To celebrate the release of one of the year’s biggest titles, I am going to give my copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (X360) to one lucky reader. The rules are simple, make a post or retweet the link to this post and you get an entry or 2 if you do both.
You have to reside in the US or Canada and be 18 or older to win.
We ended up with 4 extra codes for Armored Core 3 Portable for the PSP and in the spirit of giving, 4 lucky people will end up with those codes. We will give away 1 code per day starting this afternoon. 2 codes will go to randomly selected readers who post in this comments thread. The other 2 codes will go to readers who retweet our post about this contest so make sure you are following @SnackbarGames!
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Often times in this industry we forget that there are real people on the other end of those email addresses that we send game or interview requests to. Today we lost one of those people. Her name was Rannie and she was one of the nicest people I never had the benefit of meeting.
When we started so many years ago, she was one of the first people to add us to their distro list and start working to provide us with assets.
You can probably find a more detailed account of what happened somewhere else, but the sort of it is that today Rannie ended her battle with cancer.
I hadn’t talked to her in quite a while, but Rannie we will miss you and this world won’t be quite the same without you.
The Ghostbusters is a staple of any good 80s movie collection and is one of the more recognizable pop culture brands. This makes it all the more confusing as to why a title with such potential would have a difficult a time as this title did making it to market. After getting canned, and then revived and finally landing on Atari’s lap, we are blessed with what could be the quintessential Ghostbusters game. It lives up to the hype.
I originally picked up Ghostbusters: The Video Game for the Xbox 360 and after playing through a few levels I switched over to the Wii version for the unique control scheme and different art style. Both versions carried an identical story, but they felt like very different games.
As the newest member of the Ghostbusters team, it is your job to be the Experimental Equipment Technician. This is a fancy way of saying you’ll be carrying the untested and experimental equipment that has been developed in the Ghostbusters lab. You’ll have the option of playing through the game as a male or female character.
Once you get through the tutorial that explains how to play the game, you’ll start your first real mission. Controls are similar to the recent Metroid Prime title released for the Wii that utilizes the Wii Remote to look around and the nunchuck to control movement. This can get a little tiring, but ultimately works well for this game. B and A control primary and secondary weapon fire while the D Pad allows you to equip and change the active piece of equipment you are using. The nunchuck also handles locking on to an enemy and deploying ghost traps for capturing those pesky ghosts.
Each mission can be played alone or cooperatively. As you play through the levels you’ll have certain objectives that progress the story. The game is rather linear in that regard and doesn’t have a lot of open exploration at any given time. You’ll go room to room eliminating various spooks and ghosts and capturing them with your traps. As you progress, you’ll acquire new equipment from Boson Darts to the Stasis Stream. Usually, you’ll be awarded these upgrades as you need to utilize them in the game.
The concept of hunting ghosts and trapping them is a simple one, but in practice it can be quite challenging. Ghosts have an energy meter that must be depleted before they can be wrangled and ultimately trapped. This is accomplished using whatever equipment you currently have available to you be it the Blast Stream, Boson Darts, or something else. Once the ghost is worn down, you’ll use the Blast Stream to grab hold of the ghost. Slam arrows will appear indicating which direction you need to flick the remote in order to slam the ghost into a wall or floor. When a 4 way slam arrow appears, you can slam in any direction and deploy a trap to finally capture your ghost. It is definitely tougher than it sounds.
As you play, you’ll make use of the classic PKE Meter to track down ghosts that may be hiding and to scan ghosts for Tobin’s Guide. You’ll also notice a spot on your HUD that indicates the total damage you’ve caused to your current venue.
Of all the great things about this game, one feature of Ghostbusters The Video Game sealed the deal for me and that was the fact that the original actors performed the voices. It absolutely made the game for me and took it from being another generic adventure game to feeling like an interactive version of the movie. Another feature unique to the Wii version aside from the control scheme was the art style. The Wii version didn’t follow the other versions of the game with a realistic visual style and instead adopted the style from the Ghostbusters animated series and it really looked great.
In the end, Ghostbusters The Video Game really is an interactive version of the classic Ghostbusters world complete with humor and for this version of the game, very interactive ghost hunting. I loved everything about this game and my only issue would be that maybe it’s a little too easy to delete a profile, as my 5 yr old did on one occasion. Normally I recommend the 360 version when games are available cross platform, but I definitely think the Wii version is head and shoulders above any other version of this title.
Plays like: Metroid Prime 3
ESRB: E10+ for Fantasy Violence and Comic Mischief
Pros: A blast to play; Original actors for voice work
Cons: Too easy to delete profiles
Katamari Damacy snuck onto the gaming scene as a huge sleeper hit and many questioned the longevity of a game that was completely based around rolling up objects into a giant ball. Katamari Forever is the 5th title in the Katamari franchise to hit North America, and the game is still very similar to its original incarnation. So is it still worth the full price?
Katamari Forever is currently a Playstation 3 exclusive with no releases planned for other consoles. It features everyone’s favorite King of All Cosmos, the Prince, and a whole bevy of additional Cousins that are fully playable. When the King of All Cosmos gets hit in the head and develops a case of amnesia, the cousins build a robotic version named RoboKing to fill in for him. RoboKing goes on a rampage and destroys all the stars in the sky so it’s up to The Prince and Cousins and roll up and create new stars for the sky.
Katamari Forever contains 34 levels that are a mix of new levels and some seen in previous versions of the game. Older levels take place in the mind of King of All Cosmos while the new ones take place in the present. Older levels feature a black and white color scheme with the goal of returning color to the world as you grow your katamari. New levels feature the classic goal of building stars. In addition to building stars, some levels have additional goals that you must satisfy to appease RoboKing. At the conclusion of each level, your katamari is rated on a scale of 0-100 with 100 being a perfect star. Failure to get a high enough score results in your star being destroyed and you failing the level completely.
Some new gameplay additions to Katamari Forever are the Prince Hop and the King Shock. The Prince Hop actually allows the Prince and his katamari to leap into the area to reach higher areas. Previous versions of the game forced you to find ramps or other ways to reach higher sections of the game. King Shock allows you to rapidly grow your katamari by sucking any nearby object that you are large enough to roll up onto your katamari like a magnet. These 2 new features are definitely integral parts to successfully completing some of the RoboKing goals. I had a little difficulty triggering the Prince Hop right when I wanted to and sometimes gave up when I couldn’t make the Prince actually hop despite flicking the controller. Luckily you can also press R2 to trigger this action.
With the basic gameplay being so similar, is Katamari Forever worth paying full price for yet another Katamari game? After playing through it for quite a few hours, I can safely say that I would have no problem paying full price for this title, especially given the $50 pricetag. I don’t expect everyone will share similar sentiments, but it was definitely a title the entire family had fun playing and watching as we passed the controller around. Some levels were a little difficult for the kids, but they still had fun playing. Katamari Forever is a classic Katamari game with a few new features and a whole lot of levels and it provides a fun experience for the whole family. It’s a niche title for sure, but one that will definitely appease fans of previous Katamari titles.
Plays Like: Previous Katamari titles
Pros: New features like Prince Hop; Lots of levels
Cons: It’s the same game you’ve played before
ESRB: E for Everyone – Alcohol and Tobacco Reference, Comic Mischief, Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Language
