Can June 26th come soon enough? Whether you are a fan of the Michael Bay directed series, love everything about the robots in disguise or just want to see if Mark Wahlberg can save the franchise, the world is waiting patiently for Paramount Pictures; Transformers: Age of Extinction. While we don’t have any new footage or tidbits to share, we do have a brand new poster for the film!
Transformers: Age of Extinction really does look like it will be the biggest and boldest entry in the Transformers film series to date. If you want to check out the movie, then take a look at the exciting Super Bowl Spot. So what is your biggest motivation for seeing Transformers: Age of Extinction? Let us know in the comments below and remember to stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Transformers news as it becomes available
In his quest to make the world a safer place, Captain Steve Rodgers has officially joined up with S.H.I.E.L.D. and things are starting to heat up. This week sees the release of Captain America: Winter Soldier in theaters across the country, and the guys over at Gameloft have been working hard to bring all the excitement and action of the first adventure to mobiles everywhere.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier The Official Game is a mix of action and tactics-based gameplay that will have you excited for the film. Take control of Captain America and throw his shield around while leading S.H.I.E.L.D troops into battle against the enigmatic and dangerous Winter Soldier. Should things get a little too hairy for your team to handle, you can call for assistance from Black Widow and Falcon (who is making his Marvel Cinematic debut in the upcoming film).
Captain America: The Winter Soldier – The Official Game is available now on iOS and Google Play for the reasonable price of $2.99. We will have a full review up in the coming days but in the mean time, check out the trailer for the game below and make sure you stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Captain America news as it becomes available.
Overview Fez is an important game. Not because it is innovative, not because it is all that fun, but because it was a game that defined the indie genre’s late 2000’s and early 2010’s rise to mainstream prominence and popularity. Fez was another poster child for the indie revolution, it ticked all the right boxes for the indie games fans, it had a nostalgic look that reminded them of ‘the good ole days’, it had a unique game mechanic that ‘innovates’ the genre and it was made on a shoe-string budget over about 5 years in development. It had all the makings of an indie darling and there was a moment where it blew up big and quickly things imploded due to embarrassing public outrages from creator Phil Fish tarnished the reputation of developer Polytron and the game itself.
Here we are now with the game at long last making the leap across platforms to PlayStation, launching on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 an PS Vita. The game remains unchanged since its initial launch and a question overhangs this release: was it worth the wait?
Gameplay
The hook of Fez is the game’s three-dimensional rotation mechanic. The mechanic has been given a great deal of praise and is really the main focus of the game. You rotate the world and see it from a different perspective. It is a simple concept that is pretty easy to pick up on and understand. The only problem is that there isn’t exactly much variety to bundle with this core mechanic.
You play as Gomez, a goofy little pixel man who upon discovering a fez hat gains the ability to rotate the world around him. There isn’t a lot to go on as far as story here and the characters you encounter within Fez are about as forgettable as they come. The focus is of course on the gameplay itself.
Half puzzle game an half platformer all the while without an enemy character in sight, Fez proves to be a relatively lightweight gaming experience, never truly being challenging in any major way, but also making for a peaceful adventure through a plethora of different rotating worlds. The puzzles aren’t very difficult and more often then not simply require exploration to complete. Unfortunately the worlds aren’t exactly brimming with things to do and see, leaving exploration feeling a little tiresome after a while.
With Fez there is a feeling the reverberates throughout the game from start to finish that there could be so much more to it. There is an emptiness that underlies the game and a definite sense that there was a lot more that the game could have and should have done. Ultimately the game doesn’t stray too far from its initial concept and while that may be fun, it struggles to maintain player interest as the game progresses further and unravels itself. With that said, Fez is a decent game that is worth a try for the touted game mechanic alone, just don’t expect much more than the gimmick that its made its name on.
