Publisher: Big John Games
Developer: Zivix
Genre: Music
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

Have you ever wanted to create your own club music mixes, but you don’t have the cash to spend on expensive equipment? Developer Zivix has made it possible with Just Jam, a music-mixing game/application for the Wii that gives you the basic tools and the sounds required to lay down your own jams.

Just Jam starts you off with a few bars of looping music divided into five channels, with five segments per channel. The segments are laid out as buttons on either of the two available interfaces (Mixing Board or Freestyle). You select the segments either by individually clicking on each button or clicking the row or column labels to select all of the segments in the row or column (Mixing Board only). Play begins when you use the A button to select your first fragment, but you can also use the + and – buttons to select multiple segments, then wave the Wiimote to begin. The game includes 16 songs, with more available from the Wii Shop Channel for 100 Wii Points each. You can record up to five minutes of your jam and save it to the Wiimote, so you can share your work with friends who also own the game. You can also set your jam to continuously loop, but this mode can’t be recorded.

Just Jam is more of a music application than it is a game, but there are a few gaming elements. Twelve of the 16 songs have to be unlocked by earning XP, which you gain by making changes to the mix as you record. The same is true for five of the six background animations that display during your jams. There is a set of well written tutorials that gives you everything you need to know to get started. The program is very forgiving when it comes to adding tracks; you don’t have to click on a new segment exactly on a downbeat for it line up with the rest of the music, which could’ve resulted in a cacophonous mess. The basic controls are easy to learn, although they become more and more complex when you attempt more involved changes to your project, using every button available on the Wiimote and the Nunchuk. But like most games for the Wii, Just Jam is handicapped by the limitations of the hardware. You can’t preview the segments before you start recording so that you can plan how your jam will sound. The background graphics are decidedly low-res. Also, descriptions of the source music don’t display long enough for you to read them, and you can’t use your own music to create a jam.

Anyone who lacks the scratch for the Wheels of Steel or a 24-channel mixing board will appreciate the effort Zivix has put into creating Just Jam. It’s simple enough that you can be laying down tracks and mixing up fragments in minutes after you first start it up, and the animated backgrounds give you a freaky display that you can use to liven up a party room. The game aspect of Just Jam could’ve been easily left out; you’d have to mix and remix for a very long time to finally earn enough XP to unlock all of its assets. And not being able to hear each of the available fragments before you record creates a trial-and-error element that prevents advance planning. But you do get quite a rush when you play back your jams, making the effort totally worthwhile.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Sega
Developer: High Voltage Software
Genre: First Person Shooter
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

At the time The Conduit was released on the Wii, there was some praise heaped upon it, labeling it as one of the best first-person shooters…for the Wii. Perhaps the best. This was before Goldeneye 007 and several of the Call of Duty games appeared on the console, I should add. Like nearly every movie that surpasses $100 million at the box office these days, a sequel was quickly ordered, and now, about two years later, we get Conduit 2 (minus the “The” because, no joke, the developers thought it would be easier for people to say).

Conduit 2 picks up the action right where its predecessor left off, with Agent Ford still pursuing John Adams, following him through a conduit and emerging on an oil rig. After battling Adams’ minions, Ford chases him all over the globe, trying to prevent the maniac from initiating an alien invasion of Earth. Ford must discover the secrets of Adams’ plan in time to stop the war he plans to begin.

Run and gun is the name of the game in Conduit 2. You’re put on a fairly linear path through many exotic locales, such as Atlantis, Washington D.C., China and the Lost City of Z. You also have the assistance of the All-Seeing-Eye, or ASE, to scan objects and help unlock puzzles. As you continue through the game, a variety of upgrades to both armor and weaponry become available. Conduit 2 also offers 12-person multiplayer in a variety of levels.

The writers and developers obviously did their homework when crafting the story and designing the levels. Conduit 2 takes you to really interesting, neat places that are simply fun to explore. Also, there many references to legends and lore in human history that crop up now and again, adding a necessary element of fun to the game.

How often have you read a review with the phrase “it’s good…for a Wii game”? I’ve personally grown really tired of that clarifier; it’s used far too often as an excuse to give games a pass that would otherwise be crucified on other platforms. Conduit 2 suffers from so many blatant gaming issues, it’s hard to know where to start. Maybe with the control scheme—this is damn near maddening. There is no lock-on system; trying to aim with the classic controller is impossible, and it’s only slightly easier with the WiiMote. The dialogue is atrociously bad, and the ending makes B-movies look like Shakespeare. Also, the game is incredibly easy because of AI bots that have less tactical fighting skills than a cactus.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was made four years ago and has far superior graphics, controls and overall gameplay than Conduit 2. If you really loved the first game and are simply dying to see how the story unfolds, then maybe you should give this a shot. I do understand that if you own a Wii, your options for great FPS action-adventure games are limited. But it’s been proven that the Wii can handle a solid game when developed by the right hands, so we need to stop lowering the bar. Conduit 2’s not an awful game, but it could have been so much better.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Christopher Troilo for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 6 comments

Publisher: Broken Rules
Developer: Broken Rules
Genre: Puzzle-Platformer
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release Date: Available now

Nintendo’s WiiWare service has been a strange experiment. Sure, many people have taken swipes at Nintendo’s “two GameCubes wrapped in duct tape” approach to the online experience that nowadays even the most vanilla of mainstream consumers expect. But when they launched this digital distribution service shortly after the Virtual Console, expectations were high that this would be a venue on par with Xbox Live’s Arcade; granting smaller, independently financed titles a showcase in which to peddle their wares. And while there have been a handful of console exclusives that made a splash and really leveraged the unique control mechanics intrinsic to the Wii, such as World of Goo, too many weeks go by with middling shovelware pushed our way. With the release of the platform-puzzler And Yet it Moves hopes are high that this title will make its mark and compel publishers to push for further exposure on WiiWare.

And Yet It Moves is a two-dimensional puzzle game that seems built specifically to cater to the WiiMote. While it made its debut on the PC, the game mechanics just seem destined for Nintendo’s pioneer motion sensing platform. In the title, players take control of a paper cut-out character charged with getting to the exit of each progressive level. That’s a page ripped from Game Design 101, harkening back to the Golden Age of Gaming when all we wanted to do was get from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible. The catch here is that the player can control the main character’s movement along a 2D plane (move right, move left, jump) while also utilizing the WiiMote to rotate the world around him. This manipulation of the world allows players to transform dead-ends such as daunting cliffs into easily surmounted plateaus.

Early on, the game throws some simple maze-like environments at the player, but as the title progresses, the puzzle elements increase. In one memorable jungle-based level, the player needs to guide a banana to a gorilla guardian by tilting the environment at just the right angle, thereby allowing gravity to do its thing while cleverly trying to keep it from falling too far or at too great a velocity. That same logic applies to the main character who picks up speed the further he falls. With the ability to leap off a structure and then extend the jump by rotating the environment, the character will gain forward momentum that can prove deadly if allowed to gather strength unchecked. This keeps the player exercising their brain as well as their wrists as you try to piece together the right sequences needed to traverse some wide open obstacles, while avoiding a wretched road kill fate.

And Yet it Moves is a perfect title for digital distribution. Boasting four unique environments featuring six vast levels each, the game presents enough new scenarios to vex your brain without wearing out its welcome or growing too repetitious. While twisting the world ‘round and ‘round to get to an exit sounds simple on paper, in execution there are moments that really tax your wits. In essence, the game plays similarly to those old-school marble mazes that you twist and wobble as you try to guide a little sphere into a hole. And Yet it Moves takes that concept and builds upon it by giving the player control over the character – thereby adding another layer of depth. By introducing elements of physics into the game situations, the environmental puzzles root deep into your mind – giving you a nice little mental workout.

The visual design is interesting with each elemental-themed level seemingly constructed out of such materials as cardboard and magazine photos; giving the title a similar vibe to Little Big Planet. The main character is a bland pencil drawing devoid of personality which keeps the game feeling a bit detached at times. Look at a game like the recently released Limbo that did wonders with a similarly minimalistic design. A little bit of character goes a long way in granting players some attachment to their avatar. That said, the puzzle designs are the star here and over the course of the adventure, there are a fair share of mind-benders that crop up, making this title well worth the play. While it may be short, I felt it ended at just the right time – never overstaying its welcome by adding fluff simply to add length of play.

