Featured Articles, PSP, PSP Reviews, Reviews, industry - by Zeth - November 10, 2009 - 09:14 UTC - 2 Comments
A BrutalGamer.com review.
When Rockstar Leeds announced last year the a whole new GTA story was being laid out on the DS many a PSP owner felt hard done by. Sony’s platforms had traditionally been the home of the GTA console series and it looked like it was all slipping away. Flash forward (cultural references FTW!) a year and we have a shiny new UMD (unless you downloaded the game from the PSN!) in our hands with GTA Chinatown Wars on it.
This time out we follow the story of young Chinese rich kid Huang Lee. After the death of his Triad boss father Huang is sent to Liberty City to deliver a family heirloom, a ritual sword, to his Uncle. After being attacked at the airport the sword is stolen and Huang must learn humility and go to work with his Uncle to retrieve the sword and repair his Uncle’s now tarnished reputation. OK no more plot – one of the biggies with GTA titles are the plots and the myriad of twists and turns they take. This might not be Mr Houser’s best script but it certainly is constructed well enough to be compelling. Just know that plot wise the game is exactly the same as the DS version released a year ago.
Graphically this title has been stepped up from the DS version – of course it has. What you are left with seems a little jarring at first. The large cartoon like heavy line outlines of the DS version have been toned down in this up-scaling of the resolution. These lines are still evident on the stills frames used to relay the story and seem to fit in well at this point. What you are left with in the main game is an updated version of the top down view used in the original Grand Theft Auto titles that shipped for the PC and Amiga. That said the top down is at a slight angle giving a better depth of field – this is no watered down Liberty City. The character animations are well done in an exaggerated cartoon way. Please don’t take any of this as a negative because GTA: CW looks fantastic. The fluid animations, the various car models (all taken from the original GTA Liberty City universe), the cartoon inspired art style and the nippy frame rate all make this one of the PSP’s best visually realised titles. Graphically you really feel like you have a miniaturised Liberty City in your hands – more so than any of the previous hand held GTA games.
GTA: Chinatown Wars on the DS
Compare the above to GTA Chinatown Wars on the PSP
Sound has always been a major player in the GTA series – imagine GTA: Vice City without those 80’s grooves or GTA: San Andreas without that banging hip-hop. The tracks are as ever a mixed bag and although the number of tunes is more limited than the bigger GTA titles this still does a good job in bringing the functionality of the radio stations to the hand held device. A few new tracks have been added to the track list from the DS days and the whole thing sounds better making use of the extra storage for better quality samples and tracks. A down side? Well the radio channels always thrived on the adverts. Remember those LoveFist commercials from GTA: Vice City? Well GTA: CW has no commercials or DJs at all which is a real shame. I understand for the DS edition but surely the UMB affords enough room to add these in. There is no voice work at all which might seem strange for these titles to start with but the static comic like cut scenes soon take on a charm of their won and do a good job of conveying the story. Spot effects, car engines, tyre squeals and all the rest are in place and sound crisp and well sampled.
GTA: CW on the PSP has very little added to it from the DS days. The main things really are access to the Rockstar Social Club (via wireless) and a new series of side missions involving a female news reporter called Melanie. These missions take the form of escort missions as you protect Mel while she makes her story or films a piece. The before mentioned new music tracks and the much improved graphics really round out the extras for PSP users. So if you are a DS GTA: CW player looking for your next fix this is probably not for you – it is mostly the same title. Longevity wise this game will steal a substantial chunk of your time depending on how many side missions you want to take on. The whole game uses the same structure as the bigger GTA titles. Meet people, get jobs from them via your PDA, which is a great addition btw, and progress through the story taking on side missions as you feel like it. There are plenty of mini-games in the package to keep you going and the drug trading game is, pardon the pun, fairly addictive. This runs along the main story and you move from area to area in Liberty City meeting traders and buying and selling your stash in a sort of hard core coke version of Elite.
The hand to hand and gun based combat in this title is much more satisfying than that of the bigger titles. There are plenty of weapons in dumpsters around the city and even when you are out of ammo you feel in control enough to take a group out using punches and spin kicks.
Final Thoughts:
This is the best hand held Grand Theft Auto title you can buy ( unless you pick up GTA IV & one of those Xbox 360’s mounted into a case with a 15″ HD screen!). This is the definitive Chinatown Wars version and Rockstar Leeds should be proud of what they have achieved with the title. They took the best of old GTA and new GTA and made something new from it. If you have a PSP, are over 18 (some very strong violence and drugs here kids!) and ever liked a GTA title then grab this now. Sure a few more PSP specific items would of been nice and utilising the extra UMD room would of made sense but what you have hear is one of the top PSP releases of 2009.
