The award winning Adventure/Hidden Object game has finally hit Xbox Live. Did you know it was arriving? Neither did i. As far as I was aware Super Meat Boy was the only game arriving on the Wednesday gone by but instead even THQ managed to get on the release list along with Hudson to make three XBLA games in one week. The weakest out of the three was Hudson’s Dream Chronicles, it was also the cheapest too. At 800 Microsoft Points it seems a breath of fresh air that an arcade game is back down to a reasonable price point, 1200 points now is becoming an all too common place and those 2100 points really don’t spread very far that way. So what is it about? Well to cut the long story short you are basically a person in an etheral world where the lines of reality and make believe fade away. You cannot find your husband and all the people around you are kept under a sleeping curse. In order to unlock the mystery and progress through the game you need to find objects that are scattered all over the place.

The game concept is something explored in extreme variety on the PC but not so much on the consoles down to the fact that you need to control the cursor with your control pad. The mouse arrow in Dream Chronicles sometimes feels sluggish and the pace of play is very slow indeed. The game can be completed in less than 30 minutes if you know what you are doing and you are rewarded an achievement for doing so. Chapters are extremely short which begs the question, for 800 Microsoft points does it even hold its weight for that price? To add a different style of play Hudson have allowed you to play the game locally or online in co-operative and players can jump in at any scene. The one thing the game does have is lovely visuals. They feel beautifully detailed and whilst not animated throughout do make you wonder what is behind the next door. Each chapter appears to have it’s own type of mini-game involved. You may need to get a set of switches to turn a light on in a doll house or sort books in a library to progress further. These challenges verge from the extremely easy, to the frustrating. If you cannot find what you are looking for you do get the odd shimmer which gives you a clue as to where hidden objects are. Fortunately once you progress through the first few chapters these are fewer and far between as at first it is too damn easy.

Throughout the game you can collect different objects called Dream Pieces, which combine pieces of jewellery throughout the game. You have a log book where you can check all the unsignificant data regarding these but they ultimately link to achievment points. I also noticed that some events were triggered upon pressing something, which is annoying as the solution was obvious, but I had to activate an object first. My biggest moan about the game is the fact that the storyline is a crock of shit. Come the end of the game I wouldn’t piss on my in-game husbands face to put out a fire. There is no emotional attachment due to the lack of any voice acting and the written dialog feels painful at the best of times. If you love these types of games then it maybe worth a shout, but we’d recommend you spend the money on Axel & Pixel instead, which is a more action orientated adventure game which requires more logic than Dream Chronicles to solve puzzles but ultimately is a more satisfying, engaging, fun and visually astute game to boot. Buy this one if you seriously cannot find anything else to play.

Developers NinjaBee are most famous for their Xbox Live Arcade Hit Cloning Clyde which released way back in 2006, a time when the XBLA was still a new experience to many and downloading games wasn’t as common. The side-scrolling platformer made a big impression and ended up being one of the highest rated XBLA games of the year. Since then, NinjaBee have released Dash of Destruction (remember that Doritos game which handed us all a pathetically easy 200 gamerpoints?) and more notably A Kingdom of Keflings, a game famous due to it being the first XBLA game to implement the use of your Avatar. NinjaBee have been quiet on the scene since 2008 but are now back with their latest title, Ancients of Ooga. Although not related in story wise, Ancients of Ooga is said to be Cloning Clyde’s spiritual successor; so can the game live up to Clyde’s high standards and provide another fun platforming experience for us Xbox 360 owners?

A tribe of odd looking creatures called the Ooganis were happy with life until a race of monster called the Boolis showed up. The Boolis offered the Oogani tribe some tempting slugs to eat, and even though the Oogani chiefs advised the tribe to stay well away, the temptation was too much and the Ooganis ate a bunch of the slugs. Little did they know that the slugs were infact intoxicating and would bring terrible things to the tribe. The Ooganis become fat, lazy, and worst of all locked their once loved chiefs up in cages and allowed the evil Boolis to burn and kill them.

A few of the Oogani tribe couldn’t take anymore and wanted their freedom back, and therefore summoned the Great Spirit of Ooga, played by you. Using the power of the Great Spirit, you must travel to the Oogani villages and convince all of the tribes to join a massive revolt against the Boolis and earn their freedom back, along with reviving the murdered Oogani chiefs and bringing order back to the land. The story has a good premise and could have worked well but unfortunately is presented to us rather poorly throughout the game. The majority of the story is told via text in speech bubbles which you must read due to the lack of voice acting, and there seems to be a large amount compared to other games. Some well produced cut-scenes would have been perfect to make the game more entertaining and flow more fluidly.

