PS3

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2

November 16, 2010

PS3 / Reviews / by Andrew Passafiume Make a comment! / Tweet it!

It might be safe to say that the team behind Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 just stopped trying at some point. While the first Raging Blast wasn’t the worst game based on the wildly successful Dragon Ball franchise, it certainly wasn’t the best either. Raging Blast 2 is pretty much more of the same, minus content that actually made the first even a little worthwhile. 

Let’s get the good points out of the way first and foremost. The presentation is very well done. The game looks amazing, and the very flashy ultimate attacks performed by each character are incredibly well executed. While the first Raging Blast looked great as well, this game looks a bit more polished altogether. Environments are nice and simple, the interface as a whole is much cleaner, and the sound quality is probably the best you’ll find in a Dragon Ball game.

The controls work well, allowing you to perform the most basic attacks and the super and ultimate attacks with relative ease. There isn’t as much of a steep learning curve as there was in the first game, but I also found that I could really just button mash my way through a lot of the fights. There is no strategy or depth involved here. Any match, whether it is against an A.I. or human opponent, boils down to who can pull off their ultimate moves first. Everything else is as basic as it can get.

The camera is pretty troublesome. When battles get hectic, you will often find yourself fighting the camera more than your opponent. And this is where I get a sense of déjà-vu as I find that this problem was just as persistent here as it was in the original. Considering the team has added practically nothing really new to this game, you would think they would at least tighten up what is already present. 

The story mode is completely gone, as is any real trace of story in general. The two main single player modes are Galaxy Mode and Battle Zone, both of which are pretty similar. Galaxy Mode has you choosing a character and fighting a bunch of opponents in a row while unlocking completely pointless things like pictures from the anime. 

You can play through this mode with each character, but there is absolutely no reason to do so. There is no story here, just a bunch of battles poorly strung together. Battle Zone is basically the same thing, except it’s the same for every character you can select. You are allowed to customize your character and it will come into play in this mode, but customization is absolutely pointless and really adds nothing to the core gameplay. 

Online multiplayer is there and it works, but good luck trying to find anyone to play against. There is local multiplayer, a training mode, and some pretty helpful tutorials, but that about sums up everything in Raging Blast 2. The fact that this is being passed off as a full retail product is pretty bad when it doesn’t even contain half of the content from the first, but all of the problems. 

Raging Blast 2 is not a good game. It looks very nice, but at the same time it’s unfinished, shallow, and an insult to a series that many people love. This is nothing more than a cheap cash-in, a game that even the most diehard fans of the anime would scoff at. Avoid at all costs.

Pros: Gorgeous visuals; the game is functional, but nothing more

Cons: Awful camera; lackluster fighting system; not a lot of content or value found here; this is just more of the same from the first game, minus some content

 

Aqua Panic!

November 2, 2010

PS3 / Reviews / by Justin Last Make a comment! / Tweet it!

PS3 is a gold mine for puzzle games. Between Elefunk, Trash Panic, and Critter Crunch it takes a lot for another puzzler to hold my attention. Aqua Panic has managed to hold my attention, though, with its unique premise, charming aesthetic, and gradual difficulty curve that starts you off nice and slow but before you know it you’ll be doing twelve things at once and thinking nothing of it. 

Aqua Panic is a bit like underwater Lemmings. Your goal is to move all of the various sea creatures from the level entrance to the level exit without allowing them to be eaten or fall off of the playing field. You’ve got lots of tools at your disposal, and (just like Lemmings) it is nice to know that you do indeed have all the requisite tools to complete any given level. Things start off slowly with obstacles that only require one type of tool – the bomb. You’ll move the cursor with the right stick, cycle through tools (when you have more than one to work with) with the shoulder buttons, and control when a tool is used with the X button. It’s all simple to grasp, and the controls never get in the way of the puzzle-solving.

As levels get more complicated and your arsenal of tools grows you’ll come to appreciate Aqua Panic’s greatest feature: the level doesn’t start until you tell it to, and that leaves you open to survey the obstacles, consider your tools, and plan your strategy before cute little seahorses start falling to their cute little deaths. Once the level begins and all the creatures are moving nicely toward the exit the triangle button speeds up the action. Although not strictly necessary, the speed-up function is great for long levels where you’ve come to the solution but just need to save more creatures to move on.

