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.

Watch Live Gameplay and Highlights on my new Twitch channel!

Watch live video from aegisornus on TwitchTV

     Well I bought myself some capture equipment and now I'm streaming (almost) all of my gameplay live! The idea is to post playthroughs that I do for review, segments of trophy hunting as well as tips and strategies for games, and I'm also in pursuit of finding my first speedrun game (I'm thinking Bionic Commando 2008 or maybe something Suda51). Above and below are some of my highlights, please check out my channel if you're interested in more. I will take requests and whatnot for anything people want to see so drop by.
    
     Updates for streaming are also uploaded to my new Twitter account: http://www.twitter.com/aegisornus . If you follow me there, you'll be up to date on when new reviews are written and when/what I'm streaming. Hope it's something that can be enjoyed. See you guys with a new review soon.


Watch live video from aegisornus on TwitchTV

Metroid: Other M Review for the Wii

     I was once on a Metroid binge not too long ago. It all began with Metroid: Zero Mission on the GBA. After that, I'd gone through Fusion, Prime, Super, I was a fan. I was really excited for Other M but found that I was beyond disappointed when I finally got my hands on it. I thought the same as most other disheartened players, that Samus didn't need a voice, the story got in the way of what Metroid's always been, the design was too linear and some design choices left me utterly dumbfounded. In fact, it was due to the game's design that I wasn't able to progress after a certain point and couldn't beat the game- nor did I want to. It's been a few years since I've last played it and I found myself wanting to be able to specify what I liked or disliked about it in a way that I could debate, at length, my position. So I sat down, booted it up, and gave it another go. Who knows, maybe this time would be different.

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...

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror or Fate Review for the Nintendo 3DS

       So, Mirror of Fate is the next entry in the Lords of Shadow trilogy for Castlevania, and a faithful sequel at that. From what I've experienced, the purpose of Mirror of Fate is to set up the ensuing drama for Lords of Shadow 2 coming out later this year. Dracula's traditionally been the main villain in the Castlevania franchise and now we're being shown how the Belmonts enter the fray as the vanquishers of the night in the new Lords of Shadow lore. But how well does the game transition onto a portable console? Astonishingly well actually!

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.

WE'RE BACK!

     HOLY. SHIT. So sorry! I thought I would get this up and running again; I've basically settled down a bit, Simon has expressed wanting to write reviews again, and I'm finally tired of putting reviews off. Had I known though, that we've had 2000+ page views, I wouldn'tve stopped in the first place! In fact, we've had visitors today! I guess that Youtube video I did and the link in my Xbox profile really worked out. Well, I'm gonna be back, every week to every 2 weeks. I'll at least say something to give off a pulse. And maybe a schedule might help, so I'll post every Tues or Weds. Sorry, I can't even tell if I'm writing correctly or not. I'm so incredibly shocked to have received this many views! I didn't think a soul came around here.

     Anyway, I actually came on today to write a review for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood today. As I mentioned before, I thought that today was the day to pull my britches up and get back to work. So here I am. Be patient with me though, I've totally forgotten how I've gone on about game reviews so I'm gonna have to struggle through the previous trials I had gone through before when I first started. Shouldn't take long to work out the kinks though.

     OK! So, I'm back, Simon might be back, and there should be less disappointment for any visitors, new and old, from here on out when they visit the blog. Alright guys, here we go!

Fable 3 Review for Xbox 360.

Fable 3 review for xbox 360.

There's one thing that Peter Molyneux is good at, and that is hyping his games up without meaning too. Fable is one of the most well-known RPG (lite) series on consoles. With Fable 2 being a satisfying, albeit simplistic, approach to an open-ended RPG/life-sim surely it was a case of building upon a solid foundation? After all, Mr. Molyneux had promised so much for Fable 3. Morphing weapons in real-time, touch mechanics with towns-folk and much more. Has it lived up to the hype? Read on!


STORY & PRESENTATION

+ Well, the story is a large improvement over that of the 2nd game (not exactly difficult). You play as the son of the Hero from the 2nd game and it is upto you as the son to discover that you are also a hero as your father before you. Events do follow on loosely from Fable 2 without ever having to re-tread old ground which is a blessed relief. Events quickly unfold and before you know it, you're building an army in order to take the crown from the Hero's tyrannical brother (although all is not what it seems).

= The good thing about Fable 3's characters is that they are genuinely interesting and you do form an attachment to certain characters. Having said that, the characters you meet don't have much of a chance to develop, nor do they impact the story in any significant or meaningful way.

