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Platform: Windows (XP or Vista) PC
Developer: Haemimont Games (official US game page)
Publisher: Kalypso Media
MSRP: £29.99
PEGI: 7+ (Based on box art, PEGI site has no info)
ESRB: Rating Pending

Scheduled for release on 09 March 09

What they had to say about it:
What I have to say about it: click here ...

Puzzle Arcade
Publisher: Eidos Interactive Limited
Developer: Ctxm/Say Design
Genre: Puzzle
System: XBLA
Price:800 MS Points


Let's get right into it, this is a jig-saw game. Everything you do in this game is a type of jig-saw, either in the traditional sense, or with constraints placed on you in certain challenges, such as, having a minute to complete a jig-saw, a distorted image which becomes clearer the more pieces you get, and so on.

There are varying degrees of difficulty, which affect things like, amount of pieces, whether or not the pieces are laid out in a mess, with some bits facing the wrong way, or you can have all the pieces facing the right way and even pre-rotated to the correct orientation.


You can have the pieces separated into a menu of edges and colour groupings, allowing you to quickly find and select certain pieces.

To start with, I did a few of the challenges. Picking a few at random, I found different twists on the 'put the pieces in the right place' type fun that this game promises.

Twists such as bots who make frustrating attemps to complete the puzzle ahead of you. This is the equivalent of having 3 people over your shoulder, grabbing bits of your puzzle and moving them around, shouting - 'that bit goes there!'. Now, if I was actually doing a jig-saw puzzle, first of all, I'd have to be 80 and an old woman, and second; I'd be doing it to relax and have a bit of peace!

So this being the case, the last thing I'd want when doing a jig-saw is other people annoying me, or even time constraints, or missing pieces, or any thing in fact.


So after these challenges, I took to the main, 'just do a friggin regular jig-saw puzzle' mode. So here i thought I'd set up a puzzle, with the pieces not sorted - scattered about, upside down and six-ways from-Sunday, with the maximum amount of pieces (somewhere in the region of 1300).

So I spent about two hours, slowly grabbing pieces, flipping them if needed, sorting the edges and corners to one side, and getting ready to tackle a large puzzle.

Do you know what? It was actually quite relaxing, theraputic even! But after a couple of hours (at which point I hadn't even put two pieces together - I was still sorting edges!), I decided to take a break, and finish my monster puzzle later. It didn't allow me to save my progress. Gutted.

After sorting that mess for two hours, I wasn't able to save my progress and resume later. How in the name of shitting-crikey are you supposed to finish a 1300+ piece puzzle in one sitting?

I've given more than enough words out for this game so I'm going to get to the point - which is this - what's the point?

Why? Why would you play this game, who would play it? How long would they play it for?

Why would you play this game? I guess if you really like jig-saws, and think it's be cool taking pictures with the XBox Vision Camera and turning them into said puzzles, then yes, go for it. But who is going to want to do jig-saws on an XBox 360?

The lack of a save function for some puzzles means that there really is no point starting a huge one, as you'd have to do it in one sitting. Although some do allow saving.


The multiplayer aspect is a strange addition, and I guess it would work like the mode with the bots who keep grabbing bits of your jigsaw and moving them around (i.e. annoying). But I can't say for sure because I couldn't get an online match, ranked or otherwise, as presumably only someone with a very sad life would play online jigsaw puzzles at half ten on Saturday night. And as sad as my life is, I was reviewing it so I had an excuse and if I had found anyone playing this online I would have been interested to talk to them and possibly find out who they are and alert the authorities about a potential suicide risk.

So I'd struggle to justify buying or even playing this game. If you really want a taste of last century (or the one before that even) then go for this, if you think jig-saws belong in the past along with ball-in-a-cup, ludo and slap-the-stepchild, then avoid.

If you're that into jig-saws, then you probably aren't going to appreciate the extra factors and difficulties put into place by this game. You're better off with the real thing.

...

______________________________
Published by: Twisted Pixel
Developed by: Twisted Pixel
Players: 1
Price: 800
ESRB:

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Overview: A great looking game that came out of nowhere to amaze us all with its dazzling graphics and fluent animations, will this be the game to raise the bar for all XBLA games to come? or is this just a pretty picture, keep reading to find out!


