The kart racer most certainly is not dead, and nor should it be. As someone who is quite averse to realistic sports in video games (real world sports do not interest me either), I continually find myself drawn to the colorful and unpredictable world of cartoon racing, whether it’s Mario Kart and Skunny Kart from my childhood or, more recently, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. As I am continually explaining to my more athletically-inclined friends my sports need an injection of magic and wackiness to keep my attention. I’m loud and tacky, so I like my sports to follow suit.

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Last Thursday saw the release of the second (and last announced) bit of DLC for Resident Evil 5. While it is still set to be included with the upcoming Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition, this second episode and handful of extras has been dutifully doled out to the early adopters (like myself) still hungry for their action/horror fix. Titled Desperate Escape, this chapter details exactly how Jill Valentine and Josh Stone came to occupy the chopper that proved a timely aid to Chris and Sheva at the end of the main campaign.

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Is Heavy Rain a video game? Is it interactive drama? Is it both? Maybe a better question to all three questions is: is it good? Tigresa (Stephanie) and Snarkasaur (Dave) aim to find out with a little deliberation. We may disagree about nudity a bit, but I think we come to a common consensus on Heavy Rain as a whole in the end. Heavy Rain is a difficult game to both review or discuss without getting knee-deep in spoiler territory, but we have taken on that very challenge.

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Everyone knows the old saying – “Two heads are better than one.”  For the most part, it’s true.  Get more people thinking about something, and everyone benefits – you get more and different opinions that might help you shape the way you think about… well, anything.  It’s with this mindset that we go into our Two Brains review, where Molotov Cupcake and Snarkasaur have had a meeting of the minds to discuss Dante’s Inferno for the both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
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Last Rebellion is a difficult game to review.  I enjoyed playing through it.  I found the combat system engaging, many of the technical aspects to be smart and helpful, and the art style unique and mostly beautiful.  It’s also a flawed creation, and while none of these flaws break the game, they definitely spoil an experience rife with potential, an experience that could have been something special had someone taken a left when they instead went right, or looked away when they should have paid attention.  Last Rebellion is not a bad game, but it could have been a great game.

The story of Last Rebellion is one of its main issues.  To be frank, it’s almost incomprehensible, and what is comprehensible is boring and predictable.  Is it a problem of translation?  Is it a problem of storytelling in general?  Is it some conglomeration of issues too tangled to fix?  I don’t know.  The basic story is fairly simple, and even compelling in a way.  There is a goddess of destruction and a goddess of creation (who by the end are largely irrelevant).  Unlike most games, it is the goddess of creation who starts out as the main antagonist of our two heroes.  This goddess of creation has gone mad with her own ability, never letting anyone die and causing chaos with the very essence of life.  Nine and Aisha, our protagonists for this adventure, are tasked with roaming the land and sealing away monsters too stubborn to die.  The goddess of death gives them this ability, and it is a required skill for each battle.  There are also political struggles and an antagonistic brother to deal with, but it’s difficult to fully understand exactly what everyone’s role is.  The brother, named Alfred, kills Nine’s father and Nine himself.  Nine is saved by a Sealer named Aisha who casts a complicated spell that basically fuses Nine and Aisha into one being.  They are able to switch forms at will, but forever inhabit the same soul or shell or whatever we might wish to call our mortal coil.  The only time and place that they are aloud to co-exist as separate entities is within a central hub-like area called the Vamino Room that serves as a warp home and save point.  As a mechanism for story, this concept is bizarre.  Fortunately as a game mechanic it’s actually quite ingenious.

While running around on the field, the square button switches between Nine and Aisha.  For the most part, the character you run around with is irrelevant aside from aesthetic favor.  But there is a regen (regeneration) factor for each of them that makes the choice have some meaning.  Nine regens magic power when he’s running around, and Aisha regens health.  The regen is slow but noticeable and helps out quite a bit for the majority of the game.  They also have spells that they can cast while in the field that can only be cast with the person to whom the spell is currently equipped, but that can be changed on the fly.  In combat, both characters participate in a turn based system that is somewhat traditional for JRPGs, but that definitely has its own spin.  Players choose which character goes first and which goes last, and character speed determines if the player or the monsters act first.  Each character has the ability to melee or cast magic, and despite seemingly sharing a stat pool in regards to health, mana and speed, Nine always does more melee damage and Aisha always does more magic damage.  This is proper, however, given their natures.

There are no upgradable weapons to speak of.  Magic is gained by finding a proper item in treasure chests located around the world.  Unfortunately these treasure chests have an annoying key system attached to them.  They generally require 5 keys each, and the keys are random drops from common enemies.  At times, I ran around with an abundance and never had an issue, particularly at the end of the game where I had more than I’d ever use.  At other times, I was frustratingly void of any keys while chests sat around with precious skills in them going unused.  Keys aren’t a 100% drop item, and players can find themselves grinding just to keep up with the skills available.

