better battles and plenty of extra special effects and impressive re-touches. Obviously, it all looks beautiful scaled up to full-HD as well – I’m pretty sure they added in a lot of wide shots of Edge City simply to show this off to it’s potential.

Definitely worth a buy if you liked the original, and if you haven’t seen it yet – go straight for this version! The HD has been used well, although sadly that means you need a Blu-Ray player or PS3 in order to watch it.

-Leon

Feb

Half-Minute Hero demo review

By Leon Leave a Comment

Categories: Review
Tags: half-minute hero, PSP, puzzle, rising star games, RPG

The PSP has a few odd games amongst it’s minature versions of Playstation home console titles and ports of older games – Half-Minute Hero being one of them, produced by Rising Star games. A demo is available on the PlayStation Network, and I urge you to try it yourself. But to give you an idea of what it entails, read my half-minute review instead.

The game is a sort of tongue-in-cheek mini take on the classic RPG, such as the original Final Fantasy, with a graphical style to match. The story – you are a wandering hero, and the evil bad-guy is casting a spell of destruction upon the world… the catch: the spell only takes 30 seconds to cast. So you must do everything to defeat him with only 30 seconds to do so.

It sounds strange, and it is – but once you get the hang of it, it’s more of a time-management game relying on your use of strategy and forward thinking to do everything in time. Like a classic Final Fantasy game, there are random battles with which you gain experience and level up, but these battles are performed automatically – with both sides running head-on to each other with the stronger emerging victorious in a couple of seconds. Obviously you level up to match the speed of the game, so you can easily reach level 15 or so by the end of the time limit.

Along the way there are traditional RPG things you can/must do, such as buying new weapons and armour, recruiting allies (to join the 2 second headbutting contests), and doing quests for civilians. By doing so, you can become strong enough to progress, meet the bad guy at his castle and take him down to end the stage. Although it’s said the levels take 30 seconds, that’s not entirely true – in some cases time freezes while you are inside towns (which are simple one-screen areas with people to talk to), and you can also pay a high price at towns to pay the Time Goddess to reset the timer and give you a fresh 30 seconds. Most levels really take about 2-3 minutes, average for a simple puzzle game.

It’s really quite hard to explain without actually playing it, but it really does work – sort of like each level is a super-condensed mini-RPG with automatic battles and an aim on time management. The demo consists of two levels, the first being the simpler of the two, sort of showing you how the game works. The second of the two levels available in the demo took me a couple of attempts – the first one going awry when the Time Goddess gave me a ‘loan’ on a time-reversal since I couldn’t afford it, then chose to appear and take all my equipment when I was being attacked by a huge monster to settle the debt. Nice of her…

It doesn’t take itself seriously, though – the whole game is done in a cheeky way, starting with lines such as “Oh noes! The world will be destroyed on a whim!”, with generic bad guys titled “Evil Lords” and the pixellated characters being the epitomy of in-jokes.

It’s really quite a charming little game, and is quite challenging as more of a puzzle game than an actual RPG. Although it purposely looks dated, there are some nice little touches, like the Hero’s weapon and armour changing his appearance respectively. The music sounded also like a sped up remix of typical old FF world-map music, which was a nice little bit of homage (assuming that was intentional!). I must say I hadn’t played anything quite like it before, and once I got used to the concept it was quite addictive.

The full game apparently includes three other modes where you play as different characters in different styles of gameplay – just utilising the similar 2D style and 30 second time-frame.

Half-Minute Hero is perhaps mostly aimed at older gamers who have played the old NES RPG’s and such, but even without the style its a fun little puzzle game, perfect for quick games if you only have a few minutes. If you have access to a PSP and PSN, give the demo a shot – it’s really the best way to understand it. But if you like a little bit of thinking, simple puzzles, some cute graphics and a little bit of RPG nostalgia, this game could be perfect for you.

-Leon

Feb

Tatsunoko VS Capcom: Ultimate-All Stars

By Leon Leave a Comment

Categories: Review
Tags: capcom, fighter, tatsunoko, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, wii

A while back, Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars was a Wii game I was sure would never hit shores outside of Japan; but come Eurogamer we were told otherwise – somehow someone managed to convince the bigwigs that people outside of asia would actually like to see the new Capcom fighter, regardless if they didn’t recognise half of the cast. With a little help from Tatsunoko themselves, Capcom got past liscencing issues and granted us a chance to get our hands on their latest fighter. Personally, I’d only heard of Casshan and Karas, but I was eager to play a new style of Capcom Vs title, with some new fighters to play with bundled in.