Visuals and Audio
As far as aesthetics go, Fez is a plucky love-letter to gaming’s past. The pixel artstyle feels like the game would have been right at home in the early 90s on the Super Nintendo. The textures are vibrant and lively and saturated in fluorescent colours. It is stylistically very derivative, but it has enough flair to make it stand out among the slew of old-school revival indie slap-togethers. It looks good and it is a memorable look at that, there isn’t much more you could ask for from Fez.
The game’s soundtrack is a slick one at that, featuring some catchy beats that will stick in your head with ease. The composer deserves quite a lot of praise as the music is what gives Fez real flavour, without this soundtrack it would feel rather bland and tasteless. These tunes elevate the game to greater heights and make it have a certain gravity it wouldn’t otherwise have.
Overall
Sometimes being just good is good enough, such is the case with Fez. It relies heavily on its rotating world gimmick and goes to some interesting places with it. However once that gimmick grows tired, which it does quite quickly, the game generally crumbles. Fez is fun for what it is, but it doesn’t offer much past the core mechanic. Sure you’ll enjoy it for an hour or so, but the repetitive gameplay and lack of reward or discovery with exploration will likely kill any excitement mustered up in the game’s early goings.
Fez is a game that has become an indie-darling, it isn’t a great game by any means, nor is it an inherently bad game. This is a middling effort from developer Polytron and one that doesn’t exactly earn the hype that has surrounded it. This is one game best left for the indie gaming fanatics.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
“Gangsta” began its run back in 2010 and, to this day, has 24 chapters under its belt. Unfortunately though Western countries haven’t had a chance to get their hands on it…until now. After fours years, fans of Manga outside of Japan can finally indulge themselves thanks to the people over at “Viz Signature” and Australia’s very own “Madman Entertainment”. With detailed visuals and a twisted mob-based storyline I found it hard to believe this didn’t make it to Western audiences earlier but we have it now and that’s all that really matters so let’s focus on that.
Story
Set in the city of “Ergastulum” – a dark and twisted urban area filled with gangsters, thieves, prostitutes and everything in-between – the story of “Gangsta” follows two men; Worick and Nic working under the name “Handymen” who will do almost anything for some cash. From cleaning your gutters to killing your neighbour, the “Handymen” will do it…as long as you offer them the right price. Volume 1 follows the men as they enter into a mafia turf war, it seems as though a bunch of new “gangsters” have decided to call some of the already-occupied streets of “Ergalstrum” their home and the mafia family who’ve owned the the area for quite some time aren’t ready to back down. Between them and the cops, Worick and Nic find themselves between a rock and a hard place but this is just the beginning of the storm that’s stirring above “Ergalstrum”, one that will be remembered for generations to come.
That’s just the start though. What I found to be fantastic about “Gangsta” is that it doesn’t treat the audience like idiots, it doesn’t straight up tell you what is happening and how, it simply shows you what it needs to and lets you figure out the rest. The greatest example of this is Worick and Nic’s past, how they first met and how they came to be what they are today. There are plenty of mafia-based animes, mangas, tv shows and movies around, we’re in no “mobster movie” drought right now but it is storylines like the one within “Gangsta” that really rejuvenates a love for a classic sub-genre like the mob film. Within the world of “Gangsta” there are certain people who are referred to as “Tags”.
They’re called this simply because of the dog tags they wear which works as a kind of warning to those around them. These “Tags”, though almost entirely shrouded in mystery throughout the first volume, are said to be unimaginably powerful beings. To have character types like them in a seemingly normal/realistic storyline is something that I happen to be quite a fan of and something that I believes adds a certain “twist” or “spice” to what would usually be your standard storyline. As of the first volume nothing much has really come to light about the story as a whole but the foundation has clearly been laid out so I can only imagine the coming chapters and volumes are going to go above and beyond what we saw in this one.