Thankfully the magic system is quite broad and provides players with an ample amount of battery for often difficult enemies.  There is an entire array of buffing, debuffing, attack (both magical and physical), poisons, etc.  There are also different levels of spells, though these levels aren’t gained by using the spell but rather by finding the item.  It makes lower levels of the spell quite pointless, yet still leaves them on the spell list thus making scrolling through it quite a hassle at times.  Thankfully not too many of the spells have varying levels.  Instead, all spells have 5 strengths that can be cast.  The higher the strength, the higher the mana used.  And the higher levels can only be cast if they are assigned the proper pages.  It’s actually incredibly confusing until the moment comes when it all clicks into place and then it becomes second nature.

Actual combat can also be insanely confusing at first because it involves a system of stamping the body parts of enemies in order to cast spells on them.  Each enemy has a certain number of body parts that Nine or Aisha can hit.  This can range from four to a dozen, and each has a value for how much damage it will take.  If the body part says 100%, it’s going to take significantly more damage than one that says 30%.  There is also a specific order that the body parts need to be hit in that will not only up the damage, but also give players more experience at the end of a battle as they increase their bonus meter.  This order is a process of discovery that generally doesn’t take too long to puzzle out.  Simply trying out different orders of attack will usually net the proper sequence after a few battles or in one battle if it lasts long enough.  There’s another factor at play regarding how many parts the two characters can hit because in addition to health and mana, there is a combo bar that needs to be kept track of.  It starts out fairly low, but rises as the characters gain levels.  If there are two enemies each with 5 body parts, players can hit all 10 body parts if they have 10 combo points.  If they have 20 combo points, they can hit all 10 body parts with both characters.  Alternatively, once a body part has been stamped, it can have magic cast upon it by either character.  Stamps can last for several rounds, and again, if the proper sequence of body parts is hit, those stamps will last longer.

When I type it out, it sounds ridiculously and insanely complicated, and truthfully it might be for some people.  The game also does an awful job of explaining just how these nuances all work together.  Perhaps my long days with RPGs made it more intuitive for me than it might be for others.  Maybe I just had a stroke of math genius, but before too long I understood everything completely and was performing the proper actions when I needed to every time.  It certainly makes the experience easier when the system is understood because towards the start of the game I found myself getting squashed and pulverized to no end.  However, being able to buff up for each fight (enemies are on-screen so there is prep time before they are engaged) and even having the ability to engage from behind for bonus speed in combat helps immensely.

Visually, Last Rebellion is almost a controversial game.  The art style is very anime inspired, but also unique in its pastel-like quality.  The actual action always looks good though, and the framerate is constantly high.  The only thing that might take away from the aesthetic pleasures of the game are the conversation scenes, which are merely portraits with text boxes running below them.  The portrait art isn’t nearly as inspired as the overall style of the game, and it bears a washed out quality that sucks the life out of the story itself, assuming one can follow it.   But the spell effects are nice, and the character models are stylistic to a fault.  Aisha in particular is one of the most pleasing to the eye characters I think I’ve seen in a game.  Load screens also have a series of guest illustrator paintings that in some cases are gorgeous enough that I’d hang them on my wall in a frame.

Like I mentioned at the very start of this, Last Rebellion is a game that is difficult to review properly.  It has so many things going right for it, things I’d love to see implemented in other games, that if taken out of context those aspects might weigh heavily in its favor.  I like having spells to increase my run speed or to make me invisible to enemies.  I like a combat system that is complicated but capable of being mastered.  I like having two characters so in sync with one another that their skills and abilities have the capability of complimenting one another perfectly.  But I dislike poorly written stories, badly paced leveling, horrid tutorials in the form of jokester demons standing around at random spots, status effect mechanics that can render the characters incapacitated for an entire battle, and lazy cut scene implementation.  So I’m going to go with the upper middle road and say that this is a game worth playing, particularly for RPG hungry PS3 owners.  I would warn players, however, not to enter the action with heavy expectations.  In the end, I found myself disappointed at wasted potential, and not even a few optional Prinny bosses to slay could change that.

Title: Last Rebellion Publisher: NIS America Developer: Hit Maker Platform(s): PlayStation 3 Release Date: February 23, 2010

Doin It RIGHT: - Unique and often beautiful style and artwork. - Complicated and engaging combat system. - Good technical and logistic RPG mechanics for the most part. - Optional Prinny bosses.	Doin It RONG: - Inane story and hilariously bad voice acting. - “Cut scenes” are lazy and uninteresting to watch, not animated. - Awful, awful, awful status effect system.
FINAL SCORE: 6 / 10

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Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz was one of the first games I bought for the Wii. I stayed in line overnight waiting to get my hands on a Nintendo Wii  on day one and all I bought was Monkey Ball because I couldn’t get anything else. It turned out to be one of my favorite games on the Wii. Banana Blitz was able to show people the unique controls of the Wii and the effectiveness of the console to bring people together. Coming off the successful first Wii title, Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll looks to do the same but now with the ability to connect a Wii balance board to the experience. Unfortunately, Super Monkey Ball requires very precise controls you just can’t get from the balance board but without it Step & Roll still offers the same amount of fun you come to expect from the franchise.

