Did anyone else just hear a bunch of 90’s kids gasp for air or is that just me? Don’t bother doing a double check because you read correctly! Charizard is back!
In the latest episode of Pokemon (Episode 777), named “Burn, Charizard! VS Dragonite”, Ash and Co. come across a Kanto-Themed fair where he lays eyes on a chipper, little Charmander that reminds him of a certain other Charmander that was once at his side.
With a quick call to Prof. Oak Ash requests he send his old pal Charizard to him and is once again reunited with his dearest and most powerful Pokemon. Sparks fly once Ash’s Charizard and Iris’ Dragonite meet and within an instant a rivalry is born! Two dragons; One being, by far, the biggest bancho of the Pokemon world, the other is the epitome of rage.
The coming fight will be one that viewers wont soon forget! I, for one, am extremely excited to see Charizard back in action and hopefully (Probably) kicking all sorts of arse!
Yesterday we reportedabout a special event held in Akihabara where Gust revealed that they were working on another Atelier game. At the time, we saw some small photographed footage of the game and learned that it is currently being called “Project A15.”
Well today the teaser trailer for Project A15 was uploaded to the internet and you can check it out below and an image showing the complete character design of the main character has also been revealed which you can see to the right.
Also it is now known that Hidari, the character designer for Vividred Operation, Sasami-San and Fractale, has returned to work on the character design and Rie Murakawa who voices Vividred Operation’s Aoi will be voicing the yet to be named heroine of the game. More information is still set to be released next week on March 28th’s issue of Dengeki PlayStation magazine.
Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Developer: Division2 Publisher: 5pb Platform:XBLA Release Date:February 27, 2013 Price:800 MSP – Available Here
Overview: Many people may recognize the name Phantom Breaker but may not know where they have heard of it before. Well that is because Phantom Breaker itself is a 2D fighting game that was meant to be released over a year ago, but never made it to stores. However what has made it to digital stores at least is Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds. In what has become an interesting trend, the game has been released in the West by the original Japanese publisher 5pb. Is this unique looking 2D brawler worth your time? Let’s find out.
Story: I find myself in a rather unique situation with Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds’ story mode. You see, while knowledge of the events in the main Phantom Breaker fighting game isn’t required to enjoy Battle Grounds, it does provide some additional information and enhance the minimalistic story of PB:BG. That being said, while I was able to experience Phantom Breaker’s storyline, almost no one else has been able to.
Anyways, Phantom has continued to plague the cast of Phantom Breaker and with one of their sister’s kidnapped; Mikoto, Waka, Yuzuha and Itsuki set out on a mission to track Phantom down and rescue the sister while also putting a stop to his plans. However upon battling the first of Phantom’s minions, the girls are sucked into an alternate world where their abilities have been taken away from them and they must start from scratch.
As mentioned before, knowledge of the events in the past game isn’t required to understand the storyline for PB:BG but it certainly helps. Therefore many consumers may find that the story is not only a bit confusing and vague, but it also doesn’t play a big role in the game to begin with. It is worth noting however that all story aspects are removed from the game during co-op play, so those wanting to experience the game’s story unfortunately have to play solo.
Visuals: PB:BG has been given the old-school sprite treatment and the whole title oozes with charm thanks to this. While the enemy types may be quite repetitive, their absurd designs such as cat-eared otaku, ganguro girls, odd looking monsters and more, make up for the repetition. A lot of attention has been paid to making sure most of the game’s environments are highly detailed and anyone familiar with Japanese culture will probably recognize numerous jokes or areas in the game. Though it is worth noting that one stage does suffer from heavy palette swapping and compared to past areas in the game, it is a stark contrast of quality.
As for the characters themselves, they are presented in chibi-sprite form where they look simply fantastic. The four initial playable characters and subsequent unlockable fighters are designed exactly like their fighting game counterparts and their attack animations are fluidly handled.
Audio: While not a major player thanks to the fact that the game’s story is lost in co-op and may confuse many, it is worth noting that the game features a Japanese voice track where characters have retained their original voice actors. As for the game’s soundtrack, players are presented in high quality old-school chiptune music which fits the game’s aesthetic perfectly.
