Chris Massey

Small Arms

February 1, 2007

Reviews / Xbox 360 / by Chris Massey Make a comment! / Tweet it!

[i]Super Smash Bros.[/i] is probably one of my all-time favorite game series, so many games that try to emulate it usually take a lot to get my attention. For what it’s worth, though, [i]Small Arms[/i] for Xbox Live Arcade is a decent alternative. Although I’ve heard it more likened to [i]Power Stone[/i] (a game which I’ve not played), [i]Small Arms[/i] resembles [i]Super Smash Bros.[/i] and is basically a four-player brawler. However, while the idea to release a game with these qualities on Xbox Live Arcade seems like a no-brainer, the game isn’t executed as well as it could have been. While [i]Small Arms[/i] proves to be an entertaining multiplayer game, the single player is both dull and frustrating, and some poor ideas hinder the general game play.

[i]Small Arms[/i] has no story, or at least, not an overall one. There are eight players to choose from, with four more being unlocked later on, each with a brief background story that is fairly irrelevant aside from getting a chuckle at the surreal origin stories. There’s Marky Kat, a… well cat with a machine gun, Fox Claw, a disowned ninja with a blade, and Unit 51, a parody of the Doom guy if I’ve ever seen one, among other players. While there isn’t anything to really hate about any of these characters, none of them are particularly memorable, either, save for maybe Pector El Pollo, a Mexican wrestling chicken. I might not ever forget Billy Ray Logg either, who is the world’s first mutated tree and is pretty angry about it.

Each character also has a unique weapon that they start out with. This is probably where the first of [i]Small Arms[/i]’ problems come into play, because while Marky Kat has access to his machine gun at the beginning of a match, the same gun may very well drop from the sky later on for another player to pick up and use. This applies to just about every character’s weapon. Therefore, there isn’t a whole lot of difference between characters, aside from maybe physical abilities. At the same time, the weapons are about the only thing available to attack with, and since you will run out of ammo pretty quickly, the only thing left to do is wait for batteries to drop from the sky or desperately hit your opponent with the mostly ineffective melee attacks.

I should take a moment to mention the level design, which ranges from new and inventive to bland and boring. Stages like the tornado and train levels are certainly entertaining because the players fight while the camera scrolls across the expansive level. In the case of the tornado, you will fight while jumping to and from all sorts of debris, from homes torn from their foundations to planes sucked into the vortex. Other stages also have traps such as poisonous gas chambers to trip up players. However, while some levels are fairly well designed, others like the simple outhouse level aren’t as fun to play on, and some levels seem to promote claustrophobia and pure chaos with four players.

The single player game in [i]Small Arms[/i] is over pretty quickly. Once you play through the mission mode, which allows you to gain access to the four unlockable characters, there are only a few other game modes thrown in to try and make it last. Couple that with the fact that the computer A.I. for other characters is dirt poor, and you’ve got one dull single player mode that only leads to frustration. The A.I. is programmed so badly that enemies will literally jump all over the map, sometimes flying straight off the sides. Not only that, but if you’re fighting against multiple players, they all focus their sights on you, and when you’re not on the map, they stand around until you respawn, not so much as touching each other.

Nope, [i]Small Arms[/i] was definitely developed to be a multiplayer affair, particularly over Xbox Live, although you can still go old school with four players on the same box. For the most part, the online multiplayer is much more enjoyable, although the chaos still makes it difficult to make out what is actually happening sometimes. Clearly, online multiplayer was what the developers had in mind with this game. Still, there are some problems, like the erratic camera that sometimes decides it wants to zoom-in on a different player, although this only seems to happen on larger maps. For the most part, though the multiplayer is presented well and is easily the best reason to purchase this game.

In the end, [i]Small Arms[/i] squeaks out with some fun online multiplayer. There’s no question that this game wasn’t designed as a single-player game, and the single-player only serves as a device to unlock additional characters and achievements and not much else. If you don’t have Xbox Live Gold, or at the very least can’t find others to play with, [i]Small Arms[/i] isn’t worth your time. With its online play, as well as a fairly affordable price, though, [i]Small Arms[/i] is a decent addition to Xbox Live Arcade.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

January 19, 2007

Reviews / Xbox 360 / by Chris Massey Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Talk about a comic book fan’s dream. We’ve all had a taste of what Raven Software can do with the [i]X-Men Legends[/i] series, but this time around, Raven decided to go bigger. Much bigger. [i]Marvel: Ultimate Alliance[/i] is probably the most ambitious super hero brawling game to date, encompassing a wide cast of characters from almost every end of the Marvel universe. In addition, [i]Ultimate Alliance[/i] returns to and improves upon the great multiplayer-friendly formula used by games before it. There are some down points and glitches, but overall, [i]Marvel: Ultimate Alliance[/i] is a game anyone can enjoy, and a game the hardcore Marvel fan will salivate over.

