I’ve just posted up reviews of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 for the Xbox Live Arcade.
The All Encompassing review at Evil Avatar
The Co-Op review at Co-Optimus.
The bottom line is, you shouldn’t be reading this post right now, you should be playing GW2!
Ting Ting Ting. Thwump thwump. Chata-chata-chata. Ah the sounds of pinball. It’s like sweet, sweet music; as the sound draws you into an arcade or corner of the bar. While Pinball can date as far back as the 1800’s, modern day pinball had a boom in the early 1970s. One of the leaders in table manufacturers was Williams, who also created such popular arcade games Joust and Robotron. Now Wii owners can experience all the classics from the comfort of their own couch with Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection.
The game sets to emulate the arcade experience right down to the interface, with your character able to walk around a virtual arcade choosing a machine to play at. With Wii-Mote in one hand, and nun-chuck in the other it’s like you are standing at a pinball table. Each controller’s button will operate the flipper, and each controller’s motion will bump the table. So if you need to hit that ball a little to the left simply push the wii-mote in that direction. The machines are all accurate recreations of their real life counter parts; every bumper, graphic and sound effect is here. In fact the game includes a digital version of the original arcade flyer for each machine, which used to lure prospective buyers.
Some of the machines offer free play, but others will be asking for your virtual quarters. How do you fill your fantasy pockets with these coins? By completing goals on the tables and competing in the Williams Tournament. These tasks can range from successfully unlocking multi-ball on a table to achieving a certain score or hitting a specific marker. The Williams Tournament will have you competing in successive tables to achieve certain scores. The tournament isn’t for the weary either, while the first 2 tables or so the scores are fairly easy – the last bunch will have you pounding on flippers for hours.
Pinball is the original button masher, with many people simply content to keeping the ball out of the bottom of the machine. Truly skilled players know there are certain targets and goals used to achieve maximum score. Every table in the game offers a detailed walk through of every scoring location and goal to help get the most out of your pinball experience. This is a very welcome addition to the game as I know I never have any idea what to do in a pinball game.
With 10 tables and up to 4 players you’ll have plenty to keep you busy in the virtual arcade. A game of pinball is something that never gets old, it’s something you can always go back to. I found Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection strangely addictive, almost entrancing and it’s hard to argue with a $30 price tag for something with mostly infinite replay ability. Just don’t tilt the table.
Score: 4 out of 5
The first project from Kaos Studios (creators of Desert Combat), Frontlines: Fuel of War is very much influence by the aforementioned mod. The story revolves around the time the world’s oil begins to dry up, and involves the nations who must fight for the last remaining territories that have the precious resource. In the single player game has you taking the role of a soldier in the Western Coalition (the United States and the European Union) to face off against the Red Star Alliance (Russian/People’s Republic of China). The multiplayer on the other hand plays out like a Battlefield 2 match, though there’s a few unique twists.
After a Holiday 2007 that was filled with games like Halo 3, Mass Effect, Uncharted and others, the games of early 2008 have a large shoe to fill. Turok is one of those games that’s reception could change depending on the time of year it’s released. Turok itself isn’t a bad game…but it isn’t a great game either. There are times when the game shows a truly awesome moment. And there are times when it’s simply downright frustrating and annoying.
Turok is the 4th game in the franchise. While the first title in the series was fairly well received, the latter titles left much to be desired. The story puts you in the role of Turok trying to track down is old teacher Kane for some unknown reason. Suddenly the space ship Turok is on comes under attack and crash lands onto a planet filled with dinosaurs and other creatures. The original Turok was subtitled “The Dinosaur Hunter” and the latest game is no exception to the rule. There’s a good variety of dinos to hunt, though not all of them necessarily need to be massacred. In fact, by utilizing flares you can use the dinosaurs as weapon to attack an enemy. The other neat thing about the dinosaurs in the world is they will stalk and hunt you. You won’t necessarily see them, but you can hear them, and before you know it you’ll be knocked on your ass fending off the dino attack. There’s a button press mini game that is played to survive every attack, as well as during a few cutscenes in the game. There’s a good variety of animations and differences in the mini games that keep it interesting.
Like I said before, there are several scenes and moments in the game that will simply put a smile on your face. Sneaking up behind enemy soldiers and knifing them in the back is one. Launching explosive arrows into groups of unsuspecting enemies is another. But there are times in the game where things are simply so unbalanced that it’s just downright frustrating. Part of the problem is the screen shake in the game. When you take hits from gunfire your viewport is skewed a bit. The bigger problem is when an explosion goes off near you and knocks you off your feet. You become disoriented, and can’t shoot or move for a few seconds. The even bigger problem here is most times an enemy will be able to get off another rocket or grenade before you even get back to your feet, thereby knocking you back down before you really get back up. Before you know it your screen is a blurry red mess and suddenly you are dead.
The single player campaign was mildly entertaining, as was the story. There’s a solid voice acting cast with the likes of Ron Perlman as the cynical sidekick Slade. The game features a pretty indepth multiplayer mode complete with dinosaurs that roam the playing field. There’s also a small co-op campaign online which consists of 3 short missions. It would have been nice if the actual campaign was co-op, but what we get is pretty solid.
Turok is a game that many people will overlook, and while it’s not something everyone should play, fans of shooters or the previous titles will enjoy what the game has to offer.
Score: 3 out of 5
If you’ve read my Geometry Wars: Galaxies review for the Wii, you know I thought very favorably of it. What’s even better is the fact that there’s a portable version of the game available for the Nintendo DS. In that tiny little cart you’ll find a virtually identical version of Geometry Wars: Galaxies. That’s not to say there aren’t differences, but from a gameplay and content perspective you’ve got every Geometry Wars fan’s dream.
Obviously the Nintendo DS isn’t two Gamecubes with some duct tape, so graphically speaking the game doesn’t look quite as good. You won’t get any fancy grid effects, and there won’t be as many colors, but you do still get a great particle engine and plenty of baddies on the screen at once. The game does slowdown at times, especially when things start to get really hectic, but it’s nothing too bad and it’s something you get used to.
The Controls on the DS allow for a few options. The first has the game displaying on the top screen while you use the d-pad (or buttons for us lefties) to move and the stylus on the bottom screen to aim. There’s a small ship icon which corresponds to your ship up top, and moving the stylus around it shoots in the appropriate direction. The second method has the game screen at the bottom and has you using the stylus directly on the game board. The problem I found with this is it can be difficult to see the action on the screen. The final method allows you to have the screen on either top or bottom and you use the d-pad and buttons in a familiar dual analog stick type fashion. I actually found this method to be the best once I go the hang of rolling my thumb along the buttons to aim.
Besides a bit of slowdown the only flaw I found with the game is the sound. While it does an accurate job of recreating the effects, there seems to be a limit as to how many sound cues the DS can play at once. This causes you to miss critical cues of different types of enemies spawning. The Nintendo DS and Wii version of Galaxies allow you to connect the two to unlock an additional galaxy. The galaxy has one of the greatest levels in it which has a giant black hole in the middle that can’t be killed along with constantly spawning enemies. It’s an interesting and hectic challenge.
For Geometry Wars addicts this is the version of the game you need to have. The pick up and play nature of the game is perfect for the DS. On top of that you get online leader boards via the Nintendo WiFi connection to feed your competitive side. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some isosceles triangles to blast apart.
Score: 4 out of 5
Buy it @ Amazon.
