I would like to introduce my new (first) iOS game - MicroQuest.

As programmer Curtis Nerdly was working on his new game, he found evidence that a dastardly pirate by the name of Capt. Nick De Code had gained access to his computer and had stolen a copy of the game. Capt. Nick then proceded to spread copies of the game, causing disruption in his wake.
Help Curtis track down the missing copies of his game and strike a blow against Capt. Nick De Code and his pirate friends.

Controls = swipe to move, currently release finger when changing direction, it will be fixed in a future update! Also fully iCade (and similar bluetooth controllers) compatible, much better that way anyway.

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/micr...593323187?mt=8

Please tell me what you think :-)

Thankyou.

If anyone feels like dropping a review in itunes that would be a great help :)

I think I'm one of a small handful of people who have not stopped gaming on the Wii at any point in the last few years. There's been a pile of games released that interst me between Wiiware, Virtual Console, and retail, and it seems like almost no one else noticed them. As a result, I'm thinking collctors should really be grabbing up some of this stuff (that I'm buying just because I'm still playing).

If anyone doesn't know the Operation Rainfall story, go do a Google on it. In any case, all three of the games that fans requested NOA regionalize have now been released or confirmed. I got Xenoblade Chronicles (with reversable cover art which I like) and The Last Story (in the cool, book-like collectors box) last year when they came out. Now, Pandora's Tower is confirmed for this Spring. Xenoblade was released exclusively through EB/Gamestop and Nintendo's website, XSeed (the niche publisher) released the Last Story and will release Pandora's Tower. If late release JRPG games for a system with a small customer base, released from a niche publisher or one retailer aren't future collectibles, I don't know what is.

I also picked up the North American version of Pikmin 2 for Wii last year, but that was instantly made a "Nintendo Select" so I am thinking with a $19.99 price point, that one will likely still end up being pretty common.


Additionally, Wal-Mart (at least here) has Sin and Punishment: Star Successor marked down to $10 these days, and I'd think that might end up fairly rare, so I figure collectors might want to pick it up for $10 now and not $100 down the road.

This is the first generation where I've started to think about future collectability while there was still time to pick stuff up cheap and easily.

I just wish I knew if legit VC and WiiWare games will ever be able to be viewed as seperate from emulation or pirated versions. There's a bunch of odd stuff in there that I've gotten lately too, but I doubt it is in any way a future collectable. There's the Genesis SF2 that released last year with the online support still in there from that weird modem thing that worked with the original release(XBand was it?); so, you can play SF2 online now from emulation of a Genesis game that was originally online. After much trouble, La Mulana (think Montezuma's Revenge) finally got out on WiiWare in late 2012. And Neo Geo games are still releasing on there every second or third week. If those things were physical releases, they'd have to eventually be worth something. I'm pretty sure I'm one of a small handful of people who know about them, let alone who bought them.

You might have this news allready however if you don't yet know, Nintendo have released a FREE download add on pack for the NSMB2 game on the 3DS.
After the 31st of January 2013 it will be for sale so pick it up whilst it;'s free. :)

Here is a video link to Nintendo President Satoru Iwata telling fans about the add-on pack, Enjoy.

I have a confession to make. As much as I revere classic games, to be completely honest, I've never been much of a Pac-Man fan. The best way I can describe it is that I've typically found myself to be more enthusiastic and nostalgic about what Pac-Man symbolizes (let's face it, he's pretty much the poster boy for classic gaming) than I've been about the experience of the game itself.

Not only that, but I've never been much of a fan of "updated" versions of classic games being released on the platform-du-jour. All too often, such releases seem to carry with them the unmistakable stench of hasty development for the sake of a quick buck.

Against this backdrop, it would seem that Pac-Man Championship Edition DX--the latest iteration of Pac-Man on PS3/PSN--would constitute an unlikely favourite for me.

Nonetheless, I can unequivocally state that I love this game.

The visuals are configurable into various styles that range from the classic look, to the pseudo-3D Pacmania look, to completely new designs never before seen.

