Loot of the Week

I picked up a TON this week. I'm going to write about it all!

Alpha Bounce
This was the first game I ever picked up for the DSiWare. I found an article over at IGN that updates weekly with micro reviews for each DSiWare title. I basically ran through that seeing which ones they liked (or loved) and decided if the price point sounded alright. I believe this was 500 points and they really loved it. It's a traditional brick break game with some RPG elements (specifically a loot system). I definitely see myself playing this game a lot.

Escapee Go!
This was another of the DSiWare games I found from the IGN article and mainly bought because they "liked it" and it was 200 points. I find the $2 price point very appealing, that's basically pocket change and even if the game sucks, oh well. I haven't played much of it yet but the premise I got from the first level sounds interesting. Looking forward to diving more into it on the way to PAX.

Don't Cross the Line
This was the last DSiWare game I picked up this week. It's the most puzzle oriented considering it's literally a series of variations on one logic puzzle. You need to connect like images without letting your connecting lines cross - hence the name. It's very straight forward and the number of different levels make this an easy steal for $2. The one downside I find with it is the lack or a quick restart to each level.

Gunpey
I'll be honest; I know nothing about this game besides that it got some average reviews from almost everyone. I just found it for $3 and the box art immediately drew me in. The concept of a simple puzzle game developed by Q Entertainment is what sold me though. Considering the fact I'm going on a series of trips soon, it was an easy choice. I am really looking forward to playing it.


Ultimate Board Game Collection
I have no idea if this is really the ultimate in board game collections. I highly doubt it is. The fact alone that it doesn't have Scrabble is criminal, but it does have Go so there you are. It was $5 and I could really go for some Go (see what I did there?).


Shank
I am very much enjoying this game and feel that it's worth the 1200 Microsoft Point price. There is a great single player campaign and the fact that the co-op has its own prequel campaign is great. Co-op specific bosses and some great silhouetted moments are amongst my favorite parts to this game. I'll probably run through it again on hard to get every last achievement.

I've decided to start doing a "winner" or "prize pick" section to these each week. The prize pick (maybe "choice pick"?) will always be at the end and will be either the item I had the best time with, or maybe spent the longest with. It may also be the purchase I'm most interested in and haven't even tried out yet. I'll go about explaining them each time they come up.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game
My love for achievements made me wait for this game to finally come to the XBLA and I'm glad I did because they are easy. I've played through the game three times now and I'm already on my fourth and awaiting my fifth. Really great game, can't say that enough. Despite the numerous bugs I've found it still remains incredibly charming. There is so much detail in this game and the fact that it came out for 800 was amazing.

Gamerscore Update: 29/08/10

This week was mainly downloadable games and the total stands at 74 585.

Shank
This was an overall good game and, though I'm not done the main campaign, the achievements are coming in quite regularly. The majority of them are from beating each of the single player bosses so I'll get those at some points. I currently have 80 of them and since there's one for 1000 kills and beating it on hard, I'm pretty sure I could S-rank this game.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game
I am loving this game and the fact that the achievements are quite easy. I've beaten it three times already and plan to do it another two times to wrap up one more of the achievements. I currently have 170 points in it.

Monopoly
This is where the points really came rolling in this week. I have 480 points in it so far and that was around five hours of play. I should note that three of these hours I had another TV on so I could watch something else because Monopoly is SLOW. Most of the points seem relatively easy, and considering all of this game seems to be pure chance, I think I can get another hundred or so just by having it on in the background. I don't plan to spend too much more time with it however.

First Impressions: Shank

• Wonderful art style
  
• Very fluid movement and combo systems
• The co-op has its own campaign which is a great feature
• Doing some of the co-op combos are very tricky - I have yet to figure out just how exactly I was pulling any of them off
• This game is a hard Mature rating
• Nice silhouette moment in the first level of the co-op
• Long load times
  

Gamerscore Update 21/08/10

This week was good for points. I picked up several games since last weekend and earned around 1 300 points.