Featured Articles, News, PSP, PSP Reviews, Reviews - by Lumwoz - November 2, 2009 - 22:41 UTC - Be first to Comment!
On the consoles DiRT 2 is a welcome addition to a prestigious franchise, however on the PSP it is a very different story.
While the gameplay is not the best on offer from PSP racing sims it does at least present a challenge, although this challenge is a battle against the game engine. The car’s handling, while being workable, is poor and corners cannot be taken well at any speed and those who dare try try to drift will inevitably spin out.
There seems to be little if no variation in performance on different terrain. The terrain itself is hit in miss quite literally, as cars may pass through some scenery and others, despite size, will stop you dead in your tracks. Some rocks and trees’ positioning means that, accompanied with the poor driving engine, you will hit them on most laps forcing you to reverse or use the reset vehicle option while the other cars zoom past you.
Having the whole field race past you never means you should give up hope as the AI uses elastic band tactics, by which I mean that when they are in front of you they slow down to allow you to catch up while only when behind you will they begin to race with something resembling aggression. A race in which other drivers adapt to give you an advantage, does not necessarily become easy but does mean regaining ground on the opposition is not a necessarily product of your work or test of your skill.
The career mode has little sense of progression. You make your way through a list of races and cups at different levels. There is no system of currency to purchase cars would be expected nor do you really. Cars, kits and competitions locked at the start are unlocked at random as you go through but you have no idea what you will unlock at what stage.
The challenge mode puts you on tracks doing laps to beat a set airtime or powerslides. This itself is flawed as you will find yourself doing a U-turn on the best section of the course to beat the record rather than doing laps.
The visuals are a strong aspect of the console versions, while the capabilities of the PSP must be taken into consideration, it is still a poor showing. Some surroundings are so dull and similar it is almost like the background of a Scooby-Doo chase scene.
The cars look very poor, however they do take on a coat of snow or dust as the race goes on which rescues a bit of realism. I felt that the road circuits were the best looking and most real but in the desert or snow it got a bit samey and sometimes it was not clear where the track was.
Upto this point it must be said that I didn’t dislike the game but its flaws were becoming more apparent and frustrating for me.
The straw that broke the camels back was the sound. All cars sound virtually the same and when they bounce around the track it sounds like someone searching through a metal tool box. My one massive sound bugbear was the sound the braking made which was slightly altered on the different surfaces but was ultimately the same strange shuffling noise played over and over again. The in game sounds are poor but the game sports a decent soundtrack in the menus.
The 4 car field is small but for the ad-hoc play with friends and is just right and adds a nice little extra. As well as the game sharing option which is often overlooked.
I can’t imagine rushing to play DiRT 2 again but perhaps the game sharing ad-hoc may merit a few plays with friends.
When playing DiRT 2 it is difficult not to be critical as its flaws are obvious and frustrating. It has the air of an unfinished title about it. However, Once getting to grips with its obscure engine it did present a brief challenge but considering other PSP racers available such as Wipeout or Ridge Racer it becomes apparent that this title just cannot compete.
PSP, PSP Reviews, Reviews, past - by Diortem - November 2, 2009 - 00:41 UTC - 3 Comments
This is it! THIS is EXACTLY what I got a PSP for. If you read my stuff back when I posted on Live Journal, you would remember a story from reviewing Final Fantasy 7 on this very system. If not, read it now and understand why a PSP was completely unavoidable in my world. Clocking in at under 50 hours, so far it is the shortest Persona game… but who could resist playing the start of what has become THE choice RPG series… from the beginning?
The game starts innocently enough. You and your friends decide to play a game… well they call it a game, and I suppose if you call “Candyman” a game this is too. The idea is that if you complete this “Persona” game correctly, you and your friends playing will see your futures. What happened instead, was a little girl appeared, and electricity arched over everyone playing, making them pass out and dream….
When they all came too the party found that the world had become decidedly more dangerous. Deamons have invaded, but for some reason cant get into the school. It doesn’t take long before the only absolute truth becomes apparent: Your choices are your own, and you must live with the consequences.
While the story draws you in, it is also very complex due to the game living up to this. What you choose to do will indeed change what happens, and the ending of the game you reach. For me, the game was fairly direct, and ended rather hum-drum, but I must give it alot of respect despite that, simply because I do not know what I did to get the ending I got! This is the best example of a game you play right now and again later on with a guide so you can see how things could have ended if you had done things differently.
