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The Tales series really never has gotten the proper respect it deserves. People who have played the tales series games have most loved it, and this was shown by the love that Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Destiny(which is actually a low point in the series in my opinion) had received for the Gamecube. Abyss, Legendia, and just about all of the other Tales series have never nearly gotten noticed by the mainstream in America and Europe. by releasing this RPG on the 360, it seems Namco Bandai has been hoping for the best with results in getting the series well known in the US. (They must not be too enthusiastic about it, since I have yet to see a commercial or advertisement for it anywhere.) But nevertheless, here it is, the next chapter in the Tales of series, Tales of Vesperia. Despite being on the Xbox 360, Tales of Vesperia warranted a vast turnout in Japan, launching the often abysmal 360 sales 5 times what they normally are. Currently, there is even a shortage of 360s in Japan right now, which has never before happened. This should tell you a little something about the amount of influence that this series has in the East.


But anyway I'll stop beating around the bush and get this review started. The Tales of Series has always been known for its signature Anime style graphics, character skits, and what is quite possibly the best character development in the genre. So the first thing you'll notice is the intro. Its made fully of cartoon-Anime CG, and stands out very well from many different game's styles of cutscenes(Fact: This is one of the very few games that I've even bothered to watch the intro of.) This highlights one of the defining traits of Tales series games; they make use of full cartoon graphics in some cutscenes. They have done this for a while in fact: Tales of Symphonia has 1 or 2, Abyss had around 3-5, and Vesperia has around 21. It gives a very nice break from the normalcy of full CG graphics all the time. Back from what they never really specified(correct me) but they give a great and distinct flavor to the way the story is unraveled, and they also serve to highlight some of the most important points in the game. The character skits were also bashed a good bit. The thing is, they are all optional, but if you want to get the most out of the storyline, you'll want to watch them. And I'll tell you now, if your even slightly interested in the story you will want to watch them. They feature animated, drawn versions of the characters and they have conversations, which ends up really helping to endear the characters to you. But don't take it from me. Take it from what the people who have played the series have said.

The overall story also reaches a standard of greatness, and easily is the best story that a Tales game has seen yet. It tells the tale of badass ex knight Yuri as he forges his own idea of justice in a corrupt empire. Along the way(naturally) meeting a cast of characters who, as well, get a huge level of development before the game is over. Unlike most JRPGs, the characters (with few exceptions) break most boundaries of generic "save the world" JRPG characters(you know, classic cliche characters.) Still, they do have the essence of the Japanese RPG hero, which in itself has a bit of overall generic-ness to it. Compared to most games out there, however, they stand out well. The story has a few linear parts to it, but Vesperia takes the storytelling abilities of the Tales series to greater heights. Perfectly paced with some of the most well developed characters of any JRPG out there. Much better then Symphonia, and somehow even better then tales of the Abyss. After you finish the game, you may be begging for a direct sequel(Even more then I did with Abyss. And thats saying something.) The story never gets boring or too cliche(though it has its moments) but to get into the story you may have to invest a good 30 minutes or 1 hour. But oh how its worth it.

Speaking of which, the 30 minutes you'll first be spending will probably in figuring out the combat system. A large number of small tweaks to the ever-expanding Tales battle system greatly enhances the it far past the likeness of Symphonia and most passed iterations of the game. The combat is real time, and starts off a bit slow. Once you've got a full party of characters at your disposal a a good list of moves and skills, the core combat gets deep. Awesome attacks, spells, and combos(Mystic Artes are stunning) make up the combat in Vesperia. The main combat is fairly 2 dimensional though, as you only have the attack option of moving forward or backward. Hold the left trigger and you'll be able to freely run around the arena however, but you'll need to attack the enemies in a regular, ...

Published by: Gamecock
Developed by: Blazing Lizard
Genre: Sports/Action
Platforms: XBLA, WiiWare
Players: 1-4 (Offline) 1-8 (Online)
ESRB: E10+: Animated Blood,Cartoon Violence,
Suggestive Themes,Use of Alcohol and Tobacco.
Prices: 800ms pts

$10.00
£6.80
€9.30
$12.79 (CAD)
$13.20 (AUD)
¥1184
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Overview: For many years now there has been a debate between who would win, Pirates, or Ninjas, this game lets you play as ether, and two more (Robots, and Zombies) in a game of dodge ball, And each team member is packed with its own special ability to spice things up during the heat of battle.

