Consolation Prize

It’s been a bit quiet on the demo front on Xbox Live Marketplace recently but some playable titles have started to trickle onto the service once more. One which I thought looked quite interesting was Facebreaker, a tongue in cheek fighting game from Fight Night developers EA Canada.

Whereas with most fighting games character move-sets can number into the hundreds, Facebreaker instead employs a more streamlined approach to the art of pugilism ensuring you don’t have to memorise unfeasibly long move combinations. In fact only a few types of attacks are used, low and high punches are mapped to the “A” and “X” buttons respectively which can be strung together with “breakers” (using the “Y” button) to unleash more devastating attacks. In addition the triggers are used to alter your characters stance between blocking and dodging, and when used in combination with the punch buttons, and with the correct timing, allow you to parry and counter punch quite easily before going on the offensive.

As the name of the game suggest the aim is simply to beat your opponent to a pulp. The game promotes an aggressive strategy as each successful hit fills the “breaker” gauge which when full allows the player to perform a, you guessed it, “facebreaker” which enacts a brutal finishing move on the opponent. Thankfully because of the cartoon style of the game this isn’t a gruesome experience, and in actuality is more like the stylised violence you’d expect to see in a “Tom & Jerry” cartoon.

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With the release of firmware v2.0 we can now start using our beloved iPhones (or iTouch) as mobile gaming platforms in addition to our Nintendo DS’s and Sony PSP’s. There is already a decent selection of games available for the device ready to download from the “App Store” and most of them are reasonably priced.

So, in the name of “research” I thought I’d download a couple of games to sample the validity of the iPhone as a long term gaming platform.

ZEN Pinball: Roller Coaster

Shooting out from the development house that brought Pinball FX to Xbox Live Arcade this little Pinball game is the first to appear on the iPhone. The game only features one table, based upon the idea of a theme park and features a good mix of buffers, ramps, targets and challenges to test your skills. The actual table looks okay, it’s bright and colourful, with plenty of flashing lights, and because it’s a 3D model you’re can tilt and rotate the iPhone to change the viewpoint.

As it’s a touch-screen device the controls are simple, just tap on the bottom left or right of the screen for the respective flipper control. In reality this generally means you’re going to hold the iPhone cupped between two hands using your thumbs to activate the flippers.

My main concern with ZEN Pinball: Roller Coaster however is the response speed, or the sometimes apparent delay of the flippers. On numerous occasions I was left with flippers that just didn’t “flip”, resulting in the loss of a ball. In other instances the flippers would “stick”, just as if I had left my thumb pressed down. As pinball is based upon your reactions to have them further compromised by sometimes unresponsive controls is very frustrating.

ZEN Pinball: Roller Coaster is available for 2.99 GBP and I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending it if not for the flipper delay. The problem isn’t bad enough to ruin the game, but it can be detrimental to your enjoyment.

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The development of Too Human from Silicon Knights seems to have been plagued by numerous obstacles along its nine year treacherous path to release. First conceived as a Playstation game (1999), then finding a home on Nintendo’s Gamecube (2000), and finally shifting residence to the Xbox 360 (2005). And then there was that little dispute with Epic Games’ over support of its “Unreal Engine 3”, resulting in Silicon Knights resorting to the development of there own game engine. All-in-all it’s actually a miracle Too Human is finally going to be released and didn’t get stuck in development hell or sent to Silicon Heaven.

Too Human is a third person action-adventure RPG game which takes its inspiration from Norse Mythology and weaves it into a game-world with cybernetically enhanced humans, cyberspace, and machine like foes. The player jumps into the role of Baldur, one of the Aesir, a god to the normal humans, and one of the protectors of mankind.

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I have a dream… One day I’ll be able to complete Guitar Hero III on the “Hard” difficulty setting. Not “Extreme” difficulty mind you, that’s just nuts. I’ll be quite happy reaching the, for me, lofty heights of hard.

