Patapon

When unexpected genres cross in the videogame world, it’s often a recipe for disaster.  However, in combining the real-time tactical genre with that of the rhythm game, Patapon has not only set out to be all things for all people, but has for the most part succeeded.

The player takes the role of an omnipresent deity worshipped by the Patapons, a tribe of hunter/gatherers that marches to the beat of sacred drums that you control.  By beating these drums in the correct sequence, the player can order the Patapons to attack, defend, or retreat.  Players can further customize the Patapon army by introducing new units such as cavalry or ‘bards’ and collecting upgraded weaponry.  Over the series of missions, players lead the Patapons through forests, jungles, and deserts, fighting the enemy Zigaton tribe and defeating legendary beasts to find Earthend and the mysterious “IT.”

The game’s art is best described as simplified cartoonish 2D.  It will remind gamers of Loco Roco, another game produced by Japan Studios.  This means that instead of awkward-looking 3D, players can expect smooth animation and an eye-pleasing environment in which to lead the Patapons.  The soundtrack is quite catchy, although after extended playing sessions one may never want to hear “pata-pata-pata-pon” ever again.  Most importantly, it’s fun to watch your ragtag army of Patapons tear through the opposition and dance their way across the victory line.

The game’s two apparent flaws are both genre-specific.  On the rhythm side, hardcore music game junkies may find the simple beats to be too simple, nevermind that they’re always at the same tempo.  When in “Fever” mode (which gives units stat boosts as a reward for keeping with the beat), the only way to adjust to an enemy’s changing attack is to drop out of “Fever”, throwing off your army’s rhythm and giving the enemy opportunity to strike.  Allowing players to adjust the tempo (possibly with the D-pad, as the only buttons used during play are on the right side of the PSP), would allow for adjusting fluently to the situation, and possibly provide new challenges where they were forced to stay at a certain tempo in special areas.

On the tactical side, the option to create new units using materials collected both during missions and through minigames is hamstrung by what amounts to grinding for loot through various “hunting” missions.  During combat, one cannot command the individual squads of units separately - when one attacks, all attack.  Additionally, money and items dropped by fallen enemies disappear after a period of time, which means that when the archers cut down the lancers halfway across the screen, by the time the foot soldiers break through that Flaming Sword of Badassness will have already popped out of existence.

Though frustrating at times (and painful for the right hand when played for long periods), Patapon is a fun experience that proves the PSP to be a capable platform for new gaming concepts.

Professor Layton

I recently tried to explain to a friend about the fox, chicken and the worm.

“It’s a classic puzzle.  You’ve got a fox, a chicken, and a worm on one side of a river.  You can only carry two of them on a boat. If you leave the fox alone with the chicken, it will eat it, and if you leave the chicken alone with the worm, it will eat it.  How can you get all three of them across the river safely?”

My friend, having never played Zork Zero, looked at me as though I were mad.  But now I have my revenge, for I have introduced him to Professor Layton and the Curious Village, which has a variant of this puzzle, and he is completely addicted.

Puzzle games have been a bit outré in the past few years since the PC community recovered from the excesses of the early CD-ROM years.  Perhaps it was a lingering sense of guilt over wasted hours spent playing The 7th Guest.  The typical puzzle in today’s games tends to be a sideshow to the main event and boring to boot.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is all about good puzzles, what are sometimes called “brainteasers”.  Some of them are straightforward, some of them are trick puzzles.  Some are easy, some are hard.  But nearly all of them are interesting, and they don’t talk down to the player.

The eponymous Professor Layton and his apprentice, Luke, visit the village of St. Mystere to assist in a mysterious bequest.  The villagers of St. Mystere spend their days, and nights, trying to solve puzzles.  As Layton unravels the thread of the game’s plot he will also be presented with well over 100 puzzles, of varied difficulties, by the villagers.

The artwork is beautiful: simple lines, and somehow evocative of the animated film The Triplets of Belleville.  The music, likewise, evokes the French countryside, and if it can get a bit repetitive at times, it still enhances the experience.  That being said, I’m a sucker for accordion music.   Your mileage may vary. The inhabitants of the village are by turns awkward, fat, ugly, grotesque-looking, and supercilious, so it looks to me as though the authors actually did carefully survey the inhabitants of small French villages before creating the game.  

