Since the release of The Curious Village back in 2008, many of my friends instantly became charmed by the series and urged me to play, but for whatever reason I resisted the Layton-mania that swept over my group of friends. When I had the opportunity to review this game, I was initially intrigued, but became sold once I found out that The Last Specter was actually a prequel! This meant I had a second chance to enjoy the series without feeling like I was missing something or had a lot of catching up to do. Thankfully, I also took the opportunity to at least pay attention to the series the first time around, so I went into this review with at least a sense of the game’s roots.

The Last Specter takes place three years before the events of the first game, and features the main characters Professor Layton and his assistant Luke as well as a new character, Emmy. The story itself goes into how the professor met Luke, and the first mystery they solved together in the town of Misthallery. One of the things I did notice about the story in general is that it isn’t as big and important as other games such as Phoenix Wright. That’s not to say it isn’t present, rather than act as the canvas that the rest of the game is painted upon, the story takes the role of a sort of glue, binding the components together and giving it direction. In this way, it isn’t intrusive for those who play the game solely for its puzzles, and at the same time has received enough attention that those of us along for the narrative feel satisfied. The animated and fully voiced cutscenes are expertly done, helping to set this game apart from its competition while simultaneously opening the door to an audience that normally doesn’t play games.

The cutscenes are of surprisingly high quality for the Nintendo DS.

Gameplay wise, the game is extremely simple. You navigate through the town of Misthallery one screen at a time clicking on objects or people of interest trying to find hint coins, puzzles, or advancement in the story. You solve puzzles, advance the plot, rinse, and continue until you reach the end of the game. With an equation like that, it’s painfully obvious that puzzles are the real meat of this game, and the developers took no steps to hide this fact with each and every citizen carrying an obsession with puzzles that borders on disturbing. While this could be accepted in The Curious Village with the way the narrative was written, at this point in the series you wish video games were invented in this fictional England so you can shove a DS in the hands of all these citizens and give them something else to do rather than dream up nonsensical puzzles they feel compelled to share with the good professor. Of course, then there wouldn’t be a game, so I guess we have to deal with the cards we have been dealt.

As far as the puzzles go, in general, they are well thought out and designed. There is a great variety to the types of puzzles you encounter, and there certainly is variance in the puzzle difficulty with some puzzles being mind numbingly easy and others may cause you to stare at your DS for close to an hour as you try to find the solution without using any hint coins. As I mentioned earlier, hint coins are spread throughout the city of Misthallery. Their use is simple: each hint coin is good for one hint on a puzzle, each puzzle having four separate hints. The usefulness of the hints varies from puzzle to puzzle and are usually obvious facets of the problem you have likely long realized. Occasionally, you will be given a hint that really shines a new light on how you tackle a problem, and even if only for that, they are useful. They are in limited supply, so I would recommend against using them indiscriminately.

The puzzles are not without their flaws, and I would say there are three things that while not a deal breaker, are mildly frustrating. Firstly, even with my limited time playing and watching The Curious Village, I noticed that there is some overlap with puzzles between the two games. The puzzles in The Last Specter may be slightly different, but can still be solved in much the same way as its predecessors. I can forgive the developers this though, as I imagine it must be difficult to come up with nearly 200 new puzzles every year, and some overlap must be done out of practicality. At least they are trying to make it different, which is more than can be said of other developers in a similar situation. Second, some of the puzzles wording or rules are a little vague, which leads to a double puzzle of trying to figure out how the game wants you to solve the puzzle, before you even get into the act of solving the puzzle proper. Finally, there is a score system in place that grades you on how well you solved the puzzle taking into account hints, and wrong guesses. These points that you earn from the puzzles are used to unlock bonuses meaning there certainly is incentive for getting things right. Unfortunately, there is nothing stopping me from solving the puzzle, hitting reset, reloading my data, and getting it right for full points. I suppose the option is better than forcing an auto-save feature or the dreaded Mr. Resetti from Animal Crossing.

In the newest title, you will be trying to solve the mystery of a specter destroying the town of Misthallery.

Mr. Resetti may have been left out of The Last Specter but that did not prevent the team from taking some inspiration from Animal Crossing with their bonus RPG included on the cartridge. London Life is supposedly a Layton-esque RPG with over 100 hours of gameplay. The first thing I thought when I read that was “Oh! Final Fantasy!” conversely, the first thing I thought when I played it was “Oh… Animal Crossing.” Essentially, you get to run around doing errands for characters from the Layton series, increasing people’s happiness and getting spiffy new outfits for your custom made character. Really, while it’s not bad, it’s not a real selling point to the game either. Sure it’ll give the game a little bit more of a lifespan in your DS, but that’s all. Considering it’s tacked on for free, and did not take anything away from the main game itself, I can’t really complain. If anything, in a world of shady DLC practices, I’m impressed that they would develop something that could have been its own mobile title priced at $4.99 and include it onto their game for free. Even though I did not enjoy it personally, if there is even one person out there that does, it did nothing but help their title, and for that I can at least give Level-5 a nod.

