iOS App Hedgehog Adventure is Too Cute for its Challenge

Update (02/10/11): Much to my chagrin, it seems that after this review was posted, an update for this app was released just a few days before (literally, like 09/29 was when the update was available). This update has greatly improved the app's performance on my device, but what I failed to see was that it also has a glitch that disables the first level to be actually completed. I have been notified by several people of this, late, late last night, and all I can say for any unfortunate buyers is that you'll just have to wait for another update. I'm looking into contacting the publisher today to notify them of the bug. Regardless, I did finally beat the game, and I can assure any concerned buyers that it's definitely a really fun and challenging game. It's the only app I've downloaded that has given me a significant, fair challenge and it was fun until the end. I'm disappointed it's over, but it has a really cool (and super easy) final level, followed by a short level that's more of just a high score attack. All in all, if I had purchased it, I would have been satisfied, but I only say this because I like the retro challenging feel to the game, and I had a lot of fun with it!

I'm extremely surprised by this review. Here's why; this app was free when I came across it, and upon booting it up, I figured it would be deleted shortly. I only ever feel compelled to write a review if I find the game worth the money at which it is priced, or if I feel it is severely under appreciated. This game fills both categories, if you're like me; you like a challenging, clever, and polished platformer. If you dislike one of these things, don't get this app. If you're uncertain, there's a free version, titled "Hedgehog Adventure - experiments". I don't know why it is called that, but it seems like the 'lite' version after a quick once-over.

Let me explain; "Hedgehog Adventure" has you play as a little hedgehog who curls up into a ball and you have to control him through 40 different levels, collecting all the pieces of fruit before finding the exit. I first scoffed when I saw that number -- "40 levels? That's child's play!" I exclaimed. I wanted to write this review after I beat the game, but so far, after about 2 weeks, I am on level 33.

Now, that sounds like a lot more time than I actually played this game. Regardless, I am completely shocked at how challenging this game is. However, it's not the frustrating "I can't do this because the game is poorly designed!" Rather, it's the "I know I can do this if I jump here/push this block here/etc." All the puzzles, for all their challenges, can be completed. It's the challenge of figuring out what blocks to use, where to go in what order, and several other factors that make it exciting. Not to mention the introduction of new level gimmicks continues up to the point I'm at; a level I played was mostly barren, until I took a leap of faith and found an invisible platform that appeared when I stepped on it! I know that could be annoying, but for this one level (I haven't seen it since), it was a blast.

Another positive point is none of the levels have ever felt too long. They are all within the scope of completion and are honestly well designed for a platformer/physics puzzle game. Seriously, this is some of the best level design I've ever seen in an app for my iPod.

I think it's worth mentioning the game's art direction as well. To be blunt, this is meant to look like a child's game. It's entirely cutesy -- the fruit bobs up and down, waiting for you to grab it, the platforms are candy cane striped, and when you 'die', your hedgehog just turns into a ghost. I implore older gamers to try and look past this style, however, it hasn't bothered me. It may be that it's because those are the types of games I play (I love the Sonic series for its style) but I can understand how real macho men might have problems playing this game.

Two things I'm not really sold on are the music and the controls. The music seems to be limited to two tracks, and although they are just fine for the purpose they serve...two tracks get tired after two hours spent on this game. Before you freak out because I was talking about stellar platforming before and now I just bashed the game's controls, let me tell you that my iPod is on its way to the great Silicon Valley in the sky. It tends to be unresponsive unless I touch the area near the home button to 'activate' the rest of it. So, the controls sometimes didn't seem responsive or always accurate. While the jump button can be held down to repeat jump, sometimes the direction buttons stopped working. I mention this whole situation because some of the game's reviews mentioned odd controls. So, while they've never really ruined the game for me, they have made me have to restart once in a while.

