Killer is Dead Review for PS3 and Xbox360

      Killer is Dead is finally among the living! Thank you Suda51 for gracing us once more with another view into your crazy mind. So maybe you're a fan of Suda and you want to know if it lives up to your past experiences of Killer 7 or No More Heroes. Maybe you're someone new to Killer is Dead and Suda51 and you're wondering why a game collecting such low scores and sales is worth talking about, playing, or buying. Maybe you got here from the controversy it's stirred up from it's now infamous "Gigolo Mode." In any case, I'm going to tell you why Killer is Dead is worth some of your time.

Lollipop Chainsaw Review for Xbox360 and PS3

     Lollipop Chainsaw! Suda51! James Gunn! Rainbow Sparkles! Chainsaw Death! Is it fun? Can you eat it? Let's find out!

Month of Suda51 - Sine Mora Walkthrough

     I recently played Sine Mora's Story mode on stream, going over the basics of the game as well as strategies for better play. You can take a look on my Twitch channel to watch the whole, seamless playthrough or take a gander at these YouTube uploads. Do beware of spoilers in Parts 3 and 4, I have put instructions on the video pages for skipping over these. Enjoy!

Celebrate the Month of Suda51 on Aegis Reviews!

     Killer is Dead is upon us, releasing later this month on Thursday, August 29th, In honor of this glorious event, we're (I'm) celebrating by giving attention to its equally glorious creator, Goichi Suda of Grasshopper Manufacture a.k.a. Suda51. Why do we like Suda51? Because he isn't afraid to make what he wants. So, how are we going to celebrate? By writing reviews, streaming gameplay, and hunting trophies. Here's what's going on this month:

Shadows of the Damned Review for PS3 and Xbox360

     Shadows of the Damned was the first project released after Grasshopper Manufacture acquired some new talent for their studio and larger publishers were willing to take a risk on Goichi Suda's (Suda51 (Of No More Heroes, Killer 7 fame)) eclectic and bizarre creations. I have to think that Shadows of the Damned is something Suda51 must be prideful of; It's the first game Akira Yamaoka (Composer famous for scoring the Silent Hill series) was involved with after leaving Konami to be hired by Grasshopper Manufacture as well as enlisting the talent of the great Shinji Mikami (Director/Producer of Resident Evil, Vanquish, Phoenix Wright, and God Hand just to name a few), and to top it off, it's the first Grasshopper Manufacture title to be published by a huge company, namely EA in this case. If there's a time for Suda51 to strut his stuff and show what he can do with a team of visionary Japanese developers, this game would be the right time to do so.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger Review for the PS3 and Xbox360

      Call of Juarez has presented itself to me as a series with a firm grasp of its subject matter and always having a great sense of what makes for interesting storytelling and fun gameplay concepts. However, for all the good there seems to be, a certain lack of polish seems to keep the Call of Juarez out of real, mainstream success. Well, Techland seems to have got their **** together to make Gunslinger a game worth every dollar and minute you can spare. I'm totally in love...

The Walking Dead: The Game Review for PS3 and Xbox 360

     I should've gotten around to this game a bit sooner than I did but receiving an award for game of the year as well as numerous other awards pushed me to play it to the end. Now that I've finished every episode, I can say it impacted me in a couple different ways. So, allow me to review it and say my piece.

DmC: Devil May Cry Review for the PS3 and Xbox360

     Let's get this out of the way immediately: This is a straight review of the game. I'm not going to address the controversy behind the game, what a good or bad fan is, etc. I'm going to be talking about the game as it relates to the franchise and what this game brings to the table.

So, this party, is it crazy-good or just plain crazy?

     Well, it's a little of both to be honest. It's kind of hard to talk about the game in one light or the other with how well it straddles the middle-ground. You can't like it without something about it holding you back and you can't hate it without recognizing that it deserves some modicum of credit for being a good effort and just down-right fun. I'm going to give you my take on each aspect that I think is worth discussing, but before that, let's get some bullet-points out of the way.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma Review for the PS3

     So, if you asked me what my favorite games of all time were, Devil May Cry 3 would be at the top and Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox would come right after. They are truly the two best action games I've ever played. If you asked me 3 days before I played Ninja Gaiden Sigma though, I wouldn't have been able to tell you why. This is because Ninja Gaiden 2 on the 360 mired the reasons I loved the game to begin with since they basically changed the entire play of the game, and not for the better. Then I played Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 and it's probably what I'd state as being the current action-game masterpiece of the current generation (We'll see if I still feel that way after I play it for review which I'm doing right now). It was so good that I really thought I should pick up Sigma just to see what they added to the old game I'd played so many times over. Ninja Gaiden 3 is looking marvelous to me at the moment so I thought, screw it, let's do a review for Ninja Gaiden,

Gameplay

+ A Gentleman's Challenge - While this unfortunately doesn't stick around through Sigma in the later chapters, the following is essentially why the original was so incredible and original. Ninja Gaiden asks the player to give their best, not give up, and to find the ninja inside of themselves. I know that sounds REALLY cheesy but stay with me. First, why is it a "Gentleman's Challenge?" When I think of God of War, the enemies just seems like orange cones I just need to run over in my car. They're not specifcally put there to be styled on like Devil May Cry, your goal is just to remove them from your path asap, mash those buttons and destroy them, don't think about it, just do it. Well, that tells me to play as sloppily as I want because it doesn't matter. You don't remember the enemy types for how they fought against you, the cinematic QTE that let you kill them instantly is probably what you remember most. Well, while you can treat Ninja Gaiden like that, you'll probably make a really hard time out of it for yourself. The game starts off placing one enemy in front of you, you kill him no problem. You may have thought it was cool that he blocked your attack a couple times but that didn't stop you. Then you get two at once directly after. It's a bit more hectic but you're thinking that this fast paced battle between the two is what it's all about, still manageable and pretty cool. The game attacks you in pair a few more times and you realize you're getting awfully low on health and you only have a limited way to recover that health. Then they toss three ninjas at you and you're getting your butt handed to you because you're just trying to kill as fast as you can. It's at this point you need to realize you don't play Ninja Gaiden like some meager beat-'em-up. These enemies don't want to die, they want to live and they're not afraid of standing up to you at all. They don't want to give you breathing room and time to think because they'll die if they do.
     Now, don't get me wrong, they're are programmed with some form of restraint, you never truly get mobbed and they usually focus on only tossing a max of three enemies at a time your way. What Ninja Gaiden does is it puts you in a place where you need to think defensively first and how you can turn those conditions you're up against back at your challengers. You need to block and look for openings. You can't get greedy with your attacks because they'll get you from behind. Knowing your combos allows you to put vulnerability at a minimum while you maximize the efficiency of the damage you deal. Now crank up the speed on that thought process and you're playing a "Gentleman's Challenge." Dirty tricks are frowned upon and clean precise play is rewarded. It's essentially going at the same pace as Devil May Cry but it's more about defense and survival over creative aggression and reflexes.
     So then you make it to the boss, and you die, and die, and die. It's only the first level and you just can't do it! Well FUCK that! Ninja's don't give up and they don't fail. They look inside, gather themselves and the beat the shit out of what stands in the way of their success. This happens often in NG. I guarantee you will get pounded to death a lot of times on your first play through the game. You need to pick yourself up, find the ninja in you and succeed. To give up is a shame but to succeed is to feel unbeatable, invincible, empowered, and beyond whoever steps in your path. THAT is Ninja Gaiden. After you get through that, you're ready to play what the game has to offer. I also have to add that because of this challenge and empowerment of the player, as well as Ryu's lack of dialogue and emotion, the barrier of stepping into the shoes of a ninja disappears. You feel like beating this game is a task only someone as determined and skilled as you can hope to attain. To me, this is the ultimate motivation you can give to a player. And that's probably why I beat this game 10-15 times in a row without touching another game way back when. There's nothing like the challenge this game provides and there still isn't. Ninja Gaiden is a truly unique game and it should not be ignored by anyone truly invested in what games have to offer.

