By Duane / 2010-05-03 07:04:03The problem with downloadable services, especially those like the Indie Games section on XBLA, or in this case PSP Mini's is that its fairly difficult to get an idea on what is worth your time and what isn't. Okay, so the investment isn't exactly high, but you still want your moneys worth.
So it'd be reasonable to be sceptical about a title such as Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess, but please, don't hold back. Give this little gem some of your attention, hell your PSP is probably crying out for it. Why should you bother? Well, because what we have here is a simple and unique take on the score attack genre.
At its basic level, and the game is already incredibly basic anyway, Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess is about amassing as large a score as possible. There's not alot to it, not complicated maneouvres, no learning enemy tactics, its simply hit the jump button to land on the platform and attack the enemy with a series of double jumps. Each level is essentially like the sections in the 2D Castlevania's or Metroids where you have a series of platforms heading vertically up the screen, you give chase to a creature that the lead character, who I assume is Dracula, believes has stolen his princess and the aim is to land three double jumps on the creature before it reaches the top of the screen. Incredibly simple, no?
The way in which the score attack element comes into play is that landing on a platform increases your combo, and thus your score, but landing on the same platform more than once breaks that combo. The higher the combo, the higher the score and through a series of jumps, double jumps and wall jumps you're soon racing up the screen, racking up a combo thats hitting high double figures and amassing a nice high score. Its incredibly basic, yet compelling stuff made all the more enjoyable by the games visual charm not to mention its sense of humour.
You see Dracula has an incredible amount of self confidence, declaring himself amazing and fantastic at any opportunity that the game allows him to speak. This is also replicated in the loading screens, which either ridicule you the player or give "Tips" that actually have no impact on the gameplay itself but add that little moment where you find yourself grinning in amusement and its for this reason that I really reccomend Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess, well, that and the little twist at the end of the very short Story Mode.
So it'd be reasonable to be sceptical about a title such as Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess, but please, don't hold back. Give this little gem some of your attention, hell your PSP is probably crying out for it. Why should you bother? Well, because what we have here is a simple and unique take on the score attack genre.
At its basic level, and the game is already incredibly basic anyway, Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess is about amassing as large a score as possible. There's not alot to it, not complicated maneouvres, no learning enemy tactics, its simply hit the jump button to land on the platform and attack the enemy with a series of double jumps. Each level is essentially like the sections in the 2D Castlevania's or Metroids where you have a series of platforms heading vertically up the screen, you give chase to a creature that the lead character, who I assume is Dracula, believes has stolen his princess and the aim is to land three double jumps on the creature before it reaches the top of the screen. Incredibly simple, no?
The way in which the score attack element comes into play is that landing on a platform increases your combo, and thus your score, but landing on the same platform more than once breaks that combo. The higher the combo, the higher the score and through a series of jumps, double jumps and wall jumps you're soon racing up the screen, racking up a combo thats hitting high double figures and amassing a nice high score. Its incredibly basic, yet compelling stuff made all the more enjoyable by the games visual charm not to mention its sense of humour.
You see Dracula has an incredible amount of self confidence, declaring himself amazing and fantastic at any opportunity that the game allows him to speak. This is also replicated in the loading screens, which either ridicule you the player or give "Tips" that actually have no impact on the gameplay itself but add that little moment where you find yourself grinning in amusement and its for this reason that I really reccomend Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess, well, that and the little twist at the end of the very short Story Mode.
By Duane / 2010-04-09 10:56:13Does sticking a game, based around the idea of buying well endowed, computer generated women bikini's in order to beriend them and play volleyball with them become more or less perverted if you stick it on a portable device?
Dead or Alive: Paradise is a difficult thing to tackle, defend it and you look like someone who enjoys spending your time playing a game that seem's to have been developed with the sole purpose of being voyeuristic, attack it and you ignore that behind all of the gelatine like titilation there's actually an enjoyable if fairly basic volleyball and "relationship" game here.
The basic premise of the game is to collect swimsuits and accessories by buying and gifting them between the girls, you choose one girl to play as during your 14 day stay on "Zack Island" and have to befriend another girl in order to play games of volleyball. This is achieved by buying bikini's or accessories and giving them away to the girl you want to befriend as gifts. Each girl has their own tastes in regards to colour and the general skimpiness or style of the "swimwear" so they may not like what you give them. To buy items, you need to win volleyball games to earn money and so the circle continues. There's other distractions like Pond Jumping, which asks you to time a series of button presses precisely in order to jump across floats on the surface of a swimming pool and a photography mode that really does put the emphasis on voyeurism.