The plot for [i]Ultimate Alliance[/i] is a fairly simple one, but it works. Dr. Doom has assembled all the baddies from around the Marvel universe to form the Masters of Evil, and now they’ve taken the fight to S.H.I.E.L.D. Colonel Nick Fury responds by calling together all the Marvel super heroes that he can muster to counter attack. You’ll start out only having access to fan favorites Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America, and Thor. After the first level, though, you’ll have access to other obvious choices like Iron Man, Storm, and the Fantastic Four, but also some more obscure characters that really dive deep into the Marvel comics like Spider-Woman, Ms. Marvel, and Luke Cage. Probably the most appealing thing about [i]Ultimate Alliance[/i] is the ultimate mash up of superhero worlds.

For the most part, the game plays just like the [i]X-Men Legends[/i] series. You and up to four friends can grab a controller and choose four different Marvel heroes. At the most basic level, the game comes down to a button mashing frenzy of attacking enemy forces, although each character also has a healthy list of special attacks as well as combo moves. Like any other RPG, characters level up with experience, unlocking new attacks, costumes, and other features. Another interesting addition is that even if you never play as anyone outside of your four-man team, each character in the game levels up. So even if you confine yourself to one particular team, switching out to, say, Mr. Fantastic won’t cripple your team of heroes.

Individually, character customization is in full force here. Each character can only have three special attacks at a time, so you’ll have to determine which attacks you prefer and assign them as you please. Each character also has a different outfit, each of which provides with some different attributes. For example, Wolverine’s classic outfit can add bonuses to his claw attacks while his Ultimate outfit ups his regenerative powers. Collecting coins throughout the game will give you the money needed to add points to attacks and attributes, and most of it is pretty straightforward. There is the option to automate all of this, but it seems to work against you more often than not (especially when working on the item worn), so I can’t recommend it.

Speaking of teams, a new addition to [i]Ultimate Alliance[/i] is the My Team feature, which lets you craft together a custom team of superheroes. One thing worth noting is that mixing and matching certain heroes will give your team a bonus. For example, pairing all females up will give a femme fatale bonus, while pairing up Iceman, Colossus, Wolverine, and Storm will award the X-Men bonus. Once you’ve determined the team that you’re going to go with, you can form them into a customized team, complete with attribute bonuses to spend among each member. At the same time, fighting with that team will earn a reputation among the public eye, although breaking up that team will hurt the reputation as well. It’s an interesting feature, although it tends to encourage reliance on only four heroes, but it’s not too big of a problem.

[i]Ultimate Alliance[/i] works the best when you get friends playing the game alongside you. While it may be hard to find four other friends to come over and pick up the controller to play along, the process is helped along by provided Xbox Live support over the Internet. With Xbox Live in tow, you can hook up with friends who may not be able to make it over, and if you can’t find a couple of friends to play along with, you can search for players and make some new ones. Of course, in the end, playing with friends seems to be the best way to go, as it can be somewhat difficult to find a game, much less gel with some guys who might have an attitude problem. One thing I need to mention is that I have had way too many drop-outs while playing online, which can really throw off the game since you’ll have to find a place to save, exit to the main menu, and start up a new game just to get back with your friends.

There are a few other issues to be had with the game. One that I noticed was that some enemies, mainly boss characters, seem to have erratic or glitchy patterns to their movements and attacks. This mainly shows up in a few select fights, and in a couple instances, this ended up creating some bugs. In one instance, I was saved from a near death by M.O.D.O.K. because he got stuck in a corner and was unable to attack me. A couple other bugs show up from time to time, although they don’t hurt the game a whole lot. [i]Ultimate Alliance[/i] presents itself well, but some of the bugs in the game obstruct an otherwise clean slate.

Most people probably don’t expect a top-down RPG like this to feature some groundbreaking graphical feats, but for what it’s worth, [i]Ultimate Alliance[/i] looks pretty impressive. Even so, there are some graphic glitches that occur from time to time, and not everything looks as good as the Marvel heroes (namely, some textures and certain villains). The sound department is also well represented, with fairly decent voice acting for just about every character and the kinds of sounds effects you’d expect from a game with superheroes in it, although sometimes the punching and beating sound effects get to be a little much.

