Reviews

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West Review

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The next game up on my list of pick-ups from Blockbuster’s epic closing down sales is Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. As with Split/Second and Vanquish before it, Enslaved is another one of those games that was critically acclaimed but a commercial flop. To be honest, I had little interest in this game until the positive word-of-mouth hit, though only enough to buy it on the cheap.

As I work my way through this stash of games in this category, it kind of makes me feel bad to know that I could have made a difference if I bought these brand new when they first came out, as the odds of any of these games getting a sequel are slim-to-none. To be fair, I’m not made of money, and it’s unreasonable to expect me to pay full price for everything. Anyway, this is quickly going into a tangent. Let’s talk about Enslaved based on its own merits.

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Split/Second Impressions

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Split/Second was one of two high-profile arcade racing games to hit the market in May 2010. The other was Blur. Both Disney and Activision had high hopes for their respective racing games, with visions of turning them into the next big racing franchises. However, despite positive reviews for both, neither game sold very well, which led to the demise of both studios that made Split/Second and Blur. Despite my issues with Blur, I thought it was a shame that game and its’ creators suffered the fate that they did, as Blur was a pretty good game. I’d say the similar things about Black Rock Studio and Split/Second. This is a pretty good racing game that, unfortunately, a lot of people overlooked.

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King of Fighters i-002 Review (iPhone)

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Out of nowhere, SNK released King of Fighters i-002 for the iPhone. Until it hit the iTunes store, SNK hadn’t even acknowledged this game’s existence. Because of the flash announcement and release, it’s really hard right now to find any sort of impressions on it. As curious as I was to try it out, I was initially weary on picking this up immediately, as $7.99 seemed like a lot to gamble on for an iPhone game, especially when I just bought Street Fighter IV: Volt for $0.99.

However, out of my own curiosity and my desire to inform anyone interested in picking this game up, I decided to pony up the funds and give it a go. Does King of Fighters have what it takes to topple the Street Fighter IV series of iPhone games as the king of fighting games on the platform?

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Kirby’s Epic Yarn Review

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In a world where most games strive for realism and violence, Kirby’s Epic Yarn is a joyful rebellion. Everything about it, from the amazing fabric aesthetic to the way its gameplay has been designed, feels like it was strategically built to keep a smile on your face from beginning to end. I can’t speak for everyone’s experience with Kirby’s Epic Yarn, but it had me grinning the whole way through.

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Street Fighter IV: Volt Review

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Street Fighter IV for iPhone is hands-down the best fighting game available on iOS. You could even make a solid case for it being one of the best iOS games, period. Despite my initial thoughts that it would suck, it won me over in a big way. Up until the release of Volt, Street Fighter IV on the iPhone has been a near-daily ritual of mine.

While Capcom made a number of huge updates to the original, they’ve decided to release a new app this time around. I would have much preferred paying for this as an add-on to the original, but I can’t complain too much when I was able to get it on sale for $0.99. Regardless of what you paid for it (and/or if you have the original), is Street Fighter IV: Volt worth a purchase?

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Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Review

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The Street Fighter IV series has had an incredible run. Having single-handedly bringing the genre back from the dead, Capcom rode the wave of success by releasing Super Street Fighter IV, which was an excellent update to the original. In fact, Super Street Fighter IV was so nice, I bought it twice. Now, Capcom is closing out the Street Fighter IV series with Arcade Edition, which is available now as DLC for Super Street Fighter IV owners for $15, or as a separate disc for $40.

In a time when with new fighting games such as Mortal Kombat and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 are stealing the spotlight, is the latest iteration on the Street Fighter IV worth your time?

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Mortal Kombat Review

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It’s been a while since Mortal Kombat was relevant. Say what you will about the series’ consistently good sales, but when the genre fell out of relevance with the mass market, Mortal Kombat did, too. However, when Street Fighter IV single-handedly revived the genre, it was only a matter of time before Mortal Kombat came roaring back. And roar back it did. You, as gaming consumers, made it the number 1 selling game in the US in April, selling over 1 million copies.

Is the latest in the MK series a return to form? Did it sell solely on hype? Or does it take the series to the next level?

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L.A. Noire Review

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There are going to be a lot of people who will buy this game, thinking that they’re picking up Grand Theft Auto: 1940s Cop Edition. If the commercials or your expectations led you to believe that this would be that type of game, you’re either going to be pleasantly surprised or horribly disappointed. If this isn’t a Grand Theft Auto variant, than what is it?

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Impressions of Mortal Kombat’s Story Mode

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Historically, fighting games have done a poor job of providing a good single-player experience and a horrible job at telling a story. Even 20 years after the release of Street Fighter II, the majority of fighting games simply boil down to fighting opponent after opponent, until you’ve beaten everyone in your path and receive your character’s ending. This does not make for an interesting one-player experience, or add any context to why you’re fighting opponent after opponent. To be fair, the BlazBlue series has tried to expand its single-player experience with a story mode, but that game’s story is so poorly written and presented that only the hardest of hardcore anime fans would find any redeeming value in it.

With that said, Mortal Kombat’s story mode is a breath of fresh air. It’s presented in a way that makes perfect sense to the mythology of the series and to the player in control. What makes it so great? And what could have been done better?

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Early Impressions: Mortal Kombat’s Fighting Game Mechanics

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When you think about Mortal Kombat as a series, you think about blood and fatalities. Do you think about it’s rich and deep fighting game engines? Probably not. Mortal Kombat has traditionally, been a fighting game series built primarily on style over substance. For Midway/Warner Brothers, this lead to consistently good sales throughout the series history among more casual fighting game fans, but the hardcore have pretty much shunned it. Case in point: Super Street Fighter II Turbo is still being played at major fighting game tournaments this year, while the entire Mortal Kombat scene has virtually never had any sort of tournament scene to speak of.

I loved Mortal Kombat I-III, but having grown into a hardcore fighting game player these last few years has really coloured my perspective on those games in hindsight. I can still have a ton of fun playing the Street Fighter II series games of the same era, but those early Mortal Kombat games just don’t have the depth of gameplay to hold my attention nowadays. With that said, Ed Boon, the creator of Mortal Kombat, said this new one was aiming to cater to the hardcore crowd. I’ve only spent a few hours with it playing the story mode, tutorial and some versus matches with my coworkers, so it wouldn’t be fair for me to pass final judgment about the game now. But what I can tell you about are my experiences with the game so far, is that from a gameplay systems perspective, this is probably the deepest Mortal Kombat ever.

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