Level design, tool availability, and cleverness of the solution all ramp up nicely. After you’ve mastered the bomb you’ll be introduced to the plant which can change the water’s flow, snail taps that let water and creatures pass intermittently, pits for creatures to fall in, and eggs that block your path. Every obstacle can be worked around, but if any given level proves to be too frustrating you can play a joker – of which you have a limited supply – to bypass the level, move on, and keep having fun.

If Aqua Panic has a flaw, and it does, it is that once a level begins the action can become too hectic too quickly. Creatures start falling from the top of the level at an alarming rate leaving the player with very little time to set up tools and carve out a safe path from start to end. As you start trying to save all 100 creatures in a given level this becomes even more frustrating as you’re fighting less with the level design and more with the game design to accomplish your goal. Nitpick aside, Aqua Panic is a fun puzzle game with a cheery look (which is quite welcome in our gaming landscape of browns and grays), and plenty of challenging levels to work though. If you like puzzle games then you’ll definitely get your money’s worth out of Aqua Panic.

Pros: Gradual learning curve, lots of levels

Cons: Creatures being to fall to quickly after level-start

 

John Daly’s ProStroke Golf

November 1, 2010

PS3 / Reviews / by Graham Russell Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Motion controllers are ideal for golf games. The controller is set up to emulate a golf swing, and golfing is one of those activities that’s limited by cost, space and weather. So it’s great, then, that O-Games released John Daly’s ProStroke Golf at the launch of the PlayStation Move.

Well, it would have been if EA’s latest Tiger Woods title didn’t also have Move support. As it is, it has a tough competitor, and gets the inevitable comparisons.

First impressions leave it in quite the deficit. The presentation is sub-par, the graphics feel like they belong in the previous generation and everything has a generic look to it. The authenticity of the Tiger games just isn’t here. Don’t worry, though: there’s still golf. That’s what you’re here for, right? If you need the PGA feel or a roster full of famous guys, this isn’t the game.

Then, though, you get on the course and start swinging, and this is where ProStroke starts outpacing its competitors. The Move controls are nice and simple, which is what you want when you just start swinging and seeing what happens. The screen shows a top-down view of the ball, and it allows you to adjust and line up your swing just as you would in real life. There’s not quite the level of exact control that some want, since it focuses on making things fun, but the detection is there and the swing feels right. (It helps that it’s a little more forgiving to those with bad shots, since most of us aren’t PGA-level.)

It’s here that I’ll mention that the game doesn’t require the Move. Unfortunately, though, you’d be experiencing all the drawbacks of the game without any of its strong points, so… don’t do that. 

There are a few multiplayer modes, and these will be where you spend most of your time. Online play is adequate, but there’s just not the player base needed to support an online community. The career mode consists of two stages: beating John Daly at a course, and then competing in a tournament on that course. The problem? The virtual John Daly is incredibly challenging, even at the beginning, so the learning curve is more like a really tall barrier. If you spend some time just playing, you can build up the skill, but a one-player mode in a game like this is supposed to be the venue for getting better so you can play with friends.

ProStroke gets the core gameplay right for a fun Move-enabled experience, but it just doesn’t feel like much was built around it. This is the kind of game that would benefit substantially from a sequel if it can get one.

 

Atelier Rorona

October 12, 2010

PS3 / Reviews / by Andrew Passafiume Make a comment! / Tweet it!

The Atelier series first gained a cult following here in the States with Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana on the PS2. Six games later (including Mana Khemia 1 & 2), we have Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland. This game, like the Atelier games before it, features a heavy emphasis on alchemy. This game is less about exploring a traditional RPG game setting (although there is some of that) and more about character interactions, creating things through alchemy, and completing jobs in a timely fashion. 

Atelier Rorona starts off with young Rorolina Frixell (Rorona for short), the apprentice of a master alchemist named Astrid in the land of Arland. They own a little alchemy shop that is soon passed down to Rorona. Also, one day, a knight of Arland, shows up to tell Rorona that the shop will be closed unless she can complete twelve assignments for the King. The story is fairly basic and there are no big surprises: the villains are obvious and the heroes are generally likeable.

The characters are very charming though, and they all stand out from your typical Japanese RPG tropes. Rorona herself is definitely an unlikely lead character, but she manages to play her role just fine. While the characters themselves are good, the English voice acting is not always as enjoyable. Some VAs are flat-out unbearable, while others are pretty nice. Luckily, the game provides the option to turn on the original Japanese voice acting, which is nice to see.