Gameplay-wise, this game lives up to it’s age as an old school RPG. You will move around in an overworld, several dungeons, and except in specific safe places, will always run the risk of any movement hitting a random encounter and a menu-driven battle. Alright, so the dungeons are actually 3D and shown in first person, but the novelty of this view wears off fasr. Story will direct you to specific places where key encounters and boss battles will occur as well to drive things along, but this is also standard faire of an old RPG. Where this game differentiates itself gameplay-wise, is combat and the things that give this game it’s name, your personas.
Personas in this game in essence the inner elements of your character’s personalities, brought forward and used in active combat. As such, they offer “skills” which are effectively the magic spells of this game, as well as enhancements to the character’s stats and their strengths/weaknesses. For example, you could have a character with a persona that nullifies fire attacks, but is weak to ice. Personas slowly gain these abilities as they gain rank (different from level) up to 8, and you can put a maximum of 3 personas on each character (to be swapped during combat for a turn or at will outside of combat).
To get new personas, you must negotiate with the deamons you are fighting through a system in which you will either make them happy, scared, angry or eager to join you via the communication methods each of your characters can do RATHER then fight on any given turn. Each character has completely different methods of negotiation and the monsters will react to different tactics, both by time of combat (moon phase) and by their personality traits. If you can achieve an eager reaction and are high enough level you can take their card. With this in hand, communicating with this kind of deamon will result in them retreating, and taking it to Egor will allow you to merge it with a second card to create a persona and equip any you have made to a character of your choice. (Egor is in the velvet room, and you will discover him when he is ready to show, as well as the specific of this rather in-depth system on it’s own.)
Combat itself differs from most RPGs in that it has an element of Final Fantasy Tactics style stratagy. On top of all the strengths and weaknesses of both your characters and the deamons, you will also have only certain ranges weapons and skills you use will hit on the enemy side of the board, and you can adjust your formation to fit your needs (both at will out of combat and for the turn of everyone moving mid-combat), adding to the control you have over how the battle will play out!
While I cant complain graphically about this game, I can not really praise it either. The combat is in a birds-eye-view field with characters that while they fit the field, are too small to really add a lot of detail to, leading to a very generic RPG look in combat. The dungeons are indeed in first person 3d, but VERY basically so. In fact the engine is about as blocky as Wolfenstien 3D from the days of DOS. Don’t get me wrong, this game is ALOT prettier then that, but the maps will be very reminiscent in their layout. And the overworld map looks like someone photographed a portion of a city and used it (maybe with a little editing) as the map. You are pointed out by a green arrow pointed down at the roads where you are. Looks nice, and is effective at it’s job, but it’s nothing particularly special.
FINAL VERDICT: If you are a fan of Shin Megumi Tensai or of Persona in peticular, you owe it to yourself to pick this up. It’s retranslated, eliminating alot of complaints about the hack-job it recieved when it hit PSX, and the extra power in the PSP definately eliminates all the issues with graphic problems the PSX version had. By far a worthy re-mastering job. HOWEVER, if you dislike older RPG games, stear the hell away. In it’s core workings, that is exactly what this is. Anyone else, it’s worth having, but seeing as you can download it as well as buy the UMD, don’t feel rushed.
Featured Articles, News, PSP, PSP Reviews, Reviews - by Zeth - September 28, 2009 - 20:46 UTC - 1 Comment
I feel the need, the need to shift!
Man EA’s been on a bit of a roll these past few months. Cranking out some rather tasty games in their repeat franchises as well as lining up some interesting future content in the guise of Brutal Legend and Dante’s Inferno. The Tiger Woods and Madden updates this year have been exceptional and there are incredibly high hopes for Fifa 10. All that said there is an unprecedented amount of speculation and hope with regard to the re-birth of the Need for Speed franchise. The first title in this re-imagining is the less street more sim offering of Shift.
This outing sees you racing with the largest stable of cars in the Need For Speed franchise’s history. Including cars such as the VW Scirocco, Subaru Lancer Impreza, Lotus Elise, Porche 911 GT2, BMW M3 GT2 and the Pagani Zonda F. There really is a car to suit everybody’s tastes in the pack. Developed by a different studio to the big brother titles, this feels more like a half way house between previous arcade roots and the new full simulation model of the big consoles. UK Developer Brightlight Studios (previously responsible for this years Harry Potter title) have had a good crack at bringing the huge showboat of NFS to the small screen.
