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Astro Boy (the movie) is a delightful reboot of the 1960’s cartoon of the same name. Dr Tenma loses his son in a tragic accident while testing a giant robot powered by the red core – a power source made of negative energy. Grief stricken, he recreates his son in robot form, and powers that new robot with the far more stable blue core, which is made of positive energy. Astro spends the rest of the movie searching for his place in the world. Some stuff happens, some lessons are learned, and there’s a giant alien monster at the end that doesn’t have anything to do with the rest of the movie – what more could you ask for?

Astro Boy (the video game) attempts to recapture the magic from the movie, but never quite hits the mark. The game takes the basic story, and attempts to expand it with additional foes for Astro to fight, and a slight reworking of some of the scenes from the movie. These changes pull some of the impact from the story. In the movie, Astro works to keep his robot heritage a secret from his new flesh and blood friends. In the game, Astro runs off frequently to fight off dangerous robots, which might tip off his human friends, unless of course they all have some sort of learning disability. Despite these changes, the game sticks more or less to the plot of the movie.

The game switches back and forth between two types of levels: platformer and side scrolling shoot ‘em up. The platforming levels feel uninspired and a little lazy. There’s just one path to take, and the game walks you down that path holding your hand the whole way. While most platformers have you collect coins, bolts, or something similar to trade for upgrades, Astro Boy just cuts out the middle man, and puts the upgrades and cheats in lazily hidden secret rooms throughout the world. While this makes the game accessible to very young gamers, and very casual gamers, it also helps to keep intermediate and advanced gamers of all ages from enjoying the experience.

The side scrolling shoot ‘em up levels feel a bit more polished and enjoyable than the platforming levels. Astro soars through the sky dodging enemy bullets and missles in order to make it from point A to point B, all the while shooting down a wide variety of enemies. I actually felt challenged by a few of these levels, and felt a sense of accomplishment when I reached the end of them.

Throughout both types of level, Astro has the same set of power ups at his disposal. These include a dash attack, a super big laser beam, a butt gun blast that sprays bullets in every direction, and the ability to regenerate some health. Each of these comes in handy in specific situations. The game is way too generous in handing out special moves. You start each life with ten available, and you earn points toward additional uses each time you kill or damage an enemy. Casual gamers and small children willhave an easy time with the game thanks to that generosity, but anyone who’s spent more than the smallest amount of time gaming will be turned off by the lack of challenge present in a game where you can regen some health at the press of a button whenever the need arises.

Astro Boy is a great game for small children who fell in love with the movie and just can’t get enough of it. Unfortunately, older kids, and even some younger kids who happen to be avid gamers will feel let down by the lack of challenge present in the game.  If your kids want to go see the movie three times a week, this game might be a good investment for you – as long as those kids aren’t terribly good gamers.

Posted on November 20th, 2009 at 2:36pm by [email protected] (The Games Are Evil Family)
Filed Under: AstroBoy, Nintendo Wii, Reviews, featured

Game: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
Developer: Vicarious Visions
Genre: Hack ‘n’ Slash
Verdict: More of the same with an HD veneer.
Pros: Cool team combo moves. Now you can team up with you favorite villains as well.
Cons: Bland graphics and no real update to the gameplay other than the combos.
Acquired: Developer Provided

On the bare face of it, putting this many of Marvel’s best-known characters in to one game is a comic fan’s dream come true. Further sweetening the pot, this time around you can also mix and match your favorite heroes and villains into one ass-kicking team.

Fortunately for fans of the franchise, there is more to the game than this. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 follows the plot of one of Marvel’s most successful storyline to date, the Civil War, penned by a fellow Scotsman and Wanted author, Mark Millar. Civil War revolves around a great split in the superhero community caused by the introduction of the Superhuman Registration Act. This new law forces those with superhuman abilities to either register their talents with the government or face imprisonment.

The Act is brought into being after a disaster that centers around a group of young vigilantes, featured on a reality TV show. One of the vigilantes, known as Speedball, overcooks his powers, loses control and devastates the town of Stamford, Connecticut. The public outcry is enormous and the government swings into action with the Act. Believing that this is wrong, Captain America, Luke Cage, and a good few other heroes go underground, vowing to fight the Act and those who support it until it is repealed.