The gameplay itself mixes platforming elements with basic puzzles which you must solve to reach the next section. You will control a number of Oogas throughout the levels and must “possess” different Oogas to be able to progress through certain areas of the game, and this is easily done by scrolling through the available characters with the left and right bumper buttons and pressing A when you have the desired Ooga selected. Different Oogas have unique abilities such as being able to breathe fire balls or run through brambles without losing health, and therefore you must use the correct Ooga for each situation.

You are very unlikely going to spend a long time pondering which Ooga to use due to the simplicity of the game, and this also applies to many of the puzzles throughout the game which are extremely basic and a piece of cake to solve. If you do happen to get stuck, holding the left trigger will display a map which tells you your objectives and clearly shows both your current position in the level and where you must travel to. The map and simple puzzles make large portions of the game a breeze to play through and offers relaxing and stress-free gameplay; which can be a nice change from the frantic, fast-paced first person shooters I normally play. The game introduces a new mechanic for carrying objects around a level. In the land of Ooga, you can chew, swallow, or throw-up pretty much any other character or carryable object in the game. Apart from the entertainment factor, this mechanic must be used to solve certain puzzles and progress though the game.

Ancients of Ooga boasts a lengthy campaign which can take upto ten hours to complete, but unfortunately the gameplay becomes repetitive in no time at all. This could be due to the game making you carry out the same tasks over and over again. Pulling levers, possessing different Oogas and retrieving items to keep the tribes happy will be the main tasks given to you, and the game doesn’t differ much from this. When you eventually encounter some evil Boolis throughout levels, you’ll attempt to stay well clear of your enemies due to the games poorly implemented combat system. There is no depth or skill to the combat at all and you will often die a cheap death due to not being able to run away from the Boolis’ annoyingly long swipe and high motivation to take you down.

The land of Ooga does look decent and can be pleasant on the eye. While the game lacks some shiny textures that others display, the Oogas themselves are well detailed and the games animations will provide some laughs along the way. Allowing your character to stand there and perform random dances can often be more entertaining than the actual gameplay. The soundtrack has a tribal theme which suits the game well and thankfully won’t annoy you too much.

If you’re looking for a simple platform puzzle game with a lengthy campaign, Ancients of Ooga could be 800 Microsoft Points well spent. However, the repetitiveness and ease of gameplay might put some people off, so look elsewhere if you’re looking for a more challenging title. There are superior platform puzzle games available on the Xbox Live Arcade but if you’ve experienced all of these or are looking for a game with a bit of character, Ancients of Ooga is worth checking out.

Get lost in Limbo!

Dark, gritty and an art style that could only be described as the end product if Tim Burton and a 1920’s film maker were to copulate, Playdead’s Limbo XBLA puzzle plat former is one heck of a game. Clocking in at around 3-5 hours completion time, this game has so much charm and unique character that it’s worth every penny of your 1200 Microsoft points. Limbo is one of the most unique looking games on Microsoft’s downloadable platform since Braid, some are describing it as the 2010 Braid, I’d like to think of it as better than Braid myself.

Limbo’s game play doesn’t use any special fandangle concept. It’s game play is simple by design. You can jump, push and pull objects and move your character. Where the games challenge lies is that there are no screen prompts, no hints on how to progress but instead the game relies on you dying to figure out the best method to get past all manner of Spiders, flaming bows and crumbling chasms. Constantly dying is rewarded with painful deaths that aren’t as gore ridden as everything is in black and white. Where the game doesn’t frustrate is the fact that when you do die a painful death you are taken back within yards of where you actually died, no punishment for the learning the error in your ways.

Everything in Limbo is grey and black and the artist has used some blurring to create partial foreground and backgrounds to create a sense of entrapment. The puzzle elements are rather clever, in the opening stages to the game you’ll have to experiment with bear traps to chop the spiders legs or use them to propel you to a higher platform by setting a trap under a bending branch. These elements are very clever to say the least. The game also uses your dexterity by testing your reflexes and quick reaction skills to falling objects, set traps and breaking platforms.