Throughout the game you’ll find “hint coins” which can be used to purchase hints on any puzzles.  You’ll also receive different puzzles from the same villagers.  At the end of a given “chapter” of the game, any unsolved puzzles will appear in “Granny Riddleton’s Puzzle Shack”, so there is no way to  permanently miss a puzzle.  It did seem to me that solving a puzzle in Granny’s shack was less satisfying than solving it “on the street,” but that’s entirely a question of mood.

There are also various meta-puzzles along the way that unlock bonus content, and there is extra downloadable content that can be played without impacting the main storyline of the game.

A sequel has already been released in Japan, and work is proceeding on the third game, which I will buy without a second thought.  It’s that good.

Bus Driver [Indiescene]

All racing games are, ultimately, the same. Drive a route quickly. There are no surprises and very little originality, and then there’s Bus Driver, 

More akin to a flight simulator than a racing game, Bus Driver sees you driving a bus across a nicely detailed city, picking up and dropping off passengers.  When I first began playing it I cried aloud: “It’s Crazy Taxi on a bus!”  That comparison is only partly apt.  You do indeed pick up and drop off fares, but the similarities end there.  The game is divided into “missions” where you run a certain route in predetermined weather conditions (you don’t know stress until you’ve driven a bus in heavy snow.)  Bus Driver doesn’t have the spontaneity and mayhem of Crazy Taxi. It does, however, have game-play elements that you won’t find elsewhere.

First, you are driving a bus, and it feels right.  It handles like a bus.  It’s a slow, lumbering pig.  It has a huge amount of momentum, and takes a long time to get up to speed, to stop, and has a huge turning radius.  If nothing else, the game may increase your sympathy for city bus drivers.  Second, the game is a bit like an egg race.  By this I mean that if you stomp on the brakes too quickly, your passengers will become upset, and you’ll lose points.  Stomping on the brakes when no one is in the bus results in no penalty, but those situations are few and far between.

You also gain (or lose) points for obeying (or breaking) traffic laws.  Use a turn signal before changing lanes, get 10 points; randomly change lanes without signaling, lose 100.  Similar rules apply for stopping at (or running) red lights.  Collisions result in a hefty penalty.  

You drive through a fictional European city with varied environments as well as varied weather conditions.  Traffic is a constant hazard, and the clock will constantly tick away the seconds, reminding you of your inadequacies as a driver.  The controls are keyboard-based. I eventually settled on using my left hand to steer and my right hand to control the turn signals, flashers, and doors.  One annoyance is that there’s no mouse control even on the menu screens.

There are a few missed opportunities here.  It seems to me that one of the most interesting aspects of being a bus driver isn’t just the driving, but interacting with the passengers.  It would have been amusing for the customers to have a little more color — “Uh oh, here’s that group of drunk Danish football fans again.”  But this is a nitpick.  The game makes no excuses for being purely about driving, so I can’t be too upset about that. The lack of a tutorial gave me about 1 minute of angst when I first started playing, which is 1 minute too much.

Bus Driver is a charming game, strangely paced, almost languid, but I enjoyed its attention to detail and approachable controls. It’s rare that a driving game is able to surprise me in any way, and Bus Driver surprised me in several.  If you enjoy simulators, you should give it a look.  A demo is available at the publisher’s web site.

Galaga [Retrograde]

It’s the classic arcade game that no one thinks of, yet everyone’s played. It’s also a sequel that was infinitely better than its predecessor.  It’s name:  Galaga.  

It’s easy to forget just how successful Space Invaders was.  In 1978, it was the game that you would pump quarters into endlessly until you were forced to come home.  Namco released Galaxian the following year as competition.  Analytically, you could say that Galaxian was better than Space Invaders in every way.  In color, with richer sounds, it had more motion and pizazz.  Yet, take my word for it,  Galaxian was always somehow low rent.  It was what you played only if there was no other machine available.

Galaga changed all that.  

If there’s a single word that summarizes Galaga, it’s “polish.” Everything has been honed, refined, and subtly improved.  The view is tighter, increasing tension.  Enemy ships fly into formation at the beginning of each round, rather than simply appearing.  One of the keystones of playing well is learning to pick off enemies before they form up.  Also there’s the capture mechanic:  the player’s ship can be captured by one of the ‘boss’ enemies, then if the boss is later destroyed, the captured ship “docs” with your new ship, providing you with double the firepower but twice the target area.  (I personally always found that docking made my game shorter and more brutal, but I always went for it anyway.)