Gamerscore total is at 73 455.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days
This was the big release this week and though I ran through it twice (once alone and again in coop) I can't bring myself to like it. I got 545 points out of it and almost all of it is from the main campaign. I don't have much interest in the multiplayer but I may jump into it for a few more achievements.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
This was the final release in the 2010 Summer of Arcade and it is really fun. I only got Limbo and this from the series this year so it wasn't the best. I got 175 points in this game, missing only one of the achievements. The last one is collecting all the relics, artifacts and weapons so it will definitely take some time.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
This was the game that got me the most points this week. I got 595 points in the game and I'm on the fourth level out of the five in total. Most of them come from killing a certain number of people in different ways. I'm quite enjoying it and I really like Raven Software. I plan to finish it which will get me another 100 points or so.

Singularity
I only got another 30 points in this. I finished up some multiplayer stuff and decided against doing a play through on hard. I had to move on to other games.

Bioshock 2
I got 10 points in this. I only played about 15 minutes so I can't really talk about it yet.

IGN Preview - Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Limbo

The new banner is some concept art for the yesterday-released Xbox Live Arcade Game: Limbo. In no way do I own this image, I am simply a thief and Google is my weapon of choice.

I've already completed the game and enjoyed it very much. The atmosphere it sets up is great. This is a product that I feel would only work as a video game. Though, like most people are saying, it is quite short and due to how long I spent with the game - granted I will be going back through it again - I'm not sure I'm totally for the 1200 price point. With the amount of content in this game, 800 seems like the perfect price. I mean, it's not like the developers had to go out of their way to create a highly detailed game here - aesthetically speaking.

It's the first in the Summer of Arcade 2010 line up this year. I'm looking forward to Castlevania: Harmony of Despair but that's about it. I have no interest in Hydrothunder or Monday Night Combat. These might just be a "wait for the review and then decide if I want it" game. If anything, I may pick up Tomb Raider as I do enjoy dual joystick shooters.

Top Down Perspective: 07/02/10

The second installment of my (and by "my", I mean what I'm included in) podcast The Top Down Perspective is now live. Like before, it can be found at its main page here. If you would like a direct link, here's one. And if you want a quick download to your iTunes library, well here you go. Here's a recap of the episode:

This week's episode has taken some of the feedback from the first episode to heart and is a little more structured. A smaller file, shorter length (At 1 hour 10 minutes instead of 2 hours) and just a little bit more focused (but only a bit). We're also trying out a new sound setup and meeting in person to do these, so bear with us.

This week's episode deals with the closing of the Xbox Live servers for original Xbox games, last year's top selling XBLA games and overall games, along with Project Needlemouse/Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and the new reality show on the PSN, The Tester.

As always, any questions, comments, feedback, fan/hate mail, etc... can be sent to topdownperspective@hotmail.com

Review: Splosion Man - 8

Splosion Man is a 2D side scrolling platformer where you make your way through some of the hardest and mind numbing levels ever imagined. There are a total of 50 levels to play in the main campaign and an additional 50 for multiplayer. The game presents itself nicely with sharp graphics and good humor but can begin to become quite tedious and frustrating very quickly.

Armed with the ability to “splode” you must explode yourself in order to jump or damage enemies. Your only option is to hit any of the four face buttons (A, B, X, Y) to cause you to blow up and propel yourself slightly upwards. You can continue to explode up to three times before you run out of energy. Sliding on a wall or standing still will recharge you instantly. You will come across enemies that can also neutralize your character and cause you to become vulnerable to enemy attacks. The game has a very simple set-up to its gameplay and uses it in tons of great ways.

Each level is very different and comes with its own unique perks. Some levels will have you dodge laser shooting robots and blowing up rocket launchers while others will pit you against rising acid as you use explosive barrels to propel yourself to safety. To keep things interesting, there is also a hidden item in each level. There is an entire cake to be found and is usually tucked away in a corner or some place that requires much more time and effort to reach.

On paper the game can seem quite easy, but the difficulty in Splosion Man is one of its biggest drawbacks. The game starts out easy enough as it introduces you to each of the game’s several mechanics that you’ll have to master. However, the game is set on split second timing and it doesn’t leave room for error. You will need to nail every jump and every landing almost perfect if you want to proceed. The difficulty also starts off quite quick making you deal with some extremely intense stage only after a few levels in.