+ Exploration - Another aspect of Ninja Gaiden that helps it stand apart from other games in the genre is how much exploration there really is to do. It's a nice fifty-fifty split between combat and running around discovering things and climbing about. It gives you the time to become a little more intimate with the game in front of you and ties you to the experience.

= Weapon Diversity - There are eight weapons or so available for use ranging from small to large, quick to slow, they pretty much have their own uses. It's probably not the most fleshed out system simply because they wanted you to be able to use a weapon that fits your style, but they also want certain weapons utilized for specific sections of the game although it isn't clear most of the time. Overall, it's not a very large problem but it could've been fleshed out a bit in this updated version more than it was. But the weapons themselves are very cool with very unique designs. It'd be hard not to find one or even a couple that fit you and your style of play.

- Sigma Unfortunately Dropped The Ball - Well, first off, this isn't a game made by Tomonobu Itagaki, the original creator of the game. He kinda watched it develop from afar, really just hating Sigma's guts to begin with. He didn't like that one of his subordinates wasn't truly evolving the game's experience and believed Yosuke Hayashi, Sigma's director and producer, was just trying to copy the original's success (Which if that's the case, who can blame him? It's one of the highest rated games of all time). So how did the game fail to deliver? Well, it was a few things. First of all, they added too much to make the game harder and easier at the same time. That sounds confusing but you'll see what I mean.
     I don't know what the hell they were really trying to do with the water sections of the game, they probably should've left them alone. Originally, you could skillfully tap the jump button in a rhythm to run on water, it wasn't difficult by any means. You also had a breath gauge when you dove under water to add some pressure to certain sections of the game that had puzzles or mazes under water. Well, now if you want to walk on water you can just hold any direction on the stick when you hit the surface and Ryu will automatically run and do whatever you want, easy as can be. They also give you an oxygen tank so now you can breathe indefinitely under water. Well, we got automatic water running because in chapter thirteen there are these flying sentry bots that shoot missiles at you so now you can just run at them and kill 'em without frustration (as if they were in the first place). There's also one more way they utilize the running but I'll talk about that in a sec. And then, they removed a lot of the water puzzles/mazes that relied on the breath gauge so now they made the addition of an oxygen tank almost without reason... Very confusing.
     They also rearranged levels to flow in a more straightforward fashion so that the player doesn't get lost or end up not knowing what to do. It backfires if you have played the original before. There's a point where you're gaining entry to a military base and you have to get a bow that shoots stronger and farther than the one you have now. Originally, you'd go to where you think you're supposed to be at, find out you need an item, someone shoots you from up in a building, you aim the bow to shoot them back, and then you see a bow on the wall in room the enemy shot at you from. You also happened to a new key that you haven't used yet so you're supposed to find your way to that room and switch out your bow for the upgraded one. Then you look out the window there and you see a switch in a tower across the way, above the gate you need to open. You shoot an arrow to hit the switch, you proceed. In Sigma, you just fight some guys and a boss that's an exact copy of Chapter 3's, which is insanely out of place by the way, and you get the bow. Then the gate opens for you and you have no idea what you have this new key for... I did it in the original order and became extremely confused why the upgraded bow wasn't there and then I wondered what the point of coming to this location was. I mean, you really don't have to use it for anything anymore and it added to the exploration aspect beforehand so they swapped exploration for a ham-fisted battle against one of the worst bosses in the game...

     The original game had superb challenge which really lied with their collection of enemy types. It slowly introduced you to enemies with varying behaviors and modified them into newer, more challenging types as the game when on. When it wanted to impose a challenge to the player late in the game, it'd see how you could deal with four enemies at once of an advanced type. Bosses were fine before too. You were able to take a few hits and still be alright. Sometimes they'd get you with a very damaging attack but it wouldn't necessarily be the end. Well they must've wanted to inject their game with a little juice from Ninja Gaiden 2 because new enemy types were introduced in the oddest of places and they were kick-you-in-the-teeth hard. I mean, it's hard to deal with a spike in difficulty so large, so fast. The majority of the new enemies were just terrible designs in the first place. Maybe they thought they needed a new enemy for the water sections now that you can run more easily on water. BAD IDEA! Those new mermen enemies were garbage. They wanted to be under water, but on top of the water, and if you hit them once, they'd fall under water but if you tried to go into the water, they do an ultra damaging attack to you that you can barely dodge because you still aren't extremely mobile on water - it was a cluster****. They showed up the one time and then never again. WHY WERE THEY THERE? The good new enemy type however, the purple cat-ladies that you also fight only once, were pretty good. They'd toss about five to six of them at you and they were designed with mob mentality so they just charged you but they didn't really block. They provided a good change of pace to the usual enemy types where it was more about offensive juggling as opposed to staying defensive.
     the bosses were made to deal more damage this time around, some even got new attacks designed to take more health from you. I essentially couldn't beat the game. Yeah, that's me, the action game extroadinaire, couldn't beat the game on Normal.I got to the very final chapter and I couldn't beat it because I had no items and the final boss could clear my entire health bar in a few hits... If I recall correctly, on the chapter before, there was a shop that existed where you could buy items and upgrade weapons before you fought the final boss. At least it would make sense that it would be there since you should have gotten a TON of souls to use at the shop by the time you get to it. Well, it's not there in Sigma. I had to beat the game without items and my currency was useless to me. So I had to take advantage of their last flaw to speak of -
     Every third death you incur, the game asks if you'd like to give up the path of the ninja. That's code for, "So we noticed you died another three times. Would you like to step down to easy mode?" First off, this is annoying as hell when you just want to continue and there's no way to disable it. Second, it makes you feel TERRIBLE if you select yes (of which it asks you to confirm this decision three times before you go through with it). Ayane shows up over your body and basically talks about how she thought you could do this mission but she was wrong. Then she reluctantly claims that she'll be there to support you the rest of the way. I didn't stay in "ninja dog" mode long enough to find out specifically what happens in length but the final boss seemed to be balanced the same way as he was in the original xbox version. You know, beatable with tactics and no items.
      Yeah, so at about the halfway mark, Ninja Gaiden Sigma loses the luster of the original game and just becomes an infuriating and inane experience.

