Quantum Conundrum Review (PS3)

      I've never played Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, but from what I hear, you can change dimensions in order to bypass obstacles. In Chrono Cross, you switch between dimensions that are each their own separate reality. Quantum Conundrum is another take on the dimension switching idea. It's a first-person action puzzle game that has you swapping dimensions on the fly to affect the objects and environments around you.

     The controls are your standard first-person scheme (with the notable exception of no shootin' button). The left stick controls movement, the right controls where you look. Cross is jump, square let's you pick up an object or drop it, and circle is throw whatever object you are holding. The four shoulder buttons control your dimensions. Press R2 to switch to the fluffy dimension, L2 for the heavy dimension, R1 for the slow-mo dimension, and L1 for the reverse gravity dimension. Pressing the button of the dimension you are currently in or pressing triangle will toggle you back into the normal dimension, although you can jump directly from one alternate dimension to another without returning to normal.

     What exactly does it mean to be in one of these alternate dimensions? A few examples of some of the basic puzzles will help to illustrate the effects. A common element of the game is pressure plates that need heavy stuff to be on them in order to activate a door. You may have a safe that is heavy enough to way it down, but is halfway across the room and weighs a ton. If you switch to the fluffy dimension, however, everything suddenly weighs next to nothing (and takes on a cute, plush appearance). So you can pick up the safe, carry it to the pressure plate, and then switch back to normal, putting the safe back up to its full weight and activating the switch.

     You'll also be in the same situation where you need to activate a pressure plate but only have a cardboard box. If you put the box on the plate, then switch to the heavy dimension, which turns everything to metal, the box will now weigh enough to activate the switch.

     The slow-mo dimension is maybe the most self-explanatory and familiar, but also the most fun to play around with. Everything moves in super slow motion while you are in it, allowing you to do cool stuff like leaving objects in mid-air, racing past fast-moving objects, and platforming on objects that are falling or flying by. It's very fun to play around with since most games with a slow motion ability put some kind of limit on it, but here you can mess with it to your heart's desire.

     The last dimension is the reverse gravity dimension, which is also kind of self-explanatory. Gravity instantly reverses when you enter it, sending everything that isn't tied down flying toward the ceiling. You are not affected by this (or any of the other dimensions' effects) due to the stabilizing effect of the device you are using to control the dimensions.

     Which segues into the story of the game. You play as a kid who is dropped off to visit his mad scientist uncle. When you get to his mansion, you can hear his voice, but is nowhere to be found. He tells you that he has become lost in another dimension while doing experiments, leads you to his dimensional manipulation device, and sets you off on a quest to try and get the power back on and get him back. There are three wings you need to go through to reactivate the mansion's power supply.

     Each of the wings has a bunch of levels. You have a different loadout of dimensions in each level. You are usually restricted to just one or two, but sometimes you can find batteries in the levels that give you access to the others. The dimensions are introduced slowly, one at a time, and the levels teach you to use the new dimensions you get in tandem with the ones you already have until you get to the endgame and are able to use all four together to do some really neat stuff.

     The real meat of this game is figuring out how to get from point A to point B and complete each level, and there's no way to let you know what that's like without spoiling a handful of these more complex dimensional interactions. Don't worry though, there are tons of these puzzles in the games several hour campaign. One example is throwing a cardboard box at glass, then switching to the heavy dimension so that it smashes through. You can turn safes fluffy while they are on top of a big fan then ride on top of them as they are blown upward. There are these robots that spit out objects throughout the game, and you can ride on furniture they spit out by jumping on it in slow motion. You can make a couch fluffy, pick it up, throw it, then switch to slow-mo and jump on top of it to ride it, then switch reverse gravity on and off rapidly to make it continue flying through the air with you on top of it (you'll be riding it this way while dodging lasers, fyi). Just a sampling of the few hundred or so things you will need to do to get through the game's levels.

     The whole game is narrated by your uncle. His lines are mostly well written and his voice acting is very well done. The voice actor reminds me of John Lithgow or the co host of the D6Genereation podcast Russ Wakelin. (Edit: I think I was actually thinking of Robert Krulwich of Radiolab. But I'm going to leave the D6G shout out in anyway. They all three do sound similar). He gives hints of what to do and how things work, tells you stories and anecdotes, and is generally annoyed at you and condescending to you, but in a nice sort of way. The narration adds a lot to the game.
     The music is nice and playfully mysterious, fitting the gameplay quite well. The theme song, which actually has lyrics, is pretty cool, although kind of goofy.

     The graphics are pretty good, but there is a lot of texture pop-in. I wish games would just take a few seconds longer to load, as I hate starting a level and watching all the textures pop in as I start to walk around. It takes me out of the experience. I can wait 10 more seconds on the load screen if it means I don't have to see that.

     Speaking of load screens, there are funny comments on Quantum Conundrum's. If you die (by falling from too high a height or getting lasered) the loading screen tells you something you'll miss out on because you died young. It's morbid and amusing. Other loading screens comment on the morals of destroying a dimension, and hint at the possibility of a bacon dimension (if there is a sequel, this needs to be in it). Level names are also quite clever (our safes will blot out the sun!).

     Each level of Quantum Conundrum is fun to figure out. I can't remember a single one I didn't enjoy solving. There are plenty of brain bending moments where you figure out a really cool way to manipulate dimensions to get where you are going, press a switch, or avoid a hazard. Walking around the level and puzzling out what to do as you listen to your uncle talking to you from wherever he is is quite fun. I was never stuck for long, but always stuck enough that the solution was a bit of a revelation. The puzzle design is great. The way the game does dimension swapping is novel, yet the puzzles are very well thought out, making you go much deeper than just the primary idea of each type of dimension. I highly suggest you do the “Explorer of All Roads” trophy if you want to see just how smartly designed these levels are, as it will take you through the “Choose Wisely” level with four unique solutions. Very nice.

     There are quite a few things that don't work in the game. First off, I don't like Ike (see what I did there), the inter-dimensional creature that shows up from time to time in the levels. He just seems kind of pointless. There is a part in the game where he is used effectively, and a bizarre secret involving him (look at the trophies for a hint), but in general I just don't get the point.

     The setting is also a little off in some regards. The robots that shoot out furniture and function as Star Trek style replicators seem a little out of place. They work great game-play wise as a way to get you new furniture and objects when you need them to continue and have destroyed your first set, so I guess that's why they are in there. These robots also vomit objects across long distances in some levels, which makes for fun puzzles and levels, but I have no idea what is going on theme-wise in these situations. There are many cavernous rooms and huge areas that make it seem like the mansion must be miles long, but it doesn't really look all that big in the intro. It makes you wonder if there would be a better setting for these levels than the inside of a house. A few elements of the setting that do work include the displays showing your uncles previous inventions and the portraits of family members that change quite comically depending on what dimension you're in (fluffy and heavy both make for amusing portraits: cute and puffy and heavy rock and roll, respectively).

     The campaign is great, but once it's over there isn't much to do. Getting the collectibles (which make goofy noises to lead you to them) is fun, but it doesn't take long to find them all. There are trophies for beating every level within a certain time limit and for beating them while only switching dimensions a certain number of times. I didn't find either of these challenges fun or engaging. Playing to beat a time or dimensional shift goal takes away the main elements of what makes the campaign so great; exploring, experimenting, and just playing around with the different dimensional effects. I love the slower pace of the campaign. I didn't get into those trophies at all.

     I also want to complain about how the game handles saves. If you press new game, it warns you that it will delete your old save file. Why? When I went back and played a little to do this review, I hit new game to see the intro again. I blazed right past the warning that my save would be deleted thinking that it was just the screen that tells me that I'm playing offline so leaderboards won't work. My save was gone. Good thing I don't care about the post game or I would be mad since all my work on getting fast times and shift goals would be down the drain.

