Fresh off the success of the previous three expansions, Bethesda released Point Lookout last week and although quite short, it delivers plenty of fresh new excitement to the game.  Unlike the past three expansions which put you in different cities ravaged by the bombs, Point Lookout sends you to a marsh-filled land that wasn’t destroyed or devastated, just left to fend for itself since the bombs fell. What is discovered is a land filled with excitement, sadness, and a whole lot of fear.

Point Lookout resembles the actual Point Lookout Park situated in Maryland near the Chesapeake Bay, so naturally there are plenty of marsh lands and water sources to traverse through throughout the adventure.  Like Broken Steel, Point Lookout lets you accept this quest after the main storyline is finished, and all of the new additions, such as perks and levels are available as well.  Point Lookout sets the bar for creating a truly creepy atmosphere and most of the characters you meet in the area will leave the wasteland’s ghouls looking like beauty queens.

Because Point Lookout is set in a marshland type of area, all of the characters have updated, or are forced to update, to the surroundings and unforgiving conditions.   Many of the locals bare a strange resemblance to the characters from the movie Deliverance, complete with the creepy inbred family vibe.  The characters also speak in ghoulish southern accents, making your dialogue with these inhabitants definitely more interesting and foreboding than any person in the Capital Wastes.   Right off the bat, you board a ferry to get to Point Lookout and the ambience aboard the boat (or even the characters waiting for you there) is one to set the mood and lets you know what is waiting for you in Point Lookout.

Point Lookout is relatively short and can be completed in one sit-down, but there are still a wide variety of missions that will keep you entertained.  Such quests that have you retrieving giant seeds from a plant said to possess strange powers or tracking secret underground locations possessed by local tribes, the exploration factor in Point Lookout is definitely the biggest yet of all of the expansions.  By size alone Point Lookout is about 1/5 the size of the Capital Wasteland, so that gives you a good representation of how much there truly is to explore in Point Lookout.

While there are new perks, Point Lookout really brings nothing new when it comes to combat or weapons.  While there are plenty of weapons to find along the way, many of them are just upgraded shotguns, knives, or standard guns and you never really get to try anything new like the way Broken Steel gave us the Tesla Cannon.  In any case finding these weapons will help in the long run since all of the enemies are really hard to take down.  It seems that some of them are harder than most Super Mutant Behemoths or bosses, which is saying a lot to the amount of tenacity and will it will take to bring them down.  Because the level 30 cap is still active, it will take a lot of strategy and will to fall some of the enemies, but the fun factor never slips despite this arching difficulty.

Whether you just want to roam the muck or help locals in need, Point Lookout offers an excellent change away from the bomb-ravaged lands of the Capital Wastes to a world that was left to fend for itself.  Point Lookout offers nearly a dozen of story and side quests to keep you entertained, and the ability to bring characters back with you to the Wasteland to continue your adventure is even more reason to give Point Lookout a try.  Point Lookout might offer a challenge with its tough enemies and unsettling atmosphere, but it’s probably the best challenge yet for the Fallout 3 expansions.

Final Score – 8.6 | Suggestion: Buy It

Video games based on movies don’t usually fare well with gamers or critics, and games based on movies based on books don’t usually fare well either.  But every once in a while, there are games based on the latter that surprise their audiences.  This was the case with the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  But with the recent release of Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince, was the last game a stroke of luck?
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince follows Harry’s sixth and second-to-last term as a student in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  With countless attacks by the Death Eaters the passed year, including the inevitable resurrection of Lord Voldemort, the Aurors of wizarding world have put up tight security measures throughout Hogwarts, leaving a sense of discomfort among the students.  The novel’s characters are now 16, coming of age, and are realizing that times will never be the same.  While it sounds like your typical Harry Potter book in the series, fans know that perhaps the biggest plot twist in the series occurs in this story.  So if you’re unaware of what’s happening, this game really won’t help.

While the game is loosely based on the movie adaptation of the book, the storytelling in no way captures the emotion that viewers of the movie will feel, and it’ll undoubtedly not even come close to the book.  Like its predecessor in the Order of the Phoenix, they key component in what makes this game good is the wonderful environment to be experienced.  Half-Blood Prince simply has you reprising Harry Potter’s role as a student at Hogwarts, and everything is at your disposal from attending class, navigating your way through the halls and fields of Hogwarts, and even having a few backyard fights with those annoying students from the opposing houses.

After a few portions of the game that work as a tutorial by having you perform simple tasks, you’ll find yourself at Hogwarts rushing to get to your Potions class, which is now taught by Professor Slughorn.  From Gryffindor House, Potions is a long way, so unless you want to get Harry lost exploring the big halls of Hogwarts, you can call upon the services of Gryffindor’s Ghost, Nearly Headless Nick, to help navigate through the huge campus.  Once arriving in class, you’re instructed to review a few of your potions, and that’s where things get a bit interesting, depending on which platform you’re playing the game on.

On the Xbox 360, it’s just a simple matter of picking and choosing and pressing buttons.  If you’re playing the game with the PlayStation 3, you’ll mostly be using the sixaxis analog sticks to get things done.  It can get pretty complicated at first, but there’s no real way to really fail.  In fact, if you fail, you actually get to start over again, so mistakes are easily corrected.  The Wii actually handles things pretty well and adds a more realistic touch.  The motion-sensitive controls allow you to pick things up with a simple flick of the wrist, and you can do things such as poor the chemicals into the solution by doing a pouring movement with your arms, and you can do things such as shake the pot or ingredient simply by shaking your Wii Remote.  In fact, the Wii controls are almost perfect with potions—it’s just unfortunate that there’s no support of the WiiMotion sensor.

