April 2011

Top Shot Arcade

April 18, 2011

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

Activision caught my attention last year with the latest release of the Dangerous Hunts franchise, so I jumped at the chance to cover Top Shot Arcade, a hunting arcade title that is exclusive to the Nintendo Wii. Top Shot Arcade features 75 shooting galleries across 15 North American locales and features 6 primary trophy animals with a host of supporting trophies.

Top Shot Arcade is sold standalone or coupled with the fabulous Top Shot Elite peripheral. Gamers opting to pick up the game by itself will need to make use of the Wii Zapper in order to easily play the game. Having played both ways, I would spend the extra money for the Top Shot Elite. 

Once you get started, there are 2 primary game modes available to play. First is your standard gallery shooting mode that features 1-4 player action in single and multi-gun varieties. This means you can enjoy multi-player without having to shell out for additional peripherals, but you’ll be taking turns. The second mode is called Rapid Hunt, which features a random set of shooting galleries from across the game. The standard gallery modes feature 6 primary trophy animals that each have 3 hunts that consist of 5 galleries and 1 bonus game. Most bonus games require rapid fire, which accentuates the annoyance that you must reload after every shot. The final bonus game is a nice surprise though.

Each individual shooting gallery features a mix of animals that run across the screen. Trophy animals feature a variable point value based on their size and proximity to you. The larger the animal the more points it is worth. The further away the animal is from you when the kill occurs, the more points you score. Small animals are worth 100 points and also refill your ammo. They are a valuable part of achieving high scores so don’t ignore them. Does also run across your screen and you’ll want to avoid shooting them unless you enjoy the penalty of being unable to fire for several seconds. At the end of each level your total points are calculated based on kills, accuracy, and hunting bonus and a medal is awarded.

Top Shot Arcade is made up of all my favorite parts of the latest Dangerous Hunts title, but also takes a few steps back. It is purely shooting galleries and none of the story mode, but the fact that you are limited to a single weapon (that must reload after every shot) really annoyed me. As I got closer to completing the game it became less of an issue and contributed more to the challenge. For some, it may be a dealbreaker. This is also why I preferred using the Top Shot Elite to the Wii Zapper.

In all, I quite enjoyed Top Shot Arcade. It’s on the Wii, so it doesn’t have jaw-dropping graphics and the commentator can get quite annoying at times, but it is a lot of fun. The standalone game comes in at under $30 so it’s really not a huge investment. Fans of hunting titles will definitely want to consider this a purchase, but others may find it shallow.

Pros: Fun, Optional peripheral, Inexpensive, Multi-player

Cons: Slight learning curve

 

SBG Giveaway: Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars

April 18, 2011

News / by Graham Russell Make a comment! / Tweet it!

We just posted our review of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars. Guess what? Now we’re giving away a copy of Shadow Wars, and there are two ways to enter!

The rules are as always:

  • You must live in the U.S. or Canada. (Sorry, but overseas shipping is a killer.)
  • Make a comment on this post for one entry.
  • Retweet the link back to this post on Twitter for another entry.
  • Contest ends at noon Eastern on April 22.

We’ll draw a random winner from all the entries on the 22nd and post it here. Good luck!

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars

April 18, 2011

3DS / Reviews / by Graham Russell Make a comment! / Tweet it!

The Ghost Recon series is known for its use of stealth. After all, the games star these elite soldiers that infiltrate enemy lines and take on entire armies at once. With Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, though, it uses a type of stealth we weren’t expecting. 

See, Shadow Wars is really a turn-based strategy game, in the vein of X-COM or Fire Emblem. While this makes sense to those who know that X-COM creator Julian Gollop was lead designer on the project, it’s probably not what most expect from a Ghost Recon game. You take a small squad of characters, each with their own abilities, weapons and roles, and move them across a grid-based map to complete objectives. There’s covering fire from allies, foliage and buildings to hide in, ammo pickups and other things, and each step has to be pondered carefully. Some maps require routing enemies, while others make you defend a position or reach specific targets. In fact, many maps have different consecutive parts, each with its own objective.

Those worrying it’ll be too hard (or too easy), don’t fret: the game has three different difficulties, and you can change these mission-to-mission. You get rewarded for higher difficulties with more points toward your rank, but you could go through the entire game at a casual level if you’d like. As you progress through the campaign, it slowly adds mechanics, characters and strategic elements, so in that way it eases you in. In addition, there are one-off battles to fight.