The formula for the sequel remains pretty much the same. In campaign mode you’ll take control of a monkey and roll through 70 stages collecting bananas and trying to get to the finish line before time runs out. Though it might seem like you’re controlling the monkey ball you’re actually moving and tilting the stage to navigate the ball. For those who still can’t picture it, think of the Labyrinth Wooden Maze Game but instead of a steel ball it’s a monkey in a plastic bubble. There are seven worlds, each with their own theme and each containing 10 stages. I really liked the look of each of the worlds including the background music that changes depending on which world you’re in.

In Banana Blitz players had the opportunity to jump, and at the end of each stage there was a boss battle. This time around that was all removed, which isn’t a terrible thing, but fans of the first one might miss it just a bit. The big draw to this year’s title is the ability to use the balance board. You’ll have to calibrate it every time if you back out to the main menu, which is a pain, but it only takes a few seconds to do so. Once you’re set you’ll run through a quick tutorial presented to you by the amazingly annoying Jam. Right away in the tutorial course you’ll find out what sounds great on paper doesn’t work in practice. Even Sega knows that using the balance board isn’t easy. They made it so the stages are just a little easier when using a balance board. I’m sure if you practice at it you could get really good but so much energy is put into navigating that ball that in the end it’s not worth it. It gets very frustrating because Monkey Ball requires so much precision, something you can’t get with the balance board.

I completed all the worlds using the regular Wiimote because that is my preference and it just feels better. The first time I played Monkey Ball with the motion control it was perfect, in fact I can’t even imagine going back to stick controls. The stage reacts almost precisely to every movement you make using the Wiimote. Even without the jump ability and boss fights I still found some of the stages very challenging, especially the portal ones. You can go through each stage via co-op in similar fashion to Mario Galaxy. The second player has a crosshair on the screen to shoot at anything in the way of the ball. Because your partner needs to pave the way to the finish line, the levels will have more obstacles in the way than when normally going through the campaign alone. Although this gives you another way to experience each world, oftentimes the camera becomes an issue for the shooter because the stage moves so much. Once you do get to the end of each world, you are greeted with a credits screen and a song. The songs don’t bother me as much as not being able to skip them - making it incredibly frustrating to have to sit through it after every world. You can go the Marathon route and play each stage back to back with a break after every tenth stage. You can actually sit in the break screen for as long as you like and when you’re ready to continue you can just hit A and move on.

As fun as single player can be, the multiplayer is where Step & Roll truly shines. Just like Banana Blitz there are a ton of mini games to go through with up to four players. To be exact there are 21 mini games but that’s down from the 50 found in the previous title. Among some of the returning games are Jump Rope, Monkey Race and my favorite, Hurdle Race. There are also some new games added to the mix which include Firefighter, Battle Pinball and Luge. With the exception of Luge, most of the games are played simultaneously; adding to the heated battles and most can be played using the balance board. Some games are easier with the balance board but the majority of them aren’t. Plus there are a few games that can’t be played with the board if you have 4 players. My suggestion is to not use the board unless you really want to. What is great about Step & Roll is the simplicity of each mini game. You can get really good at the games but it’s also easy for people to pick it up and play even if they have never played a Monkey Ball game before. But like its predecessor some of the controls for the games are not responsive and can be frustrating. One game in particular Ladder Climbing was very difficult. You are asked to hold the Wiimote vertically and move them up and down to climb. Objects will be falling around you, so you have to dodge them by moving them right or left but oftentimes it wouldn’t register correctly and you would get hit by them. Two of the players that played with me took 10 minutes to finish and that was after I took over after taking almost 5 minutes to finish. No mini game should take that long.

In the end, the mini games in Step & Roll are hit or miss. With 21 mini games it’s hard to make all of them fun but most of them are and the ones that aren’t are due to poor controls. Someday they will have to bring this title online, but for now I’m enjoying the split-screen action.

Overall, Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll is just what you would expect from the franchise, that’s if you don’t use the balance board. Those who were hoping the Wii balance board would change the title like the Wiimote did for Banana Blitz will be disappointed. There’s nothing completely brand new to the Monkey Ball formula but the cleaner visuals and some tighter controls in the returning mini games might be just enough to entice people who have the first one to pick up the sequel. Whether or not you are a fan of the franchise Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll is a lot of fun and continues the franchise’s ability to offer an excellent multiplayer complemented by a strong campaign.

Doin It RIGHT: - Excellent multiplayer.- Updated visuals. - Campaign is as good as always.	Doin It RONG: - Balance board doesn’t work that well.- Some mini games have unresponsive controls. - Not too different from Banana Blitz.
FINAL SCORE: 7 / 10

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If you’ve played Unsolved Crimes for DS, then Crime Scene will instantly feel familiar. So familiar, in fact, that at first I thought they were developed by the same team. Basically, you play as a rookie investigator and must use your evidence collecting and analytical skills to help solve various cases from murders to terrorist attacks.