As with Street Fighter IV, Tatsunoko vs Capcom has taken a step away from the traditional 2D style fighter, this time opting for a sort of 2.5D style with a cell-shaded 3D design working with a 2D engine. Although I’m always sceptical with Capcom’s fighter’s going 3D, they’ve once again managed to rehaul the graphic design whilst keeping the game feeling like it should.

People who are mostly unfamiliar with Tatsunoko (probably more than 90% of gamers) should feel right at home with this game – as with all VS titles half the cast consists of Street Fighter characters and various other members of the Capcom roster – Ryu, Chun Li, Alex and Darkstalkers’ Morrigan hold the flag of the Capcom fighters, joined with some more unsual entries such as Soki (Onimusha 4), Viewtiful Joe, Megaman Volnutt (Megaman 64) and Frank West (Dead Rising). Sadly the Capcom VS series is still unaquainted with Devil May Cry’s Dante, but we can’t have everything we want, can we? The classic fighters all retain the majority of their signature moves, and all of the new cast have been converted well to the fighter format.

The Tatsunoko side, however unfamiliar, offer a good selection of characters to the cast – although I was a little biased toward the Capcom cast to begin with, I soon found myself getting aquainted with Casshan (with a lot of rocket-boot style moves and supported by his cyber-dog Friender), Jun the Swan (who uses a lot of stylish teleportation and explosive moves), Karas (with plenty of katana-spinning slicing moves), and Tekkaman (aided by a Scopion-esque grapple and quick lance attacks). Although one or two of the Tatsunoko characters look a bit samey to a reviewer unfamiliar to their backgrounds, there are some genuinely good characters amongst their ranks and I frequently find myself using them.

The game operates on a 2-on-2 basis, with the ability to switch characters on the fly, and chain moves together. Unlike most Capcom fighter titles, there are no seperate Punch and Kick buttons, simply Light, Medium and Heavy. This does make the game feel a little simpler to start with, but in all truth it doesn’t take much away from the experience – there are plenty of moves and it doesn’t even occur that anything’s not there, and it’s possible to chain combos by linking them in order from Light up to Heavy (such as LL,MM,HH or L,M,HHH). Special moves generally consist of traditional Street Fighter inputs, such as Down, Down-right, Forward, Attack for Ryu’s signature Hadoken, or charge attacks such as Chun-Li’s spinning bird kick.

As with most VS games (most specifically Marvel Vs Capcom), TvC is a lot more hectic than Street Fighter IV, with plenty of leaping around, huge beams and aerial supers. The inputs for supers are fairly simple generally, often with more of an emphasis on how you use the moves, rather than actually being able to pull them off. Many of them are performed in the same way as specials, simply by pressing all three attack buttons at once (such as Ryu’s Shinku Hadoken which is pulled off by pressing Down, Down-right, Forward, L+M+K). This may seem a little easy to veterans, but it actually evens the playing field quite well, giving most players full access to the majority of characters’ moves and allows them to really focus on the fight itself. The game operates with a 5-bar Super guage, with each character having 2 Supers that require a single bar each, and an Ultra that requires three. This results in a massive 70+ super attacks, which can make some battles quite spectacular.

Aside from that, the game does offer some extra, more in-depth abilities such as Baroque mode (in which a player sacrifices health regeneration for a burst in attack speed), and chaining moves via tagging. The game really fits the ideal of “easy to play, difficult to master”, but I personally haven’t really gotten good enough to really use this to it’s full potential as of yet.

The game’s arcade mode features 8 rounds – mainly of random 2-on-2 matchups. However, the game also offers special fights at rounds 4 and 8 in the form of bosses. This brings me to my next point – giant characters. Tatsunoko and Capcom each have one “giant” character in their roster, which serve as the Round 4 ’sub-bosses’, and each count as two characters in one – so solo battles only with these guys. Capcom’s ‘giant’ is PTX-40A, a mech from Lost Planet, and Tatsunoko has Gold Lightan, a sort of giant golden transformer/lighter hybrid. A similar “giant” unplayable 3-round boss in the form of Yami (from Okami) takes the position of Final Boss in Arcade mode. Now, I quite enjoy the concept of these characters, and they look great; however I can’t really decide if they feel as though they balance very well with the game. Most of the time when fighting them they either feel like punching bags which are easy to pummel with screen-filling supers and energy blasts, and other times they can be frustrating with their own screen-wide swipes and barrages of attacks. Yami in particular is a bit of a pain – if you lose one of the three rounds against him (in which your health only recovers a little between rounds), you must start again from the first stage of the boss. Not too bad at times, frustrating at others. As for the playable giants – they feel a little novel to play a couple of times, before I end up returning to the regular characters who feel a bit more balanced.