Perhaps the greatest addition to the game is the idea of the “challenge stage”, which mixes up gameplay by providing you with a comparatively non-dangerous stage on which you are able to focus more on score than on survival.  Remembering the first time I got a perfect score on a challenge stage still gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling.  Having the “doubled ship” helps increase your score on the challenge stages significantly.

The success of Galaga ensured the survival of a Namco tradition of creating sequals.  As a contrarian, I actually prefer the sort-of-but-not-really sequel Bosconian, a game which transported the Galaga fighter into a war zone where its goal was to destroy space stations. The “official” sequel, Gaplus, never appealed to me (nor, if my surveys are accurate, to anyone else.)  Galaga, in the end is all about polish and balance.  The failure of similar games to prove similarly addictive demonstrates how razor-thin the edge of greatness is.

Despite being a game with no plot and no characters, people get surprisingly emotional about Galaga.  This is the ultimate proof that art is only partially about subject matter.  It is also about craft.  Galaga is not remembered for what it was, but for having been a well-crafted example of what it was.  The next time you stand in a store and deliberate over which of the HD-laden, fully 3D, online multiplayer extravanzas you want, ask yourself this question:  “Will it be as much fun as Galaga?”

But don’t blame me if asking that question makes you go home empty-handed.  Blame Namco.

Hail to the Chief: Halo 3

A letter from the Managing Editor:

Dear Readers,

I wish to extend to you my most sincere apology for the amount of time it took to get this review to you. Because of my gross violation of one of the Gamer’s Commandments (”Thou shalt save a lot, save often”), I was forced to replay approximately six hours of Halo 3. It was an innocent mistake; I had paused the game and went downstairs, when my oldest daughter decided that it would be okay for her to take the game out of the Xbox 360 to play Guitar Hero II. My scream could be heard in three counties.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, on with the review.

I don’t consider Halo 3 to be the world’s greatest first-person shooter. As an FPS it’s excellent, but arguably there’s a dozen others that can top it, especially on a PC. One of the reasons that Halo 3 series is great, however, is its well written back story. You find yourself set immediately after the events of Halo 2. Master Chief and the remains of Earth’s forces along with your new allies, the Elites lead by the Arbiter, head out to stop the Covenant from activating the remaining Halos. I won’t go into any more details about the story. It’s definitely worth the effort of playing the game in order to get closure on many of the questions you may have had from the previous two games.

All of the basic game mechanics have remained the same with some excellent new additions. First, there’s the introduction of some great new weapons, such as the Spiker. They’re the Covenant equivalent of the sub-machine guns, and if you can dual-wield them, they’re devastating. Another new weapon is the Spartan Laser Cannon. You can also literally take weapons that are normally mounted and use them as handhelds, such as mini-guns, flame throwers, or plasma cannons. There’s also a host of new vehicles such as the Mongoose, which is basically a fast moving ATV that you can either drive or sit in back to shoot, and the Hornet, a Human version of the Covenant Banshee. There’s a bunch of vehicles that you’ll get to experience as you play, many of which are not documented in the game manual. Halo 3 also introduces the concept of deployable equipment. By pressing the X button, you can deploy items such as the Bubble Shield, which will stop weapons and explosives but can be walked through. Others include Power Drain, Regenerators, Trip Mines, and Deployable Cover.

One of Halo’s strong points has always been its multi-player modes. One of the major updates in Halo 3 is the new co-op mode. With Halo 2, you could play the entire game with another player, but in Halo 3, you can now have up to four players. To top it off, your teammates can play with you over Xbox Live, so you don’t have to crowd three other guys on the couch for split screen mode. I also enjoyed the level of customization available now. You can change which weapons you start with, which weapons you can pick up on the map, the speed of the game, or how much gravity can be on the map (I love low-grav maps!).

