Sonic And The Black Knight:: A dull but useable sword

RATING: 6 / 10
PLATFORM: Wii
GENRE: Action
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Pass up

So I rented this game from Gamefly because I hope that if I eventually rent enough new age sonic games that I might actually find one worth playing. Well Sonic and the Black Knight was almost worth playing. In short this is like every other new age Sonic game except Sonic is wielding a sword. The game play is really simple and fast pace, which is how a sonic game should be. You basically rush through the level slicing through enemies. Some levels do force you do other small task like giving goal to villagers, apparently someone got their Robin Hood and King Arthur stories mixed up. Sonic and the Black Knight does try to introduce RPG elements in to the game but fail miserably. It almost appears they design these features and then forgot to actually make them useful in gameplay. The reason why this game was actually bearable is because the extra RPG clutter could be quickly ignored and since I was not forced to deal with any idiotic features I was left content. Forced gameplay is one of the main things that ruined Sonic Unleashed. The King Arthur story very loosely interrupted really wanted me to press the mute button. I think the day sonic started talking in his video games was his doom. However over all gameplay was decent and at times even entertaining. I hope this game is a turning point for Sonic games and that the Sonic team will soon produce a game that I can actually recommend buying.

Halo Wars: The Battle of Console RTS

RATING: 7 / 10
PLATFORM: Xbox360
GENRE: RTS
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Rent

So lets face reality here this game was really an experiment to see if a RTS game would be successful on the console. I have to tip my hat to Ensemble cause they did really almost all they could in designing a control scheme that would work. The game plays well and you can somewhat easily control your units on the map. You can basically select units in three ways, select all units, select all units on the screen (local units), and select highlighted units. The highlighted units is really the only inventive selecting as it decently recreates the drag and select of a mouse. Unfortunately there is no efficient way to select a unit by type which can be very frustrating. Not being able to select a unit by type units greatly hinders special abilities. It is obvious that abilities like grenades, ram and hijack not working well together. The biggest issue I has with the game was the ability to not queue units when I had no cash. If I want to build ten tanks I could not just queue ten tanks and as the money come in they would be built. Instead I would often have to bounce back and fourth between my troops and bases every time I got just a little extra cash so that I could constantly be producing more units. RTS games are about be efficient in your strategy and this mechanic breaks that.

I had hope that Halo Wars would save itself by having a really strong story tide in to the missions. The story is good but not great in Halo Wars, it is epic but yet confusing in all the wrong ways. I expected a lot more coolness from the story I mean after all this is the time when Spartans were abundant and kicking.....well you get the idea. All together the units didn't have that coolness factor and the level were mostly quickly go save these people with a time limit before you all die. Oh well it was a good shot and because of that I recommend people at least rent this game to give it a go.

ExciteBots: Not that exciting

RATING: 4 / 10
PLATFORM: Wii
GENRE: Racing
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Don't Bother Playing

I was very excited to play ExciteBots after demoing it at GDC this year. The Wii has been hurting some time now and ExciteBots look like what was going to be a fun multiplayer experience. Well the people who made ExciteBots (to disgusted to even look them up) took what could of been a great game and destroyed it threw stupid design decisions. When you load ExciteBots without any save data the player is FORCED to play a beginner cup before doing anything else. You can't even play mutiplayer until you have done this, which means if I want to bring this game over to a friends house I either need to transfer my save game or beat the beginner cup again before we can both play. I would love to know what genius came up with this idea a multiplayer game that set up boundaries to prevent a multiplayer experience. All this is forcing player error is scatter threw out the game. Almost everything is locked including half the racer, 2/3 of the levels and 3/4 of the game type choices. If I am good at racing game of this type I must beat the entire game on easy before I can move on to a harder challenge. Instead of carefully designing a fun reward system the developers simple locked almost everything.

Anyways I going to move on from my rant and fast forward about 30 mins of beginning game stupidity to talk about the actual game play itself. So excitebots is your typical style mario kart meets X games. Excitebots you spend most of the time in air from jumps or boosting like crazy. Excitebots is all about being on the edge of control and verge of insanity. The environments look really nice and are decently themed. The power ups are way out there, completely random and feel really out of place. I admire the inventiveness but since the game is all about being as ADHD (yes I do mean the disorder) as possible it is really like chucking a barrel of paint on to a white canvas, a utter mess. The biggest flaw in the game is that there is really little interaction between players. Games like Mario Kart survive on the satisfaction of hitting another player with a turtle shell. Excitebots strength should be its multiplayer and instead that is its weakest point. The only reason I gave this game even a 4 is because there is so much potential for this game too bad it is just covered up in crap.

Killzone 2: Making War Fun?