Gameplay: As players enter into the game for the first time they will be presented with an easy to learn combat system that actually is rather complex. There are various weak to strong attacks as well as special moves that can be performed with only a few button presses. In PB:BG there is a front line and a back line where players will be battling enemies and swapping between these lines can sometimes be essential for fighting tougher opponents.
Anyways, when players first start off they are given an opportunity to use their chosen character at their strongest. They will have access to their chosen fighter’s entire move-set and upgrades; however it is merely a preview of things to come since once the first level is cleared, their chosen character will be reset to level 1 with the most basic of attacks.
The only way to gain your skills back is to defeat enemies and complete levels to earn XP. Each level up provides a set number of skill points which can be used to either upgrade your character’s speed, power, defense or unlock more of their moves. The system is handled well enough though it is worth noting that if you are playing in co-op, especially online co-op, you cannot actually apply your skill points to your character. This means that if you were to go through multiple levels without taking a break you will be stuck with a very underpowered character.
The four playable characters, Mikoto, Waka, Yuzuha and Itsuki, as well as the two unlockable fighters M and Cocoa have had nearly their entire moveset transferred over from Phantom Breaker into Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds. This means that each character has a unique move-set that has numerous combo options and potential to juggle the many enemies you will come across meaning that while simply mashing X is a possibility, there are a lot of options available for players.
In Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds players are given the standard story mode, four player co-op that can be both online and local co-op, though it is worth noting that the online co-op can be a bit laggy at times and since players cannot jump into an already existing game, it is sometimes hard to find three others to play with. When playing with three local friends however, the game ran flawlessly even with four fighters on the screen at one time.
Outside of the standard arcade modes, there is a Battleground option where up to four players can choose a character and battle it out against their friends. There is also a mode that allows players to try and complete stages with the fastest time and highest score. You may have noticed that I mentioned a few unlockable characters earlier; well it is worth noting that they cannot be used in normal story mode, but they are usable in the time-attack and battleground mode.
Overall: Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds is an unconventional looking brawler that does have its faults, but beneath these faults PB:BG oozes with charm and a combat system deep enough to fit right in with a normal fighting game. With a decent amount of game-time available, a nice selection of fighters with different move-sets to play as and the option to play alongside friends in fast-paced combo packed combat Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds is a fun retro-anime beat’em up that definitely is worth a look.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Just the other day, we let you in on Yacht Club Games opening up for business. Of course these little developer was founded from some of the best at WayForward, and now we have something extremely exciting to look forward to. Yacht Club Games have now started a kickstarter for their first project by the name of Shovel Knight, which has that retro vibe we expect, as well as some interesting gameplay mechanics that will come to life as players progress.
Here is a bit more info:
Our first game is Shovel Knight, a sweeping classic action adventure game with awesome gameplay, memorable characters, and an 8-bit retro aesthetic. It’s a hot mashup of new and old that may remind you of Mega Man, Castlevania, or Dark Souls! You play as the eponymous Shovel Knight, a small knight with a huge quest. Shovel Knight has come to this valley with two goals: to defeat the evil Enchantress and save his lost beloved. He wields a ShovelBlade; a multipurpose weapon whose techniques have now been lost to the ages. Always honest and helpful, Shovel Knight is a shining example of the code of Shovelry: Slash Mercilessly and Dig Tirelessly!
I personally don’t follow the whole Kickstarter scene too much, but this is the first project in a long time that I believe in strongly. Why should you donate? Well, this is your chance to be a part of something big. Not only will you get that warm and fuzzy feeling of helping a developer with promise, but a good portion of the rewards for donating are letting you be a part of the process, with one tier allowing you to have your pixelated face in the game.
Check out the screenshots and trailer below, and go ahead- visit that Kickstarter page and hit donate if you can, as Shovel Knight is one game that should and will soon be on everybody’s radar.
The first official Mobile game based on the popular Dragon Ball Z anime has been announced.