The gameplay is a point-and-click at heart, but the spin here is a huge focus on evidence-based mini games, for lack of a better term. In other words, you must dust for fingerprints, swab for blood and compare ballistics information to identify what gun shot which bullet, and so on. Although some of these games can be a little silly (you use a laser to destroy unwanted cells in your microscope, for example), overall the entire process is engaging and fun. That is, when the controls work.

And as Hamlet says, “Aye, there’s the rub,” The first major problem Crime Scene has is the fact that there really isn’t a tutorial level to get you used to the controls. For example, the menu system isn’t completely intuitive, and you may find yourself fumbling a bit. But that could be forgiven. The real issue is that you aren’t given any chance to practice with the various evidence collection mini games before you’re thrust into the real world, so to speak. You’re shoved into the deep end and you have to figure things out as you go along. This would be fine, except for the fact that you are penalized very severely every time you get something wrong. This is made worse by the fact that the only instructions you’re given for the various steps of say, taking a blood swab, are given during the timed interval when you’re supposed to be doing those steps. Meaning 1) you can’t possibly read all the instructions in the given time and 2) you will “fail” because you’re spending time trying to see what you have to do in order to succeed. Add to the fact that the controls aren’t as responsive as they could be and you may find yourself with a Game Over before you’ve even begun (I know I did). Certainly, this is not the most encouraging way to introduce the player to the game.

Once you’ve managed to figure out what you need to do, you would think that things would move more smoothly. Sadly, this isn’t true. Try as you may, the game won’t always read your stylus gestures correctly, so you will often find yourself failing the swab test, for example, because you “aren’t swabbing in the right area” even when you’ve been rubbing your stylus right over the blood spot. Each time you make a mistake, you lose credibility (a blue thermometer-like meter). When it drops all the way, your game is over, and you have to start over from your last save. Thankfully, the game does auto save at key points, but you still want to make sure you save often, otherwise you’ll have to re-do a lot of (what then becomes) tedious data collection and analysis, not to mention tons of dialogue to weed through (there’s no “skip” option).

By far the most vicious offender is the tweezers, which command you to follow a certain path with your stylus a certain number of times in order successfully pick up the item. The problem is, these gestures are only recognized about 10% of the time, and if the game thinks you’ve picked up your stylus, you drop the tweezers and have to start again. Add to the fact that you might have to repeat the same pattern 9 or 10 times before the meter expires, and you’ll often find yourself ready to throw your DS across the room and give up. No, I’ve decided the scalpel is actually worse since whenever you try to use it to cut something, following the prompt, it either tells you the area can’t be cut or for some reason takes the scalpel away from you and you have to start over in a never ending cycle.

Magnifying the problem is the control design: rather than sticking to a primarily stylus-only control system, you have to use the L and/or R buttons while using your stylus to perform various maneuvers. In principle, this seems fine, but in practice, it’s awful. It’s very uncomfortable to hold the DS that way, especially for long-stretches and for extended periods. I know my hands were really hurting after only the first case.

When everything is working smoothly, however, the game is enjoyable. It’s an interesting take on the genre, especially since the mini-games don’t feel tacked on the way they did in Unsolved Crimes, and it’s exciting to see the pieces of the puzzle reveal themselves. You really do feel like you’re the one solving the case, instead of being lead through it step by step the way you are in many other games of this nature. I also like that you will occasionally find dead ends such as clues that you can’t identify in the database, or clues that end up being a false lead, which force you to rethink the situation. You’ll also often have to revisit the scenes to look at things in a new light and discover new clues that may help crack the case. I also liked that you must build your case in order to apply for a warrant by selecting the best evidence to include in your file. This was just another way the game made you feel like you were really the one solving this case rather than just hanging along for the ride.

Crime Scene does have other flaws, but these seem minor in comparison to the huge control issue. For example, the translation isn’t always the best (I believe this was a Spanish-language game originally), and sometimes you might struggle to figure out how the game wants you to respond. Also, you aren’t able to fully explore the scenes the way you can in other games of this genre, and you can only zoom in to look at something more closely when the game allows you to. Still, these are negligible and don’t harm the gameplay in the same way that the unforgiving controls do.

The pattern of the gameplay is basically as such: you’ll be briefed on a case, comb the scenes, collect evidence, analyze the evidence, and then build your case. You’ll often have to revisit the scene and may get new suspects to interview, but that is generally the way the game goes. Your evidence collection tools are basically a swab for blood and other fluids, a duster and tape for fingerprints and footprints, a scalpel, as well as a reagent spray and UV light to discover hidden blood and fluids, plus tweezers to collect small evidence or bullets. Back at the station, you analyze this info using a scanner, camera, microscope and computer database. So you may scan in the fingerprint you collected at the scene and then compare it to the various fingerprints in the system to try and find a match. Many of the tests do mimic real life evidence analysis and this is where the game is truly in its element, especially since the analysis tools work much better than the collection ones do, control-wise.