The last thing that is worth noting is the game's performance. After passing level 10, I ceased having problems, but level 3 and level 10 caused my iPod to crash and I lost my progress in the levels previous. This can be frustrating, sure, but nothing that seriously made me want to rage quit. Just restart the app or your device, or try a different approach to the level are the best solutions I have. I'm also playing on a 2nd Generation device, so that may also be the cause of my problems. Hopefully a stability update will be released in the future.

All in all, this is the classic platforming app that I've been waiting for. It's not exactly a Mario or Sonic, but it feels like how platforming should be in an iOS app. A platformer with great puzzles and some spot on physics, coupled with a cute hedgehog and an environment so cutesy, you'll want to puke.

Pros
Fun platforming
Fair challenges
Really phenomenal level design

Cons
Controls may be wonky (I don't know for sure)
Challenges this tough may be a turn off
Problems with crashing
The puke-worthy cutesy starts with a cheezy "Hello!" when you start the game!

Infamous

Everything about Infamous says it should be a corny, repetitive, and glitchy experience plagued with all of the problems of modern sandbox games. And while it is all of those things, it is an awesome game and deserves all the good praise it gets.

Infamous is about Cole Evans who awakes at the start of the game in the middle of a large crater where a super explosive had just gone off, wiping out a large chunk of the city. The effects of the bomb have spread throughout the rest of the city and now it is quarantined, letting no one in and no one out. To make matters worse, the city is overrun by different gang factions, all of which have gained kinds of super powers from (I’m assuming) the explosion. Cole has powers as well, and can manipulate electricity! However, news gets around that Cole was the carrier for this explosive that threw the city into turmoil (although he remembers none of this) and so the city is very on edge towards him. Cole must now decided whether to try and better his public image by doing good, or take control of the city by any ruthless means necessary; all while trying to unravel the puzzle that is his existence.

The first thing you notice is Cole’s voice, which is really deep and somewhat cheesy. It’s almost Metal Gear Solid-esque. I thought this was going to irritate me for the entire game, but the voice actually grew on me quite fast. It is a super hero game after all, so the voice eventually fits his character.

The second thing I noticed was the actual graphics of this game. The shadows (at least on my consol) were very pixilated. As the game progressed, I noticed many of the electrical effects were the same. Now, I’m using an HDMI cable to hook my PS3 up to a 1080p LED TV, so I don’t think it’s my system. I’m just not sure why some of the graphics would be so splotchy. It could also be the sheer amount of “stuff” that’s crammed into this game, feeding the need to downgrade things like shadow quality.

Don’t get me wrong, the game looks very nice. I was just expecting more from a Playstation 3 title (especially after playing Uncharted) But when you have a very large sandbox environment, that’s to be expected. One thing what I would really LOVE to point out is “bugs”. When you get to the part of the game where you play at night, you can actually see small swarms of bugs gathering around lights. I thought this was a very cool touch added by the developers.

Speaking of the environment, the city itself (Empire City) is sprawling and vast. The game encompasses 3 islands of cityscape. It’s impressive to see how much city there is (especially when you eventually climb to the highest point and can look down on all of it) but if you try to memorize the cities, you’re in for a challenge. This is because there is a large amount of reused areas. It took me a while to figure it out, but after passing the same gas station 4 times, I realized: there is 4 of the same gas station. (there may be more, I didn’t care to go around and count them all. The same goes for boat houses, warehouses, little cemeteries. They all look exactly the same, and so it’s hard to judge exactly where you are without consulting your map. I understand that this is necessary for making a very large city in a sandbox game, but when you think of games like Grand Theft Auto that pulled off a massive city that you could learn and traverse without using a map, you start to want more out of your games. GTA really raised that bar in this genre (which it also created). I’m not saying that the reused areas are bad, I’m just saying that it can become disorienting if you aren’t using your map.