When you’re not concocting potions in the game, much of the gameplay revolves around exploration, and that’s truly where the game shines.  The movie adaptation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was the first experience that gave avid readers of the book an actual visual of the wizarding world, but it wasn’t until the 5th video game (Order of the Phoenix), that people had the chance of exploring the depths of the world.  Half-Blood Prince capitalizes off of its predecessor’s best feature by further expanding the world, granting you access to places such as the Boathouse and even the path to the Hogwarts Quidditch stadium.  Also, through plot-driven aspects such as the Pensieve, Harry has the opportunity to view places such as Hogsmeade, or even the area where Tom Riddle grew up.  At first, not every place becomes accessible due to the security measures the Aurors put around campus, but as you progress through the game, each area opens up as made evident by Harry’s constant peers through the Marauder’s Map.

Exploring the depths of Hogwarts is definitely a great experience, but the only thing bringing the experience down is something that brought down the experience in the other games as well.  Harry still controls like a drunk.  Not only does he run slowly, but when trying to turn, it requires unnecessary rotations of the analog stick (of all platforms) and it can be quite annoying.  Also, using the left shoulder button (or the Z button on the Wii), Harry can dash to get to areas faster.  While you feel a good sense of speed with a blurred atmosphere, maneuvering Harry becomes even harder, adding to the annoyances.

Also spread throughout the wizarding world are Hogwarts crests that you can collect that unlock more minigames, artwork, and other cool easter eggs to enhance features within the game.  There are 150 in the game, and a select few of that amount are split into pieces, kind of like the Pieces of Heart in the Zelda games.  Obtaining these require you to perform different kinds of objectives, including rotating your wand at random objects with an aura, or by solving different kinds of puzzles.  It adds a bit of a fetch quest in the game, so it’s something perfectionists can look into.

Harry’s lazy control is not just limited to exploration either, but it also is a bit of an issue in Quidditch. If you remember the Quidditch World Cup game that was released last generation, it’s almost nothing like that.  Since you’re Harry, you’re forced to play specifically as the Seeker—whose job is to catch the snitch, get awarded 150 points, and end the game.  Unfortunately, all that requires you to do is fly through a series of glowing hoops that allow for you to get more time to catch the snitch.  If you miss a few, the hoops turn into a reddish color that symbolizes lost time, and if you run out of time, your opponent will get to the snitch first, guaranteeing you a loss.  While going through a series of hoops is an easy feat, the game makes it troublesome by not only having the camera abruptly follow the snitch (and therefore have horrible camera angles), but you have both your teammates and opposing Quidditch players in the way as you try to approach each hoop.  Crashing into things will affect the speed of your broom heavily, so your reflexes and ability to adapt with a bad camera will become essential in order to win Quidditch games.

When Harry’s not walking around campus, making potions, or playing Quidditch, he’ll run into random bullies challenging him to duels.  This is where things become rather fun.  Again, the controls are a bit questionable—the PS3 once again requires you to use the analog sticks, the Xbox 360 has you simply pressing buttons in a slow fashion, and there’s a lot of waggle action on the Wii.  The spells at your disposal include charging—holding back to make your attacks stronger, Stupefy—a fireball, Expelliarmus—a purple ball of energy that knocks your opponent off their feet (quite curious… because in the book, this was a spell that disarmed your opponent), Petrificus Totatlus–a spell that petrifies or stuns your opponent, Protego—a protective aura, and Levicorpus—a cool spell that allows you to lift your opponents and hang them upside down, leaving them exposed to any attack.  Health in these duels is represented by orbs on the bottom of the screen on each side, and obviously—the person who loses all his balls first loses.  The cool thing about dueling is that there’s an option to duel just about anybody in the game, including Ginny Weasley.  While the controls are a bit blocky, they’re easy to learn, and dueling is even easier because spamming your attacks are pretty much all you need to win because there’s no limit to your magic.  The guys here at Gamer 2.0 particularly had fun by shaking the Wii Remotes endlessly, causing an excessive amount of fireballs to hit Ginny—even when she’s down.  Filthy peasant.

While the environments in the game look incredible and definitely give you the feeling of really trudging through the halls of Hogwarts, the character models are actually quite horrible.  It’s cool to run into a character and have them moan in displeasure, but the fact that each character is incredibly ugly and in no way resembles their real-life persona takes away from that experience.  Ron, in particular, looks like an albino robot, and considering this is EA—a worldwide leader that’s published games like Madden and The Sims—games with incredible detail to people, it’s a bit disappointing.

While the visuals are barely presentable, the soundtrack is definitely as exciting as the musical score given on the movies, but of course, the problems come from the game’s tireless voice acting.  While they sound like Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson, the acting part of it proves that it’s not really them.

As for which game to get, it depends what’s more important.  The Wii has superior controls, while the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions provide the best presentation.  Because of the PS3’s lack of real sixaxis support, the Xbox 360 version should receive the nod due to its more user-friendly presentation.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a title that gets a lot of stuff right because of its glorious presentation of Hogwarts and interesting bits of gameplay with the potions and duels.  Though nowhere near perfect, players should find the gameplay quite interesting and it’s a good way to remain amped for the film’s upcoming release.  Of course, to really enjoy this experience, you have to be a Harry Potter fan, and if you’re playing the game for the plot—you’re making a big mistake.  Either way, if you’ve ever wanted to go to Hogwarts, this is your best shot at a realistic opportunity.