Graphically the game is a real mixed bag. The menus are all gorgeous and EA are squarely going after the pizzazz that Codemasters seem to have injected in to their menus. They don’t get too close but never the less the overall feel and effect of the menu are clean, jazzy and immediate. The car models that you choose on the menu screens and that you paint and logo to your needs are both well made and oddly flat. At first glance they just seem too flat and shiny but further investigation with should buttons to zoom and the analogue stick to rotate reveal a fine detailed vehicle – it just looks odd to start with. Once you get on the tracks the odd issues begin. The overall look and feel of the track is great and even out does the super sexy tracks in use in the Burnout games on PSP. That said once you get going and weave your way through the traffic and out to the front of the pack it almost feels like you are racing through a ghost town. Miles and miles if barriers stretch out in front of you and the odd pedestrian is spotted from time to time. Even then the crowd are either black outlines or flat ghoul like cut outs that have the odd bulb flash crack off. It just looks weird. With that said though the car models are all chunky and well rendered and the track does whip by at a great rate and very few frame rate hitches were encountered. So you have to decide if you prefer a fast smooth drive in a ghost town or not.
Audio wise is a mixed back. The car noises are meaty enough and the “voice over guy” who introduced the various elements of the career mode – world tour – and gives you the updates on the current race king you need to beat; is good enough in a poor mans DJ Atomica kind of way. There never seems to be a diverse range of engine sounds but they are well represented if a little weak sounding. Music wise the old EA Trax card is played once again and the limited tracks on offer (13 I think I counted) are varied if a little sparse.
The real divider here is the gameplay. EA are now pretty damn good at making a game look and sound at least good and in many instances very good. The problems with Shift are mostly to do with the way it plays. Unlike the more simulator feel of the larger titles Shift on the PSP is more akin to playing Burnout on the PSP – in fact it reminds me very much of a game called Screamer 2 on the PC from about 15 years ago! The problem with the cars handling stems firstly from the animation. Most racers when you corner move the car around the screen a little or at least pivot in a realistic enough way. With Shift it is almost like the middle of your car is stuck, Scalextrix style, in the middle of the under carriage to the track. It is a weird sensation to get used too.
What is does mean is that racing is a cinch, as you can hammer along the tracks, throw the car towards a corner and hit the hand brake to turn the car. On the subject of using the hand brake (e-brake to our US buddies) this is another weird sensation. Pulling the brake throws your car in to the corner but lift off the button and you “snap” back around again out of the drift. It makes it a breeze to take these corners at speed. What is does not do is make it easy to drift properly around these corners. So much so that the events that require drifting skills are crazy frustrating.
Working your way through the 40 races will take you a while, partly due to the poor drifting implementation but the lack of any real depth to the customisation options, a normal main stay of the series, will harm the replay value.
Final Thoughts:
Need for Speed: Shift is by no means a bad game. The game looks and sounds good and there is great fun to be had from the racing element. I would say that the straight forward driving is fairly easy and you will most likely find yourself at the front of the pack most of the time. This can lead to the game feeling a little monotonous and each race becoming “just another race”. This is one of the best racers on the PSP, but there are not that many on the PSP. The drifting is fairly broken but you can muddle through it with some perseverance. If you’re looking for a arcade racer blast and you’re not a racing purist or bothered about the games quirks above then you could do a lot worse than NFS: Shift.
Featured Articles, News, PSP, PSP Reviews, Reviews - by Zeth - July 30, 2009 - 08:30 UTC - 1 Comment
Can Sony’s little black box tame the feisty Tiger this year? Full Story
Featured Articles, News, PSP, PSP Reviews, Reviews - by Leigh - June 20, 2009 - 17:47 UTC - 1 Comment
OK, OK I’m a hypocrite. Many of you would of picked up the post I made a few weeks back stating how god damn sick I am getting of rhythm games. How we just seem to be inundates with titles and the appeal is limited after the first few weeks. Well slap me with a cymbal I am preparing to eat my own words as Harmonix and Backbone bring the tour de force that is Rockband on a handy portable device.
Full Story
Featured Articles, News, PSP Reviews, Reviews, industry - by Zeth - May 24, 2009 - 11:24 UTC - 1 Comment
After the “Meh” Resistance: Fall of Man and the good looks and multiplayer goodness of Resistance 2 we have the little brother striding in to town with a cheeky cockney grin and a big FUCK YOU attitude. So do we embrace this offspring or bitch slap the little cockney sparrow?
