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Three Gorillaz tracks, “Clint Eastwood,” “Feel Good, Inc.” and “Re-hash,” were just announced as downloadable Rock Band songs. They’re available for the standard $1.99 per track (160 Microsoft Points) or in a bundle for $5.49 (440 Microsoft Points). The tracks will be available on Xbox 360 August 11 and PS3 August 13.
Other music announced this week includes works from The Band, The Who, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane.
Shatter is a newly released update to a classic, developed by the rather unknown Sidhe Interactive, and it may be one of the surprise downloadable titles of the year. It’s an update of the classic arcade title, Breakout. For those unaware of Breakout, it had a basic gameplay pattern: move the paddle to hit the ball towards the blocks at the top of the screen until you destroy them all. It spawned many sequels and spin-offs, but Shatter is one of the better ones.
The game’s look (as well as the music) feels like a more “futuristic” version of Breakout, which is what the game is trying to be. But aside from the act of breaking blocks and trying to continue to hit the ball, there are plenty of other things added to the game to make it a brand new experience.
As you hit the ball towards the multi-colored and multi-shaped blocks, they create blue shards, which you can absorb to add to your score and fill up a bar to unleash a special attack. You absorb the blue bits with a suck function, which is done by pressing the L1 button on the controller. This, as well as the blow function, can be used to also pull and push the ball towards or away from you, and allows you to maneuver it more outside of simply hitting it with the paddle. You can also release multiple balls onto the playfield at once, but once your lives hit zero and you lose all of the balls, it’s game over.
With the addition of boss fights and different kinds of blocks that can almost “attack” your paddle, there is an added level of depth and challenge to the classic formula. The boss fights seem simple at first, but as you progress through the game’s ten levels, you find that some require many different strategies to defeat them. It turns Breakout into something much more; an action game that plays less like the original and more like a classic shoot ‘em up. There is even a boss rush mode that allows you to face all ten of the bosses in a row, which is a nice addition to the game.
Outside of the main game, the boss rush mode, and a very basic but addictive bonus mode, there isn’t much to the game. No options for any kind of multiplayer, and no reason to replay the game once it is finished. Trophy support adds some replayability, but it’s nothing that will have you coming back to the game as often as other downloadable titles. It’s a bit disappointing, but I guess it’s what you can expect from such a cheap title. At only $8, you don’t get a lot, but what you do get is well worth the cheap price point.
Shatter is well worth the money, but outside of a few challenging areas and boss fights, there isn’t any reason you’ll get more than 2-3 hours out of the experience. It’s a shame the developers didn’t take it any further with any kind of multiplayer support, even for a higher price. But for the price it is offered, and for the basic, yet addictive formula that is still successful even today, Shatter is a success.
ESRB: E for everyone; it’s just a simple, fun Breakout update, with nothing objectionable.
Pros: Basic, yet very addictive gameplay; new mechanics that add a lot to a classic game; bosses add even more challenge to the game; cheap price point; the game’s look is fantastic, and the music adds a lot to the experience
Cons: Not much else to do once you finish the main game
Despite the game’s name, Fat Princess is more about class-based action gameplay than anything else.
Fat Princess has a nice cel-shaded, cartoony look to it. It definitely fits the game’s nonchalant tone. The game is full of little touches that add to the overall charm of the game, and the very “cute” presentation of the characters doesn’t hurt either.
You have two teams of 16 players on each team, as players work together to complete different objectives based on the game mode. However, there is no local multiplayer of any kind, or any way to play with friends on the same system online, which is a bit of a disappointment.
There are several modes of play, including Rescue the Princess (in which you have to rescue your own princess from the enemy castle), Snatch ‘N Grab (capture the flag but with a princess), a basic team-deathmatch mode, and Invasion (control the most territories on the map). All four of these main modes are incredibly fun to play, and they all require plenty of different strategies to win.
There are five classes you can pick once you spawn, and each class can be upgraded as the match progresses. You have the mage (the magic user), the priest (the healer), the warrior (the close range attacker), the ranger (the long range attacker), and the worker (who is used to upgrade your home castle and your classes by gathering materials). Each class plays a very important role in the game, and while everyone wants to play as an attacker class, it’s good to have people play as priests or workers to help your team win. As long as you have the right team, you should stand a chance in the multiplayer.
There is a single player mode called “The Legend of Fat Princess,” which is basically the game’s main story mode. It acts as a tutorial to get you get you ready for the game’s multiplayer. And while it seems fun at first, you’ll soon realize that it’s nothing more than a bunch of matches with bots. And near the end, it can become infuriating due to the fact that your A.I. teammates don’t do much to actually help you complete the objectives. The enemy team seems to focus solely on setting up a defense, which makes matches last way longer than they should.
When it’s not frustrating, the single player is downright boring, and it won’t show anyone just how fun the game can really be when playing multiplayer. And while the online player has been a bit spotty during the first two days of its launch, it seems to be running just fine now, leading to many hours of enjoyment. Get a group of your friends together and you can have plenty of fun wasting time in the multiplayer modes.
Overall, your purchase of Fat Princess all depends on if you plan on playing the game online. If you plan on playing just for the single player experience, you will be sorely disappointed, as it’s a rather lackluster effort. But that is just a warm up for the multiplayer, which is addictive and definitely makes the game well worth the cash.
ESRB: T for Teen; Has a lot of violence, blood, and gore, but it’s all presented in a childish, cartoony manner.
