Sin & Punishment: Star Successor — Review

Sin & Punishment: Star Successor (Wii)

Defying the odds put against it, Sin & Punishment on N64 gathered a devoted following for a game that failed to ship outside of Japan prior to its launch on the Wii’s Virtual console.

That devoted following, however small it may be, clearly shouted loud enough for Nintendo to notice, as it gave the green light to Sin & Punishment: Star Successor for Wii.

The announcement came and went and this Sin & Punishment actually made it to North American shores and while it isn’t perfect, it’s one of the most intense gaming experiences I’ve had in a long time.

Labeling Star Successor is hard.

It’s an on-rails shooter that’s nothing like, say, House of the Dead, and it has similarities to shmups like Ikaruga, but again, it’s a variant of the genre. You take control of one of two characters represented in third person on the screen. You run at times, you fly at times; you even have a melee attack that’s extremely effective for enemies up close.

But mostly, you shoot things in the face constantly all the while dodging projectiles flying at you. READ MORE

Bayonetta — Review

Review based on 360 version. Typically this wouldn’t matter, but the PS3 is said to be an inferior port — please keep this in mind.

Former Capcom developer Clover (now defunct) are on their second release since forming under the Platinum Games name, and like MadWorld, they’ve went for another stylish and extreme take on the action genre with Bayonetta.

The game puts the super sexualized female lead of the same name, Bayonetta, in the filthy and perverted hands of 360 and PS3 gamers.

But Bayonetta is more than just sex appeal, it’s a frantic action game that feels more Devil May Cry than perhaps even modern day Devil May Cry. That should come as no surprise considering the developer’s roots, and the background of director Hideki Kamiya. READ MORE

Arkedo Series – 01 Jump — Review

Arked0 Series — 01 Jump (Xbox Live Indie Games)

In one short sitting I became an Arkedo Studio fan. This defies logic for various reasons, but the most obvious one is that it was based on an Xbox Live Indie Game – a territory host to some terrible, terrible gaming. However, I’ve recently credited the service with a slight turn for the better and I’ve played through my first bit of proof.

On any given day I can still find endless piles of crap and ass, but we’re finally starting to see some legitimately good games, too. This is no more apparent than with Arkedo’s Arkedo Series 01 – Jump, which I’ll simply call Jump to avoid confusion.

After procrastinating on my purchase for days, I finally bought a few hundred Microsoft points and bought Jump along with Arkedo’s other release, Arkedo Series 02 – SWAP!, which I’ll now refer to as Swap because, well, typing out SWAP! is annoying.

Jump is everything an Xbox Indie Game should be. It’s simple, to the point, and perhaps most importantly, it doesn’t look like either of the two things I most commonly associate Xbox Indie games with: MS Paint in motion or cringe worthy 3D. READ MORE

Little King’s Story — Review

Little King’s Story (Wii)

Me and Little King’s Story go way back. From the moment I discovered the under-hyped Wii exclusive, I kept a close eye on it as it developed over many months. The wait felt forever long as the game suffered delay after delay, but the game finally hit North American shores back in July.

Needless to say, I scooped it up on launch day and proceeded to chug my way through the surprisingly meaty adventure. With the realms unified and all the land mine, I’m ready to deliver the full battle report.

Could developer Cing live up to the lofty expectations I’d set for Little King’s Story? Well, that’s a complicated question, especially when my expectations were indeed lofty. READ MORE

The Conduit — Review

The Conduit (Wii)

What a fun ride The Conduit must have been for High Voltage Software. After being rejected time and time again for presumably being a “dark game” on Wii, the first person shooter managed to receive ridiculous amounts of attention after being the focus of a feature article over at IGN. In the time since that article, HVS not only snagged Sega as a publisher, but has since won the support of many Nintendo fans by showing a bold amount of dedication to the Wii not often seen by a third party developer.

But has support been thrown to High Voltage prematurely?  Aside from a couple of mediocre WiiWare titles and some license-based trash, the studio has little to show for. Nevertheless, on paper The Conduit seems to have it all. With customizable everything and online play to boot, Wii owners might finally have a shooter* worth getting jealous over.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the case – not by a long shot.

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Red Faction: Guerrilla — Review

Red Faction: Guerrilla (360, PS3)

Volition’s Red Faction: Guerrilla is a game I’ve been looking forward to for some time. Leading into its release, Red Faction appeared to have all the necessary parts that amount to a great experience. Not only does it have a full-on sandbox solo campaign, it features a robust multiplayer component to boot. However, a lengthy campaign and a feature-heavy multiplayer mode won’t amount to anything if the gameplay falls flat, so it was with a certain amount of nervous optimism that I started my adventures with Guerrilla. Sure, it could live up to the expectations I laid out for it, but it could also fall flat on its face, marking the launch of yet another hyped game that turned out to be a disappointment.

I’ll get it out of the way right now: Red Faction: Guerrilla is one of the best games of 2009. Volition is fast becoming one of my favorite developers in the HD era, and Guerrilla lends credence to that statement.

Taking place in 2120, you’re dropped into the rusty world of Mars and take control of mining engineer Alec Mason. All you truly need to know of the story is that you’re about to lead a massive rebellion against the Earth Defense Force (EDF) who rule the lands of Mars with an iron fist. As Mason, the ultimate goal is to liberate the entirety of Mars, freeing the people of the oppressive EDF.