Concept for the Sewer

One of the most impressive elements in the game is the sound. It creates an atmospheric experience using a minimal amount of score. The spiders sharp feet crashing down on you is a jumpy moment, but these subtle touches will be wasted on you if you don’t wear some form of headset or surround sound system. Independent developers never cease to amaze me, without them we would have some very dull experiences indeed. Limbo has given the XBLA platform a real fresh vibe this year and hopefully with any luck we’ll return to Limbo or another world in some fashion by the developers Playdead. If the game lacks anything, it’s a sense of story. Your character wakes up from the ground nursing its head in wonderment of where he is, your job is to find your sister upon the Limbo world but that never seems apparent throughout. Is it that big of a deal? Definitely not! I’d be happy to play this game and not have a single clue about my character. Just to play in this dark and sordid world is a pleasure in itself. Cliché as it sounds your money will not be in ‘Limbo’ by buying this title!

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is the last title to be released in Microsoft’s “Summer of Arcade” line-up with a release date set for August 18th. The game will cost 1200 Microsoft Points, and judging by the following trailer which shows a load of juicy gameplay footage, we might be getting good value for our hard earned money. Check the new footage out below:

The anticipated First Person Shooter Blacklight: Tango Down will be available on Xbox Live from tomorrow, July 7th and the Playstation Network and Games for Windows Live in the upcoming weeks. The game features futuristic gameplay with a mix of Blade Runner and Call of Duty and comes with 12 multiplayer maps, seven game types, four co-op missions and tons of weapon customisation options; and at a fair price of 1200 Microsoft Points. Sweet!

For all of the juicy info, check out the official lengthy press release from Ignition Entertainment below, followed by some juicy screenshots to whet your appetite:

After months of anticipation and an overwhelmingly positive reception at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, Ignition Entertainment announced that BlackLight: Tango Down will be available for download on Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft tomorrow (July 7). The futuristic shooter brings non-stop fun and an exhilarating experience to the DLC venue as it offers 12 multiplayer maps, seven game types, four co-op missions and literally trillions of weapon combinations – all for 1200 Microsoft Points. Following its release on XBLA tomorrow, the game will be arriving on PlayStation Network and Games for Windows Live in the coming weeks.

In BlackLight: Tango Down, players are equipped with high-tech, futuristic gear that makes combat fascinating and surreal. Its weapon customization system allows for trillions of different configurations that deliver unlimited adaptability and variety of gameplay. Each player is also equipped with a Hyper Reality Visor (HRV), an advanced imaging system in the player’s Heads up Display that detects nearby enemy and friendly forces and relays the information back to players, giving them immediate battlefield intelligence.

While the weapon customization system and Hyper-Reality Visor may seem like science fiction, the technology featured in the game isn’t too far from creation in real life. The weapon customization system is based on the core weapons that our soldiers have been using since the 1960’s. The HRV uses cell phone towers and satellites to detect nearby enemy and friendly forces and identifies nearby objectives including health and ammo stations.

At this year’s E3, BlackLight: Tango Down stood up against the AAA retail behemoths and received numerous accolades including a Best Shooter Nomination from IGN.com, Best Online Multiplayer Nomination from Machinima.com and BitMob’s Jasmine Rae included the game in her Top Ten Games of E3.

The video game is also an introduction to the BlackLight franchise, poised to be one of the next major entertainment properties. As opposed to the traditional way of launching a franchise, through one genre and then expanding to the others after it achieves a certain level of success, BlackLight already has a major motion picture from 20th Century Fox, a comic book and novel that are in development.

ABOUT BLACKLIGHT: TANGO DOWN
BlackLight: Tango Down is a fast-paced, action-oriented first-person shooter that marks the first release of what will be a multi-platform entertainment franchise. Beyond the video game, a BlackLight feature film from Twentieth Century Fox and comic book series are currently in development. Designed to bring a fun, absorbing, and high quality AAA multiplayer experience to DLG venues, the game exists in a future between contemporary and sci-fi shooters – part Blade Runner and part Call of Duty.

Developed by Zombie Studios, BlackLight: Tango Down takes place 25 years into the future. The player takes control of an elite covert ops team that is sent after missing American Colonel Klein and his personal BlackLight team. The game will feature four single player/co-op levels that support up to four players at once, 12 multiplayer maps, seven game types and literally millions of weapons customization combinations. As the team advances through regions that consist of old world architecture over laden with ubiquitous modern holographic advertising, the trigger based dynamic AI offers an intense and varied experience every time the game is played.

Here is our review of Football Genius, a game recently reduced to only 400 Microsoft points to buy. Nice!

Developed by Strawdog Studios, Space Ark is a fantastic game and well worth the Microsoft Points baggage.