Pros: A strong multiplayer component; plenty of different maps and game types to keep you busy; You can play with up to 32 people in a single match, which can lead to some fun times
Cons: A very lackluster single player experience; some hiccups in the online component; lack of split-screen or same system multiplayer is disappointing
Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do to Deserve This? (Badman from here on out) is the potential offspring of the unholy union between Evil Genius and Dig Dug. Badman allows you to create underground mazes full of monsters with the intent of thwarting heroes from the surface in their quest to defeat your underling, drag him to the surface, and do dastardly things to him.
You will play as the God of Destruction and as Badman, your bumbling overlord. There are a lot of things to consider while playing Badman, but your only interaction with the world at large is through a pickax that you use to destroy blocks of dirt. Destroying these blocks not only creates the maze that heroes will hopefully get stuck in, but it also spawns monsters that will hopefully defeat the many heroes that come down from the surface to steal Badman from you. The strategy comes from deciding which blocks of soil to dig. Blocks with more nutrients and soil will yield more powerful monsters to defend your helpless overlord.
To get started you will need to dig up a slimemoss, one of the most useful units in the game, since their job is to pick up and redistribute nutrients to places on the map where they will be more useful to you. Once you have enough slimemosses moving nutrients around you will eventually find a soil block with enough nutrients in it to create one of the best units in the game – the insect-like Onmon. You can also use nutrients to create sword-wielding lizardmen. Mana is handled differently in that it requires heroes to traverse your dungeon and cast magic. As they do mana will build up in nearby soil blocks, and you can dig them to spawn spirits. These spirits do for mana what slimemosses do for nutirents. To make matters more complicated there is an in-game food chain and economy system. This can be frustrating at first, but since you can only interact with the world by digging up soil you will soon stumble across the solution to your problems.
Badman features two modes of play – challenge and story. Challenge mode makes a good tutorial since you can run the same scenario over and over figuring out the best way to overcome a particular setback. Story mode is the real meat and potatoes of the game. In it you stave off hero after hero (who hopefully leave you the ever-useful mana) and create the best labyrinth you can. To make things a bit more challenging you have a preset amount of dig power (the number of soil blocks that you can destroy) to use per level. In between levels you get some dig power back and can choose to use what you think you don’t need to upgrade your units. Unfortunately, the biggest drawback about story mode is that once Badman is captured it is game over. No restarting the current level – you’re just done.
Badman is challenging – very challenging. The heroes in story mode ramp up in difficulty very quickly, and like Nethack before it defeat carries the huge penalty of a game over screen that actually means game over. Despite the difficulty, however, I can’t stop playing it. And with its being a downloadable title I can always start up a game regardless of which UMD I have stuck in my PSP.
Pros: Challenging, good challenge mode that doubles as a tutorial
Cons: Very difficult, very unforgiving
Plays Like: Evil Genius + Dig Dug + Nethack
ESRB: T for animated blood, mild fantasy violence, mild language, and mild suggestive themes
Like Twisted Pixel’s other Xbox Live Arcade game The Maw, ‘Splosion Man is a small indie title that pretty much came out of nowhere. The Maw is a fantastic game, but clearly Twisted Pixel has stepped up its game with this release.
‘Splosion Man is a simple platformer with plenty of puzzles that require quick wits as well as quick reflexes, and despite its simplicity, you’ll find a surprising amount of depth.
The story is…nonexistent, pretty much. You’re just a man made of “splosions,” and your goal is to…well, “splode.” Once you start playing, none of that will matter to you. The controls are as basic as you can get. You use the left analog stick to move the character, and any of the face buttons (A, B, X, Y) to Splode and send the little guy flying. You can Splode up to three times in a single jump, after which you’ll need to recharge by landing on a flat surface or clinging to a wall. It seems incredibly basic at first, and maybe even repetitive, but once you make more progress you’ll learn that the game presents is more complex than most platformers.
There is a surprising amount of depth, challenge, and replayability in this title. The game presents plenty of small puzzles throughout the wonderfully designed stages, each of which may test your reflexes as well as your patience. Sure, it can be frustrating at times, but it’s also a very rewarding experience. The levels also sometimes have branching paths, some of which may just give you another way to progress, others which lead you to secrets such as the game’s collectibles: cake. There are forty-seven pieces of cake to collect throughout the game’s fifty stages, one for each main stage (excluding the boss fights).
There is also a co-op mode that offers entirely new levels, puzzles, and rewards throughout. Just get two, three, or four of your friends together to Splode the time away. Although I suggest everyone to wants to play the multiplayer get through the single player experience first, because it’ll teach you many tricks you may need throughout the even more challenging co-op. And speaking of a greatest challenge, the game offers a hardcore difficulty once you finish on the normal setting. It removes all of the checkpoints, among other things, and gives you plenty of chances to test your own Splosion Man skills.
Sadly, there are a couple of very small problems. For one, the character can cling to walls, but sometimes it’s hard to easily let go of the wall during a tricky jump, and it may lead to some frustration. Another problem I noticed is with the camera. It tends to zoom out during certain sections, to show you the entire room, but sometimes the camera will remain that way even after you clear a certain puzzle. But these are minor complaints that most people won’t be too bothered by in the long run.
Overall, ‘Splosion Man offers an incredible amount of depth and challenge for only $10. ‘Splosion Man will rank among the best of downloadable titles such as Braid and World of Goo, and should be played for many months to come.
ESRB: E10+ for ages ten and up, mainly due to the cartoon violence
Pros: Simplistic controls make it easy to get into; fantastic level design; multiplayer, a harder difficulty, and extra collectibles make this a replayable game
Cons: Small camera issues; ‘Splosion Man clinging to walls leads to problems during tricky jumping sections