However, the game counters this in every way it can. Each time you pass a certain section, you will come across a checkpoint. You will find a checkpoint every 30 seconds to a minute on each level. The game also features no load times during the stages so you aren’t sitting there after each death just waiting for the game to load the level again. Lastly, it includes the Way of the Coward option which lets you skip a level you have died on repeatedly. This is nice to keep you interested and not let you become permanently stuck as you get more and more frustrated. And though the levels may get incredibly hard, there’s enough charm and jokes in here to make you keep coming back to try.

The game also features up to four player cooperative play with 50 multiplayer specific levels. This brings the grand total of different and unique stages to play up to 100. Each of the multiplayer levels can be completed with a minimum of two people. However, having extra players to help cut down on time always helps. The addition of another splosion man also adds new elements to play with. For example: exploding off of one another to reach higher and farther platforms. This does make the split second gameplay yet again harder but the inclusion of a timer you can use (pressing LT) can help you and your team coordinate your jumps and explosions. This addition is quite nice when playing online with someone who doesn’t have a headset.

The multiplayer can be done local or on Xbox Live but at this time the online play is quite broken. When two separate Xbox’s are playing with each other, the games desynchronize from one another. This causes players to see the game at two different times. For example, one player will see the platform close to him while the other will see it far away. This renders the gameplay useless as you’re already up against some of the hardest stages imaginable. Also, any lag experienced what so ever will completely ruin your chances of succeeding. The only way to play with someone else is locally. It allows the game to remain constant and there is no chance for a lag in connection.

Splosion Man also looks great. It is set up on a two dimensional plain but the camera moves and rotates enough to shows the 3D space around you. This gives the game a 2.5 dimensional feel to it. The movements in the camera are also quite appreciated to help you see further down the hallway or the entirety of the room you are in. The stages are very well designed and feature great vibrant colors. The splosion man will also glow brighter with the more energy he has and become a burnt crisp when exploding too much.

The game’s sound is also quite good and very funny. The splosion man will constantly make weird and comical noises as you play. He will also choose to run and sound like a monkey every now and then. Also the addition of Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes and references are just great. Lastly, the humorous and lovely Donut Man song found on several stages is a great surprise and a real treat.

Overall Splosion Man is a fun and hilarious game that makes it a steal at only 800 Microsoft Points. The variety of levels, hidden items found throughout the game and a harder difficulty to unlock give the game loads of replay value. However, the difficulty can be quite harsh but with the whimsical appeal and enough help to keep you playing, the game manages to be fun enough to make it worth struggling through. And though the online multiplayer being broken is a real shame, getting some friends over and playing locally is great and doubles the length of the entire game. Splosion Man is a great and charming game and despite a few draw backs, it becomes an easy recommendation for anyone.

Overall: 8/10

Gamerscore Update: 04/08/09

These last two weeks were a big one. Some new games, some old ones; just a lot in general.

Gears of War 2
I played quite a bit, mainly this weekend due to the double experience awarded. I really wanted to get my online rank to 25 to get that achievement. Dark Corners was also released to the public so I could finally play with people. I mainly did Horde so I could work on those achievements. Since my last update i got 195 point from this time which is ten new achievements. This brings my total to 63 out of 79 which is 990 points.

Halo Wars
I received the Historic Battles downloadable content pack for review so I got a couple of points from playing that. I got 45 points from three achievements. I only got one of the achievements from the DLC and two just for winning some online games. My total for the game is 17 out of 58 which translates to 375 out of 1200.

Splosion Man
I finally downloaded this game after seeing the Quick Look on Giant Bomb. This is probably the only game from this year's Summer of Arcade (I may get Shadow Complex, haven't decided). The game is great and I should have a review up either later tonight or tomorrow. I finished the entire game (minus the multiplayer) and got 8 out of the 12 achievements - 100 out of 200 points. I eagerly look forward to some of the new avatar awards to be incorporated in it.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2
I borrowed this off my friend and it's pretty whatever in my opinion. I played through the first two levels and part of the last one. So far I have 7 out of the 47 achievements which is 115 out of 1000 points. I plan to complete the rest of the game so I should have another hundred or so to come.

Overal Gamerscore: 41 015

The midst of Spring Break

So as my Spring Break has now begun and going by faster than I thought, I plan to get quite a bit done in it. This will be various comics I still need to read/finish, some books I need to start and finish and some games I wish to start and wrap up.

