Got this in my email this morning and figured I’d pass it on since there are some sweet prizes up for grabs:
[quote]Alawar Entertainment is proud to announce the worldwide Mysteries of Horus tournament. Several prizes are on the line, including an Olympus 6MP Digital Camera for the winner and free Alawar games for several runner-ups! Mysteries of Horus is a casual puzzle game based on shape recognition. To learn more, visit http://puzzle.alawar.com/games/mysteries-of-horus/. The contest will run from June 9, 2006 through July 1, 2006.[/quote]
June 2006
Community Feedback
News / by
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Hello everyone! In preparation for our next podcast, we want to get your opinion on our next topic that we will be discussing. We want to get your feedback on the matter. Remember you can send us an 10-20 second soundbyte, you can email us at [email protected], or you can reply in the forums. Any of those methods of response would be greatly appreciated.
On our next podcast, our topic will be (Rewarding Gamers) – ranks, medals, and unlocks are a staple of most games. Is this type of content compelling enough to make a gamer continue to play a game even after they may have accomplished the main goal?
We will also be taking a poll on the matter. The link will be below.
[url=http://www.snackbar-games.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=121181#121181]Poll[/url]
Just a reminder that we will always be taking the (What Are You Playing Now) soundbytes at all times. Remember if you do want to send us soundbytes, please keep them short (30 secs to a minute) and clean. And you can send them to us at [email protected]
Psychonauts
PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by
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What would you get if the designer of some of the greatest point and click adventures of all time in Tim Schafer decided to make a 3D platformer? [i]Psychonauts[/i] is pretty much your answer. [i]Psychonauts[/i] is a humorous, delightful, and stirring tale about a young boy’s dreams of grandeur and his attempts at fulfilling them. This is not an unusual story concept, but one that I don’t think we see often enough in videogames. [i]Psychonauts[/i] delivers a rather quaint and visually strange view of the world where special agents with Psychic powers fight against evil doers, and it just so happens this agency, known as the [i]Psychonauts[/i] oddly enough, recruit from a training camp in the middle of nowhere. The game begins with all the students being given an introduction speech by Coach Oleander, head of the [i]Psychonauts[/i] training camp, and a runaway named Rasputin crashing the party somewhat. Though it is Rasputin’s dearest wish to become a Psychonaut, the fact that he didn’t go through the proper channels or do the right paperwork of course means that technically he couldn’t stay to learn, so he is given a bunk for the night whilst the heads of the camp try to contact his parents.
Of course, it wouldn’t be much of a game if that’s all there was to it. Through a bit of luck and the presence of some obvious Psychic talent, Raz, as he prefers to be called, manages to talk his way into taking the basic “braining” course, with the agreement that should he pass, he could then study for as long as he is at the camp. And so, Raz’s journey begins. And his journey quickly becomes an urgent one when mysterious persons seem to be stealing the brains of all his fellow students! The game has a very surprising twist half way through, and the plot, though pretty standard stuff, is fun to see unfold as almost every new segment of the game introduces a wonderful new character or location.
The basis of [i]Psychonauts[/i]’ structure is quite simple and set up by the very first 3D platformer, Super Mario 64, with the basic idea of there being a hub world and then worlds that are interconnected through portals. [i]Psychonauts[/i] does employ the rather excellent idea of making these other worlds the minds of some of the game’s characters. This means of course that the game escapes form the clichA
Guitar Hero
PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by
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Have you ever rocked out on an air guitar? Have you ever wished you could rock out on a real guitar, but found that pesky lack of talent getting in the way? Well, now you can rock out on a miniature Gibson SG plastic guitar, courtesy of Red Octane. This game proves that rhythm can still be fun, and it just may be the best of its genre, ever.
If you’ve ever played a rhythm game before, you’ll know what to expect here: a board, covered in 5 different coloured blobs, scrolls towards the screen. As they hit the bottom of the screen, you hit the corresponding key on your controller. What separates [i]Guitar Hero[/i] from the rest of the crowd is that you’re given an actual guitar to do this with, as opposed to the standard PS2 controller. Though the Dual Shock does function with the game, it’s barely worth a glance; the guitar controller is where it’s at. The specialist controller is also the cause of the game’s elevated price tag (Up to $15 more than most games).
The controller has 5 ‘fret’ buttons, a strum pedal and a Whammy bar. To hit a note successfully, you must hold down a fret button, then strum. Often, notes have a streak of colour following on after them- these are power chords, which are activated by strumming, like any other note, but then leaving the fret button held down. While a power chord is being played out, you can wiggle the whammy bar in and out, to bend the note, earning you more points.
The guitar also has a motion sensor, to detect when you tilt the guitar up. This activates Star Power (which is accumulated by hitting a streak of Star shaped notes, or using the whammy bar on a Star shaped power chord) where you’ll earn more points. At the end of each song, you’ll receive a review, and will receive 3 to 5 stars, depending on how many points you earned.
The meat of the game is in the Career mode, where you progress through the ranks of rock stardom. You start out playing simple songs in someone’s basement, and finish up playing legendary rock anthems at a massive amphitheatre. Completion of songs (and getting 5 star reviews) earns you cash, which can be used to purchase new guitars, characters and songs. Though this arguably ruins the game’s ‘arcade’ style nature, it does add a lot of depth, and makes it easy to keep track of which songs you’ve ‘5-starred’.