Shadow Wars started life as a DS game, and it has gotten criticism for its graphics. Honestly, we don’t see it. The units, while not very detailed, are small, and they move around with life and character. Sure, these base units could mostly be done on the DS, but, likely a matter of getting the game out quickly, the developers focused on world effects to layer on top. The ravines and rivers on the map look nice, and the fog and such make it seem much more advanced than it is. The result is a “living board game” look, and if you’ve ever played a tabletop miniatures game, after you see this you’ll want something exactly like it for whatever game you play. 

The game supports hotseat multiplayer, a turn-based tradition and a welcome addition at launch of a new system. We wish there was full support for four players, but one-on-one matches are still fun. (Unlike Advance Wars, though, Shadow Wars has a bit of a learning curve, so you’ll need to explain various mechanics and control points to new players.) 

At launch, Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars is the only game that looks to stay in your system for longer than a week or so. It’s unlikely to be easily replaced by more robust offerings like the rest of the launch titles, and we heartily recommend it.

Pros: Deep single-player mode, defined characters

Cons: Few 3DS features, not-as-robust multiplayer mode

 

Snackbar Speculator: System specs

April 18, 2011

Features / Speculator / by Graham Russell Make a comment! / Tweet it!

In this installment, we look at the swirling Nintendo system rumors, the next Dashboard update and the NGP’s final name.

Nintendo announcing home console for 2012 release by end of E3

A low murmur turned into a roar when Game Informer reported plans to announce a new Nintendo console at (or before) this year’s E3. Possible features include graphical power to equal or surpass the 360 and PS3, a 6-inch screen in the controller and full backwards compatibility.

Gerry: Given the recent surge of talk regarding this, I don’t see what the point of keeping something like that under wraps would be. It might steal a bit of the 3DS’s thunder, but it wouldn’t be releasing this year anyway. 63%


Andrew: While some people are still finding the reports hard to believe, I think the time is now. A new Nintendo console was bound to be announced sometime this year, and E3 is the best place for it. It’s hard to say which rumors about it will be true, but the probability of an E3 press conference from Nintendo without a new console announcement seems very slim. 95%

Graham: I think that, even if Nintendo was planning to keep its plans secret for a while longer, they’ll have to announce now. They can leave out release, price and even many games, but they can do a reveal much like the “Project Natal” event and the “Revolution” unveiling. Give people a taste, but leave specifics for the 3DS announcements. 90%

360’s next Dashboard update to include Hulu Plus

Screenshots have been leaked showing a Hulu Plus app for 360 that looks almost identical to Netflix’s interface. We don’t have anything official, but could it be coming in the next update?

Gerry: Sure, why not. 75%

 


Andrew: If anything, I’m sure Microsoft would love to add Hulu to their already long list of non-gaming related content available on the 360. I see this being an inevitability at this point, although if it actually happens with the next update is a bit harder to predict. 85%

Graham: This does seem to be where Microsoft is going. They were first with Netflix, they’re still the one with ESPN…it wants to be the media center for everyone, and Hulu Plus is the obvious next step. Add that Hulu has said that “more devices are coming soon,” and it seems like a slam dunk. It could be one more update away, though. 95%

New Sony portable, codenamed NGP, to just be called PSP2

Sony’s Next Generation Portable is still in the codename phase. It seems the final name for things is the last announcement in this industry lately (see: Kinect, PlayStation Move), so we’ll probably see that in June. Will they go the safe route and call it the PlayStation Portable 2?

Gerry: While the “Portable” moniker really is the ideal way to market a portable PlayStation, there’s nothing wrong with getting a “fresh start” for a system with a new name, especially considering the ton of mistakes done with the PSP. This one could really go either way. 50% 


Andrew: Sony generally sticks with “sequelizing” their consoles, unlike Nintendo and Microsoft, so I’d believe the NGP would be called the PSP2. The NGP seemed a bit too silly to be an official name, and the PSP brand name, while not hugely successful, still holds some weight. 80%

Graham: Sony never seems to need to go out of the way with naming things. The PlayStation part is a given, since that branding is too pervasive. I think they’ll go with PSP2, since the form factor is so similar to the original, but they may want some iconic name to distinguish it from its predecessor. 70%

Weekend trailer: Doctor Lautrec almost forgets gameplay

April 16, 2011

News / by Graham Russell Make a comment! / Tweet it!

This week, we have the debut trailer for 3DS adventure title Doctor Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights. The story (and animation) looks like Professor Layton with an Indiana Jones sheen, but the gameplay’s quite a bit different. Unfortunately, you only get to see it for about half a second. Still, check it out! It’s after the break. READ MORE

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