Cuphead preview: Like a boss
In video games, boss fights usually come at the end of levels, acts, chapters, etc. You work your way through a series of smaller challenges, baddies or puzzles to earn the right to face off against a boss and, should you emerge victorious, move on to the next section of the game. That was the custom established decades ago, and it’s largely stuck ever since.
Not so in Cuphead, StudioMDHR’s debut old-time cartoons-inspired shooter. Cuphead has an overworld that you can wander around in and select where to go next, but your what you’re selecting from are boss fights, not levels. Yesterday at E3 XBLA Fans went hands-on with one of those boss fights — and died. Repeatedly. But damn if doing so wasn’t fun.
After selecting what looked like a rocking little music hall on the overworld, I was thrown into a boss fight with a pair of giant frogs with another random player at my side. Hurting the frogs was easy enough: keep holding down the shooting button and take aim at the one frog or the other. The overgrown amphibians soak up tons of fire coming from your characters’ index finger and thumb as they form the shape of a gun and spew forth a barrage of pew, pew, pews.
The bosses, of course, don’t just take this abuse laying down. One shoots ice balls at differing heights, requiring you to alternate between leaping over them and going prone to duck them, while the other spits out flaming bees that you can shoot out of the air. Once you inflict enough damage during this stage of the fight, one of the frogs rolls toward you before going into a new pattern.
Sparkle Unleashed review (Xbox One)
Sparkle Unleashed was developed and published by 10tons on Xbox One. It was released on June 3, 2015 for $7.99. A copy was provided by 10tons for review purposes.
In a competitive market with many games vying for consumer purchase, I can’t find a single major fault to Sparkle Unleashed. Every feature is well-crafted, and there isn’t a wasted step in its motion. The graphics are aesthetically pleasing, and the music reminds me that a magical world can exist right at home. So can I cut this review short and recommend you buy it right now? Not quite.
Sparkle Unleashed is a puzzle game in which the player shoots colored balls into matching, moving colored balls to remove them from the play area. The balls on the field are constantly moving forward and will try to reach an end (that varies per level) to cause the player to lose. Some level layouts will feature multiple tracks from which moving balls may appear. As you complete levels, you’ll eventually reach scripted locations that allow you to choose to upgrade power-ups. It’s a simple but solid system that invites players to keep, well, playing.
Toro review (Xbox One)
Toro was developed and published by Recotechnology on Xbox One. It was released on May 15, 2015 for $19.99. A copy was provided by Recotechnology for review purposes.
Being a video games reviewer has never been more challenging: a single wrong word written in haste may be instantly shared thousands of time across the vast and uncontrolled expanse of the world wide web, often leaving reputations and lives shattered once the dust settles. I might be dramatizing things a little here, but with reviewers being lambasted left, right and centre for their opinions on games like GTA V, The Witcher 3 and so on, I wanted to approach Toro‘s rather sensitive subject matter (bullfighting for those not in the know) with a suitable amount of caution. I needn’t have bothered; Toro is so relentlessly bad that it would be impossible to review it in a positive light even if I was a huge bullfighting fan (which I am most certainly not.)
Although Toro is undoubtedly a game about taunting, jabbing and ultimately killing identical bulls in a multitude of nearly identical locations, I would be overselling it quite considerably if I were to state that Toro simulates or even vaguely represents what happens in an actual bullfight with any level of panache. Each “fight” is split into three timed sections in which the player is expected to hold down the left trigger and press the right bumper (to call the bull) repeatedly, then time one of up to four moves — without being dashed to the floor like some sort of bloodless human-shaped lump who seems to have long since experienced rigor mortis — until the timer runs out. At the end of the first stage, players are expected to press a few buttons in sequence in order to stick flags in the bull, and at the end of the third stage, do the same thing, followed by stabbing the bull just behind its head using a crosshair that the game seems to auto aim at exactly the right spot every time.
Smite preview part 1: Curious beginnings
Welcome to part one of a multi-part series in which I plan to document my time with Smite to show how I grow as a player in the beta, which should help show new players what to expect. I went into Smite with hundreds of hours of League of Legends logged and even more time spent watching professional matches, plusan occasional dabble in Dota 2. One might think that my modest amount of time spent in the genre might translate over into Smite, but I can say without a doubt, it didn’t give me a leg up over the competition, as evidenced by how poorly my first handful of games went.