In the evenings there's also the option of heading to the casino to play a bit of blackjack, poker or one arm bandits (fnar!), but there's still the inescapable fact that every thing is designed to help you gain more money to buy more swim suits which gradually get racier and racier as you put more hours into the game and repeated visits to the island in order to improve the relationships between all the girls. Its a damn shame that this is the focus, as it was with previous instalments, as beneath it all the volleyball aspect (and collecting if your that way inclined) is rather enjoyable. Playing it is as simple as hitting the Circle button in order to set your team mate up for a smash, or hittin X in order to smash it yourself or send it back over the net if its too risky to try anything else. The camera isn't always helpful as it favours the team serving even though it never actually changes its physical position, this can lead to you misunderstanding the shadow of the ball on the floor or your character appearing off screen when the ball reaches a certain difference. In short it zooms slightly in and out more than it does pan with the action, couple that with slow down when things get a bit visually striking (everyone in different outfits, court being in a visually scenic area, that kind of thing) and its all too easy to lose a match through no fault of your own. Luckily then these problems don't rare their heads too often and games are over pretty quickly. If it wasn't for the nature of the games appearance then it'd provide the perfect amount of entertainment for a train journey or whilst waiting for a bus, as things stand though, I'd be embarrassed to play this away from the comfort of my own house.
Dead or Alive: Paradise is a difficult thing to tackle, defend it and you look like someone who enjoys spending your time playing a game that seem's to have been developed with the sole purpose of being voyeuristic, attack it and you ignore that behind all of the gelatine like titilation there's actually an enjoyable if fairly basic volleyball and "relationship" game here.
The basic premise of the game is to collect swimsuits and accessories by buying and gifting them between the girls, you choose one girl to play as during your 14 day stay on "Zack Island" and have to befriend another girl in order to play games of volleyball. This is achieved by buying bikini's or accessories and giving them away to the girl you want to befriend as gifts. Each girl has their own tastes in regards to colour and the general skimpiness or style of the "swimwear" so they may not like what you give them. To buy items, you need to win volleyball games to earn money and so the circle continues. There's other distractions like Pond Jumping, which asks you to time a series of button presses precisely in order to jump across floats on the surface of a swimming pool and a photography mode that really does put the emphasis on voyeurism.
In the evenings there's also the option of heading to the casino to play a bit of blackjack, poker or one arm bandits (fnar!), but there's still the inescapable fact that every thing is designed to help you gain more money to buy more swim suits which gradually get racier and racier as you put more hours into the game and repeated visits to the island in order to improve the relationships between all the girls. Its a damn shame that this is the focus, as it was with previous instalments, as beneath it all the volleyball aspect (and collecting if your that way inclined) is rather enjoyable. Playing it is as simple as hitting the Circle button in order to set your team mate up for a smash, or hittin X in order to smash it yourself or send it back over the net if its too risky to try anything else. The camera isn't always helpful as it favours the team serving even though it never actually changes its physical position, this can lead to you misunderstanding the shadow of the ball on the floor or your character appearing off screen when the ball reaches a certain difference. In short it zooms slightly in and out more than it does pan with the action, couple that with slow down when things get a bit visually striking (everyone in different outfits, court being in a visually scenic area, that kind of thing) and its all too easy to lose a match through no fault of your own. Luckily then these problems don't rare their heads too often and games are over pretty quickly. If it wasn't for the nature of the games appearance then it'd provide the perfect amount of entertainment for a train journey or whilst waiting for a bus, as things stand though, I'd be embarrassed to play this away from the comfort of my own house.
By Duane / 2009-09-21 14:26:03How’s this for a long game title? “Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman! What Did I Ever Do To Deserve This?” yeah, I thought so, with that in mind I shall be referring to Nippon Ichi’s latest PSP title as Badman. So anyway, Badman is one of those games that struggles to fit into a predefined genre, it has various hallmarks of Bullfrog’s PC classic Dungeon Keeper, but due to its Old Skool Arcade method styling’s (visually, difficulty and game play wise) it feels like something from the heydays of standing at an Arcade cabinet in some seaside resort in Blackpool, eating up all your change as you try and try again to get further in the game with your one life.
Boiled down to its basic concept, Badman see’s you trying to prevent a demon overlord from being taken hostage by heroes invading the underworld, to do this you have to create a labyrinth by digging out dirt on a 2D field. Certain tiles of dirt have markings on them which allow you to spawn a creature, and through use of these creatures you can transport minerals or mana to into other blocks to make stronger creatures.
However, you do not have direct control over any of the creatures in your lair, they operate on a path cycle meaning you have to manipulate the tunnels in order to create the required pathways to gain the optimum output of minerals and therefore creatures. Sound confusing? Don’t worry, it is, at first. It’s only through working through the games numerous tutorial missions, then trying the theory and getting gradually further and unlocking more tutorials that you begin to get the core concept of the game and begin to understand its intricacies and twist your mind round to its way of thinking, unsurprisingly for a Nippon Ichi game it’s most certainly not the easiest thing in the world even if it is presented in an incredibly simple manner.