The sad thing about Crime Scene is it may have earned as high as a 7/10 if the controls weren’t so brutally unforgiving. I honestly don’t know how the game got past testing, as broken as the controls can be most times. And the reality is the fix could have been as simple as removing the “fail” state from the data collection process and making it so you only lose credibility for misinterpreting the evidence. As it is, however, I can’t recommend this game, because the controls really do break it. You will undoubtedly find sections that you cannot get past because the game will not read your tweezer’s movements, or unfairly think you’re rubbing the swab in the wrong area. Save yourself the aggravation and look elsewhere for your CSI needs.

Doin It RIGHT: - CSI aspect is different and can be great fun when controls are working well. - The game makes you feel like you’re truly the one in control of the investigation.	Doin It RONG: - Penalties for failing (often due to poor controls) are severe, even in your first case. - Frustrating controls make the game unplayable too much of the time.
FINAL SCORE: 4 / 10

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Ragnarok DS is what you could consider the portable version of the MMO Ragnarok Online, of which, I can confess I am not very familiar with.  However, I think that may be one of the reasons this baby brother was released for the DS: to introduce potential new players into the Ragnarok universe.

The game is basically a dungeon-crawling action RPG, and follows the story of Ales, a young man whose dream is to be an adventurer and eventually start his own guild.  He immediately finds an amnesiac young girl named Sierra, who he agrees to bring along with him on his adventures.  Naturally, as the story progresses, more people join his party in the constant search for adventure: pretty typical RPG-faire here.

Although some buttons are mapped (i.e. You can use the D-pad to move your character and the face buttons to pull up menus), you’ll find yourself using the stylus almost exclusively, since the button integration isn’t complete.  For example, you can’t press a button to continue in dialogue or go back in a menu, which can be a bit annoying.  So expect a very Zelda DS experience here, control-wise.

Dragging your stylus will move your character around, and tapping on a monster will initiate his attack.  Unless you change the settings, your character will keep attacking that enemy until it’s defeated.  You also have access to a shortcut bar at the top of the touch screen, where you can set frequently used skills and items for easy access.  To use a skill, you must click on it and then perform the action indicated on the top screen, like drawing a swift line through an enemy or a circle through a group of them.  You also have limited control of your party members.  You can set their tactics, such as telling them to act freely, or commanding them to heal, and you can click on their picture in the taskbar to direct them to attack a particular enemy.  However, you can’t directly tell them what skills or spells to use, which is a little frustrating at times.

Exploration is interesting.  Towns remind me a bit of Suikoden Tierkreis in which you are presented with a menu (shops, save, etc.), but when you pick an option (i.e. Tavern), you can walk around and interact with people in that location.  Towns are the only place you can make a permanent save (with two save slots available), although you can make a temporary save any time.  The biggest gripe I had with this system is with no quick travel (more on that later), you may find your quests dragging out for long periods of time, and if you choose to do a temporary save (so you don’t risk losing all your progress), the game will automatically return you to the title screen instead of asking if you want to continue.  It’s not a big deal, but it is irksome.

The game does have an interesting dual-leveling system.  You have your base level, or what you would be most familiar with in every RPG, and then you have your “job level.”  Each time your base level goes up, you’re given points you can use to improve your character’s attributes, such as dexterity, luck, intelligence, etc.  The higher that attribute is the more points it will take to increase it, giving a bit of strategy in how you distribute your points.  When your job level goes up, you’re given skill points to spend on learning and improving skills based on what job you are.

Everyone starts the game as a novice job class with two basic skills, but once your job level reaches 10, you can go to the job guild and apply for a more advanced job, such as a swordsman.  Each job has its own equipment and skills, and whenever you change jobs you must “start over”: all your equipment is removed (but not lost), and your job level goes back to zero.  You also must start from scratch with your new skills.  As you level up, you can also try for an even higher level job (such as a knight), which has its own requirements and skills, but which will enable you to use equipment you otherwise could not.  In some ways, this is the most interesting aspect of the game, as there are even higher “secret” jobs you can acquire if your character becomes powerful enough.

Although there is a story and plenty of (very. slow. moving.) dialogue, the heart of the game is fetch quest dungeon crawling.  Generally, you are told to find some random object, you go on your trek, fight your way through to the very end of a dungeon, kill the boss monster, collect the item, and then trudge all the way back.  That’s right. There’s no quick travel, even after you complete a dungeon.  It’s a little ironic, considering you use warp gates (instead of doors) for everything, yet you can’t just warp to places (i.e. from a town) that you’ve already visited.  It also means you will have to go through the dungeon to the exit every time, plus passing through all the forest or whatnot you had to travel through to get there in the first place.  Even though dungeons aren’t very big (no more than a few floors or sections), this gets old pretty fast, as it is completely unnecessary. This is made worse by the fact that there is usually only one laborious path from point A to point B, which would be fine one or two times, but certainly not more than that. Add to the fact that you must find the map for the area whenever you enter a new locale (think the original Zelda dungeons), and it all can get old pretty fast. Later in the game, you’re able to purchase some items that give you limited quick travel abilities, but the fact that this is done so late and doesn’t solve all the repetition is still disappointing.