Along with the repetitive environment, there is also repetitive gameplay. Usually when I hear that a game is repetitive, I shy away from it. But Infamous proves that it can still be fun. The game has different missions throughout the city, I want to say there are about 5 or 6 different mission types that you just play over and over in different sections of the city. But even though the mission types are the same, they get more challenging as the game goes on. There are then of course the story missions which are all basically different, but they get more challenging as time goes on. There are also sewer missions which have you go underground to activate large power circuits that turn electricity on for blacked out parts of the city. These missions are fun because with each one you gain a new ability, and the sewer then acts as a tutorial on how to use it before it unleashes you on the city above. So although missions are all basically the same, you get to play then with increasing difficulty and new abilities which give you new ways to complete the tasks.

Part of the games difficulty stems from its enemy types. This game has a LOT of different enemy types. I was impressed. Uncharted had like….2. This game has near 20! More and more enemies are introduced as you progress and each new enemy is increasingly difficult to defeat. It ranges from basic gang member with a gun to flying, grenade launching machines that turn invisible (which are very irritating). The enemies were something I thought the game did a great job with. Even after you beat what you think is a boss, they just throw into the city one day when you are running around! It was also nice to see that the boss battles used attacks and animations that were specific to them and are not seen outside of that fight. So you have to learn the attacks at that moment and know how to move (where as other games just have bosses that are bigger versions of enemies you’ve fought 100 times before)

The checkpoint system (for when you die) is pretty good. It has its faults though. Many times I would die and it would respawn me with a couple less enemies or in the case of chase scenes, would put me a bit further along than I was, kind of adapting to my abilities (or lack there of) which I thought was kind of nice. Some people may find irritating. But there are other times when it’s the complete opposite and spawns you right in the middle of a roof top surrounded by enemies that all immediately fire upon you (I find THAT irritating) But all in all, it felt pretty good.

Controls are pretty good. You can jump and dodge and attack and all that stuff. You hold a shoulder button to go into an over the shoulder, 3rd person shooter, style camera and can fire on enemies with electric energy bolts. The more powers you unlock, the more buttons there are to press. Eventually you have the entire controller filled with attacks that you can use. You can also upgrade all of these attacks by gaining experience points for things like defeating enemies and completing missions. The attacks also use your electric energy which you can recharge by sucking energy from electronics like cars and street lamps and whatnot. Collecting “blast-shards” around the city will increase the amount of energy you can hold at one time.

An irritating part of the controls is climbing. You can climb ANYTHING in the city and go pretty much anywhere you want. You just need to jump at something and Cole will grab on. But this can get glitchy; which is expected in this kind of game. Sometimes he won’t grab something unless you jump at it just right, or sometimes something will be just out of reach and you have to find an alternate route, but later found out you could just get a running start and make it up. Climbing down is an even bigger pain. If you hit the drop button, Cole just drops down to the next ledge no matter what. So you either have to jump completely off the building and land who-knows-where, or sit there and hit the drop button some 50 times to make it all the way to the bottom. (I think they fixed this though for Infamous 2 by including a button that you have to hold in order to hold on to a ledge (ala Shadow of the Colossus)) This can be especially irritating in high pressure situations like chases or when you are running for cover.

Speaking of which, there is a cover system! But I barely ever used it. I’m usually the kind of guy that uses cover all the time. In Uncharted I was behind cover about 98% of the time. In Infamous, it was just easier to fly over someone’s head and fill their face with bolts of lightning quick enough to kill them dead before they killed you. Cover also becomes obsolete when you have enemies that do nothing but shoot missiles or grenades at you. It was a nice touch, but something that could be greatly improved.

One of the biggest features of the game is its moral dilemmas. You can either be good or bad basically. Cole can either help all of the people in Empire City and reach Hero status, or he can kill and steal from people and become Infamous. Even though the game’s title is Infamous, I decided to go the hero route. In a game full of villains and gang members, the people NEED a hero! Both paths give you slightly different moves which you can look at in your pause menu. I really didn’t see a whole lot of difference in them except when you are going bad, your electricity becomes red instead of blue. When you are good and complete good missions, the citizens of the city stop to take photos of you, come to you for help, and even help you fend off enemies by throwing rocks and stuff. When you are bad, people throw the rocks at you, and also run up and push you and stuff like that. I’m assuming since the city is full of people, going the “bad” route would make the game a little more difficult because practically everyone would be an enemy; but I look forward to playing through again, being evil this time.