I’ve been beating the drums for these smaller digitally distributed titles for a while now and feel we’re in the midst of a game design Renaissance, where Indie development groups can bring about big change through small packages. As we’ve seen in show business, there’s as much of an audience for art house fare as there is for blockbuster features. Services such as WiiWare, XBLA and PSN have allowed this movement to prosper and I think it’s encouraging that even though Nintendo seems scatterbrained in its approach and selling of WiiWare to the masses, niche titles like And Yet It Moves help nourish the games industry. Here’s hoping this title moves some units and more importantly, churns in some future game developer’s thoughts leading to the next burst of creative genius.

Our Score:

Our Recommendation:

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Disney Interactive
Developer: Page 44 Studios
Genre: Party
Rating: Everyone
Release Date: Available now

Four years into the Nintendo Wii’s life cycle, it’s amazing how many mini-game compilations are still released on a fairly frequent basis. In the early days, it was somewhat understandable, as mainstream consumers were wowed by the novelty inherent to wildly swinging your arms and shaking your groove thang. These pick-up and play collections offered an easy point of entry for the casual crowd – allowing titles such as Carnival Games to emerge as surprise smash hits. Years later, the novelty has worn thin, but the shear number of mini-game compilations has yet to wane. It’s a tactic that many licensed properties have chosen to pursue, hoping that gamers will yearn to start a party with the backing of some of their favorite characters. And as a brand, Disney and the Disney Channel has a huge fan base eager to snap up anything with Hannah Montana’s mug splashed across it, so it was inevitable that we would get Miss Cyrus and the rest of her comrades from the House of the Mouse over for a little Disney Channel All Star Party.

Disney Channel All Star Party follows the formula drafted by the Mario Party games in that players move along a virtual game board and compete against each other in themed mini-games. As Disney Channel has targeted the tween crowd of late, the game pulls its roster from the channel’s cabal of live-action sitcoms such as Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place with mini-games based around each show’s unique universe. Players will find themselves miming familiar activities such as table tennis, basketball and rhythm/dance selections.

In addition to the motion controlled mini-games, there are a variety of trivia challenges and personality quizzes which will tax players’ knowledge of the Disney Channel properties – making this an ideal title for the core demographic. Disney Channel and Radio Disney devotees will get maximum mileage out of the title, as the fan service is extensive. While players are free to choose one of their favorite Disney Channel “characters” to act as their avatar, playing through the various games will unlock Mii support – meaning it’s only a matter of time before you can introduce Jar Jar Binks to Phineus & Ferb – the latter of which mark the only animated property represented in the game and a welcome oasis for this jaded gamer.

This title is a party game through and through, meaning the solo campaign does not hold much promise. You’ll want to have some friends over before tossing the disc in. In the past I’ve knocked mini-game compilations for being a lazy cash grab on a system brimming with them, but I found Disney Channel All Star Party to be a competent entry into the genre. The games themselves are well designed. Sure, we’ve mimicked tennis and danced holes in our rugs to the Jonas Brothers before , but for the target demographic, the quality evident in these mini-games is applauded. There’s nothing here that hasn’t been done before or capable of converting non-fans, but for Disney Channel enthusiasts, they’ll find that it can be a lot of fun on those long sleepover nights.

From a presentation perspective, the title has a nice colorful look and the various player avatars are all well designed and animated. The addition of Mii support makes it even better (especially for those of us who don’t know their Hannah Montana from their Miley Cyrus). The sound design is troubling, however, with too many short, looped samples of the various theme songs grating after repeat play.

While the Wii may play host to several mini-game collections that are more universal in appeal, the core demographic that rushes home everyday to catch The Suite Life with Zack & Cody will groove to Disney Channel All Star Party. This is a decent collection of mini-games that offers a good time for its core fan base. The rest of us, however, will likely sit this one out and wait for Dr. Dufenshmirtz to get his own starring vehicle.

Our Score:

Our Recommendation:

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Eurocom
Genre: Shooter
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Most gamers tend to look down their bespectacled noses at rail shooters. Once confined to the dark passages of video arcades, rail shooters usually involved firing plastic light guns at arcade screens until you ran out of lives (and quarters). As arcades started to disappear from local malls, rail shooters such as the House of the Dead series found a new home on the Wii, which offered simple controls and the low-res graphics that helped the genre to thrive in previous years. Joining Sega’s popular monster shooter is Dead Space: Extraction, the prequel adventure to the 2008 PC/PS3/Xbox 360 gorefest Dead Space.

A mysterious alien artifact has been uncovered on mining colony Aegis 7. Technician Sam Caldwell is sent into the mine to fix a problem after the artifact, known later as the Marker, is moved. He soon discovers that his fellow workers have started to develop dangerous, homicidal behavior. Some time later, detective Nathan McNeil is sent to Aegis 7 to investigate. He enters the mine with some security officers and has to fight his way through waves of horribly mutated creatures as they search for survivors and for a way off the colony.

You play as several characters as Extraction‘s story progresses, but the bulk of your time is spent as McNeil. Controls are simple to use and easy to learn; point and shoot with the Wiimote, change weapons with the nunchuk. The game moves you along at a brisk pace. Weapon powerups, ammunition and other objects of interest are spread throughout the environments; you can pick them up by using the Wiimote to fire a light-grabber tool at the items before they disappear behind you, so you have to be constantly aware of your surroundings. The story takes you through the mining colony, then to the now-derelict spaceship Ishimura, where the action in Dead Space takes place.

Combat in Extraction, as in its more detailed cousin, involves a tactic known as strategic dismemberment. The creatures in Extraction, called necromorphs, can only be killed by shooting off their limbs, so you have to aim carefully and make your shots count. The default pistol has unlimited ammo, but only holds up to seven slugs at a time, forcing you to constantly reload (a Gears of War-style active reload mechanic helps you to speed up the process). You have three other weapon slots, which can be used for various high-tech energy weapons, projectile weapons and the ever-reliable flamethrower. Dead necromorphs frequently drop health powerups, which have to be snagged by the grabber tool. Battles are fairly simple to survive for the first half of the game’s 10 chapters, but the difficulty ramps up quickly once the first boss is encountered and you switch characters.

The rail shooter would appear to be the perfect genre for hardcore shooters on the Wii, as evidenced by Extraction. The system frees you from the need to guide your character around the environment, which allows the game to move at a break-neck pace. You could easily play the entire story in one long sitting (about eight hours or so), and the combination of the solid plot, the interesting characters and the very spooky atmosphere encourage you to do so; I was only foiled by the three-hour life of my Wiimote’s rechargeable battery. But the pace can also be a vexing problem; you really have to stay alert at all times or you’ll miss important pickups as you progress through the scenes. And there are other problems: the glow stick that you use to light up darkened areas can only be activated in certain places, hint messages tell you to target the “yellow cartilage” of various enemies without showing you what the cartilage looks like, and a strange graphics glitch made an already dark display practically indecipherable in many areas.

The knock against the Wii has always been that there are very few available games that cater to the hardcore gamer. Dead Space: Extraction is one of the few shooters that takes the platform’s hardware and uses it to its advantage, featuring intuitive controls, decent graphics, an exhilarating story that rarely lets you take a breath, and a creepy vibe that dares you to play the game with the lights off. Xbox and PC gamers are out of luck, but PS3 owners who buy the upcoming Dead Space 2 will find a Move-enabled HD version of Extraction in the box. But if you’re looking for a solid, adult-oriented shooter for the Wii, you won’t find too many better than this.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Cosmonaut Games
Developer: Cosmonaut Games
Genre: Strategy
Rating: Everyone
Release Date: Available now

Like the rushing hordes that dominate their play fields, tower defense titles seemingly spring up endlessly. That’s the world we live in – where services like WiiWare, XBOX Live Arcade, PSN and the mobile phone app environment cater to “a second to understand, a lifetime to master” games that tickle that itch for entertainment the casual masses seem to have all contracted in unison. And while the genre has seen some amazing addictions rise, with titles such as Plants vs. Zombies enjoying a flourishing life cycle, developers continue to plug away and feed that jones to defend one more tower. That’s the space Cosmonaut Games aims to explore in their new tower defense title, Inkub.