The game is simply called “Tap Battle”and was revealed in this weeks V-Jump Magazine. Very few details were revealed about gameplay, but the magazine confirmed you can have intense battles simply by tapping the screen and that you can play against the computer or against a friend.
Dragon Ball Tap Battle will be available from the 25th of March on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) devices and higher. The game is also set to arrive on iOS at a later date. The game will cost ¥350 Yen (approx. $3.50). Unfortunately, it is not clear if the game will be available to download Internationally or only in the Japan region.
The Dragon Ball series has been seeing a revival lately on the back of the upcoming film Battle of Gods set to release at the end of this month.
Although this game probably won’t be enough to recover the bad reputation amounted by a streak of low quality game entries in the franchise, it does look like a fun distraction to play while you’re waiting for the bus. Let us know in the comments if you can’t wait to battle on your Android device!
It seems that the Hyperdimension Neptunia series is doing extremely well in Japan. So well in fact that not only is Compile Heart working on Hyperdimension Idol Neptunia PP, an idol type of game for the Vita, but it has just been revealed at the Dengeki Game Festival that was held in Akihabara today that two more Vita titles are being worked on.
The first game revealed is actually a game that seems to star Noir, the PS3 type character, as the main character and it is called Chou Megami Shinkou Noel Gekishin Black Heart which I will not try to translate at the moment and a game called Chou Ji Jigen Game Neptune Re; Birth 1 which is a bit easier to translate into Hyperdimension Neptunia Re; Birth 1. While no details were revealed for Re; Birth 1, “Neptune, Restart” was shown after the game’s reveal so it could be a Vita port of the first Neptunia title.
It is interesting to note that a gameplay video and opening video for Idol Neptunia PP was also shown off, but Dengekidid not state what was revealed.
It looks like fans of the Atelier games won’t have to worry about the series continuing. Today during a DengekiGame Festival event in Akihabara, Gust announced that they are currently working on a project that is currently called “Project A15” and more details would be revealed March 28th.
Last time we heard of a “Project A” game it was an Atelier title and considering Project A14 was Atelier Ayesha, it is very likely that this will be a new entry in the Dusk series. The game’s protagonist was teased in a short video where it has been shown that she will have pink pig-tails, white knee-high stockings and a black skirt. Expect more info next week.
Darkstalkers Resurrection Developer:Iron Galaxy Studios Publisher: Capcom Platform:PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 (Reviewed) Release Date: March 13, 2013 Price: 1200 MSP ($14.99) – Available Here
Overview: Over the last generation of consoles, many fighting franchises have either been continued with current-day versions. Then there are those franchises which have faded into memory and been succeeded by another as the development team moved forward with new ideas. However one fighting game franchise has always been close to a number of gamers’ hearts despite not appearing in the West in eight years. That series is Darkstalkers and now Capcom has chosen to give the title a little resurrection with their most recent release of the aptly named Darkstalkers Resurrection. Is this two game collection worth a download or should it have stayed in its grave? Let’s find out.
Story: Considering the two games collected in Darkstalkers Resurrection are Night Warriors: Darkstalkers Revenge (Darkstalkers 2) and Darkstalkers 3 which were originally released in 1995 and 1997 respectively, one shouldn’t expect any semblance of a storyline with these games.
Instead players are presented with the rudimentary arcade mode nearly all fighters from the ‘90s employed where the only time any semblance of a story appeared was once the player beat the arcade mode with a character that was then given a brief fifteen to thirty second long closing cinematic. Since Resurrection does contain two games and the ending sequences of the two differ from one another, there is at least a bit of story to squeeze out of the ancient arcade presented story.
Visuals & Audio: While Capcom and the development team at Iron Galaxy Studios can claim that they made the game “HD” it is hard to really justify that claim at first glance until one remembers that both of these titles are over fifteen years old. Rather than providing re-drawn sprites the company has chosen to provide a number of filters that players can switch between as they play the game.
These filters are things such as smooth, crisp or even original untouched retro graphics. In fact there is even on option to turn on scan lines and place the game so that it looks like an arcade cabinet screen. This means if players choose to, they can play the game in a way that mimicked the original arcade feel many felt back in the ‘90s. With the crisp or smooth filter turned on the title may not appear fully HD, however it is still great looking thanks to a great art style featuring unique characters and impressively drawn attacks that have aged gracefully over the years.