The NPCs in this game are hit and miss. To me, all of Cole’s friends and family were really irritating. Not sure why he hung out with them. There are a couple others though that were decent, but all in all, I think Cole would be better off running alone. The story itself is pretty decent actually. It’s not super corny, even though it is a little. It’s got some pretty good twists and turns that left me feeling pretty good ( can’t wait to get to 2!)

The cutsenes are all animated comic book style. This may throw some people off (threw me off at first) but they actually aren’t that bad. They add some style to the game and make it different. The art is also very well done in these, and even though they are stills, there are slight animations that make them come alive.

All in all, Infamous is a fun adventure. I really enjoyed the freedom you had and always looked forward to new missions. This is why I’m so anxious to play the second game now! I’m hoping that in Infamous 2 you get to keep all of his powers from the end of 1. I know one thing they improved in 2 is walking on water. I know from the demo in 2 you can run on water for a limited time before falling in, whereas in 1 you just splash around and slowly die unless you can jump out in time.


Pros
Fun gameplay
Many different enemy types
Many different powers
Decently good story
Repetitive done well

Cons
Repetitive nonetheless
Can be kind of corny at times
Reused areas in city makes it hard to know your way around
Glitchy climbing and cover system

Sonic Colors Has a Short Reach for the Stars

I held off on Sonic Colors for almost a year because I hate my Wii. I resent its place in the market, as well as my home. However, I should have tried this little gem sooner!

Sonic Colors is the newest entry in the "not sucky" Sonic game series. I've been day-one-purchasing all the newest titles because I love the series, but I can fully recognize their swift decline. Just ask fellow writer Matt Muzzy about the experience I put him through with Sonic '06! I was pleasantly delighted in playing this game, as my biggest complaint (of very few) is the brief nature of this game. I purchased it and beat it in less than 12 hours from the time of purchase. Total playtime was probably about 3 hours.

Of course, there's still 100%ing to be done, with a just reward at the end (seriously, it's exciting), but I have gone through all the levels and bosses and have even completed 50% of the "extra" in such a short time. I will admit that those three hours were almost straight, pure fun.

To begin, I suppose I should point to the co-op levels. Though there are only 21 basic and short co-op "remakes" of the various Sonic 1 zones, they were a blast to play through with a friend of mine. It was very much like playing through New Super Mario Bros. Wii but actually having a good time with it. The levels were challenging and fun, and the mechanics require teamwork. However, it's kind of frustrating that your Sonic wants to constantly homing-attack the other Sonic. In this case, the simple remedy would have been to map the homing attack button to another button, rather than share it with the double jump button. It was a frustration, though, that made me laugh, not eternally hate the other person (a la NSMBW).

I actually played through the story mode after playing through a third of the co-op levels. I was pleasantly surprised with a majority of it -- the levels were rather well designed, the camera was well-improved, and the locales were inspiring and really pretty. On that note, the graphics here are top notch; every world is populated so well and has a lot going on in it. There are some ugly pieces, but they are just pieces to a grander scheme. I want to make note that the levels, in comparison to Super Mario Galaxy, are much more impressive. Though perhaps not as refined, they are much more interesting because they offer a "fullness" to them -- something that a game set strictly in space loses.

All in all, right now is a good time to get Sonic Colors. I don't think $50 was a fair price point, but the game is really fun and if you are a completionist, it has great replay value. It's also the first game in a long while that offers a just reward for completing everything. It's a great game for a rainy day and it's definitely one of the Wii's few greatest games (IMO).

Pros:

Charming and fun

Beautiful locations

Good Replay Value

Cons:

Way too short!

Story is...terrible

Rough, goofy dialogue

Wishing I hadn't discovered [Uncharted] Drake's Fortune

This game may be the worst downward spiral I’ve ever played. Spoilers will be in RED.