Aside from Arcade and Vs modes, the game offers a shop that allows you to unlock art and alternate colours for each character, gallery modes for viewing art, character models and sounds. Six of the characters in the roster need to be unlocked, so there’s also some incentive to playing it a lot if the fun alone isn’t enough for you.

Also included on the disc is an unlockable game which involves using one of four characters in a sort of arcade top-down mini game. Sadly, it seems the Japanese version of the game included a whole selection of other mini games that weren’t ported to the international versions - no idea why they removed them, which is a little bit of a shame. However, although the one we have is a little bit of cheesy fun, I personally found myself returning to the main game soon after having a go; so I doubt we’ve missed out on too much.

The game also offers online support, which is a nice feature for competing with friends (provided you actually know someone who owns it) and random players if that’s your thing.

I really do like the game, however there is one big flaw with it that does put me off a little – the controls. The game can be played with several different controllers – from Wii remote, Wii remote + Nunchuk, GameCube Controller, Classic Controller or Arcade stick. However, I only have access to the Wii and Cube controllers – neither of which feel particularly comfortable, the Wii remote with it’s un-intuitive button layout (which can’t be changed), and the Cube controller’s analogue stick paling in comparison to the comfortableness of the PS3 and Xbox counterparts used for Street Fighter IV. The game works well with an Arcade Stick – having used one at Eurogamer before it’s release – but it’s a big expense for a controller you’ll only be using for one title on the console at the moment.

Overall, I really think Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All Stars is a game worth buying. As with Marvel vs Capcom it’s a more flashy and hectic style of Capcom Fighter, sort of a lighthearted crazy little brother to the challenging and technical Street Fighter IV, complementing it as an alternative rather than a rival. The game has a few minor flaws, and sadly it’s best with an Arcade Stick (never thought I’d hear me say that about a fighting game); but the beauty of it, good roster and vast assortment of Super attacks make it a great addition to the VS series. Sadly it won’t be released on consoles other than the Wii – so PS3 and 360 owners may miss out on this – but it’s said that a potential seques could be going multi-platform in future depending on sales and reception to this.

-Leon

Feb

Guitar Hero Van Halen

By GuitarGirl24 Leave a Comment

Categories: Preview and Review
Tags: demo, guitar hero, Van Halen, xbox live

Mini demo review

I have been feeling a little ashamed of myself of late, and as it is game related shame I feel I must confess. As you all probably know I have been writing under the name ‘GuitarGirl24′ for some time now, and recently this has caused me a some conflict. You see though my name was in part chosen merely for my love of guitar solo’s (and I LOVE a good guitar solo) it was also a reference to my unconditional love of the plastic guitar. Yet recently I confess I have been neglecting my faithful fretted friend in favor of my much louder, more tiring plastic drum peripheral. I must explain. It is not that I no longer love my plastic guitar, it is simply that I have spent less time with the drums, and therefore find them more challenging. That combined with the fact that recent Gh and Rockband releases have been getting more and more family friendly with each new release (Or easier, lets not beat about the bush here) has swayed my attention away from the guitar and onto the much newer world of virtual drumming. This is the cause of my conflict, my shame. As time goes by I cannot help but wonder, will anything be able to re-ignite my passion for the plastic guitar? Or am I doomed to change my name to ‘DrumGirl’ and hot, sweaty and most of all tired for evermore.

By this point you may be thinking all hope is lost, and that I have given up hope, but fear not. 2010 is here, bringing with it hope for all of those who like their solo’s fast, furious and finger burning. For anyone who hasn’t read the title I am talking of course about Gh Van Halen, and for those of you without X-Box live here my take on a demo which I believe may just have the power to get us all strumming once more.