I have spent many an hour enjoying some of the incredible games developed by PopCap Games. Their first title Bejewelled, the legendary match-3 game, has recently sold over 50 million units across all platforms. Other games such as Peggle, Zuma’s Revenge, Bookworm and the recent Plants vs Zombies have all received high acclaim from critics and therefore I jumped at the opportunity to play Feeding Frenzy 2: Shipwreck Showdown which has recently been released on the Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network. Feeding Frenzy 2 looks to build on the success of the original game, but does it sink to the bottom of the ocean or float amongst PopCap’s greatest titles?

Feeding Frenzy 2 features gameplay identical to its predecessor. You control various fish with the aim of eating the smaller fish and avoiding predators who are seeking their lunch, with you eventually growing yourself and making the hunter become the hunted. Whilst some of the latter levels can become challenging due to the sheer amount of predators on the screen at any one time, the game carries a basic yet fun concept which makes it suitable for both younger and older audiences. Fun facts presented about the fish and the ocean every now and again help to make it an enjoyable experience for children.

PopCap Games have tried to innovative the sequel in the Feeding Frenzy series by introducing power-ups which can aid your quest of becoming the King of the ocean. There are 6 power-ups in total, which each providing a unique gameplay feature if you’re skilful enough to swim and eat them if you seem them floating around the ocean. Power-ups include “Lightning Bolt” which increases the speed of your fish for a short period of time, allowing you to zip around the screen gobbling up your prey and “Shrink Shroom”, a handy power-up that shrinks all of the fish present on the screen smaller than you, therefore turning them into easy prey and often helping you escape tricky situations.

Two new additions to the control system have been incorporated into Feeding Frenzy 2 to help you catch your prey. Pressing the X or A button, depending on which console you’re playing on, will make your fish quickly dash a few metres infront of itself, and this can be handy when trying to catch prey which is just out of reach; however, this could have a detrimental effect if there are predators lurking around and you don’t judge the dash correctly. Holding the Circle or B button allows you to suck up fish for a small amount of time which can be very useful when large amounts of prey are in the vicinity; you’ll have to be careful not to suck predators towards you however or you’ll soon meet your death, and therefore tactics have to be implemented on when to use these two new control features.

The campaign mode consists of 60 levels, with the environment and the fish you control regularly changing which helps keep the game fresh. Above water challenges pop up every now and then which require you to jump out of the water to eat bugs and insects that are floating above the waters surface. Levels called “Midnight Zones” are featured on rare occasions, and this is where you have to pick-up bulb icon power-ups in order to illuminate some of the screen that has been darkened.

The Feeding Frenzy 2 campaign can be played with upto 3 friends in 4-player co-op which is a nice addition to the game. Unfortunately this can only be done on the same console and not over Xbox Live or the Playstation Network which is a big shame. Mini-games are also available to play with upto 3 friends and these add good variety to the game. The mini-games include “Tailbite Tag” where you must try and bite the other players’ tails, “Munch-a-thon” where you have to eat as many fish as possible in a certain amount of time, and “Gold Rush” which challenges you to eat 10 Golden Herring fish which zip around the screen, whilst at the same time avoid the numerous predators and poisonous fish which are out to hamper your chances. These multiplayer games are a welcome addition to Feeding Frenzy 2 but unfortunately can only be played with friends on the same console and not over the internet.

Graphically, Feeding Frenzy 2 is the King of the ocean and looks fantastic. Varied fish and locations keep the game looking fresh and the environments and fish themselves are well detailed. Beautiful animations such as water ripples as you swim away add a nice touch to the game. The audio doesn’t stand-out but fortunately won’t annoy you or discourage you from playing

Feeding Frenzy 2 is best played in short bursts while the game still feels fresh and fun. PopCap have tried to implement innovative new features to stop the gameplay from becoming boring, but essentially the same task of eating smaller fish and rising the food chain is seen in every level and this can make long playing sessions a chore rather than fun. However, Feeding Frenzy 2 can still be an enjoyable game and is suitable for both young and older audiences and I recommend giving the game a try.

Get ready to kick some ass and chew some bubblegum, because Duke Nukem: Manhatten Project will be officially available on Xbox Live Arcade from June 23rd and for a highly reasonable price of 800 Microsoft Points.

The games’ official website tries to remind us how awesome the title is by saying “Duke Nukem is back! New York City is being overrun by a mutant menace and it’s time to de-worm the Big Apple. This explosive 3D action game features Duke Nukem defending the city that never sleeps, and its babes, from the evil Mech Morphix across 24 levels from Chinatown to Space. A super-sized collection of weapons, enemies and bosses await. As Duke would say, “Babes, Bullets, Bombs. I love this job!”