There’s the basic Quick Play mode, where you pick a song and a difficulty, and the game arranges the rest for you (Chooses the character, guitar, venue etc.) and you play simply to beat your highest score. This mode is fun, accessible, and very easy to pick up and play.
Possibly the greatest gameplay mode however, is Multiplayer. Here, you get to duel, head to head, as two players can attempt to out rock each other. And, in accordance with this, the sound from each guitar riff plays through the speakers separately on your TV, so that Player 1’s music comes through the left, and Player 2’s through the right. This makes for some very interesting sounds, and only serves to underline how good (or not) each of the players is.
The selection of music available is nothing short of astounding. There’s not a bad song in sight, with contributions from legends like Black Sabbath, ZZ Top, Motorhead, Blue Oyster Cult…the list goes on. There’s also a large selection of unsigned bands, including the remarkable Graveyard BBQ whose song, “Cheat on the Church” appears on the list.
This game is outstanding in everyway, with the only flaws being graphical. With the PS2 this close to the end of it’s era, we should be seeing better stuff than this. That aside, there’s a broad range of characters, venues, songs… everything has been done right. This has knocked [i]Donkey Konga[/i] off the top of the rhythm game pecking order, and is unlikely to be trumped by anything less than [i]Guitar Hero II[/i]. There’s no two ways about it – go buy [i]Guitar Hero[/i].
Kingdom Hearts 2
PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by
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[i]Kingdom Hearts 2[/i] is probably my most anticipated game of the last 3 years. Since I completed the original Kingdom Hearts I have been patiently waiting for a game to grab my attention and keep it. [i]Kingdom Hearts 2[/i] was that game, almost. Let me explain.
The original [i]KH[/i] thrust you into a game with a very interesting story from the get go and despite a little time spent laying the groundwork (the time on the island) and a very nice CGI intro the game started up rather quickly. [i]KH2[/i] really deviated from this concept and really went in a direction that just couldn’t keep my attention. The story for [i]KH2[/i] is incredibly confusing from the get go which isn’t really a problem since it makes you want to know what is happening. The problem as I see it is that it takes roughly 3 hours of gameplay before you hit the title screen and really get into the bulk of the game. After playing for several nights and falling asleep while playing 3 or 4 times I finally got into the game and I am really enjoying all the new aspects of it.
The first major change is that you don’t start out playing as Sora. Instead you start out as Roxas. Roxas has recurring dreams involving Sora and his adventures. You complete several trivial missions in Twilight Town as Roxas before he disappears and Sora and crew emerge from a Rip Van Winkle light slumber. This is where the new journey begins.
From a gameplay standpoint [i]KH2[/i] is incredible and the camera issues that were overwhelmingly present in [i]KH[/i] are no longer there. The camera behaves like it should and allows you to really focus on the gameplay and the story. Combat is virtually identical with the addition of a Drive Gauge. Drive allows Sora to “fuse” with party members to become much more powerful. 3 of the 5 total Forms that Sora can change into allow you to equip a 2nd Keyblade and dual wield them. The Drive Gauge also powers the Summon spell this time around instead of the MP meter. The 4 character Summons this time around are: Chicken Little, Genie, Stitch, and Peter Pan. Having dual wielded Keyblades I can safely say the combat in [i]KH2[/i] has gone to a new level.
The command menu in [i]KH2[/i] also got a makeover. Instead of a plain menu each world has a themed menu. You do have the option of reverting this back to the plain menu in your game options. The command menu also got a functional change as well. The normal command menu is used for attacks, magic, items, and entering the drive forms. A secondary menu is used for attacks, summons, to switch party members, and perform combo attacks. This might sound cumbersome, but it was hardly noticeable while in combat.
My least favorite part of [i]KH[/i] was the dreaded Gummi Ship. Being forced to play a mediocre mini-game in just to change levels was probably the 2nd dumbest idea in recent gaming history, the first being the idea to bring it back in [i]KH2[/i]. While the Gummi Ship gameplay is revamped, it is still lame and not worth your time. I would suggest to Disney/SE that should they decide to bring this concept back in future games that they go the route of a side scrolling shooter. I could see that being a heck of a lot more fun than the current bland version. That being said, you only have to unlock routes to new worlds one time so time wasted on Gummi Shipping is minimal.
Probably the most interesting item to note in the [i]KH[/i] games are the incredible worlds that you get to visit. Here is a list of the Disney worlds that you get to experience this time around:
[list]
[*]The Land of Dragons (Mulan)
[*]Beast’s Castle (Beauty and the Beast)
[*]Olympus Coliseum (Hercules)
[*]Timeless River (Steamboat Willie)
[*]100 Acre Wood (Winnie the Pooh)
[*]Atlantica (The Little Mermaid)
[*]Port Royal (Pirates of the Caribbean)
[*]Agrabah (Aladdin)
[*]Halloween Town (The Nightmare Before Christmas)
[*]Pride Land (The Lion King)
[*]Space Paranoids (Tron)
[/list]
I will admit that the initial 3 hours of the game left a sour taste in my mouth and has slowed the pace at which I am playing [i]KH2[/i], but make no mistake about it, this game is stellar. The improvements over the original game and the engaging environments make it one of the top games of the year and definitely a must have for fans of Disney and the Action RPG genre.