The premise of the game is still that you're a little round-headed yellow guy with a flappy mouth that has a fondness for dots and an aversion to monsters that look vaguely like ghosts. But the similarities pretty much end there. Gone is the survival-of-the-fittest-munch-till-you're-outta-lives maze game of yesterday, and enter the concept of short, self-contained, timed challenges that pit you against not only the clock, but hundreds of thousands of Pac-Heads the world over. All of these mini-games are playable in multiple unlockable mazes, and separate scoreboards are kept for each. You can even watch replays of the top scores online to study the techniques of the masters.

Also gone for 2010 is the "four vs. one" pacadigm (get it?); in 2010, Pac-Man might find himself with a conga-line of 50 or so ghosts in hot pursuit.

Sounds goofy, right?

Perhaps. But let me tell you, I was grinning ear to ear the first time I swallowed a power pellet and gobbled down a few dozen ghosts in machine-gun succession amidst the crescendo of retro-inspired "gobble" sound effects and the glorious sight of ever-increasing numbers flying towards my score. Brilliant! Put that in your peace pipe and smoke it, Billy Mitchell.

The longer you can last without making any mistakes, the faster the game gets, and it quickly gets to the point where those without Jedi reflexes need not apply. Perhaps this latter point, coupled with the introduction of the "ghost army", led the game designers to include two other new features aimed at keeping the game at a playable pace for us mere mortals.

The first is a "panic bomb" (Pac-Fart?) that you can unleash using the shoulder buttons, which briefly sends all of the ghosts back to their home base so you can escape from tight situations.

The other is a "The Matrix-esque" slow-down mode that kicks in when you're ripping around the maze and find yourself in close proximity to one or more of the monsters. This effect allows the non-Jedi among us to fine tune our maneuvers and have a fighting chance at making an escape that would otherwise be impossible. Once you get used to it, it seems natural and really works.

My main complaint with the game is not so much a complaint with the game itself but the human-machine interface that connects me to it. I find that the analog sticks of the PS3 controller make it a challenge to accurately control Pac-Man, especially at the higher speeds. The d-pad can also be used, but personally, I typically find d-pads to be terrible for games that require 4-way controls, and this game is no different.

Pac-purists may view the time-based game play as sacrilege, and I can just hear them ranting about how the bombs and slow-downs are like training wheels for the lightweights. They're entitled to that opinion.

But if this game is judged based solely on its own merits and potential for madly addictive pick-up-and-play fun, as opposed to being judged based on what the designers decided to put in and take out in comparison to the old standard, then Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is a winner that is well worth the very reasonable $10 entry fee. Don't miss it!

If there's one thing Capcom is known for, its.....well, its prolly Street Fighter 2. But Mega Man comes up in a close second. The Blue Bomber has been Capcoms premier mascot for a long time now, and for good reason. Even when the games become stale, stagnant, and completely unoriginal, they're all still fun as hell to play. And there's been literally dozens of Mega Man titles, spawning across multiple systems such as its birth on the NES, moving to the Game Boy, SNES, Genesis, Game Gear, PS1, Game Boy Advance, DS, Saturn, PS2, X-Box, and now as downloadable titles in the retro style on PS3, Wii, and X-Box 360.

So, lets check out my personal Top Ten Mega Man games! :MM:

10. Mega Man 6
Mega Mans final outing on the 8-bit NES. US audiences almost never saw this game, as Capcom had no plans on releasing it here, but Nintendo published it themselves. Its a good thing too, because the Rush Armors where a unique way to play the game once they were unlocked. Your canine robot buddy Rush would meld with Mega Man, giving him extra abilities like unlimited flight charges, and incredibly powerful short range blasts. We never saw the Rush Armors after this game, which was a shame, as they are what made this game stand out.

9. Mega Man: The Wily Wars
Some may think this is a cop-out for being able to throw the first three games in one spot, but not at all. European Mega Drive owners got a great deal on this cart, playing the first three titles with remixed sound and renewed graphics. Personally, the graphics and music upgrades are hit and miss, but the games are still incredibly fun, and having three on one cart, plus a hidden bonus after you beat all three, was one hell of a treat. US audiences only saw this game on the short lived Sega Channel as a download, which is a shame, because it was a blast to play. Even today, it is one of the most sought after high priced games on the Mega Drive.