- Rachel's Playable - I hate this woman. I hate the reasons for her existence, I hate the style of her weapon, I can't stand her design, she doesn't have a strong personality, and none of her sections add to the game in any meaningful way. It's cool that they fleshed out her move-set with some really spectacular attacks and combos but she was a total waste of time and even on occasion interrupted some very good exploration you accomplish with Ryu originally. She also put a lot of length into the game that absolutely wasn't needed. Without her, the first playthrough of the game might take you like 15-20 hours. With her, you kinda hope that the game's going to end sometime sooner rather than later.

+ Mission Mode - Anytime you get an action game with a mode like this, it's a plus. Sigma's Mission Mode has a huge set of challenges for you to accomplish where they toss different enemy types and quantities at you in varying locations. There are fifty-one missions with every five missions belonging to a themed set. There are also leaderboards where you can compare your score to others for specific missions (there's also a leaderboard for your scores in story mode).

- Now Loading Critique..... - I installed the game to the hard drive and I still have my game interrupted by last second loads. Anytime you're playing a game and your game freezes to load in the middle of what you're doing, that's unacceptable. This never occurred in other versions of the game.

- Needs Autosave - Let's say you made it to chapter 6 and the last you saved was in chapter 3. You die and go to the game over screen. It asks if you'd like to continue and you say yes. It won't restart where you died or even at the beginning of the chapter you're currently on, it just reloads your last save. Pretty big problem for a game such as this. I also find it ridiculous that it'll save how many times you died so that it's able to offer you a lower difficulty though. It just won't put you back at a reasonable point to try again because it doesn't save that particular data. SILLY!

- Glitches - Chapter thirteen was a nightmare for me. The camera got stuck at one point and prevented my progress in a level (I also hadn't run into a save point for the entire level and I had just got done with the mermen jerks. I REALLY didn't want to do all that over again and I was placed out of the map as I was swimming through a tunnel. I got lucky though because it put me in the animation for running on water and I was able to bypass the entire tunnel as well as regain oxygen. Then it put me back in the game. Still, glitches, man...


Story & Presentation

- Don't Play Sigma For Story - There almost isn't one here. I mean, if someone wanted me to explain to them what was going on in any given moment in the game, I honestly wouldn't be able to tell you much. Sigma's even worse as it excludes the intro cinematic for starting a new game which essentially serves the entire purpose of setting the stage for the game so they REALLY dropped the ball there. To sum up, you're Ryu Hayabusa, someone stole a sword you're clan was keeping out of evil hands, Ayane from Dead or Alive pops up from a neighboring clan and wants to aid you, you run into Rachel whose sister has become a powerful fiend-monster, and then anymore is a spoiler. You're literally like 2-3 plot points away from the end after my summary. Don't play for story, play for the overall mood and experience.

= Everything Else Looks Slap-dashed - It's nothing terrible but it just seems that all the menus and text weren't given much thought and were kind of tossed together as fast as they could so that they could get on with the game. Kind of made me feel like I was playing a rip-off at times.

Audio & Visuals

= Reminds Me of Mortal Kombat - Did you ever buy the soundtrack to the 90's movie? If you did, you'll feel like you're going through a time-warp when you hear the soundtrack here. Except it just lacks anything special to make it stand out at any given time. It's kind of sad when a game can't utilize its soundtrack to highlight sections of the game to really stick the game's special moments to the inside of a gamer's mind. That's why I recommend using your own music. Then you'll always remember your time with Ninja Gaiden, assuming they're times you'll want to remember... If not though, no worries. It's never so bad that you just want it to stop. At its worst, it just fades into the background and you never notice it had a soundtrack in the first place.

= Now With More Ayane! - Well the voicing was never a selling point for Ninja Gaiden, probably because story was never focused on to begin with, but it's decent enough to get the job done without turning off the player from the characters. And for whatever reason they came up with, Ayane's voice is now everywhere, from tutorial menus to narration. I guess they wanted to give her more involvement in the game, which is perfectly fine. If anything, it's a good thing! But I'm not sure that it really added all that much, so...

+ Improved Visuals - While it may not stand up to modern era games, it really does bring the original's visuals to today's standards and some of it stands out in a beautiful way. Like in the tutorial level, cherry blossoms are falling from the trees while you're outside. It was such a nice feeling! We're also looking at improved textures, models have been redone with more polygons, and lastly, cutscenes have at least been reformatted to fit a widescreen television. It is a very attractive game in its own right.

- Jiggle Physics - They're everywhere now. They weren't before. Before, we had realistic bounce given what the characters with breasts were wearing. Now, breasts jiggle almost about as crazily as they do in Dead or Alive Xtreme 2. It REALLY takes you out of the experience and it felt out of place.

Should You Buy?

    Rent it. You should go through at least half the game to understand what Ninja Gaiden was eight years ago and how it's still relevant even today. I don't blame you for wanting to stop part way through though. Sigma doesn't do the original much justice and I'm happy that I still own the original game. Ninja Gaiden Sigma is convenient though and now people who never had Xbox's can play through a bit of what was such a great game.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma was developed by Team Ninja and published by Tecmo for the PS3. Played slightly over 10 hours to completion with a switch from normal difficulty to ninja dog on the final chapter due to terrible level re/design.