     I think you get the picture. The campaign is pretty genius, but there are a few technical and thematic flaws. The post game (with the exception of finding the sound based collectibles) is bad. I love post games and wish this one had a better one. It's hard though, since the magic of the campaign is figuring out puzzles, and once you know how to do them, the thrill is gone. It's a game you experience, and then you can't re-experience it. That experience is great, but could use some polish. And some sort of engaging post game would be great. Maybe something like the handful of trophies in The Unfinished Swan (review pending) which just have you doing some random stuff in the game's levels. With all that in mind, I'll say great game, tier 3.

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron Review (PS3)

      A good set of trophies is a treasure map to experiencing all that a game has to offer. When I played through El Shaddai the first time, I found it very interesting, both gameplay and theme-wise, but I also found it to be a little shallow. When I came back to it a few months later to try and get some trophies, I was led to new ways to play the game that revealed its true depth and fun.

     El Shaddai's theme and aesthetic needs to be discussed in depth. It is based on the apocryphal Book of Enoch, an ancient religious text. I'm actually reading it now because I got so into it from this game. In the game, seven angels have left heaven and have begun impregnating human women, and also corrupting mankind and directing them away from God. Some elders in heaven decide to destroy the world in a catastrophic, Noah and the Ark style flood to rid it of the corruption and the fallen angels' destructive, immortal offspring, the Nephilim. The player character, Enoch, a human scribe in heaven (whom the Bible says was taken up to heaven by God, presumably without dying) doesn't want this to happen, and petitions God to reconsider. God agrees that he will not flood the earth if Enoch can go to earth, imprison the fallen angels, and return them to heaven. Enoch takes up this holy mission and heads to earth with 5 angels commissioned to help him, including Lucifel. Yes, that is some kind of Engrish version of Lucifer. In El Shaddai, he is still an unfallen angel, one of God's most powerful agents, and Enoch's near constant companion. It's hard to understand why Lucifel is one of the good guys in this game.

     Lucifel seems to exist outside of time. He wears designer clothes (so does Enoch) and is in constant communication with God via cell phone as you are out on your mission. In the intro movie, he seems confused about when the story takes place, as he isn't experiencing time in a linear fashion. Perhaps that is why he isn't Satan yet; events don't have to occur in logical order for him. At any rate, he acts as the game's narrator since Enoch is a near silent protagonist (although he does speak a little). Lucifel speaks to Enoch at the beginning of every level and shows up several times during each level to report to God on what's happening. You only hear one side of these phone calls to heaven, and they are very cleverly done. He says stuff like, “No, I haven't told him about that yet,” and “Something like that exists? You have to feel bad for Enoch,” along with many other clever lines that work really well. His voice acting is amazing, some of the best I've heard. The actor has some great inflection that sounds very natural and real instead of cheesy. Most every line is delivered perfectly.

     Enoch, on the other hand, is the silent type, although he does speak a little throughout the game. He wears designer jeans underneath his beautiful heavenly armor. If you look closely, you'll see his blonde hair is on fire – with blonde fire. Enoch's animation is amazing. There are so many combat moves, and each one is intricately animated. Especially impressive are the animations for stealing weapons, where he grabs, grapples, and spins enemies while stealing their hardware.

     Enoch and Lucifel both have a metro-sexual or male model look to them. Lucifel sports a shirt with the bottom unbuttoned so you can see his belly button. Enoch spends a lot of the time running around with just his designer jeans on if his armor gets shattered. I can see this being off putting for some, but if you think it would turn you off to the game, it helps that their voices are totally normal, not at all like bad anime voice acting, so fear not.

     Each set of enemies that you encounter in the different levels are similar in their behavior, but each has a unique aesthetic to their armor and what they look like as you break their armor down to nothing. Some simply have armor that is aesthetically different and some have a variation on standard armor, like capes and crazy shapes following them around. Others are more distinct, such as the set that doesn't have armor but instead have rings for heads. Instead of breaking their armor down, the parts of the ring break off as you fight them. Also, they are made out of what appears to be an ever-flowing mud. I've heard the enemy design criticized in another review, but I think it's great.

     You'll be fighting these enemies in many different landscapes. These vista's are the stars of the show in many ways. Most of the game takes place inside the fallen angels' tower stronghold. Each of the seven angels has a floor on the tower that represents what they are about. Each one is a drastically different feast for your eyes and ears. Typically, they are surreal vistas unlike anything you've seen before. Trippy visuals are almost becoming cliché to me in video games since so many games seem to have them these days, but El Shaddai's crazy design is far and away some of the totally craziest, and most stunningly beautiful and original. I don't know how to describe it to you really. One level is mainly pastel colors with trees whose leaves are like a fire or a giant piece of fabric blowing in the wind. Faces move through the air and laugh and blow cartoonish wind swirls. Crystalline stairs appear to lead you to the next area. You walk through pools of water on the ground. Giant waves of clouds carry you forward. That's all just part of one level, and each one is totally different. There are some very surprising levels that I don't want to spoil. Really, each time you leave an area and the game loads up another, you don't know what you're going to see next. It could be anything, and it's surprising and beautiful and different so many times in this game you will lose count. I feel like if I wanted to comprehensively show you all the different environments and areas in this game a thousand screen shots would be a good start. They wouldn't do it justice though. Almost every area in the game also has an overlay or underlay of a static or moving design. It's hard to describe, you kind of have to see it. One level has what looks like shafts of dull light permeating it in the foreground. Another has more tangible dots almost blocking your view. Another has an almost graffiti-like jumble of color that moves through every platform. You really need to see it on your tv to know how wonderful each effect looks, I doubt you can even really see what it looks like in a youtube video. The few levels that take place outside of the tower are also really great. Every single area of every single level is aesthetically pleasing, ranging from interesting to wonderful to stunning. I'm not exaggerating when I say it will probably go down in history as one the best aesthetically designed games in the trippy/abstract/artsy category, not to be topped for many years.

     The overall feel of the game's story, being on a mission from God, is also quite unique. It really immerses you in the feeling of being backed by the unstoppable power of God and his agents, the feeling that you will succeed. Part of it is the way the game handles death (you can come back to life many times mid-battle before being truly killed and getting a game over). Part of it is the way the other four angels who come to earth with you, who are represented as geese or swans (I don't know my birds too well) constantly talk to you. They are often out of sight, but as they say they will be at the beginning of the game, they are always with you, and their voices can chime in at any time to give you advice, encouragement, or warning. It actually reminds me of the constant radio chatter in the 2d PSOne shooter Philosoma. The near constant communication was something that really stood out in that game, and it does the same here. Gabriel's amazing, airy voice telling you to “proceed with caution,” is a seemingly small touch that adds tremendously to the experience. There is also this feeling of movement and going forward that the game really nails. A great example (although there are many others) is the first level, which has you searching for the fallen angels' tower. It has you running through frozen, icy landscapes, full speed as the the camera dramatically follows you and the angels give you your initial pep talk, including the amazing line “Show mercy, love, and forgiveness in the name of the Lord.” The level takes many visual and design twists (as most of the levels do) and has a really stunning and unique last few sections as you near the tower. The last time I saw anything like some of these elements was in a Metal Gear game, and I shall say no more.

     As a Christian, I found several elements of the story to line up well with my theology, and I expect anyone of the Judeo-Christian persuasion would find the same. There are also quite a few things that don't line up with my theology (or probably anyone's, for that matter). Keep in mind this is an apocryphal book made into a Japanese style video game, so it is twice removed from what most people would consider canonical. That second removal is kind of a doozy too. Nevertheless, if you are of Jewish or Christian belief, the themes of the power of God, forgiveness, fallen angels, Lucifer/Lucifel, Nephilim, and a catastrophic flood may be interesting and thought provoking to you. Just be prepared to take it all in with several grains of salt.

     As you can probably tell, the theme and artistic design of this game are a big highlight. The experience of playing the game is really something every gamer who is into such things needs to check out. The gameplay is also impressive.