One of the most interesting modes is Forge, which essentially allows you and other players to manipulate certain aspects of existing multi-player maps on the fly, mainly moving objects and changing their characteristics. Each map has a “credit” limit, with each object having a set credit amount, so you won’t be able to put sixteen tanks on a single map (though that would be really fun). On top of all that, you can save your Forge creations and share them via Bungie’s new file sharing system. Players can now send files to other players that are online via Xbox Live, or you can send them to Bungie’s central file storage server where you can share them with the entire Halo 3 community if you wish. You can also upload screen shots and saved films as well. Each Xbox Live Gold member gets 25 MBs of diskspace across 6 save slots, with additional space and slots available if you choose to use your Microsoft Points.

Sound and graphic-wise, Halo 3 is impressive. Frame rates are smooth, with lots of nice dynamic lighting and effects you’ve come to expect from the Xbox 360. The soundtrack is also very familiar, but nonetheless appropriate, for each of the environments you’ll experience. You’ll also get the usual good voice cast making their return, from Cortana to Sergeant Major Johnson. The funnest things to listen to are the exchanges you’ll hear between other characters, such as an exchange between one Marine behind a blast door pleading with another marine who insists on asking for the password. It’s worth an extra minute or so to listen to the hilarity that ensues.

Bungie and Microsoft have scored another home run with Halo 3. With the enhancements to its multi-player features and the community it’s building with the new file sharing capabilities, packaged together with its great story and gameplay, it will leave you no doubt why some consider the Halo series one of the most successful game franchises in history. You’ll now have to spend the next couple of years wondering when the Master Chief will be back, and what threat to humanity he’ll have to save us from next. In the mean time, Halo 3 will be able to fill that void for quite a while.

Mercury Meltdown Revolution

Rejoice, gamers, your long wait is over. We’ve seen a few ports of Mercury Meltdown since it premiered on the PSP last year, but of all those only the Wii version seems perfectly suited to its choice of console. Yes, rather than buttons that lead to frantic turning of the controller or portable console (go on, admit it, everyone did it), this time you get to move that annoying blob of mercury using the infamous motion sensors that come a standard in the Wii Remote.

The game is a clear port, but for once this works in Revolution’s favour. Each level sees you having to manoeuvre said mercury from A to B, avoiding traps and making use of various nifty gizmos including a teleporter and airbrushes. You can even heat or cool your blob, adding another dimension to levels. The Wii incarnation also adds a couple of new levels and shuffles the others around a bit, just to chase any hint of monotony out the window. This kind of care and attention is sure to win even more fans.

The best thing about this game is the intuitive nature of the controls. Yes, if only one game were meant to be on the Wii, this is it. It’s an odd but satisfying feeling to rotate the remote and watch the mercury begin to shift in the same direction. Because of this, it takes mere seconds to figure out how to play. The graphics are identical to previous versions, with the realistic metal surrounded by an almost cartoonish HUD and environments which lack the realism of the original. On the other hand, the game itself is not as hard as the original either, so that can only be a good sign.

Given the number of Wii titles currently assaulting gamers, Revolution could easily be missed, but it’s actually one of the best titles to be released and could seemingly have been designed exclusively for the Wii if not for its prior appearances on the PSP and PS2. Even if you’ve played it before and have nailed the levels, there’s still plenty here. It’s the kind of game with high replay value. Every serious Wii owner who wants to see what their beloved console is really capable should definitely give this a go.

Armageddon Empires [Indiescene]

Some games require a huge buy-in. You need to invest a lot of time learning the system, understanding the interface and reading the documentation over and over. The problem with this, of course, is that the payoff may not be worth it. Beyond the learning curve could be great indie gems like Dwarf Fortress or Dominions 3, but you need to either find a walkthrough or commit to the self-education. Who wants to do that?

This is the dilemma facing Armageddon Empires, a new post-apocalyptic wargame from Cryptic Comet. It’s an old-fashioned game in many ways, most significantly in how you will need to read the freaking manual to get started. There’s not a lot of in-game help for you. There’s not a lot of clarity on when you need to right click and when you need to left click. The drag and drop tool is fussy, too.

But you’ll forget all of this once you master the system. Armageddon Empires is a game of exploration and area control. You explore hexes to uncover enemies and resources. As expected, you spend resources on bringing new units to field, but there’s an original twist here. You can also spend these resources on dice before each turn, high rolls determine who gets to go first. The person who goes first gets more action points. So do you save those green resources to move your hero from your hand or spend them on the chance of points you can use to buy more cards?