Uncharted has garnered quite a bit of attention since its release. People praise it for its amazing graphics and cinematic style of gameplay. It is said to look like a movie at times, which is true. I was interested in it since 2007 but only recently was able to pick it up when I bought a PS3 for the first time. I thought I might as well by Uncharted as my first PS3 game since it is seen as one of the Playstation’s crown jewels.
It is a 3rd person shooter, action adventure title with many plat forming elements. The game begins and is pretty breathtaking. You begin to get to know the characters and everything starts to unfold. It has a very Indiana Jones feel to it, and I love that. You adventure through the jungle and some ruins and you climb rocks and trees and stuff. The climbing reminds me a lot of Shadow of the Colossus (which is my favorite game of all time) so it was easy for me to get hooked.
Then the gun fights began. I knew it was inevitable so I held my breath and ran into battle. The controls were nice enough and I got through. The only problem is the gun fights never stopped. Fire fights soon rook precedence over the actual “adventuring” portion of the game. As the game progressed, instead of having climbing and puzzle solving challenges with some gun fights in between, it became more and more of a fire fight where you have to turn a knob every once in a while. And don’t get me started on fucking jet skis!! UHG!!
There are also many parts where you are climbing and jumping around environments and (unless you know exactly where to go) you have to guess and check. This usually ends with you falling to your death. But instead of you spawning anywhere near where you had died, you have to start the whole thing all over again. That’s not to say the check point system in the game isn’t good, because it is. The moment you get somewhere its saves (I even had the game freeze a particularly crucial moment and it actually saved exactly where I was when I turned it back on) but it’s when you are doing climbing puzzles that I wish it would actually save where you are in the room and not just making you start the whole freaking thing over again.
Not to mention this one time there was a gap I had to jump. I tried jumping it 10 times and feel and died each time. I kept trying though because it was the only place I could see to go. I finally broke down and went to Gamefaqs and low and behold I WAS DOING THE RIGHT THING!! I went back and tried 5 more times and I made it across. It’s the multiple moments like that that make this game frustrating.
What was the most frustrating? When the fucking monsters came out. No, I mean literally. Monsters come out. Yeah! It was at that point the whole game was ruined for me. I actually didn’t even finish the game. After my 13th attempt to run through a corridor of giant clawed zombie monsters that kill you with one slash, I put the game away (it’s a good thing I bought it used or else I’d feel bad). When I started this game, I was looking forward to a realistic adventure. Not a goddamn Guillermo Del Toro movie. It figures that this game would be looked at so highly by the “gaming” community. I should have known fucking zombies would come out.
Uncharted started off amazingly and turned into a nightmare. And no, I still haven’t beaten it to the end because I was so frustrated. I may go back and finish it since I do want to know what happens in the story, and I kind of wanted to play Among Thieves and the new one that’s coming out soon, but now I don’t even know anymore. I’ll probably just go out and get Infamous and start playing that franchise. Thankfully the HD ICO and Shadow bundle is set to release in a month or two.

UPDATE: I beat the game. Ya. The explanation for the zombies kind of made the idea better. Even Indiana Jones has strange and paranormal stuff like that in the movies, so I guess I can live with it. I was reading a little about Uncharted 2 to make sure there were no zombies in it. Turns out there are Sasquatches LOL!! It just figures. I will never look at this series the same way.

The last fight pissed me off because it played out just like that time I mentioned before where I was jumping that gap and couldn't make it, only this time it was a fight. I thought I knew what to do and I tried it over and over and just couldn't get it to work. So, usually when one thing doesn't work, you try another. I tried to do this fight scene about 13 times and nothing I did could keep Nathan from getting killed so I went online again, and low and behold, the answer was what I was doing from the beginning. I tried it a couple more times and it worked... uhg. It really makes a "dramatic ending" lose all of its drama when you have to replay the scene over and over 20 times. Maybe I just suck at games. Maybe this game sucks. Who am I to judge? I only have a bachelors degree in Game Design LOL

But seriously, the game really isn't that terrible I suppose. But it still doesn't live up to the hype the gaming community created for it. Uncharted 2 is suppose to be better though, which I hope is true.