Gameplay: In The Maw you get to play as an alien who partners up with "The Maw" which would be like Kirby 2.0 since he not only gets the powers of the aliens he eats, but he also gets bigger as he eats more aliens. The goal of the game is to eat a certain amount of aliens so you can proceed to the next level; Sometimes you may have to puzzle solve, jump platforms, or attack both biotic and a biotic objects to get to the aliens that so willingly await their death.
It is clear that the game was built for kids, aside from its visual style there also seems to be no way to die, in a certain level, your character doesn't even react to bluets at all. Something that doesn't make seance is that in some puzzles, the game literally gives you the answer, but in others it will leave you to think for a good while with no clues on what you are suppose to do next, this could frustrate younger gamers who are not well experienced with puzzle solving and leave them to stop playing. One thing I have to point out is that this game is a glitch waiting to happen, you can't jump as you slide down so i got stuck between a hill and some trees once, the clipping is horrible and there are plenty of invisible walls, objects rarely fall on top of each other but when they do its not a pretty sight. Another issue that should be pointed out is that sometimes the maw will be programed to do something as soon as its close enough to its target, lets say for example that the maw now has the ability to breathe fire and he can burn trees and bushes, trying to get him from one place to another could take more then it should, as your beloved maw stops at every bush to scorch it, this takes away time and replaces it with frustration.
Overall aside from the second to last level the game keeps you doing different things at good enough paces to where you never really get too bored doing one specific action over and over again.
Another thing I have to complain about is that towards the last levels, the maw get so big it takes up way too much space on your screen, it seriously gets ridiculous and zooming out only makes things worse.



Graphics: What can I say other then great? there are minor shadowing issues here and there but they can easily be ignored, animations are as fluent and expressive as they come and there is something about the whole look and feel of it that reminds me of the good ole N64 days. This game is defiantly one of those games that people won't mind to watch as much; Environments are often entertaining enough to catch you eyes and every now and then there will be an alien so well built that you might even find yourself starring at it.

Sound: As friendly and goofy as the game looks, sound effects are easy on the ears and will match up well with any a kid's show, but don't expect nothing too good, background songs are made of constant and repetitive loops that you won't even notice unless you listen for it.

Replay Value: Its a 2 hour game at its best and with no extra features or bonus content aside from the achievements which you can easily.......achieve if you just take some extra time to burn or break useless things so u can get that extra gamer score boost you are pretty much looking at a one time play through type of game.

Conclusion: Games this short normally have something great to it that makes it worth your cash like "Portal" but this game is nothing more then average with a price too high in my opinion, if you have money to freely spend then i say this could be a fun 2 hours for you, but if you are looking for a better value, then you might wanna look somewhere else.

Final Score: ...

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Platform: Nintendo DS
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

Ratings:

PEGI:











ESRB:


Megaman Star Force is the spiritual successor to the Megaman: Battle Network series. There are three versions of the game: Leo, Pegasus and Dragon. Each version is almost identical except for a few changes in dialogue and what elemental form Megaman can take later in the game.


Star Force follows the Battle Network formula of gameplay. There is a real world and a digital world which you can explore relatively freely. Combat is real time in a grid and you use cards to fight your foes. One of the immediately noticeable differences is that unlike Battle Networks side camera view of combat, Star Force uses a third person view instead.

The main character of Star Force is a boy named Geo Stelar, the son of an astronaut. The story takes place three years after Geo lost his father to an accident on his space station. Since then he has retreated from any and all relationships so to avoid the pain of losing people. He later meets a digital alien entity named Omega-Xis and they team up to save the world from alien invaders by merging into a single entity known as Megaman. The story and game progress is linear and uses the terms days and weeks instead of chapters. Each chapter of the story generally begins with Geo getting out of bed, some trouble happens, an alien claims responsibility, Megaman beats the alien, goes to bed and the world is safe until the next digital disaster occurs.



One note which separates Star Force from the Battle Network series is the lack of the goody two shoes heroes. All the main characters have their own pains, loneliness and troubled pasts. This is used heavily to enforce the story's theme of friendship and relying upon others for help. Despite being a cheesy plot point you can't help but empathise with some of the characters and the situations they are in. This is a welcome change from the normal fresh faced sword wielding farm boy willing to give his life to rescue a girl he only met five minutes ago.



The Battle system has undergone a simplification from the Battle Network series. Megaman has three tiles to move in and dodge attacks, he is also given an energy shield to block attacks which cover all three tiles. The card system is also much simpler, with the Program Advance, a mechanic whereby you fuse three cards into a single more powerful card, being absent from the game, replaced with the difficult to activate and mostly unnecessary Card-Combo. This leads the combat to being very cut and dry, with most fights ending in less than 10 seconds, combat becomes a repetitive mild annoyance. Even the boss fights tend to last less than a minute and are much easier compared to Battle Network's bosses.

The game makes use of the stylus and touch screen to play little mini-games, such as shooting snakes which attack from four directions, controlling an RC Copter or tapping buttons to stay grappled to a mad digital bull. It adds a bit of variety to each boss zone which breaks out from the tedium of the random encounters.