The games I wish to get done are Tales of Vesperia. This won't be happening though as I predict another 75 hours is required and I just don't have that time. Though I have gotten around 10 in since the beginning of the week and a whopping 25 points because of it.

I will also be playing a bunch of Gears of War 2 in the next couple days as the third title update is now out. I plan to get the three new achievements that I don't have to pay for. Hopefully I can rank up quickly.

I want to finish up Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon before I head to New York so that I don't have to be memorizing a ton of chapter info. I don't want to miss out on anything after all.

I also picked up Henry Hatsworth last week and still haven't started it. This will be used for the plane trip and any long car rides I encounter out east. I hear it's pretty great and am quite excited to start it.

Last in the games is Uno Rush which will be out tomorrow night. As I stated in my previous blog post, I will be staying up for it. With this, I really need some more microsoft points now.

A couple games I'm not sure if I'll grab are LIT and Bit.Trip:Beat off of WiiWare. If I can justify spending $20 on the points card, I'll get these two. However, I am not sure yet.

Comics-wise will be the latest Umbrella Academy and possibly the new Superman and Battle for the Cowl. The only definite is Umbrella Academy.

Last of all are the novels that I have been neglecting. I want to finish up the recent Artemis Fowl and I'd like to start and finish the last .Hack novel to come out since I've had that for a few weeks now.

Hopefully I'll have enough free time over the next two weeks and my vacation to get this all done. Probably not.

Update: Pokemon Platinum should be sent to me soon, hopefully I will get it before I leave and can then play it on my trip. Knowing my luck, it will arrive just in time for no one to be able to receive it.

My choice for the 2008 XBLA Awards

It is the second annual Xbox Live Arcade Awards in the coming weeks and Microsoft has listed there nominees. Here is Kotaku's write up on it. I will post them here as well and bold the ones I think should win for each category.

Best Overall Arcade Game

• Braid

Though I didn't pick this game, I feel it will be remembered the longest and have the most impact on people compared to the others on this list.

• Castle Crashers
• Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2

I choose this game because they took a game that was so basic and managed to make you want to play it again and again. It was the effect Pac-Man CE had. I can always find myself going back to this game to play more of it. It was also the first XBLA game I stayed up all night to get.

• Street Fighter II HD Remix
• Portal: Still Alive

Best Original Game

• Castle Crashers
• N+
• Braid

This game was quite different and not expected. When you are told about the main overview of it, experiencing it is quite a different thing all together. We have had time manipulation in games before, but nothing as drastic as this.

• Penny Arcade Episode 1
• Schizoid
• Age of Booty

Best Family Game

• Boogie Bunnies
• Roogoo
• A Kingdom for Keflings
• Lost Cities
• Meteos Wars

I haven't played any of these so I will not be picking one.

Best Co-operative Multiplayer Game

• Castle Crashers

I had quite a bit of fun with this game far before the patch was even released. It was odd how much I played this online even when there was only one online achievement that was almost impossible to get. I never went for it, but I still came back to play with friends.

• Schizoid
• Bionic Commando Rearmed
• N+
• Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2

Best Competitive Multiplayer Game

• Street Fighter II HD Remix
• Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2
• Soul Calibur
• Meteos Wars
• Age of Booty

I feel as I have only played Geometry Wars 2, I can not pick one of these games.

Best Solo Game

• Braid

You may get stuck on this game for quite a bit with it's mind bending puzzles, but when you finally get it, you feel like the smartest man alive. It was a really nice game to just sit down with for a few hours as you made your way through it.

• Mega Man 9
• Penny Arcade Episode 1
• Rez HD
• Portal: Still Alive

Best Innovation in XBLA

• Braid (time travel)

I don't quite think this was so innovative, but compared to the other ones it was. Though the manipulation powers you were given were quite new, I didn't find them to be ground g

• A Kingdom for Keflings (use of Avatars)
• Fable II Pub Games (retail game integration)
• N+ (level sharing)
• Duke Nukem 3D (dynamic replay)

Best Graphics

• Street Fighter II HD Remix
• Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2

This game just looked beautiful and when I finally got my HD TV, it looked even better. It was so colorful and vibrant. I had it descrive

• Braid

I think this wins when it comes to the artistic quality of the graphics. I loved how it looked like a water colored canvas with marker drawings over top. So it's safe t say this category has a tie in my books.