Pros:

Pretty good visuals

Fun dialog and characters

Did actually feel like a movie sometimes

Fun environmental puzzle solving

Cons:

What was mentioned in the spoilers...

Too much gun fighting and not enough adventure

Some spots are difficult for stupid reasons

Hard to find things may be too hard to find at times

Check Points vary in convenience

In Defense Of: Dark Void

I can understand some of the scores this game received when it was first released. I'll say it right off the bat: the controls can be crazy-wonky at times, the story is a bit loopy, some levels are too small while others are too big, and overall it has an aire of disappointment. For a lot of people, they were disappointed with the game as a whole for being so questionable. For me, I was disappointed it never fully reached what it seemed it was supposed to be.

I'll begin by saying this is the only Capcom game that I've owned for a long period of time and have played through twice. I think a majority of what they produce is ultimately exciting, innovative, and really interesting...but upon trying it out, it always just kind of falls short. Dead Rising and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is my modern case in point. However, Dark Void presents something that I just can't explain.

Dark Void started as a game Capcom hired a western game studio (Airtight Games with employees who were involved with Crimson Skies) to produce, in hopes of beginning a new IP and attracting western audiences. Unfortunately, it failed. It had a great number of elements to it, looking back; a score done by Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica), a relatively unused gimmick (jetpack), and such an interesting story. Not to mention, it was made in an effort to make new IPs during the times of Mirror's Edge, which I feel very strongly about. What ultimately resulted in its failure was the lackluster reviews it received, the fact that it was new and not a "tried and true" IP, and that it was significantly flawed.

The story follows Pilot Will Grey and his awesome jacket, attempting to save his female interest, Ava, while also reluctantly fighting back an alien race from taking over the Earth. While it's standard Sci-Fi fare, it's told in such a way that reminds me of the mystery of older generations of games -- when there wasn't a Google to search the reasoning behind something or a better explanation of what's going on. I mean, hell, I spent a good hour to two hours attempting to find even a shred of "underground" info on this game's development.

The reason it deserves consumers' time stems from the fact that it just feels ambitious. Playing through it, you realize the confusing elements stem from a lack of time or budget in production and it makes me want to know what the original intent was behind so much of the game. It's support for games like this that will help the games industry move forward, producing new and original content alongside current, established IPs. Unfortunately, the market in just about every industry sucks, and Dark Void was a risk that unfortunately failed to pay off.

And what makes it even more disappointing is it sets up for a sequel that would have been set during WWII. All these confusing elements lead to something that is never going to happen. My only hope is that Brad Pitt's movie company (Plan B) goes through with the production of the movie. Even without the game ties, the story is still such an interesting Sci-Fi.

All I can really say is that if you like third-person cover-based shooters or titles that are mysterious cult hits, then Dark Void is worth the small admission price.

Pros:

Mysterious Sci-Fi story

Fun jetpack mechanic

Phenomenal soundtrack

Cons:

Controls can be irritating

Level design is often lacking

So much left unexplained!

Vanquish

I picked up Sega’s Vanquish a little while back for 19.99. I had my eye on it since I first heard about it. The games director is Shinji Mikami who also directed Resident Evil 4, and it’s for this reason that I was looking to purchase this game new (also because it came with a cool collectors figurine!) Regardless, I ended up choosing NOT to purchase Vanquish at launch and instead waited for the price to drop… which didn’t take long. But I’m glad I did! Not that this game is “bad” per se, but I would be a little upset if I paid 60 buckaroonies on it.