     The basic controls have you moving with the left stick, jumping with cross or circle (pressing again to double jump), attacking with square or triangle, guarding with R1, and stealing a weapon or purifying the weapon you have with L1. You need to purify your weapon from time to time as vileness from the enemies you are fighting builds up on it, weakening its attack strength. It would have been nice to have purify and steal on different buttons, since I had several instances of stealing when I just wanted to purify.These controls sound simple, but actually go quite a bit deeper than they first appear to.

     Pressing square rapidly produces a fast combo. Delaying your button presses so that you tap square a bit after your last tap launches you into a guard-break move that flanks the enemy and breaks through their defensive stance. Holding R1 and pressing square launches your special attack, which launches enemies in the air with two of the weapons, and attacks quickly with slower 3^rd weapon. You can charge up an attack by holding square, and this attack animation cannot usually be interrupted, unlike other attack animations which you can be knocked out of. You can do a dive attack while in the air by holding square, or an alternate dive attack by holding R1 and pressing square while in the air. If you press R1 just before an enemy hits you will perform a perfect guard, stunning them, although you have to be careful as some weapons are better or worse at blocking certain attacks. Finally, pressing R1 and L1 at the same time when overboost is available will start overboost mode. While in overboost mode, one of the angels who is with you mimics your attacks, causing extra damage for a limited time. If you press R1 and L1 again before time runs out, you will perform a flashy super attack. Overboost mode doesn't have a meter to charge up or anything like that, it just is available every once in awhile. On normal mode, it just seemed to show up from time to time. In harder difficulties, it becomes apparent that guarding, especially perfect guarding, helps to make it available more often. There may be other criteria to activating it too, but that's just what I noticed and read about online. If you die, mashing on the face and shoulder buttons will bring you back to life, and cause Enoch to say his amazing, I'm miraculously still around catch phrase, “No problem, everything's fine.” This gets harder to do each time he dies, however, and if you can't mash hard enough, you get a game over.

     The three weapons I've been alluding to are all otherworldly and unique, and all control differently, with a different move set mapped to the same controls. They all also give you a unique movement control. The arch is sort of like a sword. It looks like a bow and arrow, but you hold it by what would be the string side, and the part that would be the wooden part of a bow is a blazing, serrated energy blade that's constantly moving like a chainsaw. Pressing R1 and cross with the arch makes you do a quick hopping dodge. It's kind of useless on normal mode, but invaluable for surviving harder difficulties. You can also hold cross when you have it equipped to slow your descent when falling. The arch is strong against the veil, and weak against the gale.

     The gale is a long range weapon. It consists of a circular control unit that floats behind you, and projectiles that hover around you until you shoot them out. When you have it equipped, you can perform a really fast dash by pressing R1 and cross, which allows you to extend the length of your jump to reach out of the way spots, or to dodge in battle. The gale has the weakest guard strength and is is weak against the veil, and strong against the arch.

     The veil is like a big shield when you are guarding, but you rip it into two gauntlets when you attack with it. It is a slower melee weapon, but has strong attacks. It is also the best weapon for guarding. Pressing cross while holding R1 allows you to move while guarding. The veil has the strongest guard; it's able to block some attacks or strings of attacks that the other weapons can't in similar situations. There are also certain obstacles in the environment that only its attacks can break. It is weak against the arch, and strong against the gale.

     The way the weapons interact using the rock-paper-scissors concept is really great. Attacking someone with a weapon they are weak against can interrupt their attacks. Attack them with a weapon they are strong against, and they'll probably power through and nail you.

     You also fight bare handed in some situations, with a limited move set.

     When playing on normal mode, I preferred the arch, since I could mash my way through with its familiar sword-like attacks with little problem. When playing on the hardest difficulty, Extra, the gale was my weapon of choice, as not getting hit by staying at a distance was paramount. On hard mode while trying to get high scores, I preferred to use either the gale or the veil. The veil is the slowest and most cumbersome weapon, but once you learn how to properly guard with it and when to attack with it, it becomes extremely effective.

     El Shaddai's fighting system is deep and satisfying. You will probably read other reviews that say it is shallow. You will definitely see tons of people saying it is shallow on message boards. And on normal mode, it is shallow. But, if you follow up with the trophies like I was talking about in the beginning of the review, you will see just how amazingly thought out and deep it gets. You can beat normal mode by mashing on square. You cannot beat extra mode or get the high scoring G ranks needed to get the harder trophies by doing anything but mastering the games fighting systems. You'll quickly learn about the paper-rock-scissors nature of the three weapons, and which attacks to use with each weapon when fighting an enemy with a weapon it is stronger or weaker against. You'll think about how to deal enough damage to an enemy to weaken them enough so that you can steal their weapon before they take too much damage and die. You'll think about what order to fight enemies in, both so that they are easier to manage, and to abuse the way enemies spawn in patterns based on what weapon you kill the previous enemy with to get an enemy to spawn with the weapon you want to steal next. Whenever I got into a fight while trying to get the high scores needed for the “conqueror” trophy, I would need to analyze the fight like it was a puzzle (first I have to steal this guy's weapon so I can kill this guy with it, causing a guy with the weapon I need to spawn so I can steal that, then I need to kill this guy even though he has a weapon mine is weak against by using this technique so I can then use his weapon to kill this last guy. I can press L1 to steal his weapon, then hold R1 and press square to launch him into the air, press square twice to combo him in the air, then hold square to do a spinning dive attack as he falls, knocking him into a wall, then as I land I'll hold square to do a charged attack and finish him off before he gets up... and on and on). The combat is challenging, exciting, and thanks to the huge array of great animations and great camera pans and zooms, beautiful to watch. Unfortunately, like I said, normal mode requires little more than mashing square to win, so you aren't going to see any of this depth your first time through. It is good training for the next few run throughs on harder difficulties, but I fear many people will label it as shallow and never touch the game again after beating it the first time. I've heard people say it's worth a playthrough for the visuals, but that the gameplay is sub par. That's kind of true on your first playthrough, but if you go deeper, so will your gameplay experience, and you'll be learning new moves, combos, and techniques many hours into your quest to finish all the trophies.

     It's no spoiler that the boss fights include fighting fallen angels. You get a little preview of these fights from time to time as an angel will show up and fight you for a bit. You can either win these fights by breaking a piece of the boss's armor, or lose if they break your armor first. Either way, the game continues. But when you fight theses bosses for real, you're in for a lengthy slug fest. In order to beat them, you have to whittle their armor down from full protection all the way down to their jumpsuits underneath. This physical representation is the only indicator of hit points, both for you and these bosses (and normal enemies), and it's a really cool way of doing it. There are no on screen indicators at all in El Shaddai (although beating the game let's you unlock the hidden hp meters as a cool little bonus). Watching how much armor is on your body, and how much the fallen angels or the normal enemies have is your only clue as to how much more beating you have to do. There are also quite a few other bosses that are less...humanoid. They are all great fun to figure out and fight.

     You're going to run into a few levels that deviate from the normal pattern of the others. I don't want to spoil what you'll be doing in them too much. The gameplay in these levels can be quite different than the main game. The one that involves driving is not very good. It kind of just happens, you don't have to really do much to pass it, even on the harder difficulties, although it looks really cool. The others are really great highlights in the game, both aesthetically and story wise, and their gameplay is solid.

     There are also a lot of 2d platforming areas, along with many 3d platforming areas. These work ok, but something is a little off with the physics. I missed a lot of jumps while playing, both in 2d and 3d. It's hard to describe, but at times, it just doesn't feel right, and you end up falling. I found I did the least falling when I just ran through at top speed without thinking about it. It's quite lacking when compared to a game like Outland, which has rock-solid platforming that feels so perfect from your first jump to your last.