Batman: Arkham City Review for Xbox 360 and PS3

     Well, Arkham Asylum won game of the year and one game of the year always deserves a sequel, am I right? At least Rocksteady and Warner Bros thought it did. Getting to release was sort of haphazard towards the end with the intentional spoilers and the announcement that Catwoman, who was touted from the beginning as a key feature of the game, was now locked out of the game as $10 DLC, unless you bought the game new, just 4 days from release.

     I dunno, I was a fan of Arkham Asylum even though it took me a second playthrough to really get a more positive feel for it. I'm a rather large Batman fan, not in the sense of having an extensive background knowledge of the comics (Though I've dabbled here and there in some ****ing awesome stories (Hush, anyone?)), but rather that he's been my favorite hero since I could walk. Arkham Asylum took a bit for me to catch on to so I was only mildly excited for the sequel and was hoping that there'd be more villains and more polished combat mechanics. I don't have enough money to buy every game that comes out though, so I had to play it without Catwoman since I use Gamefly. Let's get down to what I thought of it.

Captain America: Super Soldier Review for PS3 and Xbox 360

(Simon was having trouble with his post so I had to post it for him. This is not my (Ashton's) review)

*Groans.....cracks knuckles......rubs eyes......puts the kettle on*

Ladies and gents. Boys and girls. I'm back on the reviewing train. Whether that's a good thing or not is beyond me but I can't let Ashton do all the work (even though it's fun to watch him struggle). ;-)

With the slew of amazing Marvel films lately, there was always gonna be movie-game tie-ins. Historically, games based on films (and vice versa) have been for the most part.....well......crap! Does Captain America have what it takes to buck the trend of quick cash-ins? Or will this Avenger completely disassemble (comic geek reference there) your hopes?

**Please bear in mind folks that although I'm a MASSIVE comic-book fan, I will be reviewing this as a game with only mild comparison to the comics........well, that's my theory anyway!**

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Review for the Xbox 360 and PS3

     Assassin's Creed 2 (AC2) saved the series for me. It updated the game in just the right way so that everything worked mostly the way it was supposed to the first time around. The story was also very character-driven and delivered several hours worth of varying gameplay. But then, it was given plenty of time to change for the better.
     What's going on with the series now is that Ubisoft wants their AC team to produce a game every year. Most games take several years to make from scratch with some series being able to pump out a sequel in about 2 years using the same, updated engine. But what you get with those sequels are improvements for the series, worthy additions that create new, staple mechanics or features for that game. With that in mind, when Ubisoft touted releasing this game only a year after AC2 and all they wanted to talk about was the new multiplayer mode, I was completely put off and I never picked it up. My thoughts were that AC shouldn't be about multiplayer and I didn't believe Ubisoft was a capable enough developer to pull off a complete, hazard-free game in one year.
     Now, Revelations is on it's way out and I've heard very mixed things from longtime fans of the series saying that Brotherhood was either very decent or a letdown so I thought it would be time to play the game for myself and draw my own conclusions. Allow me to shed some light on the release. Also, in this review I'm going to assume you've played the previous Assassin's Creed games or at least know a fair bit about them. This sequel isn't exactly a departure from what the series has been doing thus far.

Blacklight: Tango Down Review for the Xbox 360 and PS3

     A lot of podcasts out there have really been pimping this game a bunch, talking about how much work was put into the game and that it really deserves our hard earned dollars. Well it's just a multiplayer shooting game and $15, to me, is a bit of cash. I did take the dip though and bought the downloadable title.

Gameplay

= Shooty, shooty, bang, bang! - It's got the fast paced action of Modern Warfare 2 and it's got the slightest feel of Killzone and Halo. In other words, you play hard and fast, but you won't die SO immediately all the time. The thing that really turns me off about the gameplay is how much headshots matter. They're literally the difference between life and death. Because of that, you're going to have a tougher time starting out since you won't have the enhanced guns of those that have been playing a while. If you can get those headshots though, it's a pretty level playing field no matter what rank you are. Let me state, however, that although that aspect bothers me, Blacklight Tango Down is a pretty balanced game when it comes to low level players against high level players. If you're good at shooters, you'll be good. If you're bad, then you're bad.

+ Customize this! - Customization is the name of the game in Blacklight. You are able to mod every section of the gun, from the muzzle to the clip. It's said that every weapon upgrade and tag (tags are little trinkets you attach to your gun like soda cans or boxing gloves that give you special stat boosts) actually have secret effects although no one knows what they are yet. Still, when you make your weapon, it most definitely becomes an extension of yourself through the way that you play and your personality.


+ No Disc! - I always wanted a shooter I could just boot up from my Xbox instead of swapping out a disc and this is exactly what I wanted!


+ Modes, and maps, and machine guns, oh my! - There are 7 game types and 12 maps to play on and they're all pretty intelligently designed. The maps are varied and range from arenas to straight-forward shafts with lots of hiding places littered in-between every inch of them.
     Listing off the modes: You got your Deathmatches, Retrieval (capture-the-flag), Detonate (bomb-run), Dominate (territory-capture), and Last Man Standing Deathmatches. Dominate has been my favorite so far. You have to hack consoles to capture territories and when you hack into them you play a Simon-Says minigame. It really speeds up the pace of the game mode and has provided a ton of thrills such as racing to a console with someone chasing you down, tossing down a proximity mine and beginning the hack, and right as they're about to stop you, BOOM! Right after that, you whisk off to the next console!

+ Thrills and chills - Blacklight holds the same moments in the multiplayer that you get from the big names. If it didn't, I don't think the game would be worth my time. There are the panic-sprays from Halo when you just can't aim because you're too damned close to the enemy and you twitch down to a mess of bullets on the screen as the other does just the same (Good luck not feeling like a dork when you walk away from that particular situation), and there's running through guys like a lawnmower from Call of Duty where you find yourself just getting damn lucky as you sprint through a hall where the other team spawns and you get through 5 of them without dying. If you just wanted to get your quick fixes like these without swapping a disc and playing for a full-priced game, welcome to Blacklight: Tango Down.

- I'm going camping - When it's you vs. three to four other players because everyone on your team quit out, you're likely to be spawn camped. Luckily there are two ways out of the spawn base so you can make a run through the second way out but no one tends to do that. My advice is to try it because everyone will be watching your movements and if they catch a glimpse of you, it's back to spawning. It just sucks that some games boil down to this...

+ I can see clearly - HRV's allow you to change your view to a networked vision of where everyone and everything is in the map. This stops the annoying wonder of where that sniper is or why you keep getting shot around a certain corner. You can't shoot while it's activated and the longer you use it, the longer it takes to recharge for the next use. It's use is incredibly well-balanced and it serves a great purpose of keeping the flow of the game moving and fast-paced.

