Featured Reviews

Happy Wars was developed by Toylogic and published by Microsoft Studios. It was released on October 12, 2012, free of charge. A copy was provided for review purposes.

There was a time when free-to-play games were regarded as the second-class citizens of the industry, relegated to social networking sites and mobile phones. While those days are over, free-to-play gaming never quite made it to Microsoft’s console until now, raising questions as to whether the model could even survive in a market that thrives on the bigger and better. Happy Wars’ delightful online action is the first to provide an answer to that question – and it’s a good one.

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Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise was developed by Behaviour Interactive and published by 505 Games. It was released on October 10, 2012 for 1200 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Naughty Bear was originally released as a retail game back in 2010. The game was heavily criticized by most, so we were more than surprised to see a sequel in the works and a downloadable one to boot. However it would be unfair to judge Panic in Paradise based on it’s predecessor so let’s wipe the slate clean and start with an open mind.

The premise for Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise is that all the teddy bears went on a holiday to Paradise Island but didn’t invite Naughty Bear. Probably because he’s naughty and also a psychotic murderer. It seems like a reasonable decision to us but Naughty Bear is not a happy chappy. He decides to follow the party bus to the island anyway creating a hit-list of bears to punish along the way. Gameplay revolves around being tasked with the “punishment” of a particular bear and players can choose which bear to kill next from a menu screen, though some of the bears are not unlocked until you “defluff” a certain number of bears beforehand. The assassination then takes place in one of the various maps within the game and once you’re in you are free to play out the level as you please, leaving at any time to bank your score.

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Worms: Revolution was developed by Team 17 and published by Warner Bros. Entertainment. It was released on October 11, 2012 for 1200 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Worms, Worms, Worms. The Xbox Live Marketplace has seen Worms, Worms 2: Armageddon and Worms: Ultimate Mayhem, and now we’ve got Worms: Revolution. That’s really quite a bit of Worms, it’s strange to imagine that the artillery shooter genre is in such high demand to warrant four Worms games all in one place. Since each of the games have been at least competent, enjoyable, playable iterations all more or less with the same problems, was there really space available for another Worms game? Worms: Revolution had no space to fit into, so instead Team 17 cut the fat, renovated the foundation of the game and built something grander, smoother, and far more polished than its precursors.

But it’s still a Worms game. It’s a Worms game with Worms problems and Worms humor and Worms entertainment and if that’s all well and good then get right on board the Revolution train, but for everyone else there’s a cache of new features to consider. Worms: Revolution adds a class and formation system, dynamic water, physics objects and several new utilities and weapons. There’s a lot going on in this Worms game, a lot of new things, all piled on top of a 17-year old foundation that still works. Well, it works for multiplayer, the AI still makes single player a chore. Read More

The Origin of Pain downloadable content for Trials Evolution was developed by RedLynx and co-published by Microsoft Studios and Ubisoft. It was released on October 5, 2012 for 400 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Fall is upon us. The Summer of Arcade promotion is over, and while the five games released all did fairly well the real heroes this year are two Spring games: Minecraft and Trials Evolution. Both have been a beacon of hope in what has been a relatively disappointing year for Xbox Live Arcade thus far. Trials Evo is one of only a few of this year’s games we’re still playing are likely to still be this time next year.

That interest is compounded with the newly released Origin of Pain downloadable content. RedLynx delivered in a big way with their Trials HD DLC, and are upping the ante this time around. It’s arguably the most ambitious DLC offered for any XBLA game, and certainly one of the best bargains on the marketplace. While it does have a few weak points, Origin of Pain brings thrills in a way that only the RedLynx gang knows how to deliver.

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Sonic Adventure 2 and the Battle Mode downloadable content were developed and published by Sega. They were released on October 5, 2012 for 800 MSP and 240 MSP, respectively. Copies were provided for review purposes.
Sonic Adventure was a bit of a mixed bag. The original release was lauded by fans of the franchise, but the overworld aspects were confusing, as was its what-the-heck-is-going-on plot. When it was re-released in 2010 via Xbox Live Arcade it was met with much of the same. While the 3D platforming was almost enjoyable everything else weighed down the game. Sonic Adventure 2 was released a few years later and seemed to, at least initially, address player concerns. Gone was the overworld and much of the complicated plot. But while it was an improvement it still had minor flaws.

Now Sonic Adventure 2 joins its older brother on the Xbox 360. It brings the same sense of speed as it did 11 years ago. There are several over-the-top moments that bring a measure of enjoyment to the game. Unfortunately it still suffers from the same issues it did in 2001. This is a straight-up port aside from the fact that the GameCube-exclusive Battle Mode is available for purchase separately.