The games biggest mechanic is the Brotherband. This is where you and another person register each other as brothers and confer on one another abilities and your favourite cards. You can only register a few story characters as brothers, the rest are intended to be real friends using the Wi-fi. It is possible to use the Wi-fi to trade, establish brothers, send emails and dual your friends. However this is all useless if you don't know anyone with this game.

Sounds: More like GBA music and effects than DS. After playing the game you'll put your DS down and forget what the music sounded like.

Graphics: Little improvement over the GBA's Battle Network series. Good use of the dual screen however.

Gameplay: Endless running around with repetitive so-so combat every few seconds.

Concluson: Very similar to the Battle Network games despite being a different franchise. Repetitive game play but a much better story than its predecessors. Much easier than previous games also. Too much emphasis and options for multiplay, rendering the card directory impossible to complete without buying all three games. Get this if you loved the Battle Networked games.

...

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes
Official Homepage
Release Date: 12/11/2008
Platform: Wii, Arcade (in Japan)
Number of Players: 1-4
Controllers: Wiimote + Nunchuk/Classic Controller, GameCube Controller
Genre: Fighting
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Region: Japan (NTSC-J)
Site: Buy from Play-Asia (Game - $69.90) / Buy from Play-Asia (Stick - $79.90)

Overview: A tag battle opens up a sea of opportunity for gamers. The Cross Generation of Heroes is one massive crossover of a fighting game. More than 16 heroes from Tatsunoko and Capcom fighters make their way into the roster in this Wii installment. The classic hero Ryu, the vampire Morigan, Casshern, and the genie Hakushon are just a few characters who have signed up.

Choose two characters from the roster and form a tag team, switch them over to replenish their health when their HP runs low, have them assist each other in the battle and do counter attacks. Get to know the strengths and weaknesses of the characters and form a dream team.

Gameplay: Before I go any further with the review, in order to play this game, you'll either need to have a Japanese Wii or a way to play import games whether it be a method of using Freeloader, Gecko OS, Homebrew Channel or other sources. This was reviewed on a US Wii (NTSC-U) with 3.2 firmware. Now on to the review.

I have never been a person who got into fighting games. I was never into Tekken, King of Fighters, World Heroes, Soul Calibur or Dead or Alive. If I was, I would only play for a couple minutes or an hour and get tired. So it would take a GREAT game to keep me coming back to play it. Even with Street Fighter, I played often but never into it. The only fighting game I ever got into was SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium for the Neo Geo Pocket Color, Marvel vs. Capcom 1 and 2 for the original PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Now that I type this, it seems to be I am more interested in Versus Capcom games..with the exception of Rival Schools for the original PlayStation. Coincidence? If so, Capcom must be doing something right!

Capcom has released their newest Versus Capcom game and is known as Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generations of Heroes. The game consists of Tatsunoko characters pitted against Capcom characters such as from Street Fighter and even Mega Man.

If you have played any of the Vs. Capcom games I have mentioned above, TvsC pretty much as the same concept and feel to it. You select two characters from the list. During the fight, you control one character while the second character is hidden and waiting. You can use the second character to assist you, help you team up for a few seconds (known as Tag Team) or tag out if your main character is about to die or is seriously injured. If you swapped characters, you now have a fresh and healthy new character to fight while the hidden character is healing. While its healing, it can help you team up.

I know majority wont know how to read the menu since it is in Japanese so here is what the menu means and are pretty much self-explanatory:

アーケード　＝　Arcade Mode
バーサス　＝　Vs. Mode
サバイバル　=　Survival
タイムアタック　=　Time Attack
トレーニング　＝　Training
プレイデータ　＝　Play Data
オプション　=　Option
ショップ　=　Shop
ギャラリー　＝　Gallery
オリジナルゲーム　＝　Original (Mini) Games

Controls: You can play TvsC with different controllers. You can use the Wiimote and Nunchuk, Wiimote and Classic Controller, Wiimote and Fighting Stick or GameCube controller. I've wondered how TvsC would work out with the Wiimote and Nunchuk combination and I must say, I am very impressed. Usually you have 6 buttons for Light/Medium/High attacks. Instead, you have 4 buttons that control your Light/Medium/High attacks. You use the Nunchuk Joystick to move around while using the A, B, C and Z buttons to throw punches, kicks and specials. 1 and 2 are taunts.

The button layout is very simple. You can throw a fireball, upper cut and other moves on the first try. Although its simple, a button masher can easily end up with 15+ combo.

