March 2010

Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce

March 6, 2010

Reviews / Xbox 360 / by Shawn Vermette Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce is the latest in a long series of action games based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms strategy games. Unfortunately, it doesn’t play any better than any of its forbearers. In fact, it’s quite possibly the worst of this generation.

In Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce, you are tasked once again with selecting a faction and then attempting to unite China under your rule. The story has been told many times over, and really is nothing more than an excuse to slaughter thousands of enemies by this point in time.

At first, Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce is a very enjoyable game. It’s a blast hacking and slashing through dozens of enemies at a time as you work your way through the first couple missions. Unfortunately, that’s where the fun ends. The next few missions ramp up the difficulty to ridiculous proportions. Rather than mowing through dozens of basic soldiers then facing a couple bosses, you’ll be faced with dozens of troops almost as strong as the first few bosses, and a boss several times stronger than you are used to. By itself, this isn’t a problem because one would expect the difficulty to get higher as you continue. However, ramping up the difficulty as fast as Strikeforce does and leaving you no way of beating a level other than luck is not fun. The only way I beat the rest of the missions I played was by button mashing and lots of trial and error. I eventually just ran through the levels, past anyone that wasn’t a required kill. 

Visually, Strikeforce looks every bit the PSP port that it is. There’s a ton of clipping, the characters anad landscapes are bland and there’s very bad hit detection. This only serves to make an already frustrating game even worse.

Koei added multiplayer co-op for this venture but it doesn’t add anything useful to the game other than to provide some company for your misery.

Unless you are a die-hard fan of the series, this is not a game you should consider picking up. If you’ve got an appetite for hack and slash games, there are plenty of other games for you to whet your appetite with.

Plays like: All other Dynasty Warriors games

Pros: It’s fun for a little while, before you get to the meat of the game

Cons: Visuals are low quality; combat is tedious and shallow; difficulty is frustrating; clipping issues and bad hit detection ruin whatever fun you could get out of the combat

 

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

March 6, 2010

Reviews / Wii / by Chris Ingersoll Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Otaku wrestling enthusiast/assassin Travis Touchdown returns to the Wii two years after successfully climbing the ranks of the United Assassins Association. He still has his beam katana (originally won via online auction), he still has his pro wrestling moves, and he still has the hots for UAA head Sylvia (despite how she screwed him over the first time). But things have changed in Santa Destroy since Travis’s last appearance…  and Travis is motivated by more than just the prospect of Sylvia’s affections.

The main theme in this rare sequel from “punk” producer Suda51 is revenge — and lots of it. Travis is seeking to avenge the murder of his best friend, which in turn was motivated by revenge for actions Travis committed in the first No More Heroes. As Travis mentioned near the conclusion of that game, “vengeance begets vengeance,” and this vicious cycle will take Travis all the way to the top once again. Of course, due to the rise in popularity of the UAA thanks to the previous game, the competition is a bit more fierce this time around — and Travis has to start over from Rank 51. 

Working his way up through the UAA rankings won’t be quite as tedious as it was last time, however. Travis no longer has to earn entrance fees for his rank fights (the UAA has a lucrative corporate sponsor in Pizza Batt — formerly Pizza Butt in the first game), for starters. Of course, he can still take on odd jobs to raise cash for training, clothes, and new equipment if he wishes. Travis’s strength and stamina training as well as most of the jobs this time around are all presented as NES games, with all of the “Nintendo hard” difficulty that entails. Further streamlining the process is the removal of the (intentionally) dull overworld from the original; as soon as Travis leaves his room, all he has to do in order to get to his next location is select it from a menu; also gone is the need to sign up for each job before actually being able to go there.

With all of that padding out of the way, NMH2 is a much faster-paced title than its predecessor. None of the action has been cut; Travis still carves through a variety of mooks with relative ease, sending blood and cash spraying everywhere as he finishes them off with deadly strikes or crushing suplexes. Travis has a couple of new tricks up his sleeve, including a new “Darkside mode” that literally turns him into a tiger and an “ecstasy gauge” that fills as he hits enemies without receiving damage; when full, Travis can unleash a Darkside mode on command rather than needing to rely on a post-deathblow random chance. The controls work exactly as they did last time, with Travis able to mix up high and low strikes and physical attacks to get past his enemies’ guard. A new option this time around is to play using the Classic Controller instead of Remote and Nunchuk, probably due to the large amount of 8-bit nostalgia throughout the game. Further mixed into the play are a handful of stages played using characters other than Travis, each with their own unique abilities. A few other diversions include a “bullet hell” style shooter based on Travis’s favorite anime series and and a small sidequest where Travis tries to get his cat Jeane back into shape (she got overweight in the interim between games).