On the other side of the coin, Mr Fantastic has done some advanced calculations and believes that the Act is the only way to save the planet. Feeling vindicated with the findings, he and Iron Man join up with those that support the government, in order to hunt down Captain America and his allies. So begins another complicated comic book storyline involving a good few plot twists, before its inevitable resolution. Conversely to what you would think, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is really far from complicated. For all its pretension to some kind of morality, this game is actually fairly simplistic and the moral choice really only comes down to choosing between which characters you want to have available for the whole game. Essentially this results in slight narrative variations, but the gameplay itself has changed very little since X-Men Legends surfaced on the previous generation of consoles.

You are given charge of a team of four superheroes and you have to use them to hack, slash, burn and smash your way through hordes of anonymous enemies, to gang up on some evil that threatens mankind. What has changed this time around is that you can combine two heroes’ powers together in various special moves, which does prove to be particularly devastating.There is also a point in the game where you must choose which team to side with. Depending on your choice of Captain America or Iron Man, this affects which heroes you can choose and even how many of your caped wonders will level up. Of course this is all given a next-gen graphical makeover, which means you can now see the scales of Captain America’s armor in the finest detail.

Being a huge Marvel fan, I wanted very much to love this game. Civil War proved to be a great read and provided great fodder for a video game. The developer, Vicarious Visions just have not done enough with the rich subject matter. Before I tell you why this game is such a disappointment, just let me say that there is still plenty to be excited about with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. The combination moves are really cool addition and the ability to play as villains as well as heroes is a nice addition to the series. Even Marvel supremo Stan Lee even makes a very welcome cameo! These are all just window-dressing though.

It seems like they have tried to hide the fact that the game’s core mechanics have not evolved, in any significant way, since X-Men Legends. Yes, there ar high-res graphics, but they lack the polish and true attention to detail that we expect from today’s top titles. Levels are quite sparsely laid out and there is some truly odd collision detection, with some piles of crates requiring a significant detour to circum-navigate. As good as the ‘innovations’ are, they feel like they’ve been pulled out of a hat, rather than carefully chosen and designed as important updates. The new combo moves and the addition of villains as playable characters are just tweaks, rather than bold new alterations to the series.

With the current crop of consoles having been around for a good while now, it would be reasonable to expect that the games would be more than just ports of good titles from the previous generation, with improved graphics. Sadly, this game proves otherwise. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy playing with my favourite Marvel superheroes and the Civil War storyline is a cracker, but if you’re going to lay out your hard earned cash, you need something more. Simply put, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 doesn’t always go far enough to justify the outlay. Sorry Marvel, but this year the sane option, as far as comic book games go, is to join Batman in the asylum.

Posted on November 18th, 2009 at 5:21pm by [email protected] (The Games Are Evil Family)
Filed Under: Playstation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360, activision, featured, features, marvel, marvel-ultimate-alliance-2, vicarious-visions

Speaking during a presentation at the recent Montreal International Game Summit (as covered by Edge), EEDAR Director of Analyst Services Jesse Divnich highlighted a tenuous connection between game review scores and commercial success. In the case of Nintendo’s DS, Divnich is quoted as saying “scores don’t matter.” But do they matter among a more dedicated gaming audience?

“When we did compare Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 only games, we did, to no surprise, find that review scores highly correlated to sales,” Divnich told Joystiq. “However, marketing correlation was still just a tad bit more.” According to EEDAR’s research, marketing has played the “more crucial role” with DS games and, to some degree, Wii games (a point Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime seems to agree on).

While emphasizing that his aim was not to dismiss the value of critical evaluation, Divnich suggested that marketing plays a more persuasive role in what has become a burgeoning industry. “Video games are now a mass marketed product, it is a product that targets all major demographics, very similar to television or movies or any other sector within the entertainment division.” While Joystiq readers may lock out the din of marketing as they tap the F5 key and anxiously wait for review embargoes to lift, the industry has grown to encompass people who aren’t as exposed to the likes of Metacritic.