SOUND

+ Without doubt this is Fable 3's strongest aspect. With the exception of some repeating music, Lionhead Studio's should be applauded for their sterling work on the voices and scripting. Parts of the game are genuinely funny to listen to and help add to the whimsical charm of the game overall. One of my favourite parts (spoilers ahead) is when you help a trio of wizards play a table-top RPG!! I'll say no more than that but it was definitely a highlight for me (I'll certainly have new respect for chickens)!

GRAPHICS

- Well, it certainly looks nice but it is NOT a huge graphical leap. I know the old adage of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" will be mentioned by some but for me there was definite room for improvement from Fable 2. Some of the textures can be quite bland, pop-up is infrequent but still present while slow-down and frame-rate issues popped up more times than they should during my playthrough. The real crime about these issues is that they happen when there's not much happenning on-screen so it's very baffling.

GAMEPLAY

- Well, where to start on this subject. To be honest, as much as I enjoyed myself for a while, I felt the game lacked any form of focus. Did Lionhead want an RPG? A life-sim? A simple action adventure? Fable 3 seems very unsure of itself and ends up spreading itself too thinly over several differing genres instead of focusing on a few to strengthen its appeal.

- Combat has also remained very simplistic (to the point of absurdity). Hammering the 'X' button will allow you to swing your sword/hammer, the 'Y' your guns and 'B' your magic. Fighting never feels fluid and you can quickly exploit the stupid A.I to stand in one place whilst you pick them all off. The levelling system is replaced by 'The Road to Rule'. This is where you earn Guild Seals to unlock chests that will make you stonger in different areas (magic, melee, ranged). Again, it's far too simplistic and does not live upto the promises made during the initial development of this game. Also, character/monster design is severely lacking. With only a handful of designs for both friend and foe, there is a horrible sense of apathy from the art-design team.

- There are plenty of weapons in the game but only half of them are available in your 1st playthrough, the rest have to be traded online (what about people who don't have internet?). Lionhead have only included 6 magic spells in the game and even though you can combine 2 different spells, you don't need anything else apart from Shock+Fireball to completely dominate with magic.

- You can get married, have children and buy property but the only useful one of these is the property as it gives you a steady income to buy weaponry & items. To get married, you have to befriend someone first which, in turn, means talking/dancing/hugging them until they give you a menial quest to do to earn their friendship. Why am I limited to so few expressions and actions? What happenned to the expression wheel from Fable 2?

- The quests are un-imaginative and repetitive and only serve to highlight the flaws in this game. The glowing trail makes its re-appearance in Fable 3 and will guide you (sometimes) to your next quest objective. I say sometimes though as it can dis-appear completely or lead you to a previous quest or even the long way around. Quick travel is anything but that as you cannot pin-point whereabouts in a town you wish to go to. You're transported to the general area and then made to run the rest. Why?

- You can gain employment to earn extra gold if you so wish. Pie-making, Iron Smith or Lute Hero........yes Lute Hero.......I'm not making it up!! Fun for 5 minutes before tedium sets in or the frame-rate cocks your timing up and resets your gold multiplier!! Just stick to buying and renting property!!

OVERALL

Despite all its flaws, I have enjoyed Fable 3 albeit only for the story and voice-acting. Lionhead have really shot themselves in the foot by promising so much change and delivering a watered-down version of said promises. Simplistic combat, mediocre RPG elements and a Sims-style approach to interaction are things that could've and definitely should've been rectified before this games release!! Roll on Fable 4!!

IS IT WORTH BUYING?

Sadly no. It's worth a rental at best. There are just too many things that make the game feel rushed and unfinished as a whole.

Fable 3 was developed by Lionhead Studios. Published by Microsoft Game Studios.

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair Review for the Xbox 360

    When it comes to this new release in the Castlevania family, I've never been more disappointed with gamers' reactions to it. A lot of it actually seems to stem from playing the game like a ****ing noob. I'm extremely opinionated on this topic thanks to things like previews and reviews from "gamers" on Youtube, the majority of which only played the demo or chose to play this as their first Castlevania game. Mainstream reviews haven't helped it along either as they slashed the game's score to bits. In fact, it seems hard to get a true opinion from someone who actually TRIED the game. Well here we go, I played the game for 40 hours strong, and I'm still going. I got both the Castlevania noobie and fan in mind, so here we go!

+ Tell me how it feels! - Imagine an arcade version of Castlevania and that's just what Harmony of Despair is. It's Castlevania without the story and giant castle maps. It introduces you to the boss at the beginning of each level and it's up to you to discover how to reach the boss and figure out the other nuances inbetween. 