As far as the game’s soundtrack is concerned, it seems to contain all of the various stage music and bits of theme song for certain characters that fans may remember and each track is crisply presented during combat while the sound effects are still top notch.
Gameplay: As players begin the game they will be presented with Darkstalkers 2 off the bat but can easily swap between the two games with the back or select button on the controller depending on the platform. It is interesting to note that Capcom has added a multitude of options to Darkstalkers Resurrection but for some reason, a couple of these additions are split between games. The Tutorial Mode where players can learn each character’s move-set is only offered in 3 while the various challenges that players can tackle for each character are only offered in 2.
Both sets have been given a number of bonuses that can be unlocked as the player fights and completes various challenges, such as throwing opponents a certain number of times, winning with certain attacks and more. These challenges provide XP which in turn levels the player’s offline rank and provides points to unlock various bits of concept art, ending movies and a bit more.
Before I discuss the game’s themselves it is worth noting that neither game has been rebalanced in any form. This was to keep the experience as authentic as possible but it does mean that there are some very noticeable character tiers established thanks to the missing rebalance. However thanks to the aforementioned tutorial mode it is possible to learn even some of the weaker character’s move-sets.
Both titles included on the package play relatively similar to one another though Darkstalkers 3 sees the inclusion of numerous additions such as the ability to recover some health if you can avoid taking damage for a period of time and an interesting round mode where the fight is almost instantly restarted once one player’s health bar is depleted. This means that if you were to knock out an opponent while at half health, they will stand back up with a full health meter while yours will remain at half health which can make for some critical moments. Also both titles have unique characters on the roster alongside the standard cast, with characters such as Pyron and Donovan for Darkstalkers 2 and Lilith, Q-Bee and B.B. Hood for Darkstalkers 3.
Darkstalkers’ is designed with a six button system, three for kicks and three for punches and while it is easy to learn and there aren’t too many commands per character, stringing together combos and mastering special moves is the key to victory in this fast paced game. It is worth noting though that, since many combos require extremely precise button presses and analog stick movements, players without a fight stick of some kind may be at a disadvantage.
Both Darkstalkers titles feature fast paced combat, even more so if “Turbo” is selected in character select, and the fighting can be very intricate at times thanks to this. Newcomers to the series will likely want to spend a lot of time in tutorial mode before heading online and perhaps looking into the game’s tier system to watch out for certain move spams.
Did I mention online? Yes, Capcom has offered players a number of online modes including lobby support for eight players, a tournament option and your basic ranked matches. The netcode for the game seems to work flawlessly as, despite losing a ton, none of my matches were interrupted by lag or any other issues. There is even an option to upload replays to YouTube for those who enjoy that sort of thing. It is interesting to note though that thanks to the game’s not being rebalanced, there are numerous online players who will resort to using only the highest tier characters which can lead to a lack of variety online sadly.
Overall: Darkstalkers Resurrection is true to its namesake. It has resurrected the franchise in the eyes of modern gamers who may have forgotten that the series has existed. Despite offering only filters for improved graphics, the visuals in these games is still impressive and the title features numerous additions to single player and a great online option. While far from friendly to newcomers and the lack of rebalance does create a few issues, Darkstalkers Resurrection offers two solid old-school fighting games that won’t disappoint any fan of the 2D fighting genre.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Fury of the Gods Developer: Spectral Games Publisher: Chillingo Platform: iPad (Reviewed), iPhone, iPod Touch Release Date: March 7th, 2013 Price: $0.99 Buy it Here
Overview
Fury of the Gods is a tower defense game that pits angry mortals against the three brother gods Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades who respectively rule over the sky, water, and the dead. Players will unleash a variety of spells, use famous Greek mythological creatures, or simple beat down the trespassers with a vengeful finger from above to stop the intruders.