It seems that being informed takes precedence over being entertained — at least until you start playing the game. “Quality does matter,” concluded Divnich, “but marketing matters just a little bit more.”

Commercial success dependent on ‘more than just quality,’ Divnich suggests originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted on November 17th, 2009 at 8:15pm by Ludwig Kietzmann
Filed Under: Reviews, advertising, eedar, jesse-divnich, marketing, sales

Title: Fairytale Fights
Platform: XBox 360, PS3, PC
Publisher: Playlogic
Price: $59.99
Verdict: Fun with friends if you can get over the game play flaws.
Pros: Sliding around in blood is fun!
Cons: Nothing about the actual game play is satisfying.

Have you ever wondered what happened to those childhood heros we used to have growing up? You know, the ones who had wolves hunting them, step-mothers plotting to remove their hearts, people lying to them about their threads, or creepy guys selling them veggies that are WAY too expensive. Well, wonder no longer. Our worst fears (or most amusing imaginings) have come true! Fairytale Fights gives us the answer. They’ve fallen from the grace of fame, and it’s our job to get them back. Unfortunately, Playlogic’s delivery is left wanting. There are, however, some amusing inclusions into the mix. Let’s explore, shall we?

Fairytale Fights is rated M. It is definitely NOT something for children. Period. Not only would they, and most adults for that matter, have a very hard time controlling the characters, but were they able to do so, they may have nightmares about all the carnage they would witness. With that, let me introduce you to the main players. As you may have guessed, Little Red Riding Hood has become quite depressed. Granny has apparently found someone else to spend her time with, and poor Red has been discarded like last week’s newspaper. I haven’t decided whether we’re talking clinical depression, or bipolar disorder, but either way, Red isn’t in a good way and is looking to take it out on some poor unsuspecting sap. Snow White has lost her ever-loving mind. The comorbidity in this wayward princess is unreal; a psych student’s dream come true. Needless to say, she was my favorite character to play. Beanstalk Jack is a moron. Let’s face it, he got suckered into trading for “magic beans”. I mean, really? He hasn’t gotten any smarter here, but he apparently still gets lucky. All the more reason for him to be reckless? Perhaps. But even so, he’ll never compete with the Naked Emperor in that department. Talk about a sucker. He’s still trying to pretend that he sees those clothes he isn’t wearing. Chalk one up to narcissism for this bearded baron’s denial.  So now you know who you’re dealing with. Throughout the game, you’ll run into various other childhood favorites, most of which you’ll be beating to a bloody pulp in a frenzy of insanity. You’ve always wanted to hack Pinocchio into fire wood though, right?

On to game play, where all of my qualms about this game are. First, the controls.  I played the 360 version of the game, but I’m assuming the control configuration for the game are similar on, at least, the PS3. This is one of the games that seems that no matter how long you play, the controls never come naturally. I had to think about it every time I tried to drink a potion. Where most games will have buttons controlling fight related elements, this one has them spread from the right joystick to the left and right triggers, and back. There is no rhyme or reason to the layout. The only thing I liked about the controls, in fact, is something that would most likely irritate the hell out of any one of my other gaming friends. The only attack button is the right joystick. Moving it around in random ways will lead to different attacks, but there is no specific pattern that works better than any other. The only way to get more powerful attacks is to use your glory attack (when your attack meter is full), which is the right trigger. Being someone who has a hard time pulling off complicated attack sequences, I liked this.

While we’re talking about weapons, I’ll mention that there are something like 140 different weapons divided into 4 different categories. They’ve included everything, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the kitchen sink was one of them! Each weapon is rated in flowers (light), stars (light to medium) or skulls (heavy). When you pick up a weapon, it tells you the name of the weapon and it’s rating. Which is good, because it is VERY difficult to see what you’re picking up during game play. This becomes a problem when trying to decide whether to throw your current weapon to the wayside in exchange for this new mystery weapon. Notice that I said throw. Because you do throw the weapon, and unless you pay attention to where it went, you’re stuck with your new weapon regardless of whether its better or significantly worse. Another disheartening game play issue that drives me nearly as crazy as one of our heroines.