Visuals
I’m a huge fan of the visual style of “Gangsta” an I think maybe because it has aesthetics that are actually quite similar to that of “Fullmetal Alchemist”…though the two really shouldn’t be compared. I’ve always been a fan of the grittier-looking mangas as opposed to the more “cutesy”style we see an abundance of and “Gangsta” really has the art of drawing “grit” mastered, in my opinion. Character illustrations are fairly clean for the most part but all it takes is an intense situation to have the visual style change from clean to that of an extremely detailed and dark image. Kohske, the author/illustrator, clearly takes a great deal of pride in his work with the non-combat scenes being pretty much as well-drawn as the combat scenes which we all know is when a manga (and even anime) gives itself a chance to truly show how good it looks.
Something I think is both brilliant and daring about “Gangsta” is that Nic (one of the two main characters) is actually deaf so he spends most conversations communicating in sign language which is shown by both proper sign language movements but also by a black-coloured speech box with white wording. Nic rarely speaks but when he does the lettering and speech box are drawn to be quite rough with each latter varying in size, I fell like this was the perfect way to portray his, somewhat, inability to speak and the trouble he puts himself through to verbally communicate with those in the manga that cannot communicate to him via sign language. Characters have large features, most notably their hands, and it seems to work as an art style so damn well but I can’t exactly put my finger on it as to why it does. Aesthetically I cannot complain about “Gangsta”, it does everything it needs to be a good manga and sometimes it even goes above and beyond.
Overall
“Gangsta” Volume 1, perfectly kicks off the series. It not only gives you a glimpse at both the comedic and action-packed sides of the series, it also gives you just enough information to spark an interest in the past of these characters while simultaneously lighting a fire in your heart that is fueled by your want for the next volume. A good manga has to have two things; well-illustrated scenes and a compelling story, “Gangsta” manages to achieve both those feats in the first volume as it lays down as much as it possibly can in anticipation of the next release. Dealing with dark themes like organised crime, segregation, prostitution and violence, “Gangsta” is a pure mobster story with enough over-exaggeration to keep audiences glued to the page. What else can I say?
SEGA has announced that Company of Heroes 2 will see a new standalone multiplayer offering: The Western Front Armies.
Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies takes players back to the Western Front first introduced in the original Company of Heroes. Of course, being a new addition to the franchise, this jaunt back into familiar territory introduces two unique collections of new content: the US Forces and the German Oberkommando West. Each individual army will also be available as a standalone purchase via digital download, providing new players with a minimal entry point into the massive Company of Heroes 2 multiplayer community.
Each of these armies presents distinctive tactical gameplay options, along with new infantry, team weapons, vehicles, abilities and upgrades on a total of eight seasonal multiplayer maps. Also included is a new progression system that introduces even more unique content into the game and enables players to dive deeper into the tactical and strategic aspects of the game than ever before. All Company of Heroes 2 players can then battle across 31 maps (along with more than 1000 community maps available on Steam Workshop) in auto-match multiplayer, regardless of what content they already own, even if they have just purchased the new Western Front Armies. Definitely a cool feature.
Greg Wilson ( Executive Producer at Relic Entertainment) said:
“We know how much fans love the setting of the original game and we have responded to their request to revisit the Western Front. By offering Western Front focused content to Company of Heroes 2, we are giving players a brand new set of tactical options that significantly expand their multiplayer experience. At the same time, it has never been easier for new players to get access to our vast multiplayer community.”
The Western Front Armies is set to launch in June and will be available on Steam $29.95. So grab your weapons and jump back into the fray as Company of Heroes returns to battle. The war begins again.
Compatibility: Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
Description
Note: Requires iOS 7 or later.
Play as Captain America and lead your S.H.I.E.L.D. Strike Team as they struggle to contain a massive global attack by several nefarious criminal organizations. Stop the attacks and then take the battle to your enemies.
Captain America must use all his tactical skill as he commands his Strike Team to combat threats on every front. Grow your agents into a potent fighting force, and when the odds are against you, call in Black Widow and Falcon to help turn the tide.
Expose the villains behind these brazen attacks, unravel their plans and discover how the Winter Soldier fits into their scheme.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier requires an Internet connection.
