Without ruining anything (not that it can be ruined… you know what I’m just going to leave these side comments alone now) Passage is a game about life. There is a lot of depth here to what is essentially a 5 minute diversion. Literally 5 minutes. That is exactly how long this game is.

Basic graphics, deep themes. Click to download Passage

Why only five minutes? Well hopefully when you play it you’ll get it. It’s a top down 2d game with extremely basic controls, just 4 arrows and 4 directions to move. But to be honest in a game like this controls are almost a side note, a thing you point out so that you can play it, it controls neither good nor bad just… exactly how it should be.

The graphics are extremely basic but cute pixels reminiscent of the Atari era, but with a bit more color thrown on and perhaps a tiny bit more detail. The music is a chippy, 8 bit thing that loops. It is vaguely annoying but sets the right tone.

And really that is all I can say without spoiling it. Sorry to be so mysterious but with a game that is literally 5 minutes long there’s not much else I can say. Suffice to say it’s an interesting if slightly pretentious experience that depending on the way you look at it will either be extremely powerful or confusingly dull.

When I say this game is not for everyone, I mean it. As for value for money, on PC this game is technically free so knock yourself out, on iPhone it’s $0.99 or £0.59 and I’d say it was worth that if you want to fund crazy ideas like this (also the controls on iPhone are fine, no issues, don’t worry). Passage is unique and quite touching, but you have to be the right kind of person to like it.

Score: N/A. It’s an entirely personal thing.

First Thing’s First

Let me start by saying that I’m extremely impressed with the accuracy of the costumes and the fight scenes were really exciting. The fight between Jin and Brian Fury was pretty kick ass and Yoshimitsu’s armour was like something straight out of the games. Only criticism I have regarding those two aspects is that the flame on Jin’s trousers were blue not red (seems picky but it’s his signature freaking costume) and too many weapons were used leaving some scenes  feeling more like Soul Caliber.

Now for the main points of the film: casting, acting and plot. The cast were rather capable of pulling off the roles that were written for them; however, the characters are not at all like their original counterparts. For starters, all the back stories were totally wrong. Eddie and Christie didn’t know each other even though she is his student in the games, Kazuya was made out to be power hungry and more evil than Heihachi and other characters were little more then Cannon Fodder.

Story

For those of you that don’t know, the original plot for the first Tekken game is this:

“A worldwide martial arts tournament is nearing its final, with a large purse of prize money to the fighter who can defeat Heihachi Mishima in the final round of the competition. The contest is sponsored by the giant financial group, the Mishima Zaibatsu. There are eight fighters that remain after winning death matches all over the world. The winner of the tournament will receive The King of the Iron Fist title. Only one will have a chance at defeating Heihachi and taking home the prize money and fame.

Kazuya Mishima is the main character. Heihachi’s biological son, he was thrown into a ravine by his tyrannical father when he was five years old. Heihachi, believing his son was too weak to ever inherit his conglomerate, decided that if he were truly strong enough, he would be able to survive the fall and climb back up. Kazuya barely survived the fall that left him with the scar prominently visible on his chest. Fueled by hatred for his father, he enters the tournament to exact his revenge. “

Now the plot for the movie is this:

“Set in the distant year of 2039, war has ravaged much of the planet. Corporations have moved in where governments once stood. Brutal, physical combat is the primary form of entertainment and source of income for many. For some, though it’s about the glory. It’s about becoming a legend amongst men. For the champions, the grand ball is the Tekken company sponsored Iron Fist Tournament, where the greatest fighters throughout the world come to compete, bringing everything they can muster (skills, magic) (There is no magic lol), weapons, etc.) to become the undisputed champion of the world and a lifetime’s worth of fame and wealth.

The film follows Jin Kazama in his attempts to enter the Iron Fist Tournament in order to avenge the loss of his mother, Jun Kazama, by confronting his father, Kazuya Mishima and his grandfather, Heihachi Mishima, the latter of whom he thought was responsible for her death.”

See the huge difference? Now I understand that it is based on the story of Tekken 3, but it doesn’t even follow the plot for that game either. It’s as though they mixed random parts of the plot for the entire series just in case they don’t make a sequel….which I highly doubt will happen. [Like most movie adaptations,] they screwed the story up but they also had a severe lack of characters that were CONFIRMED to be in the film. My favourite character throughout the series is Hwoarang. His rivalry with Jin is a strong plot point for both characters in the series and could have made for some nice onscreen chemistry. Now as to why Hwoarang was left out of the film but Sergei BLOODY Dragunov is included (and barely used) I will have no idea. Other characters that have played a big part in the games that were left out and would’ve been great onscreen are  Jack (The Tekken security are called Jackhammers but they aren’t giant robots), King, Lei, Lee and Paul Phoenix. No sign of the Devil Gene either,  just a little bit of anger management issues. But I digress. The worst thing is the oversexed nature of the film. A couple of sex scenes and club scenes ruined the feel of the film as Tekken should be a revenge story with a nice touch of comedy with some characters.

