Reviews

Star Raiders was developed by Incinerator Studios and published by Atari. It was released May 11, 2011 and retails for 800MSP. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.

Star Raiders is a space flight combat game that pits one ship against the entire alien horde. It is, in fact, a remake of the Atari 2600 game of the same name. The original game was very innovative for its time. Sadly the remake does not innovate as strongly as the original did. Star Raiders is comprised of one thing and one thing only: shooting down enemy ships. Occasionally you must blow up the occasional frigate or base, but for it’s simply shooting down enemy fighters. Fortunately your ship is armed well enough to take on this mundane task.

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Here are your newsbits for Friday the 13th. Hope you’re not superstitious!

• Fatshark’s new title Hamilton’s Great Adventure has been indefinitely postponed on the PlayStation 3. The Steam release of the game was moved up to May 31 of this year with Fatshark also citing that date for “other downloadable platforms”. We know they have a build of the game running on the 360, but have not heard much in the way of progress towards XBLA. See the press release after the jump.
• Hybrid, the upcoming shooter from Scribblenauts developer 5th Cell has been pushed to 2012. The developer stated that the delay was to “create the highest quality title possible”.

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Gatling Gears was developed by Vanguard Games and published by EA. It was released on May 11th, 2011 for 1200MSP. A copy of the game was provided for review purposes.

Gatling Gears is a top-down, dual-stick shooter where you play as a retired Gatling Gear pilot, Max Brawley. Your objective is to shoot your way through 30 levels including six boss fights in order to stop the “Empire” from destroying your surrounding area and draining all natural resources. The story is lacking, but dual-stick games are all about the action, not the story. Gatling Gears certainly does bring hours of fun filled action, but the game also has its fair share of problems.

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Moon Diver was developed by feelplus and published by Square Enix. It was released on May 4th for 1200 MSP.

In the late 80’s there was a little game known as Strider, the development of which was lead by Koichi Yotsui. Yotsui draws back on that experience to direct Moon Diver, a side-scrolling platformer with enough style, action and frustration to blow up a planet. Ironically, that’s essentially the story to Moon Diver — Earth’s days are numbered and the Moon Divers have to come reclaim it from evil mechanical beings.

Players choose from multiple divers, each with different stat growth patterns. As they progress through the story mode characters gain stat points and MCs, or Moonsault Combinations, which manifest themselves as a variety spells and skills. Four players can jump in together offline or online, but only one player per box can join in the online experience. Read More

Rez HD was developed by Q Entertainment and retails for 800 MSP.  It was released January 30, 2008.

Originally conceived as a Sega Dreamcast game and later ported to the PlayStation 2, Rez HD is a completely revamped version of its earlier counterparts that keeps the on-rails shooter gameplay intact while adding the graphical upgrade that most XBLA ports receive.  Three years after it’s original XBLA release, it is still one of the best titles on the Marketplace.

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Outland was developed by Housemarque, and published by Ubisoft. It was released April 27, 2011 for 800 MSP.

Developer Housemarque has made a name for themselves with their previously PSN-exclusive titles Super Stardust HD and Dead Nation. It is nice to see them bring their next title, Outland over the the Xbox Live Arcade. The story focuses on the spirits of Chaos and Balance, who wage war with each other. A hero comes along to help protect the would against this universal divide. You play as that hero, and will need to skillfully maneuver through the changing world. So, is the adventure worth while or is it just a puzzling mess? Here’s our review.

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Trouble Witches Neo was released by SNK Playmore. It was released on May 5, 2011 and retails for 800 MSP. A copy was provide for review purposes.

Trouble Witches Neo is a horizontal shooter that clearly takes inspiration from Deathsmiles. Putting that aside it is easy to see that it’s a fun and fundamentally sound shooter that most players will enjoy. The premise of the game is simple; an apprentice witch must complete her mission to become a full fledged witch. The story doesn’t really matter, but for those who care there is a story mode that details the characters’ outcomes. The real draw here is the action, and Trouble Witches Neo has plenty of it.

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Simply put, newsbits are things that might be important to know but that don’t necessarily have a lot to write about. We still think these things are …
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Rotastic which was a finalist at the IGF, is still on track for an XBLA release. The single-player action-puzzler is said to have over 70 levels in addition to to various multiplayer modes like Deathmatch and Battle modes. Catch some screenshots after the break and find out more information at the official website.
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Are You Smart Enough? was developed by Latino Soul Studio and was released on Xbox Live March 4th, 2011 for 80MSP. A copy of this game was provided by the developer for reviewing purposes.

Are You Smart Enough is a puzzle game that makes you use your brain on multiple levels. The object is to move the boxes around by pushing them to the predesignated spots on the board. What makes this challenging is that you can only push the boxes to the destinations, there is no pulling and each stage has a different set of walls that you must maneuver around.

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