Final Score – 7.6 | Suggestion: Rent It

Version of Choice – Wii

The DS has seen a glut of RPG’s, especially lately, with various ports and remakes of the best SquareSoft and Enix had to offer over the years as well as the seemingly bi-monthly releases of an Atlus-published title.  The Megami Tensei series in general is without a doubt the company’s most prized license, with games such as Persona 3 and 4 getting rave reviews.  After countless Megami Tensei games being released on the PlayStation 2 over recent years, Devil Survivor has finally been released, an original game that just so happens to be the first Shin Megami Tensei game to be released on the Nintendo DS.

After a few suspicious words, the game opens in modern-day Shibuya, where summer is drawing to a close and high school kids are trying to enjoy the last few bits of their summer vacation.  Unfortunately for three students—Atsuro Kihara, Yuzu (Yoohoo) Tanikawa), and yourself (where you first and last name are limited to six characters each), the entire Shibuya region has been quarantined due to various attacks including but not limited to random explosions, murders done by wild animals, and rolling blackouts.  Via e-mail through the party’s COMPS, PDA-like devices resembling DS’s that can do things such as check e-mail, the party finds out that every event is being scripted beforehand due to conflicts in the Netherworld—the opposite spectrum of the game’s overworld where demons lurk.

From there on, the story goes about its course in typical RPG fashion.  Kill a few demons here, get called a Devil Survivor.  Kill a few demons there, find out you only have one day to live.  Basically, the lives of you and your companions rely on the future-predicting e-mails you receive, and it’s up to you to re-tool the history that’s about to happen.  Think of it like righting the wrongs of the past, except you’re just focusing on the future.

Aside from all of that, the game itself is very linear, but it leaves you a lot of freedom with where to go.  Exploration is done through various menus, just like in the Phoenix Wright games, except you don’t have the option of interacting with your surroundings.  The menus have destinations listed on the left, while the menu on the right lists things you can do.  Locations that lead to a battle or have the story continue are clearly marked on the menu, so there’s no way you can really get “stuck” in the game.  Then again, this method of exploration makes going to any other area pointless, especially if you don’t have the option of interacting with any sort of environment.

Since there really isn’t a sense of “active” exploration in the game, you can bet that the meat is within its battle system.  At first glance, simply judging from screenshots, you might think it’s a simple first-person turn-based system.  While it is that, it gets a little more complicated because it’s also a hybrid strategy game.  The main character and his two friends (along with those you’ll recruit later) are units that can be moved all over the battlefield, like your average mapped out strategy game.  You have the traditional strategies to deal with, such as where to move your units or when to use your magic, but once you choose the “attack” command, everything becomes a bit different.

This is where the game becomes a first-person turn-based game.  Each unit you have on the field actually represents a team of up to three that can fight in one-on-one battle.  The leader of each team is the person (or monster) in the middle, while his or her sides provide support.  Defeating the leader of a team allows for the unit to be totally annihilated, whereas defeating the support will cause the leader to have no real sense of defense.  This is where the game’s turn-based strategy comes into play.  You might think attacking the middle is the first thing you should do, but that isn’t always the case because you’ll often find times where the team leader keeps blocking, forcing you to attack someone else.  On top of that, for every critical hit you land, you earn what’s called an Extra Turn, which is exactly what it reads—you get an extra chance to attack or defend.  Of course, if your opponent also lands a critical hit, they get an extra turn as well, making things much more challenging.

At first, battles are on the easy side, but once you reach the game’s first real boss, the game’s strategy really comes into play and you’ll find yourself sometimes relying on luck to get things done.  Of course, the easiest way to get stronger is to fight optional battles to grind out your stats.  Over the course of time and experience, your units will get stronger and earn new abilities along the way, and that in turn will also increase the amount of strategy you’ll need to succeed.

Devil Survivor also comes with an auction feature where you can bid or straight-up purchase demons to add on to your team.  It’s actually quite a useful feature, because we caught ourselves struggling at first before realizing that each member of our squads was missing an optional third member.  Full teams increase the odds of winning tremendously, so as soon as the option becomes available, you’d do well by taking advantage of it.

While there aren’t any pre-rendered cutscenes or anything of that sort, Devil Survivor looks quite good.  The character art is pretty spot-on with the rest of the Shin Megami Tensei series, and there are a lot of different characters to appreciate.  Of course, if you’re not into the whole manga thing, there’s not much to see, but it’s all very unique, even with the over-exaggerated breasts.

The game’s sound is also superb.  There isn’t any spoken dialog outside of battle, but that really isn’t much of an issue since the series has always been known for good voice acting.  Either way, the soundtrack is great and it’s a shame that Atlus didn’t throw in a soundtrack promotion.

It’s well known that the DS has quite a wealth of very good RPG’s, this entry in the Shin Megami Tensei series is good enough to warrant itself to be one of the most exciting, engaging, and unique experiences to be had on the handheld—even with its eerie similarities to Square Enix’s The World Ends With You.  The game may be extremely punishing at times, but those who stay along for the ride are definitely sure to enjoy the brilliant story, cast of characters, and engaging battle system.  It’s vintage Shin Megami Tensei, and that’s all anybody can ask for with the series’ debut on Nintendo’s handheld powerhouse.