All in all, much of the same that you Layton fans are used to. The game did not stray from its roots playing it safe, but is still enough to satisfy fans. If you’ve been intrigued about the series as I have, I encourage you to jump in with this title. Its ease of accessibility makes it an excellent time burner on the train, or where ever else you find stray, unused minutes of your day to day life. If you didn’t like the series, well, sorry to say but nothing changed in this title that will have you clamoring to give it a go; that is unless you are obsessed with Animal Crossing or fetch quests, desire a setting similar to old London, and don’t mind spending $35 to play a cheaper version. In that case, knock yourself out you weirdo.

This game was reviewed on the Nintendo DS.

If you are like me and found the point of entry of the Ace Combat series a little too high, you’ll be glad to know that the developers tinkered with the controls to make their game more of a game, and less of a simulation. If you know the basics of how a plane works, the controls will all feel fairly intuitive and for those of you who are used to Ace Combat’s old, more realistic controls you can change the control scheme to match it. Even beginners will understand the controls and be able to successfully navigate the battlefield after just the first mission. Don’t get me wrong, by no means are the controls perfect. Playing with a controller constantly reminded me of the fact things were just a little clumsy and I can’t help but wonder if playing with a joystick instead would have led to a much more enjoyable experience.

Game play in Assault Horizon is most certainly a mixed bag. On the plus side, you have a wide variety of missions to tackle. This isn’t just dogfighting, but also bombing missions, rail shooters from the side of a helicopter, and many other types of aerial missions giving each level a new, yet uniform feel. As much as I love dogfighting, the other missions were very enjoyable and felt like a breath of fresh air every time I was able to experience a new type of game play within the same game – all without compromising the core of the game or feeling “gimmicky”.

DFM is an integral and cinematic part of the game.

Love it or hate it, the other brand new addition to the game and perhaps most touted feature is the Dog Fight Mode (DFM). DFM gets you right into the cinematic action you see in all of the most popular movies: chasing down the opponent, trying to set up the kill as you both expertly dodge all manner of obstacles threatening to consume the both of you with one small miss-step. Of course, the down side (or plus side) is you can’t make that miss-step. The DFM chase sequences are largely on rails as your fighter goes into auto-pilot mode leaving you to focus on your targeting reticule to line up the perfect shot. You can break, speed up, or break off pursuit, but that’s about the level of control you have. In addition, it didn’t take long to notice that many of the fights are scripted, taking you on a grand tour of destruction until the game decides its OK for you to kill your opponent now. While I can understand the importance of delivering a cinematic experience in an industry that is slowly transforming into an interactive version of the motion picture industry, it can get grating if only for the biggest problem I had with game play…

The missions feel way too long. A very good level in a video game never has you asking yourself “I wonder when this will be over.” A decent level has you saying “I must be near the end” when you really are near the end. Then you have Assault Horizon’s unbearably long wave after wave of seemingly endless enemy fighters or troops that all come out of the woodwork just as you finished cleaning up the last batch. It gives the game a drawn out tedium when preparing for the next mission and you have to wonder “Just how long will this mission be?” Oftentimes there is very little to break up the monotony of going from one part of the stage to the next, urging you on. You hear voice chatter over the radio, you might even be treated to a very quick visual clue reinforcing what is going on, but when you get right down to it, you’re getting ready to tackle the next, nearly identical waves of enemies as the last. At least the developers had the foresight to put in the various mission styles and story moving plot between levels, otherwise what is a mild annoyance could have sunk the game.

It is because of the long levels that the campaign sadly, does not have a really high replay value. More than likely once you beat the campaign mode you might go back to a few levels via level select to pick up any achievements you missed and then dive right into multi-player banking on that to hold your attention to the game. Of course, Assault Horizon has no on console multi-player… tsk… tsk… What it does offer for online play isn’t bad, but nor is it particularly good. You do have access to replay some of the missions in a co-op mode, though not all. In addition, you have a few different competitive multi-player modes, one of which is a standard dogfight and another one has multiple different vehicles working together in completing objectives to win the map. Oh, and don’t bother flipping open your anemic instruction manual for any details on the modes. Its six pages are more a token presence that just barely covers basics so that this game has something to insert with the disk.