RATING: 8 / 10
PLATFORM: PS3
GENRE: FPS
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Buy

War is not pretty or fun.....well unless your playing a video game then it is both. Killzone 2 was highlighted as the game that would prove that the PS3 is a juggernaut of raw video game power. However Killzone 2 was not a launch title so the Ps3 had to hide in the corner as the Xbox 360's Master Chief owned the fps console world. After a long wait Killzone 2 has meet all expectation of creating a truly realistic feeling fps game. Killzone 2 treats war serious and is meant for serious fps players. The graphics are simply amazing as the environments of the helghast home world make you feel like your actually on this alien planet. Killzone 2 gameplay really shines with an intelligent AI that will retreat, charge and flank you based on the combat situation. The AI makes the game feel like real war as you constantly have to struggle to gain ground and advantage positions. The levels layout though very linear makes up with combat on multiple angels. Enemies are rarely directly in front of you, you must attack enemies from above and below all while trying to not get flanked. Also many of the level wrap back and forth in a snake like way giving you lots of choices when it come to where you want the combat to take place. Killzone 2 however does fall in a bit to the now all to familiar cover and shoot gameplay. All to often can you just duck under or behind a piece of metal that protects you from all attacks. Killzone 2 story though very epic does not match with the players feelings about your comrades. The story from beginning to end feels like a classic chaotic "war is madness" movie (in particular bridge over the river Kwai) yet when tragedy hits your comrades you really don't feel attach to them. The story needs to build more on the inter character relationships if they really wanted the player to feel the pain of loosing a comrade. Killzone overall does what all games should strive to do and that is provide an entertaining and fun experience.

Henry Hatsworth a puzzling success

RATING: 8.5 / 10
PLATFORM: DS
GENRE: Puzzle/Platform
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Buy


Henry Hatsworth & the puzzling adventure is a delightful hybrid of a side scrolling platformer and bejeweled like puzzle game. As a British Adventure you accidentally trigger an artifact that releases creatures from the puzzle world into your own and now it is your job to send them back. However since this is a platform puzzle hybrid you got defeat monsters in both the platform and puzzle realms. To defeat monsters in the platform world you get to use a sword and gun to perform some pretty fun combos. Your sword is your primary weapon as the gun uses up some of your magic gauge, there are other weapons as well but Im not going to spoil it for you. So as you destroy monsters in the platform world your puzzle time gauge will rise and some of the monsters will be turned into blocks on the bottom screen of your DS. This bottom screen of blocks is constantly rising and your goal is to make sure the monster do not make it back to the top screen. This is where the puzzle aspect of the game comes in as you must match up blocks of three to destroy the monster block and collect item blocks. You can switch from the platform mode to the puzzle solving mode when ever your puzzle time gauge is not empty. The more the gauge is filled the more time you have to line up blocks. Now as you destroy blocks you gain energy in your power up gauge which lets you use weapons and your special attack "Tea Time" a powerful robot armor suit (you will have to play the game to see what I mean).

So now that you have a glimpse of the mechanics lets talk about how the over all game played. Henry Hatsworth is one of the best DS games I have played in a while as it is very well polished and very addicting. Though the platform to puzzle game mechanic switch can tend to disrupt game flow at times by making both genres gamplay effect the other the game adds a great deal of depth. Henry Hatsworth at first might seem a little easy at first but accelerates it difficulty nicely making the game challenging for any gamer. My favorite thing about Henry Hatsworth's is that developer establish that Henry Hatsworth is a unique experience and they don't try to cover up the innovation with cookie cutter story or mechanics. The game is all well themed and provides a fun experience from beginning to end. I would definitely recommend buying this game.

Going back in Time with Chrono Trigger

So after being told by multiple I decided to go back to the classic game of Chrono Trigger. Chrono Trigger is a classic game that was brought to the DS to let people relive a classic of their childhood and to make some extra dough. Chrono Trigger is an excellent example of how to make a good RPG. Chrono Trigger follows the story of Chrono a young boy that quickly must arise to being a hero as he travels through different time periods in the attempt to save all human kind. Chrono Trigger being a classic doesn't fall into the all to common area of over complicated story and controls. There is no long length explanation of why the world is the way it and so on you simply begin your adventure off the bat and the story is nicely wrapped around the gameplay not blocking it. The controls are simple as well there are menus you select something and there you go. So what makes Chrono Trigger stand out form other RPGs is the unique storyline of traveling back and forth through time to unravel your quest. Also Chrono Trigger does a good job of breaking the mold of just random enemy encounter by allowing you to see monsters on the screen and try to avoid them. I highly recommend this game if you got some time to spare and are a fan of the RPG genre.

Street Fighter IV (You get what you expect)

So when I rented Street Fighter IV from Gamefly I knew I was leaving my gaming comfort zone and entering the realm of fighter games which for the most part I don't really enjoy. My one buddy was completely excited to play this game and enjoy ever minute of it. Me on the other hand just could not really get into it. Street Fighter has never looked better with its lovely HD quality models and animation. I was completely impressed as I player through arcade mode on easy as My Giant Sumo friend aka E. Honda. I manage to get all the way to the final boss before I was ripped to shreds and that was that. With the little time I spend on the game it seemed to flow nicely and the online quick battles where done in a convienent matter, to bad I got owned in every single one. Street Fighter IV over all seems to be a great fighting game, however apparently no fighting game will be good enough for me. I will just stick with my Super Smash bros, to bad SSB online play mode it worthless due to lag issues.