At this point you may be thinking that I am a huge Van Halen fan, I mean why else would I get so excited about this game otherwise right? WRONG. Beyond knowing the chorus to “Jump” my Van Halen knowledge is actually embarrassingly small, leading to the inevitable question: Why do I find this release so exciting? Its simple really, the demo beat me. At this point, primarily for the risk of sounding big-headed I will give some context to this statement. Though, I am in no way undefeated I rarely consider songs un-winnable. In the good old days of guitar hero I used to fail songs all the time, but as some of you who have read my previous articles will know recent releases have posed me almost no challenge. For example, I played Gh 5 from start to finish in expert repeating only two songs, suggesting either I have become a guitar goddess (unlikely), or the games have been getting easier. Therefore to be beaten 33% into “Eruption” and to be still hopelessly stuck at this point in time is VERY interesting. Could it be that Gh Van Halen has a set-list with difficulty to rival that of even Gh Metallica? It would certainly be a refreshing start to 2010 if it does, and after-all I do like a challenge.

As for the rest of the demo its pretty standard really. Same format of following a bands rise to stardom etc… Same slightly self indulgent feel that Gh Metallica had (oops, should I say that?) However it is worth mentioning at this point a few unexpected curiosities which caught my eye when playing. Firstly, On downloading this demo I couldn’t help but notice that it has a strange underlying retro feel. Though there are no major changes in graphics or gameplay (if anything the graphics have improved again) I did manage to spot a couple of little changes to the game which were more puzzling than revolutionary. For example it seems that the decision has been made to revert back to the more spaced out screen layout reminiscent of titles released pre- Guitar hero world tour. By this I mean that the score meter, star power bar and star meter have moved to their retro positions at the sides of the screens, instead of being down the sides of the fretboard. I find this change a little surprising as besides perhaps making it slightly harder to read your score and play simultaneously it accomplishes next to nothing. Slightly more pleasing to me is the appearance of the traditional Guitar Hero set characters. As you are all probably aware the Gh band members have evolved quite a long way since Gh 1, in my opinion reaching perfection Gh 3, only to change beyond recognition in world tour and beyond. I am pleased therefore to report that In Van Halen our favorites are more or less back to their old selves. Sure Judy nails has lost a few pounds, and Larz a little more trim, but at least Casey Lynch has her long hair back. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, that bob never suited her….

Anyway, onto more important things. Set-list. Now as you will expect this game comes with a fair dose of Van Halen tracks as well as a splattering of other “Rock hits’. During the demo You are able to play a selection from the full playlist including “Drop Nose” by Weezer, “The end of heartache” by Killswitch Engage, “Eruption” by Van Halen and “Panama” by Van Halen. Though Eruption was the only song to actually cause finger burn, all of the songs were intricate enough to be found enjoyable, and this leaves me hopeful for the rest of the set-list. On the subject of the rest of the Set-list please Enjoy.

Van Halen Selection

“Ain’t Talkin Bout Love”
“And The Cradle Will Rock”
“Atomic Punk”
“Beautiful Girls”
“Cathedral (Solo)”
“Dance The Night Away”
“Eruption (Solo)”
“Everybody Wants Some”
“Feel Your Love Tonight”
“Hang ‘Em High”
“Hear About It Later”
“Hot For Teacher”
“Ice Cream Man”
“I’m The One”
“Jamie’s Cryin’”
“Jump”
“Little Guitars”
“Loss Of Control”
“Mean Street”
“Panama”
“Pretty Woman”
“Romeo Delight”
“Running With The Devil”
“So This Is Love”
“Somebody Get Me A Doctor”
“Spanish Fly (Solo)”
“Unchained”
“You Really Got Me”

Other songs

“Come To Life” Alter Bridge
“White Wedding” Billy Idol
“First Date” Blink-182
“Space Truckin” Deep Purple
“Best Of You” Foo Fighters
- “Double Vision” Foreigner
“Stacy’s Mom” Fountains Of Wayne
- “Pain” Jimmy Eat World
“Painkiller” Judas Priest
“The End Of Heartache” Killswitch Engage
“Rock And Roll Is Dead” Lenny Kravitz
“I Want It All” Queen
“Sick, Sick, Sick” Queens Of The Stone Age
“Master Exploder” Tenacious D
“Safe European Home” The Clash
“Pretty Fly For A White Guy” The Offspring
“Semi-Charmed Life” Third Eye Blind
“Dope Nose” Weezer
“The Takedown” Yellowcard

True there is nothing particularly unexpected here, and some of the songs are of course Rockband repeats as usual. However Van Halen are know for their solo’s, and that leaves me hopeful that the gameplay will be more enjoyable than the set-list may let on. That is, as long as the solo’s we are offered are not to heavily reliant on the slider/tap feature of the newer guitars. Call me old fashioned, but I do love a good finger breaking solo…You know what I mean…