Day 1
The game starts with a simple enough tutorial, but, like most MOBAs, it barely even scratches the surface before it sends players on their merry way. The only mode available to players when they first start is called Arena, and that’s where I spent the entirety of my first day.
Arena is shaped like the Colosseum, with jungle camps along the side that provide buffs to players. It’s an excellent place to start, because it avoids the deeper intricacies of a standard match and allows players to focus on finding a god or immortal that fits their play style and novoices to feel good about themselves. Everything seemed to be working well when I first got into a match: the store was easy to navigate; I could decipher what was going on with little problems; and I felt adequately prepared to get started.
Of course I was dead wrong, I finished my first game with a 1/11/11 (kills/deaths/assists) score line as Ares and felt lost. It felt as though I was missing everything, and even though I had these great combos in my head I just couldn’t seem to pull them off. All my skillshots always “just” missed, and I couldn’t seem to land a single auto attack, regardless of if it was melee or ranged. After two more games where I did as bad if not worse than the first, I decided it was time to turn to everyone’s greatest resource: the internet.
State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition review (Xbox One)
State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition review (Xbox One) State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition was developed by Undead Labs and published by Microsoft Studios. It is scheduled for release on April 28 and will cost $30 for new players or $20 for those owners of State of Decay on Xbox 360. A copy was provided by Undead Labs for review purposes.
Anyone who reads XBLA Fans’ reviews regularly will know that many of the games we cover are remakes, remasters and re-releases. They come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from somewhat rushed, cynical cash-cows, to incredibly rewarding nuts-and-bolts reduxes like Oddworld: New ‘n Tasty.
As a big fan of the original State of Decay, you can imagine how intrigued I was to see how this particular remake panned out. State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition (YOSE) exists between the two extremes of remakes, with a tempting value proposition aimed at both new and returning players, yet it delivers almost nothing new or revolutionary.
We Are Doomed preview: Playing with fire
It looks and plays a lot like Geometry Wars. This is the inescapable reality of We Are Doomed, an upcoming twin-stick shooter from one-man studio Vertex Pop. The world is colored with softer, pastel hues, and the enemies are tangible things instead of angular shapes. But anyone who has played Geo Wars will immediately grok what they’re seeing and experiencing in We Are Doomed and will know exactly what to do. Creator Mobeen Fikree isn’t shying away from the comparison.
“I don’t mind,” he told XBLA Fans earlier this month at PAX East. “I think Geometry Wars is a great game, and following in that lineage of Robotron, Smash TV, Geometry Wars and then, you know, this. I’m happy to be a part of that lineage. When people go, ‘Oh, it’s like Geometry Wars!’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s like Geometry Wars.'”
Until it’s not.
The moment you use the right stick to open fire on the waves of space baddies swarming the screen it becomes clear how We Are Doomed diverges from the formula. Instead of blasting enemies with a never-ending stream of long-range laser fire, players instead must rely on a medium-range “overpowered laserbeam,” as Vertex Pop’s website describes it. In actuality, it doesn’t come off like a laser at all. Instead, it looks and feels more like you’re wielding a flamethrower with an infinite fuel supply. Nudging the stick farther in any direction will elongate the beam/flame, but it will never cause it to reach clear across the screen.
If you want to defeat the baddies — and you’ll of course need to do so if you want to make any progress in the game — then you’ll need to get a bit closer than you may be used to getting in other twin-stick shooters. “You have to dive into the action,” explained Fikree. “You have to be close range if you want to zap baddies — you can’t sit in one corner of the map and shoot things all the way in the other corner.”
XBLA Fans’ 25 most anticipated games of 2015
You’ve read our picks for the best XBLA and ID@Xbox games of 2014. Now it’s time to look forward with us at what might be the best games of 2015. While fully acknowledging that some of these games likely won’t up to their billing and others may get pushed into 2016, these are the 2015 games that XBLA Fans is currently most looking forward to. If these releases aren’t on your radar yet, they will be after you’re done reading.