Aside from some problems with the voice acting, Atelier Rorona’s presentation is great. The game looks very gorgeous with a nice art style, and the music ranges from relaxing to incredibly catchy. The game can also be rather funny, which ties into the very charming cast of characters mentioned above. Despite the forgettable story, this game has a lot going for it.

The gameplay itself can be very hit or miss. At times, I found it quite addictive, playing for hours in a single sitting. Other times, I couldn’t wait to get back to the save point to stop after a frustrating hour of tedious grinding and annoying quests. The times when it works, which is generally during the very intuitive alchemy sections or the character interactions, you can easily see yourself looking past the flaws. But on the other hand, you will often find yourself bored of some of the things you need to do.

There is plenty to do in the game, so there is a nice variety available. Aside from the alchemy and social aspects mentioned above, you also can accept quests to gather certain items to help raise money and your popularity in the town (which brings in more quests, characters, and money in the long run). These quests are separate from the main assignments and are a lot easier to do, if not a bit more tedious.

Some of these quests involve creating things with alchemy (or just buying/gathering a certain number of items). Sometimes you need to go out of the city to explore and gather new materials, which is where the game falls into the traditional turn-based RPG gameplay style. You have a party of three characters (whom you can invite or remove from your party at any time) to go with you to defeat monsters and gather items. It can be fun, but you often find yourself exploring many of the same areas and fighting many of the same monsters. It can get pretty dull very quickly.

The last thing worth mentioning is that everything in the game is timed. Each assignment has to be completed on time, as do each quest. At first you will feel compelled to try and do every quest possible, but after a while you learn that you need to do only the ones you can in a timely matter while also trying to finish the major assignments. It gives you plenty to do at the very least. It’s a shame most of the quests repeat themselves very often.

This game definitely stands out from a lot of others, but sometimes the distinctness of it can lead to tedium. It is, at its best, incredibly charming and humorous with some very addictive gameplay elements, but a lot of that is bogged down by some very boring quests and plenty of unnecessary grinding. Still, it’s a solid game that has a lot to offer. If you’re looking for a lengthy adventure with something new to offer, or you are a fan of the series, Atelier Rorona might be the game for you. 

Pros: Gorgeous presentation with enjoyable music; very charming characters; addictive gameplay with plenty to do

Cons: Some of the English VA is awful; item gathering and quest completing can get tedious pretty quickly

 

Worms 2: Armageddon

September 27, 2010

PS3 / Reviews / by Andrew Passafiume Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Worms, for many gamers, is a love or hate series. Not much has changed over the years, despite the attempt to revitalize it with a few 3D titles. Although for fans of the series, this definitely is not a bad thing. Worms 2: Armageddon finds its way to the PlayStation Network after being out on Xbox Live Arcade for over a year, and if you’re a fan of the series, it probably has been worth the wait.

The same crazy weapons, levels, and different styles of play are all available here that you remember from the previous 2D Worms games. There is a single player campaign that takes you through 40 different levels full of very odd and sometimes demanding challenges. They start off simple, but once you get towards the later levels you find the challenge ramping to the point where it just no longer enjoyable. 

Your A.I. opponents always find ways to make just the right moves that will constantly mess you up no matter what difficulty you are on. The challenge here begins to increase as you find most of your worms starting off in very inconvenient locations which reduces a lot of the levels to trial and error. It removes a lot of the fun you may remember having with a Worms title. And aside from the campaign, there isn’t much reason to ever play this game solo.

The big plus is the multiplayer is as solid as ever, and the basic turn-based gameplay mechanics still work just as well as they always have with a group of friends. Local multiplayer is a blast and there are plenty of options in terms of game customization, rule sets, and maps. The online is fine as well, but fairly often you will find yourself running into very laggy matches that turn a simple game of Worms into something much more tedious and unplayable.

Worms 2: Armageddon is still a solid game that will keep fans of the series busy for some time. However, it is held back by some technical issues and poor single player options that may hamper the experience for some players. You probably already know if you’re a fan of this series or not; that alone is enough to determine whether this downloadable title will be worth your money.

Pros: The basic gameplay still holds up very well; plenty of multiplayer options

Cons: The single player modes are lacking; A.I. opponents are almost too accurate at times; online can be very laggy

 

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