Many moments in Assault Horizon seem as though they straight out of a movie.

Overall, Ace Combat Assault Horizon isn’t a bad pick. It certainly deserves a rent if you’re interested in Aerial Combat games, and it may even warrant purchasing a used copy if you like what you see. You might not play Assault Horizon religiously over the next few weeks due to its low replay value, but that’s OK. There are plenty of other great games coming out this year to compete for your time.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

Aside from Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, the longest line to play a video game at NYCC was The Legend of Zelda: Skyward sword. Currently, we’re weeks away from launch and fans are in a frenzy to get whatever time they can on the game, no matter how short. I was given the chance to play Skyward sword this weekend, and now I’ll give all of you who did not have a chance to play the demo the low down on this new title.

Skyward sword marks the first Zelda game designed specifically for this generation of consoles, Twilight Princess having been made for Gamecube and adapted for the Wii. While I can’t say that Skyward sword took advantage of the Wii’s superior graphics any better than Twilight Princess had (though I do love the art style), I can say that the motion controls are markedly better. Perhaps being a little spoiled on the Playstation Move, the new motion controls didn’t particularly wow me, but you will have much greater control over your attacks than Twilight Princess where you could just flail your hand at the screen and kill any thing that got in your way. Everything from thrusting to overhead and lateral slashes can be controlled by how you swing the remote. Link’s shield is also controlled via raising the nunchuck, but I found this to be difficult, as several times when I raised the nunchuck I got no response. This could have possibly been due to lack of practice rather than a flaw in the game. I was engaged in a pretty intense boss fight after all.

Speaking of which, I suppose I should detail just what I did get to demo. I had three choices between a Bird Race, Dungeon, or Boss fight, so naturally I went with the boss fight. It was fairly challenging and the gentleman that was guiding me through the demo did not know what “Z targeting” was, but I figured it out myself. The shield was imperative to the fight, and being able to use it correctly meant the difference between life and death. Very odd, as I never found myself needing to use my shield this much in a Zelda title before even compared to Ocarina of Time. Not that I’m complaining, of course. I’m quite glad that good use of your shield is just as important as use of your sword. The boss fight itself had a small exposition given by what I assume to be one of the main villains of the game before the fight and piqued my interest in exploring this new Hyrule. I’ll refrain from giving away too much as I know how people feel about spoilers, but I will say that there exists the potential for the developers to take classical Zelda in a new direction while staying true to the series roots.

After dispatching the boss quickly, I was given the opportunity to play through one more mode so I chose bird racing as it seemed both quick and interesting where as a dungeon is… well… a dungeon. Not really much to discuss with this mode other than the fact they took something that could easily be done with a normal controller, translated it into motion controls, and it didn’t feel too bad. You had to steer the bird you were riding by pointing the remote left, right, up or down. You could also gain altitude by “flapping” the Wii Remote. I was unable to finish this part of the demo as my time had run out at that point, but I assume the rest of the bird race was roughly the same.

Overall, while I didn’t walk away from the demo floored and impressed, I wasn’t disappointed either. You just can’t distill a Zelda game into a boss fight and half a mini game. Zelda is about exploration and adventure, problem solving and ingenuity. In hindsight, doing the dungeon probably would have given me a better idea of what to expect out of the game, but who wants to do a dungeon when you have the option to play against the boss!? I still plan on purchasing this game and playing through it in one long gaming binge. It remains to be seen how this will stack up against previous Zelda games, and it has some pretty big shoes to fill, but I don’t need it to be the best Zelda ever. I just want a Zelda game I can get lost in and have some fun, and really, that’s all that’s needed to make a Zelda game good.

I’m a huge gamer; and by huge, I mean to say that I have over 1,500 games in my collection at home. I’ve played pretty much any genre out there, on pretty much every system out there. Among all of the different games throughout the years, one series will always hold the greatest place in my heart and that series is Final Fantasy. I won’t deny I am a huge fan of the series, but by no means am I blind to the faults of many of the series’ games. I believe XIII is just as linear as X, I believe X-2 was the worst of the series, and Dirge of Cerberus wasn’t far behind. I play both the grind-fest Final Fantasy XI, and the hot mess known as Final Fantasy XIV. I also have to say XIII was my fourth favorite game from the series, and despite the linearity, it delivered on most of my expectations for a Final Fantasy title. This weekend, I had the opportunity to play the Final Fantasy XIII-2 demo, and now that you know where I’m coming from as a Final Fantasy fan, you’ll know how much weight my words carry for better or worse.