Story
After the Gods fail to deliver salvation to the mortals after a series of natural disasters, droughts, and pestilence, the mortals decide to rebel and tear down the temples dedicated to Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Besides a short cutscene while the game loads, there is no real progression to the story. The game does not really guilt you for slaying the mortals with reckless abandon, but it does not make you feel great about it either.
Gameplay
Your temple in the middle of a circular arena. Enemies will charge from all sides, climbing several possible routes to attack the temple. The temple has a limited amount of health and can deal a little bit of damage to attackers, recover a little bit of health, and start the game off with extra silver with some upgrades. Enemies are killed in three ways. Tapping on the enemies will do a small amount of damage, defensive units can be purchased to pummel nearby enemies with silver earned from killing enemies, and spells can be dragged from the skill bar on the left hand corner onto enemies. All these abilities are unlocked and upgraded with gold earned from attacks. A small amount of gold is given for an unsuccessful level and more gold is given for completion based on performance. Unfortunately, players will only get an extremely small amount of gold for replaying levels. It seems like you earn more gold by failing a challenging level versus going back to improve your old score. This really puts a huge damper onto the replayability of the game. Unless you feel like playing unlimited waves mode, there is almost zero motivation to improve your scores.
Be prepared to tap your screen more than Tap Tap Revenge. Seriously. Although there are a variety of skills and creatures to assist in the defense of your temples, the main ability is the crushing finger from gods. Unfortunately, this creates my biggest problem with Fury of the Gods. It is literally painfully repetitive. A good 75% of the game is spent tapping attackers at high speeds over and over again, ad nauseum. Although there are five spells to use, the amount of mana available to cast the spells simply cannot keep up with the amount of enemies to kill.
The controls are a mixed bag. You need to tap units directly to register the hit as if you were crushing them like the little ants they are. However, even on the iPad, the finger covers up the health bar which results in over kill or worse, not even realizing the fact you have failed to hit the enemy. On the other hand, the spells and placing movements work perfectly. The UI works well, staying out of the way.
The tutorial did an ok job. It explained the gameplay perfectly, but failed to properly explain the power ups. It resulted in me needlessly expending a few of them to figure out their effects, including the one power up that can only be purchased through an in app purchase. Ouch. I only learned the exact description of the ability when I dug around the skill purchasing menu later.
Visuals
The legendary Unreal Engine powers Fury of the Gods. The game looks fantastic on the iPad’s Retina display. It will crush your battery life and make your devices run hot. The environment is beautiful and from a distance, the units look great. The frame rate runs smoothly with no frame drops or slowdowns.
Audio
The game has four music tracks, one for each god and one for the menu. The songs tend to be hit or miss. They are a bit short and loop rather often. They are all pleasant to listen to, but I found Zeus’ music to be too intense to listen to for long lengths. The sound effects are good, sounding realistic and not too repetitive considering the nature of the game.
Overall
Fury of the Gods could have been a good game. However, repetitive gameplay, little incentives to beat old scores, and problems with the controls hamper the game. Considering the level of in app purchases already included, the game probably would have fared better as a free game versus a $0.99 purchase.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
After securing the top spot on the PSN sales for the Playstation Vita in February, Tate Multimedia has announced that they are porting their popular Urban Trial Freestyle to the Nintendo 3DS and iOS devices. The game offers game play in the form of realistic racing action; gamers traverse over 45 tracks in the games world, made up of five varied cityscapes. The game also includes highly customizable bikes, 64 custom configurations and options to change the body, wheels, and engine which offers high replay value.
But racing isn’t the only trick this game has up its sleeves, as it also offers a Stunt Mode for players to test their freestyle skills as thet go through the tracks mastering skills such as the Longest Jump and Biggest Flip. For everyone’s inner speed demon, there are also Time Check Mission; Tate has also thrown in some variables to make the races more interesting with environmental factors to watch out for that can greatly affect the race’s outcome. The game boasts advanced physics and animations to pull gamers into the action, and as you progress you unlock more bonuses such as parts, outfits, and trophies.
Urban Trial Freestyle is set to release on Nintendo 3DS and the Apple iOS family this Spring, for more information you can visit the official website or the game at www.urbantrialfreestyle.com.