Gameplay: There are a few different modes to play, and three different ways to play them:
Exhibition : this is pretty much free mode, you choose your team's size (1x1, 2x2, 3x3, or 4x4) the number of rounds, the difficulty mode (easy, medium, or hard) the arena, the two teams you want in the game, how many balls, and the rules (game mode)
"Combat Dodge Ball" is the first mode in the list, here, you will notice that the line that goes through the middle is removed, giving you the freedom to roam around the whole map.
"traditional Dodge Ball" is probably the closest thing to an actual dodge ball game you'll find here, due to the fact that as soon as you step foot across the line, you will be turned back to your side.
"Enhanced Dodge Ball" is by far my favorite, You are allowed to step foot on enemy territory for three seconds, which adds a good amount of strategy, and it is always fun to steal your enemy's balls.
Then there is story mode, where you will start out with only one team mate, and work your way up to three buds to make up your team, throughout your journey, you will encounter numerous text boxes, normally i would skip them, but these ones caught my attention since i AM a pirates vs ninjas debater, and found that the story, altho senseless and short, has many jokes that will make you smirk.


If you are playing offline, then you have an extra option available, which is co-op play, this allows you and up to three friends to play through the story together, fun as it may seem, you will often get lost and run in circles trying to figure out where you are at, not only is this contributed by the fact that there are too many players on screen in such a small arena, but all the characters look alike from far away, specially if you are playing on a standard T.V.
Apart from story you can do a local match which is the same thing as an exhibition match, except you get to play with, or against friends, sadly enough, there are only four different arenas in which to play, and altho they all look beautiful, some may resemble one another in large amounts.
If you are playing online, then you have the options to play privately, ranked, or just a player match, here you loose alot of the options you once had in local modes, you will only be able to choose your character, and the amount of players, everything else seems to be randomly generated.
Not excluding online mode, when you play with three or more players per team, you will easily loose track of yourself which is why in my opinion, two on two is the best way to go, not only do you keep track of your self at all times, but you also gain a great seance of team work.

Going deeper into the game, you have a few cool things you can do while in game, apart from each player having their own special power, you can also preform special throws which will make the game go in slow motion for about a second, allowing you to see the flamed up ball slowly reach its targeted flesh (or metal if it is going after a robot) it is always cool to see someone dodge it in slow motion, or slowly hit the ground from the impact, which brings me to say that smacking someone with a ball in this game feels good, no seriously, you can REALLY FEEL the ball hit your opponent, it is one of the most rewarding things i have ever done in a game in years, unfortunately, that is probably the peek of this game, the controls feel flimsy, and it is hard at times to grab the ball seance the 3D environments can be very confusing at times due to the fact that you are almost getting a side view of the arena, it seems to me like an over the head camera view would have been more appropriate for the game.
There is also a stamina meter which goes down every time you dodge, (the right analog) strike, or jump, which are the two actions you will be doing the most; If it ever goes down all the way, you will be forced to stand still until it goes back up.
You can also catch balls to gain some health back up, but should only be attempted after alot of practice or you will simply be a sitting duck, hit balls to throw them back at whoever ...

Fable 2 Pub Games
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: LionHead
Genre: Casino mini games
Players: 1
MSRP: 800 MS point ($10, £6.80, €9.30)
Platform: Xbox 360 (XBLA)

First of, you can get these games for free as they will be bundled with Fable 2 or if you preorder Fable 2. Any money you make can be used in the full game of Fable 2, but also if you get too much debt it will have consequences in the fable world (people will come after you for the the money you owe? ). Also when you win tournaments you can unlock items for the main game, like strength potions, tattoos etc. Sounds like a nice little game to wet you apatite for when the main game comes out, doesn't it? Shame the games are so bad ....