Check out the trailer below to see the game in action:

Major Nelson has announced some awesome deals on Xbox Live Arcade games, with 5 fantastic deals of the week starting from Monday June 14th. Looks like I better buy a Points card! Check out all of the deals below.

Deals starting from Monday, June 14th:

Shadow Complex – Normal price = 1200, DOTW price = 560, Savings = 53%
Trials HD – Normal price = 1200, DOTW price = 560, Savings = 53%
Marvel vs Capcom 2 – Normal price = 1200, DTOW price = 560, Savings = 53%
TMNT Turtles in Time HD – Normal price = 800, DOTW price = 400, Savings = 50%
Splosion Man – Normal Price 800, DOTW price = 400, Savings = 50%

Will you be purchasing any of these come Monday?

If you owned a Dreamcast then you’ll more than likely know how awesome Crazy Taxi was and have been dying for a re-release for some time now. Well, the wait looks to be nearly over as both Dreamcast classics Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure have been giving a rating by the Korean ratings board, with this being one of the last steps before a game sees a release. With this being the case, we can expect to be zooming around the streets and delivering customers to their destination in style this summer. Bring it on!

I’ll be honest, I never really adopted the Genesis, it was a system that I bypassed as I strolled happily along with a Sega Master System before jumping on to the N64. One of the games that I missed on the Genesis was the beginning of the Rocket Knight series, given the fact that the re-imagination of the series by Konami is so damned good, I am a little gutted that I haven’t given it the time of day thus far.

In Rocket Knight, you play a Jet Packed Opossum whom has the flexibility and dexterity of Jackie Chan but turbo charged. The game is very much orientated as a platform brawler come shoot-em-up. The best way really to describe this is that it plays similar to the Astro Boy games in that you’ll transverse between one level of platforming to one level of flying and shooting. The difference between Astro Boy and Rocket Knight is the fact that Astro Boy’s emergence into the modern games console totally sucked and Rocket Knight stands in shining armour with an effort that is standing out as one of the best pick up’s on PSN/XBLA/Steam.

“In Rocket Knight, players assume the role of a courageous opossum named Sparkster who finds his home in a dreadful state after a 15-year absence. Employing Sparkster’s faithful rocket pack and indomitable spirit, players must fight against the destructive wolf army that threatens Sparkster’s homeland, the Kingdom of Zephyrus. As players progress through the game, they will encounter vast worlds comprised of vast platforming levels and thrilling rocket flying stages.”

How Rocket Knight stands out different from other platformer titles is the execution, on ground based levels your Opossum has the ability to use spin attacks, bounce off walls using his rocket packs and smack enemies, make use of long attack weapon along with multiple varieties of already existing attacks to chain moves together effortlessly. You never feel cheated by any poor mechanics and getting to grips with the main protagonist is the easiest we’ve ever come across since Super Mario. What makes Rocket Knight so charming though is the graphics, everything is in bold chunky colours, from luscious greens to sharp browns, it’s almost a HD throwback to yesteryear. Whilst many franchises return and keep to the 2D sprite roots (Megaman) Rocket Knight has embraced the graphical horsepower modern systems have and utilised it to make it beautiful in every way.

Flying missions are arguably weaker than platforming missions but there are still enough enemy variants to keep you interested and you’ll often have to dodge bullets and use charge attacks to get through the game without losing all of your health hearts. The games difficulty is well suited, providing an opening for the inexperienced but also retaining a challenge for ardent veterans in the end of level bosses. Speaking of the bosses they aren’t massive in magnitude, whilst they provide challenge and some strategy (such as deflecting dynamite) none of them really have a sense of empowerment or fear attached to them, you never really feel that at any point is there an arch nemesis.

Climax aren’t stupid, once you have progressed through the various stages in the single player, they have also attached to the game a time trial addition leader board, for those that anally retentive to want to score highly in these areas they will be dually pleased with the addition and whilst it doesn’t exactly scream anything innovative, it does given some added bite to the buyer.  Rocket Knight is a very good game, it has very little faults except for the odd texture glitch but we found this to help the user get back onto a platform as opposed to falling off it. As I write this I am literally yards away from the developers whom made this game, Climax. As I sit in the Starbucks below them I know that not only have they put their passion and drive into this game, they have added some much needed colour and verve into a genre that is becoming increasingly under looked into today’s current market.