Final Score – 9.1 | Recommendation: Buy It

Developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and Marvelous Entertainment, the same development team that brought gamers Killer 7 and No More Heroes, Flower, Sun, and Rain, was released for the PlayStation 2 that relied on its originality to create a unique experience.  While the game was totally original, it didn’t exactly get rave reviews in Japan.  Now that the development team has made quite a name for itself, it’s giving Flower, Sun, and Rain a second chance on the DS this time, and it’s not much better.

Flower, Sun, and Rain puts players in the shoes of Sumio Mondo, a self-proclaimed “searcher.”  To keep things simple, this guy is a whiz at finding stuff.  He receives an invitation from the Flower, Sun, and Rain Resort to help stop a terrorist attack.  Unfortunately for him, because of a series compromising events prevents him from doing so, and it in turn makes the story as deep as it gets.

But while the story is deep, the gameplay is very vanilla.  The game isn’t your typical DS graphic novel, instead it plays like a watered down PC detective’s game from the late 80’s, where you’ll be walking around blocky areas, picking up stuff along the way and solving generic puzzles.  When approaching objects or people of significance, players will have to sit through rows upon rows of text and dialogue before finally taking part in a touch-screen minigame.  Oftentimes the game will require you to “jack-in” a person’s head by screwing into that person’s eyeball with the help of your trusty electronic suitcase, “Catherine.”  Why Catherine?  Simply because it would be worse for it to be named Bob.  At least… that’s what the game says.

As bizarre as all of it is, the game’s puzzles themselves are even more pointless.  For the screw minigame previously mentioned, you’d have to choose between a variety of shapes that’ll fit properly in each person’s head.  Unfortunately, there’s no method of telling which one is the right one, except for using trial and error.  In fact, almost all the puzzles in the game require you to use some fort of trial and error, making the puzzles seem uninspired.  If there’s anything brilliant about these puzzles, it’s the thought provoking numbers of your birthday.  The first puzzle in the game requires you to input the date of your birthday followed by the month (numerically), and if it matches what’s in your DS’ Internal Memory, then you’ve got the puzzle solved.  Eventually, the game will require you to do all sorts of crazy things with these digits, such as state them backwards, upside-down, and a whole lot of other zany things.

While the game can be praised for its unique narrative and premise, even in the days of the PS2, the game was considered to be ugly.  While the visuals have remained largely unchanged with this DS port, it still looks ugly.  Sure, the decrease in resolution has the visuals a lot more crisp, but now it’s so crisp that everything looks blocky.  So not only does the game play like an ‘80’s Macintosh/Windows knockoff, it looks like one.

The best thing about the game is its soundtrack.  To be quite honest, it’s actually addictive.  Of course, with some good comes some bad.  As stated earlier, there are a lot of dialogue sequences in the game, and since there’s no actual speech in the game, there’s just mindless buzzing in its place.  The good soundtrack and the horrid sound effects cancel each other out, making the sound in this game quite indifferent.

Right off the bat, there’s really nothing marvelous about Flower, Sun, and Rain.  If there’s any reason to play this game, it’s to see how the developers were before the releases of games like Killer 7 and No More Heroes.  Either way you look at it, while the game isn’t bad, there’s nothing impressive or particularly enjoyable, so it’s best to just skip it entirely.

Final Score – 4.6 | Recommendation: Skip It

If you’ve ever played Super Smash Bros. Brawl and came across an Assist Trophy that wreaks havoc upon characters on the screen by spinning like crazy, odds are you’d wonder who that star was.  The star’s name is Starfy, and he’s the hero of the skies of Pufftop.  Still confused?  Then you need to play The Legendary Starfy.

The Legendary Starfy is a Nintendo-published series in Japan that has never made into the states until now.  The game made its GBA debut in 2000 under the same name, and has since then distinguished itself with four sequels.  The game’s North American debut is actually the fifth in this young series, and it includes all sorts of features and mechanics that sidescrolling platformer fans should instantly enjoy.

The game’s story revolves around a bunny that lost his memory.  Confused at who this bunny is, Starfy follows the bunny with a strange shard in-hand.  In stereotypical fantasy fashion, that shard is what the bad guys are after, and it’s up to Starfy to save the day.

Gameplay starts and ends as being overly simple.  You move left and right using the directional buttons, with the A button allowing you to jump.  You can also use the Y button to perform Starfy’s signature spin attack.  Also, if you didn’t notice with the game’s boxart, a good portion of the game will be played underwater, and from here, the controls have more variety.  While moving is still done with the directional buttons, you can make Starfy move more swiftly by making swimming strokes with the B button.  In addition, Starfy still has access to his spin attack, so when barnacles or enemies get in the way, Starfy can pull off his own kinds of destruction.

Over the course of the game, Starfy can learn more moves, and things get a bit more interesting once you start using the game’s touch screen controls to pull of certain moves.  At random times, Starfy will put on a costume to turn into some sort of beast.  Our first boss with a squid had Starfy incredibly scared, but after a quick moment of fear, he quickly turned into some sort of fire-breathing beast that easily allowed us to get rid of the squid, albeit temporarily.

