When released for the 360, Blue Dragon was a satisfying (if incredibly conventional) Japanese RPG for a system that at the time was lacking in the turn-based glory that consumers of the Rising Sun wholeheartedly enjoy. While it was a modest success, these days the 360 has more than its fair share of JRPGs, which may explain why Blue Dragon Plus, the direct sequel to Blue Dragon, is headed straight to the Nintendo DS. And on its way to Microsoft’s competitor’s hardware, it’s learned some new tricks. Read more
Recent history is full of console RTS ports falling over themselves in an effort to, at best, recreate something marginally evocative of the PC experience. But Vispi Bhopti, The Creative Assembly’s Communications Manager, contends that Stormrise’s control scheme, which was designed from the get-go around a gamepad, is an honest-to-goodness improvement over the mouse and keyboard. These are big words. I don’t recall the developers of the voice-controlled EndWar’s making those presumptions, and if anyone is entitled to, it would probably be them. Read more
Although they share Shaun White’s visage and a snowboarding theme, not much else ties Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip to its PS3/Xbox 360 counterpart – and that’s a good thing. While the more powerful console version looks arguably better, obtuse controls and a misleading map make exploring it feel like an uphill trek. For now, the underpowered Wii provides the best Shaun White experience.
As your close personal friend in the game, White has you racing to meet up with him and his friends as he jets Carmen Sandiego-like between exotic mountain locales around the world. When you first arrive at a hill, you can only compete in one event — it feels limiting at first, but the barrier to clearing each event’s low enough that you can easily progress through the main game thanks in large part to the excellent controls.
As the second stage in the series’ 30th-anniversary revival (following Space Invaders Extreme), Space Invaders Get Even turns the tables on the traditional franchise formula, putting you in the shoes (well, the saucer) of the titular invaders as you wreak havoc on Earth.
Get Even falls somewhere between overhead shooter and real-time strategy, as you’re not actually firing at the various structures and enemies that cross your path – rather, you’re instructing the iconic pixels to take down whichever target you specify with the Wii Remote pointer. Those little buggers can be killed in action, so you’ll need to occasionally shake the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to generate more, or unleash a screen-clearing special attack, which also replenishes your forces.
After years of silence, we finally see a full-on, HD-era re-envisioning of one of the Xbox’s finest games. Seeing that phrase emblazoned in large letters in, well, the courtyard of a space prison officially changed my thinking from “This Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay game seems pretty cool” to “Oh, damn, this Riddick game’s so awesome.”
Let me rewind a bit. Riddick has a fantastic opening, where you (as the titular Riddick, meaning you’re playing Vin Diesel playing Riddick) step off the prison transport and into Butcher Bay prison, and the first thing that happens is you snap someone’s neck and make an escape.
Civilization itself is at stake in Tomb Raider: Underworld, a superb new addition to the Nintendo DS range. It’s down to you – and you alone – to save all of us from the evil god Natla. You might not have heard of her, but she wants to destroy the world for no better reason than the fact that she probably can. Unless you stop her.
Your task is to step into Lara Croft’s shoes and collect all the artifacts which once belonged to the god Thor. It’s belt and not quite braces, but gauntlet and hammer that you’re after.
Once you’ve got these, then you can show Natla who’s really in charge.
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 will unleash a new tag team experience, allowing players to build momentum and attributes, eliminate opponents with high impact double teams and finishers, as well as get the “hot tag” for the win.
When Midway announced that it was planning on bringing the TNA wrestling franchise to consoles with the recently released Impact, I was pumped for two reasons. First off, it was an opportunity to get into the ring with a new federation that sported new rules and a new roster, but I also secretly hoped that competition would be the onus needed for THQ to finally fix some of the nagging issues plaguing the Smackdown vs. Raw franchise. I don’t know if Impact was the secret catalyst that finally brought about the creation of a much-improved WWE game, but I do know that this year’s SvR may very well be the best yet, and wrestling fans should most definitely jump on board with this grappler.
We’ve been intrigued by Sony’s PlayStation Home concept for, like, ever now, but considering just how long the thing has been delayed, we’re trying to avoid any contact with pre-launch fodder in order to keep our hopes low. That being the case, we realize not all of you care to safeguard your hearts in the way we have ours, so we felt it prudent — nay, necessary — to pass along PS3 Fanboy’s in-depth walkthrough of the service. SCEA’s Jack Buser recently took the time to sit down and open up for a marvelous preview of the Plaza, Game Space and lots of other nooks and crannies we’re sure you’re interested in venturing into. To the read link, we send you. Try not to get lost, okay?