The two largest obstacles that any gamer will have to overcome are, firstly, the games visual style, I wasn’t kidding when I said it looked like an old Arcade game, it really does look like something from the late 1980s, secondly the games difficulty level, even when you understand what you’re doing, the random generation of minerals at the start of the game means that no one system will work every time, and once the Overlord is captured, that’s it back to the beginning, it’s like an old high-score attack game in this respect. However the game understands the historical feeling it gives the player and plays on that, there are numerous references hidden away that celebrate and mock videogame history in equal manner, sometimes its ham fisted (especially in its mockery of one of the heroes as being a JRPG player) sometimes it’s quite subtle.
The problem with Badman is that it most definitely isn’t for everyone, but it’s really hard to tell if it’s for you unless you play it, but its most definitely worth a try if you want something challenging and quirky but that is also sort of easy to just pick up and play on a short journey, I know that I’ve become a fan.
Boiled down to its basic concept, Badman see’s you trying to prevent a demon overlord from being taken hostage by heroes invading the underworld, to do this you have to create a labyrinth by digging out dirt on a 2D field. Certain tiles of dirt have markings on them which allow you to spawn a creature, and through use of these creatures you can transport minerals or mana to into other blocks to make stronger creatures.
However, you do not have direct control over any of the creatures in your lair, they operate on a path cycle meaning you have to manipulate the tunnels in order to create the required pathways to gain the optimum output of minerals and therefore creatures. Sound confusing? Don’t worry, it is, at first. It’s only through working through the games numerous tutorial missions, then trying the theory and getting gradually further and unlocking more tutorials that you begin to get the core concept of the game and begin to understand its intricacies and twist your mind round to its way of thinking, unsurprisingly for a Nippon Ichi game it’s most certainly not the easiest thing in the world even if it is presented in an incredibly simple manner.
The two largest obstacles that any gamer will have to overcome are, firstly, the games visual style, I wasn’t kidding when I said it looked like an old Arcade game, it really does look like something from the late 1980s, secondly the games difficulty level, even when you understand what you’re doing, the random generation of minerals at the start of the game means that no one system will work every time, and once the Overlord is captured, that’s it back to the beginning, it’s like an old high-score attack game in this respect. However the game understands the historical feeling it gives the player and plays on that, there are numerous references hidden away that celebrate and mock videogame history in equal manner, sometimes its ham fisted (especially in its mockery of one of the heroes as being a JRPG player) sometimes it’s quite subtle.
The problem with Badman is that it most definitely isn’t for everyone, but it’s really hard to tell if it’s for you unless you play it, but its most definitely worth a try if you want something challenging and quirky but that is also sort of easy to just pick up and play on a short journey, I know that I’ve become a fan.
By Duane / 2009-07-02 08:19:01Rock Band, it's a bulldozer of a game that just keeps absorbing more and more people and more and more money from further releases and weekly downloadable content. So do we need a portable version? Harmonix and EA say yes we do.
A portable version of "Rock Band" can't work though can it? Surely the purpose of Rock Band is a group of people, packed into a small living room with plastic instruments and making lots of noise? Well, yeah, it kind of is, so with that in mind Rock Band as we know it wouldn't work in a portable form. So instead, Harmonix have gone back to a template they used prior to the first Guitar Hero game, namely the mildly popular cult titles Amplitude and Frequency.
So Rock Band Unplugged is Rock Band in appearance and name, but technially and in terms of how it plays it is well and truly a descendant of Amplitude. You set up your band in the normal manner, and begin a tour, once the song you want to play is selected from there on out things change to what Rock Band fans know and already love. You're immediately presented with four bars, one for each member of the band (from left to right, bass player, drummer, vocalist and guitar player) and you're given a short combination of notes to play for each instrument (I might add not simulatenously), using left, up (both d-pad), triangle and circle you play the notes and upon completion that band member will play itself for a short period of time, allowing you to tap a shoulder button to cycle to another band member to play their instrument and increasing your combo meter. You still have to save a band member if things go awfully wrong by using the Overdrive button (X), which can make things pretty tense as it can take a while to recover completely, if 3 band members require rescuing, the song is failed.
It actually sounds more contrived, complicated and difficult than it really is, but it does provide a genuine, yet fun challenge. However, it doesn't feel like your performing the music, it feels like your the conducter in an orchestra and are instructing each band member as to what they should be doing, which is a very odd feeling considering this is Rock Band and not Orchestral Band.