     Compared to the other games in the series, the gameplay is a bit more sluggish. It's similar to going from Devil May Cry 3 to Ninja Gaiden; You feel sort of cemented in your animations compared to what feels like a free-flowing ballet of attacks. Attacks feel slower as does just walking around the castle. You get used to it pretty quick though and there's never even a second thought about the sluggish feel after that. For the new player, it helps them focus on the smaller details of battle and platforming, introducing complicated mechanics that have been series staples in a slower, simpler fashion. It's a good idea since it doesn't pull down the vets and helps the new ones move along together.

     And finally just some odds and ends: You don't gain levels, you obtain new equipment and perform actions with each respectable character to make them stronger. How to do that exactly, you'll need to play each one and find out for yourself. In Multiplayer, Loot is given to every player (given that they haven't died and been turned into a skeleton) and every character is given equipment specific to the item set of that character i.e. If Charlotte and Jonathan are working together and they open a chest, Charlotte will get an item belonging to her and Jonathan will get an item belonging to him. 

+ Our heroes come together to battle evil! - Jonathan! Charlotte! Soma! Shanoa! Alucard! They're working together and combining their skills in ways that, surprisingly, work! Honestly, you gotta wonder if they had this game in the works since the release of Dawn of Sorrow. All of the characters work so differently from one another yet work together in perfect harmony. Also, breaking down one character and their specific set of mechanics to build them up to an unstoppable force can take hours upon hours! It's a bit more addictive and fun than it sounds, I promise. Every character gains potential in a different way and playing with others online will make you want to burn the midnight oil to get them all performing at 100% perfection. There's talks of DLC to bring Maria Renard and Julius Belmont which tickles my desire to master more characters. Be warned: You will be addicted.

+ Six heads are better than one - In multiplayer, up to 6 players can traverse through the castle maps at a time. The difficulty of those maps are scaled depending on the number of players present in the map. I gotta say, when you have a full party and the character selection is diverse between you, the game feels like the ultimate crossover of heroes pulling together to destroy evil. There's a constant desire to pull through for the rest of the group and make your hero shine and become their best. And no worries about lag, it's basically non-existent.

- The noobs... - Noobs are annoying. Noobs approach every situation with a mindless solution regardless of whether there's a more useful one right in front of them. Unfortunately, this generation of gamers have not grown up on platformers and they have NO idea what they're doing and they chose a rather difficult game as their first platformer/Castlevania game. Unfortunately, there are troves of these noobs on the game and you can tell that the reviewers of the game are noobs as well, reporting some bosses as difficult asses. Here are some tips to avoid being a noob:

• Choose a simple character: Too many people use a character that's no good for their skill level. This is mostly true for girls since they want to choose Charlotte and Shanoa since they're girls. This is a dumb notion and should be snuffed. Charlotte and Shanoa are for advanced players. If you're not doing well with a character or you can't figure out their growth, switch to another. There are five to choose from. Here's a list of the players so you know who to go for when starting out:

1. Alucard: Simple use. Good for beginners. Medium growth over time, maybe a bit too slow for most.
2. Soma: Easy use. Also good for beginners. Medium growth over time, introduces different powers and feels rewarding right at the get-go and beyond.
3. Jonathan: Good for understanding the way the game works. Super slow growth so I wouldn't recommend sticking with him for too long unless you get attached to his style. Making him stronger is for the determined and patient, though.
4. Charlotte: Advanced. Unless you work on her strength in single player, she will never be worth a dime in a group. Grind, grind, grind.
5. Shanoa: Advanced. She gets nothing to work with until the later stages. Before then, she's not worth it unless you know what you're doing. If you do, you'll be rewarded early on but there isn't a whole lot of variation with her play, so she'll get stale soon after use.

• Double Jump: You have two jumps. Learn to use them. You jump once, and at the height of that jump, jump again. Some situations may call for more distance than height so delay the second jump to accrue more distance.

• Bosses: DO NOT MINDLESSLY ATTACK A BOSS. This is an old-school platforming-action game. Bosses have patterns. Focus on those patterns. Only attack when you know you're out of harm's way. Most of the time, the safe spot is behind the boss. If you get demolished by an attack, learn the signal for the attack and think about how it can be dodged (Can you slide under it? Can you heel-stomp the boss to get behind them?). If you get hit by something, work on figuring it out so that you don't get slammed by the attack again. There is a way to dodge every attack and most of them very easily. If you continue to get pummeled, you're not paying attention.