Finally

BUT, in terms of being  a watchable film it isn’t too shabby. As I said, the cast are pretty good and the fights keep you entertained. The plot isn’t terrible although the dialogue isn’t great, but it’s a very watchable film and definitely a better live action adaptation of a Beat-em up than the likes of either of the Street Fighter movies, DOA or any of the Mortal Kombats (I only compared it to those as Beat-em ups are harder to adapt than a film like Tomb Raider, because as a writer you have to fill in some elements of plot yourself and come up with interesting pair ups for fights.)

If you’re a fan of the games, it’s worth a watch. But don’t expect a faithful adaptation. If you want that, watch the animated movie which is a spot on Tekken movie. If you don’t know the games but like bloody martial arts movies, then it’s definitely your kind of film.

In short: A watchable, by the numbers, martial arts film that succeeds previous video game adaptations by far.

M-X Rating: I give it a 7 on the Zippy Scale.

So does Disney Quest bring back that old fun feeling of arcades? Somewhat. Read on for my full review.

The Land of Games

DisneyQuest has a good amount of games available across its five floors. I saw around 4 air hockey machines, 6 Skee-Ball lanes, 6 to 8 pinball machines, dozens of driving games (such as Star Wars Pod Racer and Mario Kart GP), Guitar Hero and dozens of classic games like Pacman and Frogger.

Flamin’ Finger is the most frustrating game of all time.

Besides arcade units, Disney Quest offers many virtual reality experiences, such as water rafting, Aladdin’s magic carpet ride, ride your own virtual roller coaster and more.

There are also interactive rides. Two of the most popular are Buzz Lightyear and Pirates. In Buzz Lightyear, you team up with a partner inside a vehicle that resembles a tall bumper car. One of you is the driver, the other controls the cannon. You shoot at other players to score points. It’s a fun experience, similar to bumper cars itself.

In Pirates, you team up with a group of people on a virtual pirate ship. While one of you steers, the rest of you control the cannons. Your goal is to capture gold from other pirate ships.

Not Quite Magical

All of this sounds cool but there are some problems. The virtual reality machines are outdated with graphics from the Nintendo 64 era. Although they can be somewhat interesting, especially to the younger crowds, the overall effect seems a bit cheesy.

You’d get more of an immersive experience by playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with a surround sound system in the dark. I respect these machines for the roles they played in their time, but if I’m paying $40 in today’s world then it seems to be a poor value for me.

The driving games are one of the best parts of the arcade. Unfortunately, these can be hard to get any time on. There were no staff to make sure kids didn’t hog the machines and there were so many people there that you’d have to wait 10 minutes for one game regardless if the machines were shared correctly. Some of the popular games, like the 8-player Nascar racing, even had a queue setup to wait in.

The Guitar Hero machines are fun but it’s no different from playing at home — with the exception that you can actually hear your music when playing at home. Everything was so loud at Disney Quest that I could barely hear “Rock you like a hurricane!”

If you love retro games then this is a good place for you. Disney Quest has them scattered throughout, as well as having a whole floor dedicated to them. I smiled when I saw Karate Champ, a game I haven’t seen in many years. You could easily spend hours up here playing it up classic style.

When I visited, all the machines were in good working condition, which is quite rare in many arcades. I’ve gotten used to seeing at least one broken machine in today’s arcades, but everything was working fine at Disney Quest.

Yay or Nay?

Overall, I feel Disney Quest is a good place to visit once if you’re a gamer, but I don’t plan to ever go back. I went later at night and got a 50% discount (since they were closing in a few hours) so for $20, it was worth it for me and gave me enough time to experience most of what it has to offer.

Kudos to Disney for keeping the arcade scene alive, but the experience is missing the magic.

I give Disney Quest 6 out of 10 zips.

Image Attributions: Banner, Flamin’ Finger, Dig Dug, Buzz Lightyear

Overall, I feel the beta is good. The beta is nothing amazing, no big surprises. It’s just another version of my favorite gaming series. To me, this feels like a mix of Halo 2 and 3, with the concept of classes thrown in.

I’ve been a big Halo player since the release of Halo 2 years ago. Reach still feels like Halo to me. After getting used to the slightly new controls, I felt like I was playing Halo 3 again and my decent Kill/Death ratio proved it. If you didn’t like Halo before, this game won’t change your mind.

New Abilities

I like the new abilities, though I feel that Airborne and Stealth are the only worthwhile ones about 95% of the time. Guard can be useful in certain situations though, especially if you know your opponent has a rocket launcher. Just throw up your shield when they fire and watch the rocket reflect right back at them. It’s pretty funny!

Airborne is my favorite new ability. I like the feel of the jetpacks and being able to easily get to high points on the maps.