The tour mode too feels a little odd, you have a handful of cities to choose from to begin with, with 3 songs in each, as you progress you unlock more cities, and therefore more songs, but you also unlock "sets" where you have to play a set number of songs that are either of your choosing, chosen at random or based on a theme depending on the title of the set. This forces you to play through a song numerous times and is actually really helpful in helping you cope with higher difficulty levels as you get used to each set of notes for a specific difficulty. However, it can become incredibly repetetive and tedious when you have to play a song that you're not particularly keen on.
However, this is only really a small niggle, and overall Rock Band Unplugged is as easily addictive as its bigger brothers on the home consoles, with a pair of headphones it lends itself well to portable play, and load times are suprisingly short. The presentation is as high as you'd expect and overall the game is great fun and different enough to what you normally expect from the series to warrant a purchase. Harmonix have once again proven themselves the king of the rhythm action genre.
A portable version of "Rock Band" can't work though can it? Surely the purpose of Rock Band is a group of people, packed into a small living room with plastic instruments and making lots of noise? Well, yeah, it kind of is, so with that in mind Rock Band as we know it wouldn't work in a portable form. So instead, Harmonix have gone back to a template they used prior to the first Guitar Hero game, namely the mildly popular cult titles Amplitude and Frequency.
So Rock Band Unplugged is Rock Band in appearance and name, but technially and in terms of how it plays it is well and truly a descendant of Amplitude. You set up your band in the normal manner, and begin a tour, once the song you want to play is selected from there on out things change to what Rock Band fans know and already love. You're immediately presented with four bars, one for each member of the band (from left to right, bass player, drummer, vocalist and guitar player) and you're given a short combination of notes to play for each instrument (I might add not simulatenously), using left, up (both d-pad), triangle and circle you play the notes and upon completion that band member will play itself for a short period of time, allowing you to tap a shoulder button to cycle to another band member to play their instrument and increasing your combo meter. You still have to save a band member if things go awfully wrong by using the Overdrive button (X), which can make things pretty tense as it can take a while to recover completely, if 3 band members require rescuing, the song is failed.
It actually sounds more contrived, complicated and difficult than it really is, but it does provide a genuine, yet fun challenge. However, it doesn't feel like your performing the music, it feels like your the conducter in an orchestra and are instructing each band member as to what they should be doing, which is a very odd feeling considering this is Rock Band and not Orchestral Band.
The tour mode too feels a little odd, you have a handful of cities to choose from to begin with, with 3 songs in each, as you progress you unlock more cities, and therefore more songs, but you also unlock "sets" where you have to play a set number of songs that are either of your choosing, chosen at random or based on a theme depending on the title of the set. This forces you to play through a song numerous times and is actually really helpful in helping you cope with higher difficulty levels as you get used to each set of notes for a specific difficulty. However, it can become incredibly repetetive and tedious when you have to play a song that you're not particularly keen on.
However, this is only really a small niggle, and overall Rock Band Unplugged is as easily addictive as its bigger brothers on the home consoles, with a pair of headphones it lends itself well to portable play, and load times are suprisingly short. The presentation is as high as you'd expect and overall the game is great fun and different enough to what you normally expect from the series to warrant a purchase. Harmonix have once again proven themselves the king of the rhythm action genre.
By Duane / 2009-04-15 09:18:12To say I'm a fan of Phantasy Star Online would be a massive understatement, and to say I was slightly dissapointed by 2006's Phantasy Star Universe would be hitting the nail on the head. So you can imagine my suprise when SEGA announced Phantasy Star Portable with some slight changes to the PSU formula that sounded undoubtedly like PSO additions, it sounded like it could actually work. The best thing is, it really does, and it suits the handheld format its now on perfectly.
Phantasy Star Portable takes over where Phantasy Star Universe and its expansion, Ambition of the Illuminus, finished off. Although you need no prior knowledge of those games events in order to enjoy the proceedings here, upon start-up you are asked to create your own character, whom you will control in all modes, from a choice of 4 races, Human (who don't particularly have any strenghts or weaknesses), Newman (best equipped as a Force class), CAST (robot, mostly specialists in ranged combat) and Beast (have powerful physical close range attacks). Before embarking on the story mode.
It's within this mode that you will spend most of your initial time with the game, learning the controls, your prefered style of play, what class to specialise in and unlocking various items that may come in useful when you eventually decide to start focusing on just levelling your character and item hunting. In this respect the game is rather shallow and the story itself is uninspired and dull, but progression through this mode opens up more and more individual missions for you to do as and when you wish.