INTENSE COMBAT ACTION WITH LOTS OF TACTICAL OPTIONS
> Lead your Strike Team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents
> Battle your way through various enemy types using force or guile
> Make clever use of your indestructible shield and skills as a Super-Soldier and an Avenger
> Call on The Avengers for support
100% MARVEL EXPERIENCE
> An absorbing original story co-written by Marvel Comics writer Christos Gage
> Face off against iconic villains such as King Cobra, Taskmaster, Puff Adder, the Winter Soldier and more
> Art and graphics inspired directly by the comics
PLAY WITH YOUR FRIENDS
> Asynchronous multiplayer: Join a Clan and battle rival players!
> Climb the league leaderboards
> Earn cool rewards in Limited-Time Events
MANAGE YOUR BASE AND GROW IN POWER
> Enhance your agents and weapons for optimal performance in the field
> Learn new fighting techniques to supercharge Cap’s attacks
> Unlock and upgrade Captain America’s suits
> Research skills and items that will help you advance faster
_____________________________________________
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Another month brings with it another offering of free games thanks to Sony’s PlayStation Plus game service for all of their current consoles. The games coming to the Australian market are all listed below and will be available to download from April 2nd.
PS4 – Mercenary Kings – Developed by Tribute Games and touted as a cross between the old school 2D shooter Metal Slug and Borderlands. This title has yet to be released so will be available for free just one day after it’s launch. Check out the trailer below.
PS3 – Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 – Developed by Konami this is the biggest rival to FIFA in the soccer market and a great one at that. Pro EVO soccer 2014 is built upon the FOX engine and features tighter ball control than ever before..
PS3 – Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time – One of Sony’s most famous mascots in Sly Cooper. The story goes that a time-travelling villain is scouring the past to pinch the Cooper clan’s biggest burgling secrets. Compatible with Cross Buy, Cross Play and Cross Save so you can play it on the Vita and continue your adventure.
PS Vita – Hotline Miami – Assume the role of a mysterious antihero on this 2D top down shooter that has won many awards and is also compatible with Cross Buy.
PS Vita – MotoGP 2013– Step into the shoes of a rider in career mode challenging you to rise from your Moto 3 wildcard entry to take on the very best in the MotoGP championship covering every racer of the season.
To check out reviews or the latest new on any of those titles mentioned, please click the gold links. The following titles will no longer be available come April 2nd so make sure to download them before then if you plan on playing them. Once you download them you can play them for as long as you have an active PlayStation Plus subscription.
PS3 – Dead Nation Apocalypse Edition
PS3 – Tomb Raider
PS3 – Borderlands 2
PS Vita – Smart As
PS Vita – Pixeljunk Monsters Ultimate HD
This month saw a very different line up from the North American store, which will receive Batman: Arkham City, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse for the PS3 and Stealth Inc.: A Clone in the Dark, Pixeljunk Monsters Ultimate HD and Velocity Ultra for the Vita. Let us know in the comments what games (if any) you will be downloading this month.
After the controversial launch of Diablo III with the Auction House and the major gameplay changes compared to Diablo II, Blizzard set out to address many long-time fans’ feedback with the Reaper of Souls expansion. The much despised auction house was shut down in favour of a new loot system, along with a complete revamp of the difficulty settings. Though all Diablo III players would benefit from the new gameplay changes, owners of Reaper of Souls would be able to take advantage of the new game content such as the new Act V storyline, Adventure Mode, and the Crusader class.
Story
After Diablo’s untimely defeat at the end of Diablo III, a new villain has stepped up to challenge the Nephalem. The archangel Malthael has reappeared and rebranded himself the Angel of Death. After Malthael attacks Tyrael and the members of the reformed Horadrim Order and steals the Black Soulstone, the Nephalem is summoned to the city of Westmarch to save the day.
Casting an archangel as the villain of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls is a nice change of pace from the usual demon enemies. The new plot continues to explore the story of the angelic realm, which brings some more balance to the overall lore. From the large overarching plot down to the small idle conversations in town, the writing is top notch. In fact, I found the small talk in town to be the most impressive. The humorous snippets serve as an excellent foil to the grim world of Diablo.