There are 3 games in Pub games, Spinnerbox ,Keystone, Fortune's Tower. You can only play some of the low bet limit games first in each type, the rest are unlocked as you gain experience points, which are gained mostly by how much you bet and not how much you win, which is good because it seems you lose more than you win in some of the games.


Fortune's Tower is by far the best of the 3, Its basic card game, cards are laid out in a pyramid formation with a row added to the bottom for every round. First you place your bet then the first 3 cards are drawn, the first card in turned down, and the next 2 are placed face up underneath (in a pyramid formation). For each round another row is added to the pyramid, and your winnings is based on the total value of all the face cards on that row (15 is break even). Now the catch. If a card from the current row is touching a card of the same value on the row above it, it's "Burned" which is game over. The only way that can be stopped is if an Knight card is drawn in that row (as in the screenshot above), which saves the row from any burned cards. If no Knight cards are drawn, then the card from the top of the pyramid (who's value you don't know) is used to replace the "burned" card, but this can only be used once.

For each row you have the option to take the current offer of that row, or risk revealing another row. But as there are more cards on each row, there further down the pyramid you go, the higher the reward could be, but then there is more chance to be "burned". If you get to the last row with out using the save card from the top of the pyramid, you win the jackpot, which is the face value of all the cards in the pyramid added together (= alot), so there is a good reason to keep going to the end.

Yeah its seems a bit complex, but once you play it, it makes sense. You can draw parallels with "Deal or No Deal" as is all about getting the best deal you can get.


Keystone is basically a roulette game. You make bets on what number, colour, shape, etc that will be thrown. Once bets are placed 3 dice are thrown, which added up, is the wining number. Each time a number is thrown a stone is removed, if that stone has already been removed then the one under is removed. This keeps going until the "keystones" are removed (2 or 18 / 10 and 11). The rules are interesting, and some of the variants have reverse rules (you bet on what numbers are not thrown) , but ultimately its very slow, drawn out game.


Spinnerbox is medieval version of slots, and like slots requires no skill, other than pushing a button. The only saving grace is you don't have to be in the same room to play (thanks wireless control), just keep hitting "A" (Auto-fire anyone), to keep spinning, which is handy for getting though the tournaments, which, if you have not guess by now, are complete luck if you win.

Most Casino computer games fail because there is no risk with virtual money, who cares if you lose. What makes Fables pub games interesting, losing (and winning) does mean something.... if you are planning to buy Fable 2 when it comes out. But considering only one of the 3 mini games, is really a game that can be called "a game", its not really anywhere near enough to justify 800ms points for it. As a free game is interesting, but asking people to pay for it is a bit much. I was wondering why this game has been left out of the much hype "Summer of Arcade" that Microsoft has been going on about, now I know why.

Pros:
- Unlocked items for Fable 2
- Might earn money for Fable2
- One of the games is interesting

Cons:
- Most likely get debt for Fable 2 (unless you use the glitch)
- Only 3 Games
- OMG So Boring!!

Overall:

*Note: the above score is in relation to 800ms points price point. If you get it for free, add a few more points to it ...

Developed by: The Behemoth
Published By: The Behemoth
Players 1-4
Genre: Action/beat'em up
Console: Xbox 360
ERSB: T: Blood And Gore, Cartoon Violence, Crude Humor.
Prices: 1200ms pts

$14.99 (USA)
£10.20
€13.96
$19.99 (CAD)
$19.80 (AUD)
¥1776
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Overview: Castle crashers is made by the same people behind alien hominid, this title keeps it's roots while giving a brand new experience, alien hominid fans will be happy, and newcomers will enjoy it as well.

Gameplay: In Castle Crashers, you start out with four playable characters (or five if you have alien hominid, in which case, he will be playable from the beginning as well) each have their own special power, and who you choose may easily change the outcome of how you fight, tho in general, you will be going left to right, killing waves of enemies that come at you, and a boss at the end.

You can level up your character in strength which will make your character's melee attacks stronger, magic which will make it stronger, and the magic barr will re-fill it self faster, defense which will allow you to take less damage per hit AND you get a bigger health bar, and agility which will make you faster, and will improve your archery skills.