This either/or decision making is everywhere in the game, potentially turning the tide of battles by spending “fate points,” making an intimidating game quite intuitive once you get the basics in hand. It helps that the setting is familiar enough to not throw up too many barriers to understanding. Air, artillery, infantry, zombies, cyborgs, etc. Nothing that your standard geek can’t manage.

Armageddon Empires rises above the crowd, though, because it is a surprisingly sophisticated wargame. Your armies will start with a couple of units at most, but eventually you will need to manage their composition carefully. Air strikes will need to be timed to even the odds, all the while costing you precious resources which are rarely in high supply. Like the best strategy titles, Armageddon Empires expects you to balance the needs of the moment with the promises of the future, but it never makes you feel like everything is riding on an early turn or a single fateful decision.

Of course, a large number of you will just give up early in the demo. Those of you that stick around will be treated to one of the best new old strategy games in a while.

Jam Sessions

From the “I never thought they’d localize this” file comes this surprisingly full-featured guitar simulator from Japanese developer Plato and North American publisher Ubisoft, based on the Japanese title Hiite Utaeru DS M-06.

Jam Sessions isn’t a ‘game’ so much as a ’sound toy’ - think Electroplankton but far less experimental. Players first assemble a ‘chord palette’ out of over a hundred authentic guitar chords each of which corresponds to the D-Pad (or action buttons for southpaws). Using the left or right trigger buttons to shift palettes, players can have access to up to 16 chords at a time.

The actual ‘play’ mode shows the chord palette on the top screen of the DS, and a single ’string’ on the bottom. Using the stylus (or a guitar pick, or a thumb), players ’strum’ the string (while pressing a corresponding chord button with their other hand) to produce - yes - music. Once players adjust to the system, they can play any number of chord-based songs to their heart’s content. This means, however, that the realm of lead guitarists (solos, melodies, and the like) are not an option. Most guitar players will point to this as the game’s greatest shortcoming. Players are also “limited” to the chords available. There isn’t a method to create custom chords or power cords, but most will find the available selection more than adequate.

Song Mode includes several built-in tracks with a wide ranges of genres; from Bob Marley to Johnny Cash and even some Death Cab and Avril Lavigne thrown in for good measure. These pre-built chord palettes (and accompanying chord guides with lyrics) allow you to play the songs on your own. Half of the songs include demos so that players can hear the proper tempo. However, these demos are hampered by the lack of anything representing a vocal track (one of the few features in Hiite that wasn’t included in Jam Sessions as opposed to vice versa), and Song Mode doesn’t have any method of making players play the correct stroke rhythm. So, while this mode will pose challenges to players who haven’t picked up a guitar (or a Guitar Hero controller, for that matter) in their lives, seasoned guitarists will enjoy being able to rock out to Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone” and other classics.

Significant improvements to the original include 7 unique effects pedals such as distortion, delay, flanger, and tremolo, each with their own settings. Players can also record their pieces for playback (with the ability to store up to five at a time). Audio options have been updated to include a specific output setting for guitar amps. Superficial improvements include several dozen backgrounds and string animations, which are a welcome change from the unappetizing gradients available in the Japanese version.

Jam Sessions is available in three flavors - the standard edition, a special Best Buy-only edition that includes three more tunes in Song Mode, and a Performance Bundle (MSRP $69.99) dated for December that includes a mini-amp. While the casual gamer will likely want to give this a pass, musicians of all stripes will be interested in finally being able to put their DS to productive use, whether on-stage or in the recording studio.

Ecco the Dolphin [Retrograde]

There’s a wave of nostalgia – pun intended – when loading Ecco the Dolphin for the first time. It’s been fourteen years since this charming swim-em-up enthralled Genesis/Mega Drive gamers across the world. Released under the banner of the Sega Vintage Collection, Ecco the Dolphin is a welcome inclusion to a growing range of titles perfectly pitched to a generation who grew up with Sega, myself included. For me, this was the game which prompted the purchase of a Mega Drive all those years ago.