Inkub skips the usual feudal countryside and pastoral backyard battlefields to wage its war in a test tube. The gamer is thrust into a sterile lab environment, where organisms in a test tube suddenly find themselves under siege by an alien horde. The tube is actually an incubator, hence the title, and the longer the player can defend against attach, more diverse and unique organisms can be created to stave off the attacks.

The game plays to the basic footprint of classic tower defense , with the initial moments of each battle spent amassing resources which allows players to “purchase” new units. As the game is played in a series of tubes, the player will need to position their units to match that of their enemies. The game starts simply enough by confining the battles to one test tube but eventually other environments are introduced in the background and the player must consistently shuffle between tubes (utilizing the Wii’s motion sensing control) in order to keep up with attacks on all fronts.

Inkub doesn’t do anything that you haven’t already done in other tower defense titles. In fact, that’s its greatest weakness. It feels like one of those shareware copies of hit titles that used to dominate retail store bargain bins – the generic version of the hit title. That wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the spotty controls which consistently hamper what enjoyment you might get out of the game.

I found that as the battles became more complex , with the gamer forced to deftly toggle between multiple tubes, the game did not register my actions correctly. This was especially prominent when trying to upgrade units. Inaccurate response happened frequently enough that it led to defeat, and in a game where quick actions are required to stave off the rapidly increasing assault, imprecise controls become a real deal breaker. In addition, the developer seems to lean heavy on an early Wii-staple by forcing players into repeated motion-controlled movements to navigate the environment. Carpal tunnel sufferers ought to proceed with extreme caution.

I’ve been a huge proponent of indie developers and have found the present landscape, with its vast menagerie of digitally distributed delights, to be a true golden age. Developers just need to bring something new to the table to stand out. Unfortunately, Inkub stands as a hollow clone of some much better titles.

Our Score:

Our Recommendation:

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Disney Interactive
Developer: Junction Point
Genre: Adventure/Platformer
Rating: Everyone
Release Date: Available now

People may misplace the past, but they never seem to forget promises. Too many game developers have learned that hard lesson – especially the more outspoken gurus, such as Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux who through three Fable titles has still neglected to deliver on his prideful boast that players could imprint their green thumb on the title and watch as a tiny seed transformed over time into a mighty elm. Past indiscretions and broken promises make for a compelling backdrop surrounding Disney’s Epic Mickey – a title that when teased awhile back seemed pregnant with such possibility, as gamers chewed on the dreamy concept art that foretold a dark fairy tale for the beloved Mickey and promised a well-deserved resurrection for this regal rodent. The question looms – has Warren Spector learned from others’ past mistakes?

It’s this concept of confronting the past and correcting misdeeds that drives Epic Mickey’s narrative. As the story goes, the mischievous Mickey sneaks into the wizard Yensid’s workshop one evening and through his curiosity unleashes a horrible blight upon the magician’s latest creation. By spilling some magic ink on his map of a very familiar looking theme park, Mickey creates a haunted mirror world version of Disneyland. Soon, he’s sucked into that tragic Wasteland and is forced to confront characters long lost to the ravages of time, including Walt’s original toon star, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Mickey then embarks on a lengthy adventure through the various themed worlds that spread from the Wasteland, hoping to set right what went wrong.

Controlling Mickey in the third person, players travel through special projectors that ring from the central hub world (Mean Street stands in for Disneyland’s Main Street), and work to resolve a number of calamities in each new locale. Through the characters Mickey meets, he will be given a series of sub-quests that send him chasing down doo-dads and engaging in a series of platforming challenges. Armed with a magic brush, Mickey can also paint or thin select portions of the environment to access new areas or restore the lands to glory. Through the player’s liberal use of paint or thinner, certain quests may be opened or closed off and the narrative may change slightly, thereby prompting players to think before running through each environment splashing with reckless abandon. The use of paint tends to result in a more challenging experience, but that risk is balanced with the reward of a better ending. At the very least, players have an incentive to run through it again and see how they might do things a differently.

This title has been on my radar for a long time, and for good reason. While I am not a dyed-in-the-wool Disney buff, I do enjoy their properties, and when I saw the twisted spin that Spector had planned, it really charged me up to try it out. I was also impressed that Disney granted the veteran designer such license to paint their prized mouse in an interesting new shade. And that’s where this game soars; in its exciting use of the familiar to show us something new. From a narrative perspective, Epic Mickey is a tale worth following, as Disney has set Spector loose to take their mouse in some compelling directions. It’s telling that Spector has resurrected a character I knew absolutely nothing of (poor forgotten Oswald), and made him a sympathetic foil that I want to learn more about. In real life and in the funny pages Oswald is a mirror of Mickey, and while he may have been lost to time, one can see where Mickey evolved from this forgotten creation. Like the best parallel universe tales, one can’t exist without the other. It’s this tangled tale that makes this game an experience worth chasing to the end.

While Epic Mickey has been maligned for its camera control, I never found it insurmountable. There are issues, to be sure, and I think the reason they stand out is because the heavy lifting inherent in world building was done with such effortless magic, these simple mechanical flaws loom larger. From a visual perspective, this is one of the better looking 3rd party adventures on the Wii, and Spector and company have followed Nintendo’s core design philosophy in embracing the benefits of creative art style on a system that notoriously lags behind technologically. While the graphics may not enchant immediately, the visual motif really begins to soar after completing Mickeyjunk Mountain , which is piled high with licensed relics from Mickey’s merchandising past (including his Super NES covers). Despite the camera issues, the game controls just fine with the Wiimote used to aim Mickey’s paint and thinner stream, making me wonder why it’s taking Nintendo so long to prep a Mario Sunshine remake.

Disney: Epic Mickey may not conjure up the same magic that Nintendo’s in-house development wields, but it comes closer than most. This is a vital game experience that you should seek out! Despite some dodgy camera work and cookie-cutter fetch quests, the title rises above those miscues based on the strength of its visuals and the fantastic tale Spector has told. It’s obvious that this is a labor of his love. One more coat of paint may have rendered a masterpiece, but on a system so often neglected by the top-tier 3rd party developers, Spector’s haunting tale proves to be reason enough to hunt this mouse.

Our Score:

Our Recommendation:

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments

Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Paris
Genre: Party Game
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

If you are looking for a way to mark each anniversary of the Nintendo Wii, paying close attention to each successive Raving Rabbids release would make for a nice string around your finger. Those schizophrenic rabbits, the bane of Rayman, first burst onto the scene alongside the Wii back in the Fall of 2006, and made for a nice companion to show adopters just what fun they could have when introducing the Wii at their holiday party. A year later, a sequel to that game hit and offered up a host of additional manic party modes. And while they spent the following years starring in their own twisted take on the type of 3rd person platformer that Nintendo fans crave; the Rabbids have returned to their roots in this latest release; Raving Rabbids: Travel in Time.

Travel in Time finds the Rabbids starring in another mini-game compilation aimed squarely at getting the party started. Players begin in a museum that acts as a hub for the series of themed mini-games. While the game can be played against computer controlled bots; the focus on competition really does work best in a crowd – a concept illustrated by the loose narrative that finds the Rabbids exploring different periods of time through these various museum wings.

Each wing focuses on a different game type. Fans of the series’ wacky rail shooter modes will find a plethora of challenges in the Shootarium. The Flyarium plops those pesky bunnies into planes and has them racing each other throughout the colorful locales. There are also wings that cater to rhythm games; which the Rabbids have entertained in the past and there’s even support for the woefully underrepresented WiiMotion Plus functionality in the Hookarium. In fact, that little add-on is a requirement before you can enter that arena.

