More Missed Game Reviews

Bayonetta
Sega, Platinum Games
Available for Xbox 360, PS3

Bayonetta is possibly the weirdest game I’ve come across in a long time, though in my defence I don’t import games from Japan, so I’m pretty shielded from the truly weird stuff out there. Created by the director of Viewful Joe and Devil May Cry, Hideki Kamiya from Platinum Games, Bayonetta is action game that focuses on a beautiful witch named Bayonetta who uses guns and magical attacks via her hair to defeat her enemies.

The game centers on Bayonetta’s search for her lost memory as she was revived 20 years early from the bottom of a lake with no memory of her past. Enzo, an informant directs Bayonetta to a person which holds a device called “the Right Eye” which is somehow linked to her past. She must fight her way through angels, witches and other various creatures in order to restore the missing pieces of her past.

This game may as well be a sequel to the Devil May Cry series as opposed a standalone game because it has multiple elements parallel to the DMC series from the game play to the story line. If you’ve played the DMC series though, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing because those are great games to play – hard games but fabulous games.

You will have to fight a lot of the same enemies, mini bosses and main bosses multiple times through the game which just seemed like lazy programming to me. The developers were either trying to lengthen up a short game or they just got lazy and didn’t want to make new enemies in order to finish the game. There are a lot of combos to memorize in order to master the game unless you want to run through the game like me – pushing random buttons and hoping that you kill something.

Ultimately you have to check out this game just to see it for yourself as Bayonetta is one of those characters that you aren’t sure if she was meant to be serious or slightly comical. The girl has guns in her shoes and hair that attacks enemies, so you tell me?

Rating: 7 out of 10
Rent it!

Halo Wars
Microsoft Games Studios, Ensemble Studios
Available for Xbox 360

Halo Wars was my first Halo game ever and probably the reason I decided to give Halo 3: ODST a chance in the first place. While I finished Halo War probably within a few days of receiving it, my review of the game took a back seat of the other games I had to review that the time and then I just plum forgot to review the darn thing. I regret not talking about this great real time strategy game especially since it sparked my interested in the Halo franchise, so today I’m finally going to talk about this title.

Halo Wars was the first non-FPS genre game for the Halo franchise but it didn’t fail to live up to the excellence that usually follows the Halo name (I say usually because I saw Halo Legends a week ago and it was good awful). Taking place before the events of the first Halo game, Halo Wars follows the missions of a UNSC warship called The Spirit of Fire which is commanded by Captain James Cutter. You control through most missions though, a marine named Sergeant John Forge and all units under the UNSC like Spartans, Warthogs and more. Like a RTS, you are given missions with objectives, then various units and building to controls in order to complete those missions. Forge is a hero unit with special abilities which is usually given to you in the beginning and must survive all missions.

The campaign mode follows the missions of the UNSC only but the multiplayer mode lets you play as either the UNSC or Covenant. The Covenant has their own units to play with and it was a darn shame there wasn’t a campaign mode for their side.

While most RTS games played via consoles do not play as well as their PC counterparts, Halo Wars was surprisingly easy to control and felt suited for the Xbox 360. Of course, there wasn’t a PC version to compare it to but I think Ensemble Studios did a great job putting together this game either way.

Besides the Command & Conquer series by EA, I can’t honestly think of any good RTS games made for the console in the last 10 years, so Halo Wars is easily a recommended buy for RTS fans. It has excellent online multiplayer support and a lengthy campaign mode with 3 difficulty settings plus this is probably a budget title by now which will make it cheap to buy.

Rating: 9 out of 10
Buy it!

Fable 2
Microsoft Game Studio, Lionhead Studios
Available for Xbox 360

Believe it or not, Fable 2 was my game of the year in 2009 and I never actually reviewed it – how’s that for procrastination? It was an amazing game though and there was been a lot of coverage lately about the third installation in the series which is slated for release for either this year or the next, which is why I wanted to go back and finally talk about Fable 2 and how amazing this game is.