Don’t get me wrong, Ragnarok can be fun at times, but overall, I found the frustration usually outweighed any levity.  For example, you can only take on one tavern quest at a time, and I found it could take many hours of battling the same monsters before you ever got them to drop what you needed for your quest.  Also, quests are only partially recorded in your menu.  Let me explain… Only the main quests and tavern quests will be listed, but often details won’t be, and some sub-quests of the main quests will not be included at all.  This often means you have to trek back to whomever it was that gave you the quest to find out the details (i.e., what items did they want you to collect for them again?), which is completely poor design.

Muliplayer. For a game that’s based off of an MMO, you would expect the multiplayer experience to be a high priority to be developed well, but this doesn’t seem to be the case.  For instance, you can’t jump into multiplayer directly from the main menu the way you can in most DS RPGs that offer it.  Instead, you have to travel the long distance through the game world until you get to the Mirage Tower, a tower filled with various floors and enemies that you can tackle as either a single player or with others in multiplayer.  The game never tells you this at any point.  It isn’t mentioned in the otherwise very thorough manual, either.  So it’s very possible someone could play through the game and never even realize that multiplayer exists, or at least never figure out how to access it.  This is the first flaw.  The second is that you can only play with others in this tower.  That’s it.  You would expect that you could have friends join you once you finish the main story to help you fulfill the thousands of side quests available (which make up most of the gameplay), but you’d be wrong.  Although I dabbled in the multiplayer for the sake of this review, I think in general you would find the tower more fulfilling as a single player experience.

Basically, once you arrive at the tower you have the option to make a save and customize your character’s look along with a few messages you can trigger with the face buttons.  Then you can enter the tower as either a single player, or choose multiplayer.  The game will then ask if you want to do this locally or over WiFi, and if you choose WiFi, then you have the option of entering (or choosing, if you already registered them) your friends.  Otherwise, it will randomly search for “Allys” (yes, that’s how it’s spelled in the game) to join you.  You have no customization in this at all, which is a little disappointing, as you could very easily end up with a rather unbalanced party.

The first few times I tried to get matched up, my allies decided to jump right into the very top of the tower, as they were obviously more experienced than me.  Luckily for me (or my character, perhaps), my connection got broken almost immediately as we arrived in the tower, and I was sent back to the matchmaking screen.  When I finally was able to enter the tower (on floor 1), I had only one other ally with me.  This was fine for these early floors, but I could see this system being problematic for higher levels.

Basically the tower is just a series of rooms per floor that (thankfully) are pre-mapped.  You must defeat a certain number of monsters per floor to either A) make the warp appear that will take you to the next level or B) make the special monster appear that you must defeat to make that warp appear.  Just do this over and over and there you have the tower.  After you pass a certain number of floors (i.e., five), you will fight a boss monster.  Then you will go to a screen that lets you and your allies “bid” on various items, such as weapons, potions, and cards.  You can pass or bid, although I found the system a bit confusing.  After the time limit passes, you win whatever items you had the highest bid on.  Then you have the option to continue in the tower or end your session.

I would imagine that playing locally with friends might have some potential for fun, but as it stands, I feel like the multiplayer was a “tacked-on” experience and doesn’t really add much to the game as a whole.

I was hopeful that the game simply got off to a slow/poor start, but even once you successfully open your own guild, the gameplay remains basically the same: flawed, repetitive, and with a low challenge level. However, if you like dungeon-crawling action-RPGs, you may want to give this one a try anyway. It can have a very Diabolo-esque feel to it at times (you will be picking up a lot of loot, which you much decide to keep or sell to maintain your limited inventory).  The card system (which I haven’t mentioned) allows you to customize certain weapons and gear to improve their stats (think of them as the runes or gems you might have experienced in other RPGs), which does add a bit of strategy.  Once you finish the story, which is pretty short by RPG standards, about 20 hours, with only about 10 of that being actual content and the rest filler, you have hours and hours of gameplay if you choose to complete all the side quests available or take on the tower (either alone or in multiplayer). Still, there are better DS RPGs on the market, so you may be better off spending your money elsewhere.  Or, if you’re really interested, you may want to try the more robust MMO experience that Raganarok Online offers on the PC.

Doin It RIGHT: - Simple gameplay makes it fun for those new to RPGs or looking for a less-complicated affair. - Hours of questing gameplay. - Leveling and job system adds interest and depth.	Doin It RONG: - Design flaws (such as no quick travel) can make the game tedious. - Story is shallow and moves too slowly. - Multiplayer feels like it’s “tacked on” and doesn’t really add to the game.
FINAL SCORE: 5 / 10

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The word “rapture” has several connotations. Its most popular usage is to describe those who are wrapped up in a state of bliss or overwhelming ecstasy. To devout Christians, it’s the second coming of Christ. To the thriving community of gamers who eagerly devoured the critically acclaimed (and smash commercial hit) BioShock, the word’s meaning is absolutely concrete. “Rapture” is synonymous with the bizarre yet profound adventure that continues to push the bounds of what gaming can accomplish; Andrew Ryan’s obliterated utopia — the fully realized dream of one man who believed in the power of the power of the self. Rapture. The name sends chills down one’s spine.