There’s no question that the Wii catalogue is literally filled with mini-game collections. These waggle intensive games are easy to produce, albeit not as easy to perfect. That being said, the Rabbids series has actually done a fine job of producing compelling gameplay experiences. Sure, the majority of their mini-games have been done to death in other genres but when it’s done with this much characterization, it elevates the game for the masses. And that’s the appeal inherent here – these Rabbids and their antics just never seem to get tiresome. I’ll admit that I grooved on where they were headed with their last platforming centric release; but I welcomed the chance to play alongside friends again.

The game really rises above the other titles based on the strength of its presentation. Too many games simply lay down a hub world and have players choose from static menus. It’s that type of boring, cookie-cutter game design that the Rabbids series rejects at every step. Each of the various rooms in the museum displays massive amounts of interactivity that compel gamers to explore. Instead of walking around the Flyarium to select your next game, you’ll find yourself jockeying a plane as you check out the sights and select your next stage. It’s these little details that make this package both more satisfying and entertaining to play. I was also pleasantly surprised to see this release take advantage of online play – something that occurs with far too much infrequency on this system. Nothing will replace the experience of playing these silly little contests in a packed room of your peers, but for the solo players it’s nice to connect to some real human competition.

The Rabbids may make an annual appearance on the Wii but they haven’t yet worn out their welcome, and prove themselves successful in injecting their infectious character into another fun release. I’d love to see them tackle another platform adventure and embrace their Rayman roots, but I’ll welcome these little guys into my home any way they choose to travel.

Our Score:

Our Recommendation:

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios
Developer: Disney Interactive Studios
Genre: Action-Platformer
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available Now

Movie-based games have made major strides of late. While they were once an industry joke—quick cash-ins aimed at robbing whatever loot kids had left after scoffing down their licensed Happy Meal counterparts—recent games such as this past summer’s Toy Story 3 have provided some compelling gameplay experiences aimed at expanding on their source material. With the holidays approaching, you just know that retail shelves will feature the latest tie-in to this season’s blockbuster family hit. So the question looms: should you gobble up that copy of Disney’s Tangled as you brave the post-Black Friday crowds?

Disney’s Tangled is an action-platformer that follows the narrative beats found in the Disney box-office hit. Players alternate control between the long-haired Rapunzel and her intrepid rescuer, Flynn, as they strive to keep ahead of the evil witch who imprisoned Rapunzel in her skyscraping tower. The game plays similarly to the popular LEGO adventures of late; you can toggle control between Rapunzel and Flynn and utilize their unique abilities whenever an environmental puzzle demands it. Rapunzel’s long locks come in handy when the duo encounter wide chasms that must be crossed, while Flynn’s derring-do with a rapier allows him to chop down brush and shrubbery to gain access to new areas.

While Tangled can be played solo, it seems best designed for co-op play. At any point, a second player can drop in and take control of the other character. As there are many little princesses out there who are desperate for a game to play alongside a parent or sibling, this feature is welcome, as the entire adventure is brimming with puzzles that require the two characters to act in concert to ascend to the next location. As you work your way through the movie settings, you seek out a number of collectibles that help unlock extras (image galleries, minigames). It’s all fairly boilerplate for this genre.

Tangled is clearly aimed at the target demographic of the movie, meaning the aforementioned little princesses in your home will absolutely have a ball with it. While it doesn’t do anything in the puzzle-platformer genre that we haven’t seen done better in the Ratchet & Clank and LEGO games, developer Disney Interactive has crafted a capable action-adventure for the pre-tween set. The inclusion of two-player co-op is well implemented and utilizes a similar technique pioneered in the LEGO games, in which the screen splits as the two characters wander further away from each other. This allows you to explore the levels at your leisure and is a welcome feature.

With a little more than a dozen unique levels, Tangled is fairly short, but that’s to be expected from a game that sticks so closely to the script. The visuals are bright and colorful, with simple textures that are fairly standard for the Wii. Still, the fantasy environments prove pleasing to the eye, and younger gamers will likely thrill to romping in Rapunzel’s footsteps. Cutscenes are told in 2D storybook form, which makes for a nice artistic aesthetic.

Movie games have indeed come a long way, with Toy Story 3’s endlessly replayable Toy Box mode proving to be a boon to those looking to live the movie a little bit longer. Unfortunately, Disney’s Tangled doesn’t reach that game’s lofty heights, but what it does deliver is a perfectly capable action/adventure that will likely appeal most to the little girls who have been tugging at their daddy’s heartstrings to please, please, please take them to see Rapunzel. I speak from experience.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Tecmo/Team Ninja
Genre: Shooter
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

We love heroes. And we feel very comfortable when they reappear for new adventures. The history of literature and films is filled with returning characters (not to mention the world of network television, in which our favorites star in as many as 23 new stories every year). Being a younger industry than the others, video games has comparatively fewer returning champions. One of these makes a highly anticipated return in Metroid: Other M, the first new game in the long-running series since 2007.

Apparently, writers and publishers didn’t get the memo about female emancipation; you can probably count the number of major heroines of the past on the fingers of both hands. Stepping into this particular breach is Samus Aran, blonde-haired, green-eyed bounty hunter and former member of the Galactic Federation army. Armed with a powered battle suit that can, among other things, roll Samus up into a ball so she can reach tight spots, she answers a distress call from a massive space station known as a Bottle Ship. When she arrives, she unexpectedly meets her former commanding officer Adam Malkovich and his team. She agrees to join them in their mission to locate survivors of some unknown disaster and restore power to the ship.

The most significant factor about Other M is its control scheme. The camera perspective depends upon how you hold the Wiimote. When you hold it parallel to the screen, you use the D-pad to move Samus in what is essentially a 3D platformer. She can go forward and back as well as left or right, when the scene allows it. But when you point the remote at the screen, the camera switches to a first-person view from inside the power suit. You can scan the environment by holding the trigger down and moving the remote to the edges of the screen, and it’s from this perspective that you fire heavy weapons such as missiles. The problem here is that you can’t move Samus while you’re in first-person mode, so you have to continually switch perspectives while in the heat of battle; make sure you heed the usual Wii startup warning about using the wrist strap, or you could find your Wiimote buried in the front of your brand-new 50-inch plasma.

Make no mistake—Other M is hard. It takes awhile to get acclimated to the controls, and the action doesn’t take very long to heat up. The Bottle Ship is almost impossibly huge, and you explore most of it before you’re done. During that exploration you have to fight many fanciful and nasty creatures, while searching for hidden powerups that add important extras to your suit, such as missile capacity and increased charge-up speed for your weapons. The graphics are impressive, considering the limitations of the Wii hardware, and the soundtrack is a fine addition to the overall experience. This is probably as good as a game is going to look on the Wii as it’s currently configured. Also, once you’ve finished the game, Samus returns to the ship to retrieve an unspecified item she forgot to collect. This gives you the chance to explore parts of the ship that were previously inaccessible, and lets you search for the powerups that you missed the first time.

Unfortunately, difficulty is not necessarily a bullet point. I like a challenge as much as the next gamer, but I found Other M to be the most frustrating game I’ve ever played. Most of that has to do with the awkward controls; this game would’ve been so much easier on the other consoles or on the PC, not to mention it would’ve looked amazing. But beyond the controls, there are other factors that conspire to make Other M raise a gamer’s blood pressure to unacceptable levels. Saving is by checkpoint only, which wouldn’t be an issue if the checkpoints were placed in logical spots. For example, there is no checkpoint between the major end boss battle and the end of the game, so if you have to stop playing before the credits roll, you have to beat the boss all over again the next time you play, not to mention re-watch the 10-minute cutscene that appears there. You are constantly backtracking during your adventure, many times with no idea whether or not you’re going the right way until you find your destination. In fact, once you get the big story reveal, you have to retrace your steps almost to the very beginning (I’d like to personally thank GameFAQS users Banjo_2553 and doublexguy, without whose walkthroughs I would’ve never finished this game). And then there are the bosses. Most games offer three, four, maybe even a half-dozen bosses to fight. Other M gives you 15 or 20, depending on your definition of a boss. It took me almost 16 hours to finish this game, and most of that was spent reloading saves and fighting bosses. Surely a good example of too much of a good thing.