Of course, the main attraction to NMH2 is the same as the original: the boss fights. There are over a dozen of these battles (not the fifty-one that Travis’s initial ranking might suggest, as awesome as that would have been) most of them are as over-the-top as the originals. After completing the game a “deathmatch” mode is unlocked that allows you to replay these fights; they will come at you on the also-unlocked “bitter” difficulty, so be prepared for some epic encounters.

NMH2 isn’t perfect, however. Much like the original game, parts of the sequel are intentionally a bit “off”, like the one returning 3D job (the least-liked one from the first game) and the fact that the overall storyline and characterization seems to be pretty flimsy at first glance. Suda51 always injects his games with a heavy dose of symbolism, and not picking up on that can be detrimental to seeing the game as he intended. Fortunately, NMH2 is still quite enjoyable even if you miss the fact that, say, the relationship between Travis and Sylvia represents that of gamers and game producers. The game may not make as much sense as if you did, but don’t let that get in the way of your fun. 

Plays like: No More Heroes. Obviously.

Pros: A lot of the “boring” bits of the previous game have been excised to keep the game’s pace much faster than the original. The reverence for old-school 8-bit games is also a nice nostalgic touch.

Cons: The game gets lost in its symbolism at times, resulting in an overall weaker narrative than the first time around (which was admittedly pretty screwy itself)

 

Energizer Charging System

March 6, 2010

Hardware / Reviews / by Chris Rasco Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Since the first day I got my Wii, I’ve been searching for the perfect recharging station and I’ve finally found it. Energizer’s new Flat Panel Induction Charging Systems are the perfect mix of simplicity, ease of use, and cool technology. Let me tell you why this simple device is the last charging solution you’ll ever buy for your Wii Remotes. 

Just about every charging system to date, required that you remove the default battery cover on your Wii Remote and replace it with a new one that may or may not have had the battery built in. These covers allowed the rechargeable battery packs to make direct contact with their charging stations. Initially, there was nothing wrong with this solution. It wasn’t until Nintendo introduced the silicon sleeves for the Wii Remotes that these direct contact charging solutions became a huge pain. Removing the silicon sleeve just to charge the remote almost negated any positives of actually using a recharging technology.

Some gamers opted to just play without these strange looking sleeves to continue to utilize their existing rechargers. Nintendo threw us all another curve ball by launching the Wii Motion Plus complete with an extended version of the original silicon sleeve. In theory, you could opt to remove this sleeve as well, but with the new charging solution from Energizer there is no need.

Before we talk about the Energizer product, it’s worth mentioning that a charger launched in Japan that utilized induction charging technology and allowed you to charge a pair of Wii Remotes sitting next to a charging station. The charging station itself was kind of an eye-sore and was very costly at over $75 to import. The induction technology it used was incredible though. You could just place your remote near the base and the remotes charged.

Enter Energizer and the Flat Panel Induction Charging System (FPICS). The FPICS comes in both a 2 remote and 4 remote variety and included in the package is the actual charging base and a battery pack for each remote. The battery pack is also a replacement battery cover for the remote that features a pass through button for re-syncing your remote with your Wii, a nice addition. The charging base is a sleek black panel with a silver trim that you can place anywhere you want and features a slim wall plug that should only take one plug on most power strips.

When it comes to actually charging your remotes, you simply place them on the charging panel and the remotes will slide into place thanks to a built in magnet. This keeps your remote in ideal charging position and also prevents them from accidentally being bumped out of place. A helpful red or green light comes on to indicate the charging status and unlike some charging stations, no lights are on when the charger is unused.

The initial charge takes a few hours and the battery life was more than adequate. We have been using the batteries for more than a month and not once have we run out of battery in the middle of a game. It should be noted that this is with kids that just about never remember to place the remotes back on the charging panel.

For casual gamers, the $29.99 and $49.99 price tag for the 2 and 4 remote charging systems respectively may be a little steep compared with buying new batteries as necessary. For anyone else looking for a charging solution for their Wii, this is the product you want to buy. I’ve been so happy with it that I’ve been recommending it to my friends and family.

 

If We Ran Tecmo Koei

March 6, 2010

Features / If We Ran / by Graham Russell Make a comment! / Tweet it!