     The automatic camera is very good. A lot of people have called for the game to have manual camera controls. I disagree. The auto-camera does a really great job. Being able to move it yourself wouldn't add anything to the gameplay. In my opinion the auto-camera is part of what makes exploring the beautiful environments so thrilling. It frames things really beautifully. In combat, it does a great job of following the action and keeping all the enemies visible. I got messed up by it about 8 or so times when it didn't show me all the enemies or shifted unexpectedly. 8 bad shots out of thousands and thousands of camera movements is way better than I would do with manual controls. Integrating the dramatic zoom-ins and angle changes that frequently occur during particularly flashy attacks would also probably not work well with manual camera controls, and seeing the games animations in detail in these automatic camera shots is such a big part of El Shaddai's aesthetic.

     El Shaddai's music includes some choirs, some tribal singing, some great, epic exploration themes, and more mysterious tunes, as well as great combat music that lends a sense of stress and conflict. It's all good stuff.

     The story is really great, but some outside information is needed to understand certain parts of it. At the very least, read the story write up in the instruction manual, and I'd also suggest going online and reading about its topics on Wikipedia or elsewhere. Unless you happen to be a Biblical or religious scholar, you're probably going to miss some of what is going on and what certain events might mean. And even once you've read about it, it's still going to be confusing at parts. El Shaddai isn't really interested in explaining itself to you, but in a good way. Figuring things out, coming up with theories and interpretations and meanings, and reading about other peoples' thoughts on the game was part of the enjoyment for me.

     So, definitely my longest review thus far. It's partially because there isn't much out there that is like El Shaddai, so I have to explain a lot about it to give you an accurate picture of what it is like to play it, which is the goal of all of my reviews. It's also partially because I had so much fun getting into the real meat of the game and getting that platinum trophy. I've thought long and hard about giving El Shaddai a perfect score, but it's going to have to be a great game, tier 2. This is mainly because the first playthrough can be a little boring gameplay wise. I took a long break between my first playthrough and my trophy run, and almost didn't come back at all. I would have missed out on an amazing gaming experience, I'm so glad I picked the controller back up. But it wouldn't be fair to say it's tier 1, since the other game's in that category (which are all games I've played before starting these online reviews) are really just about flawless. El Shaddai is a hair away from the near perfection these other games have, that hair being it's lack of engagement the first time through. Stick with it though, and that nigh perfect experience awaits as you seek out those hard trophies.

  

P.S. What games am I alluding to that I haven't reviewed on Robotic Attack Squadron but are tier 1? Ico, Monster Hunter Freedom, Mana Khemia, Metal Gear Solid 2, and Wipeout HD (in no particular order, don't make me choose!), to name a few.

Outland Review (PS3)

     Outland is easy to describe in videogame-ese. It's a Metroidvania game with an Ikaruga-esque polarity switching mechanic. If you understand what that means, that's probably enough for you to want to try it out. That along with the smooth gameplay I experienced in the demo that's available on PSN certainly sold me.

     Outland is the story of...something. Two sisters are trying to destroy the world and you are this guy out in the jungle and you try to stop them by channeling ancient warrior powers. Something along those lines. After the intro, the story really takes a back seat and it is pretty much just gameplay from there on out. Obviously the story didn't have too big of an impact on me since I can barely remember it.

     The game is divided into five areas and a hub world that connects them all. You enter a 2d level, explore it while fighting enemies and looking for a key to get into the boss room, then go kill the boss to complete it. All the while you will be gaining new abilities that let you get through the new obstacles presented in the level. You can always return to a level through the hub world or through teleport spots that you open up, and the new powers you get will allow you to access new areas in those old levels that you couldn't get to before. I found the set-up to be a little more contained than most other Metroidvanias since each level stands on its own. There's no reason to backtrack through a level if you don't want to, you'll just miss out on power-ups (such as shrines that increase your max health and special attack energy) and collectibles and stuff like that, but nothing totally necessary.

     The controls start simple but soon map out to the whole controller as you gain more and more powers. Cross is jump, square is attack with your sword, and R1 switches your polarity. Your attack changes to an upward strike or a low slash if you press up or down and square. If you jump at a wall, you will stick to it for a second. You can jump off of a wall you are stuck to by pressing cross again. This is really helpful in a game that is refreshingly lacking a double jump. I love that it's not in here. You can jump really high, you can jump off of walls to get even higher, and your character will very effectively grab onto ledges, but no double jumping! I love double jumping, but it doesn't have to be in every 2d platformer ever, and I'm really happy that it isn't in this one. Those are the basic controls, but you will soon add many more. I won't spoil them all, but you get the ability to slide by pressing down and cross, do an obstacle smashing charge attack by holding down R2, and fire a giant Kamehameha wave across the screen by holding circle, among several other powers. Many of these powers take up special attack energy, which you regain by killing enemies.

     The polarity rules in this game differ slightly from Ikaruga's. In Outland, you must be the opposite color of an enemy in order for your normal attacks to damage it (some special attacks ignore this rule). Like Ikaruga, you absorb bullets that are the same color as you, although physical attacks from any colored enemy will damage you. So, for example, if you are fighting a red enemy that shoots red bullets, you should approach it in the red polarity to absorb its bullets, then quickly switch to blue in order for your attacks to damage it. This polarity concept brilliantly carries over to the platforming side of the gameplay as well. Certain platforms snap in and out of existence as you change colors. You can only stand on them when you are the same color they are (although you can always see their outline, even if you are the wrong color). There are also platforms that you can always stand on but that will move if you change to their color.

     The platform and combat scenarios that the different levels throw at you using these polarity mechanics are the game's main strength. There are countless platforming situations where you need to rapidly switch colors to activate platforms and then switch back and forth to avoid the fountains that spew out different colored bullets. Stages are loaded with these unkillable bullet fountains that spray out beautiful patterns of red and blue bullets you will need to absorb in order to advance. Just like in Ikaruga, it's little bit of an epiphany to switch colors multiple times to absorb a screen full of bullets to get though an area where the bullets literally cannot be dodged. It's like these games are breaking a cardinal rule of gaming, and your mind is expanding along with the scope of the situations they present to you. Throw some enemies in there that you need to be the opposite color of in order to kill and platforms that you don't want to activate (such as ones that drop you too low to keep going if you are the same color as them) and you'll really need to put on your thinking cap and then execute.

     Combat situations are similar in the way they make you think, as you'll be taking on multiple enemies with different attack patterns that are also different colors, making how good you are at switching colors and using you special attacks judiciously the deciding factors in whether or not you blaze through the enemies unscathed or take a boat load of damage before the fight is over. Since you primarily use melee attacks, the combat feels somewhat similar to Symphony of the Night. It has the same feel of trying to jump over and around enemies in order to get a hit in on them without getting hit that Symphony does, but you're going to be switching your polarity back and forth as you do so since bullet fountains are often around when you are fighting. There is an interesting variation on the polarity based combat that pops up in the game too to shake things up a bit (no spoilers!).

     Digression: this game also has a playable flashback like Symphony, and a sound effect that is strikingly similar to one found in Alucard's game. Also, the newly released Guacamelee! is a Metroidvania game with a polarity switching mechanic. I guess part of this genre is building on and homaging the games that came before!

     Fighting each of the game's bosses is great fun. I won't even say what they are, you should experience them yourself. Some of them are screen-filling monsters. Others are more human sized but you face them in really crazy situations. The final boss fight is quite epic and challenging, just like I like it.

     The graphics are very beautiful. The player and enemies are silhouettes with colored parts, mainly in the the polarity colors of red and blue. The main character is especially well animated. His running, jumping, climbing, and attacking animations all perfectly compliment the smooth feeling of the controls. I was very impressed with how natural controlling the main guy looked and felt the first time I played the demo. The backgrounds of the levels are also very impressive. There's a lot of stuff hanging by chains and subtly shifting in the background. There are also waterfalls and fires, so something in the background is almost always moving or shifting around. It's a great effect that adds a lot of atmosphere, especially since the backgrounds are very detailed and filled with symbols and architecture to begin with. Also the snow effect in the icy level is really cool. Sometimes you catch a subliminal glimpse of a giant snowflake passing by in the foreground, which is really awesome looking.