There’s no question that Metroid: Other M is an artistic achievement, and you get a real sense of satisfaction when you reach the end. But I have to ask myself a question: Am I happy that I finished it, or am I relieved that it’s over? Although I feel some of the former, I have to say that it’s mostly the latter. In gaming, frustration equals work, and work doesn’t equal fun. Even after I finally got the hang of the controls, the frustration of playing this game was still there, which sucks the fun right out of it. And fun is supposed to be the bottom line, isn’t it?

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments

Publisher: Activision
Developer: Eurocom
Genre: First Person Shooter
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

The cult of Goldeneye is a strange one. For all intents, the original N64 version never should have succeeded. It was a licensed game, released a year too late because of development issues on a misunderstood platform that was using cartridges when the industry had moved on to disc-based media. In those tween years of video gaming, shooters were the bastion of the PC world, which looked down upon every sophomoric attempt made for the lower-class home console crowd. But Nintendo held a wild card in Rare, a British-based third-party developer that shared the Big N’s commitment to exhaustive quality control and expert game design. Both houses were dedicated to releasing products only when they had been fine-tuned towards one unwavering goal – providing a fun gameplay experience. And like Mario Kart before it, Rare’s Goldeneye 007 pushed sales of extra controllers like few other games, with a compelling four-player split-screen multiplayer mode that offered the next best alternative to a home-based LAN party. More than a decade later, Activision hopes to celebrate this nostalgia by bringing James Bond back to the company that first gave him that coveted license for virtual kills.

While the Goldeneye film represented a fairly successful relaunch of the Bond series, developer Eurocom has looked to another film, the recent Casino Royale, which recast the character and rebooted the franchise from square one. Thus, this Goldeneye is familiar, but not a straight-through retread, going so far as to swap Daniel Craig for Pierce Brosnan in the role of Bond and reworking a number of major set pieces to take advantage of more than a decade’s worth of game developments. This is a game for our current social media-driven techno age, evidenced by Eurocom’s decision to grab another play from Casino Royale’s playbook and dispense with the wacky gadgetry. Aside from the various high-powered weaponry he uses, Bond’s most valuable asset is his smart phone, which takes on a number of uses in the lengthy solo campaign.

While the single-player game provides a solid adventure, Goldeneye fans are fiends for the multiplayer. Years later, when Call of Duty and Halo dazzle online combatants on an annual basis, it’s telling that fans pine for the glory days of local-based Bond multiplayer. While shooters are all the rage on the Xbox 360 and the PS3, the Nintendo Wii has noticeably lagged behind, which makes Goldeneye’s exclusive launch on the Wii something special. For starters, the game offers a bevy of maps and modes primed for split-screen multiplayer. Gather enough friends and a big enough couch and you can re-create those fond dorm-room memories. But time has passed, and who needs friends when we have the World Wide Web? In a refreshing change of pace, Eurocom has designed the online experience to dispense with Nintendo’s proprietary friend codes, making it easy to join any session and get your gun on without having to plan around your friend’s schedules (friend codes can still be used to build your custom party list). Sure, these options are old hat for anyone who has a PS3 or 360 in the house, but it’s refreshing to see developers working to mimic those common matchmaking systems on a console that has noticeably lagged behind.

I’m sure there are going to be haters who provide a list of bullet points detailing where the new Goldeneye departs from their cherished memories of youth. That’s the trap we fall into when we hold on too tightly to blissful memory. Take a step back and properly revisit the original game and you’ll find that it doesn’t weather the trip through time as well as you might think. Therefore, it’s a marvel what Eurocom has done with Goldeneye. They’ve created a game that feels familiar and has enough sparks of nostalgia, but blazes its own trail, providing a compelling single-player campaign for those of us who have played through the original many times. They’ve also adopted Rare’s original scheme of adding new objectives as you increase the difficulty, thereby providing you with incentives to take on multiple playthroughs. It’s worth noting that those gamers who argue games have gotten too easy over the years, might be on to something. Goldeneye‘s hardest difficulty mode – 007 Classic – dispenses with the re-energizing health schemes that dominate most modern shooters and places a life bar on the HUD that can only be replenished through hunting down bulletproof vests. The game’s most fiendish difficulty mode is really the way we played all of these games back in the day. We did it barefoot, walking uphill both ways in a snowstorm. And we liked it.

Goldeneye‘s online component offers one of the most complete multiplayer packages available for the Wii. While these features are boilerplate on the current HD systems, it’s refreshing to find a game for the Wii that provides numerous modes and augments the multiplayer battles with an experience system that compels Call of Duty players to game late into the night. It’s the carrot at the end of the stick, as players engage in their beloved Goldeneye gameplay while gunning for that next weapon unlock or skin variant. The only thing that lacks is support for voice chat, although with the recent announcement that Nintendo is abandoning manufacturing of their poorly received WiiSpeak device, it’s likely that ship has sailed. Here’s hoping that their next system employs this vital communication channel right out of the box. Games such as this benefit from the communities that spring up in support of them.

When Goldeneye 007 was first announced, I bristled at the thought that it was merely a cash grab. After all, we already had one poor attempt at recapturing the glory in a woeful sequel that marred the last generation of consoles. Surprisingly, Eurocom and Activision have surmounted all obstacles and produced a best-of-both-worlds scenario. By redrafting the game’s story and placing Daniel Craig’s Bond in a different, albeit familiar, adventure, we get an alternate-universe take on the original story – one that rewards fans and new players alike. In addition, hardcore Wii players get a game that’s likely to live in their trays through those cold winter months. It’s been a long time coming, but Bond is back, and the wait has been worth it.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Publisher: DreamBox Games
Developer: DreamBox Games
Genre: Action-Adventure
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Release Date: Available now

As a child of the 80’s, the particular brand of action-adventuring pioneered by the Metroid and Zelda series is melded to my marrow. The way to my heart is paved through a tricky expanse of puzzling caverns that can only be surmounted by locating mystic artifacts which in turn unlock new pathways. At least, that’s what I tell my wife. It’s a game design that’s timeless in its ability to juice our inquisitive nature – with each new power up offering a chance to finally get our hands on that precious missile expansion or treasure chest that once dangled just out of reach. And it’s that nostalgia that drives many indie darlings, including last year’s Super Metroid homage, Shadow Conspiracy, and one that developer DreamBox Games employs in their new WiiWare release, Robox.

While many games have adopted the popular Metroidvania-esque design, popularized by the 2D Castlevania games, Robox takes a step back, and emulates the original Metroid by planting your protagonist down on an alien planet with little direction as to where to go. Players take control of a boxy little droid (think Wall-E) who is sent to explore the environment. In classic Metroid fashion, the robot loses power over his various abilities and must navigate the landscape looking for elements to restore control. These augmentations will then grant the ability to overcome previously insurmountable obstacles.

While the majority of the game plays out across a non-linear 2D plane (with the character controlling the robot as you explore the environment), there are occasional breaks which change things up, including an on-rails sequence that finds you blasting away at creatures as you stow away on board a larger beastie. As you explore, you’ll make contact with friendly indigenous critters that can be taken control of. This shifts the focus to the insides of your robot, where you’ll engage in some simple tasks including repairing the droid’s (can I say that without cutting Lucas a check?) controls and kick-starting those latent abilities.

Robox is an admirable title whose execution never quite meets its ambition. That core Metroid-esque game play is addictive as always, but some of the design choices are baffling. For starters, your clunky bucket-of-bolts navigates the environment too slowly, which only works to dull the charge one would normally get in seeing what lies beyond that next ridge. In combat this can prove deadly, as this little guy could never hold his own against the platoon of Space Pirates our beloved Samus always contends with. The combat sequences are rendered stressful by the feeling that you can never quite get out of your own way and counter the attacks of those nagging space bugs. While the adventure segments are thrilling and I appreciate the fact that DreamBox dispenses with the contemporary tactic of pointing gamers to every last waypoint, thus removing any sense of real discovery, a mapping system similar to that found in Super Metroid would have eliminated the constant frustration of chasing down too many dead ends.