In castle crashers, after you beat the first level, you will notice that the level selection layout is the same as the one found in "Super Mario World" this allows you to go back to any boss or level you have previously completed, and level up your character or gain some extra cash.

Money can be used to purchase health potions, bombs, and sandwiches; Potions will re-fill your health, bombs are pretty much useless, they do not go far and don't do much damage, but it is still a nice addition to the game, sandwiches will make your muscles expand to a hulk level, and you can punch and kick, tho you are unable to use magic and a sword for the exact ten seconds it lasts, you will not loose any health for any damage taken.

Even tho you start out as a wimp, you quickly level up and gain new moves, and depending on which level up route you take, you may find yourself ether flying across the screen doing an incredible combo and clearing everyone out, or making giant clouds of gas appear from your fingertips infecting big portions of enemies leading them to their death, OR you can be a well rounded person and use magic and might together, which ever rout you take, you have four to five different playable characters from the beginning so you can experiment with them all you want, and you will soon unlock more, you can unlock new characters by ether getting through certain levels, or by finishing tournaments.




At times, and in certain levels only, the gameplay may become a bit repetitive, mainly in the desert areas later on, even if you DO get to ride a camel that spits, which brings me to a more "special" part of this game which is humor, you will find animals pooping everywhere, and signs that make no sense; Enemies often make funny faces when hurt and so does that old king of yours, you have to be pretty bitter to not even smile at some of the jokes this game is packed with.

Another new addition to this game is pets! you can choose from a wide library of pets (you start out with none, and move your way up) every pet has a different purpose, whether it rises your defense, suck the enemies blood and hurts them, or take them down with a good tackle, these pets will let you show them off online when you are playing with friends, and it is always nice to have a companion with you when you are traveling the world alone.

Aside from single player you can also bring up to three of your friends to your town, and they can help you beat that one boss you just aren't ready to take on your on, and are too lazy to go back and do some past levels over to level up, four player co-op is extremely fun, and can get very crazy, you will see blocks of ice rain from the sky, and clouds of gas cover the entire level, also, even if you are 20 levels below you fellow team mates, you can still feel like you are doing something to help them out, since you are free to level up in whatever area you please,you may still be stronger, or have more magic powers then them. after each boss battle, right after you save the princess, you have to fight against any teammate that may previously be at your side, the victorious one gets to kiss her, and there is an achievement for kissing all four princesses in multiplayer.
And even if you don't have anyone to play with, on certain levels, you will have warriors or even peasants fighting by your side which can always come in handy when fighting bit herds of enemies.

...

Published by: Majesco
Developed by: Budcat Creations
Genre: shooter/sandbox
Players: 1-4
Price: $20
Platform: Wii
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Overview: "BlastWorks: Build, Trade, Destroy" is as unique as its name, it offers chaotic multiplayer while keeping single player fun enough to keep coming back even if you have no friends due to its limitless builder that allows you to create bullets, ships, enemies, environments, ect, the only limit here is your imagination!

Gameplay: Many things can be said about this game's gameplay, not only does it offer a refreshingly new way of playing a side-scrolling shooter, but it is also packed in with a marvelous creator that allows you to make anything you can imagine!

Lets start with the simpler side of this game, the campaign mode: you and a friend can engage a Difficult road of a disappointingly short amount of levels which offer a good challenge and some great fun in all three difficulty modes.

In campaign, even tho it is small, it doesn't fall short in its fun factor, specially if you have a friend beside you, as you shoot at your enemies, you will notice that you can actually grab them and make them part of your ship, this is good for tree reasons: one, they provide a temporary shield for you (they fall off when hit) two: they automatically shoot in the direction they were looking at when caught, in which case you may find yourself with ships that are shooting behind you which seems useless, or funny, ether way you look at it it never hurts to have an extra ship to take care of you. And three: after you have collected enough ships, you will receive a bonus life which can be the difference between clearing a level or not.

Grabbing ships is probably one of the funnest things to do in this game apart from making your own levels, there is a special joy that can be achieved once you see that your ship covers the entire screen, and death comes to all that challenge you.