8. Mega Man 4
This game is where the bosses started to get kinda weak and bland, but Mega Man got his charge shot powerup, which has stayed with him in most all games released afterwards (other than 9 and 10). Being such a new thing, in its first outing it overpowered ALL the bosses, being even more effective than using the weapon the boss was supposed to be weak against. Still, this small enhancement gave the game a whole new dimension (although Mega Man could charge his shot in Mega Man 2 if using Flame Mans weapon).

7. Mega Man Legends
Finally diving outside the Original Series, Legends was Capcoms attempt to bring the Blue Bomber to 3d. It kinda sorta worked, spawning off Legends 2 and Adventures of Tronne Bonne. It gave the Mega Man series a much deeper story, and in this reviewers eyes, a new version of gameplay that had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, the Legends series was short lived, possibly because the games lacked a bit of polish and were early generation 3d. I think this style could see a resurgence if meshed with todays more powerful consoles.

6. Mega Man X3
The X series was somewhat of a revitalization for Capcoms mascot. X3 continued the formula with the added ability to play as Zero, a character that got hugely popular in X1. Zero gave gamers a new way to play Mega Man, using his Z-Saber to do incredible damage to enemies, but requiring him to be in close range. Gamers would later see more of this gameplay style on the GBA in the Zero series. The rest of the game played similar to the other X titles, including beginning the usual "Sigmas behind it all!", much as the original series had the "Wilys behind it all!" motif in EVERY GAME.

5. Mega Man 2
This is probably where the game improved the most. First we went from 6 bosses to 8 in the initial parts of the game. The music improved a whole lot, featuring some of the best 6.5.0. tunes available on the NES. Mega Man also had Options 1, 2, and 3 for enhanced mobility before Rush was introduced in Part 3. While 4 is often maligned for the overpowered Charge shot, 2 has its own overpowered weapon in the Metal Blades, which hardly uses any energy and can cut through most bosses with ease. Oftentimes you can complete 95% of the game using only Metal Blades as your weapon. Still, this game featured not only great music and gameplay, but a huge graphical jump as well (remember the Dragon in the first Wily stage?)

4. Mega Man Zero
Mega Man took a step back in this series as Zero jumped to the forefront. The entire ability system was changed to something much deeper, and the gameplay got a LOT harder. Zero had a different graphical style than the X series did, approaching Japanese Manga. While I'm not a huge fan of the graphical style, the graphics look really good on the portable GBA screen, and I'm a huge fan of the more difficult gameplay. This series spawned 4 titles (with the first 3 being exceptional) and had a good life on the GBA, but seemingly the Zero series has died with the Game Boy Advance.

3. Mega Man 9
Capcom did the most creative thing they could with the original series after the disaster Mega Man 8 was.....by being completely uncreative and ripping off Mega Man 2, than melding it with tons of instant death traps. And we, as gamers, ate it all up. The 8 bit NES graphical style looked so refreshing, and after removing Mega Mans slide and charge abilities, the game heavily relied on awesome level design, which was done quite well. Gamers who wanted the slide and charge abilities could play as Proto Man, at the expense of taking more damage when hit. While Mega Man 10 is decent, 9 was exceptional.

2. Mega Man 3
For me, this was the best 8 bit Mega Man game (including 9 and 10). Introducing the slide ability to get into small spots and quickly dodge, as well as Rush for your added abilities instead of just Option parts, 3 had a great feel. Not only did you get 8 new robot masters, you had to deal with reincarnations of the 8 old robot masters from part 2, before you dealt with even MORE bosses in Wilys castle! (this game is over a decade old, if I spoiled the ending becase you actualy believed Wily had a change of heart like the manual said, you've never played classic Mega Man games). This game also kept up with the great music that part 2 offered, with music you'll be humming hours after playing.

1. Mega Man X
How do you revitalize a stagnant series? Capcom took the Sonic the Hedgehog route, and gave Mega Man some *attitude*. Mega Man got armor upgrades to give him more abilities, got a new sidekick (or Mega Man himself was a sidekick to) in Zero, and got new antagonists in Mavericks, with Sigma being their leader. He even got a new name, being called X (signifying being an unknown value). But the great gameplay stayed, using his arm blaster to rip apart enemy baddies. For me, the X series was the most fun games in the Mega Man franchise, lasting from the SNES all the way to the PS2 era.