There’s no denying that DreamBox has crafted a beautiful little downloadable title. In fact, I’ve found that the technological constraints imposed on the smaller independent developers tends to free their artistic side, and the world that DreamBox has crafted is equal parts ethereal and imposing. Too often, gamers are set loose on drab landscapes of beige and gunmetal grey so it’s a real thrill when developers pour on the Crayola and dream up some new and vibrant vistas. The colors of the various environments simply pop off the screen, providing gamers with a consistent visual treat as they slowly crawl their way through their planetary torment.

While I have a hard time wholeheartedly recommending Robox, I do tip my cap to DreamBox for wishing up a fairly compelling adventure utilizing a favorite gaming archetype from the past. The ambition of their title is commendable, but there are some elements that were better left in the past; with that sort of aimless wandering that the original Metroid featured being more a product of the time than a smart design choice. Almost three decades later, we know better. That said, this is a beautiful little title that fans of the genre should give a spin.

Our Score:

Our Recommendation:

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | No comment(s)

As a parent, I’m called upon to spy a lot of arcane minutia, with my precious little daughter using almost every situation we find ourselves in as perfect fodder to train my brain. In reply to her inquisitive “Daddy, I spy something red,” I hand her a laundry list of items, from a friendly neighborhood ladybug to a squished ketchup packet. “Nope—it’s those little red lines in your eyes.” That’s right, those stinging crimson rivers surging through my optical orbs are nothing but child’s play to my little princess. That being said, the hunt for hidden objects remains a tantalizing prospect for us adventurous gamers, who stare at a monitor for hours hoping to ferret out a carefully concealed platypus hidden in a bed of bottlecaps—a pastime that Scholastic Games looks to explore with their latest Wii release, I Spy: Spooky Mansion.

I Spy: Spooky Mansion marks Scholastic’s expansion of their popular children’s book series, in which readers are presented with densely plotted picture puzzles and provided with a scavenger list of items to seek out in the landscape. The puzzles are deceptively tricky, as the normal, everyday items are cleverly planted throughout the very busy set pieces. In this Wii game, you’re invited to the titular haunted house, where a mischievous skeleton traps you. To escape his clutches, you need to explore every inch of the mansion in first person to find and solve more than 30 I Spy riddles.

The mansion is made up of several rooms, introduced by a riddle that provides you with the impetus to begin hunting the hidden items. Locating some of the items initiates a minigame that must be completed to check that item off your list. These tasks play as variations on the waggle-based minigames we’ve played often on the Wii, meaning you can find yourself waving and shaking your arms like crazy to capture every last hidden item.

The I Spy books have already made a successful leap to the PC world, and with the unique control scheme afforded by the Wii, it makes sense to import these works to the console realm, especially given the Wii’s family friendly reputation. The game is definitely aimed at grade-school children, who should get the same sort of enjoyment out of it as they do from the books. The variety of minigames that are opened up when locating certain items might seem repetitive to anyone who has played their fair share of minigame compilations, but they do make for a nice respite from staring at that screen and straining those eyes. Why not give the ligaments a chance to suffer, too?

The game design is supported by the haunted house motif, making for a nice, spooky setting in which to locate the various items. Parents should rest easy—there’s nothing here to vex their child’s slumber, as the skeleton’s manse features the same goofy fun you’d find at a Halloween party. Younger players might have a harder time locating some of the hidden objects, which makes this a decent game to play alongside a parent.

I Spy: Spooky Mansion falls in the edutainment realm, which deceptively implants a little learning into the kid’s leisure. Games like this do a good job of teaching problem solving—although for my money, the Legend of Zelda series taught me worlds of puzzle-cracking ability as a child. Introduce your little moppet to Link! That said, I’m impressed by Mansion‘s glossy, bright visuals, and the haunted house vibe is charming. This might not be for everyone, but kids will love it. I spy a success.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios
Developer: Disney Interactive Studios
Genre: Music
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release Date: Available now

YouTube was seemingly invented for times like these. With so many music-rhythm games on the market, it’s inevitable that grown game critics like myself are going to find their aspirations toward higher office dashed when leaked footage of our best Taylor Swift imitation goes viral. That said, there is a huge market for these karaoke jams and its one that Disney Interactive has mined successfully, giving the same fans that made stars out of the High School Musical kids a chance to exercise their pipes in the popular series, Disney Sing It. The latest release, Pop Hits, provides some new tracks to warble the night away.

Disney Sing It: Pop Hits is essentially an expansion disc to last year’s original Disney Sing It title. The game remains the same but provides 30 new songs, culled from artists who have steady airplay on Radio Disney. Therefore, fans of the series or the music can expect to find some of their favorites like Taylor Swift, Ashley Tisdale, and The Jonas Brothers as well as some tracks from Disney Channel hit movies, such as Camp Rock. You’ll also find a few tracks from pop bands such as The Black Eyed Peas and Coldplay.

The game adopts the standard interface we’ve experienced in other music games, with lyrics appearing on the bottom of the screen. In karaoke style, the player sings along with the lyrics – attempting to modulate their voice in order to keep proper tone and pitch. The package contains one USB microphone (although the disc can be purchased without it). In addition, the game supports two mics for duet and battle modes. The latter allows singers to battle for points, with one mode utilizing a Final Jeopardy-esque device of wagering points before attempting to nail a song. Adding greater challenge is the You’re on Your Own mode which removes all display elements with the exception of lyrics and has you battle a friend to sing a song better than they can, with the game providing a verdict at the conclusion of each throwdown.

Disney Sing It: Pop Hits is a capable expansion of the original game that provides fans with more songs for their track list. Unfortunately, it lacks the ability to swap discs on the fly, meaning players are faced with exiting the game and firing up a second disc should they decide they want to tackle a song from that library. That’s a huge miss in the rhythm genre; where so many of these games lend themselves towards karaoke party nights. Being able to simply access all songs you own across the entire enterprise would eliminate that frustration factor. As this series skews less mature, you’re bound to find younger fans at your holiday gathering aching to sing one of the character songs off an earlier disc, and that just drags the party to a halt when you need to stop and replace after each singer picks their favorite tune to croon.

From a design perspective, Disney has crafted a decent looking game. Aside from the inability to access other songs in the series, they have made some nice intuitive changes including the ability to set track lists off this disc’s library – eliminating the need to pop back out to the menu after each selection. While solo players will blast through the 30 tunes listed here, the duet and battle modes do lend themselves to some friendly competitive situations. These games are always more fun with company. That said, the lack of any online presence in this age is a huge flaw. There’s no online matchmaking, duets or the ability to purchase or import tracks from the series. The Wii has stumbled on the online front in the past but as Harmonix showed with their Rock Band 2 release a couple years back, there is a hungry and growing audience that savors the ability to snag more tracks off the web.

Ultimately this comes down to being an overpriced expansion pack. Sure, Rock Band has had success on the Wii, releasing themed packs at retail, but they’ve done so at a discounted price. Without much changed here aside from the new songs, $50 seems a little steep for a microphone and glorified track list ($30 if you just want the disc). Thorough integration with the other discs in the Disney Sing It catalog would go a long way to remedy that but as it stands, unless you are really jonesing for The Jonas Brothers, it’s hard to recommend you sing loudly for this one.

Our Score:

Our Recommendation:

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | One comment

Publisher: EA Sports
Developer: EA Montreal
Genre: Sports
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release Date: Available now

Boomshakala!!! If there’s any phrase that brings me back to midnight marathons spent in my college dorm hunkered around the Sega Genesis and a Multitap; it’s that infectious rallying cry that signaled another monster jam by my dynamic duo of Bill Clinton and Shaquille O’Neill. NBA Jam may have been a mainstay of every early-90’s era arcade, movie theater and bowling alley but it was the home edition and its casual pick-up-and-play game mechanics that solidified the title’s stance as one of the all time greats. Like its kissing cousin, the Midway-produced Mortal Kombat, these titles changed the industry – turning their home console launches into marquee events and bringing more people into the gaming fold. This brought sports games to the masses; making it accessible to anyone who could jockey a control pad and a few measly buttons. Looking to tap into that nostalgia, EA Sports has raided the vaults and handed NBA Jam another shot at the big time.