New Weapons & Attacks

The replacement for BR (the DMR) seems okay to me. I didn’t realize until recently that you’re not supposed to shoot it like a BR. Even still, I did shoot it like a BR, and it worked okay for me. I look forward to shooting it correctly. I’ve heard that you need to aim more carefully and shoot it slower than you would a BR from Halo 2 or 3.

The melee system is weird. I basically just try to avoid melee now unless I absolutely know that I’ve shot my opponent to hell and a melee attack will finish them off. The special assassin attack is amusing, though I have to resist the temptation to do it since it leaves me vulnerable.

Invasion Mode

My girlfriend and I played some Invasion last night and I think it’s alright. Part of the reason I’m not a big fan is because we were teamed up with awful teammates. I don’t mind if you suck as long as I can tell you’re trying your best. If you just stand still half the time, why are you even playing? It would be a fun mode with a good group of friends, but unfortunately your party will be split up in the Invasion mode. Bungie should correct this in a future release.

Bungie has some kinks to work out but overall it’s Halo! Sure, the grenades are a little too strong. Sure, you can’t just depend on one weapon (the BR) anymore. But I like some of these changes and the beta is promising. It looks like I’ll pickup Halo Reach for sure.

Looking for more? Check out our Halo Reach wallpaper gallery.

Enough of the history lesson though, and onto the game itself. Beast Wars was released by Parker Brothers in 1997 and was a card based board game. It features 24 characters from the series (some of whom never made it on TV to my recollection) and 72 battle cards along with a 3D mountain top game board. The back of the box states “No Reading Required” and it’s easy to see why.

The object of the game is to either capture all of your enemy’s warriors or drive them over the mountains edge. The board has 12 spaces (6 for each side) to play your warriors.

Now here’s where things get difficult for me, as I’m not sure where my instructions went and I haven’t played since the 5th grade (1999-ish). So anything beyond now is how I remember playing it; so consider these “House Rules” if wrong. Also somewhere not long after getting the game, the Megatron card went missing so we just wrote it’s stats on a piece of paper (thanks to having a pic of both beast and bot form on the box to go by)

There are 4 different Battle Cards: Standard Diamond (the colour tells you which of the 6 categories you will use in the battle), Mutate (Allows you to switch from 1 form to the other and a coloured diamond in the background will again tell you which category you’re using), Energon +1 (Gives you +1 to whichever category the diamond behind it gives you) and finally Secret Weapon +2 (Same as Energon +1, but gives you +2 instead).

The 6 different colour coded categories are:

• Strength: Orange
• Courage: Blue
• Intelligence: Yellow
• Firepower: Green
• Speed: Purple
• Endurance Pink

Now, the way we played is that if there was an empty space either to the side, ahead or behind a character, you could move them there. No diagonal moves though. As for bringing new warriors into play on the board, we kept it to the back row only leaving the middle 6 as anyone’s territory. We also limited moving to 1 character per turn (Except bringing in new warriors. As long as you had the spots available at the back you could bring in as many as the 3 on a turn). Now, when head to head with an opposing force, you had the choice of fighting, retreating back a place (if empty) or remaining inactive. If you chose to fight you’d draw a Battle Card and go with the colour accordingly. Then the defender fighter chooses their card. Whoever lands the higher value, wins (i.e. If attacker chooses Blue Diamond and their Courage (blue bar) is 8 and the defender chooses Yellow Diamond and their Intelligence (yellow bar) is 7 then the attacker wins and vice-versa. In the event of a tie, both draw again. When you defeat a warrior, you move into their space.

When I played, games typically lasted about 15-20 minutes. I had a game last an hour one time; as we both played it like a chess format choosing to employ a lot of caution into our every move.

So in my opinion, I would rate Beast Wars as a 7 on the Zippy Scale as it was a rather simple game. It was still a lot of fun to play and was a great addition to the Transformers line of kid toys and games.

However, come Spring 2008, I bought another PSP. Since 2005 some very great – and even epic - PSP games have come along. Thinking of getting a PSP? Already own one, but don’t know what games to get? Zippy Gamer is here to help!

Here is our list of 10 essential PSP titles no PSP owner should be without.

Super Stardust Portable

Perhaps it was inspired by Asteroids or maybe it’s a completely different game. Any way to look at it, this game comes straight out of classic arcade-style gaming. The premise is quite simple, really. You use the PSP’s analog stick to control your ship and the face buttons to fire at an assortment of rocks, ice, and enemies who will be more than willing to return fire.

At the end of each planet’s stage, you will take on a boss. In the tradition of classic arcade design, bosses become more difficult as you progress through the game. The game features the standard Arcade Mode, Survival Mode, and some more unique game modes. The graphics are crisp and explosions are magnificent. The game is modestly priced for download exclusively through the Playstation Store.