It's these missions compiled with the gameplay mechanics that make the game perfect handheld fodder as there's nothing more complicated than getting the timing of your button presses dead on in order to unleash the most amount of damage your character is unable to unleash, and with the Free Missions being generally train journey in length (average of about half an hour I'd say) its perfect for picking up and playing as and when the opportunity arises, and if you know upto 4 people with a PSP, have X-Link Kai working or a PS3 with Ad-Hoc Party downloaded from the Japanese PSN store, then it opens up the game even further in a manner in which the game was always intended to be played, its just a huge shame that SEGA, Sonic Team and Alfa System weren't able to bring in a proper, dedicated online mode, for that you'll have to wait for Phantasy Star Zero (which looks more PSO like than Phantasy Star Portable) no the DS later in the year.
Phantasy Star Portable takes over where Phantasy Star Universe and its expansion, Ambition of the Illuminus, finished off. Although you need no prior knowledge of those games events in order to enjoy the proceedings here, upon start-up you are asked to create your own character, whom you will control in all modes, from a choice of 4 races, Human (who don't particularly have any strenghts or weaknesses), Newman (best equipped as a Force class), CAST (robot, mostly specialists in ranged combat) and Beast (have powerful physical close range attacks). Before embarking on the story mode.
It's within this mode that you will spend most of your initial time with the game, learning the controls, your prefered style of play, what class to specialise in and unlocking various items that may come in useful when you eventually decide to start focusing on just levelling your character and item hunting. In this respect the game is rather shallow and the story itself is uninspired and dull, but progression through this mode opens up more and more individual missions for you to do as and when you wish.
It's these missions compiled with the gameplay mechanics that make the game perfect handheld fodder as there's nothing more complicated than getting the timing of your button presses dead on in order to unleash the most amount of damage your character is unable to unleash, and with the Free Missions being generally train journey in length (average of about half an hour I'd say) its perfect for picking up and playing as and when the opportunity arises, and if you know upto 4 people with a PSP, have X-Link Kai working or a PS3 with Ad-Hoc Party downloaded from the Japanese PSN store, then it opens up the game even further in a manner in which the game was always intended to be played, its just a huge shame that SEGA, Sonic Team and Alfa System weren't able to bring in a proper, dedicated online mode, for that you'll have to wait for Phantasy Star Zero (which looks more PSO like than Phantasy Star Portable) no the DS later in the year.
By Duane / 2009-04-13 11:59:43Dood! It's a familiar cry for Nippon Ichi fans, it's the cry of the Prinny, a penguin like demon with wings from the Underworld, servants of Etna, character from the highly popular Disgaea series, and its these Prinnies that are the central role of Prinny! Can I Really Be A Hero? (if you hadn't of already guessed from the title of the game...).
But unlike the series of games they are most famous for appearing in, Prinny!... isn't a isometric strategy RPG. In fact it goes back to the old-skool, to a world filled with side scrolling brawlers and plays a gameplay tribute to one of the toughest and most fondly remembered legends of the side scrolling action genre, Capcom's Ghouls 'n' Ghosts/Ghosts 'n' Goblins, and in this respect it pays the perfect tribute in being a fantastic modern example of that genre whilst still having its own spin and the familiar Disgaea character.
There's only subtle differences between Prinny! and GnG though, on its most difficult setting (out of a choice of two) any hit on a Prinny results in instant death, the twist being that you have 1,000 Prinnies with which to complete the game, sounds easy, ja? Well, it isn't. You see, in typical GnG tradition, Prinny! Can I Really Be A Hero is absolutely solid, but not in a negative way, each time you attempt a level you feel yourself improve, it might only be by a minute amount but its enough reward to push you on, however it is highly dangerous that Nippon Ichi have decided to develop this for a piece of kit thats not hardwired to something and is pretty damn expensive, lucky for you then that you may just end up playing it in a padded cell before you finish it.
As you'd expect from Nippon Ichi, the game carries on Disgaea's tradition of being laugh out loud funny whilst also being beautifully presented. The sprites here are amongst some of the best I've seen in a long while, while the facial expressions of the characters, and the lines delivered in the dialog provide plenty of entertainment, and any fan of Nippon Ichi or the aforementioned Capcom series won't go far wrong in picking this up for a blast, worth investing in a PSP for.
But unlike the series of games they are most famous for appearing in, Prinny!... isn't a isometric strategy RPG. In fact it goes back to the old-skool, to a world filled with side scrolling brawlers and plays a gameplay tribute to one of the toughest and most fondly remembered legends of the side scrolling action genre, Capcom's Ghouls 'n' Ghosts/Ghosts 'n' Goblins, and in this respect it pays the perfect tribute in being a fantastic modern example of that genre whilst still having its own spin and the familiar Disgaea character.
There's only subtle differences between Prinny! and GnG though, on its most difficult setting (out of a choice of two) any hit on a Prinny results in instant death, the twist being that you have 1,000 Prinnies with which to complete the game, sounds easy, ja? Well, it isn't. You see, in typical GnG tradition, Prinny! Can I Really Be A Hero is absolutely solid, but not in a negative way, each time you attempt a level you feel yourself improve, it might only be by a minute amount but its enough reward to push you on, however it is highly dangerous that Nippon Ichi have decided to develop this for a piece of kit thats not hardwired to something and is pretty damn expensive, lucky for you then that you may just end up playing it in a padded cell before you finish it.