NOTABLE MENTIONS
Mega Man X Command Mission - I LOVE RPGs, and a Mega Man RPG was a dream come true for me. This was an overlooked PS2 RPG that really was fun to play. I ALMOST put it on my top ten, but it just doesn't feel like a Mega Man game. Still, its damn fun.

Mega Man Collection - The first 8 Mega Man classic series games, on one disc, with bonus features. A must have if you don't feel like collectiing the NES carts, SNES cart, and PS1/Saturn disc.

Mega Man X Collection - The first 6 Mega Man X games on one disc. This one is sorely missing X7 and X8, but is still a great purchase.

DISHONORABLE MENTION:
Mega Man (PC version) - Oh god, it sucks. Completely different from the NES version, it has different bosses and graphics. This wouldn't be a bad thing, if it weren't for the fact that the gameplay was awful.

Hey guys, sorry about the late post about the Metroid Other M review, yes I'm aware that it's almost been a month, I've been a mix between very busy work, and being very lazy at home when not working, so the productive side of me has be almost non-existant. However... I've finally done it! Hope you guys like it!


One Nintendo franchise I really enjoy is the Metroid series, it's dark secluded caves, the claustrophobic environments, and more importantly, video game's first real heroine, Samus Aran. Truth to be told, with the Metroid series being 24 years old, there's not much we know about Samus. We closest we ever got to was the mention of Adam Malkovich in Metroid Fusion, and even then, Adam Malkovich was an AI in Metroid Fusion. Metroid Other M takes that part of the story of explains it in bigger detail, for the first time in 24 years we begin to understand who Samus is as a person rather than a bounty hunter in cybernetic suit. As Metroid Fusion took it's first baby step into a story line for the franchise, Metroid Other M does a full-on running jump!


First thing first to expect from this game, cut scenes, something that the series rarely sees, there were some in Fusion and a few in Prime 3 Corruption, but cut scenes in this game are plentiful. However this not a bad thing, if we're going to compare this with something like Metal Gear Solid 4 for example, yes MGS4 is still boring with it's long and derivative cut scenes that can ruin the experience, whilst Metroid Other M uses cut scenes properly and neatly, only putting them in parts of the game where it needs to be, in parts where it makes sense, and more importantly, to make a story. There are plenty of cut scenes in this game, however it's done right and doesn't ruin the tension of gameplay or make you get bored, they snappy, short, and to the point, never allowing itself to go off course and wander off into some silly tangent, or in MGS4's case, a guilty case of product placement (Sony Bluray and Apple iPod). Speaking of story, you'll notice that in this game Samus appears to be a bit more submissive compared to her “lone wolf”, hyper independent personalty of old. This is mainly because of her rendezvous with Adam Malkovich, her old Commander in the Galactic Federation; he was a like a Father to her, so it's clear to see that her personalty would suddenly change, however the many joys of the internet show many girl gamers get upset that Samus is taken orders from a man, Heavens Above! But despite the plentiful cases of internet whining, this is to show how much Samus respects Adam, as a Father figure and a superior, there's a part of the story that tells how Samus felt guilty because she left the Galactic Federation to become a Bounty Hunter, as if she left her job as being a soldier to do her own thing, something that she feels now was a selfish thing to do. Regardless of what people say on the Internet, I personally feel that the story fits the game quite well, and puts a perceptive on Samus that we haven't seen before.