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The forthcoming ultimate collection of Resident Evil 5 (titled Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition) is set to include both new basic features for the main game and additional missions and characters to use in the updated Mercenaries Reunion gameplay mode. For everyone who already owns the bread and butter title, Capcom has released the new additions as downloadable content packs on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. The first of the new missions hit the PlayStation Network just this Thursday. Titled Lost in Nightmares, this new chapter follows BSAA Agents Chris and Jill through the original Spencer mansion on a dubious mission with a not-so-dubious climax.

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Everyone knows the old saying – “Two heads are better than one.”  For the most part, it’s true.  Get more people thinking about something, and everyone benefits – you get more and different opinions that might help you shape the way you think about… well, anything.  It’s with this mindset that we go into our Two Brains review, where Molotov Cupcake and The Herp have had a meeting of the minds to discuss Bayonetta for the both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

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With the unfortunate last minute release date delay, the Return to Ostagar content had the misfortune of following in the mighty footsteps of Mass Effect 2. Had it come out with time to spare before the wicked began feasting upon their precious space cargo, it may have seen better sales. I’m sure many are more than unwilling to switch back to BioWare’s “other” RPG that players may have pillaged and ransacked several times over by now. As much as I love Mass Effect from the bottom of my heart — I was willing to pop that glorious disc in and find out if it’s worth your valuable time (and money).

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With the winter Olympics just a couple of weeks away I was searching for a way to get ready for Olympic competition and video games seemed to be the perfect answer. Sadly the only one available is Vancouver 2010: The Official Videogame of the Winter Olympic Games. Developed by Eurocom and published by Sega, this Olympic title looks great and does a great job giving gamers the sense of speed you see in the Winter Games; however the title lacks any sort of depth and suffers from unforgiving AI, so much so that I have yet to get a gold in all events after playing for countless hours.
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I came to Sky Crawlers:  Innocent Aces with an untainted perspective.  Basically, this is the first game even resembling a flight simulator that I’ve ever touched.  The genre has always been fairly intimidating, known for its unbelievably steep learning curve and a community, if not unfriendly to outsiders, not exactly reaching out.  The images of aircraft-worthy control decks and ultra realistic graphics only helped to keep me away.  Project Aces has attempted to bridge this gap over the years with a series of console-friendly flight games, and for the most part they’ve been well received.  Sky Crawlers tries to bridge the gap even further by combining a flight engine with an already established book and anime movie.  For many, particularly those who found the Sky Crawlers movie enjoyable, this gap was not difficult to traverse.  It’s a smart move, and for the most part it works because it not only adds a pleasing aesthetic to the game, but gets an enjoyable, while not uber-realistic, flight sim into the hands of those it might not otherwise have found.

The story of Sky Crawlers is perhaps its biggest flaw.  It’s not necessarily a bad story.  With a little research and investigation it’s actually fascinating and deep.  It involves an alternate history at a time when the great powers of the world decide to forgo wars and instead have corporations sponsor their own pilots for  mock competitions.  ”Mock” competitions doesn’t really fit, however, because the pilots are in very real danger and death is a common occurrence.  Nevertheless, it serves to sate people’s appetite for televised war.

Unfortunately, the story in the game does very little to explain what’s happening.  The manual offers some backstory, but it seems expected these days that in game cut scenes will do a better job.  Sky Crawlers does have some beautiful anime scenes, but they’re often confusing and aren’t a clear storyteller.  The player’s character, a pilot named Lynx, is also hard to sympathize with despite the fact that we’re always in his shoes.  He never says a word to anyone, and while we might be familiar with this from RPGs over the years, we also never even see him outside of a cut scene.  The gameplay is such that only his plane is ever seen, and thus it’s difficult to really find oneself in his shoes.  Add to this the fact that halfway through the game he gets an unexpected name change (or we’re thrust into someone else’s shoes, I was never honestly clear on this point), and it gets even more confusing.

I know this all sounds trivial to a game that offers flight simulated combat.  It’s not about the story, right?  Well, I disagree.  This game is taken from a very narrative source.  The Sky Crawlers name originally comes from a book series by renowned Japanese mystery novelist Hiroshi Mori.  It was adapted into a full length anime movie not long ago, which also received much praise.  Having watched that movie myself before playing the game, I can attest to its quality.  It boasts some of the best visuals of any anime movie I’ve ever seen, and while the story is subtle and requires a close eye for detail, it’s also very deep and heartfelt.  With all this in mind, I approached the game seeking something similar, and found it lacking in its storytelling elements.  Where other flight simulations might draw someone in purely with controls and realism, this game needed that story element to not only set it apart, but attract a larger player base.  I feel like it failed in this endeavor for the most part.