Set in the weeks after first title on PS3, Resistance: Fall of Man, Retribution follows the story of a former British Marine, James Grayson – and what a prick he is, but more on that later. After being forced to kill his own brother inside a Chimeran conversion center Grayson goes on a vendetta to destroy every conversion center he can find. Grayson is captured and sentenced to court martial for going AWOL even though he single handedly destroyed multiple Chimeran centres across the UK. Luckily for Grayson he is freed by a member of the French resistance to help them deal with the conversions centres in mainland Europe. Grayson learns that his earlier efforts have been futile… in Western Europe the Chimera have evolved a new method of converting humans. Whilst a member os the European resistance – the Maquis – he joins Cartwright and Parker in Operation Overstrike and so the war to retake the European continent has begun.
Graphically this title rocks bells on the PSP. Sure it’s no God of War but it recreates the world and environments from the PS3 big brothers very well indeed. The graphics are a notch above Sony Bends Syphon Filter titles on the platform but they do feel a little “workman” like at times and glitches are occasional rather than frequent. There are plenty of bells and whistles on display as well as sparks fly and light blooms all around you get the feeling they wanted to make you feel you were not getting short changed by the handheld edition – and you certainly don’t. Sure you have the usual PSP “grainy” effect over the screen but that is a platform issue not a developer one. All the models have been faithfully recreated and animation is also top notch.
Now on to the real meat of the game – how it plays. Switching from first to the third person perspective has suited Sony’s Bend studio well in the past and they pull it off again here with stoic delivery. If you have played either of the Syphon Filter game son the PSP then you know exactly how this title plays – EXACTLY. Note that. At times I really felt like I was playing Syphon Filter with a skin-change MOD applied to it. That’s no bad thing by the way – just an observation. The game relies, as did Syphon, on the heavy use of cover to keep you alive. This is no run and gun session my friends oh no. You make your way though the levels dipping in and out of cover whilst you take down the various Chimeran death machines. This mechanic works very well, a it did in previous titles, and is mapped well to the PSP control scheme.
You move Grayson with your analogue nub, then use the four face button (T, S, X, O) to move your field of vision. Bend have given you a massive “kill box” on the screen that extend around 2/3s of the area of the screen. This means that any enemy in this kill zone will be auto targeted. This might sound like a real pain in the arse and a total cheap but believe me you need the help. That is no slight against the PSP and its lack of a second analogue nub. No it has to do with the sheer volume and strength of the enemy.
As you progress through the games multiple levels you really get the feeling of connecting with the characters in the game. Grayson has been taken from the Jason Statham school of action hero. He is generally a bad who humps and kills pretty much anything that gets in his way – not normally at the same time I hasten to add! He is a real dick but you kinda like his style. The other characters are rounded enough for supporting roles and it all hangs together well.
There is a selection of extra content you can access if you own a copy of Resistance 2. You can “infect” your PSP by connecting it to R2, which also infects Grayson with the Chimeran virus. This changes some minor lot points and in game play terms this allows Grayson to regenerate his health and breathe underwater. Also, and this is a bit harsh, gives him access to a few powerful new weapons you can’t get any other way – like a tasty Magnum.
Sound wise the voice acting is OK – Grayson could of been less derivative of Jason Statham and the dialogue is piss poor a lot of the time. Oh and PLEASE stop using the English to bash the French for fucks sake! Music wise this game out does the platform is resides on. The orchestral score that soars and dips as you head in to battle is simple wonderful. The whole score just brings the game up a level on its own merits and is a credit to Sony Bends music department.
The single player will take you a fair amount of time for a portable game (I took roughly 10 hours in total) and each section of the game has small extra objectives for you to complete to give you incentive to return for another play though. As well as that layer this title has probably the best multiplayer on the PSP. You are involved in intense eight player multiplayer gameplay with five game modes including Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Containment and Assimilation which are all available via the PSP’s available via ad-hoc and infrastructure modes. Admittedly, as with all online PSP titles, finding a game was sometimes hit and miss but for the most part there are a fair few people playing this.
Final Thoughts:
This is a superb 3rd-person shooter – by any standard. The fact that they have managed to squeeze the Resistance universe down into the PSP is a feat in itself but Sony Bend have wrapped this round their tried and tested Syphone Filter engine and mechanics and what you have left is a Resistance themed Syphon Filter title. For those still wondering that is a VERY good thing. The game is not perfect, the graphics could of done with more work and the PSP is still shite for these kind of games control wise but Sony Bend are the masters of this now and bring it all together so well that it remains highly playable at all times. Go grab it now for the PSP – it is not like the system is awash with top quality titles at the moment – though hopefully this is the sign of things to come.
Find more Resistance Retribution reviews over at Test Freaks
Featured Articles, News, PSP, PSP Reviews, Reviews - by Lumwoz - March 27, 2009 - 23:27 UTC - Be first to Comment!