Rather than mess with the formula, EA Sports has presented NBA Jam as a throwback to the classic title. While they have introduced a number of new modes aimed at injecting longevity to the experience, the same classic two-on-two over the top basketball match-ups are the core that binds this experience. After a decade plus of increasingly dense sports simulations that have cultivated rabid communities but alienated the rest of us who haven’t the time to juggle a full season of on and off the field maneuvers, NBA Jam is that base arcade experience we crave. It’s a game about fast breaks and explosive dunks and little in the way of realistic round ball play.

While EA has built this new release around a spit-polished recreation of the original game, they have added a variety of modes aimed at adding replayability and variety to the package. As a full retail release, this makes sense as gamers have come to expect bells and whistles for classic titles in this age of $10 classic game downloads. To justify the retail price, EA has stuffed this package with numerous ancillary challenges. Apart from Classic Mode (where players can take their favorite team through a full season alone or with a buddy), there is Remix Mode; which tasks players with different challenges per team, including modes where you must control certain hot spots on the court, sink a specific number of shots in a particular time period or battle classic NBA legends including Larry Bird and Magic Johnson who bring with them special abilities, thus turning these contests into boss battles. The title also features an achievement-based system that rewards players with secret character and mode unlocks once certain conditions are met (i.e. win ‘X’ number of games without losing). Yes, this means you have the option of drafting political figures like Sarah Palin or Barack Obama into the fold, or perhaps battling alongside the Beastie Boys – a classic NBA Jam staple.

Every year one title seems to break from the fold to become the must-have party game for the holidays. As a Wii-exclusive (for the moment as PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are rumored for retail release in November), this is that party title for the 2010 holiday season. While EA has wisely provided a lot of content to keep solo players busy for awhile, like its original incarnation, this game shines in multiplayer. Get four players around the widescreen after Thanksgiving dinner and it becomes an infectious gaming experience; besting any enjoyment Wii Sports Resort can dole out. That’s the core conceit to NBA Jam that the title’s developers have successfully mined – even the non-sports gamers in your household will instantly take to the no-holds barred approach to basketball. It’s all so over-the-top and silly, yet the game rules make sense and reward skillful play – making this title as competitive and fun as it’s ever been.

From a control perspective, NBA Jam offers the choice of playing with a classic controller to mimic the original control mechanics or with a Wiimote and Nunchuck. The latter configuration continues EA’s proven handle on developing sports titles for the Wii; as the motion sensitive controls always feel natural and never exist as waggle simply for the sake of waggle. I like having a choice to play with a classic controller but this is one of those titles, like their Tiger Woods entries, where the motion controls really do enhance the experience. The only knock I have; and it’s significant, is the lack of online play which is particularly disappointing as EA has blazed the trail through this woefully underrepresented arena on the Wii. It’s a big miss and unfortunately isn’t likely to be remedied on the Wii. I have hopes that the 360 and PS3 iterations will correct that flaw.

NBA Jam is a real surprise; bringing me back to the good old days of gaming and reminding me why this title was so much fun in the first place. Too often, when we take that hazy trip down memory lane we find that perhaps memories are best left as just that – relics of a bygone age worth remembering but perhaps not re-experiencing. Fortunately, EA’s time warp back has returned with a real find worth celebrating. The developers should be applauded for not monkeying with the core formula and their work on this title really does reflect how timeless the original design really is. While it’s regretful that the lack of online play keeps multiplayers confined to the same couch, I have a feeling this title is gonna’ lead to marathon bouts of stuffin’ – a perfect chaser to that Thanksgiving bird. IT’S GOOD FROM DOWN TOWN!!!

Our Score:

Our Recommendation:

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Konami
Developer: Climax
Genre: Action-Brawler
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release Date: Available now

What hath Pokemon wrought? Ever since Nintendo’s vast menagerie of collectible critters hit the retail space, game and toy developers have worked overtime to pair collectible figures with the trading card craze. It seems everyone is looking to capitalize on the pre-teen appetite for destruction which can only be met by collecting as many critters as possible and setting ‘em on each other in mortal combat. Enter, Gormiti: The Lords of Nature – a new Wii title based off the collectible card and action figure series.

Unlike previous attempts to transfer a card game to the console front, developer Climax opted to develop a third-person action brawler set in the Gormiti universe. The title opens with some Saturday morning cartoon dialogue aimed at bringing neophytes up to speed before transferring the action to the fertile land of Gorm – a Pandora-esque series of jungle environs on which our four teen protagonists find themselves beckoned whenever danger strikes. Here in this universe, these mortal Earthbound teens adopt elemental powers, with each taking the guise of an avatar powered by earth, wind, fire and nature. The evil Magnion is stirring up trouble on Gorm and it is up to the quartet, in their Gormiti guise, to take the battle to him.

What follows is a fairly standard brawler punctuated by puzzles designed to utilize each of the four’s elemental strengths. With drop-in co-op play, players can switch control to any of the four Gormiti Lords whenever the situation calls for their unique strengths. Using the various elemental-themed collectibles that litter the stages, players can purchase optional enhancements that bolster their offensive attacks. While the title can be played solo, it seems designed with co-op in mind as there are numerous environmental and switch based puzzles that call for cooperation between multiple characters. As you progress through the series of levels and boss battles, special collectibles (such as puzzle pieces and mystical eggs) will unlock a series of mini games (slider and jigsaw puzzles) that can be tackled aside from the adventure. Success in these optional challenges will open up a treasure trove of secrets (art work, character models) that fans of the Gormiti universe may find appealing.

Gormiti: Lords of Nature is a standard action-brawler, doing exactly what we’ve come to expect licensed fare to provide. The title features decent, colorful visuals which help bolster the argument of solid art design aiding the Wii’s less-than-stellar graphical fidelity. The combat is of the pick-up and play variety, so button mashing will get you everywhere, making this a decent title to while away a Saturday afternoon alongside a younger gamer.

The problem is, titles like the recent Toy Story 3 have elevated the game – going beyond the standard cash-in gaming template to utilize their core universes in more exciting means. Here, Gormiti takes your standard 3D action brawler and simply appends the franchise’s characters onto stale game design. This is the Lego recipe for action-combat and where that series gets by on the same game design title-after-title, with huge helpings of charm, this title lacks. The issue is the Gormiti license itself, which simply doesn’t possess the Got to Catch ‘Em all draw of the Pokemon series. With ugly character designs on the Gormiti warriors and grating personalities on their human counterparts, this universe doesn’t seem particularly appealing.

Gormiti just doesn’t do anything to open up this franchise to the uninitiated. The standard platforming and brawling is boilerplate – we’ve battled this array of never-ending goons through interchangeable arenas a billion times before and without a compelling license, the action grows stale very quickly. The ability to game alongside a little buddy is great but the Lego series has mined this well and has reaped much success from throwing curveballs at beloved properties – something that makes a lesser brand like Gormiti stumble to make itself known. Trading card based critter combat may have its claws in legions of gamers but titles like this only serve to echo the warning – you don’t have to catch ‘em all.

Our Score:

Our Recommendation:

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft
Genre: Dance/Rhythm
Release date: Available now

I’ll admit it. Back in high school I was a theater nerd. I love musicals, and I think done well they are a unique form of fun entertainment. However, there seems to be a strong desire for music and dance to make the leap to the video game world. Music I’m sold on, given the success and strength of both the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series, but dance I’m not so sure about. Still, I tried to remain optimistic while taking Dance on Broadway for a spin.

Dance on Broadway has essentially the same formula as previous booty shaking titles, such as Just Dance. You clutch your WiiMote and follow along with the dancers on the screen, as well as scrolling icons at the bottom, and move around in time to the music. You can play with up to 3 friends, and at the end of each song the group discovers who truly has rhythm, according to Wii standards.

If there’s one redeeming quality to Dance on Broadway, it’s the song choices. The selection is a nice assortment of different musical styles, with many recognizable, toe-tapping numbers. While the performers are clearly cover artists, they do a fine enough job.