We all know that fruit is good for your health, but did you know that digital fruit is great for racking up ridiculously high scores?! Well, indie game developer Strawdog Studios has released a brand new video to show how getting more than your regular five-a-day can propel you to the top of the leaderboard in Space Ark, the classically addictive, yet digitally nutritious Arcade game to be released on Xbox LIVE® Arcade, the premier destination for digitally distributed games, this Spring.

• Trigger a ‘Fruit Frenzy’: Collecting same-color combos of three or more DNA blocks to trigger a hail of falling fruit, all ripe for the gathering by your Arkonaut or Bounce Pad.
• Max your score with ‘Level Up’: Fruit fuels your Power Meter and each Level Up increases your score multiplier. Juicy!
• You want seriously huge scores? Longer combos yield better fruit to fill the Power Meter even quicker and reach the higher score-multiplying Level Ups. There are 21 different fruits to gather ranging from the modest cherry—created by a 3 block combo—to the magnificent melon—nabbed by the ultimate 15 block combo which fills your Power Meter by a whopping 33%.
• Want even more? Grab B O N U S to unlock the ‘Bonus Stage’ and feast on falling fruit to boost your score.

So remember: in Space Ark,it’s all about the fruit. Get all the best fruit and you’ll become the top banana!

As from yesterday, 10 tasty Xbox Live Arcade titles have been reduced in price as an early Easter gift. The stand out offer has got to be Super Street Fighter 2 HD being reduced to a strange number of 560 Microsoft Points, with the former price being 1200 Microsoft Points. The only game in the list that takes my fancy is Track and Field and unfortunately I payed the full price back in the day, but we’re not complaining at great deals! Take a look at the reduced games yourself:

Age of Booty
Price: 400 Microsoft Points
Reduced from: 800 Microsoft Points

Defence Grid
Price: 400 Microsoft Points
Reduced from: 800 Microsoft Points

Lumines LIVE
Price: 400 Microsoft Points
Reduced from: 800 Microsoft Points

Mad Tracks
Price: 400 Microsoft Points
Reduced from: 800 Microsoft Points

Rocket Riot
Price: 400 Microsoft Points
Reduced from: 800 Microsoft Points

Schizoid
Price: 400 Microsoft Points
Reduced from: 800 Microsoft Points

South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play!
Price: 400 Microsoft Points
Reduced from: 800 Microsoft Points

Super Street Fighter II HD
Price: 560 Microsoft Points
Reduced from: 1200 Microsoft Points

Track & Field
Price: 240 Microsoft Points
Reduced from: 400 Microsoft Points

Wallace & Gromit Episode 1
Price: 400 Microsoft Points
Reduced from: 800 Microsoft Points

Pedal to the Metal, Then shout in rage!

When I interviewed Slick Entertainment and Metanet Studios back in 2008 (N+), I came away from our live video interview thinking, these guys are really cool. They have a lot of passion for their work and it was at the interview that Nick Waanders let the cat out of the bag that Slick Entertainment were working on a combat racer. The racer soon turned out to be Scrap Metal, a game that resembled the combat racers of old such as Badlands and Super Cars II. When the first screenshots arrived we smiled and naturally when you have a good impression of the people behind the product, you naturally want it to succeed. Funnily enough this game has been embroiled in a little controversy, mainly because David Jaffe didn’t bother to research this game in detail. Somehow Jaffe believed that Scrap Metal was ripping off Twisted Metal, did David Jaffe even look at a single screenshot? If anything this little industryspat highlighted Scrap Metal. Microsoft leapt forward and also gave the game a highlighted release for their Block Party month. Not a bad amount of exposure then. The publicity was so intense for the game that even Slick had to call in Flash Fire Communications to deal with the PR.

Tracks on offer are....

So what is all the fuss about? Well, other than Vigilante 8 your combat racers are somewhat sparce unless of course you can include Mad Tracks into the fray. Top down combat racing was non existent on the platform and Microsoft’s last console only saw one game remotely within a similar theme with Mashed: Total Destruction. The game features sixty single player missions, split screen multiplayer, online multiplayer and an insane amount of weaponary at your disposal. Within the single player component you can build up and play through a variety of arena’s, all uniquely themed and play through challenges and get gold stars with a multitude of twenty cars on offer. The important thing with top down racers is making sure the control scheme is correct and Slick Entertainment have given you two different options available, one of which makes no sense. The easy control method requires no acceleration, just a brake and directional movement. This proves difficult if you want to reverse, which you’ll be doing allot of. The supposidly complicated control scheme is that of every racing game on the Xbox 360. Right trigger accelerate, Left trigger break. Simples. Controls on the surface appear easy to get used to but throw in some wet weather and basic tyres and you could be slipping around the corners to your doom, nice for the ardent hardcore gamer, not so for the casual.