However way you play the game, the object of each level is to reach the shining platform at the end.  At times, finding the end platform can be a bit tricky due to the alternate paths that lead to different secrets, but the more unorthodox the path—the better, because that allows you to gain access to hidden mid-levels that are a tad more challenging than the game’s default path of levels.  In addition to hidden levels are various components to different suits that Starfy can wear.  They’re pretty much useless, as all they do is make a 3D version of Starfy more stylish.

If you ever get tired with the game’s single-player adventure, you and a friend can also take part in various touch minigames to pass the time.  One of the cooler ones requires the player to pull back on a coin to hit various targets.  The beauty of the game’s multiplayer is that only one game card is required, of course, it takes a bit longer to get things ready.

When looking at The Legendary Starfy for the first time, it immediately makes you think it’s a cross between Kirby and the original Mega Man, but the gameplay is pretty much nothing like any of them.  There’s a haven of hand-drawn sprites all over the game, and the 3D rendered backgrounds further enhance the game’s lush 2D look.

To be straightforward, the game just sounds like a kids game.  All the tunes are light-hearted, and whenever you come across a conversation (which happens all the time), you’ll hear Starfy make his annoying cries of joy or disappointment.  In fact, if you wanted to annoy a friend, you can keep closing and opening the DS to keep Starfy moaning.  On a serious note though, while the game sounds annoying, the musical score is actually quite good.  Nothing memorable yet, but it’ll get there, especially if this series takes off.

While it’s extremely easy and definitely is no Mario, nothing really takes anything away from The Legendary Starfy’s undeniable charm.  Newcomers will love its pick-up-and-play nature, while the hardcore platform enthusiasts will spend a lot of time looking through every nook and cranny in the game to find something special.  If you need a good, lengthy, and colorful platform to spend on those long road trips, The Legendary Starfy would be welcome company.

Final Score – 8.0 | Recommendation: Buy It

EA Games has been a hot commodity this summer because of their recent release of The Sims 3.  So what better way to capitalize on their family-driven entertainment than by continuing their MySims franchise for Nintendo’s Wii and DS?  While it’s no Mario Kart, MySims Racing provides players with an enjoyable experience that anybody can enjoy.

Whether you’re playing the Wii or DS version, MySims begins with its signature requirement of customization.  The gives you the freedom to choose between a boy or girl main character, and you have the option of changing basic external qualities such as clothing, skin color, size, and that sort of thing.  In addition to your customizable persona, you also have the option of tricking out your car.  Of course, there isn’t much to do to it given your lack of appropriate funds.

While arcade kart racing is all about having fun with your friends, unless you’re willing to brave the less enjoyable single player campaign mode, then you’ll hardly have anytime enjoying the game with friends.  MySims racing comes with a Story Mode to attempt to make the single player game interesting, but all it really has you do is drive around and do Animal Crossing-style favors for people when you’re not racing.  The story revolves around the town getting tired of racing, and the need of a new champion would be enough to rekindle the town’s love for the pastime.

The unfortunate part of the game is that while it tries its best to separate itself from Mario Kart, it’s going to be compared to the game anyway.  The Wii version of the game supports the Wii Wheel accessory, and the controls are mostly the same.  The DS version of the game has the same button layout, but it lacks depth because the power-slide mechanics are nowhere near as easy to execute as drifting in Mario Kart DS.

As far as the game’s look, it’s just as colorful as anyone would hope for a family-style game to look.  The race tracks are all unique and the really cool thing is that most of them have their own paths and shortcuts.  While the shortcuts are more painfully obvious on the DS because of its dual-screen mechanism, on the Wii it’s more about noticing the surroundings of your car.  The sound is also typical of any Sims game, with nothing but Simglish spoken, sometimes the game is a pain to listen to.  The music isn’t really anything memorable and doesn’t do much to blend with the experience, which is quite unfortunate because the music in The Sims 3 is terrific.

A hardcore kart racer won’t find much to like about MySims Racing, but if anybody can get by the fact that it’s not Mario Kart, they’ll find that this is a game with some good elements and is quite enjoyable despite its lack of polish.  As far as a choice between the Wii version and the DS version go, the Wii version is superior because of not only its graphics and sound, but because the controls are more intuitive than anybody would think.

Final Score – 5.1 | Recommendation: Rent It

For DS and Japanese RPG fans alike, Atlus has been a godsend.  A new RPG is released almost every month, and while not everything that comes out of the publisher is a classic, they still release a very good game every now and then.  Knights in the Nightmare is a unique game that may end up being the next underrated classic.

At first glance, the game may seem like any isometric strategy game, but it is far from that.  In fact, it’s probably the most fast-paced RPG available on the DS.  The game puts players in control of a wisp that has the power to call upon fallen soldiers to protect the land from the havoc wreaked by evil.  So while the game looks like an isometric strategy game, nothing is really turn-based since you really don’t have full control over the zombie knights summoned to do your dirty work.

Since there is so much to talk about with this battle system (you learn new things even after 40 hours of gameplay), this review will only go about with an abridged description.  As stated earlier, all players can actively control is a wisp, and in turn, the wisp is in control of summoned zombie knights.  With that, the only way to lose a battle is have the wisp defeated.  The wisp is controlled completely by moving your stylus around the touch screen.  The wisp can then make commands to the knights simply by sliding the stylus on the touch screen so that the wisp is touching a unit.  The longer the stylus is held down, the more destructive a knight’s attack becomes.  When releasing the stylus, the knight will then attack.  A successful attack will result in a bunch of gems popping out of each enemy, and it’s the wisp’s job to accumulate these gems in order to use more powerful attacks.