- Don't expect a challenge... or a good one anyway... - There's a mode called Black-ops which is a 1-4 player campaign against bots. It's difficult, meaningless, and isn't the point of Blacklight anyway so just ignore it. It's cool that you can play with 4 of your friends though.

Story and Presentation

= Story? What story? - There's background info on the two factions (Blacklight and The Order) that would make for a cool story perhaps but that's all there is. Not good or bad, just there (Most likely for those who want to know why one faction's red and the other's blue).

+ In... The FUTURE! - The HUD is definitely futuristic as well as how the weapons interact with it. It's not super futuristic, it's more like Ghost in the Shell or Batman Beyond. So instead of using a military helmet, you're wearing more of a motorbike helmet with a high-tech visor. What makes it fun and clever is that, instead of using flash-bangs and smoke grenades, there are EMP and DiGi grenades. 

     EMP grenades that work like flash-bangs except that instead of flashing your vision, they give your visor a blue-screen-of-death and you have to wait for the program to reboot before you can see again. Also, you can be flashed by it yourself but when it goes off, and electrical shockwave will pixelize your vision momentarily. DiGi grenades create fields of electrical disturbance. If you're caught in one, your vision is completely pixelized and your HRV can't see anything. Outside of the field, it's hard to see anything within it and your HRV just picks up a huge black spot on the map. They're creative and effective and work with the time in which they exist.

Graphics

= It's alright - Some people say it's the best looking downloadable title yet and some say it looks like an N64 game. This is going to sound opinionated but they're both very wrong. An N64 game looks like polygonal mess as well as anything out around that time period on any other system. I can also think of some better looking games on the Xbox Marketplace and PSN Store like Shadow Complex and Super StarDust HD. Blacklight: Tango Down looks good enough that it isn't pushing many boundaries but is anything but horrible or painful to look at. It's just ok.

Sound

= Never again will I repeat myself - It's alright. The soundtrack can be maddening after a time and the guns and explosions sound as they should. I do enjoy the dialogue that the player characters use in battle, it has a creative use to let teammates know you're beside them or when you're being stalked by someone.

Should you buy it?

     Try the demo. You get to play for an hour and they time you fairly; only when you're actually in play. It won't count down when you respawn or going through menus. I say download it and then play a couple games. Leave it alone and then come back after a time. This should help you figure out if you want a convenient game like this and whether the gameplay works for you. I wouldn't recommend purchasing before you've played the entire hour though. 

     I do think it's worth the purchase though. You're constantly rewarded throughout your games whether you did well or not so you'll always feels like you're progressing. And while you can tell that the developers were on a tight budget, you can feel that they really put the buck to the limit. Also, I heard Ignition, the publisher, was in financial trouble and they tend to bring us some cool, different games from Japan to the states. Tossin' a few their way doesn't hurt.

Blacklight: Tango Down was developed by Zombie Studios and published by Ignition Entertainment for the Xbox Live Marketplace, PSN Store, and PC. Pwned noobs for 25+ hours and reached rank 38 out of 70. Reviewed on the Xbox 360 version.

Lego Harry Potter review for Xbox 360 and PS3

     Take one of the most well-known children's toy and mix it with one of the most well-known characters in fiction and what do you get? A bloody good game! :-)

GRAPHICS AND PRESENTATION

= Nothing to see, move along! - All Lego games have the same graphics engine so there's not much to shout about really, although the Hogwarts school is fantastically recreated in the Lego universe. All the characters from the books are here in there toy form and, for the most part, are instantly recognisable.

+ I know that place! - As mentioned above, Hogwarts is recreated extremely well in-game but it's not just the school that has had the attention. The surrounding grounds, hallways, gardens and general background feel like they've been ripped from the pages of one of the novels. Paintings wave at you as you walk past, students perform spells, Quidditch players fly in the background. A very nice touch indeed.

SOUND

= Errrrmmmmmmm....! - I'm not sure what I was expecting here as I've played all the other Lego games enough to know what the music is like in these games. The Harry Potter theme music is present and correct whilst each specific section of the game ie: the Dark Forest has the appropriate music. It just feels a little......repetitive.

+ Zap! Crunch! - The SE's in this game are, as usual, spot-on. Although none of the characters talk, you are easily able to recognise the emtions conveyed on-screen via their mannerisms and strange grunt-noises.

GAMEPLAY

- Anyone got a map?! - Okay, I know Hogwarts is a magical place but bloody hell!! Did they have to make it so hard to find your way around?! There's no map and the school is a big place. Each door seems to lead somewhere although for the first few hours, you're never quite sure where. A ghost character leads you through the school for the main missions but other than that, you're on your own. Not great!

= So many spells, so few useful ones! - There are well over a dozen different spells to learn and buy in the game. Yet, all the ones you purchase in the shops are pointless, useless and redundant. The ones you do learn, however, are quite fun to use and you will have to know your Wingardium Leviosa from your Expecto Patronum!

+ How big?! - This is, by far, the biggest Lego game to date. With a masive hub world (where you can return to buy characters, spells etc), huge school + grounds to wander, bonus levels, character tokens to find, cheats to unlock, spells to test there really is a lot to do. And yet it never feels repetitive in a way that you get bored. :-) There are 167 characters, 20 or so cheat/power bricks to find, 200 gold bricks and that's on top of the main story missions of which there are 4 years. Each year is based upon a seperate book and is then broken up into 6 levels. So, 24 main story missions, which you can re-visit to unlock more stuff later on! Perfect. :-)

= Familiar territory. - The gameplay is similar (as expected) to many of the other Lego games. Enter a room, destroy stuff, build something, move on. Not a bad formula by any means but it is getting a bit samey. But then again, it's Lego, what are you gonna do with it if not build it?

Should you buy it?

I reckon so, yes! This really is a great value-for-money game and a worthy addition to the Lego game franchise. Easy enough for kids and addictive enough for adults.

Lego Harry Potter was developed by TT Games and published by Warner Bros. Hours played: 35+ (all offline). Review is based on the Xbox 360 version.

Achievement difficulty: 3/10. They're not difficult by any means but it'll take you a while (30+ hours) to get them all.

Super Street Fighter 4 Review for Xbox 360 and PS3

     In 1991, a game hit the arcade scene that would forever change the face of the 'beat-em up' genre. Street Fighter II was a sequel to the original 1987 Street Fighter title and is arguably the most influential fighting game ever. In 2008, Street Fighter IV was released to critical acclaim and major success. It boasted new characters, graphics, moves, backgrounds.....pretty much everything had been improved upon. So, did Capcom manage to improve upon such a fantastic game?