Resistance: Retribution

You may think “it’s a third-person shooter! It’ll never work on a single-analog PSP!” However, if you thought that, you’d be wrong.  Retribution maps turning and looking around to X, Square, Circle, and Triangle, but it is also generous with a refined auto-target assist. Running alongside the storyline of its console counterparts, Resistance: Retribution brings the same gritty story-telling and action to the PSP.

You play as James Grayson, a quick-witted Brit who was serving as a soldier for Britain, but after being court-martialed he’s joined up with the French. Although he does his duty, he doesn’t spare his allies his silver tongue. The gameplay shines brilliantly, taking all that is good about the game, and packing it into a single UMD. You’ll have an arsenal of weapons including shooter staples such as the machine gun (with attached grenade launcher), shotgun, rapid-fire energy weapon, an RPG, and many other weapons. There is action at every turn, and if you don’t keep your eyes peeled, count on repeating much of the game.

God of War: Chains of Olympus

Taking place before the original God of War for the PS2, this game thundered its way onto the PSP in Spring 2008. Of course, you play as Kratos, but not with the intention of going after Aries or trying to ascend as a god. Your quest is to find out what has submerged the land into darkness. The gameplay and graphics match the console games pound for pound. You start out with the Blades of Chaos, and as you progress through the game, you will learn various spell attacks. Just as in the games, you will earn red orbs by killing enemies, opening red orb chests, and breaking anything… breakable.

As previously, the red orbs allow you to upgrade your weapons, giving you more combo attacks, and also upgrade all spells you’ve learned. You will also find Gorgon Eyes which will increase your health bar, and Phoenix Feathers which will increase your magic bar. The game can seem a bit more tedious, as it requires you to hold L+R buttons to evade attacks, but it will become second nature quite quickly. The key to success is to know when to block and when to attack.

Twisted Metal: Head-On

The same great action, brought to you by the same developers of Twisted Metal, Twisted Metal 2, and Twisted Metal: Black, made its debut on the PSP without sacrificing any of the high-energy gameplay of the aforementioned games. As it was a launch title, Head-On didn’t really demonstrate what kind of graphics the PSP could produce, but it certainly wasn’t ugly. Giving you a wide array of vehicles/characters to choose from (plus unlockable characters), Twisted Metal: Head-On puts you right into the action with its various game modes.

There’s the Tournament Mode, which takes you to various locales the world over to battle with other vehicles, Challenge Mode which allows you to pick a character, stage, and your enemies, and Survival Mode which will pit you against one enemy at a time in a location of your choosing for as long as you can stay alive. Also, as with previous Twisted Metals, every character has opening and ending movies, all of which are viewable after completing the game with said character.

Coded Arms

This game slipped under most PSP gamers’ radar too easily. This FPS puts you into a computer-generated world in which you must eliminate enemies in a bizarre simulation. Hacking files is done by exploring every section of the digital world and killing virtual enemies. As with Resistance: Retribution, Coded Arms uses a generous auto-target system that will aid you, but never makes the game overly easy.

That being said, with the sniper rifle you must aim manually. Over the course of the game, you will receive different types of guns and grenades that can be upgraded by finding upgrade icons, which will spawn after killing enemies. The analog stick is for walking forward/backing up and strafing, while the face buttons are used for aiming and turning. L is used for jumping, and R, of course, for firing.

Afterburner: Black Falcon

While maintaining the game’s classic action-shooter arcade roots, Afterburner: Black Falcon puts you behind the controls to take to the sky, while destroying air and ground targets. What is really compelling is the fact the game uses officially licensed jets from Boeing, Hughes, and other manufacturers. Each plane has its own strengths and weaknesses and the game will give you a suggestion of which plane is best for that particular mission. Though, don’t think you don’t have to work for it. You will start out with only one plane, and as you earn money via completing missions, you can invest in different planes as they become available to buy. You can, however, replay any mission you want to as many times as you want. Planes can also be upgraded in terms of gun power, missile payload, and missile enhancements.

Additionally, planes can be upgraded visually with different paint schemes and a few structural features. The only real downside of this game might be there’s just not enough to love. It would’ve been even better with more levels. Still, the ability to replay any mission whenever (and wherever) does add replay value.

Daxter

At last, he finally got his own game! Daxter resurrects many facets of what made the first game so lovable. The original PS2 game was light-hearted enough, but since then the games became too dark for their own good, losing their charm. Of course you play as Daxter, Jak’s furry sidekick throughout the series. Jak gets arrested and it’s up to Daxter to get to the bottom of things in this colorful PSP platformer.

The game holds up well visually and in terms of gameplay. Daxter must collect various types of Eco Orbs just like in previous games, and he also gets to pilot various hovering vehicles akin to Jak II. Daxter is one platformer no PSP’er should be without.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

What can I say, I am a sucker for the classics. Based around Grand Theft Auto III, Liberty City Stories turns back the clock to tell Toni Cipriani’s story back in 1998. You play as Toni, and up-and-coming gangster, working for various iconic characters from GTA III, like Salvatore Leone and Donald Love. The layout of the game reflects Liberty City (in GTA III form) with perfection, while making a few landscape changes – purely to show the city’s progression over the years.