When XIII-2 was first announced, I was giddy as a school girl just as I am with every Final Fantasy title announced (Except for maybe Crystal Bearers for the Wii.) As time went on, and I saw more and more of the game from various trailers, I began to get worried. I didn’t like Serah’s costume. I didn’t like Noel or the fact Serah was hanging around him when she’s supposed to be engaged to Snow. I certainly did not like the lack of most of the characters I had come to love through XIII, and my thoughts kept returning to X-2. I began to convince myself this game was going to be nothing but a waste of time and money, and I knew that I was so hooked I’d probably wind up buying it any way. Thankfully, the demo cleared away many of my doubts and I now anxiously await the new title!

In every aspect that I could discern from this demo, XIII-2 is markedly better. When I started playing the demo, I was informed that this takes place roughly at the beginning of Chapter 2, so it was indeed early in the game. If FF XIII is any mark to compare this to, this would translate to roughly 1 – 1 ½ hours into the game. The battle system appears to be largely the same as it was in FF XIII. It’s still using both the ATB system and the Paradigm meaning there will be literally zero learning curve for those of you who played through XIII. The one thing that did change battle wise is the inclusion of events mid-battle that adds to the cinematic feel the Final Fantasy series tries to deliver with their titles. If you’ve played Heavenly Sword or God of War, you more than likely know how this goes – some event happens in the battle and a button combination appears on screen. Press the buttons at the right time, and you succeed! If you press the wrong button, or miss your shot you’ll “fail”. Note that failing doesn’t result in a game over or anything like that. Rather, you might be subject to an attack from the boss, or an alternate cutscene may happen. I was assured that while there may be some rewards for successfully completing one of these cinematics, they will generally be minor and not have a large effect on your game.

Another addition to the battle system is the inclusion of monster team mates. Randomly after a battle you have a chance of acquiring the ability to summon one of these creatures, of which there will be more than 150 to choose from (As hard as it is, I would ask you to refrain from making any Pokémon comments.) Each of these monsters can be set to each of the different paradigms so, for example, if you switch to Commando you’ll get a Behemoth, whereas you’ll have a Flan for your Ravager. Each monster also has its own unique “Feral Link” ability which is something like a Limit Break. I hesitate to compare it to such because even though it is a very powerful attack, it isn’t very hard to charge up and get access to. I would guesstimate the rate to be somewhere between 1 – 2 fights.

One thing a lot of fans complained about, and Square added with this sequel are towns. Personally, I didn’t really care whether the game had towns or not, and I was thankful that XIII did not in fact have towns since I thought it went against everything the story was trying to portray. As, I believe, it makes more sense this time around, it can be forgiven. A nice addition to being able to talk to random NPCs about how they like swords, or welcoming you to their city is that all of these lines of dialogue are fully voiced! Apparently, there will be Japanese language tracks on the disk in addition to the English which will be nice for those obsessive fans that want to hear things in Japanese because they claim the awesome work the English voice cast did is inferior or doesn’t portray the same feelings as its original version. For me, I am more than happy to listen to the stellar voice acting in a language I can understand so that’s a non-issue.

It was painfully obvious, maybe just a little too obvious that the development team purposefully went out of their way to make FF XIII-2 more open this time around. In the demo there were multiple paths you could take to get to your ultimate destination and plenty of side paths with hidden treasures. Enemy encounters still occur while you are roaming around, but now you have more control over whether you get a surprise attack, or get surprised. In addition, sometimes you can run enemies by NPCs who will attempt to hold the monsters off for you so that you can escape. It’s the little things, and the polish that they put into this game that’s really showing they care. Even the demo, which takes place in Bresha isn’t just copy/paste straight from FF XIII. While it looks very similar, and it’s believable that the action is taking place there, it has its own unique look and feel from having been occupied the past three years.

With everything that has been announced, and everything that I’ve seen, I am really excited for this game. If you haven’t seen our interview with Square Enix Brand Manager Parker Sapp, I highly encourage you to go watch it now. There’s a lot of great insight there for Final Fantasy fans, and what they can expect of the upcoming title. Unfortunately, the one thing that can’t be answered through the demo or an interview is also the most important: Is the story good? Be sure to check back with us in January when we can give you the answer and whether this title has broken Square’s curse with bad sequels, or if you can count it among the likes of X-2, Dirge of Cerberus, and Revenant Wings.