Anyway enough of dreams, back to reality. So I’ve been playing both Guitar Hero II & III on and off over the last year or so, always returning to them at sometime or other because they successfully fuse together challenging gameplay with good old fashioned down to earth, bring a huge smile to your face: “Fun”. They’re the perfect choice when you fancy a change of pace from racing or shooting.

Both games offer a fairly decent selection of tracks and even though there are a few tracks I really just can’t stand, those that I like far outnumber those I avoid like the plague. However, even with the best will in the world boredom has eventually set-up home and I desperately needed a new challenge. I could choose to purchase some downloadable content for Guitar Hero III, but to be honest I’m not keen on the current pricing policy which forces me to buy “track packs”. I therefore decided to try my hand at Harmonix’s next project Rock Band.

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It’s that time of week again when new Xbox Live Arcade titles have been released for our perusal and this offering, developed by “Housemarque”, better known in my books for the superlative
Super Stardust HD on the PS3 is a welcome addition to the Arcade roster and firmly plants its putting wedge on the more humorous and casual side of Golf, akin to such games like Hot Shots Golf.

At the start of the game you can customise your golfer; choosing a gender, hairstyle, and can kit them out in a selection of clothing styles. You know that this game isn’t going to take itself too seriously when you find your cartoon-like golfing avatar can be equipped with bunny slippers, karate gloves, and even kitten ears. However, as silly as this may sound it sets the tone of the game well and guarantees that your character stands a good chance of looking at least somewhat different to your opponents.

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In preparation for the forthcoming release of Soul Calibur IV the second game in the successful melee weapon fighting game series by Namco, Soul Calibur, was unleashed onto Xbox Live Arcade last Wednesday, 2nd July.

As mentioned this was the second game in the series following in the footsteps of Soul Edge (PS1) and is probably most fondly remembered by Sega Dreamcast owners with which it became an instantaneous hit during 1999 because of its stunning visual beauty, great character roster, fantastic character animation, and its instant pick-up-and-play fighting techniques.

The story, as with most fighting games, is virtually non-existent but revolves around an evil mystical sword known as “Soul Edge” wielded by its host “Nightmare”. The characters in the game have there own altruistic or selfish reasons for joining the quest to stop Soul Edge and the player jumps into that role, progressing through a series of one-on-one rounds until the final showdown.

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Released last Wednesday Ticket to Ride, another renowned board-game, swelled the ranks of Xbox Live Arcade and joined the list of other great boardgames which have been given the Xbox Live treatment such as Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne.

Ticket to Ride ranks as one of my favourite boardgames of all time, mainly because it’s so simple to learn, easy to play, fast flowing, and it’s just an enormous amount of fun when played with a group of good friends.

This version is a nigh on perfect conversion and plays exactly the same as the original board-game featuring the American version of the map. The aim of the game is simply to complete “Tickets” across North America, for example “Seattle to New York” by linking cities together. How you get from “A” to “B” is up-to the player but because in most cases there’s only one connection between cities, which when claimed can’t be used by any other player, competition for routes is fierce and claiming strategic positions on the map before your opponents is crucial to your overall success. Instead of going into more depth about the game mechanics I’ll instead just point you in the general direction of my board-game review
here.

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Dr Edgar Herbert is not a happy bunny. He was a top research scientist in the field of Weather Control Enhancements for the AIC but he’s been put out to pasture early. Like any bitter employee Dr Herbert is out for revenge and there’s no better way for a psychotic genius to show his disappointment at his golden handshake then to wreak havoc around the world against his former employees. I’m sure at some-point Dr Herbert may have even cackled to himself and asked for “one miiiiiiilllllion dollars”, and yes that was a deliberate reference to Austin Powers.

Anyway, onto the game. Elements of Destruction is a top down strategy game where the aim is purely to cause as much damage as possible to villages and cities whilst meeting your mission goals, such as “destroy five barns”. At your disposal are the elemental forces of nature enabling you to call down down lightning strikes, topple buildings with earthquakes, or even rip a path of destruction through neighbourhoods with a tornado. The title of the game sums it all up rather neatly really.

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