The gameplay is perfect and visuals look like a carbon-copy of GTA III. It is obviously inspired by movies such as The Godfather, Italian Job, and a little bit of Scarface; GTA:LCS maintains that familiar feel of its PS2-based bigger brother. While some would prefer Vice City Stories, Liberty City Stories remains a personal favorite as it was one of the first games to show the PSP wasn’t graphically the “Playstation 1.5.”

Killzone: Liberation

This is not what you would expect after having played the first Killzone. Rather than being a first-person shooter with World War II-inspired gameplay, this game is an isometric third person shooter. Somehow it feels quite natural. You move your character with the analog stick and use face buttons for things like firing guns, throwing grenades, and interacting with the environment.

The action is quite intense and you only have one gun to use at any given time. Still, as you progress, you will have a wider range of weapons to choose from before starting a mission. During missions, you will come across chests that contain anything from health packs to different main and secondary weapons. Some missions even give you control of tanks to drive through the rugged terrain and battle enemies with.

Gran Turismo

I feel I can say that I’m saving the best for last. For a long time this game really felt like vaporware. Originally named Gran Turismo 4 Mobile, the game turned into a no-show for years. Then, throughout 2009, it was mentioned again. It was being developed and fans of the series finally got some glimpses of gameplay and features. It was unleashed on October 1, 2009. I chose to download it to my memory stick, as I wanted it that bad. Built from the ground up for the PSP, the newly-titled Gran Turismo provides a staggering amount of content for any portable racing game and even some console-based racing games. There are over 800 cars and plenty of race tracks of varying types (asphalt, dirt, snow) which will surely please anyone looking for a solid racing game. The graphics are incredible and gameplay is more accessible than in previous games.

There are no license tests, you just race to earn money to buy any car you want… when available. Yes, I said “when available” as only four dealerships are available at a time and for only two days at a time. So, if you want a Jaguar XJ220 LM-edition race car, you’d better get behind the wheel of your best car and earn some cash. Luckily, if you don’t mind an automobile version of level grinding, you can race the same track over and over without exiting to the main menu, and there will be no time progression. This might sound like a bad thing, having to wait for a particular make of automobile to become available, but it actually adds replay value. What if you wanta Formula 1 Ferrari which costs 8,000,000 credits. Well, until Ferrari becomes available again, you can keep earning money for it (as 8,000,000 credits is quite a bit to earn). Although there are no license tests, there is Driving Challenge Mode. This will allow you to hone your driving skills and earn some cash. They are what license tests would be, but they are a side-option. You don’t have to complete them, unless you want to listen to your own custom music on the memory stick. If you want custom soundtracks, you must clear the lowest wrung of challenges.

The bottom line: all tracks are available to race on virtually from the beginning. Your “default” car can’t run on off-road tracks. Though, there is a “car pack” available for free via the Playstation Store. Included in this pack is a Nissan GT-R Spec V in Metallic Blue. This car can run on all track surfaces and, pound for pound, give you a good competitive edge. Some fans are disappointed by the lack of a career mode, but this is a “portable” game. To streamline it, making easier to play on the go, the career mode was not included. Pound for pound and dollar for dollar, this game delivers the most incredible auto racing experience ever on a portable system!

What Are Your Favorites?
You’ve read our favorites – what are yours? Share your comments with us below!

Heavy Rain is the latest release by Quantic Dream, the game developers who brought you the equally story heavy game “Fahrenheit” (or “Indigo Prophecy” for our American Readers). The experience isn’t your standard gaming fare and instead opts to be an “Interactive Movie” with a strong focus on characters and emotional manipulation. The method Heavy Rain uses to achieve this is very reminiscent of two currently existing genres, the “point and click” adventure games of the 90’s and Quick Time Events. The “point and click” parts are sequences which involve marching your characters around environments looking for clues progress the story and these sections tend to be the slower, less interesting parts. Not only that, but they control horribly, instead of simply moving your character with a joystick as you would expect to, you instead sort of aim your character and then press R2 to move them. Why? I have no idea. It’s fortunate then that these segments are merely looking about and not action based, but even simple actions like walking to the correct locations can be tricky. It can break the immersion in a second, which is a shame because Heavy Rain does a lot to make to make the experience as atmospheric as it can be.

This FBI agent serves as the games main investigator. Oh, and he's a junkie.