In terms of the gameplay I have to take issue with the camera, it was obviously something that Slick pondered in production because they decided to keep it zoomed in that left and right turns would be indicated on the floor by the terrain. Smart move? Not in the slightest, especially in the later levels where you can fall off the track onto another piece later in the lap, frustrating when you wrestled your way to the lead. The camera issue coupled with the quirky handling of some cars had me throwing my controller in rage at some points. To be precise I went from loving this game, to hating it and then loving it again when it got easier. Boss fights are possibly the most irritating of them all, they aren’t even entertaining. You have to kill some random character who has been nicely rendered in the overlays but for the life of you, you have no idea who he is or what he even sounds like which renders them with no personality, no empathy for or hatred against them. Where the boss fights are bullshit is in the process it takes to defeat them. You have a set number of laps to destroy their vehicle but they will often be faster than you and their cars will have better handling. Put this together with the fact that they can increase their health through driving into themed garages strings out the boss fights longer than they need to be. The two issues i’ve raised in this paragraph leaves a Dirty Sanchez on what otherwise is a very good game.

Look at those cars!

Graphically Smash Cars is presented nicely, in split screen multiplayer it’s not the sharpest draw and the anaglyth 3D mode only supporting anaglyth 3D was a little disappointing but it does support a range of colours, which the website doesn’t state. I was quite looking forward to playing a new game  in digital 3D, oh well. Perhaps I’ll pop on ebay and make a purchase at some point. The most impressive factor for me graphically was the detail and originality that is gone into the twenty vehicles on offer. You can customise the liveries, paint and accessories on the car and these are meld nicely with the madness of the game. You’ll notice the first car you get in the game has a pink donut accessory, nice. I can’t take any issue with the sound in the game, the music is grunge based and has a nice pace, I just wished that Slick Entertainment took the time to give the characters some voices, if it can be done on Mashed, it can be done on Scrap Metal. Some of the race courses are really nice, Downtown has a nice neon theme whilst the one set in the wetlands gives off nice residual water spray and has a general camo-jungle theme to it.

Throw this game online and this is where most of the fun can be had, whilst there aren’t anything more than leaderboards to keep you enticed, it appears from the early offerings that Scrap Metal could have a community on live that will stick to playing the game, here is hoping anyway. Matches are easy to set up and find, with lobbies available for most game types. You have your standard Destruction Derby events, King of the Hill and even Tank Wars to throw in some added variety. Perhaps one of my favorite races was being F1 cars with lasers strapped to our front noses, plaudits where it is due, I’d have never of thought of that. The game has some nice online achievements to coax you online too, winning a ranked match will net you some gamerscore. Scrap Metal also supports split screne multiplayer but this only really works for the less complex tracks, having the camera zoomed in without an adequate amount of time to make a response and the ability to fly off sections of the track just brings back the level of frustrating gameplay that the Micro Machines series had. Not needed.

Anyone for a destruction derby?

In essence Scrap Metal is a solid racer not without it’s flaws. Some pretty big flaws, I had a feeling this game had a dysphoria as to whether it was positioning itself to the casual player, or hardcore gamer because it has totally failed at embracing both. For those that like your gameplay without controller throwing moments, i’d say stay away from this title. Even with my young diet of playing games like Super Sprint and Badlands I even found this game ridiculously difficult at places and as such at intervals I just wanted to switch my Xbox 360 off and you don’t want that. I think Scrap Metal needed attention to detail in the right places, it went to town in areas like the car designs but didn’t look at issues such as the camera and difficulty spikes with much logic. To get through this game expect to unlock the later cars through playing through races of each level and returning to challenges you couldn’t beat, it’s not a sure fire success but it’ll help. So, from a reviewer that wanted to see this game succeed badly, I must leave you with a tough decision to make, do you take the 1200 Microsoft hit and make the best out of the games good bits, or do you spend it on other Block Party titles? Well, I certainly enjoyed Toy Soldiers a lot more, enough said.