First and foremost, let me get this out of the way: The graphics suck. This is about what I’d expect out of your average developer… back in the PS1 era. Usually, I don’t really care about graphics, and they certainly don’t get in the way of gameplay as mostly everything is discernible. Regardless, we are standing at the dawn of the eighth generation of console gaming, and this looks like a textbook example of what to expect from the year 1996. Something even a little bit more modern could not have hurt. On the plus side, many of you won’t have to worry about whether your PC will be able to handle the game or not. Anything running windows XP should be sufficient enough to run it, unless, of course, your computer is too good. The PC I tested this on is a custom built machine that I put together August last year sporting a Radeon 5830. I had no trouble playing the game, and played it at 1600 x 900 resolution but I have seen reports of people with even better specs, trying to play their game on higher resolutions unable to get past the opening cutscene due to freezing issues. Cyanide claims the latest patch should have fixed that and there are ways to circumvent the problem, but be aware that you may encounter this problem if you have an awesome gaming rig.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s move onto the heart of the game – gameplay. Starting it up and not knowing what to expect aside from a strategy game, I went into the tutorial. There I was greeted by a very small map littered with buildings. Some were controlled by the Targaryens, and others were controlled by the Lannisters. “Awesome!” I thought. “This must be my starting base since the Lannisters and Targaryens were friends!” Wrong. That was the whole of the map and I had the enemy on my doorstep. Running through the tutorial I got a real taste for what I was in for with the game and as much as I was becoming worried that this game would be a little too complex with a little too much to keep track of, I was getting rather excited. The developers were clearly fans of the series and thought of every little nuance that you see throughout the novels and translated it to game form. (The part about your great lord being unmarried will produce bastards that you have to hide from the enemy was inadvertently funny.) I left the tutorial psyched and looking forward to the possibilities that this game would present and started campaign mode.

Although each of the houses are generally similar, there are a few perks.

For those of you who follow the story, campaign mode starts roughly 1,200 years before the events that happen in the novel “A Game of Thrones” and go right up to a few hundred years before the start of the novels.. I was treated to voice acting that was neither exceptional nor terrible and the first chapter of the campaign was like a second tutorial for those who are a little too eager to start playing. Regardless, the refresher was nice and helped me ease my way into the game. The first mission even borrowed an exact map of the area immediately around King’s Landing which was awesome. Unfortunately, the levels that followed were all very generic locations and equally small maps. The game play was also nothing near what you would expect in your standard strategy game.

In most strategy games, the goal is to build up your home base, amass a gigantic army, and destroy the enemy base. Resource management is pivotal to all strategy games, and while AGoT:G continues to rely on resource management, the subjugation of your enemy takes a back seat. In this game you are encouraged to win through diplomacy, forming alliances, and breaking them. Often your envoys and assassins will do more work than all of your armies. In fact, games can be won without ever having to raise a single army unit and oddly enough seems to be the most effective approach. Rather than marching for the enemy base, the game centers around capturing nodes scattered across the map. This is easier said than done however, as the dance between envoy, spy, noble lady, guardsmen, and assassins may see towns and castles switching hands often, or in secret. Perhaps the best aspect of this game are the creative ways development found to hide various board states. An enemy spy may have infiltrated your castle and become an envoy making false peace agreements and you will never know it unless you have your own spy specifically check that envoy. Towns may seemingly be giving you revenue, but in actuality, you are getting nothing from those towns all while the enemy is reaping all of the rewards. You may hire an assassin who was secretly an enemy spy, and when he tries to kill an opponent’s unit, the unit will seemingly die, only to reappear 30 seconds later. If you weren’t careful in checking the board state, this fact may completely escape your notice. As a huge fan of political intrigue, this is the closest I’ve come to experiencing anything close to the sort.

Sometimes throughout the course of the game, your underhanded tactics may go too far and war will be declared. During this time, most diplomatic measures are completely ineffectual, and you will have to rely on the strength of your army. Unit combat isn’t as fast or enjoyable as games such as Starcraft, and while I did find it entertaining to send my army to my enemy’s towns, it wasn’t as fun or satisfying as the political game. Unfortunately, the enemy AI in this game isn’t the greatest, and whether you’re at war or trying to politically undermine each other, the AI’s tactics are relatively predictable. Taking the time to properly safeguard your assets and employ counter techniques can easily lead to victory. This also, unfortunately leads to monotonous gameplay over time.

You will rarely need to amass an army this big to conquer Westeros.

The real fun in this game is in its multi-player. When going up against real, human intelligence, you have to be everywhere at once, anticipate your opponent’s moves, and really apply yourself to a battle of wits if you are to prevail over your opponent. This game is extremely skill intensive, and really challenges the intellect and foresight of both players in a way few other games I’ve played have. Sure, Starcraft and its ilk may demand a very high level of competence, but most of those games are reactionary and very rarely challenges you mentally like AGoT:G does on a consistent basis. On the down side, the unpopularity of this game has made finding opponents difficult. I’m hoping to convince some of my other friends to pick up this game once there is a sale, but there’s no telling when that will be.