The quick time events, on the other hand, are definitely more exciting and interesting; what is most interesting about them is that you can’t exactly “fail” them, if you don’t press the button in time there’s no “Game Over” screen, the sequences just carries on. I won’t disclose any specific events or actions in this review (that would only ruin some incredibly brilliant and startling moments) but suffice to say some made me physically flinch in disgust or jump in surprise. Yes, Heavy Rain did manage to get me to “feel” like I was part of the experience. Except it didn’t make me feel like the characters, it made me feel like a movie director. Instead of asking myself “Should I kill this man?” it became “Would he kill this man?” I don’t know if this was Heavy Rain’s intention or a misstep by the developers, but I can truly say I’ve never had an experience anything like it. Perhaps it’s a testament to the characters development; they feel incredibly real and trying to project yourself onto them feels almost impossible. At least three out of the four main characters, that is. The female character, Madison, serves no real purpose to the plot. She just turns up in the story and suddenly wants help the main character and most of her segments are stupidly dull. The developers should have either made her interesting and relevant or just cut her entirely. I’d actually favour cutting her entirely; Heavy Rain is an incredibly interesting and gripping experience, but it doesn’t half suffer from excess fat.

Heavy Rain’s biggest flaw is that the developers like their ideas just a bit too much. The opening sequence is probably the most self-indulgent and excruciatingly dull moment in a video game ever. I do not want to brush my teeth, I don’t want to have to find the plates, playing with my kids is not something I wish to simulate. What is even worse is that the opening segment plays no role in the overall plot, you can spend a good half an hour opening cupboards and sitting on chairs achieving nothing… it’s frustrating. What’s worse is that the pointless actions aren’t restricted to the opening segment; you might have returned to the police station to investigate clues, but then for some reason you can sit on a desk, go for a pee, or just stare out a window. I don’t want to do this stuff; I just want to move on! Do these actions serve the plot? No, all they do is slow down the narrative. Quantic Dream should have trimmed the fat; remove the trivial interactions. I get that they were trying to make the game feel “realistic” but it just frustrates the player, nothing more.

Why are you in this?

Now that I’ve told you about the gameplay in Heavy Rain, I would like to talk about the story. I would love to discuss the games “big twist”, but really it’s kinda difficult without giving away stuff. Suffice to say, I didn’t see it coming. But that isn’t necessarily a mark in its favour, if anything it’s a quite a damning statement; one of the great qualities of a detective story is to let the viewer try to make their own connections and decisions. For the most part Heavy Rain is excellent at doing this. I played this game with my friend Chris (from the podcast) at my side and we were constantly talking and theorizing about who we thought the murder was. So when the final moments of the game came about, and the curtain was pulled back, I felt almost betrayed by the developer. Almost all the major clues that pointed at one character were discarded and replaced with new evidence to convict another. There is one major plot point in Heavy Rain that is never explained and if you try to read anything into that point you’ll definitely feel mislead by the end of the game. Not only that, but on an entirely personal note, I didn’t want that character to be the bad guy! To me it didn’t fit.

So what to make of Heavy Rain? Well, I liked it a lot. The plot is disappointing towards the end and the opening is almost a test to see how dedicated you are to the idea of an “interactive drama,” but the main bulk of the game is both interesting and enthralling. I was with my friends almost everyday insisting we push on and got to the nub of the case. One of the biggest features Heavy Rain boasts is perhaps one of my favourite; the new video game craze of displaying that actions have consequences. This is one I hope never goes out of style. I can definitely see how my decisions affected the narrative, but I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if I made different choices throughout the game. Sadly, I haven’t had the opportunity to go back and replay some of these segments. However, for what it’s worth, I can definitely vouch that the game makes great use of its scenarios to dictate a series of consequences.

Scott Shelby is by far the most likable character in the game

Heavy Rain is a fascinating and unique experience that I recommend for those with the patience and interest for an “interactive drama”. It’s definitely a unique experience, but it’s not without its faults. Characters look great, but objects look dreadful. At best, voice acting is inconsistent; whenever a child talks you just want to cry with frustration. Additionally, the sound suffers from some glitches and will cut-out at times. It’s a shame, as the music in the game is moody and perfect for each setting. Overall, Heavy Rain may be the start of something wonderful, but it is not the peak of it. It’s a fantastic and daring concept that, ultimately, is let down by its developers focusing in the wrong areas. The next time we see a Heavy Rain-esque game we might have a more streamlined experience with more plot and, hopefully, better voice actors. I look forward to that day immensely. For now, we have this flawed master piece, this imperfect storm, this… Heavy Rain.

Freespace is not a very unique or innovative game of its sort, but that’s part of why it’s fun. The game does not innovate. Freespace merely took the norms of the genre, refined them, and focused on presenting the story well. The game’s highlight, for me, is the sense of scale. The game has small, one-man fighters and bombers (which you fly) and huge capital ships (which you’ll take down and, quite often, defend). The vastness of space only serves to highlight how huge these ships can be. This is a game when you can spend a minute or two flying from one conflict to another, and when you turn your ship around to see a destroyer taking up 20% of the screen, it’s a bit awe-inspiring.