Unfortunately, the one positive aspect of Dance on Broadway contributes very little to any actual enjoyment in actually playing it. To begin, there is really no variation to the gameplay. A song is chosen, performed, and that’s the end. The controls are shaky when they are at their best, and the list of different moves is extremely limited. The game as a result is both hard to play and boring at the same time – not a stellar combination.

I understand the interest by video game companies to move into the realm of dance games, but I think we’re still a long way off from a successful go at it, given the technology that’s out there today. If you really want a good dance game, you’re still better off with Just Dance for now.

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© Christopher Troilo for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now

Hardcore gamers might already be familiar with the Monster Hunter series, even though very few of the games have made their way to North America thus far. Exceedingly popular in Japan, the Monster Hunter games are essentially exactly what you’d expect: you, the player, seek out and destroy creatures across the land. Monster Hunter Tri is the third installment of the series, and it comes to the Wii for the first time.

The plot of Monster Hunter Tri is not so much a story, but merely the player living the life of a hunter. You start in a village, where you’re introduced to various artisans and shopkeepers, all of whom can assist you as you progress through the game (upgrading weapons, armor, etc.). The actual gameplay is quite simply going out into the land to hunt various monsters, encountered in quests that are unlocked as the game proceeds. Completing quests opens up more of the land.

As a word of warning, don’t even try to use the nunchuck and Wiimote when playing this game, as you’ll drive yourself bonkers. Monster Hunter Tri was designed to be played with the classic controller. This isn’t a slight against the game; it’s just the way it is. Everything is rather straight-forward, a la Legend of Zelda: you equip weapons, clothing, etc., depending on the situation, and then run around killing baddies.

I will say the game is beautiful. It easily has the best graphics on the Wii that I’ve seen to date. Furthermore, I like how much detail is in not just the visuals, but also in the connectivity of the game’s elements. For example, when you kill monsters, you use their “parts” to forge new weapons and armor. Upon doing so, it’s easy to see which upgrades came from which creatures via colors or other recognizable attributes. Also, Tri offers a whole host of online gameplay and cooperative challenges, which almost outweigh the single-player content.

Unfortunately, I found Monster Hunter to be a little boring. The game could use a little more story to help people care more about the action. Hunting giant dragons is fun, but not over and over for a whole game. I just couldn’t get myself to care enough about what I was doing, because there really wasn’t a whole lot of direction. For example, in the first few minutes, I was allowed to buy weapons, but there were so many choices, I felt overwhelmed about what to acquire and use.

I do understand the market for Monster Hunter Tri. It’s an exceedingly simple game, a throwback to older, more linear games. There’s no leveling up, no open-world map, just a straight-forward, hunt-em-down adventure with gorgeous graphics and easy controls. I think players will be divided about this one, but it’s worth a shot.

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© Christopher Troilo for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: SouthPeak Games
Developer: Asylum Entertainment
Genre: Puzzle/Simulation
Release date: Available now

Sometimes I believe game developers confuse the Nintendo Wii for a smartphone. The Wii is a console, capable of handling strong graphics, sound, and games whose total playing time can be several hours long. So it’s beginning to baffle me more and more that games are still being released for it, even so-called “budget” titles with asking prices of $20 to $30, which have less meat to them than a miniaturized chicken wing. And so, we look at Sushi Go Round.

Your mission in Sushi Go Round (brace yourself) is to “make” sushi. At the beginning of the “story” mode, you watch some poorly drawn static graphics of a boy creepily ogling some girl walking down the street. The boy’s friend somehow knows this girl likes sushi. The boy-stalker then decides that, to impress this girl, he’ll start his own sushi restaurant on the beach. Thus concludes the “plot,” but I suppose you have to at least give credit to the boy for the supreme boldness of his idiotic idea.

As the player, Wii-remote at the ready, your goal is to “assemble” sushi for demanding customers. A patron enters your shop and orders a roll. Your job is to click and drag the specific ingredients for each sushi roll onto the rolling mat, then flick the Wii-mote upwards to roll the order together and serve it to your customer. The trick is to be fast with your orders, otherwise the people get angry, leave and don’t pay.

The good thing about Sushi Go Round is that it will take you less than 10 minutes to discover how incredibly boring and pointless it is to play, so you won’t waste too much of your time hoping it will get better. I’m not even sure where to start with how wrong this game is for the Wii. The concept isn’t awful, but Sushi Go Round belongs on an iPhone, not a home game system.

If anything, Sushi Go Round almost corrupts itself by adding a level of complexity: you must have all of the sushi recipes memorized and be a logistics master to ensure you don’t run out of ingredients. You must also watch your finances to make a profit, with all of this accomplished under a fast time limit per level. For such a “simple” game, I had to play the first round five times before passing it. Somehow Sushi Go Round found a way to be too dull and too complicated at the same time, so I suppose it gets kudos for that.

Sushi Go Round also features an odd fact: when customers get upset, you can serve them Sake to make them happy again. I find it humorous that in a kids’ game, the message is that when people get upset with you, just give them alcohol! You will find Sushi Go Round buried in your local bargain bin very soon.

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© Christopher Troilo for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Telltale Games
Developer: Telltale Games
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now

Adventure gamers who thought their treasures were lost to the ether of time owe Telltale Games a heaping helping of praise. During the last six years or so, the developer has resurrected many beloved properties that vexed our membranes way back in the mid-1990s, with rock stars such as Guybrush Threepwood and, of course, Sam & Max, earning their own continuing series of adventures. As Telltale opens the curtain on Sam & Max’s latest adventure (Season 3 just kicked off this week with Episode 1: The Penal Zone), they’ve also packaged the entire second season, Beyond Time and Space, for release on the Wii, a platform that, because of its unique control scheme, seems to welcome these point-and-click adventures with a little more grace than the other console powerhouses.

Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space includes the entire second season of the crime-solving canine and rabbit duo’s adventures. As in the first season, Season 2 is made up of a series of loosely connected episodes (five this time out) that work well as stand-alone adventures, but they really reward you with some decent payoffs to jokes that build through the whole season. Each episode, played in classic point-and-click format, takes about three to four hours to complete, which is about right for the format.

While the first season featured an overarching mind-control plot, Sam and Max’s sophomore season simply layers in new and more outlandish scenarios to explore, with the end of each episode leading directly to the beginning of the next. Starting with a battle for Santa’s soul at the North Pole, players make their way to Easter Island to help a trio of sentient Moai statues before finally coming face-to-face with Beelzebub, who oversees a level of Hell that looks suspiciously like the American “Office” space.

The adventure genre’s renaissance has been a boon for fans like me; it gives me countless hours to give the trigger finger a rest and engage the brain. While I originally played through the second season when it was released on the Xbox Live service, I feel it’s a better fit on the Wii, a console whose unique control scheme allows for a closer match to the mouse-and-keyboard configurations employed on the PC. Navigating Telltale’s comically crafted environments is a joy, and you’ll find yourself scouring the corners for every little gag that has been spackled onto these virtual sets.

While Season 2 has been available for purchase on PC and XBLA for a couple of years, Wii owners benefit with a nice bargain price. Twenty bucks nets you close to 20 hours of entertainment, assuming you don’t break down and scour the net for clues. Like most adventure games, some of the puzzles adhere to traditional game designer logic (why would you go to the corner store and buy Swiss cheese when you can just shoot holes in cheddar?), but careful attention to your environment and the spoken dialogue usually provides the tips needed to ferret out the insane solutions. And you’ll want to talk to each character numerous times, because they often have something hilarious to say. It’s the witty repartee and humorous situations that are the real appeal of this series.

While Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space might not reach the lofty heights that Sam & Max Hit the Road achieved, Telltale is turning this franchise into a character of their own design, and their confidence seems to grow with each new installment. Much as I find myself hooked on serialized television such as “Lost,” I now eagerly await each new installment of the Sam and Max series, and with Season 3 hitting right now, newcomers to the franchise have a wealth of riches to discover. Here’s hoping this series earns continued renewal.

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© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink | No comment(s)