Gameplay wise, this is where it might go a bit off course, especially if you're expecting something. A noticeable thing I saw on the internet are people complaining about the game because it wasn't “Metroid” enough. In my honest opinion this is case of that they were thinking that is game was going to be another Super Metroid or something more on the lines of Xbox Live Arcade's Shadow Complex. No, Metroid Other M is nothing like these, and it's whiny people on the net that should be guilty of “assuming” that a game they see in video and picture on the internet should be anything like another game until they play it. Before you mention it, no, Metroid Other M is not a game were it plays on rails and more Samus left or right on a two dimensional plain. Rather, it's still a three dimensional game where by you can move Samus in all directions, and yes you're doing this with a dpad rather then an analogue stick, just like the early Crash Bandicoot games. As you may have seen, the game is played using the Wii remote like an NES controller, the “1” button shoots, the “2” button jumps, and the “A” button puts Samus into her morph ball. To add to that, Samus does have a first person view by pointing the Wii remote to the TV and pointing at enemies to shoot at, shooting missiles at breaking walls (if you're wondering, missiles in this game can only be used in first person, something I didn't like too much), and scanning objects. Another form of control is the new recharge system the game has, you do this by point the Wii remote up towards the ceiling, twisting it 90 degrees and pressing the “A” button, this recharges your health and missiles, now you're thinking, “hold on a minute, you can recharge health?”, Yes and No, firstly enemies in this game do not drop any items, the only ever item drop I've seen in the game in an optional beam you can get in the game that isn't necessary to beat the game with; but no, there are no health items or spare missiles to collect from enemies in this game, you use the recharge to get more missiles when you're low, and you recharge health when you're getting very low, you can't do this until you only have 30 HP left, if you're over 30 HP you can't refill health until you reach a save point. Combat in this game is both similar and different at the same time, and this is where you can feel where Team Ninja got involved in this game. Another new feature to this game is something called Sense-Move, really it's just a fancy name to call “dodging”, but it works by tapping the dpad in a direction just before being hit by a melee attack or a laser. It can be tricky at first, but you'll start to notice that different enemies react to the Sense-Move differently, almost in the same way to something like Punch-Out, once you work out their weaknesses and timing, you'll be an invincible force, though in my experience of the game, I already got the plasma beam before I got used the majority of each enemies timing and weaknesses. Whilst shooting your gun, Samus now auto targets, it may sound like a bad idea, however when you're playing a 3rd person shooter that doesn't have it's camera behind the shoulder, you need auto targeting, especially when you're jumping around and have enemies in every direction. That's not to say that it always work out to be the easiest way, sometimes it doesn't work, however I'm greatful to have this feature, because I can imagine that it'll be a lot worse without the auto targeting.


In certain parts of the game, in most cases these happen right after a cut scene, you go into first person and you have to scan for something, difference being you can't get out of the first person mode until you find it. This to me in the most disappointing part of the game, mainly because what you're looking for it something that appears on your TV very very small and/or so dark you won't notice it. A great example of this is a part where Samus finds herself inside a large hive, and you have to play this “spot something” game, the problem was I had to look up on GameFAQs to find out what the hell I was meant to look at, but there are these larvae that you have to scan, that are pretty far away, and in a really dark spot! If you're going to play this game, make sure you have a TV with a really good contrast ratio and brightness because you'll need it!


Something in the game I did like though is this new feature where by once you clear a room of it's enemies, you get a hint on your map where the closest missile or health upgrade is kept, what's even better is that when you beat the game the first time round, you can return back to the game and the hints stay there, allowing you to track down more upgrades you couldn't get before. One thing I will say though, for you completetists out there, it's impossible to beat the game first time with 100%, you need to at least beat the final boss first before you can do it, there are parts at the very beginning of the game that get blocked off that have upgrades inside that you can't get with ordinary weapons, it only opens up once you beat the final boss.


In conclusion, the game is pretty good, and can be classed as one of the better Wii games this year, however as a part of the Metroid series, it isn't quite up there with the likes of Super Metroid and Metroid Prime; however it's defiantly not as hollow and mediocre such as Metroid 2 and Metroid Prime Hunters. The controls are a little debatable, however it's a case of getting use to, and it's not quite an easy learning curve. Metroid fans should defiantly pick this game up and play it, however there's one thing to make clear about this game, don't play it with ANY EXPECTATIONS, no it isn't like Super Metroid, and no it's not like Shadow Complex, because with that in mind there's bound to be something small and worthless that you'll dislike that will ruin the experience for you. Just take the game as an understanding behind Samus' history, and an example of what to expect in future Metroid titles.


(So yeah, reply back and tell me what you guys think, I would love to here your guys opinion on this game, hey at least it isn't Halo Reach right? heh)

Nintendo Wii, a system that some of you whine or disrespect, either because you think it’s a toy, or think it’s a system full of shovel ware or maybe you just don’t like Nintendo and you live by the “Genesis does what Nintendon’t” rules. In my honest opinion it doesn’t have much to do with those at all, what I can see are to polar opposites between the Wii and the 360/PS3, as the Wii caters to almost anyone, the 360 and PS3 caters more to the gamer who has a history in gaming, however there is a slight element in here that even I see from time to time, self image.