Just a couple more things. Though this game is like Gh Metallica in theme, I am pleased to say that some of the problems which once tormented me have now been fixed. The biggest improvement to me comes in the smallest of features. Unlike Metallica this game allows you to chart your progress through the different difficulty levels using tiny Guitar picks with roman numerals on. Each Pick represents a different difficulty (kind of like the skulls in world tour) and beside each pick there is space where your score for the song in each difficulty is written. I know, I know. this seems like such a small thing, but anyone who tried to play Metallica in two difficulties will know why this is so important. I also couldn’t complete this demo review without mentioning the great attention to detail that has been paid to animating the band. Every member is expressive and dexterous, to the point of being almost quite scary. Though their energy can be a little overwhelming at times its is nice that although once again it seems we must abandon our custom creations to “BE” Van Halen, at least our virtual selves look as if they are actually having a good time.

And thats it. The demo is still on line so if you have a spare 5 minutes I suggest you download away and see what you think. Oh and if anyone gets past 33% on Eruption in expert (Not using the tap and slide bar!) please let me know. I will make you a paper crown.

Oh, and before I go I will make you all a promise. I “GuitarGirl” hereby promise to resist the lure of the drums and play this title from start to finish on my plastic guitar. I Vow to be faithful to the frets once more, and resist my evil urges in order to once again justify my name. No longer will I be found banging from noon until night, else the gods of rock strike me down for…misrepresentation of goods………?

Until next time,
GuitarGirl24
x

Feb

Is Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing Any Threat To The Competition?

By Garvaos 1 Comment

Categories: Preview and Review
Tags: mario kart, racing, sega, Sega & Sonic All Stars Racing, sonic

The first time I even heard the name Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing, I could not help but think Mario Kart clone. With a load characters from Sega’s past, present and future thrown into a wacky races style racing game – with weapons, question mark boxes and brightly coloured crazy race tracks, you can’t help but think Sega have definitely sped down the same route as their long-term rivals, who have made Mario Kart games since their first release back on the Super Nintendo entertainment System in 1992.

I have now made it abundantly clear that Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing (Or S&SASR as I am now going to call it to save my fingers) is a lot like Mario Kart, so lets leave this fact aside now and look at this game as a separate title.

Right from the get go the demo gives you a choice of two characters to race as, our good friend sonic and the Xbox Exclusive character Banjo & Kazooie. As this is only a demo you can only play a single race or a 2 player split screen single race; as there was no one to play with at this given time, I went for the single race, and I of course chose Sonic first - I have grown up with the blue needlemouse so I thought it would be rude not to.

As with all racing games you start right at the back of the group as the 3 second count down starts, it is then your job drive round the circuit in a three lap race trying to get over the finish line first. It’s the racing game standard that has not been changed for decades. However, in S&SASR you are have the opportunity to drive into question mark boxes which in turn give you either a power up or a weapon to use to your advantage. So you could get a considerable advantage over your racing opponents if you use these power ups tactically. Now from previous Mario Kart experience i had some knowledge of what the weapons did, as they were quite similar. But as I played through the race countless amounts of times I noticed that this game really bring in a challenge, even on beginner mode I struggled to get first place, which brings a smile to my face. I love a challenge. Mind you the countless amounts of times I did get into 8th place gave me an advantage, if you are lucky enough to hit a question mark box while trailing behind the other racers, who will get your all-star special item. Each of these is a unique power that each racer has to get back into the race. Sonic for example has all the chaos emeralds at his disposal and turns into super sonic, giving him a huge boost in speed which you can increase by repeatedly pressing A. One of my favorites though has to be Amigo’s from Samba De Amigo. He unleashed his special just as he was passing me, he got a boost in speed and then drew all of his opponents into a huge conga line. All the racers were dancing behind him, and as soon as his power ran out, the other racers exploded….Awesome.

While you are racing around your circuit, you will come across jumps, these jumps can again be used to you advantage, as you take to the air start mashing the left trigger to pull off an array of aerial tricks. If you manage to land on all four wheels you will immediately get a boost in speed, the more tricks you pull off, the more boost you will get when you land, meaning if you have a heart of a daredevil you will take some comfort in this small game mechanic.