Fable 2 puts you in the role of an adventurer (male or female, your choice) who witnesses the death of their sister at the hands of the crazed Lord Lucien and now is on a quest to stop the Lord from building a giant magical tower which will destroy the land. You are one of four fabled heroes that destroyed the tower once before and you must find the other 3 in order to complete the group and stop Lord Lucien.

The main concept of the Fable series is creating your own character and story through choices – both good and bad. You have your main quest to complete but also side quests which how they are completed will affect how you look, grow and are seen in the eyes of others. Ultimately though everything in the game affects you from the food you eat to the tattoos you wear. The world is your playground of choices - you can marry anyone you want (anyone), choose your clothes, advance your skills, change your weapons, make money via local jobs and even have sex and make babies. This game tries to give you the full life experience which is something we’ve never seen in a console game before.

A new and cool addition to the game is the dog companion which helps you find treasures and defends you against enemies. The original version of the game gave you only one breed of dog to play with but additional downloadable content packs now available will give you access to potions that will change your dog into different breeds.

Most of the time when I review a game, I play it as least halfway through if not all the way through to the end, time allowing but Fable 2 I actually played twice over plus. I was obsessed with this game to the point I was trying to get all the achievements and that never happens to me with any of my games. If that isn’t a stellar recommendation I don’t know what is.

Also this is probably the best buy out there right now if you haven’t already pick this game up as you have three different ending to play towards which means great replay value and Fable 2 is now a budget title, so it’s easy on the wallet.

Rating: 10 out of 10
Buy it!

Epic 8 Bit Bead Art: Sonic the Hedgehog Logo

SonicGGLogo2, originally uploaded by redherring1up.

Another amazing bead art piece from a member of my bead sprite forum and this time it's from Redherring.

Redherring created the Sonic logo from the Game Gear version of the series. The logo from the Sega Genesis version is much bigger but this is still pretty amazing.

Another week, another amazing bead art piece. These people never fail to amazing me.

You can check out more of Redherring's picture on flickr.

Review: Sonic Unleashed

Sonic Unleashed
Sega, Sonic Team
Available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, and Playstation 2

Sonic is back again as the Sonic Team tries once more to revive the franchise that was king back in the days of 2D adventures. Sonic Unleashed brings a new element to the Sonic franchise with a strange day and night effect on Sonic and his world. Is this enough though to bring life back to this dying franchise?

The story behind Sonic Unleashed is pretty simple as Sonic is once again doing his best to try and save the world from Dr. Eggman. The only difference though this time is that Sonic has been altered a bit into the form of a were-hog. This were-hog comes only out at night and changes the way Sonic moves, how he reacts to things, etc. This basically takes the entire Sonic character, all of the abilities and such that he is known for, and throws them out the window, introducing a whole new set of things he can do.

The game is really split up into two different worlds as you have levels that take place during the day and the levels that take place during the night. You can get to these levels and such by going through the hub world as you please or going to the different areas, talking to NPCs, etc.

The game shines with the levels that take place during the daytime; as you get all of the good stuff that Sonic fans absolutely love. The sense of speed as you are flying around in the daytime missions is astounding, as you blast through the 360 loops in glorious brightly coloured environments. The game also does a great job of switching through various styles of play from 2D to 3D as you are speeding your way through these levels.

The game feels fantastic during these daytime levels as the game has been built to showcase the true speed and excitement that Sonic has always been known for. Needless to say, you will be on the edge of your seat in these levels as you need to have the reflexes to react to all the elements thrown at you. This is what Sonic is all about, and if the whole game was set-up like this, it would be a home run.

Unfortunately though, there are these levels that also take place during the night, where you have to take control of Sonic the Were-hog. These levels at night feel like an entirely different game as everything is slowed down to a dull crawl.

The combat system is pretty deep for these night levels, but the fighting that takes place gets very repetitive and the controls do not work all that well, as you will grow tired of them and want to get back to the daytime levels as fast as you can. I have to admit this really aggravated me. The night time levels come across as very average and without any real creativity. The only highlight to these levels is the boss battles, which I will admit have some real creativity to them.