The Wii is built to be a simple family product whilst the other systems try to be futuristic and to be the “in thing”. Nothing wrong with those designs, however from visiting forums, websites, youtube, etc one thing is apparent and that the self image of the Nintendo Wii discourages a lot of older gamers because they think it’s a toy, and that toys are simply thing that children play with, here’s the issue, it’s a very western thing to say, and maybe we should look at other cultures and different pastimes to understand how “It looks like a toy” phrase is flawed in many ways.

First let’s look at the Japanese, one heck of a country that their games industry made its mark on gaming for the rest of history. However it’s a culture that enjoys art as well as its video games. One thing that’s pretty big in Japan are figure arts; think of these as action figures you had as a kid, be it He-Man, Action Man, Gi-Joe, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, except they’re a lot more detailed and in most cases are not poseable, and sometimes need to be painted like a Warhammer model. These are still toys, but they’re bought by a large number of 20 year old something’s in Japan, be is anime characters, video game characters, or even models of famous Japanese clothes models, they’re still bought by men either because they enjoy them for aesthetic reasons, or even a sexual reasons, but they’re still toys, and they’re bought by men.



As mentioned in a Youtube episode of Game Over Thinker, Movie Bob, the host, discusses about how the idea of “Stop playing with toys you’re too old” concept to a degree where by you can take something as simple as say, a ball, what child hasn’t played with a ball? A ball is a toy right? So why is it that there are major league sports such as Football, American Football, Tennis, and many other competitive sports use a toy in its sport? It’s funny to think that we often tell ourselves that we don’t need toys since we’re getting older to discover that toys without thinking about it are used in serious matters, sure I’m not saying that Fisher Price should be taken to work, but the word “Toy” itself shouldn’t be used it the “You shouldn’t be playing with toys” phrase.



Going back to Youtube, you can look up many commercials that use the similar Nintendo vibe of “It’s the anyone machine”, or the “It can be used as an executive toy” theme. Nintendo has done this plenty of times, even way before the Wii.





Even Atari did it before Nintendo made consoles…



The simple truth is… Videogames are toys, if they’re designed to be “badass” or not, after all what about cars? Aren’t they supposed to be “boys toys”? At the end of the day, Videogames have a broad demographic that caters to pretty much anyone, and to think that it doesn’t is a flawed excuse to think of one’s self as being mature, despite still playing videogames. Just as the Atari commercial suggests, there’s another person finding his inner little boy… And there's nothing wrong about it :P

A neat little 80 point retro inspired shooter … mix the left to right gameplay of Space Invaders and Galaga with bullet hell and you get Decimation X. An insane, fast paced, and sometimes infuriatingly difficult arcade shooter with support for up to four players locally.

Of course, there are a few bullet hell style shooters in the indie games section, but they generally fail miserably. This on the other hand gets it right. But if you’re looking for a walk in the park, this may not be your game.

And this is definitely a game. There’s no storyline anywhere to be seen, you could make one up yourself though. It doesn’t need it. This could easily be in an arcade machine from the 80’s or early 90’s.

The presentation isn’t mind blowing by any means whatsoever in regards to just the general graphics, but it definitely gets the job done with nice explosions, and a frame rate that never dips regardless as to what’s going on. The enemies are very simple and rather neat looking due to that fact, easy to see shots that are a son of a bitch to dodge sometimes (but that comes with the territory). The simplistic sound effects work nicely with the overall look and feel of the game. There isn’t anything exactly wrong with it as far as the graphics and sound go, it’s just a bit basic. Oh. And the music. I could easily see myself just sitting back and chilling out to this techno soundtrack which really helped me to get into the game. I just couldn’t picture playing this without that kind of music.

