Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is a game that I thought would never
exist, particularly after the complex legal wrangling caused the relationship
to bottom out for awhile. Luckily for us, their want of money is greater than
their hate of exceedingly long contracts and licensing fees. The latest entry
looks to take the franchise to new heights while inviting new players to enter
the fray against seasoned veterans.
You Don’t Know Jack has been absent from gaming for the past 8 years. Eight years is a long time for developer Jellyvision to not have anything on the store shelves. With Jellyvision being absent from the trivia game scene for so long, are they able to come back and retake the trivia game thrown?
You Don’t Know Jack is a trivia game that features trivia about movies, TV, history, and other random facts. The first thing you will notice is the humor and the commentary of You Don’t Know Jack. When you first start up the game you will hear commentary in the background as if you were in a control room of a game show. You hear producer type people talking about how long until title cards and to display the legal information. You will also hear audio commercials and random conversations while sitting at the main menu waiting to choose a game. It is great to just put the control down and listen to the craziness that some of these people are saying.
The original Two Worlds was, for lack of a better descriptive
phrase, awful. Any individual who thought that a sequel would come out of it
would have been laughed right out of the game industry. Reality Pump made a controversial
decision to revive and retool the franchise that had left such a terrible taste
in the game industry’s mouth, and somehow it worked. The game is infinitely
better than the first, and is a worthy addition to your game collection.
If you came up to me and said, “Russian stacking dolls
game.” My response would be, “Is Double Fine developing it?” As that is just
the reputation Double Fine has garnered over its time in the video game
industry, making games that have a seemingly ridiculous yet lovable plot, which
is the definition of their newest release, Stacking.
In Stacking, you are Charlie Blackmore, one of the smallest
Russian stacking dolls out there, and your brothers and sister have been captured
by the evil Baron and summoned into some kind of child labor hell. Little
Charlie decides it is his time to prove he is more than just the smallest doll
in the family, as he goes out to save his siblings. Stacking may have a
seemingly cute concept, but the story has some oddly deep underlying messages
involving child labor in foreign countries and even forcing you to deal with
your father’s possible death throughout most of the game. It’s these messages
that make Stacking more than just a cutesy puzzle game. Throughout its story,
you continue to get deeply invested into the Blackmore family and actually
stopping child labor. Stacking is oddly serious at times, but never to the
point where it loses its charm and wit.
A sequel to the remake of 1987’s Bionic Commando, Rearmed 2
has quite a reputation to uphold. Though the series has never really taken over
the market as many platformers have, it still holds a dedicated, rabid fanbase.
In some respects, it holds up well, but in other respects it leaves much to be
desired. Fatshark, true to Capcom’s platforming roots, has created a fun but difficult
title. Unfortunately, not all the difficulties are intentional and can be
detrimental to the gameplay.
Dead Space released a little over 2 years ago and was well-regarded in many ways, the biggest being its unique take on combat where instead of just shooting enemies, you have to strategically dismember their limbs until they go down. When I played Dead Space, I never did get enraptured into the experience like everyone else seemed to do. I thought it was interesting and at rare times, scary. But I also felt that the pacing slightly dragged and the story was slowly becoming a bit too predictable for my taste.
I did pick Dead Space back up last December and finally played through it all. My opinions never changed, the combat remained great throughout but the story was nothing special, and a good story is what I itch for in horror games. Dead Space 2 has finally arrived and can it deliver the horror experience the first one promised?
Let’s face it Western companies, at least for the moment, have the market cornered on first person shooters. Japanese developer Feelplus does little to change that with this uninspired, lackluster effort. The problems are abundant, the concepts are poorly implemented, and the story is lacking in variety.
Doritos Crash Course is a platformer developed by Behaviour Interactive. This Xbox Live game is the next installment in free Doritos line of games. Last year’s Dash of Destruction left a lot to be desired even thought it was a free game. Does Doritos Crash Course surpass last year’s Doritos game?
Crash Course is a straight platformer. You go through each level jumping over obstacles and dodge swinging hammers. The Crash Course is setup like Wipeout the TV show. You have to get to the other end of the course as fast as you can. Depending on what time you get determines what kind of medal you receive. Surprisingly Crash Course has finesse when it comes to jumping over obstacles. If you lightly tap the jump button you will do a little hop, but if you hammer down on the button you will get some height to your jumps. The game is straight forward and there is not much to it.
ilomilo is a cutesy 3rd person puzzler involving two best friends (one named Ilo, one named Milo) trying to get together to simply play. But after each day passes, they separate from one another and have to find their way back together. This is the simple gameplay structure built around ilomilo. You play as both main characters, switching back and forth between the two all while attempting to solve certain issues, and ultimately bringing the friends together and ending the level with a climactic, incredibly cute dance between the two crazy sacks of whatever they’re filled with.
It’s been close to 30 years since the world was first exposed to the sprawling terminus of Tron. The world has endured through popular culture and has even managed to spawn a hugely popular sequel, Tron: Legacy. Tron Evolution is intended as a bridge between the two movies, filling in some of the finer points of the struggle between Basics and ISOs. The concept is an intriguing one, but the game falls short in almost conceivable way.
