Consolation Prize

Although my iPhone will always play second fiddle to the Xbox 360 as a gaming platform, the sexy mobile device does however provide a convenient distraction that whittles away the time when I’m not in the comfort of my own home. The majority of games available are undeniably still in there infancy, but there are certainly signs of improvement with games such as Rolando that wouldn’t seem too out of place if it appeared on the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. I am however still holding my breath, waiting for that standout title that blows me away and convinces me that the iPhone really could be a serious gaming platform.

There are an obscene number of so-called-games on the application store. Quantity rather than quality seems to be the driving marketing strategy as developers fall over themselves in a rush to get a piece of the gaming pie, and there are certainly plenty of free games to try out. The question is, even through they’re free, are any of them worth downloading?

Well to help you decide I’ve been trying out quite a few free games recently. Most of which have been picked from the “Top 25 Free” application list, but a few of the others I’ve heard about on the grapevine. In the first part of the guide I’ll be checking out Crazy Penguin Catapult Lite, PAC-MAN Lite, Touch Hockey, and Labyrinth Lite Edition.

Crazy Penguin Catapult Lite

You can probably guess, just from the title, what this game is about. But just to avoid ambiguity this game involves firing penguins from a catapult so that they can dive bomb polar bears – which for the record are naturally evil and have resorted to capturing penguins rather than eating them, but for what ever reason nobody knows.

The main campaign game finds you wandering from stage to stage on an overhead map, with each stage generally consisting of two elements. The first part is to launch your squad of penguins into the air using said catapult – usually through a narrow gap – so they can proceed to the next part, hopefully without suffering too many casualties if you timed things correctly. The second part sees the now flying penguins zooming across the screen whereby you have to time where and when to dive bomb the polar bears below. A successful strike will knock the bear from the screen and a set number of bears are required to be removed to be victorious. That is more or less the entire game, although each stage does get progressively more difficult by placing bears behind ice fortifications that need to be destroyed first.

So the game looks fine; with cute penguins and gleefully evil looking polar bears, and it has an annoyingly jovial music track. However, no matter how good the presentation is the game is severely let down by the one dimensional gameplay and I just didn’t find it remotely enjoyable. This is the “Lite” version of the game, and perhaps there’s more to see in the retail version that costs £2.99, but on the evidence I doubt I’ll ever find out.

Rating:  

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Rebooting a franchise is not an easy task to undertake but the same development team that brought us the excellent Pac-Man Championship Edition have managed yet again to apply the same skill and panache to an arcade classic reinvigorating Galaga with Galaga Legions.

Galaga (1981) is a top down shooter and sequel to Galaxian (1979), which in turn was born out of the success of Space Invaders (1978) and took the formula one step further and instead of the processional left-right pacing of the invaders introduced waves of alien ships that left the formation and dive bombed the player in desperate kamikaze like manoeuvres. Galaga Legions retains the feel of Galaga yet builds upon the core game-play successfully fusing it with some new game mechanics that hauls the franchise into 2008, and thus makes this a much more interesting prospect for the modern gamer than if was just a rehash of the old classic with enhanced graphics.

The game-play in itself retains the simple single screen “kill everything” nature of the original and basically requires the player to destroy wave-upon-wave of enemies in order to survive as long as possible and notch up the highest score. Each wave of aliens becomes progressively more complex but the game affords the player some foresight of enemy attacks as fading blue lines trace flight paths across the screen and entry points are momentarily highlighted with orange glowing squares.

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So this is another sequel to the original arcade classic Frogger? Personally I’d have preferred it if poor old Frogger was left in peace to laze away his remaining days in the swamp rather than have this sequel dredged up from the murky depths. Needless to say I wasn’t that enamoured with this Xbox Live Arcade release.

Trying to build on the simplicity of Frogger we’ve now got a rather hokum story that involves a cute alien called Pico making a crash landing in Firefly swamp. In the process of the emergency landing some parts fell of the UFO and Frogger, being the rather friendly amphibian he is, decides to help poor Pico find the missing items.

Levels now span multiple screens and Frogger must make his way to the goal, and thus the missing part of the spaceship, collecting coins and musical notes along the way and avoiding swamp hazards like snakes and flying fish. Of course the journey involves river crossings, and seeing as Frogger can’t swim these must be navigated by hopping on the moving logs and lily pads as per the classic arcade game.