Unfortunately, unless you live in Europe or Australia, the only way to obtain this game is through Steam. Even then, regardless of whether you bought the disk or not you will need a Steam account and an internet connection in order to play. This pretty much ensures the only way the game will ever see a price drop in America is through a Steam sale, and at $40 this might be a hard sell to your friends. Indeed, the game is fun, but given the niche game play and lacking presentation, I can’t recommend it at that price. Unless you are a big fan of the political side of strategy games and a fan of George R. R. Martin’s universe this game sadly might not be for you. Without a lot of action, and a shallow community of supporters, this will fall flat with general audiences. If there is one shining hope, it’s that the developers are very passionate about improving their game and speak directly with their fans on the forums – something that many other larger game companies fail to do. These aren’t representatives or PR agencies, but the actual developers who coded and continue to code the game’s patches. With regular upgrades, this just may become something even better in the future. For now, I would value the game at around $15, and encourage anyone remotely into strategy games to pick it up if Steam ever has a sale at that price.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

Let’s start with some basic PES 101: PES is a very technical game when compared to the competition. The game gives you incredible control over just about every aspect of the game. You have several options and techniques for everything from dribbling, to passing, to shooting. Very little is automated in this game, and you will need to learn every technique available to you if you want to be the best you can be. The training mode the game thrusts you into when you create a new data does an excellent – if not, difficult way to teach you each of these techniques. For a new player, all of this may be overwhelming and frustrating as you hopelessly try to complete exercises that require a level of skill and precision generally above the norm at entry level. Often, you will complete these exercises by pure luck alone and walk away learning very little. Still, they do provide grounds for those that truly wish to perfect their technique, giving adequate and appropriate exercises to push each technique to its limits. Be warned, novices, if you choose to skip these training exercises out of frustration, you may find yourself having trouble in an exhibition even on the easiest of difficulties. It took me a great deal of time before I trained myself not to smash the square button when going for a goal, only to send the ball hurtling into the stands.

PES gives you full control over the ball right down to dribbling!

While the technical aspect is frustrating, it is at the same time one of the game’s greatest strengths, lending to a very skill intensive environment that many players enjoy. One thing that players do complain about how ever is the lack of licenses that the game carries. FIFA certainly carries the larger selection of licenses, but thankfully Konami was able to obtain licensing from the Copa Satander Libertadores and the UEFA Champions League this year giving fans of the series even more teams to play.

One thing that I did find while reviewing the game is that it did not have the same level of polish that you find in other sports games out there on the market. Player graphics are still a little blocky and don’t take full advantage of the graphical power that the current gen consoles can deliver. However, I must say that the “uniqueness” of the players was very well defined. In general, players did look different from one another and had a very good resemblance to their real life counter parts. The character creation mode when creating a new profile is also extremely robust, allowing you to customize many different aspects of your own personal player. In fact, I dare say that the customization options exceed what I’ve seen in many other titles outside of the sports genre which laud the power of their character creation modes. The fact I was able to lose myself for a good 45 minutes tweaking my character’s appearance made me very happy. The game is not without its bugs though. While playing I discovered a bug that muted all sounds within the game, which nearly scared me because I thought it was my TV or PS3 at first! Simply exiting the game and restarting it fixed the bug, but shows that Q&A either didn’t do a good job in locating these blemishes, or simply weren’t given enough time to do their job.

PES 2012 does bring in a few new features with this iteration of the series which helps show Konami hasn’t run out of room for improving the base game. Going hand in hand with the level of control you have over the game, you can now position a second player to execute game plans unlike any other single player experience in a sports game. It also isn’t that difficult to do while controlling your active player and was integrated in a brilliant, fluid way. Both the offense and defense AI are top notch as well, leading to a game experience that delivers every time, and creates a unique experience, even between the same teams with each and every game you play. My only complaint was the goalie AI needed a little touching up as I found scoring goals much easier than it should be and my goalie also missed far more shots than I would have liked.

Someone isn’t looking too happy after a game.