As you'd expect from Nippon Ichi, the game carries on Disgaea's tradition of being laugh out loud funny whilst also being beautifully presented. The sprites here are amongst some of the best I've seen in a long while, while the facial expressions of the characters, and the lines delivered in the dialog provide plenty of entertainment, and any fan of Nippon Ichi or the aforementioned Capcom series won't go far wrong in picking this up for a blast, worth investing in a PSP for.
By Duane / 2009-04-07 12:48:19Yes, its another SNK compilation. But suprisingly it doesn't suffer from a similar fate to King of Fighters: Orochi Saga or SNK Arcade Collection.
As with both of those titles, the focus is quite obviously on the games themselves, and in hindsight I was possibly a bit harsh on the overall packages offered. Afterall, compilations are a collection of games, it doesn't matter how they're presented or what is thrown in with them, so long as they still play well, and with this in mind, the Samurai Showdown titles play as well as they've always done.
Now admittedly, the games don't feel as polished or accomplised as The King of Fighters series, but they're still perfectly playable and enjoyable in a very pre-Soul Calibur weapons based combat kind of way, and like The King of Fighters: The Orochi Saga the games have aged incredibly well with each instalment a unique but similar fighting experience as the series has evolved.
Of the six games on offer here, the one I got the most enjoyment from was Samurai Showdown IV: Amakusa's Revenge largely thanks to its Rage Explosion feature, which allows you a period of invincibility and extra power depending on the amount of health you have left. The closer to death you are the longer it will last, which makes battles closer and altogether more enjoyable, with each opponent (over network play) trying to hold off for that last ditch attempt at winning the round
The presentation still leaves alot to be desired, but problems like the freezing and the sound dropping that I encountered in the KOF compilation haven't raised their heads, making the experience of actually playing the games presented on the UMD a positive one rather one that has a slight irritance.
As with both of those titles, the focus is quite obviously on the games themselves, and in hindsight I was possibly a bit harsh on the overall packages offered. Afterall, compilations are a collection of games, it doesn't matter how they're presented or what is thrown in with them, so long as they still play well, and with this in mind, the Samurai Showdown titles play as well as they've always done.
Now admittedly, the games don't feel as polished or accomplised as The King of Fighters series, but they're still perfectly playable and enjoyable in a very pre-Soul Calibur weapons based combat kind of way, and like The King of Fighters: The Orochi Saga the games have aged incredibly well with each instalment a unique but similar fighting experience as the series has evolved.
Of the six games on offer here, the one I got the most enjoyment from was Samurai Showdown IV: Amakusa's Revenge largely thanks to its Rage Explosion feature, which allows you a period of invincibility and extra power depending on the amount of health you have left. The closer to death you are the longer it will last, which makes battles closer and altogether more enjoyable, with each opponent (over network play) trying to hold off for that last ditch attempt at winning the round
The presentation still leaves alot to be desired, but problems like the freezing and the sound dropping that I encountered in the KOF compilation haven't raised their heads, making the experience of actually playing the games presented on the UMD a positive one rather one that has a slight irritance.
By Duane / 2009-03-24 07:54:44You gotta love retro collections, especially those released on portable devices. There's nothing more perfect for being stuck on a train than a cartridge/umd full of quick access games for you to burn through, especially when that retro collection comes from a quick blast arcade pedigree as rich as SNK's.
That is what is being presented to us here, a UMD with "16 classics on one disc" as the back of the box proclaims, and a quick glance at the list if promising. Metal Slug is represented, as are Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, Neo Turf Masters and Samurai Showdown, aswell as others that fans of the company, or anyone lucky to remember the arcade scene during SNK's heyday, so on the surface is all good. It's also pretty good when you actually get into playing the games. With Neo Turf Masters, Metal Slug, Last Resort and suprisingly The Next Glory all being incredibly enjoyable still, whilst Magician Lord, King of Fighters '94 and Fatal Fury being good for quick blasts. The rest of the games on offer were all enjoyable too, even if I didn't feel quite as compelled to return to them like I did the ones mentioned above, but thats probably more of a personal thing than anything.
However, the compilation has all the same problems that The King of Fighters: The Orochi Saga had, poor loading times, a lack of care in presentation and insultingly a need for you to have to change the controls of each game you play as SNK Playmore have seen fit to make the main three buttons Square, X and Triangle rather than the much easier Square, X and Circle.