Graphically, the game shows its age. Textures are muddy and details will sometimes be drawn in very quickly for the larger ships; the particles that fly towards you, the detail of the small

fighters, and the explosions make up for this. In-game, you forget about the agedness of the game’s engine as you’re too busy listening to the hums and roars of the ship’s engines, and trying to survive waves and waves of enemy attack.

The gameplay, as previously mentioned, is not innovative. The game is just dog fighting in space and your missions are typically “defend target A” or “destroy all enemy opposition.” However, there still is mission variety. One highlight for me is a mission where you are required to pilot a captured ship to gather intelligence on enemy cargo and the ships they’re gathering for an invasion. The mission is essentially a stealth mission – you need to avoid the patrols (however you’re warned when you’re approaching patrol ships), get close to some targets to gather information, and jet to the next target to gather intelligence. It does its job of creating tension as you see bigger and bigger ships enter the system from subspace until you see the biggest capital ship of the game, up close and personal.

Freespace can be purchased and downloaded from GoG.com. Physical copies can be bought from sites such as eBay and Amazon.com.

Related games:

Freespace 2 can be purchased from the same places as Freespace.

Descent series, the first two were developed by Parallax and the third game (and its expansion) was developed by Outrage. All three are for the PC (and like the Freespace, available from GoG). Descent and Descent II also appeared on the Playstation. Despite the name of the first Freespace game, there is no connection to the Descent series – it was added to the title to avoid copyright issues with the Freespace name.

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I-War or Independence War, released in 1997, features more realistic physics (Freespace’s physics are more based around WW2 flight-sims, since the development team thought they lent themselves to more entertaining gameplay).

Star Wars has had very similar space combat games, the X-Wing games for DOS and Windows are the most similar (the last entry of these games was X-Wing Alliance, in 1999. TIE Fighter, released in 1994, is considered the best of the series).

Babylon 5, which ran from 1993-1998, has a very similar universe and antagonist. The cancellation of the planned B5 flight-sim caused fans of the show to make a total conversion for Freespace 2 set in the same universe.

The Colony Wars series on the Playstation offers a slightly more arcade-y feel, but is another good dog fighting game in space.

Other games, such as the X series, offer much more in-depth experiences, with the ability to play the role of a merchant.

The Wii version is a port of the PS2 version. Nothing new has been added; only the motion sensor controls. I wouldn’t call it a direct port as the whole game had to be re-built from scratch, due to some legal issues between the original PS2 developers, Clover studios and new developers, Ready At Dawn.

Story

Okami is set in a classical period of Japan. The game uses a lot of references from ancient Japanese legends and mythology, and does so very well. It often fits them into the main story and even side quests. The game begins in a narrative of an old legend set on the country of Nippon. 100 years ago there was great evil that plagued the land of Nippon. It required a sacrifice of a maiden every year in order for it to keep its power. On the day before the 100th year of its reign, a brave young warrior named Nagi with his divine blade together with a strange white wolf Shiranui with strange powers, fought and defeated the 8 headed demon, Orochi, and sealed it on a temple. A hundred years have passed since the above event and somehow Orochi has been awakened once again and started to plague the land. You now awaken as Amaterasu, the great Sun Goddess in the form a white wolf along with a trusty little friend named Issun. You have been tasked to rid the world once again of the evil Orochi.

That’s the most I can tell you without giving anything away, but there are many parts in the story where you’ll think it’s the end of the game, only to be pleasantly surprised.

Controls

Now a lot of people have said the Wii controls are rubbish. This is simply because people are not having any patience to learn them. It takes about half an hour to an hour to master the control; that’s not long at all. And I’m willing to bet most of you won’t have any problems with them. Painting with the Wii remote is brilliant, like everything it just takes a little practice. Just paint like a Japaneses artist (quick strokes, instead of smooth neat strokes). Once you’ve got it right, you’ll wonder how you ever got it wrong in the first place. The main fault in the controls is when using the dodge technique, it requires you to move the nunchuck in the direction you want to dodge, only it’s way to over sensitive. But luckily, you don’t have to use the technique if you chose not to.

Gameplay

The gameplay is heavily borrowed from “The Legend of Zelda” games, which isn’t a bad thing at all. You have your overworld which is huge. When I say huge I, mean huge! You know that really big overworld section in Twilight Princess where you have the horseback fight to get Colin back? Okami’s smallest section of the overworld map is bigger than that. That should give you an idea of how big Okami’s world map is. Aside from traveling to different towns and dungeons, the overworld is filled with sidequests, dojos, and hidden treasures and techniques; so you’ll be quite busy and can easily get sidetracked.