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OK I admit it, I’ve never heard of this “classic” arcade game that was released back in 1980 by Atari. The easiest way to summarise this game is as a 4 player mash up of Pong and Breakout with each player occupying a corner of the screen, defending their fort from bouncing balls and hopefully deflecting them back in the opponents general direction.

As is the tradition with Xbox Live retro titles the graphics have been given an overhaul with the “enhanced” mode but if you’re a bit of a masochist you can play the original mode should you desire. The upgraded mode is definitely an improvement over the original and I really can’t see anyone playing the classic mode for any other reason other than historical interest.

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Battlezone, the vector graphics arcade game of tank warfare from 1980 is the latest classic game to be ported to Xbox Live Arcade by
Stainless Games. As with all previous ports handled by this development studio it comes packaged with both Classic and Evolved game modes as-well as normal and the fantastically named Throttle Monkey difficulty levels.

For those not in the know, Battlezone was a bit of a rarity in its time using 3D vector graphics and presenting the player with a first person perspective of the game world. Nowadays of course the classic game looks quite dated but the developers have done a decent job with the look of the evolved version, retaining the vector based imagery of the original whilst sprucing up the graphics with some well placed visual effects. My only criticism of the evolved graphics however would be that I found it easier to identify which way an enemy tank was facing from a distance using the original graphics rather than the evolved visual update.

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Tron. I remember the movie fondly from my youth, mainly because of the amazing (for the time) special effects and the game related theme. I’ve not watched the movie since as there’s no doubt my rose tinted spectacles would be shattered in an instant.

This little trip back down memory lane brings us onto one of the weeks Xbox Live Arcade releases, a port of the original arcade game Discs of Tron, released back in 1983.

The game is based in an isometric view of the arena, the player character Tron is closest and the opponent Sark is at the far end, both players are perched on disc shaped platforms. The aim is simple, throw discs at Sark whilst avoiding any thrown back in return, and defeat him by either knocking him off the platform or hitting him twice.

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The Metal Slug series of games have been around for quite some time now and spawned a host of games on a number of platforms. I’ve even got a copy of Metal Slug 1st Mission and Metal Slug 2nd Mission for my Neo Geo Pocket Colour, that ill fated hand-held that I thought was particularly good for the time.

This time it’s the Xbox 360’s turn to receive a port of Metal Slug 3. The game is a run and gun side scrolling shooter which sees you taking on hordes of enemies, rescuing prisoners for power-ups and taking on the obligatory boss at the end of the stage.

During a stage you will come across different types of “Metal Slugs” (vehicles), increasing your firepower and overall effectiveness, and are essential for ensuring your survival if your reflexes are as bad as mine. One nice aspect about this game is the branching paths that are available within a stage adding to the games replayability as you explore the different routes available.

The controls are nice and simplistic with the left joystick used for movement and for the direction of fire with “X” used to shoot, “Y” to throw grenades and “A” to jump. Graphically things all move smoothly and the sprites, some of them surprisingly huge, look great.

The full version is available for 800 Microsoft Points and is well worth a look if you’re into arcade shooters.

I remember the original arcade release of this game back in 1983. The game must have been the bane of arcade owners everywhere as the controls certainly got a lot of stick as players frantically bashed buttons or wiggled joysticks as they competed in a number of Olympic events.

You can now recreate the atmosphere (and break your controllers in the process) as the game is now available on Xbox Live Arcade for 400 Microsoft Points.

The game consists of six events including the 100m sprint, long jump, javelin throw, hurdles, hammer throw and the high jump, with the trial letting you play the fist two of these. The controls really can’t be more straight forward as you either wiggle the joystick or D-pad left and right or mash the “X” and “B” buttons to run and “A” is used as the action button, for example to jump hurdles or throw the javelin.

The game can be played locally with 1-4 players or over Xbox Live and features the usual set of leaderboards so you can see just how bad you suck at a game compared to the rest of the world. There’s also 12 Achievements to obtain totalling 200 gamer score points.

Track & Field is still very playable and fun even today, however the game has not got longevity and is best used as a quick distraction from any other games you’re currently playing.