As you can well imagine with the cast of crazy characters and a whole variety of ludicrous weaponry and power ups, thew circuits themselves aren’t going to be on the plane mundane side, even though the demo only offers you one circuit, there is a chance to take a sneak peek at what will be available track wise, in the full game, you got tracks inspired by the sonic games which will have a lot of loop the loops and helix turns. You also have tracks inspired by house of the dead, samba de amigo and super monkey ball just to name a few. So you can expect a whole variety of whack and wonderful tracks to race around when the game comes out on full release.

From what I have played and seen of S&SASR I will be defiantly keeping my eye on it, it looks to me that a lot of thought has gone into the characters for this game. I mean you would never think a monkey in a marble from super monkey ball being pitted against some hard-core fist fighters from virtua fighter in a race would ever work but it strangely does. A lot of imagination has gone into this game and I think it is a worthy competitor for Mario Karts throne.

Garv

Feb

Taiko drum master Wii

By GuitarGirl24 Leave a Comment

Categories: Article and Review

Bang With A Smile

When we we talk about Japanese gaming, it is all to easy to focus full attention on the vast, poetic world that is final fantasy. It would also be easy to while away the hours talking about our never ending love of street fighter, or to ramble on about exciting new releases such as Bayonetta. I am however not going to talk about any of these games. No, in all of this, it becomes easy to overlook the other side to Japanese gaming. I am talking of course of those quirky, colorful and sometimes just truly insane titles which though rarely get the media hype they deserve (or not) really to me embody the true spirit of Japan. If you still don’t know what I’m talking about, think of such classics such as Cooking mama, Beautiful Katamari, and Wairoware and your half way there. With this in mind I was lucky enough to ‘Experience ‘ (Apparently you don’t just play games in Japan, you experience them) the ‘Most popular rhythm game in Japan’ this weekend and I was of course intrigued. So from the country who truly put the WTF into gaming I bring you a brief summery of Taiko Drum Master Wii….The most popular rhythm game in Japan.

So what is Taiko drum master all about? Well for those of you who never played the original Taiko drum master (PS2, 2004) its a bit like the bastard lovechild of Rockband, Donkey conga and Bust a move. It may be a bit messed up, and in places not all there, but like a doting parent we still love it very much anyway. Based on the original, highly popular Japanese arcade game, the aim of the game is simple. You are presented with a single, large plastic drum which you must hit in time to the beat of the song, a little like Rockband. However unlike Rockband this drum has pressure sensitive surfaces on both the center, and side allowing the game to read not only when you hit the drum, but where you hit it and how hard. To give an idea of the setup, the commands scroll across the screen from right to left in the form of large and small dots, but not just dots, dots with smiley faces in the center…of course. The basic commands go, Small red circles (hit the center with a single stick), Big red circle (hit the center hard with both sticks), Small blue circles (hit the side with a single stick) and Big blue circle (hit the side with both sticks). It seems very simple, and though I found it a bit of a step down from the more complex, 5 piece kit I know and love, in its harder modes the game did seem to put up quite a fight. For example though the easier modes were comprised mainly of the simple commands above, when playing harder songs Taiko drum master not only speeds up, but also complicates things with the demand for rapid multiple hits (marked with a x sign), as well as a variety of mini challenges.

It is with this that I move onto what I feel is the most important part of this game, the true Japanese ‘Random factor’. Now those of you who are thinking “Hang on a minute, Why would I bother with this? Isn’t it retro and outdated and anyway I have the much newer and more exciting Gh/Rockband to play with” listen up. To me this game is not about exceptionally beautiful graphics, nor about becoming a rock God. It is simply about hitting a small plastic drum as fast as you possibly can to burst a bubble gum balloon being blown by a strange creature which looks like a cross between a dog, a baby and a jam jar. In hindsight I’m 70% sure that the character was a drum… but to be honest I don’t know and in a way I think that sometimes in this type of situation its better not to know and just go with it. Drum master is just packed full of the colorful, seemingly incomprehensible Japanese graphics which make on the whole in-arguably charming. The game is an explosion of color and noise with enough dressed up animals, random noises and smiley faces to keep anyone guessing what will come next. In addition to the smiley nieve graphics Nintendo have once again managed to work the Mii’s into the game by having them happily dancing at the bottom of the screen. Though the Mii’s are now commonplace in Nintendo titles, I have never seen them used in a way which makes them look quite so out of place before. Though in any other game this would probably prove quite off putting, Drum master is already such a crazy mix that it doesn’t really matter. In fact in a way it does sort of add something to the experience, all be it something quite strange and a little out of place. As for the set list, I have seen no other like it. In the short period of time I ‘Experienced” the game everything from modern pop, to Anime Tunes and classical music was bashed out on that little plastic drum proving that in musical diversity this game really has no equal. It would seem that in the category of music and rhythm gaming the prize for most random release goes to Drum roll please (I know bad joke again) Japan of course. Who else.