The battle system in Okami is similar to the Zelda games, only you don’t actually fight in the overworld. Instead, you interact with NPCs known as Demon Scrolls, which are normally just floating around. But get close and they will chase you. Upon touching them, you start the encounter. You are then enclosed inside a barrier as you ready for combat where you attack the enemy. Some enemy’s can be dispatched of easily enough with your main weapons (called Divine Instruments) but most of the enemy’s will require the use of the Celestial Brush. The Celestial brush is vital to the gameplay, as you can use in battle, such as, if an ice enemy appears you can draw the inferno tech, which will burn the enemy to a crisp. You also have to use the brush outside of battle too. Most of the time, it’s to solve puzzles and to get hidden treasure. With the Celestial Brush, you can control the flow of time, turn day into night, night into day, control which way and how strong the wind blows, make waterfalls, make dead flowers come to life, and so much more.

The dungeon design is some of the best work I’ve seen in a long time. The first dungeon is pure genius, and the boss fights are very well done as well.

Graphics

The eye catching graphics in Okami are to die for. If you thought Wind Waker was impressive, wait until you see Okami in action. It’s like watching a moving Japaneses painting. It’s purely beautiful and one of the most original concepts ever in video game graphic design.

Music

The music is simply amazing. Each piece fits the tone. And there’s a few in there that you’ll be humming along to long after you’ve turned the game off. Most of the music isn’t as drastic and epic as say Zelda or Mario, but it isn’t trying to be. It has a very fairytale mood to most of the music and that fits well with the game.

Replay Value

I completed the main game at 46 hours, which was with a lot of exploring. So the main game itself is around 30 hours, but the amount of sidequests and unlockable content to get will keep you playing for about 60 hours+. Replaying the game is a big plus since after completing your first play through, there are a lot of bonuses that will be carried over to your second game and keep you playing for more.

Conclusion

If you are proud to be a gamer, then you owe it to yourself to buy Okami. It’s one of the best games on the Wii by far, and Zelda fans will love it! Okami is truly a masterpiece. If you never played this game, hang your head in shame. You are missing out on a wonderful experience.

I give it a 10/10 on the Zippy Scale.

Story

Enril is currently only Wind Spirit left alive in the vast world of Mistralis. One day, Toku wakes up from his sleepy spot in the forest and finds Enril. Enril tells Toku about The Evil Balasar, who Enril and his ancestors sealed away years and years ago. But whilst sealing Balasar away, Enril also got sealed in with him. Now Balasar has broken free and Enril needs help to seal him away again; and Balasar has cursed the land once again. Story wise, the game is nothing special so far. But it does pick up near the end. And it drops hints that the story is about be fully exposed, however I’ll get to that soon.

Controls

Lostwinds use of the Wii remote is spot on. You use Enril to control the winds. You can create small gusts of winds to brush past bushes to get treasure, or make strong gusts of winds to make Toku jump and even hold up boulders. With a simple wave of the Wii remote while holding the jump button, you can fling Toku to make him jump further. You can also use it to fling your enemies from wall to wall till they are nothing but a big mess. Just by waving the Wii remote, you can also mess with the elements of the World, including water, boulders, and fire. While playing Lostwinds, I never had a problem controlling Toku or using the wind powers, it works like a beauty. I’d go as far as say it’s the best Wiiware game to make use of the Wii remote so far.

Gameplay

The gameplay reminds me of Zelda, in a way. You go thought short dungeons, and once you get to the end of each dungeon, Enril gets a new wind power, which helps you backtrack and find unreachable areas. Its main focus is set on platforming and puzzle solving. You use the wind spirit powers to complete puzzles. At first it may seem a bit difficult, but after awhile, they are very easy to figure out. This is a shame, as I’d like to have seen a bit more difficult puzzles coming from such a unique and fresh game. The game is 3D, but you play it from a 2D aspect like “New Super Mario Bros.” I’m glad to report that it works perfect in 2D. I doubt it would work as good if it was a fully 3D adventure. The main bad point about the gameplay is that, LostWinds only lasts about 3 hours. Just as the story really starts to kick off, you get a “to be continued” screen, It leaves you wanting for more, and you feel a little ripped off by the 1,000 points price tag, I think 500 points would be a lot better.

Graphics:

The graphics in Lostwinds are quite charming and simple. That’s really about all there is to say for the graphics. Nothing really stands out graphic-wise. But that’s not to say the graphics are bad, because they aren’t. Lostwinds easily has some of the most charming graphics on the Wii, and the graphic style fits well with the gameplay too, which is always a good thing.

Music:

Throughout the whole game, I think I heard about 3 whole musical scores. They fit well with the games theme, but don’t expect to be humming the music throughout the day, as you most likely won’t be. The sound in the game fits very well. If you brush a small gust of wind past the grumpy man in town, he moans. Do it to the school kids and they giggle. Everything seems to fit so well, even the little things. And it holds the game together very well.

Overall:

Bursting with new gameplay ideas that embrace the Wii controller, LostWinds really puts the power of the wind in the palm of your hand. LostWinds is a fresh and original adventure that should be played by everyone, The 1,000 points price tag may seem like a lot for a 3 hour game, but you will play it over again. And with a sequel already out, you wouldn’t really want to miss out on this great game series.

I give it an 8/10 on the Zippy Scale.