Right of the bat I’ll admit my experience and knowledge of fighters is at best, from a casual level, so the prospect of player and reviewing “The King of Fighters Collection – The Orochi Saga” was somewhat daunting. None the less I have persevered and played all of the games included on the UMD and to my surprise I had a good time doing so.
While technically you have five games rolled into one neat little package here, in reality it is more the same game five times over with minor adjustments and additions after each version, although this is not a bad thing, there is no major difference between K.O.F. ‘94 and ‘98 aside from the backgrounds becoming busier and a wider selection of characters. However, SNK have stuck to a formula that worked throughout the series and fair play to them for it. Aforementioned formula is thus, King of Fighters involves matches played by teams of three combatants, you pick the order in which you wish them to appear and they fight one-on-one until one team has no fighters remaining (kind of like a Pokemon battle, but without the switching). Like any fighter you’ll start off button mashing until greater difficulties force you to employ more sophisticated tactics and there is a sense of reward from laying down some combos and overcoming a team that’s bin troubling you in the past. I love the retro-arcady air about it, mainly because it is retro and arcady but it’s not something your really see anymore so when this effect is pulled off well on any modern platform it feels good. I can picture as I play it the old school controls on a KOF machine and can see how well they have been emulated by the PSP. As I played the series through I noticed that there are several distinct styles and strategies that a player can use and over time you adapt to which one is your favourite, I noticed that I preferred the more athletic and speedy style to dodge and weave between my opponents attack and hit them at the right moment. Of course different characters offer themselves better to different styles of fighting, for example one from the very diverse selection of characters is a very tall very fat man who carries a wrecking ball with him to use against his opponents, although very slow he is perfect if you are the sort of person who will try to bludgeon his opponents with infrequent but devastating attacks. The game play itself is very accessible, my one reservation was that I would not be able to engage with it as I am not a huge fan of fighting games but this was not the case at all, When I first starting playing it; it was in fairly long bursts of maybe 30-40 minutes. After this I would play just in any spare moment of time I had to kill, just pick 3 of my favourite characters and try and get as far through the arcade mode as I could with my favourite three fighters. It is for this reason that I highly rate KOF on a handheld as, for me, it fulfilled the very function of the handheld gaming genre. It is a game that when a spare few minutes arises that you can pick it up and play it for a bit. The controls work quite smoothly with the face and shoulders buttons assigned different types of attack while the control stick handles movement, jumping and crouching, it’s a simple system that work very well without a fault really. One gripe would be that on the loading screens combo’s are shown to the player that involve diagonal arrows and a “K” and “P” button, I was left absolutely stumped as to how this could be performed by the face buttons. OK so they almost certainly will be mapped to the PSP somehow but would it not have been to much effort just to change it when it was ported?
As a very retro arcade title KOF is not going to be visually ground-braking but does offer a nice consistent cartoon style, without trying to be at all flash even up to the ‘98 version. on screen the visuals appear fairly sharp as you would expect being ported to a smaller screen, making KOF very well suited to the PSP. The visuals are a big part of the retro arcady feel to the game that it carried throughout. The slow-motion K.O. Sequences are great and if you can keep your eye up to pace with the action there are some little treats, streaks of blood flying and obscure faces being pulled when characters are hit. Although minor I believed it is essential to mention that throughout the series there is the stereotypical female characters with massive breasts that a team has worked tirelessly on to ensure that her assets bounce beautifully along with her in perfect harmony according to the laws of physics. Although crude it is a very good example of the quality of the graphics of KOF.
The sound is also very retro and fits in perfectly with the other aspects of the game as that subtle reminder of a simpler time. Again, similarly to the visuals, very well executed by the PSP although very annoying to others in the room, although a title that you would think you could just play on mute I found myself preferring to use headphones to enjoy the full experience. The effects are fun too, plenty of groaning, screeching and body dropping effects to satisfy even the most hardy of fighter fans.
The games can be played online but on the hand full of attempts I had I could never find any active network game or anyone waiting in the lobby for a game so gave up on that endeavor. I do think that the multi-player is a good addition to the series especially one that is so easy to pick and play for almost anyone. However the non-existence of lobbies was a bit discouraging I could just be trying at the wrong times, but sadly I have not had the time to keep trying for as long as I’d like. I’m not sure if the multi-player aspect, while it is a good one, would necessarily keep people playing KOF. I do however, think that the game itself is extremely playable and as I previously mentioned, is an ideal hand held title as it is the very definition of a pick-up-and-play title that can you can just keep coming back to as and when you please due to a learning curve which is almost endless keeping it fresh for a very long time. One last gripe is that sometimes the loading screens are longer then you would expect and there was some very occasional brief freeze-ups but this was only a very minor issue.