The controls for Sky Crawlers are new to the Wii.  It uses the nunchuck and Wiimote in an odd way.  The nunchuck serves as a steering mechanism, controlling directional movement up and down and tilt left and right.  The Wiimote is used for accelerating and decelerating, shifting it horizontal or vertical for the desired effect.  The nunchuck buttons are used for weapon selection and deployment, and the Wiimote’s buttons are usually just menu-based, though in combat the giant A button is also used for maneuvering.  I’m not entirely sure why Project Aces decided on the nunchuck for the directional control considering the amount of precision needed for that versus the lack of precision needed for speeding up or slowing down.  It works, but it’s not always perfect, and I often found myself full-body heaving to one side or the other just to get my plane working correctly.  For the most part, the nunchuk is fine, and for 90% of my playtime the controls all worked wonderfully.  Nevertheless, given the more precise nature of the Wiimote for these types of motion controls, one wonders if it might have worked 100% of the time.  The addition of the Wii Motion Plus could have added even more precision.

Gameplay has a very Valkyrie Chronicles style to it, which is certainly to its favor.  Players jump from mission to mission via menus, but are able to visit the hangar between each to check out new planes and new add-ons and even paintj obs.  Planes are fairly customizable and are available in multiple flavors.  The different nuances of each plane never really struck me, and thus picking one over another was generally a matter of speed and weapon availability (not all planes can equip the same weapon set).  The hangar navigation also gets frustrating.  In order to see what weapons any given plane has available, one has to go completely into that particular plane’s customization options.  For the simple matter of gaining information, this takes far too long.  An option for some type of table that listed weapons and which planes could equip them would have made plane customization considerably easier.

Missions have a fairly widespread variety to them, and while objectives may differ, the goal is usually to destroy things.  What things players destroy can vary a bit as there are both land and air targets, but destruction is the name of the game.  I enjoyed most of the missions, and a few of them even require some crack strategy and loadout customization, but there were a few that also nearly marred the entire game.  There is also an inconsistency in the checkpoint system they implemented, mainly that its completely non-existent in some missions.  Fighting for 20 minutes only to die to a stupid mistake on a mission that has clear stages is extremely frustrating.  When the mission has clear spots where checkpoints could have been implemented and weren’t, I have to question if logic was used.

Visually the game is nothing special, and expect to hook it up to a standard definition television to make it look its best (as with most Wii games).  It does boast some pretty scenery, and the cut scenes are well done in the anime style, but honestly are we really expecting much out of the Wii in terms of graphical prowess these days?  Only when developers take a unique approach like with Muramasa are we really going to get anything gorgeous on Nintendo’s outdated hardware.

And then there’s what I suppose we can call the “BAMF” factor.  Personally, I found an enormous amount of satisfaction in gunning down enemy planes.  Maybe it was the freshness of the genre that most hooked me, having never played anything with real dog fighting in it.  Lynx/Cheetah definitely has advantages versus other pilots with the variety of maneuvers he can pull off, and often this makes fights very uneven in his favor.  But even if my own skill at flight is an illusion, it’s a good one because every time I would flip around and place myself behind someone for an easy kill, it felt good.  And the controls work in an almost child-like way, nearly mimicking those movements we might use when “air-gunning” down a Nazi plane while pretending to be a World War 2 hero in our rooms with our pillow-made aircraft and our grandma’s oversized glasses mimicking flight goggles perched atop our head…ahem.  So the BAMF factor is definitely there, and my whoops and taunts at the screen were definite evidence of this.

I really wanted to like Sky Crawlers, and honestly I did like it.  But at the same time, I couldn’t help but feel that if a few things were done different, if maybe they’d taken more time to flesh out the story or at least explain a little, that it would have been a fantastic voyage in flight simulation.  The game’s short, which I have no problems with as it has replayability both in fun factor and for the multitude of unlockable planes, plane parts, and medals, and it’s certainly a good time.  Add to this its BAMF factor and there’s no reason anyone with an interest in dog fighting and a Wii shouldn’t buy this at a mere 30 dollars.  I also do hold out some hope that it will sell well enough to warrant a sequel, one that might fix the mistakes of this “pilot” effort and give us a truly memorable and complete experience.  Were some issues addressed, controls tweaked a bit, and a proper localization team brought into the project, we could easily have a Valkyria Chronicles of the sky on our hands.  The more games of that caliber floating around, the happier we’ll all be.

Doin It RIGHT: -Fun introduction to an intimidating genre. - Unique controls that work well most of the time. -Lots of replayability.	Doin It RONG: - Muddled storyline generally confuses. - Certain missions can nearly ruin the fun of the other, better ones. - Needs better navigation in certain menu areas.
FINAL SCORE: 7 / 10

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Cliches can be a tense edge to stand on.  On occasion, they’re welcome because we know them, we’ve experienced them. We feel nostalgia when revisiting them.  At other times, they’re tired, worn beings who we’d prefer to see put down rather than continue on in their dogged existence.  Whichever way any one player feels about a cliche, the very definition of the word means that it’s something that’s been done enough times that it’s predictable.  Half-Minute Hero uber-enhances every single RPG cliche we’ve seen over the past 20 year, but does it in the most unique way I’ve ever seen.

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