Now to the gameplay, which is for me the bread and butter of a game like this. It’s a bullet hell shooter in every sense of the word. The screen will be FULL of them. All you do when you start the game is fight off wave after wave after wave of enemies that move left to right or right to left depending on how you want to look at it shooting. And not even particularly AT you, they just shoot. A LOT. You have the shields that they chip away at that provide a level of protection, which you could probably gather from the screenshots. But there is also a neverending supply of powerups that don’t do a whole lot with your weapon … but at the same time it does a hell of a lot. They mostly just increase the level of your attack over and over again in a seemingly endless array. Soon enough you’re going to be filling the screen with as many bullets as the damn enemies. And there is also a neat shield powerup that creates a large temporary area around your ship. And also the occasional powerup that will completely rebuild the onscreen shields. Being that it’s a bullet hell shooter, if you don’t like the idea of using pixel perfect accuracy to dodge bullets, this probably won’t be your game because that’s where it’s stifling difficulty comes from. It’s an extremely accessible game, ANYONE can play this thing. But it gets REAL hard REAL quick. The highest I’ve been able to make it so far is level 20. And judging from the trailer for the game the levels just go on and on and on into infinity. There is so much happening on screen at once it gets a little insane, which is why I kinda say it’s the Bayonetta of shooters for the 360 in the fact that from start to finish it just doesn’t stop … except in a few cases. The one big problem I have with the game is the fact that the entire game comes to a SCREECHING halt when you die. You explode, the enemies stop in their tracks and stop shooting, and your character makes his way slowly from the right side of the screen to the left side THEN you start playing again. I can understand WHY it does that, but it just takes me out of it a little bit having to go through that. That’s part of where the infuriating part comes in because of the game just stopping DEAD in it’s tracks when you die. I’’m more into “don’t stop the game when one dies. Just respawn them in the same spot with a few valuable seconds of flashing invulnerability”.

And the difficulty seems to ramp up pretty damn quick when you consider that it may only take you about 30 seconds to a minute clear a level. So after about 5 or 10 minutes of playing the game, if you’re as terrible at these types of games as I am you’re probably going to see “Game Over”. But if you’re also like me, you’ll probably keep coming back to it just because it’s fucking FUN. As I said before, this does have multiplayer support, but seeing as how it’s ONLY local I’ll never use it because I just don’t personally EVER do multiplayer sitting on the couch with someone else. I haven’t done anything like that since the 16 bit era of systems just because online gaming is so prevalent for me. Which is a big disappointment because this game with online multiplayer would rock. And it would be cool to see some screen filling boss, and maybe there IS and I just haven’t gotten far enough. But not encountering one isn’t really a big deal for me. But it would definitely add something to the game to see that every 5 or 10 waves. :)

8.5 – It’s simple, it doesn’t bother with any kind of story. It just sticks you straight into the game where you just try to survive as long as possible. It’s an insanely fun shooter that doesn’t try to be anything BUT that. It’s disappointing not to see online multiplayer however, and that brings the score down a bit. There is a high score list, and apparently that list will be global eventually, which is awesome and will also serve to remind me how TERRIBLE I am at these games when I start seeing people reach level 10 trillion or something. :) But yeah, this is THE best shooter in the indie games section of it’s type right now and is definitely worth a buy whether you’re into these or not. At only 80 points, what have you got to lose. You’ll either love it like I do, or you’ll play it, get pissed off at losing all your lives by about level 20 or 30 or whereever you do and go through it again just to get further. Hrmm … maybe I fall into both those categories.

--

Originally posted on my site (which is linked in my signature) on January 16th, 2010. And the developer responded with a comment about what I said about the death sequence.

"Thanks for the great review.

I’ll debate the death sequence here, for all those who care.

Death in games have become more and more easy to handle and easy to ignore. Death in our game MATTERS, because it’s a score-running game and every life matters to get the highest score. But in beta-testing, players play as if death doesn’t matter. What is wrong with them? They have gotten so use to playing games as being godlike that they have become weak in their gaming soul. Death matters in our games. It matters without us having to tell you, but we have to tell you. The short pause blasts it in your face that you died and it matters. Some gamers have complained about it, but they have not experienced the alternative, which is no pause at all. This pause was done not by accident, but by design.

We are considering shortening the sequence to find a happy medium, but making it shorter feels wrong to me as I am writing this right now. If you “pass by” the deaths, the game quickly ends from shoddy play and feels incomplete. It truly is unreal how gamers today are given a godlike status in their games. Xona Games is about challenging skill-based games… no surprise we are top rated and best selling in Japan over any other country (as predicted by us)!!!"