Continuing on with our game play discussion, we move to Taleville. Actually, this is where the game starts and where all of your in-game options reside. You can switch between characters here, controlling whoever you please at the end of each chapter, if you so desire. This is also where you can visit places like The Inn, The Taxidermist, The Sculptor, The Options Square, Weapon Smith, or The Bank; each controls either information about your stats, or the ability to change an option or two. Good luck finding what you’re looking for though. Taleville is a very busy place. While there are books placed outside each pit stop that give you information or control, determining which is which takes a bit of patience. No wonder there is an achievement for staying in Taleville for 15 minutes.

From The Inn, you can choose to play in arena or quest mode. Arena mode takes you to a menu that allows you to choose a background, and rules for your player-on-player mayhem. Quest mode takes you on the long and arduous journey back to fame. You can play either mode with your friends either locally, or online. This is perhaps the best part of the game. It doesn’t take much thought to play the game, so you can chat away with your buddies, or use the taunts provided to entertain yourselves. Watch out when you trash a bad guy in quest mode, though. The opposite side of the screen takes on a pop-up that shows the gruesome demise of your foe, much to the frustration of anyone else who’s view of their action was just covered. As entertaining as that is (when it isn’t me losing visibility), my favorite thing to do when playing with friends is to slide around in the blood that’s been shed. Slide around for 330 ft continuously, and you get an achievement; yeah, I got it. There are also achievements based on the amount of blood you cause to be spilled. This, to me, is highly amusing. It doesn’t, however, make up for the fact that it’s incredibly difficult to tell what part of the screen you can and cannot go to. Not everything that you see is explorable, and there is no way to know which is and which is not. It’s almost as if you are constantly walking on a ledge, unable to get any further back, but at risk of falling to your doom more often than not. Good thing we’re given limitless lives, I guess.

The audio only gets irritating when someone uses the same taunt entirely too often, and as there are only 4 emotes that can be performed, it’s going to happen. Otherwise, there is a decent mix of sounds and songs. Not that they’re any kind of robust, rich sound, but for the game concept, they work well. No complaints here.

The graphics seem to be a bit ironic in my opinion. They’re very colorful, and very cutesy, which I think is the point. Bubbly characters who are annihilating everything that does or doesn’t breathe, just works for me. I think the game would lose some of it’s satirical nature if it were drawn to match the darkness of the concept. However, I do have a friend who played the game with me had serious issues with the graphics. The opinion there was that if they were going for cutesy, they should have gone more anime style. This is a somewhat deranged cutesy, if you can imagine it. As someone who loves anime, though, I never suspect that the story will match the animation. SO I think it would be less ironic if it were drawn as such. At any rate, it’s very colorful and well done, all except for the depth issue, but I really think it’s only frustrating because of the limitations on gameplay. So, no complaints with the graphics for me either.

All in all, the game is funny: in theory. The artwork is amusing, as is the bloodshed. The controls and actual game play are not well executed, and make this a game one that I would suggest you don’t spend nearly $60 on. However, if you’re just looking for something to play with your buddies while having that weekly Saturday night kegger, this is your game. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you. Oh, and think of me when you’re sliding around in that crimson pool of gooey craziness.

Posted on November 16th, 2009 at 3:21pm by [email protected] (The Games Are Evil Family)
Filed Under: PC Gaming, Playstation 3, Review, Reviews, Xbox 360, featured, features, pc

Game: WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010
Publisher: THQ
Platform: 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, DS, Wii
Price: $27.99- $59.99
Pros: Great create-a-wrestler mode, top-notch graphics, solid controls.
Cons: Repetitive and inappropriate commentary, impossible to win/lose some matches, tutorial mode on top of the menu.
Acquired via Publisher

As a fan of wrestling for the past 23 years, I jumped at the chance to review this title. I’ve been hearing many great things about this series in recent months. I haven’t had a chance to play much in the way of recent wrestling titles other than the likes of TNA Impact (Xbox360) and WWE Raw 2 (Xbox), so this is a fresh opinion on this game without being up to date on the series.