     The music is very subtle most of the time, which fits the feel of the game quite nicely. The music is in the background, helping to set the mood, but not really defining what is going on. It works well.

     I played the main game for about 10 hours to get all the single player trophies. It was probably about 7-8 to just beat it. Pretty good length for what it is. The other modes include co-op (which I hear is cool but I didn't get to play), and arcade mode, which gives you a handful of powers and a time limit to get through an entire level. You get points in this mode for killing enemies and picking up gold, and there are online leaderboards. I didn't really get into this mode. I played through the first few levels of this mode many months after playing the main game, and it was a fun way to re-play levels. After the first couple of levels, I ended up getting stuck on the harder bosses. The 4th boss is kind of... cheap... so I blazed through the level and then died to the boss over and over until time ran out. Then I tried the final level. The level was fun, but that boss is so hard... it would take a lot of re-playing to be good enough to beat the boss before time ran out. I love that the bosses are hard, but beating them in time requires more dedication than I want to put in right now. It's a fun mode to play around with though.

     What I really wanted to do was play the game again on a higher difficulty setting, preferably one where one hit kills you. I was expecting Outland to be a hardcore challenge. This is mainly because I played Ikaruga fairly recently, and as you may know, that game is really, really hard. Outland is certainly challenging, but doesn't rise to Ikaruga's level of difficulty. It has a nice pace and progression like a Metroidvania game should, but unfortunately lacks the payoff off the hardcore difficulty of the bullet-curtain games it draws inspiration from. An uber hard difficulty mode would have been really fun, and not overly frustrating due to the frequent check points. Unfortunately there is no difficulty setting. I thought about trying to do this as a self imposed challenge, but I couldn't make myself do it. Maybe I'm stupid, but I want the game to impose this on me and encourage me to play this way with a trophy. That's my main gripe with the game. I think I could have had another 7 hours of fun on super-hard mode, but it didn't exist. Having multiple hit points is great for your first time through, but the difficult polarity switching combat situations and platforming sections are begging to be done perfectly, and I really wish there was a game mode and that forced you to complete them without multiple hit points allowing you to brute force your way through.

     I had a great time with Outland, but couldn't shake a feeling of disappointment while playing. It just felt wrong to be able to keep going after taking a hit from the waves of bullets filling the screen. It's the 2d space ship shooter fan in me that saw all those bullets and wanted a hardcore challenge. Outland is a challenge in the normal video game sense, but not in the hardcore Monster Hunter, Demon's Souls, Ikaruga sense like I was hoping it would be. For that reason, I'm docking it a bit, although I'm sure you can tell from this review that I certainly enjoyed it quite a bit. It's a Tier 3 great game.

Patapon Review

     I've heard Patapon described as a rhythm RTS, but I would disagree with that. It is a rhythm action game in my mind. You command an army, but the way the group obeys your commands all at once makes it feel like you are playing a 2d action game controlled by rhythmic taps of the buttons.

     Patapon is a PSP game made by the developers of the super-cute and mostly fun Loco Roco. It's a fine pedigree to have. This game takes the Loco Roco cute aesthetic, twists it a little, and throws in a lot more game mechanics. The combat really makes it feel like quite a different game, but you can see the influence on the sound, look, and game design quite clearly.

     You play as the god of the Patapons, a down on their luck tribe of warriors whom you reassemble and inspire to religious pilgrimage to seek out Earthend so that they may gaze upon “It.” All the while the Patapons will attempt to exterminate their hated enemies, the Zigotons, and take out the giant monsters that lurk in the wild as they travel. The Patapon have more animations for attack, dodging, and being damaged than screenshots might lead you to believe, and their little “faces” are very expressive. It's a very smooth looking game when you see it in motion.

     A typical mission has you marching across a 2d landscape from left to right. You control an army of up to 18 Patapons in up to 3 squads, plus a flag-bearer. When you encounter enemies, you command the group to attack, dodge, guard, or gather strength for a more powerful attack. You do all of this (including the marching) by pressing a combination of 4 face buttons in time with the beat. Each button represents a drum sound. As you learn more drum sounds and more command songs, you increase the repertoire of orders you can give your army. After you give a 4 beat command, you pause for 4 beats as the Patapons repeat the order and obey it. Then you give another 4 beat command. Repeat ad infinitum for the rest of the game. This sounds like it might get boring but this mechanic is fresh and fun, and the gameplay has enough depth and strategy that you won't really get bored of this great idea.

     Part of the reason for this is that there are three mission types, each requiring a different strategy. Hunting missions have you going after mostly harmless creatures to gather money and supplies that you can later use to make new units. These missions require you to formulate a squad that can sneak up on unsuspecting prey and take it out quickly before it runs away.

     Combat missions have you fighting the Zigotons, an army of, for lack of a better word, people, that look similar to the Patapons and use weapons similar to them. These levels involve fighting big crowds of small enemies and also destroying structures.

     Finally, there are boss battles, which are my favorite. In these you fight one giant creature in a lengthy combat experience. Dodging, blocking, and attacking all need to be used right to avoid or deflect enemy attacks and strike hard enough to stun and weaken the enemy before finally killing it, chopping off its head or nearest body part equivalent, and carting it back to camp for a big celebration, complete with dancing around the fire, drumming, and talking about the quest for “It.”

     Patapons equip weapons (such as bows, spears, axes, clubs, and lances) and armor (mostly cool looking helmets) individually on a preparation screen before you enter any mission. Each unit type uses a different type of weapon and behaves differently given certain commands. The optimize button on this screen will kit everyone out in the strongest gear, although you can micromanage equipment as well if you want. Sometimes I found that switching things around a bit from what the optimize button was recommending was helpful. The weird thing is, the main way to get gear is to pick it up as loot in the combat levels versus the Zigotons. These are the only levels that are not re-playable, meaning equipment is hard to come by at first. By the time you get to the endgame, you'll have plenty of stuff, but for quite a few hours you'll wish you could grind these combat missions to get more gear.

     If you are really accurate for a few beats, or go through ten commands without missing a beat, you will go into fever mode, which makes the Patapons do stuff better. Bow and arrow guys will jump high in the air and shoot three arrows instead of one. Mounted Patapons charge, knocking enemies out of the way. Some troop types don't have a fever power, but have some other trait, such as being able to equip shields and block better than other types when given the block command. You can also perform a miracle while in fever mode, such as making it rain to cool down the desert that is so hot it burns your troops, or summoning a wind to blow your arrows further forward. Miracles are done through a little mini game of repeating strings of beats. You lose fever mode if you screw up a command or are way off beat. Holding it for long periods of time by stringing commands together is key to victory, so you always need to think one command ahead so you don't mess up the rhythm.

     Patapon has a lot of pros going for it. It also has quite a few cons that hold it back. It's a unique experience that looks great, and is fun, but also has some frustrating moments of difficulty and confusion. Some of the confusion is caused by lack of explanation, either of game mechanics or situations or what to do next. For example, I re-played a mission multiple times where you are trying to bust a kidnapped Patapon out of a cage because I didn't realize that the item I equipped was causing fire damage to anything I hit, thus setting the cage on fire and damaging the Patapon inside. So the prisoner died before I could rescue it. I've also heard that people have gotten stuck not knowing what stage they need to replay and do differently in order to progress the story. I personally didn't have a problem with this, but I can see how it could happen since some of the things you need to do are only alluded to in the level descriptions. If you didn't play for a few days and couldn't remember what you were doing, it might take you awhile to figure out what needs to be done in quite a few of the games situations.