You CAN at any time call back all of your minion ships by pressing the "Z" button on the nunchuck, this skill is specially useful when fighting bosses and you wish to keep your shield, then quickly popping them out for a small burst of random bullets to hopefully hit the boss's weak spot, or if your friend can't grab any enemies because your ship is all over the screen, you can be a good fellow and call them back until your friend has collected enough to satisfy his needs.

After you have beaten campaign mode, or if you just don't have anyone to play with, there is always "build" mode, here, you can build anything you want from backgrounds to bullets, you can literally customize anything you can think of! color size, speed, rate, you name it. but just don't expect to get there and have a master piece in five minutes, creating a good looking ship or a well rounded bullet can take up to thirty minutes or more, it all depends on how detailed you want it to be, I for example made a chicken in it's shell that throws up in about twenty minutes, this may be seen as an upside or a downside depending on which way you look at it, even tho there is nothing really wrong with the editor, it took me a whole day of patience before I could even start to build my own map and that was with only ONE enemy.

This builder has MANY things to offer, with a very well numbered amount of choices for each option, there are over 50 different colors to chose from, over 30 different bullet paths, sounds, ect, you get the idea, this is probably the best in-game builder to have ever been made in a game, it is so complete, it even offers customizable AI for the enemies, and you can surprisingly make it to where the enemies break apart as you shoot them instead of dying in once piece, this builder is so well made, the developers actually used it to make every level in the game.


Graphics: To say that this game's graphics are good or bad would be a mistake, it doesn't even have a set art style since you can make your own, want a Lego theme? you got it, how about a black and white look? you got it! a cartoony art style? with some darn hard work you got it!

How good the graphics are is really up to you and the hundreds of active users out there, and I am positive it will evolve as time goes on, here is the official blast works site where you can upload and download user created content, this can be done easily since the site will ask you for your wii code number (finally they are put to good use) this allows you to click "download" on any desired item and it will be downloaded straight into your wii, from here you can add even more detail to it. but if we were to take every single piece of content that has been made, ...

After a near record development cycle (only beaten by Duke Nukem Forever's 10 year absence) Too Human is finally released to the public. In Too Human, you play as the cybernetic god Baldur as you unlock secrets of your past and attempt to save the human race from annihilation at the hands of machines. Personally, I've been following this game since its Gamecube days, and after losing interest for a long time, had my interest regained after seeing it at a past E3. After jumping consoles 3 times, from Playstation to gamecube then to Xbox 360, the game was finally finished thanks to the financial aid of publisher Microsoft. This game quickly became my most anticipated game EVER, even beating out Tales of Vesperia and my favorite of all time, Bioshock. Then the gameplay videos came out. I was impressed, maybe not as much as I hoped, but I thought "eh, still looks fun. Its got a large production value, the developer has a good pedigree, and usually first-part published games don't suck."

I'm not sure if I'm simply cursed with extremely bad judgment or not, but what a mess this game turned out to be. not only did it end up being far below expectations, but its problems are for all the worst reasons, considering its huge production time and the money spent on it. The main problems facing this game are mostly common problems among shovelware games, such as frame rate issues, bad A.I. and a plethora of other issues.

For the most part, the game holds a decent framerate. But get into a room with many enemies, or start fighting a boss and it gets messy. The slowdowns are never extremely significant, but they are still there, and mess with the experience. But the worst frame related problem is the camera. Twice as bad Ninja Gaiden II's camera problems, easily. The game gives you a few modes in which to place the camera but they all tend to do the exact same thing. The use of the left stick to look around while fighting is taken out, since its needed for the melee combat. However there is one neat thing about the camera, and thats in the form of the Dyack-flaunted cinematic angles. While not near as spectacular as the director claimed them to be, they work very well in cutscenes and give them an interesting movie feel. Outside of cutscenes, on the other hand, the "cinematic cam" just feels unnecessary and forced. Most of the things that the camera nudges you toward just look like the same thing you've seen hundreds of times.