• Castle Crashers
• Bionic Commando Rearmed

Best Classic/Remake Game

• Bionic Commando Rearmed
• Street Fighter II HD Remix
• Mega Man 9
• Galaga Legions
• Rez HD

I did not play any of these, I can't make a choice.

Because I could only think of 2

I thought I would take some time out of my busy schedule of trying to finish Grand Theft Auto IV before Fable 2 arrives to share with you My Top 2 Xbox Live Arcade Games With The Worst Leaderboard Setup.

I guess it would be important to state which type of leaderboards I'm talking about. The two I think of when it comes to leaderboards is the in game ones, which can range from just one general thing related to the game, to a whole bunch of different leaderboards for specific aspects of the game. The other would be the leaderboard that you can see from the Dashboard which is generally really generalised; I'm going to be talking about this one.

For those of you that don't know what a leaderboard is, don't worry, I will inform you. Leaderboards are a section of a game that shows how good you are incomparison so your friends or to everyone in the world. It will rank you on things like ''ammount of kills'' or ''highest score'' and so on.

Without further adue:

Sean's Top 2 XBLA Games With The Worst Leaderboard Setup

1. Castle Crashers
So the way this game's leaderboard is set up is it shows your highest level character and ranks you based on it. Now let it be known that the level cap for this game is 99. So everyone who has a character at level 99, you are tied for first. Congrats!

My thoughts for a better way to setup this ranking system would to have either shown the total level all your characters combined are, or maybe show how many enemies you have killed. Even something like, total damaged dished out would have been something cool to brag about.

2. Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2
The way this game works is very good when looking at the in game leaderboards, but the dashboard setup annoys me. It shows your total score of all your games combined; I guess this would be the only way you could really do it. The reason I dislike this is if someone has beaten my score on a specific game mode, but doesn't have an overall better score than me, I'll never know till I go into the game.

The best way to fix this in my opinion is none existant, or at least I haven't thought of it yet. Something around the lines of the ammount of enemies killed overall would be ok, but that number would be incredibly big and I think a little much.

Castle Crashers has an Insane Mode!

Hey guess what?! Castle Crashers has an Insane Mode. Which loads of you may have heard something about, I bet a good portion can't find it.

When you start up your normal quest, yes you can use your normal guy (in other words, you don't need to start a new knight) press down. If you have beaten the game as this guy you will be able to move lower on the map from the "Home Castle" area and the "Barbarian Boss" spot. From there you will move down into that cave in the ditch area.

Selecting it makes that spot light on fire for the remainder of the time your in insane mode - so you know which mode your in. Though each time you go into this mode it shows the opening scene. A quick way to get past this is by hitting Start and then Return to Map. Then you can proceed along to where you were next. Exiting is the same so don't think you need to go back to normal to leave properly.

This is great because having my guy at the high 40's in level and not being able to continue on and level up without using the Catfish of Batboss tricks was awful. Now I'm hitting like one new level at each new spot.

Happy Crashing

Tips for Castle Crashers online

Play with two people, pray it works.

Review: Castle Crashers - 8

Castle Crashers is the brightly animated 2D beat 'em up by game developers; The Behemoth and runs for 1200 Microsoft points. The Behemoth was well known for it's first game Alien Hominid HD on the Xbox Live Arcade. It does a good job bringing humor and platforming to a standard beat 'em up style that you would think wouldn't be popular in today's consumer mindset. Though this game does suffer from a few bugs that can harm it quite a bit.

The game has you chase after evil bosses that stole four princess's from the castle. Your quest involves you going through many areas such as the standard locations that would basically represent the 'fire area,' 'ice area,' 'forest area' and so on. Each area has new enemies in which you will need to kill and make it to the boss so save one princess after the other.

Castle Crashers is much like the game TMNT 1989 classic, in the way of it's beat 'em up style of gameplay. So if you liked that game, it's pretty safe to say now that you will enjoy this one. A beat 'em involves usually a high multiplayer value in which you move through levels just button mashing to kill enemies who are walking around and causing havoc. It also relies quite a bit on an RPG element since each enemy you kill awards your experience points or EXP points that helps you level up. You also get more points to use towards stat upgrades like magic and agility.