    The rhythm mechanics are tight. They reward you for being super accurate by taking you to fever mode more quickly, but still function if you are a little off. At the same time, if you are off beat, they won't work, and that's how it should be. A glowing bar around the screen pulses to the beat, and is a great aid in helping you get those perfect streaks going. Performing a miracle will take you out of fever mode, however, which was a big design mistake in my opinion. There's really no reason to use miracles except in situations where you are forced to since losing fever mode can really change the tide of the battle in your enemies' favor. Many battles are won by staying in fever mode as long as possible, so you'll want to avoid miracles. I don't know why the game would incentivize (spelling) you to avoid using its own mechanics.

     Switching up your squad types to find the best group for each boss and mission type is fun and actually does make a big difference in how your army performs. However, many of the stronger Patapon types you can create by gathering materials from hunting are not allowed to equip armor for some reason. So armor is hard to come by, and then when you are excited because you got some cool armor, you can't equip it onto your best dudes. Also, I'm bitter because a glitch made my troops refuse to pick up an awesome helmet with spider legs all over it. I then saved, not realizing that this item is missable!

     The music is certainly decent, but it's not the amazing soundtrack that I've read about in many other reviews of this game. A rhythm game really benefits from stellar music, which this game doesn't have. Almost every game I've played since playing Patapon has better music than it. I'm not saying it's bad, it just doesn't really stand out.

     I've heard that the mini games that let you get new materials to make new troops (and in some cases weapons) are among the best ever. I totally disagree. They are fun, but not that great. They could be better.

     Boss battles are the big pro of this game. They are fun and engaging, and the most visually exciting. Nothing beats having your army take on a huge T-rex or a giant worm or crazily animated plant monster. Your army will be launching arrows and spears by the hundreds and just barely diving out of the way of fire-breath, head-butts, and tentacle grabs; very exciting. Boss battles are re-playable and each time you go back, the boss is harder. This can get addictive. I spent close to five hours grinding bosses after I beat the game before deciding to call it quits.

      The game is on the longer side. It took me about 17 hours to beat, which is a good length for it. Really getting into the command system takes time, and you wouldn't be able to see all the depth available if this were an 8-10 hour campaign.

     I think the whole experience would have been a lot better with a more traditional leveling and equipment system. I've heard that you can level up your troops in Patapon 2 and 3, and I'd like to try that some day. I probably would have kept going with the boss grinding if I also had levels to grind. Being able to craft weapons and armor and equip them on whoever I wanted would be an improvement too.

     The story is certainly darker and more cohesive than Loco Roco's, although the ending was a little disappointing to me. I wanted a little more depth, and honestly I thought it was going to go deeper based on some of the cues during the game, so I was quite let down at the end, although it wasn't horrible or anything.

     Sorry if this review was a little rambling or not that well written. Patapon was not at all as great as everyone says it is, and I think the way I wrote this review kind of reflects that. I had a lot of fun playing it, but due to its flaws, I was also quite ready to move only a few hours after beating it. It wants you to keep playing it forever, but I wasn't feeling it without a few more features and ideas. The sequels sound like they improve upon the basics introduced in this game, and I hope to play them some day.

     It's a tier 1 mediocre game for me. It's a fresh new idea, and the main mechanic works well, but there are  enough problems and a few things missing that hold it back from greatness. Plenty of fun was had playing, but quite a bit of frustration and wishing for other features made me glad to move on.

Dracula - Undead Awakening Review (PSP/PS3)

     I saw some videos of Dracula - Undead Awakening and I thought it looked interesting, and with Playstation Minis, that's about all you need to know to give one a try since they are so cheap. It's fun for awhile, and before I started playing Minis, it's what I would have expected a good Mini to be. Of course I now know that Minis (like Alien Zombie Death and Velocity) can be stellar games.

     Dracula is a twin-stick shooter, although the PSP doesn't have two sticks, so you'll be shooting by holding down the face buttons in the direction you want to shoot: triangle for up, circle for right, square for left, and cross for down. Diagonals are achieved by mashing two buttons at the same time. For example, to shoot diagonally north-west, you hold down triangle and square at the same time. This sounds a little awkward, but it works well with the exception of when you try to shoot in circles quickly with the machine gun or flamethrower, which can be a little rough on the wrists. The PS3 doesn't let you use two sticks either, you'll still be mashing face buttons when playing on the big screen. You switch weapons by pressing the shoulder buttons to scroll along your collected weapons which are displayed at the bottom of the screen. You'll use these simple controls to run and gun the entire time you're playing since you can (and have to) move while you are shooting.

     And what are you shooting, you might ask? This is a gothic, Victorian time period game (I think), so you play as this guy wearing a cool hat blasting tons and tons of monsters that are under the control of Dracula himself. Giant wolf/rat creatures and mummies are the main baddies that are lining up to get blasted by the thousands (literally), but there are a few others as well, like creepy worms and these bipedal amphibious guys. There are also palette swapped angry versions of most monster types that are faster than their normal counterparts. All of these monsters rush you in huge mobs and attack you if they get close enough, draining your health bar.

     There are three levels and four game modes, which you can mix and match as you please. There's a graveyard, a castle, and a frozen outdoor area. The level determines what enemies you'll face, but not much else. Survival mode (the main mode, in my opinion) has you blasting away at endless and increasingly numerous and angry hordes while periodically giving you a choice of a random bunch of powers. Each time you earn one of these perks, you can press select to pause the game and choose one. Each time you get to pick one out of a list of four that are pulled randomly from all the possible perks. They are pretty cool. There are a lot of them, and picking out the best one for your current situation is fun. There are some that increase your damage or armor in certain situations, some that add to your score, and some that improve weapons, plus many more. My personal favorites include the telekinesis power that makes power-ups, ammo, and weapons slowly creep toward you, and any of the handful that increase your running speed in some way. Getting the right perks will help you go the distance, as you start out facing a lot of enemies and it only gets worse. You'll soon be facing close to 50 on the screen at once with armies more rushing in as each one dies. Despite the high number of on-screen enemies, the game runs without any hiccups and without load times once you get to the title screen.

     Enemies also drop health potions, weapons, ammo, and the occasional random power-up, such as one that freezes time for a bit and one that increases your rate of fire for a few precious seconds. There are a bunch of weapons (I want to say 8+) that range from a pistol to a rifle all the way up to a flamethrower and a rocket launcher. Each one handles differently, and they are all pretty fun to use. .

     After awhile, Dracula will show up and shoot lightning bolts at you. Killing him gets you an omen. A running tally of how many of these items you have picked up is shown on the high score screen, and collecting enough of them will change your portrait and title on said screen. Getting new portraits was my motivation to keep playing for awhile, as I liked the art style of the pictures, especially the grizzled old man one. Dracula can appear multiple times in a round if you are able to survive long enough, so you can potentially pick up multiple omens.

     Super survival mode is... I don't know. I can't tell the difference between this and survival. Maybe it's slightly harder or there are less weapons? Nothing too noticeable though.

     Wave attack mode has you facing set waves of enemies and collecting the gold they drop. When a wave is over, a little shop appears where you can buy weapons, ammo, and health before moving on to the next wave. You also can choose upgrades to your health, damage, reload time, or gold drop amounts in lieu of picking perks. I don't think Dracula appears in this mode, although I didn't play it enough to really confirm that since I was mainly into survival mode.

     Rush mode is really cool. When it starts, you get to pick either a machine gun, flamethrower, or a giant buzz saw as your starting weapon. You then immediately get attacked by a huge horde of monsters as if you were really deep into a survival mode run. These rounds are usually over really fast, but you take out a ridiculous amount of monsters. I just tried it out again to refresh my memory, and I killed about 200 hundred mummies before they killed me... in a 51 second game. Unless I'm mistaken, this mode is the only way to get your hands on that buzz saw, and it's cathartic after a long survival mode run to jump into rush mode with the buzz saw and shred hundreds of enemies in seconds.

     I stuck to survival mode for most of my time with this game so that I could try and see as many portraits as possible. I wish you could earn omens in the other modes some how (maybe you can in wave attack, not sure), as I only really felt an incentive to play survival mode in order to earn more omens. I would have probably played the other modes more if you could earn omens in them too.