GRAHICS + PRESENTATION

= Same old, same ole! Nothing major has changed graphically, although the game does appear to be a bit sharper around the edges now with marginally improved lighting and textures. I guess if it ain't broke etc.

+ Look! A hippo! More backgrounds have been included and although they offer no new gameplay elements themselves, they all help bring the fighting to life that little bit more. Special mention must go to the African Eclipse background with the hippos. :-)

+ Still looking good there!! 10 new characters have been added to SSF4 and each one of them has been faithfully re-created from their previous incarnations. The 2 exceptions to this are Hakan (a Turkish oil-wrestler) and Juri (loosely based on Tae-Kwon Do) who are completely new to the series.

SOUND

++++ IT'S GONE!!! Yes ladies and gents! Never again will your ear-drums be assaulted by some god-awful J-pop lunatic singing "IN-DES-TRUCTABLE!" I can finally stop seeing my therapist now! :-)

- BINGO! What the hell is it with the Japanese and annoying voices for characters? Cody grates the hell out of me whenever he shouts "Bingo" and the screams of the female characters as they lose, make me wanna bathe my ears in razor-blades!

+ Bring the beat back! Capcom have brought back character theme music during the fights. By this, I mean they've re-mixed all the old music from SF2 etc. A fantastic little touch.

GAMEPLAY

+ Who do I pick 1st? 2 brand new characters plus 8 characters from previous SF games? Yes please. From 3rd Strike and Alpha 3, there is almost more than enough variation for SF veterans and new-comers alike.


+ Can you move like me? Capcom are spoiling us further by giving every single character 2 Ultras instead of just 1 this time around. This further opens the door for combo potential.

- "Almost" enough variation! Ryu, Ken, Sakura, Dan, Akuma. It feels like there are too many carbon copies of characters here. Compared to the uniqueness of fighters from other games ie: Blazblue, SSF4 does feel like it slightly cheats you with the character selection.


- A.I (Awful Intelligence). I'm used to cheap A.I in fighting games but SSF4 just crosses the line into down-right cheating. The amount of times the A.I will read your button inputs and then counter is ridiculous! Plus, all the A.I does is attack. You can't pressure it or condition it. This was a minor problem in SF4. In SSF4 it is not acceptable.


- Slow motion. Online still suffers from massive amounts of lag, often at the most inconvenient of times. I've also found out that the spammers are still taking advantage of this, demonstrating no skill what-so-ever and dis-connecting if they lose!


- Priority! Some moves have a very strange level of priority. For example: Chun-Li's 2nd Ultra (Kikosho) can be interuppted by a simple jab! Throws can be stopped mid-animation whilst other characters normal throws will go through Supers+Ultras!? Other special moves have been worked on such as Ken's 'Flaming Dragon Punch' which now has a ridiculously quick recovery time. Offline, this is quite annoying. Online it's an absolute f**king nightmare!!

+ Online vs. Offline. Always, if you can, play SSF4 offline against your friends! Online is nowhere near as responsive. Offline SSF4 is a LOT of fun! Online, it just becomes frustrating.

= Out with the old, in with the new! Call me crazy but I really enjoyed the Survival and Time Trials from SF4. I see no reason as to why they were taken out. In their place are several new online (what a surprise) features. Endless battle (replaces player matches), team battle (exactly as it sounds) and Tournament Mode (recent DLC release on Xbox Live). The trials from SF4 make a return in a new format and are slightly easier to pull off this time, but many still require more skill than many players are able to achieve!

Should you buy it?

Despite it's faults, I would say that this is a resounding 'yes'. If you've got more than one pad and more than one friend, you owe it to yourself to play this against each other. Don't worry about online play too much and just enjoy versing other people offline.

Super Street Fighter IV was developed and published by Capcom. Hours played: 100+ (both online and offline). Review is based on the Xbox 360 version.

Achievement difficulty: 9/10. It's the trials that are the real killer here!

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Review for Xbox 360 and PS3

     Maybe you've heard of a little series that goes by the name of Castlevania? Despite it's following and the great record of it's titles, I'm always surprised to find that there are so many gamers that don't know a thing about it! Well now there should be no reason to know nothing of this great series! Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is on the PSN (PlayStation Network) and XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade) marketplaces. This game was so well loved that all of the Castlevania games today use the same formula established in this 1997 PlayStation title.
     You see, Castlevania used to be a side-scrolling adventure game, pretty straight-forward. Symphony, however, changed up the game by using the exploration gameplay found in the beloved Metroid series, thus creating a new style of games dubbed, Metroidvania. It's a timeless game and in my opinion, it takes what Metroid does and does it even better. Here's the review for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Gameplay

+ Simple, yet intricate - There's a jump button, a right and left attack button, and a back-dash button. That's it. and the game merely requires the use of only those four buttons. You can always go head-first at an enemy and succeed. It may be a little harder than observing all of your abilities at hand but you certainly don't need them which gives it appeal to those who aren't good with complicated controls. But there's another layer to it.

     Depending on the weapon you're using to attack, there's a certain amount of recovery before you can attack again. You're also stuck to the ground during that recovery. If you can be ingenious enough, there's a way around the recovery. If you attack while jumping, the recovery of the attack is reset when you hit the ground allowing you to jump and attack again or immediately attack when you hit the ground for a quick two hit combo. Eventually a flow is gained (YES!! FLOW!!!) and you'll find yourself hopping forward, slashing monsters out of the way as you speed on through. Even battles with tougher enemies become fast paced as you time your jumps and attacks to dodge their attacks and counter them quickly. 

     There are a lot more examples I could go through but figuring it all out is part of the fun and strategy of Castlevania. That tip up there is a key one to learn that's applicable to the rest of the Castlevania series.

+ How did I do that!? - One thing about certain games that I'm in love with is when they keep certain aspects a secret from you. You got frustrated with the game or got bored and just started mashing buttons and you accidentally did something you didn't know was even possible! There's a plethora of different commands you can perform with different weapons for secret attacks, secret magic spells you can perform, there are even different ways of getting around the environment if you can figure it all out. 