War doesn’t have to be violent

When I was a child I didn’t play with army figures and I didn’t re-act famous war battles. I didn’t play with Barbie either but that didn’t stop me turning out batting for the other side and wearing a dress or two. In fact, my childhood was actually all about Wacky Races, Tom & Jerry and the Atari ST. I grew up on the likes of Stunt Car Racer and Impossible Mission. I never found Action Man at all interesting either. I feel a lot of this boils down to the fact that the interaction was never immersive enough, you needed the ability to make believe and as far as I got with that was pretending to be a pro BMX rider, pedalling to the metal through woodlands with my mates. However, Signal Studios has brought the toy chest to life and in some way’s I’m kind of gutted that I never got to forge battles on my living room floor, because I never knew it could be this much fun.

Yes, you can control this too

Toy Soldiers is set around WWI and the premise is the game is similar to that of tower defence games. Build weapon units and kill your enemies before they enter your base. For every enemy you kill or infrastructure you destroy, you get cash. The cash can then be re-invested into upgrading or adding to your defence in form of mortars, machine guns, mustard gas, flamethrowers, the list goes on. Each weapon has the ability to be upgraded and this will become essential as you face waves of Krauts with better armour or armoured steel tanks. You can also lay down barbwire to slow your enemies down. This is a clever move as it’ll also move your foes into different directions making the tactical element even more absorbing. As the single player campaign progresses you’ll have to sell units and be clever with tooling up the right weapons for the job, this increment on skill really starts to take place from Level 3 onwards. Fortunately each level has its own themed battle grounds, from war torn trenches to battles taking place in forests, the variety is both visually appealing and much welcomed. So, this sounds like a standard tower defence styled game but you would be wrong to think that. Signal Studios have thrown in a USP to this game like no other, every unit in this game you can step in and remotely control and this is just an act of pure brilliance. Whether it’s lining up your trajectory for mortars, flying a Red Baron to bomb the enemy or acting as a sniper on your lookout tower the game has an unbelievable charm that works incredibly well.

Being a console game you may be slightly sceptical about how they’ve mapped the controls, but even that is easy. Pressing A on each character or weapon unit will enable you to jump in and take control of your men with ease with the sub-options of upgrading and selling your units tiered into a circular selection system. Just firing blistering rounds of ammunition from an artillery gun is particularly satisfying. One of our favourite moments in the game were taking down the Zeppelin blimps and having dog-fights in Red Barons. Having the freedom to switch between all of these different combat options means that the game never gets stale and because everything takes place on a small based arena, there is no chance of ever getting lost, which is something that can happen so easily on the Battle Station series.

Control the infantry too!

The visuals in the game are satisfying, Signal have added in quirky visual effects such as film grain to introduce levels and the muddy and painted styled landscapes give the feeling that you are playing directly from a vintage battle ground. All soldiers are faithfully re-created in wood apparel, so there is no nasty green Army Men tackiness to be seen. Damage effects are nice, but don’t expect any physics based explosion effects. It would have been nice to have something like the PhysX engine used, but we can understand why it hasn’t, after all it’s not exactly needed, the game doesn’t try to be super realistic. You’ll really find yourself immersed in the battle in Toy Soldiers and that is partly because of the fantastic sound effects and also down to the music that features in the game, licensed tracks such as Goodbye, Dolly Gray and She has seen better days create nostalgic ambience. Someone pass me a back of senior service. Couple this with the early century graphics and typography and you have yourself a very authentic looking defence game that quite simply floors any competition on the system, all of a sudden games like Defence Grid and South Park Tower Defence rub off distinctly average.

The fun doesn’t end on the single player campaign, if you ever needed any more reasonable argument to justify the 1200 Microsoft point investment then look no further than the multiplayer. Not only do you get split-screen support where you can play the same modes as the online, you obviously get to play over Live too. Toy Soldiers multiplayer works on an attack and defend game type. Protect your base and attack your opponents, you’re rewarded for infiltrating their base as much as possible. Whilst online doesn’t offer variety in game modes, there is simply no need for it too. There is no learning process involved and with the single player maps, converted to the multiplayer you’ll have plenty of battle grounds to give you more wood splinters than you can shake a stick at. In addition to the multiplayer there are ration packs that can be collected by completing a goal within a level, such as performing 10x multipliers on a particular weapon. You’ll also be able to browse through all the weapon sets you have unlocked in a gallery mode.

Toy Soldiers is a piece of accomplished work, it’s gone above and beyond it’s remit and created a game that will sit on XBLA as one of the best games it has ever churned out. If we were to make a really anal criticism then we’d have like to have seen the hit detection be a little crisper, but with that aside it’s an absolute diamond, a bobby dazzler and should stand on your purchase list as tall as the Empire State building. Microsoft were not joking about their Block Party line up, Toy Soldiers opens the four week megaton with a game with original relish and fun in its droves.