     The graphics are pretty cool. The enemies seem to be 2d images with a few frames of animation. I liked the design of most of the monsters and the way the graphics are done gives them a unique look. Dracula himself looks a little weird, like his head is really small or something. The player character also looks a little awkward when he pivots the top half of his body around but keeps walking in the same direction. He can actually pivot 360 degrees at the waist, which is a little scary. The backgrounds look nice, but there's nothing really special about them.

     There are two music tracks in the game. The title screen theme is ok. The song that plays during gameplay is better. It's fast-paced and has a synthesized electric guitar and a death metal voice part that both chime in from time to time. I thought the vocal part (which I can't understand at all) really adds to the atmosphere for some reason, even though it's only 2 seconds long. It would be cool if there was a different song for each stage or mode, but what's there is good.

      I had fun with this game, but I also didn't play it very long. I was motivated to get the first few portraits, but the gameplay didn't compel me to keep going after that and I lost interest after awhile. It's a thrill for a few days, but I was ready to move on after killing Dracula 21 times (along with thousands of his minions). It's a tier 2 mediocre game since what's there is good, but it would need a lot more content or something additional to motivate the player if it were going to be a great game.

Mirror's Edge Pure Time Trials DLC Review (PS3)

 Mirror's Edge was one of my first PS3 games, and remains one of my favorites to this date. It's a first person parkour game, with some hand-to-hand and firearms based fighting thrown in. Since its main focus is free-running, you have much greater control over your character's body than in most other first-person games (which usually focus on shootin'). It successfully pulls off what so many first-person games do poorly: running and jumping mechanics that aren't painfully bad and inaccurate.

     It's an amazing game. It's controls are spectacular; every move you make requires multiple skillful button presses, and pulling off those moves in order to quickly run through a level feels amazing. It's hand-to-hand combat and shooting sequences were fun and different. It's animation of your character from the first person, both visible (like your hand grabbing a ledge) and off screen (like what a wall-run or a roll looks like from your perspective), is near perfect. It's story had a great concept (a near-future where parkour couriers are one of the only ways to get free information circulated due to an oppressive government), but very poor execution. It was the perfect set-up to have you running various courier missions, but instead quickly degenerates into total nonsense.

     It had three basic game modes. Story mode, where you play through set levels and see cutscenes from time to time; speed run mode, where you play the game's story levels while trying to beat a target time; and time trial mode, where you play a smaller chunk of a level while trying to beat a target time and run through all the checkpoints. Speed runs were my favorite. I would go through the level, planning my route, then have to perform it all with few mistakes in order to beat the target time. The longest of these runs is ten minutes, a marathon of shortcuts and correctly timed leaps and bounds. Great stuff.

     The Pure Time Trials DLC, however, consists of 9 new levels for my least favorite mode of Mirror's Edge, the time trials. I had plenty of fun with the main game's time trial levels, but earning the fast times necessary to get your star level up (and earn the accompanying trophy) always eluded me. Watching videos of these time trial levels online, you can see that Mirror's Edge inspires the kind of speed-running nonsense of abusing game mechanics and level designs that you see from time to time if you search for speed runs in other random games. The game even seems to encourage it, especially based on some of the trophies that come with this DLC, which have you pulling off tricky maneuvers well outside the scope of what you would need to complete the story and the speed runs. Some people are obviously very interested in this sort of thing, but practicing the same jump hundreds of times so that I can just barely kick off a wall and shave half a second off my time was not for me. Speed runs had you planning out a route through a level and then executing with little room for mistakes. Time trials are more about saving every possible millisecond by planning out each step and turn to the pixel. While I had fun reaching the one and two star ratings in the time trial levels (you can earn one to three stars, depending on how fast you are), I had no desire to put in the hours and hours it would take me to get to two and three stars on all the levels (I got three three-star ratings, thirteen two-star ratings, and seven one-star ratings in the main game).

     I put off getting the Pure Time Trials for a long time because they were just more of my least favorite part of the game, but luckily, I went into them thinking I would just have fun getting the one star ratings as I got myself a few extra hours of the Mirror's Edge action I hadn't had in a few years. And that's exactly how my experience went. I also had a shadier agenda; using the DLC to complete the hardest part of the platinum trophy, getting my star level up to 50 by getting nine extra stars (one from each of the easiest target times in each of the new levels). I wondered if I was just buying it to finally get that platinum trophy I always drooled over, but I justified it to myself by saying I would have a few hours of fun with it as well, so it was ok. I can sleep at night with that, especially since I had a blast with these new levels.

     The Pure Time Trials levels are drastically different visually from the rest of the game. Mirror's Edge was famous for awhile for it's almost photo-realistic urban environments. The Pure Time Trials, by contrast are very abstract. Each level is floating a mile or two above an ocean surrounded by an endless horizon. Blocks and planes of glass are suspended in mid-air, yet will support your weight. Huge stones with a beautiful chalky texture are everywhere, as are colored blocks with patterns similar to the runner tattoos you see in the story mode. The effect is very beautiful, especially the ocean far below you and the myriads of floating blocks up in the sky that some levels have. A few stages also have a surreal effect where if you stand on a pane of glass you can see a translucent city far below your feet. It was a great idea to go with this abstract aesthetic for these new levels (although I love the city environs of the main game too).

     Here's a quick refresher on the controls, since I like to put the controls in all my reviews. The analog sticks control movement and looking, ala virtually every modern 1^st person console game. Circle will make you quickly look toward your next checkpoint. L1 is jump, climb, vault, wall run, etc. Basically if you ever want to your body to go up, you press L1. L2 is slide, duck, and roll. If you want your body to go down, you press L2. I've always loved the way those two buttons are used. Very elegant. R1 makes you quickly turn around. And you can still use R2 to attack and triangle to attempt a disarm, but you won't be needing to. And just for the sake of completeness, you can normally press square to slow down time and cross to interact with objects, but neither of these are used in time trials, so you won't be pressing them in this DLC (or at least you shouldn't be).

     The nine levels included here encourage/require the use of advanced techniques that you should already know if you've played a lot of the main game including the trickier types of wall running. Nothing too bad though. As you play, however, you'll notice plenty of shortcuts set up for the really advanced players who are willing to put in the practice necessary to pull off near hack-like maneuvers to achieve world record times. Kudos to those people, I admire their videos, but I am not one of them.

     A few standout levels for me include Velocity, which has you running on curved glass walls with nothing but space below you, and the paired levels, Actino and Actino Rise. The first Actino has you approaching a tower, and the second has you climbing that tower. Put them together, and you have a level about as long as one of the shorter speed run levels. Of course you can't play them together, because they are time trials. Humbug. The tower you climb in Actino Rise is breathtakingly tall. Watching the level intro where the camera pans through the environment made me feel like I was watching one of those Imax films where they throw the camera off the grand canyon. After climbing to the top, if you look down at where you started, it's crazy to think that you actually went through all that space to get there. Of course, you should be running and trying to beat your time, not taking in the scenery. This level is the best use of height I have seen in a game. Avoid it if you have vertigo.

     The music, if you would call it that, is very low key. It's mostly almost like faraway humming or slow drumming sounds. They are so low and subtle that you hear every sound effect and every exerted breath that main character Faith takes. It's a nice choice to let the sound effects take precedence over what music is there, and it works very nicely.

     There are six trophies in this game. Four of them are for doing advanced combo maneuvers. I got two of them, but after many tries, I gave up on the other two for the same reasons I don't try to get three star runs. And I swear I did the U-turn one after a million tires, but it didn't pop! The other two are for getting even higher star ratings; 75 and 90(!). These are lofty goals that will take countless hours to achieve, and I wasn't the least bit interested in them.