I really appreciate the fact Reaper of Souls provides optional side quests for several of the NPCs which caps off their ongoing stories from the base game. I found myself rather attached to my followers after spending hours listening to their dialogue while slaughtering thousands of demons at their side. Finally being able to see their story come to a close was one of the most satisfying moments for me in the game.
Gameplay
Personally, Diablo III was a bit of a disappointment. The game that was released at launch was not terrible, but I felt it was not up to Blizzard’s standards. There was a large laundry list of things that needed to be done post-launch to bring the game up to snuff. The Auction House, in both its real money and gold forms, was a much hated part of the game. Classes needed serious balancing and long term replayability needed to be addressed.
After almost two years of tweaking, adding, and adjusting has culminated in Reaper of Souls and patch 2.0. As a note, it is impossible to review Reaper of Souls without addressing the gameplay changes that patch 2.0 brought to the game. The gameplay changes was implemented for all players via the patch, while the new additional game content was made available for Reaper of Souls owners.
With the removal of the auction house, a new loot system has been implemented in the game, known as Loot 2.0. The amount of overall loot players will encounter has dropped, but the quality of loot that is suited to the player’s character will now constitute a vast majority of the drops. Those returning to the Diablo III will notice the difference instantly. There are less trips to the auction house to empty the bags of rare items and less trips to town to sell/salvage the rest. Legendary drop rates were buffed significantly and made Bind on Account, except for a small two hour window where legendary items can be traded to party members present during the item’s drop. The new loot system may be familiar to those who played Diablo IIIon the consoles, as Loot 2.0 is a tweaked version of the console system. Loot 2.0 is makes for a more satisfying game. Players are now rewarded with appropriate loot for playing the game, instead of grinding enough gold to buy the right loot on the auction house.
The difficulty system has been reworked to better scale to player levels. Normal, Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno has been replaced with Normal, Hard, Expert, Master, and Torment I-VI. The game now scales the difficulty to the host’s level, while providing better bonuses as the difficulty level rises. Torment is the only difficulty that drops the new level 70 legendary items. I found the new difficulty system scales at a smooth rate for the most part, but the difficulty jump between Master and Torment I is a bit steep.
Reaper of Souls brought new content in form of a new act, the Adventure Mode, the Crusader class, and a ten level boost to the level cap. Act V’s length is about on par if not slightly longer than the previous acts in the game. In comparison to previous acts, I find the dungeon design to be more maze-like. The city of Westmarch has become one of my favourite places in the entire game with its many small optional side quests and its close quarters. Malthael is a fantastic end boss to cap a strong Act V. I personally found him to be a much more technically challenging boss compared to previous bosses and an entertaining fight.
The real bulk of Reaper of Souls’ replayability rests in the Adventure Mode. Once Act V has been completed, players complete random bounties in different areas in Adventure Mode. These bounties are short 10-15 minute exercises that can be chained together for a bonus chest with extra loot. Blood Shards and Rift Keystones drop as additional rewards for completing the bounties. The Blood Shards can be traded in for random items that have a small chance of rewarding the player with a legendary items. Five Rift Keystones can be used to open up a Nephalem Rift that will generate a random dungeon where players will kill enemies until a Rift Guardian appears. These guardians are an extremely powerful version of a random mob in the game. Upon death, they will drop a generous amount of loot, money, and experience. The Nephalem Rifts usually take thirty minutes or longer to clear, and provide lots of opportunity for marathon runs of Diablo III. Adventure Mode is a much needed addition to the game that provides relief from grinding the same campaign over and over again.
Reaper of Souls builds on Loot 2.0 by adding new items scaled for the extra 10 levels. Additionally, the Mystic has been introduced to the game. For a price, she is able to transmogrify items to look like the basic weapon models in the game and any legendary item previously looted. More importantly, the Mystic is able to enchant weapons by replacing an unwanted stat with a new random stat. Considering the important of gear with the correct stats in Diablo III, the Mystic is an important addition that will turn amazing gear into the perfect item.