All in all, the game does do what it sets out to do remarkably well. No man can be faulted for disliking the style of gameplay or loving it, and PES’s approach to Soccer certainly has its admirable qualities which set it distinctly apart from the competition. If you are a fan of the technical side of soccer, and enjoy having as much control over the game state at any point in time as you can muster, PES may just be a better fit for you than FIFA. If you are already a fan of PES, you will find that Konami has further improved the experience this time around and this game is a worthy successor to the PES line. I must also note that normally, I would have given this game an 8.5, but had to take off half a point for the bug I discovered. Thankfully, in this day and age with internet connectivity, such things can be fixed with a patch; which if fixed, you can consider my score an 8.5.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

The game in a nutshell is pretty straight forward. You fly your plane through a course littered with obstacles and power-ups. You can hold up to two power ups at a time and freely switch between them, but once you use them up they’re removed from your inventory. If you pick up a worthless power-up, or one that you want to get rid of for whatever reason, you can elect to use up that power-up to help fill your boost gauge. In addition, each power up has a second level if you pick up two of the same power-up increasing the potency of said power-up. All in all the power ups were very satisfying to use and I was rarely disappointed to pick up one or another as they are all valuable and have a specific function that can help you win races.

When it comes to selecting your plane, there are eight separate planes all with varying stats which give each plane a unique feel to its handling. Although you will only have access to two from the start, you can unlock more by playing through the campaign mode. In addition to the eight planes, each plane has four different skins that you can choose from. Some of these skins will need to be unlocked by fulfilling certain requirements either offline or online giving a little extra replay-ability to this arcade title.

The visuals are amazing!

Unfortunately, one downside is the anemic selection of tracks. I counted six different tracks, with reverse versions of each giving a grand total of 12 possible track lay outs. This is perhaps one of the single most important aspects of a racing game next to controls, and is perhaps this game’s greatest weakness. While three different game modes try to make up for the deficit in tracks, that still only gives you a grand total of 36 ways to play.

In regards to the three different game modes, all three play pretty similarly, but have enough variety to them to make them feel different enough. Power races are the basis of this game and from what I could tell the preferred mode for online play. In power races, you fly through the level picking up power ups that you use to help yourself or blow up the competition. Pretty standard and expected based on the game’s description and hallmark game play. Speed races are another type in which the goal is not to shoot down your opponents and come in first, but rather to fly through the various rings throughout the stage getting progressively faster. This is a race type suited more for experienced Skydrift players as I can personally vouch for the existence of several ‘traps’ within courses that I’ll crash into even at normal speeds. Finally, there’s survival, a game mode where the object is to not be in last. One minute into racing a 30 second countdown will appear. When that countdown reaches zero, whoever is in last place gets eliminated from the race and the counter resets. The careful use of power-ups is especially important in this mode as you want to make sure you have the capability to pull ahead of someone at the perfect moment, or protect your position so you don’t get blown off the course with seconds to spare before elimination.

Multi-player is entirely done online, so you may be disappointed to find out that there is no local multi-player; something that could have really saved this game. The online experience isn’t bad and there are usually a handful of other racers online at any given time leading to a fair wait time from seeking a match to hitting the track. In addition to being able to fully customize your individual races, when doing a series with a group you are given the ability to vote on tracks between races so the majority will be happy and you can have a say in staying away from any problem courses you might have.

Power-ups mean the difference between victory and defeat.

There are a few other neat features with this game such as the ability to do stunts such as flying at low altitudes to charge your boost meter. This will reward skilled players and help keep those that are truly good at the game in top positions rather than the seemingly lucky random come from behind victories that are rampant throughout other games of this genre. The controls are a little awkward and will take a race or two before you’re used to them. As they seek to emulate proper flight controls, you must remember that down is up and vice-versa. Also, this game is absolutely gorgeous! I was thoroughly impressed with the textures and effects in a title that costs only $15; A shame because if this game had some more content, I could see it selling fairly well in retail stores for $40 easily.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

This game plays much like a strange cross between your favorite 2D scrolling arcade game of yesterday (Such as TMNT, Simpsons, or X-Men) and Gauntlet. Four players may simultaneously navigate the relatively flat environs of Manhattan shooting various projectiles at dozens upon dozens of enemies as they hope to overwhelm you with sheer numbers. Each character is slightly different catering to different play styles. Further customization can be obtained by leveling up your character through killing the endless hordes of enemies in each level.

Multiplayer

One neat thing about this game in particular is the sheer number of weapons you can obtain throughout the course of the game. Each weapon is a different type of projectile that you can shoot out of the gun you carry and has varying stats such as path, power, fire rate, and effects on your base stats. Some weapons also have special effects when wielded by a particular character giving additional bonuses such as slowing enemies down or having the ability to stun them. All you need to do in order to get access to a weapon is to pick it up inside a level. This will swap your current weapon for the one on the ground. After that, you can switch your current weapon before every mission at no penalty with any that you’ve picked up before in any level. Between the great variety of weapons and bonus effects on different characters, there are many, many different ways to mindlessly slaughter the enemies that stand in your way.