+ Left or right? - Alright, I love Metroid. It's fun, addictive, different. The only thing I don't like about it is that I never felt as compelled to explore the world as I would like to be. Symphony of the Night delivers on exploration and rewards curiosity in spades. It is rare to play a game that is so unbelievably rewarding and wrapped up in secrets. Break holes in walls to find secret weapons and rooms, find special switches that only appear to do nothing unless you have the spark of curiosity to investigate them, the surprises are never-ending. I mean, as scary as Dracula's castle is, it's so imaginative and exciting that you can't help but feel like you wish you could be there. It's hard to stop until you've uncovered every unexplored area in the game.

+ A pinch of RPG - Alucard (who you play as) is built up of various stats. These aren't stats you choose or influence the rise of but they are made up of numerical values and they affect certain aspects of the game. You can use items and equipment to raise specific stats for the duration of their use allowing you to work with stats that you personally find important. You also gain better stats as you level up from killing monsters. It's not a huge element to the game but it has just enough to make a difference in the way you go through the game.

+ How would you like to play? - There's a weapon for just about everyone's preference when it comes to dispatching the monstrosities within the castle, and being able to have a weapon assigned to one of two different attack buttons, you're free to customize the way you want to play. If you want to go through weak hordes at a fast pace, there are gauntlets. If you'd rather stay away from enemies, there's a spear. There are tonfas, wands, flails, maces, broadswords, ninja stars, it's all up to you! They all have different properties and work in different ways with their own secret attacks and everything! You'd be hard pressed to not find a weapon you can be happy with.

+ There's so much! - When you begin playing, you're gonna be sad when you realize you're close to the end. Luckily, the game has a few ways to extend the life of it's duration. When you've gone through the entire castle and you get to the first ending, I don't think you'll be satisfied with the results, and you shouldn't be. To get the real ending, you need to go through the inverted castle!!!! Not only is it just flipped upside down but there are new enemies, bosses, items, weapons, abilities, it's like a whole new game! And after that, you can go through the whole game as Richter Belmont, an older protagonist of the series, who utilizes the trusty Belmont whip and a completely new move-set. Believe me when I say playing with Richter is so different, it's like playing a new game. There's some amazing content and replayability here!

= Medusa Heads - I personally don't think it's a negative against the game but I gotta call out the Medusa Heads for being so irritating in the Clock Tower. They're such bitches that I guarantee everyone will have their own anger-filled rage-story the first time you run into them at a low level and get ripped apart by harpies. I'm not gonna be specific about why they're so irritating, I'm going to let you have the fun of finding out why. Enjoy!

Story and Presentation

+ Alucard will Kill. Dracula. - Dunno if that pun really worked out or not. Anyway, the story isn't exactly at Mass Effect's level but it is indeed a step up from Mario and Kirby games. Normally you play through the Castlevania games as the Belmonts, a family tasked through the generations with the slaying of the ever-immortal, Dracula. Symphony of the Night changes this up a bit by placing you in the shoes of Alucard, son of a human mother and Dracula, and Alucard is out for blood; His father's blood! 

     The game utilizes unique devices to propel the story forward that are always intriguing and unpredictable making a supremely simple story into an addictive fare.

+ "What is a human?" - The voice-acting is so cheesy you just can't help but love it! Sometimes it gets so ridiculous that you can't help but have a giggle. This is nowhere near being taken seriously but it is absolutely meant to be enjoyed.

+ Welcome to my castle... - This is Dracula's castle and you know it. The environment combined with the monsters and the soundtrack, they mix together to make the Reese's of gaming. The choice of exploration adds a lot to this title as well because the game didn't show you this and that, you discovered them. They didn't exist until you found them! From hideous creations, to rooms filled with eerie sequences making you wonder if you really saw what you just observed, they bring Dracula's castle to the forefront of your imagination. There's nothing like it out there. It's addictive, beautiful, harrowing, and creepy all at once and you can't stop wanting more!

+ Is there no end to them all!? - I could go on for days about all the great things of this game but I did want a shorter review and that's not what I'm getting at all! Just to touch upon a couple things very quickly: The bosses are crazy awesome! Some of them are straight-up cool and some, like Beelzebub and Granfalloon, are so repulsively sickening that they will never fade from a gamer's mind. EVER. 

     The diversity in enemies and their appearances are astounding. There's always a new monster to dispatch and a new strategy to formulate. You will always be on your toes and you will love every second of it.

     Finally, the art direction. Whoever came up with the concepts of all these monsters, locations and such, who I believe is Ayami Kojima, is an imaginative genius. Everything is so beautiful to look at and so detailed too! And that's saying something for a game with 13-year-old graphics!

Sound

+ GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!! - That's you after playing this game. It's everyone after playing this game. The music is fantastic!!!! Symphony of the Night has some of the most treasured music in the history of games. So much atmosphere is added to the entire game through the soundtrack, every song becomes memorable. You'll be addicted and at times, you won't even want to leave the section of the castle you're in because it would mean the end of the song. Unfortunately, they stay with you which may cause you to lose sleep since the only way to get them out of your head is to keep playing the game.

= It's nice - The game's from 1997, what do you expect? The sound effects are what they need to be and that's that. It's not like they're blasphemous in quality.

Graphics

+ Like a fine wine... - It's a 2D game made up of pixel art. It's not really flexing much muscle but it more than makes up for it in subtle and detailed animations and it's diverse palette of colors. Every time I look at the game, I instantly gain a feel for it's moody architecture and atmosphere. I had no problem looking at this splattered across my HDTV. In fact, I think I'd feel maybe even a bit upset if the graphics were drastically updated from the original game. It's hard not to appreciate the visual detailing, the time and care that went into the way the game looks. It's a very beautiful game by my standards.

Should you buy it?

     Ok, I would say anything if it meant you purchasing and buying this game. This is a timeless masterpiece. It is by definition timeless! Really! It's on almost every top-games-of-all-time list out there and it won game-of-the-year from several different critics. I can't even think of one negative for the game. I played it back in 2007, beat it twice. I just went through it again and it is still just as good. 13 YEARS OLD AND IT IS STILL KICKING THE BUTTS OF THIS GENERATION'S GAMES!!!!

     I've recommended this game to so many people and they always blew it off because of several factors: They don't like scary-looking games, horror isn't their preferred genre, they don't like Dracula, they think it's just a dated game surrounded by false memories of nostalgia, I don't care what your reasoning is because it doesn't apply to Symphony of the Night. Any one of those people that finally caved and played it raved to me about how amazing it was. You will too but you just have to buy it first.

     One thing I do need to say though is that if you have a choice, get it for the system with the d-pad you like. If you can't, it won't make the game worse but it helps ease a little frustration that can come up from that. So buy it. NOW! BUY IT NOW! NOOWWW!!!!!1!1111!!!1!1!!!!1!