As for defense, there’s no need to worry about the knights, because they’re dead anyway.  The enemies on the battlefield will launch projectile attacks all over the screen, and the player has to skillfully guide the wisp along the screen to avoid these attacks.  At times, enemies can also be out of range, so when this happens, a phase change is needed, which is done by moving the stylus to the right side and scribbling on the phase crest.  There are two phases in the game, standard and chaos, and each phase has its proper color code.  Some enemies can only be defeated under specific phases, so players will often be switching phases to adapt to any given situation.

Of course, with strategy games, it’s best to make preparations before each lengthy battle.  It’s before each fight in Knights in the Nightmare that will determine how easy or hard each battle will be.  You’re allowed to equip up to four weapons for the fight, and at the beginning of the game, you’ll already have an extremely high amount of weapons to choose from, including battle axes, spears, magic staves, and other weapons with elemental value.  In addition to just weapons and armor, you’ll have more freedom to do as you please before battle as you progress through the game.

If the previous three paragraphs had a lot to digest, that’s because there is simply all sorts of options in this game.  On top of that, the story is extremely complicated due to the amount of characters there are in the main story.  While the story itself is pretty solid, the storytelling itself is sort of flawed as the game jumps from character to character.  Of course, like most of Atlus’ RPG’s, the game does a great job of tying things up at the end, having everything make sense.  But in order to get the most out of the game, extreme patience is needed.

Knights in the Nightmare is a visual masterpiece.  There aren’t any prerendered cutscenes that take advantage of any of the DS’ special movie-playing codecs, but the environments are pretty lush and the hand-drawn character designs are superb.  This isn’t your typical adolescent story that you find in any Japanese RPG.  The story itself is pretty dark and there’ll be tragedy left and right, and the visuals definitely do its job to tell the story well.  Those who buy the game at a GameStop or GameCrazy will also get a bonus book of artwork, to see how progress was made to make the game as good as it looks now.

While Atlus has surprised DS owners by including voice acting in a handful of its games, including Luminous Arc, Knights in the Nightmare doesn’t really have that much.  Granted, it’s not always a good thing to have voice acting, but Atlus definitely made up for it with the game’s marvelous musical score.  Aside from just the game’s great soundtrack, the sound effects are pretty much what you’d expect from any DS game.  Also, like the art book, the game comes packaged with its limited-edition soundtrack.

Knights in the Nightmare isn’t a game that everybody will love simply because it’s one of the most complex games ever to be released.  There is no game to really compare it to, except for maybe Ikaruga, and that’s not even an RPG.  It’s a clichéd statement, but in order to really get the game and understand it for what it is, you have to try the game.  But buyers beware: not only is the game extremely complicated, but if you’re not into what the game has to offer for the first few hours, you’ll get turned off completely.  So if you rent it, allot yourself a couple hours with the game first (not including the game’s super lengthy tutorial that you really should do first).  Knights in the Nightmare is a game you have to get used to, and once you do, it’s hard to really have a more compelling experience.  Besides, not only is the game good, but the free art book and soundtrack are even better bonuses.

Final Score – 8.7 | Recommendation: Rent It

The original Steambot Chronicles was a bit of a hidden gem when it came out for the PS2 in 2006, but has now blossomed into a budding franchise with a new PSP title. Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament provides more of a simpler experience than what the original offered with plenty of customization and missions to choose from.

Battle Tournament takes place in Orion City, a city that is home to the world’s largest manufacturer of Trotmobiles, Pegasus, and the home of the Trotmobile Gladiator Championship. You are an up-and-coming Trotmobile driver that hopes become the champion who meets up with another up-and-coming mechanic, named Venus, to team up with in order to meet that goal. Along the way, you take on jobs that occasionally throw in bits of the story until you reach the end when every thing comes together with lots of revelations all around. For the most part, you’re taking on missions and fighting in the coliseum without any story elements that are pushing you along.

Though Battle Tournament appears to be a sandbox game, it’s more like Orion City acts as a hub of hot spots that the jobs you take on will ask you to visit. Jobs are very tightly-structured in that there are at least five steps you must do in order to finish a job for money and fame. The fame reward is part of what you need to be able to fight in the coliseum, as each of the opponent ranks, from D to A, require at least a certain amount of fame and some cash to be able to take on new opponents. Finishing all of the opponents of a rank will unlock new missions for the job center and new parts for your Trotmobile.

There are three main areas surrounding the town that most jobs will require you to visit in Battle Tournament, which are made up of about four sub-areas with different missions asking you to perform a certain task in certain areas. Some of these missions are unique and one time only, but others, like newspaper delivery missions and wood delivery missions, will reappear all the time so you can essentially grind those same missions if that is what you want to do. The other main issue is that the bandits in those areas always appear in the same place, so there’s little that is new each time you revisit these same areas.

The customization of Trotmobiles in Battle Tournament is a big part of the experience, as you must buy better parts for your Trotmobile and upgrade them appropriately to get stronger for the tougher opponents in the coliseum. New parts only allow a certain amount of upgrades to be done, so you need to know what’s most important to upgrade so you don’t waste your money on needless attributes. You’re somewhat able to assemble the Trotmobile to be able to reflect your personal abilities, whether they be based around ranged, melee, or defensive attacks, though fights in the coliseum were a nice way to see certain weapons in action before spending the money in the shop.