#IDARB
Developers: Other Ocean Interactive and The People of the Internet
#IDARB is a particularly interesting game to say we’re anticipating in 2015, seeing as XBLA Fans got our hands on what we were told was the “final” game in December and published our review already. This zany handball-meets-platformer game from Other Ocean Interactive and the fine folks of the internet — many features crowd sourced — isn’t officially out until February, though, when it will be part of the Games with Gold promotion. It’s difficult to explain just what #IDARB is, but it’s easy to recommend that you go play it when it releases next month.
XBLA Fans’ 2014 Game of the Year awards
It’s January, which means it’s time for XBLA Fans to take a look back at the best and brightest games of the last year.
2014 was a transitional year for the Xbox brand. It was Xbox One’s first full year on the market, and it bore witness to Microsoft going all-in on its complete reversal of the console’s strategy and public image. Redmond distanced its next-gen console from being some sort of multimedia wonderbox as much as possible and did its best to focus on the games. Despite a litany of exciting ID@Xbox game announcements, the program got off to a bit of a slow start, though. Ports and re-releases dominated much of 2014’s ID@Xbox release calendar, and last-gen Xbox Live Arcade releases on Xbox 360 were used to buoy Microsoft’s greater indie library.
If you paid as much attention to ID@Xbox as as XBLA Fans did, though, then you know there were some standout stars even if there was not a terribly high quantity of them. We’ve played the games and cast our votes, and how we present you with our 2014 Game of the Year awards. Don’t like our picks? Fair enough. Head to the comments and make your case for why yours are better.
Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams – Director’s Cut review (Xbox One)
Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams – Director’s Cut was developed and published by Black Forest Games on the Xbox One. It was released on December 12, 2014 for $14.99. A copy was provided for review purposes.
The Giana Sisters started off in a title known as The Great Giana Sisters which was released in 1987 on the Commodore 64. The title caused many controversies as the game’s design was incredibly similar to another popular platformer released at that time, Super Mario Bros. As a result, the brand went quiet for many years. Fast forward to 2012, Black Forest Games was successfully funded by a Kickstarter campaign for a project known as Project Giana. After more time passed, Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams was released on the Xbox Live Marketplace for the Xbox 360 on March 20, 2013. Moving ahead to current times, Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams – Director’s Cut was released on the Xbox Live Marketplace for the Xbox One on December 12, 2014.
When I first got a hold of Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams – Director’s Cut, I thought to myself, this is going to be great. Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams for the Xbox 360 was a blast and I’m excited to see the new improvements and extra content that is included in the Director’s Cut. After playing through the game extensively to provide a quality review, I’m at a loss for words to describe my experience. Then I found it. Let me show you below.
Thomas Was Alone review (Xbox One)
Thomas Was Alone was developed by Mike Bithell and published on Xbox One by Curve Studios. It was released on November 21, 2014 for $10.99. A copy was provided by Curve for review purposes.
Thomas Was Alone is a game that released at precisely the right time in history. Originally debuting on PC in 2012 before finding its way to Xbox One, Thomas Was Alone perfectly captures today’s zeitgeist. Using nothing more than colored squares and rectangles that are seen and heard about but rarely heard from, developer Mike Bithell has assembled one of gaming’s most interesting and diverse casts of playable characters.
In Thomas Was Alone you play as artificial intelligences that have, as the result of a glitch in an experimental lab, become self-aware. Yes, this is a setup similar to ones we’ve seen countless times in popular media, but Bithell has breathed new life into it. AI Thomas, represented on screen by a red rectangle, is companionless and confused upon achieving self-awareness. He starts moving “up and to the right,” as the game’s delightful narrator makes a point of frequently noting, in a desperate bid to find friends and answers. It’s not long before Thomas begins encountering both, and he and his new friends endeavor to reach the awe-inspiring “fountain of wisdom” (internet connection). The staggering amount of information Thomas sees there convinces him that the AIs must work in sync towards the goal of escaping the system and entering the greater world beyond. Each AI is different in appearance and ability, and the way they learn to accept this diversity and use it to their advantage is nothing short of inspiring.