Difficulty in this game is much harder than others of its type. If you aren’t accustomed to stick shooters, expect to die several times on the first level before you make any real progress. At times, the difficulty of new levels can be so daunting that you’ll find yourself revisiting old, easier levels just to grind out enough experience points to increase your stats to a respectable level. The amounts of enemies that appear in each stage also vary with the number of players present, so getting some buddies won’t necessarily make the trip any easier.

Chaos

The cast of the television series lends their talent to the arcade game, giving full voice acting for your bloody trips through the various levels as well as several cut scenes throughout the story. Unfortunately, the cut scenes were hastily done stop action scenes with limited movement, it’s almost like reading through a children’s book ultra-fast, except the content contained in this game is by no means suitable for children in any way shape or form. On the plus side, an entire episode of the television series is available to unlock if you pour enough time into the game to gather the necessary funds to purchase it. Fans of the series will also recognize many of their favorite characters as well as a few of the enemies that have appeared throughout the series such as the Man-Birds.

Ugly Americans also gives you the choice to play on console or over Xbox Live if you so choose. While there are only 11 levels throughout the story, two of which are boss fights, it’s still a fairly enjoyable experience with or without the Ugly American branding. While I think fans of the series may be the only demographic that can truly appreciate all this game has to offer, those who have never seen an episode should not be intimidated by the title either. The game can be a fun way to spend a rainy afternoon with some bored friends, and best of all, you can download a free demo to try it out and see whether you like it or not before purchasing it! The title is very hit or miss, but far from a disappointment earning it a very lukewarm score.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

For those few of you who have never played or never heard of Star Fox, the game is one of the greatest rail shooters to ever exist. You fly through levels on a predetermined course, shooting down all manner of enemies that wish to blow you and your three team mates up. Each level ends in a boss of some sort, and many levels have multiple ways to complete the mission sending you to one of many different stages. This gives the game a lot of re-playability as you try to take different paths through the Lylat System, as well as trying to earn the difficult to acquire medals on each planet by defeating a certain amount of enemies.

Top and Bottom Screen

With the basics out of the way, let’s dive right into what sets this game apart from the original. To start with, Star Fox 64 3D has improved the graphics for the 3DS giving this old title a fresh new coat of paint. Don’t expect any amazing improvements in this area, as many of the polygons are exactly as they were in the 64 version. What is greatly improved is the textures on the models as well as the water effects. Zoness literally made my jaw drop when I saw how gorgeous the toxic waste you fly over is in this remake. Yes, you heard that right, the 3DS makes even toxic waste look beautiful. Likewise, Solar was another example of the new environmental effects at their best. Some of the original voice acting has been re-done, but fear not! The lines remain unchanged, and most if not all of the voice actors have returned making the change nearly unnoticeable to all but the most diehard Star Fox fans.

Star Fox 64 3D also seeks to take advantage of and showcase many of the 3DS’s unique features giving this title a very different feel from the original version if you so wished it. Obviously, the biggest addition is the inclusion of a 3D mode. Admittedly, the 3D did not leave a lasting impression on me, as few 3DS games have managed to accomplish thus far. While it certainly didn’t hurt the title, and it was well implemented it is not enough to sell the title. The background remains as a static flat image, but nearly every single enemy, obstacle, and projectile are depicted in 3D to give a greater depth to game’s stunning visuals. This game also utilizes the gyro sensor inside the 3DS so if you wish you can pilot your arwing without so much as ever touching the circle pad. Once again, I found this feature to be fluff added onto an already strong title and nothing substantial. The gyro controls are much more difficult than the standard controls, and I’m sure you’ll look all the more ridiculous for it if you decide to play this game in public.

Do a Barrel Roll!

This game does include multiplayer which plays much like the original version, but with new levels and all new power ups aside from the standard lasers and bombs. In addition, you can utilize the camera to take your picture so that others can see you as you blow each other up. The downside? No online play. Multiplayer on this title is entirely LAN play, but thankfully you and your friends can play with just one copy of the game via download play.

While Star Fox 64 3D certainly won’t sell systems all on its own like Ocarina of Time, if you are currently a 3DS owner and enjoy Star Fox or are unfortunate enough to have never played the game I suggest you pick it up. The only people I would recommend not to pick this particular title up would be those of you who have already played it and know you don’t like it. With such a limited number of games available for the 3DS, this game should easily slip into the top 5 games for the system and makes an excellent addition to the collection of any early 3DS adopters.

This game was reviewed on the Nintendo 3DS.