     Overall, I would have preferred new story style levels to speed-run through, as that is what I really love about Mirror's Edge. But I did enjoy the new look and the new challenge of going through this DLC. I just don't recommend knocking yourself out to get those world-record times unless you are really into that sort of thing. If you are, enjoy, I think you'll have a lot of fun with this.

     The original Mirror's Edge is a Tier 2 Great Game for me. It did something new and did it very well. Taken by itself, the Pure Time Trials fit into the Great Game, Tier 3 category for me. If you take the two together, the game stays in Tier 2, it's just a few hours longer. The new levels were fun, but the whole way that Time Trials are set up seems kind of broken, or at least very much not for me. Cutting every corner possible to get the best time is a favorite past time for me in Wipeout HD or the speed runs of this game, but the Time Trials don't click with me. It may be that because they are such short chunks of the levels, the only possible way to make up time is to practically count pixels. Contrast that with speed runs or timed races in Wipeout HD, where you're in it for the long haul and need a general plan of action to execute. It's a subtle distinction, but it makes all the difference for me. If you are into time trials, I'm sure this DLC pack is a sublime addition to the game, but for me, it's just a few hours of extra fun added to the already great Mirror's Edge experience.

Wizorb Review PS3/PSP

     Wizorb is an Arkanoid/Breakout type game that adds in a fantasy twist. It has a fantasy story seen through some cool retro cutscenes shown at the beginning and end, and a bunch of interesting twists on the block breaking formula. 

     In each of the 5 levels you play as a wizard who turns himself into a ball and then hits himself around to destroy blocks and enemies. You control his magic wand at the bottom of the screen, hitting the ball up the screen as it bounces back off obstacles and enemies and preventing it from slipping by you. If it does get by you, that costs you a life. The game is old school in a lot of ways, from its graphics and music to this life counting mechanic. You get 3 lives to start with, and 3 continues per world, and if you use them all up, you have to start that world over again. The auto-save is very strict in enforcing this, and it's hard to even cheat the auto-save to get around it (more on that later).

     You need to break all of the blocks in a level to advance, as well as take out any enemies that may be wandering around. Enemies typically don't attack you (except for bosses). You just need to hit them a few times to kill them (I feel guilty killing werewolves, their sprite is so cute!). You have a few spells at your command as well. Pressing cross will shoot a fireball out of the wand. Pressing cross while the ball is touching the wand will make it into a magma ball for a few seconds, allowing it to smash through blocks and keep going instead of bouncing off of them after one hit. Square will cause a wind to blow the ball towards the paddle, and pressing square while the ball is touching the wand will slow the ball down and allow you to control it for a few seconds. You can also teleport the ball to anywhere on the screen instead of re-launching it after losing a life.

     All of these spells cost mana, which is one of the things this game does very well. Mana is somewhat scarce. It can fall out of blocks as potions that you can grab with the wand, or you can get it in bonus levels, or buy it in the shops you sometimes find by hitting the ball through doors in the levels, or you can get it by having the ball not hit anything for 8 or so bounces. That's it. It doesn't refill between levels or worlds, and managing it is important. All of the spells are very useful, but the scarce mana stops you from spamming them. It forces you to choose wisely what spells you need to use for the level you are on and how much you want to save up for the next level.

     The spells are kind of hard to use, but in a good way, so pulling off a spell in an effective manner after collecting enough mana is very satisfying. The fireball lets you take out a specific target quickly. The molten ball helps you cut a swath through levels that are very block heavy (such as the cool levels with tons of blocks that form a mosaic picture). The wind spell is great for blowing the ball into hard to reach places. The ball control spell is the go-to spell to slow the ball down when it gets really fast to avoid losing control and has the added bonus of allowing you to guide it into some hard to reach block or enemy. The teleport spell lets you drop the ball into contained areas where it will bounce around for awhile. I used all 5 spells throughout my time with Wizorb instead of defaulting to favorites like you do in so many other games; the repertoire is very useful yet challenging to use.

     There are also a few power-ups, such as added ball damage and a bigger paddle, but after finding that most of these disappeared after you lost a life (which I would do constantly) and seeing that they weren't that useful anyway, I started to ignore them. You have to buy the power-ups in shops. I barely bought any, preferring to save my cash to spend on lives and re-building stuff in the village. A few curses can also pop out of blocks instead of cash or mana. These fall down the screen and if your wand hits them, they affect you for a bit. Some make you slow or shrink your wand. The coolest one is instant death, which destroys the wand in a really cool sort-of burning animation so that next time the ball comes down there is nothing to hit it.

     The 5 worlds each contain 12 levels and a boss fight. Bosses are a really fun highlight. They are big monsters with hit points in levels with no blocks, so you just need to take them out. Their sprites and animations are all great and they directly attack you. I could have gone for more of theses battles.

     In between worlds you can explore a tiny rpg style town and donate the money you earn from each level to re-build buildings that were destroyed there. You can talk to the residents too. This is amusing, but there isn't much to it.

     The basic ball bouncing gameplay is just what you remember from playing other games like this. You can make your wand move faster by holding circle. I found myself holding it a majority of the time. You can also adjust the speed of the wand in the settings (I recommend speed 2). You can aim a bit by hitting the ball off the side of the wand, but it can be quite hard (and frustrating) to try and line up a specific shot. There is a lot of crazy randomness to hitting the ball around.

     My main complaint involves the basic ball hitting mechanics, and the level design. Lining up shots to hit specific blocks in tight spaces is not really that fun or engaging. Using a spell to help you out is fun, but mana is so scarce, you are going to have to hit a lot of hard-to-hit blocks the old fashioned way. This wasn't much of a problem for the first four levels, since I beat them all without running out of continues and was able to move on. I only had to experience the handful of levels that I found annoying once and they were done (there were plenty of fun levels in there too, don't worry). But then I got to the last world.

     World 5, which is visually the most interesting (it has these pillars with blinking eyeballs: awesome!) is the most frustrating. It has tons of really hard shots. And then it has a really hard boss at the end. I used all my continues up the first time around, and then I realized that I would have to do the whole world again. After my second try and death at the last boss, I almost gave up. Playing through the second time was painful. It was both frustrating and boring. Don't get me wrong, the last boss is actually really fun and challenging in a good way, and probably the best part of the game. I just didn't like having to re-play the most upsetting part of the game to get another shot at him. So then I made a scum save by copying my save data onto my PSP at the last boss. But then I beat him without using it! I felt very accomplished in beating the game since the last world was so challenging, but replaying it was not fun.

     I don't know what you could really do to improve it either. It has to be challenging, it's the last level. I think it just goes with the territory of this type of block busting game. It's a simple thing, and it can get boring to try and bust the same blocks up in hard to reach spots. And making the save system more forgiving would just mean that there's no consequences to dying. It would be more fun that way, but also almost without any challenge or tension. I think the game just ran into the limitations of the block busting mechanic of its predecessors. That last boss is worth it though, it was really fun and really hard. It makes me think that maybe the game should have been all about fighting enemies that attack you with the blocks totally removed. I don't know if that would really work though...

     After that, there are a few little secret things to do if you haven't already done them, such as rescuing some elemental children in a side quest (trust me, this is worth doing, the reward you get is awesome!). You can also replay levels to try and get a high enough score to earn a star, which is actually kind of fun in the lower levels. I got the first 3, and I'm tempted to go back and try for the last two. I don't know if I'll ever get around to it though.

     Overall, I had a lot of fun with Wizorb, but it caused me a lot of grief too. There were a few hours spent replaying that last world that were not enjoyable. It's got a lot of stuff going for it, but I have to dock it quite a bit for the pain I felt there. I'm going to say it's a tier 1 mediocre game. The good outweighs the bad, but it would need a little more of a push to be a great game. I recommend it for the boss fights, the cool sprite graphics, and the magic mechanics, but just know that you might get bored with the brick breaking, especially if you have to replay any levels. But hey, maybe you'll beat all the levels in your first try and have a great experience.