Diablo III’s cast of characters had an interesting hole. The Paladin from Diablo II was replaced by the Monk. The archetypical heavily armoured warrior of light was demoted from a playable class to a Templar follower. Reaper of Souls sought to answer demands for the return of the heavily plated warrior by introducing the Crusader. On paper, the Crusader is a great idea. They are heavily armoured warriors that wield mostly physical and holy abilities to punish their enemies. It is clear that a lot of inspiration has been drawn from the Paladin class from World of Warcraft. However, on launch the Crusader is extremely underpowered and needs some serious balancing compared to Diablo III’s original classes. It is fair to point out the older classes has underdone almost two years of balancing and tweaking, while the Crusader has only seen several months of beta testing. Currently, the Crusader seems to be struggling with overall low DPS compared to other classes and a seriously underpowered melee experience. Although there are some really appealing ideas for the Crusader, the class needs serious work to better balance the Crusader compared to the other classes in the game.
Visuals
Reaper of Souls’s brings some new visual design with the new areas found in Act V. The city of Westmarch easily takes the crown as the best area in the game, breaking away from the traditional caves and dungeons in favour of a dense urban area. Blizzard has designed the new enemies to reflect the fallen angel motif, though the player will also plough through legions of familiar zombies, skeletons, and ghouls on their way to Malthael. The cinematics continue to be blockbuster quality, easily standing on par with the giants of Hollywood.
On the technical side, Reper of Souls is no more taxing than Diablo III. The game ran just as well the pre-expansion game and has equally low minimum system requirements. With the settings turned up to max, the Reaper of Souls still looks great.
Audio
Blizzard continues its tradition of fantastic orchestral scores with Reaper of Souls. The music is moody and gives the game an epic feel. The voice acting continues to be of excellent quality. The sound effects are spot on, and big battles provide a very satisfying wall of sound.
Overall
Hands down, Diablo III: Reaper of Souls is the game Blizzard should have delivered two years ago. The game brings the much needed changes to the itemization system, the death of the despised Auction House, more sensible replayability options, and a great Act V to boot. Diablo fans that were turned off by Diablo III should really consider coming back to the game and giving Reaper of Souls a chance to change their minds. Though the Crusader class needs some serious balancing, Blizzard delivers a highly polished experience that is a pleasure to play.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
The Last Tinker: City Of Colorsis a new upcoming action adventure title from Mimimi Productions and Unity Games (the publishers of titles such as Archangel, the iOS and Android Fantasy Action title). The game touches on current day issues like culture and racism. It really provides a breath of fresh air when traversing Colortown, the city where Koru, the main character of the game, has to overcome the Bleakness in order to restore color to the world. The game’s graphics are very cute and colorful.
In The Last Tinker: City Of Colors, Koru lives in the slums of a place known as Colortown, which is a small town in Tinkerworld. Anything can be built from paper, glue, and color. The opening scene starts off with the description of Tinkerworld and some nice pictures of the world created by paper and glue. However, the city of Colortown is in danger as the city divides itself into districts based on color. Only in the outer areas of the city are the people still acting normal, but as Koru discovers, he’ll start a chain of events that will lead his world into trouble. The narration is excellent and really provides a light-hearted atmosphere as you begin the game.
Right off as you start, your screen is filled with different colors and Koru’s home. Tap shows up and tells us to get ready for the race and that he’ll train us on the way. As you get acquainted with the movement scheme, Tap guides you with what buttons to press or to use. WASD is to guide Koru around. The mouse is your method of looking around your environment. The space key is used to sprint and hop onto other platforms, making navigation in this game quite easy. Besides running and jumping everywhere, you’ll have to maneuver across tight ropes and up ladders to make your way to your objective.