Spoilers will be in RED

Let’s start off a run down of what the game is. Vanquish is a 3rd person shooter that takes place in the (near?) future. The USA has built an enormous space colony thing in order to harbor excess sunlight to use as energy for the people back on Earth. Honestly, most of the story went over my head and I either wasn’t paying attention or they did a bad job of explaining it. But when I do know is that the Russians took over the space station and used its energy as a weapon by destroying San Francisco. The president (who looks very similar to Hillary Clinton) sends a retired and very grumpy Lieutenant Colonel Burns up to the station to take out the evil Russian group that is led by a creepy, flamboyant bald guy. Oh, and Sam’s there too. That who YOU play as!
Sam is from DARPA which is a science and research organization. He’s got a badass suit that not only looks cool, but gives him some sweet abilities. Burns doesn’t like Sam very much because… well, idk. Sam’s mission is actually different from Burns and his men. A scientist from DARPA has also been kidnapped and is on the space colony for some reason, so Sam is sent up there to not only assist in killin’ Russians, but also finding and returning this scientist guy.
Anyway, Sam’s suit is badass, aside from the fact that it has a visor of the mouth and not the eyes. Basically all of the art in this game is nice. It’s probably the games most redeeming quality. Everything fits together well and looks great! (except for Burns’ beard… that thing’s a little iffy) The military forces are easily distinguishable from the enemies, which is always nice. The levels also feel very large even though you are pretty much always confined. It’s really well done.
The enemies are all robots. This is cool because it gives you the ability to use weapons like EMP grenades that makes them all spaz out and leaves them open for attack. Robots are also cool because you can end up fighting some really ridiculous shit. And this game has a variety of crazy shit. It goes from giant mechs with drill arms that can burrow underground and pop up underneath you, to giant piles of scrap metal that flows around like Morpha from Ocarina of Time. You have to dodge its lasers and cut it down to size before attacking its red eyeball. I was very pleased with the diversity of enemies in this game, but the only downside was that they were reused a lot. Every mini boss you would end up fighting at least twice, and later on you’ll have to take on 2 or more of the same thing. And bosses were pretty much the same machine over and over which is the giant spider from the demo that turns into a walking mech. I believe you fight that thing 3 or 4 times...
Speaking of variety, there is a good variety of weapons as well. But while I admire the creators making some crazy weapon ideas, I pretty much just stayed with the same 3: assault rifle, heavy machine gun, and sniper rifle. Since you can upgrade weapons, I didn’t really feel like dropping the weapons I had for new ones when I worked to upgrade the ones I had. I wasn’t punished for this though, I was just left feeling like I could have done more. Anyway, some of the crazier weapons are a disc shooter and a gun that fires a slow moving pulse of energy that will push back anything in its path (as long as it’s not too far away). So there’s some cool stuff. The animations for changing weapons is also cool. Instead of the typical “reach behind your back and pull out a new weapon”, In Vanquish, your gun “transforms” into whatever you select. It’s pretty sweet. Something annoying is how whenever I picked up a weapon, regardless of what it was, San would utter “not what I was looking for, but it’ll do.” I still haven’t found the exact weapon he was looking for. WHY CAN’T I PLEASE YOU, SAM!?!
Most of the dialog in this game was pretty corny. I’m not sure if that’s what they went for (kind of like how Metal Gear Solid’s corniness has become a staple for that series) but I just found it to be a little off putting. And the morals they tried to work in were very repetitive and forced. Numerous times in the game, Lt. Burns would leave his men behind to die either to save his own ass or because “they knew what they were signing up for.” Sam would then yell at him for being so inconsiderate. Basically this same scene happened over and over game for the duration of the game. And speaking of men dying, no matter how many times Burns left his men behind to die, dwindling the numbers of their platoon, their numbers would always somehow increase for the next mission, which was convenient, but kind of missing the point of its own logic.
The meat of this game is its fast paced action. It’s what sets it apart from other games of its genre. You can shoot, but you can also use your suits powers to zip around in a rocketed knee slide, slow down time in a sort of “bullet mode” and punch the living fuck out of shit. The only bad thing is, your powers are limited. You can pretty much knee slide for however long you want, but if you have to take a break every few seconds or the suit will overheat. The same with bullet time and with melee attacks as well. You can get about 1 hit in and the game will drag it out into a combo and your suit will go down. It sucks because when it overheats, you can’t do shit. You can shoot and that’s all. When I played, my suit overheated a lot so I was basically a sitting duck (but I tend to play more of a laid back, cover based game anyway, so it wasn’t such a problem) But if you are going into this game hoping to just go hog wild and wreck some shop, think again. I can understand putting a cap on the suits abilities, but this game just seemed very restrictive. What makes it even worse is, THIS NEVER CHANGES! SPOILER ALERT: it is only in the very last fight that your suit gets upgraded to give you unlimited power, but the level is so densely packed with walls and pillars, you can’t really maneuver around to your full potential. And then when the fight is over, the games over, so it doesn’t even matter anymore anyway. If you pace your movements, you can probably avoid overheating, but a lot of the time it’s unavoidable.
Also, many of the “over the top” action sequences were designated to cut scenes or quick time events, which made me feel gypped. You spend the whole game confined to the few moves you can do, and all of a sudden the game takes over and pulls off all of these ridiculous stunts. Whack.
The end of the game is also somewhat of a gyp. I’m not sure if there are multiple ending or not (I don’t believe there are) but the whole thing was just very anticlimactic. Possible SPOILERS: Nothing really every comes of anything. There are some double crosses (fucking Burns even does a triple cross or some shit! That guy was a nut) The final boss isn’t even the main Russian bald guy! You fight him once in the middle of the game and he gets away. The final boss fight is basically 2 of him but they turn out to be remote controlled. You never even get to fight him! He’s still out there!! WTF!!?!
Vanquish is a cool game, I will admit. It was fun and gets pretty challenging (frustrating especially during the last few acts). I couldn’t even beat the whole game on Normal (Casual automatic is so much easier! :D) And at the end I unlocked God Hard! So like… if you love horribly difficult and frustrating games, this is probably something you want to pick up. It’s definitely a game for fans of shooters, that’s for sure. If you want it just for the fighting and powers, think again.