All of this talk makes me a little sad that as of yet I have seen no plans for a Uk release. Still, if this post has made you at all curious about the wide world of Drum based gaming I have it on good authority (my own) that there are several similar machines waiting to be discovered at the back of arcades all over the UK. I know for a fact that there is a DrumMania just waiting to be hit on in the Troccadero center in London, so next time you have a weekend free go old school, I dare you.

Until next time,
GuitarGirl24
x

P.S. So excited about Bioshock 2. I just can’t wait any longer…I may burst with the pure anticipation….

Jan

Bayonetta

By Leon 7 Comments

Categories: Review
Tags: 360, Action, Bayonetta, dmc, ps3, sega

Well, you heard my opinions on the Bayonetta demo, so maybe you’re wondering – what did I think of it in the end? I did indeed pick up a copy, and I’ve hacked away at it at every opportunity between the other things in my life (which now includes a job, which will explain why I’ve been a bit quieter of late). But now I have finally completed it, and played a little more, and I can bring you my opinion on SEGA’s version of Devil May Cry in full.

If you are a Devil May Cry fan, step right up. Hideki Kamiya - the original creator of Dante’s stylish adventures – is the creator, now working under the banner of Platinum Games, developing Bayonetta alongside SEGA. The game draws definite inspiration from Kamiya’s earlier work, with everything from the gameplay style, enemy designs and HUD all fit for a DMC title. This isn’t a bad thing, though – being an avid DMC fan, I felt right at home. Don’t worry though, the game is like DMC, but it certainly isn’t the same.

The story revolves around a witch named Bayonetta who has amnesia, having awoken from a watery grave with no recollection of her life beforehand. A little clichéd, perhaps, but it works regardless. Hunted by angelic beings who believe she should be destroyed, Bayonetta battles to survive as she tries to piece together her past.

If this guy was in your past, wouldn't you prefer to be ignorant?

Her character is incredibly over-the-top, slutty-posh English dominatrix/witch type thing – and although she did grow on me to a degree, I found her far too unappealing with her obviousness and lack of any sort of serious attitude – she’s almost unforgiving in her posing and sexual innuendos, and while that may ignite flames in the hearts of the odd fifteen year-old, I would have preferred to see a more serious character – perhaps more in the vein of Lara Croft. To me, she sort of fails to be either respectable or particularly attractive (of which Ms Croft manages both), which is a shame. However, this really only shows in the cut scenes, so isn’t a huge problem with the main gameplay.

The cast also features a few other characters, such as Luka - a likeable journalist who is both cool and funny, always trying to track Bayonetta in a quest to find some answers, Rodin the shopkeeper, and a mysterious child named Cereza, who believes Bayonetta to be her mother. I won’t say too much more, however, since I don’t want to spoil the plot. The story itself was alright, however I felt it was very confusing for the most part, and very little of it made sense until the final couple of chapters. I do like the odd plot twist, but often I felt like… ‘So what’s going on?’

The gameplay is very reminiscent of Devil May Cry in the way of controls and combos – the action being very fluid and fast paced, whilst also being quite challenging. However, game feels somewhat more over-the-top than DMC, with a lot of large-scale attacks, most notably the ‘wicked-weave’, which involves Bayonetta summoning a giant boot or fist at the end of a combo attack. The craziness is quite fun, although to begin with it felt a little difficult to know what was going on with so much on the screen.

Yeah, a lot of her attacks leave her temporarily half-naked

Enemies range from small enemies to gigantic bosses, all of them taking the form of angelic-looking demons (or demonic-looking angels, perhaps), and are largely well designed. Your basic angels are the general fodder for beating the living daylights out of, although the ratio seems a lot more tipped toward the harder enemies than DMC, so there’s not always as much time to toy around with stylish manoeuvres. Tougher enemies, such as the claw-wielding ‘Grace’ and ‘Glory’ enemies, as well as the griffon/cannon hybrid ‘Fairness’ angels make the game quite challenging, as it is easy to get torn to pieces if you don’t keep your guard up at all times. This is good if you like a challenge, but it does mean that it leaves little time for playing around at times.