In regards to the graphics, the game looks absolutely gorgeous especially during the day time levels with their brightly coloured 3D elements. There are no words that could really describe just how good the game looks when you are playing as the real Sonic, dashing through them at his sonic speeds. The way in which the game flows with its amazing sense of speed, and vibrant colors, it will have you have you awe-struck. The only downside to the visuals is that when there are many enemies on screen you will run into a few frame rate issues.

Sonic Unleashed is probably about half of what Sonic fans were hoping for with the release of this new game. Sonic Team did do one thing right here, and it is that they have proven that Sonic can be just as much fun as it was on the Sega Genesis in this generation of consoles. Now if they could just stick to a basic Sonic plus speed plus gorgeous environments formula for all their games and leave out all the crazy ideas like Were-hogs and King Arthur’s court then the franchise would probably be okay.

I think though this is probably the best Sonic game we can hope for at least for a while, so for the hardcore Sonic fan out there, I would recommend you check this game out.

Rating: 6 out of 10
Rent it!

History of Videogames: The Musical?

The history of early videogames as sung by Game Jew to the tune of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire".

Box Art Revealed for Mad World

Sega revealed the official box art for their upcoming game, Mad World and boy, does it look violent ...

Perfect for this game, if I say so myself. Looking forward to checking this unique and artsy game when it comes out.

Happy Tree Friends Trailer Features Bloody Game Play

The new Happy Tree Friends Trailer finally features some sweet gameplay footage, but truthfully I am confused on whether you are suppose to win the game by killing all the cute woodland creatures or by safely getting your woodland creatures through the maze of killer devices.

I'm confused, cause usually games have you keeping your characters safe, but every Happy Tree Friends cartoon ends with each character dead, killed in some horrible, bloody way. Should that be the premise of the videogame?

Either way, the game looks bloody good. Get it ... bloody good.

The Incredible Hulk Trailer and Behind the Scenes Videos

HULK SMASH!!! ME LIKE TO SMASH!!

Sega released the new Incredible Hulk game this week and I'm all for destruction and chaos. Hoping to catch a copy of this game for review.



The Beast Within: Origins Video

Great interview with Stan Lee, creator of Marvel Comics and it sounds like Electric Playground's Victor Lucas doing the Narration. Way to go, Victor!



The Beast Within: The Sound of the Fury

More behind the scenes of the videogames with the actors from the upcoming film and their involvement in the game.



Behind the Beast: The Green Goliath

Rage and Destruction - more behind the scene information about the Hulk from the man himself, Stan Lee and the team behind the new Hulk videogame.

Golden Axe: Beast Rider - Sexy Red-Headed Chick Riding Beasts ... Need I Say More

Man, this is the year of sexy chicks with red hair and games with characters named Faith, which basically means this is truly the best year of gaming for me.

Now Sega released their new trailer for Golden Axe: Beast Rider which is a sequel or remake of the Golden Axe series that was so popular in the arcades back in the day. I even remember playing it at roller rink one time or two. Yeah, I spent more time playing the arcade games at the roller rink than roller skating because I alway fell and the games were safer.

So the some of the new changes in the games are apparently that you only get to play the main female character who is some sexy warrior chick with lusty, red locks and you won't be able to play two player co-op play like the original Golden Axe. Also apparently characters from the first game are still available in the game but only as NPCs, and Sega promises the game will focus more on the beast riding which the original game didn't.

Before you only had a few moments to ride the beasts until some enemy knocked you off and the damn mount ran off on you. The goblins are still available in the game and will still steal stuff off you in your sleep until you find them and knock the stuffing out of them. Different colour goblins will have different abilities or items, I think.

That's about all I've heard so far about the game, but I'll post more as it comes across my lap.

New Samba de Amigo Trailer featuring Monkeys!

Sega released a new trailer for their upcoming Samba de Amigo release on the Wii and it has a goofy monkey playing maracas in it. Sega, until you give us cool maracas shaped wiimote accessories for this game, no amount of monkeys will fill the void those cool maracas remotes have left.

Now take your monkey and leave.