Pros:

Looks great

Runs great

Awesome enemies

Cool weapons

A level of difficulty comfortable for everyone

Cons:

Story is iffy

Anticlimactic

Suit overheats too fast

Intense action controlled by cutscenes

LaserCat Shoots His Way Into My Heart

I may occasionally search the XBLA Indie Game section for an interesting game, but I've only made two purchases to date. Mainly this is a result of the terrible XBL interface at which you purchase points to purchase games -- I don't want to spend five dollars to buy a game that is technically only one dollar. If it (and many more things) were set up like Apple's iTunes store, then I'd probably spend a bit more.

Regardless, LaserCat was brought to my attention this week and after downloading the trial version, I was completely enamored by it. Here is a simple little game that tries hard and really has a simplistic Metroid-Vania feel to it. Sure, there may not be any power-ups, and it's really nothing more than a puzzle-platformer, but it's charm greatly exceeds its simplistic nature.

You play as LaserCat, who is trying to save OwlFriend from the great evil Wizzord's castle. There are 30 keys to find, spread across some-255 rooms, all containing some individual challenge, from lava to falling to moving enemies. As such, each room has a name and these names give each room a little more depth, which managed to kind of hook me. Many of them contain references to mainstream game series such as Banjo-Kazooie, Mario, and even Sonic, while also referencing other indie-esque games like Braid.

Note, however, these are references, not satires -- the relationship only goes so far.

The music, oddly enough, is all royalty free music from Kevin Macleod. Because of this, I recognized a lot of the music pieces right off the bat and was, incidentally, even a little more charmed as a result of their use. The music makes it feel like an indie game, even though they are edited really well to blend together.

There's not a whole lot to say for this game. For a dollar (albeit a difficult dollar), it's worth it if you're a fan of classic platforming. It may only last about one to two hours if you intend to complete everything, but there is some fun to be found. It turned out to be one of those games that I just want to show to all my friends, which is what I intend to do.

Pros:

Charming indie platformer

Only one dollar

Cute characters and good humor

Really tight controls

Cons:

Way too short!