• Puppet Master: ATTACK THE PUPPET, NOT THE MASTER. The Puppet Master (Master of Illusions) uses iron maidens with a summoned puppet to transport you into in the iron maiden either killing you or bringing you to the brink of death. These puppets have no health. They are destroyed by a certain number of hits that increases depending on the number of players in the party. The number of hits is based upon the attack speeds of all characters in play so 3 players cannot destroy a puppet for a 5 player team. All 5 must attack. When traversing through the level, push crates in front of iron maidens. When the Master leaves the boss room, stop attacking, look at your map (you have lots of time) and figure out what iron maiden he's headed for. Get there and wait for him. If you don't get there first, he can actually block you from reaching the puppet so really, get there first or you're all dead.

• Pay attention: Please don't go on autopilot. That's what a bad Castlevania player does. If your whole party is doing something, maybe they're doing something you should be doing too. If you know better than them, don't follow the lemmings off the cliff. By the way, attacking the Puppet Master while everyone is attacking his puppet means you're being an idiot. Play smart, not rushed. If you can't get hit, you can't die and it won't matter how long the boss is alive. 

+ Good times - There's a 30-minute timer on every run in a level. I've heard the complaints and whatnot. They're all completely unfounded. Playing solo you can take your time grabbing every chest, killing every monster, and defeat the boss with time still leftover. If you ever run out of time, it's likely that you really had no sense of how to get around the stage but that really only applies to people who have never played a game like this before, and since the levels are meant to be played again and again, it doesn't really matter if you run out of time. 

     Other than that, it's a great built-in timer for speed-runners, it keeps some form of pressure on players to keep moving, and since it subtracts 3 minutes from the clock if you die as a skeleton, it keeps people from being a hero and making stupid decisions. It's a really small addition to the game that seems like it could make the game worse or not matter at all, but it does serve a purpose to keep the game going whether you know it's there or not.

Story and Presentation

- This is not the story you are looking for... - There's really no story here. It's just an excuse for the action


- I'm so confused! - The menus can be confusing. After you get used to them, it doesn't really affect you but just jumping into the game, you could be confused about where to go to do what. Clarity on these menu options should've been present and I'd make the call to say it was lazy that it was absent.

= Skin and bones - The presentation is nothing flashy but it still manages to feel like Castlevania. More effort would've been nice.

Graphics

= Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! - All sprites and backgrounds are brought over from the DS games. They look fine on the TV though. It just would have been cool if they had remade the sprites with a little extra detail since this is an HD title and high definition is the name of the game. I still enjoy all of the visuals regardless.

Sound

+ REMIX!!! - They took many different Castlevania themes and remixed them into high-quality works of art. Music to my ears so to speak. They even let you customize the game soundtrack with over 30 remixed and reworked Castlevania tunes.
     Adding to that, all of the sound effect samples and voice work are crisp and superbly recorded. 

Should you buy?

     Buy it if you've been a lasting fan of the franchise. Please, if this is your first Castlevania title, don't play this game. At least not yet. Purchase Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the Marketplace and use that as your first romp through the franchise.
     There's LOTS of replay value and even some future DLC in the works so it goes way beyond it's $15 asking price. Unless you're a spoiled gamer, it's hard to be disappointed with what Castlevania: Harmony of Despair has to offer.

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair was developed and published by Konami for the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace. Played over 40 hours and generally mastered each character available aside from Alucard.

Megaman Zero Collection Review for the Nintendo DS

     When this game was first announced, it was supposed to be Japan only. I wished and hoped and PRAYED it would finally come to our shores! The gaming gods smiled down upon us and finally delivered. You get all four Megaman Zero games packed perfectly unaltered inside of one cartridge. Considering that Megaman Zero was one of THE best series on the Gameboy Advance, this is a collection not to be passed up. And being that I only had the first one, I was totally in for a treat.

Gameplay

+ The “Devil May Cry” of handhelds - Pure, unadulterated speed and destruction. Never are you standing still, it’s just a constant push to the end of the stage until your final showdown with the residing boss of the area.

     Like the Megaman X games, you have your dash and wall-climb abilities, Zero’s sword and Megaman’s buster (although it’s just a pistol in these games). Basically you play through a stage as fast as possible, taking as little damage as you can manage. As you dash through the stage, you’ll end up using the sword to slice through enemies, watching their bodies separate as they explode in the wake of your speed and mercilessness. SUCH A RUSH! It just has that “Devil May Cry” feel to it when it comes down to the speed and precision of everything. If only they transplanted Dante's personality into Zero... Hmm...

+ Tough as nails, smooth as butter - First time going through each title, you’ll be dying endlessly as the waves of enemies, level design, and bosses just don’t give a **** about your wellbeing. If you stop out of frustration though, you’ll be missing out. Fighting through the frustration to complete every level is what makes you a better, more confident, and precise gamer. Playing this collection is an opportunity to prove your worth.