The biggest thing this style of game has going for it would be that it's a big social game, meaning it should have great multiplayer. Castle Crashers does that; but only for local co op. When the game was launched it's online became apparent that it's pretty crippled. Many people find that they can't get into games or even go online and find other people to play with. Trying to invite a friend in was impossible for me to be able to do and the one time I managed to find someone to play with, the game disconnected the instant we choose our characters. Though some people do seem to not have to much trouble, they only seem to be able to play for a few hours before something goes wrong. This fact really harms Castle Crashers because even with playing the single player alone, you can tell that it would be that much more fun for each friend you have with you.

With that being said, the game still stands quite strong on it's own as a single player game. Each new area involves something new that you need to take into account. Whether this be new styles in which the enemies fight, or new gameplay elements. In some areas you'll find yourself pitted against hooded thieves as they jabbed me with knives and shot me with arrows, while others will have you balancing on fish while you slash at a giant water cat thing. With other side missions to do like trying to find all the animal orbs or unlocking all the weapons in the game. The game even has arenas set throughout the game's map page so you can just get into a random brawl while trying to unlock new characters. Along with some humorous scenes and funny jokes this goes together quite nicely.

Though the game seems to try and go off three main modes, the adventure, an arena and a mini games where you mash the X and Y buttons called All You Can Quaff. Besides the adventure, these seems to try to make these a big deal, making the mini game even available in online and for leader boards. Though this game lasts maybe less than thirty seconds and that's about it, it doesn't interact in the main game at all and comes off as something the creators just stuffed in there for no reason. The arena option also seems like something just randomly thrown in, but has a little more significance. This would be for someone who just wants to play a quick game and kill a bunch of guys. Though it ends quite quickly and doesn't provide anything for a the win so it seems like turning your 360 on and loading up the game would take longer than this mode some times. There's also no way to change the arena mode you have since it's set to the first arena you unlock during the story. So your getting the same thing you have inside the main adventure mode. Some inter-connectivity would have been nice between the three modes with something even as small as getting some EXP points.

The graphics in the game are quite nice as everything seems quite smooth. It follows the same design as Alien Hominid did with it's flashtoon like look. Even at times it feels like this game would be fine as a flash game. The colors though are so vibrant and bold that they look nice on the usually dreary background. With all the different looking weapons, spells and items you can use, you can see a lot was put into this game. Let alone the many different landscapes you'll come across. The games tries to reach many different locations and succeed in replicating them beautifully.

As stated before, there are some bugs in it and one of the main ones I found where in the frame rate. While playing through a level that involved me riding a deer through an abandoned mill while other deer fled along side me. To my surprise I noticed one of the other deer wasn't actually moving in a set motion, more just stuck in one position but moving along side us as if it was flying. The next bug I saw was when fighting a boss, I hit him but for some reason he remained in the air being hurt by some unknown force. I knew this was probably just a random glitch since I played it again and this didn't happen. Among those were some freezing issues that occurred a few times and with all these together, it brings the game down a little. One of the biggest known bugs was that people's data was being erased for no apparent reason, I for one didn't run into this problem but it didn't seem to be only a few cases.

The last thing to note is basically, your gonna end up button mashing. Since it is a beat 'em up, you should already know that, button mashing is the main style for these kinds of games. Though instead of just having the usual one button to hit (like TMNT 1989 classic for example) you do also have the option of a stronger attack and even some magic attacks. Which gets into the territory of how God of War combat takes place. So it does break grounds a bit there with not just straight one button and figuring out to hit that thing like there's no tomorrow. You have some choice. New enemies will also make you have to think of new ways to attack, for instance you need to jump attack the guys who will shoot you with an arrow. You can even jump above enemies and kill many of them without even hitting the ground since you can do so many attacks as long as there's someone below you.

The general value you will get from this game is that it would have been worth the 1200 points you threw down. Being that this was one of the few XBLA games to be priced over the average 800, you would expect that you should be getting your monies worth for it. Castle Crashers would reach that expectation if it weren't for the broken online play it contains. While yes single player is fun and will have you enjoying it and laughing often, you always feel that this would be better if you had some buddies or random strangers to tackle those castles with. So overall I can recommend it, but at the same time I'm very close to not being able to what with all the bugs. I did enjoy the game and haven't run into memory loss problems, but I'm always disappointed that the online didn't hold up.