Additionally, combat in the game is quite easy to understand. Using your left-mouse button, Koru will punch in front of him. Clicking continuously will lead to him chaining a combo together, where the fifth attack deals more damage. So far in the build that we’ve received, the combat seems to be pretty self-explanatory. You can swap targets in the middle of attacking, leading to more coverage if you’re being overwhelmed.
In the build, your main goal is to earn 500 Crystals (the currency used in The Last Tinker: City Of Colors) so that you can enter the race. One part of the journey is to go through a fighting workshop with Brik. The lizardman teaches a bunch of rookies the art of fighting and how to become good at it. To complete his workshop, you have to complete 3 different objectives. One of them is to hit your target 5 times without hitting the same one twice. Doing this was fairly easy, as you only had to adjust your character’s point of view to get Koru to attack another target. Your target will be highlighted yellow, so it makes tracking your movements fairly easy. The second objective is to dodge roll, which you can do with your right-mouse button. Using this to escape your enemy’s attack is important to beat the game. The last objective was to hit a punching bag 15 times in a row. Finally, you had to take on the other new recruits by yourself, which is actually quite entertaining once you start fighting them. You have to dodge and swap attacks between them to make sure they don’t get a hit on you. Once you’re finished collecting the crystals, you enter the race. One of your main rivals, Bolzo, shows up to discourage you. As the race begins, Bolzo cheats and takes off before the sound off. As you twist and turn around the trail, Bolzo tries to stop you with whatever trick he has.
Through all of his tricks, Bolzo manages to get first place in the race. Tap calls him out on this and Bolzo simply gives up the prize, but promises to take revenge on Koru and Tap. As you make your way back to your hideout, Bolzo and his goons show up. Bolzo punches Tap and retreats, leaving you to deal with his 8 or so buddies. As you seek medical attention for your friend, the Purple Spirit shows up at your home. The Purple Spirit is one of the world’s Color Spirit. Noticing the trouble that’s been brewing in Colortown, it seeks Koru’s help to fix the problem. Koru is a tinker, one of the last ones. Because of this, Koru has the power to fix the problems that’s been infesting Colortown.
Overall, the game has huge potential. The brief gameplay demo that we’ve been able to try has so much to offer. From the amazing graphics and the detail that’s put into it, to the soundtrack that really set the atmosphere for the game, Mimimi Productions has set a high standard for this game, and they’ve delivered with this first build. I’m excited for what’s to come during the summer as they release the full version of this game. The puzzle and adventure/action elements of the game is sure to appeal to gamers of all types. What’s more important is the very important messages and themes that the game is trying to impart within its player, which I respect. The Last Tinker: City Of Colors is an absolute delight, and is easily on my to-buy list when it comes out this summer. With over 8 hours of gameplay on the full version, it’s no wonder why the title won the “Best Game In Show, Audience Choice” award at the Casual Connect 2014 conference in Amsterdam. If interested, make your way to their website here to get more information on the game.
“Maya The Bee” was actually first released as a book for children all the way back in 1912. The book’s original writer was a German man by the name of Waldemar Bonsels who I guarantee would have never imagined his creation would come so far. “Maya The Bee” has been almost every single form of media throughout its run; comic books, a tv series, a film, even an opera written for children and now, in this day and age, a series of video games. The first “Maya The Bee” video game was released for the Gameboy Colour back in 1999 and the latest one to be released is the one this review is about; “Maya The Bee: The Ant’s Quest”.
Story
The original “Maya The Bee” book had a storytelling style quite different to that of this game, not that it is a bad thing though, it’s simply just interesting. The book dealt with many real-life issues like nationalism, racism and the long for individualism and freedom in a “hive-mind” society. “Maya The Bee: The Ant’s Quest” jumped to the other side of the storytelling spectrum, instead of having the game focus on more hard-hitting subjects and themes it decided to shoot more towards a younger audience with the story simply being; “The ant Queen is sick and she needs some medicine that’s made up of different fruits, since the ants don’t know what to do without their queen it is up to Maya to jump in and save the day”. Once again; it isn’t bad that the stories are so drastically different, the first book was published over 100 years ago and so much has happened in between. Clearly some changes were made. Personally, for an mobile title like this, the small bit of story it gives you is all you really need. It doesn’t often come up and there’s no real story “progress” so really you aren’t missing much by totally ignoring the short opening sequence.