These are only small problems you may think, but when it comes to something like a retro compilation the niggles can quickly become incredibly frustrating, especially when you have to change the controller set up for each individual game rather than there being a universal option, couple this with the poor presentation (which is exactly the same as that on the KOF UMD) and the package feels a little bit like a waste of money and time, that is unless you're a die hard SNK enthusiast and then these niggles will probably be quirky things that add to the packages overall character.
That is what is being presented to us here, a UMD with "16 classics on one disc" as the back of the box proclaims, and a quick glance at the list if promising. Metal Slug is represented, as are Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, Neo Turf Masters and Samurai Showdown, aswell as others that fans of the company, or anyone lucky to remember the arcade scene during SNK's heyday, so on the surface is all good. It's also pretty good when you actually get into playing the games. With Neo Turf Masters, Metal Slug, Last Resort and suprisingly The Next Glory all being incredibly enjoyable still, whilst Magician Lord, King of Fighters '94 and Fatal Fury being good for quick blasts. The rest of the games on offer were all enjoyable too, even if I didn't feel quite as compelled to return to them like I did the ones mentioned above, but thats probably more of a personal thing than anything.
However, the compilation has all the same problems that The King of Fighters: The Orochi Saga had, poor loading times, a lack of care in presentation and insultingly a need for you to have to change the controls of each game you play as SNK Playmore have seen fit to make the main three buttons Square, X and Triangle rather than the much easier Square, X and Circle.
These are only small problems you may think, but when it comes to something like a retro compilation the niggles can quickly become incredibly frustrating, especially when you have to change the controller set up for each individual game rather than there being a universal option, couple this with the poor presentation (which is exactly the same as that on the KOF UMD) and the package feels a little bit like a waste of money and time, that is unless you're a die hard SNK enthusiast and then these niggles will probably be quirky things that add to the packages overall character.
By Duane / 2009-03-16 13:08:25There's not many 2D Fighters that have been able to take Capcom's Street Fighter series head-on, but if you ask hardcore fans of the genre they'll tell you King of Fighters has run it close in the past, and thats probably why SNK Playmore are happy to keep putting out re-releases of previous versions of the game. That's what we have here, a compilation pack featuring King of Fighters games from 1994 through to 1998, a period that many will tell you was the series' heyday.
The question is though, do we really need 5 fighters from the same series on one UMD? Probably not, but each individual fan of the series probably has one particular title they favour over the others, and just sticking one old game on a UMD with a £20 price tag would irritate alot of people, so you can see the sense in offering the entire Orochi story arc from the franchise in one complete package.
However, there's not really a whole lot of difference between each of the 5 titles on offer, and King of Fighters '98 is undoubtedly the strongest of the bunch, which explains why the included Challenge mode uses that particular games engine and systems over any of the others on offer.
The one thing that consistently makes these retro collection packages a viable purchase is the extra's and presentation before you even head into actually playing any of the games included, and this is where The King of Fighters: The Orochi Saga falls flat on its backside, there's pretty much nothing on the front end that screams "King of Fighters", yes there's a bit of character art and the logo's of each of the games, but no history on the series or anything and its all very plain and boring. There are extra's to unlock however, but this all amounts to character art for each of the games plus the individual soundtracks. Admittedly theres probably not alot more they could of offered.
All this aside though, ignoring the quality of the extra's and the minor differences between titles, the overall design of the package feels broken. Loading times are atrocious and there's the odd bit of freezing whenever a fight starts, menu's sometimes feel unresponsive and the sound can occasionally cut out giving the whole package a rather lazily put together cash grabbing feel. This isn't helped by the very design of the PSP, sometimes its hard to tell if some of the problems are due to optimisation (or the lack of) for the platform or if its because of the UMD that the data isn't being sent fast enough, plus playnig the game becomes difficult due to the small and slippy d-pad on the PSP with the only alternative being the inaccurate Analog nub. All of these problems are a great shame though, as King of Fighters 98 is a damn fine beat em up, that could have benefited from a Street Fighter II HD Remix style makeover, even if it was for the PSP.
The question is though, do we really need 5 fighters from the same series on one UMD? Probably not, but each individual fan of the series probably has one particular title they favour over the others, and just sticking one old game on a UMD with a £20 price tag would irritate alot of people, so you can see the sense in offering the entire Orochi story arc from the franchise in one complete package.
However, there's not really a whole lot of difference between each of the 5 titles on offer, and King of Fighters '98 is undoubtedly the strongest of the bunch, which explains why the included Challenge mode uses that particular games engine and systems over any of the others on offer.
The one thing that consistently makes these retro collection packages a viable purchase is the extra's and presentation before you even head into actually playing any of the games included, and this is where The King of Fighters: The Orochi Saga falls flat on its backside, there's pretty much nothing on the front end that screams "King of Fighters", yes there's a bit of character art and the logo's of each of the games, but no history on the series or anything and its all very plain and boring. There are extra's to unlock however, but this all amounts to character art for each of the games plus the individual soundtracks. Admittedly theres probably not alot more they could of offered.