Overall: 8/10

17 years of football left

So I ended up buying Castle Crashers. I bit the bullet and now my pile of MS points are quite slim. There's been some talk around the e-webs about how it broken, as I have stated before as well. Due to this, I have no idea what I'm going to do about reviewing it. I really hope they release a patch soon for it cause then I'll be all over that thing. Anyways some people have found a fix for it, you can find it here apparently it works fine, I hope I don't have to do it, if I do, I'll let you know.

Gotta get back to simulating another 17 years of football.

Bionic Commando Review

Bionic commando is an interesting case of a game updating itself while still remaining true to the original, for better or worse.

The game follows you "Rad" Spencer on your journey to destroy the evil imperial forces but thankfully Rad has a few tricks up his sleeve in the form of a metal claw that Rad can shoot out to swing, climb, and grab hold of enimes with. It's a shame this mechanic is so fun because the controls don't make it easy to pick up and play it with newcomers.

Although it soon becomes easier albeit still annoying that when you want to shoot diagonally , like most of the game demands, you are required to come to a complete stop, not touch anything and hit the bionic arm button. A frustrating control issue revived from the original game, however to be fair it became easier with time.

However not to be the only thing to remain from the past incarnation is the top down shooting segments where you run towarda the enemy anti-aircraft gun in an attempt to destroy it, now this wouldn't be an issue if it was either a more fun or engaging level or didn't happen nearly as much as it does. This event is triggered whenever your helicopter from the overworld comes into contact with the three trucks constantly moving about through the world.

However to the games credit it is generally really fun with some interesting boss battles where they have you put your claw to use to figure out the puzzle like boss battles (which umfourtunetly they reuse the same boss in various levels). Wicked level design and some inventive guns to keep you playing. The music also has been updated with a catchy remix of the original songs. What really ties it all together though is the spectacular graphics which are easily the best seen in a XBLA game to date.

So all in all it may seem like I've just complained about the game but rest assured that those complaints are minor at best and they only are a slight annoyance when compared to the fun this game will provide to newcomers to the game as well as fans of the original

8/10

Castle Crashers and the price of XBLA games?

It was just recently announced that the highly anticipated game Castle Crashers developed by The Behemoth is now going to be changing it's price to 1200 points. Before this, it had been announced that the game would be going for 1800 reaching a price of around $22.50 American for the game; making it the most expensive XBLA game yet to be released.

I think I speak for all of us when I say, thank god. I had been thinking about this game and it's former steep price ever since it had been announced. I had always been interested in the game but the first price thrown out there kinda shook me up. I was getting to the point where I thought that I might just bite the bullet and pay the $20+ (and being in Canada, it's a bit more than $22.50). So this new announcement greatly puts me at ease.

It got me thinking though, are games going to soon be getting their prices hiked on the 360's marketplace? I read an article today on Giant Bomb by Jeff which first gave me the news about this price drop. He went into how he might think games are now going to be hitting 1200 as the standard price now, instead of 800.

It made me wonder and somewhat agree. I could see Microsoft charging 1200 ($15 US) for these games, they know people will pay for them.

When the marketplace was first out, they were only charging 400 points for games, even ones as huge as Geometry Wars Retro Evolved, and from that the standard price is now 800. So from the beginning where Microsoft was first seeing how much people would be willing to pay for these games, to now seeing how much farther we will be willing to go. I thought 800 was a fair price, $10 (US) for a short game on the 360. I could handle that. But now with the 1200 points becoming a little popular with games like Braid and Penny Arcade even passing that, will 1200 be the new 'fair' price? $15 is getting awfully close to the price of the budget games when they hit the "Player's Choice" or whatever. I'm beginning to think a game with the story or main single player mode only reaching 10 hours at most till your going back on pure replay value is a bit much.

I'm happy to pay the $15 for Castle Crashers, but is it just because my other alternative was $22.50?

What do you guys think; will $15 become the next standard price for the XBLA games?

P.S. It's out on the 27th and I'd love to stay up for it, but I'm coming back from my vacation that day so I'll be missing the launch by a few hours. Anyone staying up?

Review: Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 - 10

Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 is the sequel to the major hit Xbox Live Arcade Game - Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. It contains the same gameplay style you've grown to know and love but adds new modes and ways to think about playing. With the added elements to the game and overall visual overhaul, it turns out to be a game well worth your money.