Overall I think that King of Fighters is a real hidden gem amongst the PSP titles as it is a textbook example of a game that can be picked up every so often to kill time while you’re on the move. As a retro title it’s practically immune from naysayers over visuals and sound but I find them a charming addition to the overall style. I think that it’s slight downfall is the lack of multi-player active online, the confusingly ported combo descriptions, the very occasional slowness of loading and freezing in game. One last point I have not mentioned that throughout playing I had a niggling feeling that this game was thoroughly average however I kept playing and coming back to it so it can’t be all bad. However, I cannot comment on how it fairs in comparison to other fighters on the PSP but I can assure you that this is a solid title that is worth looking at if your PSP collection lacks that 10 minute pick and play kind of title, a function that King of Fighters pulls off very well.
Featured Articles, News, PC, PSP, PSP Reviews, Reviews, technology - by Zeth - February 4, 2009 - 16:47 UTC - 1 Comment
Everyday Shooter is an album of games exploring the expressive power of abstract shooters. Dissolute sounds of destruction are replaced with guitar riffs harmonizing over an all-guitar soundtrack, while modulating shapes celebrate the flowing beauty of geometry. ” That’s how Jonathan Mak describes his product. pretentious bollocks huh? One to many half-caff grande Mocha-Chino’s? Well kinda but also, not far from the truth of this PSP incarnation of the huge PS3 PSN hit.
So lets cut to it here, there is no real story to talk of so lets forget that. infect this is not exactly a game; but is. Making any sense yet? No? Good 
We’re not talking Linger in Shadows here before you click on Stumble. Everyday Shooter is, at heart, a dual stick shooter (or in this case 1 stick and 4 face buttons!). Think of it as the love child of Rez and Geometry Wars (with possible Lumines sneaking a quickie when nobody was looking!). The “game” consists of 8 separate levels, or album tracks as the creator would like you to think of them. Each “track” consisting of a unique guitar based backing track and enemies. Each “track” operates differently to the last one and it takes new strategies and skills to survive each. And that’s the things with EDS, you don’t progress through the game. You just exist in the game space as it transitions between album tracks. You could, in theory just dodge like hell and never shoot a single thing – you would probably die, but you could.
Graphically the game looks fantastic. I don’t mean that in a Crysis or MGS 4 way but in a visually pleasing way. In the same way Geometry Wars does, EDS uses pulsating backgrounds and tons of vector and particle effects to make hugely frenetic scenes. A still shot does nothing for these types of game, you really need to see the game moving to appreciate what makes the visuals so appealing. surprisingly the action transferred well to the smaller PSP screen and runs at a fair speed no matter how much is thrown around the screen. Some of the text around the object can be a strain to see when the action heats up, but otherwise all is great on the graphics front.
So, as touched on before, you really survive the track, more than beat the level. Each level lasts the length of the backing track. Once the track closes out you start the next album track (aka level) and start the process again. The thing that stops this getting real old is the fact that each level plays differently. You are a small white dot trying to survive to the end of the album. Simple yeah No, anyone who has played Geometry Wars knows how damn addictive these games are. You destroy the small shapes hurtling around the screen using shots from your small dot. All the enemies take varying amounts of damage to clear and can be chained in to a large scoring cacophony. The kicker is that each level requires you to work out how to activate the multipliers. in the first level you shoot the small spiky craft, it then erupts into a depleting wave that destroys all enemies that come in to contact with it. Destroying these reveal small white dots to be collected. Each dot is banked and totalled after each game. These can then be used at the main menu to buy extra lives etc to help you through the main game.
Sound design in this game is top-notch. Each shot you unleash, courtesy of the face button on the right, when it impacts it triggers a certain guitar riff, these riffs are overlaid on the backing track to make a melodic mish-mash of guitar riffs. The resulting effect is truly wonderful adding a huge element to the game. The sounds are clear and sampled at a high rate. Due to the chaotic way the arrangement is made each time you play a unique soundtrack is produced to accompany your experience. The guitar backing tracks are more my thing than the thumbing base lines of Geometry Wars and are sublime.