[i]Marvel: Ultimate Alliance[/i] is basically one of the biggest things comic fans could ask for. With the large and possibly most diverse roster of characters to choose from, any Marvel fan can get behind the game. While there are some issues with the online play and a couple glitches in places, and some may find it not to be much of an improvement over [i]X-Men Legends II[/i], [i]Marvel: Ultimate Alliance[/i] remains a great improvement on the [i]X-Men Legends[/i] series as well as a fun romp through Marvel comic history. Granted, I’m no diehard comic book fan, but if the game can pull in those who only show a passing glance to comics, those who love them will definitely want to pick this up.

Mutant Storm Reloaded

December 20, 2006

Reviews / Xbox 360 / by Chris Massey Make a comment! / Tweet it!

[i]Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved[/i] may be the number one game on Xbox Live Arcade, but it’s no secret that the game is super difficult. For those who may want a more controlled, less intense experience, [i]Mutant Storm Reloaded[/i] is the prefect alternative. While challenging in its own right, Mutant Storm allows the player to adjust the difficulty to a level that doesn’t completely turn them off from the game. The number of game play options makes this a pretty meaty Arcade title as well. While the game might not appeal to the people who mastered [i]Geometry Wars[/i] or [i]Smash TV[/i], [i]Mutant Storm Reloaded[/i] is an enjoyable title for the price point.

[i]Mutant Storm Reloaded[/i] can be described as one half [i]Geometry Wars[/i], one half [i]Robotron 2084[/i]. The game controls exactly like [i]Geometry Wars[/i] in that you control the ship with the left analog stick and fire with the right, firing off bombs with the right trigger. Meanwhile, similarly to [i]Robotron 2084[/i], you will progress through individual levels going all the way up to level 89, killing a wide array of enemies. Unlike the two games, however, [i]Mutant Storm Reloaded[/i] offers up a few more options, including the standard adventure mode along with a more arcade-feeling tally mode, a co-op mode, and eight difficulty options.

Probably the biggest appeal of [i]Mutant Storm Reloaded[/i] is that you are able to tailor the difficulty to a level that’s comfortable to you. The game works under eight difficulty levels disguised under various colored belts. The white belt difficulty is simple enough, and many of the earlier difficulty levels may be a little too easy, especially for Geometry Wars veterans. Once you get up to the brown and especially the black belt levels, however, Mutant Storm can become a pretty challenging and frustrating game. It does, after all, have one of the toughest Xbox Live achievements around (clear all 89 levels on black belt). In the end, people who found games like Geometry Wars and Smash TV to be too difficult will enjoy the ability to control the difficulty here.

The art style in Mutant Storm is pretty trippy. There have to be over two-dozen different enemies throughout the whole game, each one with a different visual look as well as a different attack style. Each room in the game has a different look to it, but for the most part, each one conforms to the circular shape. One thing to note is that even though each room plays the same way every time, sometimes the game mirrors the room or changes the color of everything in the room. Overall, the visuals in the game are pretty well done, but one thing to note is that if you get close to the edge of a level, the walls on the outside of the level can sometimes obstruct your view, and it can be difficult to keep up with the tiny shots that the mutants fire when all Hell is breaking loose.

Xbox Live Arcade seems to be saturated with games just like [i]Mutant Storm Reloaded[/i], so making the choice of which one to go for can be difficult. The game has all the options and difficulty that many other favorite Arcade games possess, but out of all of them, Mutant Storm is probably the most accessible to beginners or people who don’t enjoy the hectic nature of games like [i]Geometry Wars[/i]. At 800 Microsoft points, the game lies also at about the same price point as other games similar to itself, and it arguably contains some more options than other games too. While it certainly may not be the king of shooters on Xbox Live Arcade, [i]Mutant Storm Reloaded[/i] is certainly worth the money you pay for it and remains a quality title.

Lumines! Live

November 8, 2006

Reviews / Xbox 360 / by Chris Massey Make a comment! / Tweet it!

[i]Lumines[/i], one of the defining titles for the PSP, was heralded as one of the greatest and most stylish puzzle games in years. When it was announced that Lumines would make its way onto Xbox Live Arcade, people were thrilled that the game would be available through the ease of virtual downloading. Unfortunately, the developers have taken that thrill and dashed it across the floor with an incomplete, stripped down version of that seen on the PSP. Given that [i]Lumines Live![/i] only has a few options available from the start and the remaining game modes have to be purchased to make it complete, you wonder why Q Entertainment didn’t just release the full game in the retail market.