Graphics: Like any Wii game, you wont find any realistic or high poly count type graphics. TvsC consists of 3D graphics and 2D mechanics with a hint of cell-shading. Nothing flashy but looks very very nice. Pulling off a special shows a 3D animation of your character about to wreak havoc on your opponent. If you're not familiar with Tatsunoko, you wont know who half the characters are. But each character are well detailed and vibrant in color.

Sound: Each character has their own theme song, stage and theme. Songs are beautifully remixed, upbeat and fast-paced. However, I noticed that every a character is switched, the background music switches.

Replay Value: Me personally, I can play this for months. Mind you, I'm the type that will play the same for 1-2 hours, put it down and never touch it again. There are only a certain few that I would play for hours and months. Its hard to keep me attached to the game. But with TvsC, I play this game everyday and have no ...

So, quirky-fireworks-based-touch-screen-puzzle-shoot-em-ups then, not a genre that has overpopulated the DS to date, but Southpeak Games is set to change all that with their latest release; Big Bang Mini.

The aim of the game is, unsurprisingly, to do your best not to get blown into thousands of little pieces. Using your touch-screen you direct your ship around; a seemingly simple task, but there's a twist, you must also use the stylus to shoot fireworks up to the top screen to dispatch the enemies. The trick then, is finding a good balance between attack and defence, under a flurry of bullets it can be hard enough just avoiding being blown up.

What really makes Big Bang Mini stand out are the fantastic graphics and sense of humour; for those who've grown jaded from years of shooters with generic spaceships it's a real breath of fresh air. It's not unusual to defeat a crowd of floating clowns only to come up against a giant floating lizard (think the Pop and Twinbee series and you're somewhere on the way to knowing what to expect).

Big Bang Mini boasts over 90 levels, a high-score challenge mode with online leaderboards, multiplay with a single cartridge and a raft of other unlockables- so there's plenty to keep even the most hardcore shooter fans busy.



Stay tuned to DCEmu Games Reviews for a full review
Big Bang Mini will be released exclusively on the Nintendo DS in Spring 2008 ...

Platform: Nintendo DS
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: Square Enix
Ratings: Not yet rated by PEGI

ESRB:


Disgaea DS is not a new game. The original Disgaea was released on the PS2 in 2004. Disgaea DS is a port of the PS2 version, albeit with some changes suitable to the DS such as stylus support and less shiny graphics.

The main character is Laharl, a demon prince of the Netherworld. He has slept for the past 2 years, during which his father, the king, has died and his throne is under contest. Laharl naturally believes that the throne is his inheritance, so he sets off to become King of the Netherworld. He is joined by a variety of different characters, including an angel and a team of earth defenders, to assist him with his goal. Main story events are recounted with voice-acting for the main characters, and it's very good voice acting too.

The game takes a very light hearted approach to the story, many character are amusing, even Laharl's servants such as dragons and chimeras come off as comical and lazy. This is a diversion from most RPG's which take a very serious story, but it's a welcome change. What it doesn't change however, is the genre's other notable aspect: deep mechanics.

The battle system is an isometric, turn-based strategy system. Your team will spawn, one at a time in the order you choose, from a starting tile. You may then move them and attack with them as you see fit. A couple of twists to this grant the player more control and strategy. One of these is the team attack system. By placing characters next to each other and having one attack, there is a chance that those in base contact with gang up on the enemy, with each of them letting off an attack. While each attack is slightly less powerful than a normal blow, the total damage is greater than any individual attack. The other change is that movement can be canceled unless an action is taken. This allows a smart player to move his units to a team attack formation, let off one attack, then cancel the movements of the team to allow those who didn't attack a chance to move elsewhere, and possible take part in another team attack!



Each level may also contain pyramids known as geo-effects. These geo-effects grant a bonus or penalty onto any colour of tile which they sit on. For example if a geo-effect with the bonus of “+50 defense” is placed on a red tile anyone, friend or foe, who stands on a red tile will gain that bonus. Furthermore destroying a geo-effect will cause all tiles of the colour its on to change to the colour of the geo-effect damaging anyone who stands on those tiles, should a different coloured geo-effect be destroyed in the process all of the new tiles will change colour also. This gives the potential for huge damage combos and is possible to wipe out an entire map of enemies in a single turn by smart positioning and destruction of geo-effects.

Regarding the skill system of the game, Disgaea takes a very in-depth approach. Everything in the game can be leveled up. Items, spells, skills and characters. Characters are leveled up by defeating enemies. Skills and spells are leveled up by using them. Items however require a different approach.