When I first put the disk into my console, I was extremely excited. Before I got to a menu, I was taken straight to a tutorial mode. John Cena and Randy Orton were in the ring together, and the game offered to teach me the controls. “This is pretty cool,” I thought. The A button did most actions, B to whip your opponent, X for strikes, the right stick for grappling, etc. I remember being very impressed by the grappling controls, as it seems they took a page from the great UFC game that came out earlier this year. I would later learn how terribly this mode is designed.

As for the negatives on the controls, I found three of note. The tutorial did not tell me how to reverse an opponent’s attacks. I had to stumble onto that, but was able to eventually get it. Secondly, the tutorial tried many times (at least 40) to get me to learn how to move through the ropes and to the ring apron (not to the outside) by moving the left stick toward the ropes and lightly tapping A. In my entire week with this game, I wasn’t able to do that even once. Lastly, when playing a match with more than one opponent, your wrestler will auto-target. I could find no way to do this manually and repeatedly attacked the wrong person in most situations. I hope I am just overlooking something and that this control does exist.

Again, overall, the controls are great.

After playing a few exhibition matches, I went to try the other modes. This is when I got a bad taste of the main menu. Every time you return to this menu, it spends time to load the tutorial match, which has to be exited (by pressing start) just to go back to the main menu! Despite my efforts, I’ve yet to find a way to turn this off.

The first special mode I tried was the Create-A-Wrestler mode. This has been the best version of this feature of any wrestling game I’ve ever tried. This time, I made one of my favorite indy wrestlers, Delirious (www.deliriouswrestling.com). Some of the options on the created wrestler weren’t initially obvious, but I was able to figure it out with a little work. Overall, the Create-A-Wrestler mode is absolutely top-notch!

Alongside the Create-A-Wrestler, there is also Create-A-Moveset (self-explanatory), Create-An-Entrance, and Create-A-Finisher modes.  Creating an entrance is a pretty nifty process. You can determine how your wrestler comes out to the ring, their pyro, entrance music, and even video. Unless you choose someone else’s entrance motions, the names are all generic (ie: Male01, Male37, Female09). It can be a bit tedious, but such is the fun of making these. As you would probably expect, the music choices are all songs for other wrestlers. I wish this game had the same option that was available in WWE Raw 2, where I could use entrance music from any song that I previously ripped to the system hard drive. For the entrance video, you can use existing entrance videos, or even make your own– another neat option. You can take clips from matches that you have faught and piece them together into a video. I will say, though, that this takes quite a long time to do, so make sure you have an hour or better set aside.

Creating a finisher was one of my favorite features of the entire package. Using this, you can create totally unique finishing maneuvers for your custom wrestler. You pick how they set the move up, taunt, and go through the motions, from beginning to end. It’s a very robust system, and I was really enjoying it. While I couldn’t give Delirious his devastating “Chemical Imbalance #2″, I was able to make a completely accurate version of the “In vitro fertilization” (yes, he’s a strange one). You even get to name the move so it will be called by the announcers when it’s hit. While I didn’t have access to the real name (for obvious reasons), I named it the “Aneurysm,” which seemed fairly appropriate.

Outside of the create modes you’ll find several other options for playing. There are exhibition matches which let you pick from any number of different types of matches. This is where most of your gaming on this title will probably come from. Mainly, you will do this because you’ll want to avoid several match types that are near impossible to win. Oddly enough, there are other match types that seem impossible to lose, too.