[i]Lumines Live![/i] essentially works just like its PSP cousin. The game seems to take a page from both Tetris and rhythm games. It has you stacking blocks up to form boxes of four or more pieces, all with catchy music playing in the background. A line moves across the field every couple seconds to scan your stacks and eliminate the blocks that have been placed together, moving with the beat of the music in the process. In fact, just about everything moves to the beat of the music and emits sounds, from moving your blocks to placing and lining them up. The sheer style of Lumines’s music qualities makes it enjoyable on its own, and almost qualifies it as the Dance Dance Revolution of puzzle games.

To say that [i]Lumines Live![/i] isn’t enjoyable would be a lie. The game is admittedly addictive and provides the same level of fun that the original incarnation had. The problem lies in that when you buy [i]Lumines Live![/i] (which is already pushing things at $15), you’re purchasing a stripped down version of the game that only includes the base game, time attack mode, and online multiplayer. Sure, it looks like there is a lot more to the game when you look at the menu options, which list puzzle mode, mission mode, vs. CPU mode, and an advanced play option. Upon further inspection, however, you end up only playing a few levels into each of them before the game informs you that you must purchase additional packages to unlock the rest.

And what a ridiculous concept the whole thing turns out to be. By the time everything has been released on the Marketplace, there’s going to be at least four additional packages to purchase according to the game’s website, and with the premiere Advance Pack already costing 700 Microsoft Points ($7.50), this does not bode well for the consumer. The positive thing about all this is that you aren’t forced to buy each pack to enjoy the game so you end up picking-and-choosing, but you can’t shake that feeling that you’re playing a cheap demo of an actual game that you paid 15 dollars for.

Again, all this doesn’t mean that [i]Lumines Live![/i] is any less enjoyable, but it does seem to lack some of the polish that the PSP version possesses. As you play through the base mode, which includes 12 music skins, the background will change every so often to reflect the new song. The musical choices in the game are enjoyable, although some tend to lean on the annoying side, either visually or musically. The PSP version contains about twice as many skins as [i]Lumines Live![/i] does, and for that reason, running through the game is considerably faster and can be done within an hour. Of course, the Advance Pack adds in 22 new skins, but that would cost you even more Microsoft Points in the process.

To its credit, [i]Lumines Live![/i] offers up some solid multiplayer gaming. While it is extremely annoying that many of the other modes are locked into digital downloads that aren’t even available yet, at least they didn’t skimp out on the multiplayer. Unfortunately, if you happen to get into a laggy game, the controls are severely bogged down, which isn’t helped by the fact that the controls are a bit sensitive to begin with, both on the d-pad and the analog stick. While the multiplayer is certainly welcome, it still has that small feeling of incompleteness. Another thing worth mentioning is that the game comes in full HD, which actually looks very impressive. Unfortunately, that still doesn’t seem like enough to warrant the price.

The ridiculous nature of this price-tier system that is offered makes the pure base game of [i]Lumines Live![/i] very hard to recommend at the price it comes with. One thing to mention is that since the less than positive backlash at the game’s launch, the game has been updated to remove the additional game play modes from the main menu. However, that still doesn’t make [i]Lumines Live![/i] out to be any less disappointing. If you don’t mind spending $15 for a severely crippled game, then you can still have some fun with [i]Lumines Live![/i], but in the end, the price-tier download system indicates that this game would have faired much better at retail than over the internet.

Perfect Dark Zero

November 8, 2006

Reviews / Xbox 360 / by Chris Massey Make a comment! / Tweet it!

It seems as though Rare tripped over a major rock when the last generation of consoles came into being. Compared to its golden days of [i]Goldeneye 007[/i], [i]Perfect Dark[/i], and other hits on the Nintendo 64, Rare’s offerings to the Gamecube and then the Xbox have been less than stellar. With Microsoft’s newest console on the market, Rare has tried to turn around its sleeper period by reviving Joanna Dark in [i]Perfect Dark Zero[/i], and it is probably one of their best efforts since the N64 died. Even so, that doesn’t stop the game from being a bit under whelming as a whole. The online multiplayer and co-op modes do offer some good fun, but [i]Perfect Dark Zero[/i] just doesn’t feel quite like the prequel-sequel to one of the N64’s greatest offerings.