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NIGHTS Into Dreams… was developed and published by Sega. It was released on October 5, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

NiGHTS Into Dreams… like the re-release of Jet Set Radio for XBLA last month, is a game from an era remembered with great fondness by gamers old enough to have played the original in its prime. NiGHTS is a game that dreamed large for its time, and as a historical curiosity, it is outstanding that Sega has seen fit to release it to a wider public. Unfortunately for the last great dream of Sonic Team, while it remains a grand vision with fantastic artistic direction, it has not aged very gracefully.

For anyone reading this review with no prior experience of NiGHTS, it was released for the Sega Saturn in the fall of 1996 on the cusp of the transition from 2D to 3D gaming — for reference, Super Mario 64, largely credited with completing this transition, was released a month afterwards as a release title for the Nintendo 64. NiGHTS (which is both the game’s title and the name of the main character) has its great moments, but they are tarnished by a few annoyances that are signs of the game’s original time period

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Fire Pro Wrestling was developed by Spike Chunsoft Co. and published by Microsoft. It was released on September 21, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Fire Pro Wrestling is a franchise that dates back to the late 1980s and has been met with a strong fan following. Although only three entries have released in the United States, the series has garnered a large cult following. The franchise gained popularity due to its old school, sprite based graphics and its deep combo and customization systems. The last major entry in the series, 2005’s Fire Pro Wrestling Returns for the PlayStation 2, gained the series a cult following in the West.

Now, the franchise has returned with the long delayed Fire Pro Wrestling, which repackages with a shiny Avatar wrapping; the game hit XBLA earlier this month. How does it hold up? Is it worth your hard earned MSP? Read on.

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Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit was developed by Arkedo Games and published by Sega. It was released September 26, 2012 in North America and a week later in the UK for 1200 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

It’s difficult to classify Hell Yeah! in a single easy statement. Arkedo’s Xbox Live Arcade debut draws heavily upon classic games such as Sonic, Mario, WarioWare, Parodius, Mortal Kombat and just about everything in-between, but remains almost entirely unique at the same time. Put simply, Hell Yeah! is one of the most enjoyable XBLA titles we’ve played this year, despite the occasional flaw and my own reservations about some of the humor.

The game begins with the most tenuous of story lines as Ash (the Dead Rabbit Prince of Hell and main protagonist of Hell Yeah!) is pictured in the act of bathing with his rubber duck by a nosy paparazzi. The pictures are quickly uploaded to the Hell-ternet and much embarrassment follows for our hero. Determined to have his revenge (and to recover the photos) Ash sets out to defeat one hundred and one monsters across a range of unique and interesting worlds.

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Joe Danger 2: The Movie was developed by Hello Games and published by Microsoft Studios. It was released Sept. 14, 2012 for 1200 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Every time we go to the movies, we see the death-defying daredevil antics that stuntmen go through. Sometimes it’s as simple as crashing a car a specific way or driving an ATV across deadly terrain filled with traps and spikes. Joe Danger has seen his share of stunt-work in the past but he wasn’t ready for the biggest job of his life: his own movie.

Joe Danger 2: The Movie is the sequel to the original Joe Danger (Special Edition on XBLA) but instead of just making another motorcycle stunt-driving game, they took a much better direction. As Joe, you’ll have to go through stunts in the movie, and the script is full of variety. But we might have an Oscar-caliber XBLA game on our hands. A sequel that feels like it has more life and deserves to sit in your VHS collection with Commando and Speed.
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Nostalgia does not a game make. Nostalgia is the stuff of memories, the stuff of impressions often from a time where taste is unrefined and based on “video games” versus reality (usually video games win, hopefully). Jet Set Radio feels really old. It’s rife with this strange mix of a great gameplay idea, nifty characters and a zany environment but it’s all bogged down with bad level design and flow. By no means is it “bad”, but it’s certainly not up to today’s standards of platforming games, and the proof is in a classic Xbox game: Jet Set Radio Future. There’s a reason they made it the same game but better.

For those of you out of the SEGA-centric loop, Jet Set Radio is an HD remake of the Dreamcast release of Jet Set Radio, a 3D action platformer involving crazy Japanese youth, graffiti and magnetized roller blades. The theme of a group of graffiti-wielding roller blade punks combattin an oppressive, insane private authority muscling in on the town of Tokyo-to (not to be confused with Tokyo) is the setup for Jet Set Radio. Players select from different characters from a group of rudies (the aforementioned punks) called the GGs. Tokyo-to is divided into three major areas each with three sub-areas where players must complete various story challenges to unlock more characters and get to the bottom of the recent craziness in the city. The idea works. It’s just the rest of the game that’s hit and miss.

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