Since the last Retro Evolved that was one of the first XBLA games to be released, fans have been awed by it's gameplay and visual style. What GW2 does is take the same gameplay and make you think about using it in new and interesting ways, together this adds for harder challenges, more to do and a lot fun. If you don't know, GW2 make you move a ship around the screen with the left analog stick while shooting with the right analog stick. the longer you survive, the harder then enemies become and the quantities grow. If things become to hectic, you are equiped with a set number of bombs that will clear the screen.

The biggest difference between GW2 and it's prequel is the addition of geoms. In the first Retro Evolved you gained score multiplyers by surviving longer and longer, in GW2 you can collect geoms to increase your multiplyer. Geoms appear after you destroy and enemy and with this addition, you are now able to get high score of unimaginable digits compared to the first game.

GW2 has six gameplay modes in it. You can unlock each new mode by playing the previous mode a certain length of time. The first is Deadline, which you start out with from the get go. It's basically the general GW style of play, but you only have three minutes to play it and unlimited lives. This mode is more of an introductory into the GW game and style of game it is.

The next is King which has you unable to fire your weapon unless you are inside small areas. When inside you can shoot as much as you like, but the areas will shrink and go away after a few seconds. This causes you to need to know how long to stay in a shielded area and how long to stay and destroy enemies.

Next is Evolved which is once again the basic GW game. This is manly what Retro Evolved was and you can go on for as long as you survive.

The fourth mode is Pacifism, which is much like the first Retro Evolved's pacifism achievement, in which you cannot shoot. This mode renders your weapons completely useless for the entire game. You must make the enemies follow you through small gates, passing through a gate causes it to explode destroying nearby enemies.

Waves is the next game and focuses on orange enemies that are on a set axis and move back and forth between walls. By adding many of these together in a line it acts as a wave and more and more of these waves are sent at you.

Sequence is the final mode and it's really anything crazy new, it's more of a level system. Each level has you fighting certain enemies and in certain orders. This mode is by far the hardest and requires tremendous skill.

The graphics have been updated since Retro Evolved to make them sharper and much more colorful. Destroying each enemies has them explode shooting sparks of their color out, combining enemies destruction can make a wonderfully beautiful light show. Each mode also has it's own music and modes like King has the music muffled unless your in a safe zone, while Evolved has the original theme but remixed. The music is probably one of the best things about this game as it's high paced and doesn't get repetitive. When you get destroyed by an enemy the music screeches to a halt and then wipes back into play. While using bombs causes the music to sound warped for a minute.

The achievements this time around are also much easier and seems to be at a good pace between all the modes. From things as easy as unlocking all modes, to things more like rub up against all the wall space in pacifism twice. One would probably have liked an achievement in the area of "get ____ points combined in all games" but this game doesn't require that. It does have a similar one that requires you to get at least a million points in all modes, but this game gets quite addictive, and just updating your high score is enough satisfaction in itself.

Another new update to the franchise is multiplayer. In each mode you can play them in co op with up to four people. There's even a mode called copilot where one person will drive the ship, while the other controls the gun. The multiplayer mode is only local and not online. Which at first glance at this game can seem like a let down. The thing is though, online multiplayer would most likely ruin this game due to all the lag that could be brought up. Any bad connection leading to the slightest lag will cause you all to mostly screw up, or die. This game is just too fast paced, split second timing and decision making to let any lag be a factor. To counter this they have made user high scores a huge part of this game. Each mode select screen shows the top high scores of everyone on your friends list. Also, during each mode in the top right hand corner you will see the highest score on your friends list so that you have something to play towards beating.

Overall Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 is a great game to continue the Geometry Wars franchise. If you enjoyed the first game, you will find this perfect will all the graphical and audio updates along with the new styles of play and gameplay modes. For 800 points ($10 US) it's definitely worth your money and will make any Geometry Wars fan and new comer quite happy.

Positives:
- Beautiful graphics
- Very enjoyable music
- You get your money's worth, and then some
- Loads of different modes to keep you interested
- High scores keep you wanting to come back and play more
- Co op play adds new ways to play each of the new modes in fun and friend-included ways

Negatives:
- N/A

Overall: 10/10