There’s also career mode, which lets you vie for a wide variety of WWE titles. However this is not a cakewalk. You’ll have to wrestle matches to earn your #1 contender status before you can fight for the title. I played this mode as CM Punk, and went for the Intercontinental Title first. After besting the first four challengers I had, I was told that my next match would be for the title against John Morrison… IN A STEEL CAGE! I was initially excited to try this stipulation out. I was not so excited with it once inside. This match took me six or seven tries to win– not because I suck, but because of some strange AI behaviors. No matter how many times I would hit the Go To Sleep (CM Punk’s finisher), Morrison would be on his feet and knocking me off the cage before I could even get my second attempt to make it out. On top of this, he’d be up in no time at all from a finisher, and I’d be on the ground forever after being knocked off the cage wall, with no other damage during the match. This is how Morrison continued to escape the cage on each try. I only made it out the last time through sheer luck. After winning the IC belt, the game let me choose the next belt I wanted to try to go for. Unfortunately, due to deadlines, I wasn’t able to play this mode any further, but I imagine it’s more of the same (four or more qualifying matches with increasingly better AI followed by a special stipulation match for the belt).

Another available mode to play is the Road to Wrestlemania. I didn’t get far into this mode, not because of deadlines, but because of a match that I honestly can’t make it past. In this mode, you can play as a created wrestler and move through the ranks of the WWE. You start out in the crowd during one of Santino Marella’s matches, after which he challenges you as a fan for his title belt. Once you beat him, Vince McMahon and Santino are backstage trying to tell you that you don’t work for WWE, so you have to give the belt back. Santino is absolutely hilarious, as always. You pick which one to give the belt back to, but will run out with it anyway. Santino cries, then tries to steal Vince’s laptop. Vince sends two guys after you. In the next scene, you’re backstage and fighting these two guys. This is where the bad targeting comes into play. Also, the lead up tells you nothing of what you’re supposed to do to end this fight. I was clueless and was about to give up several times. After a 40 minute battle, I knocked one of the two unconscious, and assumed that was my goal all along. Another five minutes and the other was taken care of.

Vince still stripped me of the belt, and set up a fatal-four-way match for it. It was scheduled to be Santino vs Kane vs Kofi Kingston vs John Morrison, but my guy got to interfere and join in the match. Ladies and gentlemen– This is the match with no ending. Due to the computer controlled wrestlers having almost zero recovery time after being hit, no one in this match could score a pinfall or submission. It will always be broken up almost immediately. The game recommended before the match that I try to throw others out of the ring to make it easier to win. By the time you’re throwing out the second person, the first is already back on the apron, getting back into the ring. It doesn’t matter how you take him out. After about 90 minutes of trying, I gave up and tried to let the computer win. I couldn’t even pull that off. 30 minutes of defending pins, and the match still hadn’t ended. I’m not sure if this is intended to be a two hour or longer match in the game, but I was far from impressed.

The final match type I tried was the Royal Rumble, since I heard that it had been redesigned from the ground up. Some new twists I caught were the ability to help someone flip another wrestler over the rope if they’re hanging on. Problem is, if two computer opponents grab onto you, expect to not win the exchange. If three try, just give up. I know it’s more realistic this way, but it’s quite frustrating from a gaming perspective. The rumble maxes out at six wrestlers out at one time, which includes their sluggish walk to the back. Also, when there are six wrestlers in the ring at once, there is a noticeable lag to the game’s video which is a bit off putting. That said, this mode is still great fun, especially with friends playing.

Lastly, I want to comment on is the commentary (fun sentence). I was shocked at how bad it was. It’s been better on much older games that I’ve played. The pitch of sentences changed dramatically from word to word, proving that it was a computer and not a human, for one. Another issue was that it would make comments that weren’t appropriate at the time, like calling the Royal Rumble match a “Falls Count Anywhere Match.” I’m shocked something like that made it past beta-testing! I honestly wish there was a way to turn the commentary off.

The game has several other modes I didn’t have time to get around to, like the new WWE Story Designer, WWE Rivals, Team Management, Championship Scramble matches, and a few more. Overall, this is quite a robust title with lots of play time included.

In closing, this is an average game, at best. If you can get past the glitches, and don’t plan to play the story modes provided, you’ll probably enjoy it a lot. That said, I see this more as a rental title than one to purchase. I’m afraid the novelty will wear off within a week or two.

Posted on November 13th, 2009 at 1:00pm by [email protected] (The Games Are Evil Family)
Filed Under: Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360, Xbox360, featured, features, fighting, ps2, sports, wrestling, wwe