      After you go through a level once successfully, you know how it’s done; when to dash, to jump, and to slash. It gives you the opportunity to transform yourself into a total bad-ass as you ambush baddies before they even appear on the screen. Going through the stage again after that, you get to try for the high S ranks, awarded only to those with the best speed, enemies destroyed, damage taken and items collected. It’s HARD to S-rank and if you manage to receive one, it’s because you really deserve it and you worked hard memorizing every step and rhythm of the level.

= A mode for all mankind - So the games are just way too hard for you. Fine. Lucky for you, there’s a continuous mode where you play through all four games without breaking up the story and every game is set to an easy difficulty. I wouldn’t recommend this unless you really can’t push yourself to make it through the rough difficulty or you’re in a supreme rush and you just want to know the story. It’s much more worth your time to just fight through each game and show it what’s for. BE A WO/MAN! It would have been really cool if you could have adjusted the difficulty for continuous mode.

     As a plus though, if you go through on easy and learn the layouts of the levels, normal will become much easier. At least it should…

+ Weapons cache - The main weapons available in each title only get better through every game. You have the Z-saber, buster, shield boomerang, and triple rod. Most of the time, you’ll only use the Z-saber but there really isn’t a drawback from using everything else. It really depends on how you want to play. The shield can reflect bullets and be tossed about the screen like a saw blade on a boomerang and the triple rod can be extended three times (you’ll stab in one of 8 directions and you can attack two more times while increasing the strength and reach of the rod), you can jump and stab downwards to bounce on enemies, and you can charge for a rod-spin attack to negate any bullets. I preferred the Z-saber for dash-cuts and spin-slashes; it was just more speed-oriented and that's how I roll, pardon the pun... Get it? Roll, Megaman, his sister?...


+ The way a sequel is meant to be - Every next installment of the series improves on the last at the same time as succeeding at trying to do something new. Megaman Zero 4 was really good but after hitting its plateau with Megaman Zero 3, the series was bound to begin losing steam. Luckily enough, it seems like they recognized that and gave the fourth installment to the fans as a last hurrah. Every one of the games are incredibly awesome and it pays to go through them in order. Jumping around to whatever title can cause you to perform poorly since they evolve the gameplay formula in each title so drastically. The Megaman Zero series on the GBA is a great example to the rest of the industry on how to constantly build and improve on something already so successful.


Story and Presentation

= Am I good or bad? - The tale woven through the four titles is a story of Zero kind of figuring out who he is. Is he a savior of mankind or is he really just a tool of destruction gone rogue for the moment. While the stories aren't incredibly deep, it's holds your interest enough to actually wonder what might happen in the next game and how the series will conclude.


+ Humans or robots... Does it matter? - Reploids have been cast out from the society of humans and it seems, in the role of Zero, that you are protecting them from a genocide of their kind. There are reploids who protect the humans in their utopia and form assaults on helpless, outcast reploids. When you kill the attacking reploids though, instead of just feeling that you destroyed a machine, they split apart, showing their insides and motion their bodies in a reactionary pose of pain. You destroyed a sentient being, not merely a machine. Making observations between the morals and ethics of how artificial lifeforms should be treated are part of what makes the series interesting. It's also alluring to be aware of such violence even though the game is hardly that gratuitous.


= Don't judge a book by it's cover - While all of the artwork for the Megaman Zero series has been nothing but AWESOME, there seems to be a lack of focus in the look of the game's menus. Kinda lets me down since I feel like the game deserves a blaring fanfare for its achievements of being such a bad-ass action game but the games tend to speak for themselves. I guess it keeps the unwanted demographics from a gem... Whoever those demographics are... I wanted more artwork! *weeps*


Sound


= Just enough - The soundtrack can be good at times but I seem to get a much larger rush from playing using my own music. I'd suggest you do the same. If not though, no worries. Nothing ever hurt anyone's ears while playing.


Graphics

= You look good for your age - For whatever they lack in any technical area, they make up for with great artwork. At times, it comes of as visually simplistic but it does what it needs to to stay aesthetically pleasing. Luckily, it still holds up today, avoiding a visual style that plagues old Playstation games.


Should you buy it?


     YES! A large, emphatic YES! There's so much bang for your buck with this collection! You get 4 full games in their original form to play through and the gameplay is fitting for small sittings or lengthy run-throughs. If you're a fan of action games, or if you want something new to play on your DS, or both, I can't imagine that there exists any reason that you haven't picked this up. Go out and buy it, NOW!


Megaman Zero Collection was developed by Inti Creates and Natsume and published by Capcom for the Nintendo DS. Completed the entire collection and attempted the various difficulties and S-ranks clocking in at a playtime over 20 hours.

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.