Each item in the game has its own world with 'inhabitants'. There inhabitants provide bonuses to stats when that item is equipped. It is possible through the use of an NPC to enter the item's dimension known as an Item World. If you do this you fight through randomly generated levels back to back filled with enemies, defeating the inhabitants subdues them and allows you to move them to other items. Also each level you defeat increases the natural bonuses of the item. This item world allows you to take even the starter weapons of the game and turn them into very powerful items.

Whilst there are story characters which join you, these don't comprise your entire team. There exists a Senate, through which any of your characters can make propositions, these can include more expensive items in the store, unlocking a secret world, but the main use is to create characters.
Now every time a character defeats an enemy, they gain mana equal to the level of that enemy. The higher the mana, the more powerful a new character they can create. What kind of character can you make? Any monster you have defeated, yes including dragons, or any humanoid with classes such as cleric, mage, warrior, ninja etc. More classes get unlocked as you progress in the game. In addition to this the new character will be the pupil of the one who created him. When a master and pupil are in base contact, the master can cast any spells the pupil can. If the master levels up that spell, he learns it permanently. This grants huge control over the skills and spells of your characters, allowing even your cleric to cast very high level fire ...

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Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Media Molecule
Genre: Platformer
Players: 1-4
Price: $59.99



Overview: When LittleBigPlanet was first announced everyone became curious about what this little sack people were all about, as more and more information was released about this ambitious game the more people seemed to get hyped for it. A few weeks after its release I finally get to put my slimy hands all over this one of a kind platformer to calm my own hype for it, is it really as fun as it seems? find out NOW!

Gameplay: LittleBigPlanet is a platfomer like no other in almost every single way and there is alot to be said about it so I am going to separate it into different sections.
I am going to go ahead and start with the main story. After about a good ten minutes of tutorials and explanations you will be able to head on straight to the story mode, actually, until you complete the first three levels or so, that is the ONLY thing you will be able to do, no matter tho, they are short and off course, fun. The whole story consists of you being a sack boy or girl, and you pretty much just travel the world helping out friends with all sorts of problems, towards the end, a nemesis shows up and you have to save everyone but that is all I can say without spoiling too much.
The main story takes place on a world where all dreams go to, here you will get to play through levels from all over the world, each being as stereotypical as they can be, you will fight ninjas in Asia, explore Mayan ruins in Mexico, ect, this makes each world completely unique and non repetitive. The way levels are spread out is each continent has one or two buttons you can click on, once you click on of of them, all levels within that area will pop up, each area also has a few challenges outside of the main story that can be unlocked ether by beating levels, or by finding hidden keys within levels, these challenges are well varied from bull riding to rope jumping and can as well be played with friends.
Now allow me to go on with gameplay. There are three different lanes of the map in which you can be at during the game, this is new in the world of 2D platforming, you can change lanes at any time by pressing up or down on the left joystick, this works well, but can be frustrating when you are at a crucial moment and it decides it wants to rebel, luckily, the game changes lanes for you whenever it thinks it needs to, and again, this works fine most of the time, but sometimes it will change into a lane that you want to get out of over and over again just because it thinks you WANT to go to that lane, I wish there was a way to turn this off.
Aside from that, another new thing that LittleBigPlanet wanted to do was make their game physics based, now this opens up the game to new platforming opportunities such as launching yourself from a spinning wheel onto another, or picking up momentum while swinging to land further, but this also restricts the level of control that you have over your character while it is in mid air, as well as once it lands, this lead up to a few frustrating moments for me when I landed on a small platform, only to walk off of it because I didn't want to slide off.


Aside from the story there are two other things you can do, one is create levels with amazingly powerful tools, and two, is play user made levels, both great choices.
Starting with making your own levels, this is probably where LittleBigPlanet shines the most, at first, you will be bored with a good 40 minutes of tutorials, on the bright side, most of the things they tell you are things you will want to know, so pay attention! plus, you get a trophy for going through all the tutorials after that you are pretty much left alone to do what you wish on the level creator and what a creator it is, stickers, textures, figures, even buttons and hidden action events are at your disposal and even tho they are great at doing the things they were meant to do, it feels even better to do things they weren't meant to do, to use items in ways that no one ever though of before.
Even tho it is very easy to make levels, it takes up alot of your time, it took me a good two days to make my first level and it was just a boss fight with a giant alien, and it wasn't all fun, I had to test my level over and over again, then go back and fix whatever it is that needed to be fixed, and seance it is physics based, you need to give anything you make extra thought.
A big let down for LittleBigPlanet was the fact that it is very easy to completely mess up your level, during my first attempt at making a giant boss, I made a dragon, after I thought I was done I tested him to see if he would disappear when you hit his weak ...