All this aside though, ignoring the quality of the extra's and the minor differences between titles, the overall design of the package feels broken. Loading times are atrocious and there's the odd bit of freezing whenever a fight starts, menu's sometimes feel unresponsive and the sound can occasionally cut out giving the whole package a rather lazily put together cash grabbing feel. This isn't helped by the very design of the PSP, sometimes its hard to tell if some of the problems are due to optimisation (or the lack of) for the platform or if its because of the UMD that the data isn't being sent fast enough, plus playnig the game becomes difficult due to the small and slippy d-pad on the PSP with the only alternative being the inaccurate Analog nub. All of these problems are a great shame though, as King of Fighters 98 is a damn fine beat em up, that could have benefited from a Street Fighter II HD Remix style makeover, even if it was for the PSP.
By Duane / 2008-12-15 08:08:32Super Stardust HD, a PS3 update of Amiga classic Super Stardust, which was itself a sequel to Stardust, now you can get Super Stardust Portable, a version of the PS3 network title for the PSP. It's a bit of an odd sounding thing really, a two-stick shoot'em up, think Geometry Wars 2, on a handheld that only features one stick. But suprisingly it works.
However, it only works in a rather limited fashion. The analogue nub controls the movement of your craft, whilst the the face buttons (triangle, square, circle and x) all control the direction that you can fire in, meaning that you can only really fire in 8 different directions rather than the 360 aiming of its counterpart on the PlayStation 3. Despite this set back though, it's something you only really notice if you dwell on the fact too much and the limitations of the control system force you to pay the game in a different style to what you would of with something else in the genre on a platform with 2 analogue sticks, I personally found myself sort of strafing more often than I would of done one something like Geo Wars.
The basic's of the game are very similar to Asteroids, there's a ton of rocks floating around above whichever planet you've chosen to defend, from 5 choices which you unlock as you progress, the bigger ones have a centre that can be destroyed to earn bonus points and items that you have to navigate your craft over to pick up. Other craft appear too that you have to shoot down, and a wave ends when you force a circular craft to explode after raining aload of gunfire down upon it. Do this five times and you complete the level.
This is where things get difficult, as is normally the case with these games, the waves get more and more hectic, and with clusters of rock breaking off each asteroid as you shoot at it, it soon becomes a case of you dodging stuff as much as you're shooting other stuff in order to make it through each wave, forcing the player into a deep sense of concentration. However, unlike Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, there's not a whole lot of gameplay modes to choose from and the game feels very samey throughout, it also doesn't have quite as big a “just one more go” feel to it as Bizarre's genre defining release does.
Despite this though, and considering the price of the game through Sony's PlayStation Network (which you can now access through your PSP) its a suprisingly solid and easily playable game thats well worth the asking price, especially as it only takes up a small amount of space on a memory stick, so that you've always got something small and light to just dip into when you have a quiet moment or two.
However, it only works in a rather limited fashion. The analogue nub controls the movement of your craft, whilst the the face buttons (triangle, square, circle and x) all control the direction that you can fire in, meaning that you can only really fire in 8 different directions rather than the 360 aiming of its counterpart on the PlayStation 3. Despite this set back though, it's something you only really notice if you dwell on the fact too much and the limitations of the control system force you to pay the game in a different style to what you would of with something else in the genre on a platform with 2 analogue sticks, I personally found myself sort of strafing more often than I would of done one something like Geo Wars.
The basic's of the game are very similar to Asteroids, there's a ton of rocks floating around above whichever planet you've chosen to defend, from 5 choices which you unlock as you progress, the bigger ones have a centre that can be destroyed to earn bonus points and items that you have to navigate your craft over to pick up. Other craft appear too that you have to shoot down, and a wave ends when you force a circular craft to explode after raining aload of gunfire down upon it. Do this five times and you complete the level.
This is where things get difficult, as is normally the case with these games, the waves get more and more hectic, and with clusters of rock breaking off each asteroid as you shoot at it, it soon becomes a case of you dodging stuff as much as you're shooting other stuff in order to make it through each wave, forcing the player into a deep sense of concentration. However, unlike Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, there's not a whole lot of gameplay modes to choose from and the game feels very samey throughout, it also doesn't have quite as big a “just one more go” feel to it as Bizarre's genre defining release does.
Despite this though, and considering the price of the game through Sony's PlayStation Network (which you can now access through your PSP) its a suprisingly solid and easily playable game thats well worth the asking price, especially as it only takes up a small amount of space on a memory stick, so that you've always got something small and light to just dip into when you have a quiet moment or two.
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