When the camera does point you toward something interesting, it usually doesn't looks very good. Despite having some very interesting environmental features in Aesir, the backgrounds in Too Human are often too repetitive to be interesting. That said, the environments altogether are only average, and when they practically never change throughout each of the four chapters, they get very boring, very fast. There is very little interaction with these backgrounds, and what is there is very elementary(smack it, it explodes. Thats it.) While backgrounds for the real world, which you'll traversing in, fighting in, and doing just about everything fun in, the backgrounds in cyberspace aren't half bad. They too get a little repetitive, but they look much better then the real world. Which is a real shame considering you do very little in cyber space.


Character models are one thing this game has going for it. The enemies are detailed and impressive, though there is a classic case of coloring the enemies a different color and trying to throw them out as a different enemy. To be totally honest, there aren't many enemies in the game anyway, so the models, while varied, are in short supply. The Aesir, or Norse Gods of the game(the good guys) aren't as detailed as the enemies, but the art direction that SK has used to represent the Norse gods is quite impressive. Loki and the Nords especially. The animations for enemies and heroes alike though, is very stiff and clunky. They look extremely robotic, which may or may not be what they were going for in the games since you play as part machine, part man cybernetic god...well whatever. If it is, I'm not very impressed. The jumping attack animations are just painful. To attack an enemy in the air, you have to first knock them up, but instead of doing a jumping attack, you character jumps into the air, then basically RUNS over to the enemy's position while in the air(all of which time the enemy does not move an inch and is simply suspended in air) and proceeds to bash them senseless. The enemies animation are even worse. For the most part, the enemies will simply stand around you and you'll magically ...

Published by: Namco Bandai
Developed by: Namco
Genre: Fast Paced Shooter
Players: 1
Price: 800ms points/$10
Platform: Xbox 360
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OVERVIEW: After 27 years, the arcade title "Galaga" is finally getting a sequel, was it worth the wait? find out in my review.

Gameplay: if you have played galaga on the arcade, or in any other console that it has also been released on (XBLA, Gamecube, ect) you will come to find your self familiar, yet notice some big upgrades, for starters, you have a 2 new weapons at your disposal, they are two satellites that are controlled with the right joystick, you can aim up, down, left, or right, and they will continuously fire in that direction and stay in that place until you call them back with the"LB" button kind of like mines that you can drop, except they fire.

Much like Geometry Wars Retro Evolved, enemies will come from all corners of the screen, this is where you pull out your handy dandy satellites and tell them to shoot beside, and behind you since you can only shoot forward, at times, you will find yourself moving in circles dodging big crowds of enemies as you let your satellites do the dirty work.

If you are expecting a challenge, then look no further, this game is sooooo hard, it (insert comical statement here) you will often be overwhelmed by big crowds of enemies, and your satellites may not be strong enough to handle them, that is when you have to think quick and place them in places where they will be of more use.

Since there are only five levels, you can take a different approach to the game by memorizing when, and where enemies are coming from, this is not a very hard thing to do, but it bases on the trial and error system, try this out, die, go back, try another thing, and if it works, then stick with it and proceed to the next wave of enemies, and if you do this with great precision, the outcome will be enemies dying before they can even show up on the screen, and an amazing scene of control for the time being.

The game may at times also ask for a quick and small burst of strategy, showing you the pre-made paths of the enemies so you can place your satellites towards them and get them out of the screen before they can even get close to you.


Graphics: The first thing you will notice is that this game looks alot like geometry wars and pac-man championship edition, which is not a bad thing at all, it constantly adds beautiful explosions and its a great choice for this type of game.

You will normally find yourself in a dark blue, green, or red background, and every monster that comes at you will complement it with bright flashing lights, you will feel like you are in a rave, the background looks like something taken from a DDR game, and twitched a bit to further fit the game.


Sound: the game off course features some great and emerging techno beats which greatly fits into the game, it is at perfect volume and does not get repetitive or in the way of the sound effects, and even tho they are not songs you would put in you'r i-pod, it is still nice to stop for a second to appreciate the good quality of it.