Battle Tournament’s controls do work well, as you can attack with either arm’s weapons or jump and boost to dodge attacks coming your way, so it is a simple set-up that is easy to get a grasp on without much of a learning curve. This is definitely not a fast-paced mech game by any means, as most of your enemies in the outlying areas of the city are stationary or slow-moving and easy to defeat, so there’s not much of a challenge to be had. Even the final boss for the story portion of the game was a breeze to defeat along with the final S-rank fight in the coliseum, so the end of the game kind of peters out without a decent difficulty curve. Multiplayer adds a little bit of value if you have friends with their own PSP’s, as it is ad hoc multiplayer-only here, though there’s at least the option to gameshare with friends so you all don’t need a copy of the game to play along.

Battle Tournament does feature a simple art style that is cel-shaded in the game itself and clipart-style drawings of each character during dialog. With a few exceptions, most every citizen in Orion City is a generic clone of a few different types of people that you frequently see as you walk around the city. The city is not that large, which works for what the PSP can do though slowdown is frequent when traversing the city either with or without your Trotmobile. There are frequent load screens when you enter any indoor areas or any of the areas outside of the city, but they aren’t all that long to be a big issue. The music is decent enough, though the voice acting pretty good and provides most of the entertainment despite some lag that leads to finishing the line and skipping the audio before it starts.

Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament does a nice job of being a fairly entertaining game, though the short experience that capped at 14 hours for us definitely seems to be an issue when you learn that the game will cost you $39.99. Such an expensive cost of entry for a game without much replay value, unless you’re engrossed enough to beat all of the missions and collect all of the parts, kills the appeal of the game when there are better experiences in recent memory to be had for much cheaper. Unless you’re a huge fan of the original Steambot Chronicles on the PS2, there is no reason that you cannot rent the game or wait for a sale or price drop to about $20.

Final Score: 6.1 | Recommendation: Rent It

There’s an odd phenomena spreading throughout the gaming industry at the moment. For years – decades even – games based on licensed properties ranging from films to comic books were dreadful. In recent years game development has become more expensive and profit margins have slimmed, yet rather than see studios put out half-baked, soulless titles that would sell regardless of their quality, we’ve seen a lot of solid licensed games. Wanted, The Bourne Conspiracy, and Wolverine Origins were all damn fine games. Not world-beaters, game-changers, or even terribly original experiences, but at least entertaining fan service rather than simply fan service for the sake of itself.

Ghostbusters is just that and we love it.

If you missed all of the pre-release hype, the reason why there was such hope for this videogame adaptation of the classic 80’s franchise was because Atari actually nabbed just about all of the original stars (Ramis, Aykroyd, Murray, and Hudson) to reprise their roles. Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd even picked their pens back up to write the script just as they did for the films. To put that in perspective, they’re not even writing the script for Ghostbusters III. The end result is wit and humor not as uproariously hilarious as the movies, but certainly good enough to don the Ghostbusters name. It sometimes draws so heavily on film references that it doesn’t feel like a genuinely new adventure, but that’s also not necessarily a bad thing.

The story picks up in 1992, shortly after the events of Ghostbusters II. Abnormal and inexplicable events are happening all over New York City and your adventures begin at Hotel Sedgewick, where you have to recapture Slimer. In a move to keep the sanctity of the cast intact, you play a nameless, mute new recruit who serves as a third-wheel of sorts for the crew. It’s a brilliant move as it allows you to go along for the ride while not forcing your presence into the dialogue. You’re simply a Ghostbuster, and that alone is enough.

What’s most admirable about the game is that it doesn’t take a long time holding your hand through the mechanics. It gives you the lowdown and throws you into the action as frenetically as the city is engulfed by paranormal mayhem. Hell, within an hour you’re facing off against the Stay Puff Marshmellow Man. Cars are flying by your head, you’re capturing ghosts, buildings are crumbling, and Venkman’s saving damsels in distress; it’s everything a Ghostbusters fan could hope for.

All isn’t perfect however, as combat can be frustrating even though the core mechanics are simple enough. You blast enemies while a green circle indicating their health slowly depletes until it turns red, at which point you can rope the ghosts in by slamming them against walls and ceilings until you can gain enough control to hold them in your capture beam.

There are four different gun modes you unlock as you make your way though the game, though you only really use two.  The first is your primary gun, the proton pack, which is the one you’re certainly most familiar with from the films. It also includes a boson dart, which is a burst of energy that overheats your pack but delivers a hell of a punch that you’ll need against bosses. The second gun type you’ll use unleashes a green goo that is both effective against a variety of the game’s later enemies and is a ton of  fun to watch in action. It also has a handy goo-tethering secondary fire option, which you can use to pull enemies toward a capture beam or tie together pieces of the game’s environment in interesting, if infrequent, puzzles.

Where the combat gets frustrating is in the decision-making of your computer controlled teammates. They often don’t evade flying objects or enemy attacks, and most of the time run right up to enemies resulting in their quick demise. Ghostbusters employs a Gears of War-styled teammate recovery system, so there will be times when you’ll not only have to worry about taking care of yourself in battle, but also recovering your fallen squadmates. Such babysitting eventually happens a bit too often and it not only takes away from the experience but from the idea that you’re the “rookie.”

