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About Todd Schlickbernd

I've been writing off and on since High School and finally decided to try and write for a site; now I write for XBLA Fans. I'm a huge fan of breaking games down into their smaller pieces, and as such I do that as often as possible, with or without a sledge hammer. Writing is fun and I intend to have fun with my writing. And smashing.
Latest Posts | By Todd Schlickbernd

Mark of the Ninja scrolls and challenges guide – A Shattered Stronghold

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Challenge Gate

This challenge is surprisingly eas. Make your way to the right side of the level via grappling hook and then run all the …
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Mark of the Ninja scrolls and challenges guide – A Blade at his Neck

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Challenge Gate

This puzzle genuinely stumped us at first. We had limited our minds to the idea that we could only progress if we stopped …
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Mark of the Ninja scrolls and challenges guide – The Inner Keep

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Challenge Gate

Well this might be the easiest level ever, looks like everyone’s already dead! There are a bunch of lasers in the way of the prize, …
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Mark of the Ninja scrolls and challenges guide – Above a Bottomless Chasm

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Challenge Gate

This challenge gate is 99% reaction time. We could tell you to hide up, then down, then to the right, but really all …
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Mark of the Ninja scrolls and challenges guide – An Ancestral Home

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Challenge Gate

This challenge consists of several red lasers and several power panels all interwoven in a complex web. Luckily, since you can …
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Mark of the Ninja scrolls and challenges guide – A Change in Course

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Challenge Gate

This challenge gate can get away from you if you’re not careful, but for the most part it’s very step-oriented, like the …
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Mark of the Ninja scrolls and challenges guide – The Trail of Shadow

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Challenge Gate

This challenge is a classic one. We’ve got a case of the levers today, three different doors with levers which raise and lower different doors. …
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Hybrid Build Guide
12 years ago

Hybrid Build Guide

Update: We now have a section on general tips & tricks sent to us by the QA team at 5th cell as well as level guides coming soon.

Welcome to our Hybrid build guide! This guide will provide builds to use throughout each of Hybrid‘s modes and are designed to account, collectively, for a good 90% of the game. Hybrid is designed with a lot of variety, in fact it’s one of the things we liked in our review, so ultimately you and your team mates will deviate from builds, even the ones we have made for you here. However, it’s important to have a starting point, especially if you’re not familiar with Hybrid regarding what actually matters and what doesn’t. For instance, most shooters don’t subscribe to the idea of “suppression”, it’s usually not very effective, but it works in Hybrid and it works well.

Do enjoy the builds we’ve provided for you here, but keep in mind that these are starting points! Add your own flare or personal preference to really do well with them. If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment on the guide and in a few weeks we’ll add good ones to a community section at the bottom of the guide. While the builds we’ve created for you here are more general, feel free to get ridiculously specific- all the way down to map and mode.

Enjoy the guide, and enjoy the game!

P.S. Variants represent clan tag [XF] Read More

Hybrid review (XBLA)
12 years ago

Hybrid review (XBLA)

Ever since the dawn of time man has dreamed of flight.

Okay well that might be a bit hyperbolic, but certainly the popularity of science fiction and the curious mind of one Leonardo Da Vinci are why we are so in love with jetpacks. Strapping a super-powered engine to your back and floating around the sky, all the while hoping your butt doesn’t get singed, this must indeed be the pinnacle of mankind’s achievements, should we ever arrive there. In the mean time, Hybrid‘s got all the jetpackin-est action we could hope for and more, and it’s one of the best implementations of a jetpack in gaming history. No, that’s not hyperbolic.

Hybrid is a simple game, when you strip away some of the superficiality. It’s a third person shooter that’s one part cover-camper and one part on-rails bullet hell. Sound strange? It should. This three versus three competitive multiplayer (only) game mixes the strategy of locking to cover with the skill and reflex-reliance of strafing and shooting while flying through the air.

The whole game centers around this mechanic, wherein you select a location to travel to, rather than manually moving there and directing your character. Once in the air, you can speed up, strafe in all directions with your jetpack, return to your previous cover or select a new location. When in cover, you can move along the walls or hop over them, but that’s it. The game is loadout-based with a dense armory system which grants you an unlock for any weapons or abilities you’d like from a specific category every time you level up (like Gotham City Impostors).

On top of the actual gameplay during matches, there is also this massive global war meta game to account for. Five continents divided into 20 districts each must be fought over to gain dark matter for your faction. The Variant and Paladin factions contest these zones, completing matches in a zone they select to progress its capture; the better the team does, the more progress they make. The first faction to 100 dark matter wins the season and is awarded with a special helmet and achievement. Read More

XBLA’s Most Wanted: Gunbound
12 years ago

XBLA’s Most Wanted: Gunbound

In the wake of upcoming turn based artillery giant Worms: Revolution, the sheer vacancy of this genre becomes ever more apparent. The genre is populated almost exclusively by Worms, but there are a few other games which have made a name for themselves over the years. One such competitor which has maintained popularity throughout its existence is Gunbound. This free to play online artillery game just had its 7th anniversary since its inception in Korea back in 2005. Developer Softnyx’s approach to the genre includes an extensive item-based stat customization engine as well as several different “mobiles”, each with different elements and stats. At the heart of the game is aiming and shooting, but there’s something strangely deep about it too.

When you boot up a game of Gunbound today in 2012, you’ll note not much has changed in the UI over the last several years. The game has never had a graphical update (that we can tell), you still can’t change the resolution, and there’s still not enough information on each mobile in the mobile selection screen. That said, the amount of content has at least doubled in every respect including mobiles, items, maps, and game modes. While estranged from its early adopters by a lack of true game experience upgrades, if Softnyx were to join Nexon (developers of Dungeon Fighter Live) on Xbox Live Arcade and beef up the presentation of Gunbound, this mobile blastin’ multiplayer game could be just as addictive as it was on PC. Read More