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Punch-Out!! — Review

Punch-Out!! (Wii)

It took what felt like half a century, but Nintendo finally decided to give the Punch-Out!! series another chance, seeing its first sequel since the SNES classic Super Punch-Out!! In taking so long to give the series a breath of life, Nintendo effectively built up anticipation for the title, creating expectations that would became increasingly hard to live up to with each passing year. When Nintendo decided to drop the bomb, announcing Punch-Out for Wii, long time fans were floored, but at the same time, were struck with a certain hesitancy about the product.

It seemed damn near impossible the game could live up to the hype, and on top of that, Nintendo outsourced the project to Next Level Games. It’s not that NLG is a bad developer – they created the excellent Super Mario Strikers series – but with a project like Punch-Out, it’s assumed that Nintendo would handle it in-house.

Facing off against overwhelming odds, though; yeah, that’s Little Mac’s forte.

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Bonsai Barber — Review

Post by: Justin Sanchez

Bonsai Barber (WiiWare)

Bonsai Barber is a rough sell right from the outset. In fact, if you’re not sure who Martin Hollis is or if you know nothing of his development studio Zoonami, there’s a very good chance you’ve looked right past this WiiWare exclusive. I kid you not, it’s a barber game about cutting the foliage from a variety of vegetables. But before you scoff it off as a game that you, Mr. Core Gamer, are above, hold that thought. I’ll own up to the fact that I was under the same impression. I mean, how can cutting the “hair” off some potato amount to anything but boredom? After reading through the few impressions I could find online and researching the title a bit, I couldn’t help it; I bit on Bonsai Barber, and I’m a better, and most certainly manlier, person because of it.

Bonsai Barber goes directly against what many modern gamers believe; “casual” games aren’t inherently evil, nor do they plot the demise of the gaming industry. In fact, Bonsai Barber proves to be a more involving and thought out game that what many huge-budget HD game claims to be. But I’m not here to piss on the abundance of shoddy Gears of War clones like, oh, Terminator Salvation. I’m here to convey one message: This foliage barber game might just be worth your time and money.

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The World Ends With You — Review

Post by: Justin Sanchez

The World Ends With You (DS)

I’m a bit of an RPG-fan wannabe. There are tons of games within the genre that I want to play and beat, but I’ve only completed a fraction of them. Xenogears? Never beat it. Final Fantasy X? Nope. Lost Odyssey? That’s a negative.

Even when I enjoy them, I find it hard to press on the 50+ hours they often take to complete – a fact becoming more and more apparent as I’ve grown up. I had a feeling when I cranked on The World Ends With You, things might be a little different. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still an RPG, which means there’s about a 4 percent chance of me beating it, but I found TWEWY appealing long before I ever got around to playing it.

About 15 hours in and it finally happened. Yesterday evening while equipped with a DSi in hand, headphones on, and a large helping of determination, The World Ends With You came to an end. Over the course of the week, I actually thought I was on the verge of completing it some two to three times thanks to a few false endings. Nevertheless, I pressed on and finished my first RPG outside of the Mario & Luigi series in years.

Given the visual appearance and it being developed by the Kingdom Hearts team, I assumed TWEWY would be a highly accessible RPG from the get-go – boy was I wrong. The World Ends With You is deep – real deep, in fact – and that through me for a loop. Throughout the experience, there are loads of lengthy tutorials on various in-game systems that definitely come in handy — that is, when I could get a grasp on them.

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Klonoa — Review

Post by: Chris Conroy

Klonoa (Wii)

Way back in 1997 a charming little platforming game called Klonoa: The Door to Phantomile debuted on PlayStation. Its namesake was a fuzzy mascot with floppy ears and a magical “wind bullet” projectile used to grab and inflate common enemies. More than a decade later Namco has resurrected the experience on the Nintendo Wii, and although the game has had its subtitle chopped from its name in favor of the simpler Klonoa, none of the charm has been lost.

Klonoa opens when our hero stumbles across a mysterious ring in the woods, which he discovers is home to a ring spirit named Huepow. The two are quick friends, and after a mysterious object falls from the sky in Klonoa’s village they decide to go investigate what happened together. If it sounds somewhat cute and conventional that’s because it is. Yet as the story unfolds in brief bits between levels, the game reveals a surprising amount of emotional depth for what initially appears to be nothing more than a happy-go-lucky platformer. The story does an admirable job setting up Klonoa’s exploits across a variety of different kingdoms without ever getting too bogged down in the details. In an era where games often err on the side of endless exposition at the expense of snappy pacing, it’s a breath of fresh air.

Gameplay consists of a few basic moves and a whole lot of clever level design. Besides running and jumping, Klonoa can grab enemies and either toss them or use them to launch himself higher into the air. Pressing jump a second time while in midair will initiate a brief hover move as he flaps his enormous ears, similar to the extra lift Yoshi gets in Yoshi’s Island when you hold the jump button down long enough. This comes in handy for crossing large gaps or staying temporarily afloat in one place. Throughout the adventure your abilities remain unchanged. While it sounds simple in practice, the game does a good job of slowly ramping up to increasingly complex platforming and puzzle solving elements, forcing the player to adapt the moves in a variety of clever ways. The first few stages can feel almost remedial at times, but it all pays off as more challenging obstacles start popping up later in the game.

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