Gameplay
“Maya The Bee” plays similar to Nintendo’s “Pikmin” series. It was clearly inspired seeing as the developers themselves have related their game to that of “Pikmin”. You play as Maya who flies around environments recruiting different types of ants, each of which do different things; the soldier ants fight enemy wasps, the worker ants break down obstacles and the transporter ants carry things like boulders and the fruits you need to bring back to the ant hill. You’re tasked with going through different levels, solving puzzles, finding secret treasures and beating the clock but since your average time to finish a level is somewhere near 500 seconds, you can pretty much always take your time.
There are bosses to fight throughout the game and I actually enjoyed going up against them because the way you combat them is quite old-school and very clever. For example: The very first boss is a huge wasp that dashes at you, breaking down rubble and carrying boulders into the middle of the arena works to stun the wasp when he runs into it. Once he’s knocked out you just sick your soldier ants on him and, hey presto, the guy is done for! I did enjoy this game but I also found it to get boring after a while. A sense of monotony did loom over me while playing but going at the game in short bursts is the way I feel it is to be played but puzzle-freaks will probably go at this title with everything they’ve got and I guarantee they’ll love it. It’s a mix between a puzzle game and an adventure game so tread lightly unless this type of game is your “thing”.
Visuals
Simply: The game looks great. Yes, there are a few key visuals that are a little bit “lackluster”, for lack of a better word, but it’s overall visuals really make up for what solitary visuals lack. The only thing I took a major dislike to was how Maya herself wasn’t entirely animated well. Her character model had a great deal of edges when when the developers really should have put the time and effort into smoothing her out as much as possible. The only reason this was a big deal for me is because most of her idol animations make her out to look quite angry only because her cute, round eyes weren’t as smooth as they should be and caused her to seem as though she was furrowing her brow.
For the most part though the game was well-polished and Maya herself is one of the most adorable characters I’ve seen as of late, I can honestly see child fans falling for her cutesy charm hook, line and sinker. The game has nice, vivid colours and I was very impressed by it all. Something I found odd was that the game didn’t seem entirely optimised for iPad use, while playing on my iPad the certain images looked stretched and weren’t as crisp as what it would look like on the iPhone or iPod Touch. While I can’t exactly take away big points for that, it would have been nice to be able to see a beautiful, more detailed version of the game on a bigger device like the iPad.
Audio
The game has a nice little soundtrack but unfortunately it isn’t anything special. What I enjoyed the most about the game auditorally was Maya’s voice, though her voice actor never actually spoke, she did make cute sounds for when Maya is reacting to certain situations and it just added to the likability of the little bee. Though, in saying that the soundtrack wasn’t anything special, it did do a good job for the game that suited it very well. It wasn’t over-encompassing in any way, the tracks were quite light and made for quite a comforting vibe. even when fighting the bad guys you never truly felt like you were playing through some sort of hostile game so the music did what it was meant to do. Kids will love this game, the music is “tip-toey” (as I like to say), it gives off a nice vibe and it matches the entire game very well.
Overall
Adult or child, you’ll find something you like about this game. Though clearly directed more towards children I wouldn’t advise for adults to pass this one up. If you are a fan of games like “Pikmin” and are looking for, let’s say, a mobile version of the game then I’d recommend “Maya The Bee: The Ant’s Quest” to you because, essentially, it’s “Pikmin Lite” and it plays very well. While its price may be a little steep for the more casual mobile game players, if you love puzzle games and cute aesthetics than it is well worth the price. If you can look past the little things that aren’t entirely “up to scratch” you’ll enjoy this game through and through so maybe it’s the one for you.
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