Still, there’s just way too much to like about Ghostbusters: The Video Game to be too critical. The pacing of the action and the story is great, there are some legitimately spooky scenes, and the amount of paranormal insanity going on is absolutely wonderful. Entire floors in Hotel Sedgewick flood, the Museum of Natural History comes to life, and foes familiar and foreign capture your attention at every turn.

What’s most surprising about Ghostbusters: The Video Game, aside from its overall quality, is how damn good its multiplayer is. There are six multiplayer modes: Survival has you face off against waves of ghosts which get progressively more difficult, Protection has you defend disruptors, Containment has you capture as many ghosts as possible within a time limit, Destruction has you destroy as many artifacts as possible, Thief has you try to recapture artifacts as ghosts steal them from you, and lastly Slime Dunk has you face off against your opponents in a competition to see who can slam dunk the most slimers into capture beams. All of them are fast-paced, chaotic, and completely worth trying out. Not to mention human teammates are far better than the AI-controlled teammates from the single player.

Additionally, Ghostbusters: The Video Game is gorgeous. It’s one of the most colorful games you’ll see this year, but beyond that, the sound design is absolutely amazing. The score matches perfectly to not only the Ghostbusters style, but also to the on-screen action. The voice acting, the music, the ghastly sounds in the distance; they all add up to one hell of an engaging experience.

If you have any doubts about Ghostbusters: The Video Game, let your mind rest easy. If you’re even a modest fan of The Ghostbusters, you’ll certainly appreciate this game. It’s fun, chock-full of fan service, and bursting at the seams with interesting environments, twists, ghosts and visual splendor. If you don’t plan to play online much, then definitely rent it due to its short length, and while it’s not perfect, it’s better than most have ever hoped a Ghostbusters game to be.

Final Score: 8.3 | Recommendation: Rent It

With the release of Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, Activision has brought the yearly total of their popular rhythm franchise to three titles, two which happen to be on consoles (the third, Modern Hits, got released for the DS a few weeks ago).  That still doesn’t bring the tally to an end however, as Guitar Hero: Van Halen and Guitar Hero 5 are both scheduled to release later this year mere months apart from each other.  With so much content being released at such a rapid rate it is amazing to see the fans gobble these games up like they are each their own original ideas.  Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is Smash Hits is a barren, dull and downright shameful display of Activision trying to cash in on easy money. Nothing about Smash Hits is remotely fun, and even though the game features new band options and updated features, the title still feels like the worst entry yet in the slowly dwindling series.

Smash Hits features around forty songs, all of which were previously released in the past Guitar Hero games, including Aerosmith and Rock the 80’s (the last true Guitar Hero game developed by Harmonix, coincidentally).  There are plenty of favorites among the list including Freebird, No One Knows, Killing in the Name, Godzilla and Psychobilly Freakout, but chances are hardcore Guitar Hero fans could care less about playing recycled songs again.   All of the songs do feature updated band options, so the ability to now play these songs with drums and vocal support is a welcome addition, but there are still many things wrong with the transition.

For starters, Smash Hits was developed by Beenox, a new group brought in to help make endless supplies of Guitar Hero games.  This unfortunate addition leaves much of the game to feel broken on some points. For instance, many of the songs have gotten new note charts, meaning the way you remember playing the songs back on the old games is long gone, and not for the better.  Many of the new note charts are highly erratic, often making you perform weird and unusual note riffs that feel in no way in sync or aligned with the song.  Freebird for example seems to have you strumming randomly during the solo just to make you look like you are actually working hard to nail those tricky parts, but in fact all you are doing is making sounds that sound more like an echo to the main riff rather than actually contributing to the actual song.

Other annoying features, such as the excessive use of sustained note chords and “tap-on” notes just seem like lazy development work to try and make things difficult for players.  Adding extra notes or making weird chord combinations does not make the game more fun and challenging, it makes it mind-numbingly annoying and egregious to play.  This seems to be the only “addition” Beenox seems to have added to the game as many of the other features are just recycled as well, adding nothing new that could of perhaps given Smash Hits its own sense of individuality apart from its unusual charting.

Multiplayer does run fairly well, but even so there were numerous problems with matchmaking that caused random cutouts, various other members not being able to hear the accompanying sounds, and the most negating factor yet: lack of players.  For such a popular franchise, it seems the constant barrage of titles is leaving gamers deciding which one to pick up at the time of release.  By the time one specific game goes down in price or perhaps leaves retail, no one will be online in that game to truly enjoy the many options multiplayer has to offer.  For what it’s worth, Smash Hits does offer master recordings for all of the songs, something that the previous games did not fully take advantage of.  New live track versions of some of the songs also add some layer of diversity among the many tracks.

Guitar Hero: Smash Hits is a perfect example of what happens when a company decides to completely milk a popular franchise.  Smash Hits is a shallow, unnecessary attempt at cashing in on the success of the Guitar Hero franchise and charging full price for a game that could have easily been offered as DLC is an outrage, especially a title as haphazard as this one.   Two titles in one year is more than enough to please any fan’s appetite, but when you encounter five titles from the same franchise in the same fiscal year, you have to seriously think about your role as a developer.  From this point of view, Smash Hits was just a cheap attempt at gaining quick cash rather than truly giving fans something new and fresh for the series.  Hopefully Guitar Hero 5 and Van Halen can return the series to its former glory, but even than there is just too much Guitar Hero to remain entirely interested.

Final Score: 6.5 | Recommendation: Rent It