The Tecmo-Koei merger last year put together two companies in dire need of some straightening out. Tecmo was a company that, with the departure of industry icon Tomonobu Itagaki, was without its soul. Koei was a company that suffered from over-iteration of its key franchises. So, in fixing their quandary, we have our work cut out for us. 


We know Koei’s not going to stop releasing Dynasty Warriors games, but it’s unacceptable that such an iterative game has such problems with slowdown, framerate and glitching, and the co-op is such a selling point that it should be able to handle four players locally. They keep trying gimmicks, but what they need to do is make the core experience solid. There’s a reason Dynasty Warriors games sell: there’s a quality there that’s really fun. It’s just a headache sometimes too.

 

Here at Snackbar Games, we love retro revivals, so it’s probably surprising to hear us say that. Here’s the problem: The company’s attempts at remakes of Tecmo Bowl, NBA Basketball and Rygar have been, shall we say, less than stellar. Looking at their back catalog, there’s not much in the way of lost gems that need reviving, either, so sit this one out, Tecmo. (We have an exception here for one game, but that’ll be obvious later.)

 

The move to partner Team Ninja with Nintendo for Metroid: Other M is going to result in one of the biggest games they’ve released, if only because it has the Big N’s logo on the box. Add that to the fact that Tecmo does best with full, large-budget releases, and it’s the recipe for success.

 

Itagaki is out of the building, and we’re just tired of the whole DOA “look at virtual girls” thing. Right now they’re even promoting their creepiness. Stop, guys. There’s a road back to reputability, and we’re paving it. The new PSP DOA Paradise might sell, but it brings down the image of the entire company with every copy.

 

This is the one franchise where we suggest staying the course. The highly-rated series has kept it fresh (at least by this company’s standards), and who are we to meddle with it?

 

The partnership with Nintendo for Other M is great. But throw in cult hit machine Grasshopper Manufacture? That game should be made as available as possible. Nintendo isn’t planning on releasing it in the U.S., but Tecmo should do what it can to get it out there. As mentioned before, the Nintendo logo helps, so that route’s better than publishing it on their own, but that’s still better than nothing.

 

We don’t actually have anything to say about Opoona, but we figured it should be on the list anyway. Gitaroo Man is kind of cool too, but Opoona is significantly more fun to say. You try it: Opooooooonaaa! See what we’re saying?

 

The game’s turn-based, a time suck and best with more players, so where it needs to be is on Facebook. Make the monster randomization based on making friends or something, and add in some micropayments for the business model. We’d pick that over FarmVille.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Let us know in the comments!

Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection

March 3, 2010

Reviews / Wii / by Chris Ingersoll Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection was first released in 2004 for the PS2 and PSP. Its Wii release, six years later, would have been much more impressive had the Williams Collection not been there first, in 2008. The two games both feature rock-solid pinball physics and sound, accurately recreating the arcade experience of over ten tables each; the step-by-step description of how each table plays is still a spectacular and invaluable feature. However, Gottlieb’s tables are hindered by their age; many of the tables are from 1984 or earlier, and their primitive nature shows — as does the fact that this title predates the Williams release by a good four years.

There are a total of ten pinball tables available in The Gottlieb Collection, plus the Play-Boy card game table that predates the use of flippers and a couple of other arcade oddities. Four of these tables are available for free play at first: Genie, Big Shot, Victory, and El Dorado. Each table has a single goal (as opposed to the five goals per table in the Williams Collection); achieving that goal will often unlock another table, although some tables unlock other features instead. And… that’s it, really. There are no harder “Wizard goals” as in the Williams Collection; many of the Gottlieb tables are so simplistic that there is no way for them to even support ten distinct goals if the developers wanted to do so. The Gottlieb Collection also has the same modes as the other title in this series, with Tournament Mode and Challenge play in addition to the usual Arcade mode. 

There are a few interesting highlights that make the Gottlieb Collection worth a look, especially for the pinball enthusiast (for the few of us who exist). One table in particular, Goin’ Nuts, only had ten physical copies ever made; given its crazy timer-based emphasis on multiball play it’s not hard to see why, and having it on this disc is an awesome experience. Other standouts include Black Hole, Teed Off, and Victory; not coincidentally, Teed Off and Victory are two of the “newest” tables on the disc.

For all of its limitations, The Gottlieb Collection is still a quality title, and it retails for a bargain $20 right out of the gate. It’s far from an essential purchase for most gamers, and even pinball fans  can probably make due with just a weekend rental. Still, it’s hard to argue with its MSRP; I’d almost pay $20 just to have access to Goin’ Nuts alone.

 

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