Replay value is, like a lot of shooters — depends on your dedication to this sort of game type. The beauty and the curse of these games is that they are so addictive that once you start you play the nuts off of them. You then move on and possible never go back. You may though be one of those people that just love to go back for a quick blast every now and then. To be honest the game is like £5 so you really can’t grumble too much on the longevity stakes
I was sceptical of the game on PS3 and never took the plunge. I am glad I finally did and the game is a great portable time waster. It is relatively unchanged from the PS3 version but I think that is a great thing. The whole experience comes together and the parts greatly out perform to make the whole one fantastically homogonous experience. I can’t get enough of the unique riffs and frenetic action. As a toss up between this and Geometry Wars I would be hard pressed to choose. The fact that this version is portable would probably win out in the end. There is such a pure vein of addictive “gaming” fun running through this title that you can’t help but enjoy it. Sure you get less precision with the 4 digital buttons than you would with an analogue stick but it still works well enough. The game is even more impressive when you consider that Jonathan Mak wrote it, did the graphics and music all on his own – truly awesome!
Final thought: Get it! It’s cheap, it’s fun and it’s not like anything else you have played.
News, PC, PSP, PSP Reviews, Reviews - by Zeth - January 9, 2009 - 17:19 UTC - Be first to Comment!
Sony’s Japan studio managed to bring them selves to the fore of the development huddle with their initial release of Locoroco. The game was unlike anything else on the market and represented a return to simple puzzle/platform mechanics not really seen since the early Amiga days (it reminds me of a title called Bob’s Bad Day – google it). To say that I was a big fan of the first title would be a HUGE understatement. The game just made me smile from start to finish and always managed to put me in a great mood. The one thing I thought after finishing the game was “I hope they never try and do a sequel to this”. So it was with MUCH trepidation that I loaded up Locoroco 2.
Luckily this is more like Locoroco: Final than a fully realized sequel. The initial game was criticized for being more like a glorious tech demo. I felt it was more than that myself but whatever. The basis premise with both games is that shit happens in the world of the Roco’s and an evil invasion is started. This time all the color is taken from the world and you must remove the stains from the plants to free the planet and rid it of the invasion. OK so the plot is 100% Japanese and so is the music a visual style but it melds together. You control the environment around you small Locoroco and use the PSP shoulder buttons to tilt the world left or right. You can also press both shoulder buttons in to make your Roco jump. Simple as that really. And that, to be honest is the beauty of the title; more on that later though.
The PSP is basically a hand-held PS2, and thanks to titles like God of War, Syphon Filter and Daxter we know how well it can chuck around 3d environments. Locoroco shies away from these obvious 3D worlds though, employing instead a gloriously colorful 2D environment that moves and wobbles with pinpoint efficiency. Sure you can not exactly say “Wow, look at those graphics!” but the style is clear, clean and colorful and does exactly what you want it to do for a game of this type. Once again all the little Roco’s and Mui-Mui are wonderfully cheerful and cute. The enemies are all suitably goofy and cartoon like and it will all just make you smile.
Sound design was another thing that set the first game apart from the crowd. Endless cheerful songs of utter nonsense words all in a weird kind of J-Pop style. I know it sounds dreadful when written or spoken about but after a short while playing the either of the games you will find yourself mindlessly humming the music at any point during the day (I recommend not doing it in a public loo though!). Spot effects are great but limited; this does not really matter as it is all masked by the wonderfully catchy tunes and weird singing of the LocoRoco horde that you control.
Game play is basic to say the least. The game is basically a platformer with a smattering of puzzle game slapped in for a laugh spread over about 10 levels. The general idea is you start at point A with a single Roco character. in this game they have fleshing things out a bit more and all of the Roco’s have names and descriptions: Kulche – Energetic Youngster (yellow) Viole – Confident Tomboy (purple) Budzi – Loose Cannon (black) Pekeroné – Exuberant Geek (red) Chavez – Cool Speed Freak (green) Priffy – Style Princess (pink) Tupley – Voracious Fella (blue). You make your way around the levels traveling from A to B and collecting red flower bulbs, Mui-Mui and extra Rocos on the way. Your Roco grows in size with each one you find and sometimes you have to control them as a whole and other times you need to press the O button to split them in to individuals to fit through small gaps etc. The whole mechanic works very well, the controls respond as expected and the level design is similar to the first game but more in depth. The first title was a very simple affair that could be beaten in only 4 or 5 hours max. The sequel employs this same rapid play style but adds harder puzzle elements and elusive collectables to the mix to make you go back time and again and try and improve your score or find that last remaining Mui-Mui.
The longevity of the title depends on your need to complete objectives and obsessively collect2 all the items. I just enjoy playing the title as a breezy little de-stress toy. I can’t recommend the game highly enough for the software barren PSP. Sure it’s cutesy and you need shades for the odd level but it is a fun and well designed game that surpasses it’s predecessor in all ways.
For a final recommendation this title was one of the reasons I did not EBay my PSP 6 months ago; that and Resistance: Retribution.