Replay Value This game has a great replay value as expected of any arcade like title, but this is ALSO a game that you can only enjoy in short bursts (about 20 minutes a day)otherwise, it will get very repetitive very soon, specially since this game ONLY has five levels! which is not alot for an 800ms point price tag, tho each level IS about 10 minutes long.

There is no continue button so you can keep playing, and once you die, you have to start over from the first level which gets annoying, specially since it cuts you off from such great fun, you are going to be sad not because you lost, but because you were taken away from the game.

Difficulty: This game (like most arcade games) was made to give any veteran gamer a good spank in the butt, so don't expect to jump in and beat the game in your first or second try, many ships come from many places at once, and you WILL be overwhelmed, specially since you pretty much stick with the same weapon the whole time, except for when you deploy a black whole that rarely pops up and get a special upgrade which even tho it is very destructive and helps you out a great deal, only lasts for so long depending on your skill level, or until you die.

The game only comes with one difficulty mode, and it would have been nice to ...

Braid
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Jonathan Blow
Genre: Platformer/Puzzler
Players: 1
MSRP: 1200 MS point ($14.99, £10.20, €13.96)
Platform: Xbox 360

Are games art? It's a broad question which has been asked and answered, and re-asked and re-answered many times. Especially in recent years, where technical and graphical limitations have become less prevalent, and programmers and artists alike are free to create new ways of using current generation hardware. Many games are a clear argument against games being art, with their unoriginal concepts and gimmicky game play and art styles. Braid is proof that some games, only some, can be artistic masterpieces.

I played the XBox Live Arcade version of Braid. Very few games on the Arcade have piqued my interest over the years. Worms, N+ and Castlevania, to name but a few were all, in my opinion, genuinely worth the money spent. I can say that Braid, although hefty in it's pricing, is worth the money.


The only way to review this game without getting as complicated as some of the levels can be, is to take it's individual elements one at a time. First of all the graphics. I've never been terribly impressed by games using alternative art styles, like cell shaded games, or retro style brightly coloured shooters. Braid's hand painted wonderland feels like somebody spent a hell of a lot of time on it, and that you're playing something that has been lovingly crafted especially for you, and not just put in the graphical style of the month. Not many games ever make you feel like that. The music is also masterfully composed and whilst, you won't be humming any of it in the shower, it is pleasant on the ears all the way through.

The story is probably something you will make your own mind up on. Initially it seems like a 'save the princess, get to castle, she's in another castle' affair. Which is a deep as you need to get in a platform game. However, dig deeper and look at the intro story for each level, the character's motivation for playing, and even the design of some of the levels, and the pictures made from the collectible jigsaw pieces, and you will wonder, is this a story derived from the classic platform plot, twisted into something plausible? Or is this a very personal tale of lost love and regret? Has the author suffered some deep heartbreak that makes him wish he could rewind time and fix his old mistakes, or it is better to learn to live with them and learn from them, or how about having knowledge of what mistakes you will make, and then making them anyway, knowing it will lead to ultimate success? That entire last sentence is a thinker for sure, but it's also how you need to think to complete some of the game's puzzles, and this fact in itself is simply genius.

Playing the game is simple, you move around, jump on heads to kill enemies, and flick switches. You also have the x button to rewind time, right back to the start of the level if you need to (you often will). It's the characteristics of each area that make these simple elements go beyond simple and become brain taxingly complex.


Later on, new levels bring new features, such as your shadow self, levels where moving right moves time forward, moving left moves it back, and standing still, well, you get the idea, at least, you'll think you do until you realise the problems that come with such a situation. When you combine these and more features even further into the game, things get very difficult, and some puzzles will leave you saying only one word; 'impossible', even with your timeless advantage. But when you finally figure out the puzzle, and there are often multiple solutions, you'll feel so damn satisfied and well chuffed with yourself.

You'll notice that sometimes you have to think not only outside the box, but you'll have to forget there ever was a box in the first place. You'll often be going out of your way to save enemies instead of killing them, to get them to wander into a certain position where jumping on their heads will help you get to something previously unreachable. The game is full of concepts like this, where you go out of your way to do something which seems detrimental to progress, to achieve more.