For those of you who missed it the first time round, the story goes like this: Ecco is a happy-go-lucky dolphin until the day a mysterious whirlwind rips his pod and most oceanic life from the seas. Alone, the young dolphin must travels the seas, explore the past and even travel to another world to rescue his family. He must find an ancient whale, battle alien denizens and the sentient ancestor of life itself before going one-on-one with an alien queen. Powerful stuff, eh?

For the most part, time has treated Ecco well. While the graphics and music are true to the Genesis incarnation, it’s a shame to have to say that for this re-release the graphics were not at least upscaled. Like Sonic, the game is played against a blue border, and modern HD TV’s manage to make each pixel painfully clear. This is the kind of game where you don’t sit too close to the screen, but it is still well worth purchasing.

Ecco remains one of the best examples of mid-nineties gaming. The plot is strong, and the levels are a genuine challenge. The XBLA incarnation even offers the ability to save the game, mid-level, a blessing to anyone who had to try and remember the passwords the first time round. Like most ports to the 360, Ecco comes with Achievements, although in this department, they are painfully lacking and oddly random, from completing the Undercaves to finding hidden statues left over from the original game in Jurassic Beach. However, playing Ecco is not about Achievements, and anyone who does unlock one is bound to be more interested in their ocean adventures than in a few measly points. Where else do you get the chance to explore Atlantis, travel through time, and listen to the song of the ocean?

Ecco’s biggest pull is with its previous audience. Given that, I’m pretty sure it won’t be too long until more Genesis titles including the even more gorgeous sequel hit Live Arcade. If you remember Ecco then this will be gaming heaven, and if you don’t, it’s high time you tried this true unsung classic.

Heavenly Sword

Heavenly Sword has been a long time coming, teasing us with promises of a luscious game, amazing graphics, atmospheric music and a compelling story. It manages to fulfill this quota but also manages to be fundamentally broken. Blasphemy, I know, given the game’s exalted status as the reason to purchase a PS3. Unfortunately, Nariko’s adventures feel a little too much Onimusha and not enough God of War.

Nariko wields a sacred blade known as the Heavenly Sword which will sap the life out of any mortal who uses it. Accepting of her demise, Nariko’s only desire is to destroy the evil King Bohan before the blade takes her life. The blade has three styles of attack which allow Nariko to devastate enemies, all of which give players an opportunity to mash buttons.

The setting is a beautiful world that seems to mix everything from Hindu temples to streets lined with sakura blossom trees. This is also reflected in the gorgeous soundtrack that blends aspects from various parts of the world, from Japan to deepest India. There’s no denying that Heavenly Sword is beautiful, the graphics and facial animations are completely mind-blowing but this doesn’t completely detract from fundamental issues – nay flaws – with its design.

For starters, much like Onimusha, Nariko is limited in where she can go, guided by invisible boundaries and annoying camera controls. She can throw enemies off cliffs but is prevented from stepping off herself. Even worse, important actions are triggered by pressing the appropriate button, normally X, while the game also uses combo sections where you must press the right sequence at the right time in order to survive. This is an unfortunate trend in modern gaming which is overused. The final nail in the coffin is the complete and utter lack of a jump button, an almost impossible thing to conceive in this day and age and which makes boss fights more difficult than they should be.

They are difficult, almost impossibly so. Take Whiptail, a siren-like mistress of water. In terms of fighting, this encounter is one of the hardest but it’s also the most graphically lacking in the game. Nariko must get in close to attack but Whiptail sends devastating – and badly animated — waves as long range attacks. Due to a lack of jumping ability, timing must be exact for Nariko to block using her blade. Even worse, Whiptail’s health periodically replenishes and there are no chests to crack open or any method of restoring your own health. If death doesn’t immediately take you, the fight soon becomes impossibly long with the odds heavily stacked against you.

Almost as an afterthought, there is some utilisation of the SIXAXIS controller in completing puzzles, although it does work rather well once you get the knack. A prime example is having to throw a disc, Frisbee-like, off various obstacles until you hit the target. The first person view really assists in completing what would otherwise be an irritating exercise.

Playing Heavenly Sword, it’s nigh on impossible not to want to give it a high score just for the stunning graphics, compelling storyline, acting, music and facial animations. If games were judged only by these factors, it would be our game of the year. Sadly, life just isn’t like that and Heavenly Sword will ultimately disappoint many who have been waiting with baited breath for it’s long overdue release.

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