Bayonetta has a fair amount of weapons to unlock, which can be obtained by finding Golden LP’s that are largely hidden in pieces throughout the game. She may equip any combination of two weapons at one time, one assigned to her hands, and another to her feet. Some weapons can be bought twice in order to equip to both weapon slots at once, while one or two can only be equipped to either the hands or feet exclusively – such as the sword she obtains early in the game. The combinations mean that you can mix up Bayonetta’s move sets a little, such as using the sword and shotguns as a combination, or the shotguns and regular handguns as another. There are some interesting weapons in the game, including a few secret ones, but sadly many of the weapons have very ’samey’ combos, meaning that often there’s little distinction between some of the weapons, meaning that a new weapon doesn’t always mean an entirely new experience. There was also the little annoyance of her regular gun being mapped to the Square/X button at all times – it was a shame you couldn’t equip the other guns to this slot, as it would have been nice to replace her standard shot with a shotgun for aerial blasts, and not having to sacrifice her hands slot for that one function. If you don’t like her default gun, that’s an entire button you won’t be using a lot.

Bayonetta has a couple of other tricks up her sleeve – in the form of Witch-Time, and Torture Attacks. Witch-Time is an evasive manoeuvre, which activates automatically upon dodging an enemy attack with good timing. Time slows for a few seconds, allowing you to pull off some heavy hitting combos or move to a more strategic position while you have the chance. When Bayonetta has a full magic gauge, pressing both attack buttons together allow her to perform a Torture attack, which is a more cinematic move involving a short Quick-Time event to rack up damage by mashing a button or spinning an analogue stick to maximise the damage. Special torture attacks known as “Climax” attacks can be activated in the same way when prompted, in order to summon dark entities with boss-specific Torture Attacks that act as finishing blows.

The game also features other Quick-Time Events, which happen during some boss fights and cut scenes, to interact with the cinematic sequences and score a few bonus points – however these QTE’s are often in windows that are far too short, and it’s easy to miss the prompt even when you’re expecting it, which is a little frustrating – especially if you’re going for a good rank, since failing them usually results in instant death.

Bayonetta has a bit of a mix of gameplay – sometimes you can run on walls for some gravity-defying platforming sections at pre-set parts of the game – this power activates when the moon shines on Bayonetta, so naturally this happens at the appropriate times, and allows for a few strange but interesting areas, such as walking up the inside wall of a tower. There are also some levels that involve riding vehicles, such as a motorbike, in a very arcade experience – controlling Bayonetta down high-speed motorways while shooting away, skidding and pulling off jumps is quite satisfying, and the first level to use this element was actually one of the most enjoyable stages in the game.

The game definitely stinks of Devil May Cry, and the team’s history with Capcom, with countless references and in-jokes towards their previous work – Bayonetta often steals lines from the older games, with Dante’s “Flock off, Featherface” and Viewtiful Joe’s ”Henshin-a-go-go, baby!”. Luka also makes references to previous girlfriends – Trish, Claire, Sylvia and Ammy - that’s Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, Viewtiful Joe and Okami, all in one line. It’s shameless, but Capcom fan’s like myself will probably like it.

The game has plenty of replay value, with loads to unlock that you couldn’t really do in one play through, and I really like that aspect – there are secret weapons to unlock, a load of alternate outfits, rankings to improve, accessories that alter the gameplay a little (such as replacing witch-time for a counter-bomb, or allowing you to summon a few little devils to fight by your side), as well as a mode or two – and even a couple of characters that I havent gotten around to getting – but it depends how unique they are to whether they’ll be any good.

Overall, the game is something fresh and exciting, and for someone with quite specific needs in the action genre it does rate fairly well in my eyes. However, I don’t think it’s perfect (as some reviews have stated with 40/40 ratings), seeing as I don’t really feel that the weapons and combos are as varied as the could have been (Devil May Cry 3 being the one to beat in that area), and the heroine is a tad irritating and almost unlikable at times – she’s got a way to go if she ever wants to compete with Dante or Kratos, that’s for sure. However, if you like Devil May Cry, want a challenge or an action game with some replay value, pick it up. I’m sure it’ll be a while till we see a Devil May Cry 5 or equivalent, and we don’t even know if it’ll be very good or not.

(Did you see that?! I went a whole article talking about Bayonetta and DMC and didn’t bring up the fact that DMC4 disappointed me with its lack of replay value! …………oh. Damn. Nevermind.)

- Leon