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was developed and published by Konami. It is available for download on the PlayStation Network Store and the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace for $10 (It's a steal!). Played for 13+ hours or so, got the true ending with 200.6% of the map complete and finished an entire run with Richter. 

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger Review for Xbox 360 and PS3

Given the popularity of Steet Fighter 4/Super Street Fighter 4, many people overlooked and/or blatantly ignored a little 2D fighter called 'BlazBlue' from developer 'Arc System Works'. Given the fact that BB garnered very impressive review scores (rivalling that of SSF4) it was a mystery to me as to why many people weren't giving this game a go.

GRAPHICS + PRESENTATION.

+ Breath of fresh air. Unlike SSF4's 3D models, BlazBlue is a 2D fighter in the strictest sense. All the characters have been pain-stakingly hand-drawn in stunning detail. Each character is extremly diverse and fits the overall theme of the game. And BB is not rough around the edges either, being presented in glorious HD does nothing but make the game even more pleasing to the eye. Colours are incredibly vibrant and it feels like you're watching characters from an Anime/Manga film. Backgrounds are not ignored either. In fact, I would say that the backgrounds in BB are superior to those in SSF4 (and yes, that includes the SSF4 Hippo/Eclipse background)!

= Have we met before? For most people, BB's cast list looks very impressive (and it is). However, there are some similarities between BB and other 2D fighter ' Guilty Gear'. Although not detrimental to the game in any significant manner, it does raise the question about originality. This is, however, a small criticism is an, otherwise, superb looking game.

+ Pay attention! BB, unlike many other fighters, actually has a decent in-depth story behind it. All the fighters are inter-twined with each other which gives the game a feeling of depth that is often amiss in this genre. Every character has a colourful history and reason for fighting (rather than VF5's or DOA4's ambiguous story lines). To go into depth about the story would take a long time (and I'm at work, so my time is limited).

SOUND

+ What we know and love! Let's face it. No Japanese fighter would be complete without some crazy J-Rock! And BB doesn't dis-appoint. The theme music in each stage is a nice composition and mixture of original and jazzy rock tracks that suit the action down to the ground.


+ You said what?! What the hell? Good voice-overs in a fighting game!? Yep, both the Japanese and English voice-acting in this game are excellently implemeneted. It is cheesy at times but to be honest, that kinda adds to the charm as a whole. At the beginning of each round, certain characters will have different dialogue openings depending on who they face. My personal favourite without a doubt is Taokaka (a weird cat-lady). If she faces another female fighter called Litchi, she cries out "IT'S THE BOOBIE LADY!" Immature maybe, but it makes me laugh. :-)

- EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!! Are the Japanese completely obssessed with making the death-screams of female characters as annoying as possible? Seriously! C. Viper and Chun-Li from SSF4 were bad enough!!!!

GAMEPLAY

+ Not for beginners! Yes, this is a plus point. To get good at Blazblue means you have to practice with your chosen character. Mashing 'Dragon Punch' motions will get you nothing a kick up the arse in this game. Combat itself is a satisfying and flashy affair with larger-than-life moves filling the screen. Occasionally it can get confusing but it's FUN!!! There is also a huge sense of satisfaction when you do connect with a move. Everything just feels fine tuned. From barrier bursts+cancels, mid-air dashes, instant blocking, counter attacks....everything fits superbly well.

= Not for beginners! Yep. Pretty much the same thing. Although BB is a purist's fighter, it can be very off-putting to newcomers. Accessability is not high on BlazBlue's priority list. The collector's edition does go someway to remedying this though by including a tutorial dvd that shows basics and advanced combos for all characters! :-)

- Is that everyone? Given the roster lists in current fighters eg: Tekken 6, SSF4, MK vs. DC, King of Fighters etc it's quite dis-appointing to see that there are only 12 fighters on offer in the whole game. As mentioned before, the characters are very original (no Shoto clones here) but it doesn't take long to grow tired of each character (especially online)!

= Plenty to do. BB doesn't scrimp on the game modes but nor does it do anything that hasn't been seen before. Arcade Mode, Story Mode (the best mode available), training, gallery and online.

- Oh look......another Jin player!! All it takes is for one person to start abusing certain move properties online before everyone realises they can get easy wins. One of the characters (Jin Kisaragi) is one such character. I played online for 3 hours solid, here's a true representation of the characters I faced:


Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin, V-13, Ragna, Jin, Jin, Tager, Jin, Jin, Arakune, Jin, Noel, Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin.


You get the point. Being beaten by a good Jin player is great but being beaten by a scrubby Jin who abuses certain moves because you can't counter online very quickly? It gets annoying. Character balance is great offline and it's recommended that this is how you play BB ie: against your friends OFFLINE.


SHOULD I BUY OR RENT?

I would defintely recommend buying this title. The production value is first class and you can see the attention to detail that has gone into creating this game. This is a worthy alternative to Super Street Fighter 4 and really doesn't deserve to be ignored.

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger was developed by Arc System Works and published by Zen United (Aksys Games in the US). Hours played: 40+ (all modes beaten, all achievements unlocked). Review is based on the 360 version.

Achievement difficulty: 7/10. For the most part the achievements are enjoyable. The online achievements can be a bit of a grind so it's worth finding someone you can boost the achievements with.


Opinion:
C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!!!!


     Our first opinion post! This is where you get a split take on the written review. Why an opinion? Well Simon's done a damn good job on this review so I don't think there's a need for a second one. There's just one thing I'd like to chime in on though. 
     Have you ever played fighting games and just felt that you weren't really good enough to tangle with the vets? Were the mechanics too much for you to grasp? Well BlazBlue is your game! The aim of BlazBlue has been to simplify the mechanics of the genre while retaining the depth of a complex fighter. There's no l/m/h. punches or kicks, just 4 simple buttons. You have the A, B, and C attack buttons and a special D button. 
     With the majority of the fighters, you can get an easy combo off just by pressing the first three in succession. The D button activates a character's "Drive" attack. The idea of the Drive is to allow newcomers to perform what would normally be a command special attack with just the push of a button. It's works 100% differently for every fighter and serves to also give an idea on how a certain character should be used. With such controls in place, it's easy for anyone to feel that they've really got the hang of the game and it instills great confidence. After that point, you will then be sent down the road of complex mechanics such as bursts and rapid cancels.
     So in my opinion, BlazBlue is indeed a fighter for beginners but also intricate enough for a hardened veteran of the genre. Go pick it up and have some fun!

-Ashton