Galaga was one game that I remember when I was very small, and to hear that it would get a proper sequel sound awesome considering that all the other versions of this game were just ports or remakes of the classic arcade game.

The game feels like Geometry Wars in which you can move across the whole screen; however you can only shoot up. This is where the satellites come in; you can place a satellite to shoot up, down, left and right with the right analogue stick, however the satellites stays static in that place until you go back to it and pick it up by moving over it or tapping the right bumper to bring the satellites back to you automatically. This is where I felt a little put off by this game, the original Galaga was nothing like this, it was more like a beefed up version of Space Invaders, where you can only move left and right and just shoot upwards.



Another part of this game that I was disappointed with is it’s method of shooting, there’s two ways or doing this, Automatic and Manual mode. Automatic mode shoots lasers without the need to press the right trigger, whilst Manual mode needs the player to pull the right trigger in order to shoot; but the shooting it more like a modern Sh’mup where you create a horde of lasers rather than shooting individual lasers with multiple button presses. Plus the point to the original Galaga game was all to do with how accurate you gun down the aliens, but this is gone in this new game. In general the game doesn’t really feel like a Galaga game at all, and more like a new game that sports sprites that match those seen in the Galaga arcade game.

However I did find some things in the gameplay that I did enjoy. In certain points in each area of the game, a possession item will appear, the idea to this is that you keep on shooting it until it breaks, and it’ll cause a black hole that consumes all enemies on the screen. After a few seconds the consumed aliens will come back out, but they’ll be on your side and will allow you to shoot a huge barrage of lasers against the enemy, plus they can attach themselves to the satellites meaning that the added fire power can be shot in each direction.



As for the graphics, the game is presented in a cool updated mode, which is pretty to look at. At the same time there are two different style modes, Original mode, where you get the updated looking ship, and Vintage mode, where you can play with the original ship seen in the arcade game; however in Vintage mode you’ll only get a sprite change, the background is the same like in Original mode. The game has a look that matches itself with Pac Man Championship Edition; Smooth, Updated, yet at the same time not totally over the top; which is good considering that we all know what happened to Sonic the Hedgehog. I wished that I own an HDTV to really see what this game is like in 720p.

Sound? Well the game features the original score heard from the arcade game, yet it remixes it into an awesome soundtrack. What’s nice about the music is that just like the graphics; it’s updated, but not totally over the top, and will leave you humbing to it. Sound effects on the other hand are a little lackluster, rather than coming up with new ways to update the classic sounds of lasers, alien swoops and explosions; it sticks to more of an Ikaruga style sound effects where the lasers and explosions match that of modern Sh’mups. It’s not a bad thing, but since PacMan C.E. managed to keep all the sound effects in place, you’d think they would do the same here.



In conclusion, this is an ok game; it’s not bad, but it’s not amazing. If I was to compare games here; Pac Man C.E. is better than Galaga Legions, and so is Space Invaders Extreme. Space Invaders Extreme is a great example of how you reinvent an old game; Galaga Legions though isn’t quite there. As I mentioned above, it’s more of a new game that inherits graphics from an older game. I could easily think of plenty of ways to improve this game and make it feel like Galaga, just like how Pac Man C.E. was to Pac Man, and how Space Invaders Extreme was to Space Invaders. In my opinion Namco should’ve worked on this game a little longer and work in ways to make it feel a lot more like the classic arcade game. In the long run it’s not bad, and I’m not saying it totally stinks, but as I’ve played the original before, I was expecting more of the same, but it turns into something a lot more different.

Should I recommend this game? This is where it gets tough… like I said, it’s not a bad game, but retro gamers may feel put off from its new gameplay mechanics. However the “Halo” crowd may enjoy this game, but will have no idea what its legacy is. For 800 Microsoft points, the game does feel a little steep considering that it feels like another twin stick shooter; its best that you download both demos of Legions and the Original arcade game onto your hard drive and personally decide which game you like better. In this case I would've chosen the original game, but hey, I wouldn’t be able to write this review without getting the full version of this game!