[i]Perfect Dark Zero[/i] chronicles the events that occur three years before Perfect Dark, and features Joanna Dark’s transition from working as a mercenary-for-hire into becoming a member of the Carrington Institute. Strangely enough, Joanna has not only lost her British accent, but has grown wild, fiery red hair as well. At any rate, you’ll be taken through 14 missions in a number of different environments ranging from a nightclub to the jungles of South America. Similarly to its predecessor, the game also gives multiple different difficulty levels of Agent, Secret Agent, and Double Agent, each offering a fairly good challenge.

Unfortunately, the single player experience is a bit lackluster, starting with the storyline. There isn’t a whole lot that’s compelling about the storyline, and it seems to be tailored to people who have played the original Perfect Dark, which might leave some out in the cold with references to the original. General mission settings are explained in the mission briefing and subsequently tear at the threshold of boredom when combined with the poor voice acting, and cutscenes don’t really add a whole lot other than establishing the start and end of the level. Mentioning the voice acting again, they only manage to up the cheese-factor and make the story that much more boring.

Other problems also hinder the game play aspects of single player mode. Namely, the game doesn’t seem to offer up any advancement from Perfect Dark in terms of A.I. intelligence. It’s not so much that the A.I. is so dumb that they can’t shoot, because they do prove to be quite a threat, especially at higher difficulties. The problem lies in that enemies will see you, try to shoot you, and just chase after you. There are no real tactics used by the enemy, and they seem to just run around randomly while shooting at you, hiding behind the closest thing they can find (even if their melon is in full view of your crosshair).

The biggest problem with the campaign mode is simply that it lacks any real originality or any new improvements over old formulas. [i]Perfect Dark Zero[/i] seems to play almost identically to it predecessor, and it is so tedious that by the time you’ve made it to the last couple levels, you might not want to finish the game, much less go back to play the other difficulty levels. Probably one of the few high points for the single player game go to the co-op mode (which, ironically, isn’t even ‘single’ player), which is much better than trudging through the campaign by yourself. Simply put, if you can’t find someone to co-op with, you might just want to forego the campaign entirely.

To say that [i]Perfect Dark Zero[/i] doesn’t add some new things into the game isn’t entirely true. One of the most prominent features is using cover to hide from enemy fire while still having access to your crosshair. This is actually a very helpful feature and helps the game convey a small bit of third-person shooter into itself, although sometimes cover can be difficult to manage. The guns also give you secondary options, and while some simply add silencers, others have some pretty cool options like hologram projectors, enemy scanners, and remote-controlled rockets, making the firearms in the game pretty fun to use. These two things don’t help the single player any more, but they were fortunate enough to make it into the vastly superior multiplayer modes.

While the single player element of [i]Perfect Dark Zero[/i] isn’t exactly as interesting as it could have been, the multiplayer options provide a huge number of possibilities and fun. You’re given the standard split-screen multiplayer as well as system link options, but the online multiplayer is where the game shines the most. The seemingly endless game customization options will probably make your head spin, and there are room for up to 15 people on smaller maps and 32 players on larger maps, plus bots. While there aren’t a whole lot of maps to play, the level design on most levels is pretty good, making for some enjoyable deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag games.

Deathmatch options are well and good, but the DarkOps game modes are where [i]Perfect Dark Zero[/i]’s multiplayer is really at. The best way to describe DarkOps matches are to relate them to [i]Counterstrike[/i]. You’re given a set amount of credits that can be used to purchase armor and guns, getting more credits as you kill and complete objectives. Then you have the bevy of fairly interesting game types, such as infection, where one group of skeletons try to infect the other humans players, and sabotage, which has one team defending their property while the other attacks, among others. Impressively, no matter what you’re plying, the online multiplayer is pretty seamless and never really seems to stutter to game-quitting paradigms.

Voice acting was already berated earlier, but excluding that blemish, the sounds featured in the game are top notch. Every gun has a unique and impressive sound to them, and other sounds come across well too. [i]Perfect Dark Zero[/i] is also graphically impressive, although they seemed to have gotten a bit too happy with the futuristic setting and placed an emphasis on shininess. While it doesn’t show up in single player too much, however, in multiplayer you’ll no doubt witness some pretty wild glitches alongside the ragdoll physics, but aside from those, everything seems to hold up both online and off.

Taking a look at the Xbox Live achievements, the majority of them are aimed towards the online multiplayer, which makes a lot of sense. It can be a bit of a pain to get through the single player, much less play through it again on another difficulty. Things are saved by the multiplayer, thankfully, which actually makes it out to be one of the most enjoyable Xbox Live games available. If you can’t get online with the game, or can’t find anybody to play through the co-op, though, [i]Perfect Dark Zero[/i] may end up being a game you wish you forgot.

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