So when we combine all these elements into one game, we've got a beautifully painted landscape, with delightfully composed music, a casual or incredibly deep storyline depending on how you look at it, and amazing use of time control for puzzle solving in an environment where the only other controls are move, jump and hit switch.


We have a winner here, and if you only ever download occasionally from XBox Live Arcade, as I do, this is one of those few games actually worth the money.

Reading over this review I realize I have my tongue firmly up it's asshole, ...

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Bizarre Creations
Genre: Arcade Shooter
Players: 1-4 (Offline)
MSRP: 800 MS point ($10, £6.80, €9.30)
Platform: Xbox 360

Geometry has never been so fun.

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved was one of the first XBLA titles on the market. Despite debuting almost three years ago, the five dollar shooter-that-could is still being played like a drug by many to this day. Its still a mystery to some how such a simple game could be so fun and addictive. I've never really been much of a Robotron fan, which has obviously influenced this game a good bit, so I was among the doubters. However, after playing Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 for even just a few hours, I can see how this craze "evolved"(pun intended). Bizarre Creation's sequel to the LIVE hit seems to be just what fans wanted; more modes, more leaderboards, and even more simple and colorful gameplay. Read on, though you probably already know from my opening statements how THIS review is gonna end.

The best way to describe Geometry Wars graphical style in a word is probably, "Rave". This game absolutely bursts with electronic style and color. The effects of the game are its best graphical feature. Brilliantly colored particle effects and explosions always keep this game visually appealing, and its one of the few Arcade games that can be as fun to watch as it is to play. The warping of the map with bombs and explosions catch the eye especially well. Enemies and the main character are extremely simple. Then again, they are supposed to be simple, and the fact that they are nothing more then geometric shapes gives the game a much better opportunity to make them both appealing to the eye and diverse. Everything in the game glows, literally. Really, I don't have pretty much anything negative to say about the graphics of this game. They are extremely simple, yet the colors and effects make this 2D game stand out greatly in a world where 3D has taken over. The only thing that really is only "average" in the graphical style is probably the menus. They still look like classic arcade menus, which is kind of neat, but it could have used a flashier display then it has.


The graphics were very electronically styled. That's not the only thing though, as the music follows suit. The original only had one soundtrack, and though it wasn't too shabby, it did get old after a while. This time, however, they added a custom track to each one of the six game modes. To me, most of the music sounded too similar to each other, bar Evolved mode, which had a really catchy tune. All of the music seems to have near the same beat, which really may make it get on the nerves of some people. Personally the music didn't get too annoying, as after a while my ears just tuned it out. While each of the game modes have fairly decent music, the menu music is, for the most part, absolutely unnoticeable. Its not such a big deal, but I really wouldn't have minded some better music to listen to while watching the leaderboards to decide whose score I'm gonna debunk next.

Sound more or less follows the music in being 'average'. The SFX absolutely works for what its supposed to, don't get me wrong. But the same sound every time you shoot and every time an enemy goes up in a cloud of colorful particles does leave a bit to be desired. Enemies are silent. Some of the modes have some pretty neat effects though; in King once you step outside a ring the music mutes, only to resume upon reaching another ring. In deadline, the music builds to a climax exactly at the end of the game, and so on and so forth. So there are some neat little things in the sounds, but the things that you hear by far the most are a bit too repetitive. Nothing here will make you get very annoyed though, since the music usually blocks the major part of the sounds.

Making a jump here to the gameplay. The original Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved had only a single game type. Geometry Wars RE2 comes with six different game modes, all fun, though some more then others. The six modes include Deadline, King, Evolved, Pacifism, Waves, and Sequence. In Deadline, you get five minutes to rack up as much points as you can. You have infinite lives though, but each time you die the enemies are reset, which gives you less chance for points. In King, you must shoot from within circles that appear on the ground. Enemies can't enter the circles, though you can't shoot outside the circles. Also, the circles die out in about 2-3 seconds, so you have to keep moving. Evolved is the original Geometry Wars mode, where you have a number of lives and just rack up points as long as you can. In Pacifism you cannot shoot. You rely solely on lines that you can pass through to blow up enemies around ...