Japanese Role-Playing Games are, despite the name, not solely the product of Japan. It’s a style, and one that New Zealand indie studio Ivatrix Games have tried their hand at.
The one-man team based in Hamilton, NZ, released Mortal Legacies onto Xbox Live Indie Games last week, and it’s looking like a nice little throwback to RPGs of old.
Its story reads like you’d expect: the semi-magical kingdom of Elisia is left vulnerable after a protective artifact is stolen, and a budding young adventurer sets out to retrieve it. Players will explore Elisia, recruit companions to the cause, and fight off the invading forces of the shadow world.
At 80 MS points, it’s almost offensively cheap, so check it out.
During E3 2012, I was able to get some hands-on time with the Nintendo Wii U along with fellow editors Travis Bruno and Philip Federico. We were able to try out about 3 games, including a Nintendoland minigame, Super Mario Bros U, and the multi-player portion of ZombiU. All three of these demos featured the heavily promoted asymmetric gameplay.
First up was a Nintendoland minigame: Animal Crossing – Sweet Tooth. The object of the minigame was for up to 3 players to collect as much candy as possible, while a fourth player tried to prevent this. The ‘candy collectors’ used Wiimotes, while the fourth player used a WiiPad. The player on the WiiPad uses both analog sticks independently to control two ‘guards’ simultaneously. Whether being a guard or a collector, the gameplay was frantic and fun.; it demonstrated the potential the Wii U has. Playing as the guard was quite tough, as you have move two guards with one screen, keep track of where everyone is and be able to move each analog stick independently of each other, in addition to using a tackle button. It was a little bit like rubbing your head and patting your belly at the same time, but in a competitive environment. In addition, playing as a collector was also an adrenaline rush, as I constantly felt like I was being hunted.
Next up is Super Mario Bros U. This game showcased the Wii U’s co-op opportunities. While Travis played as Mario using a WiiMote on the TV screen, I used the WiiPad’s touch screen to place blocks across gaps so that it would be easier to beat the level. Super Mario Bros U features support for up to 4 player co-op. However, if you want to play singleplayer, you can also do that, without even having the TV operational. Travis was able to use the WiiPad’s screen to play the entire first level, as if it were a mobile gaming system. There was no complicated wire switching or button presses to use this functionality. It just worked.
While the previous two games were great fun to play no matter which controller was used, ZombiU multiplayer demonstrated the weakness that asymmetric gameplay inevitably presents. Travis Bruno chose to play as a ‘survivor’ using the Pro Controller, while I chose to be the zombie horde, using the WiiPad. Travis was able to use the television, while I used the WiiPad’s screen. My objective was to capture as many flags as possible by placing zombies anywhere on the map using an overhead view. Travis’ goal was to stop me. After we finished the demo and Travis won the round, we compared notes. I found that I was quite bored because the graphics were quite dull and the gameplay simply revolved around me waiting on my attackers to recharge. However, Travis found his part to be exhilarating, as his gameplay revolved around shooting zombies in the face using an FPS camera view. While many Wii U games will undoubtedly support quality gameplay no matter which controller is chosen, there are some games that will invariably have more exciting gameplay modes for one player vs another during asymmetric gameplay. Thus, there will always be a fight over who gets to play as the “fun character” and who is stuck playing as the “tedious character.”
Hardware
Although the WiiPad controller does feel quite large, it is pretty light and I didn’t notice it being awkward once the game started. I imagine it might get a little tough after a few hours of gameplay, but that has yet to be tested. The hand grips on the side felt really comfortable and all the buttons were really accessible. Plus, the touch screen was extremely responsive. The WiiPad will really come in handy if you want to play videogames while someone else is watching TV. Hopefully, a ton of games support this feature, as this feature is extremely nice and was a joy to experience.
As far as graphics go, they are a huge, gigantic step up from Wii graphics, as they should be. While none of the games I played had Crysis-like visuals, they did look quite good on the Wii U gamepad, as well as on 40″ HDTVs. Undoubtedly, once developers get used to the Wii U, we can expect much better visuals than what was shown at E3.
Unfortunately, I was unable to try out any of the augmented reality, or the gyroscope.
What do you think of the Wii U so far? Let us know if you will be buying one by leaving a comment below.
Dead City Developer: DDDGame Publisher: Com2Us Platform: iOS Release Date: June 5, 2012 Price: Free; 99 cents (PLUS version) Available Here
Overview Perhaps we can blame George A. Romero. He started this whole trend for any media containing zombies to have the word “Dead” in its title. Com2Us’ iOS game Dead City continues this tradition, along with many other zombie-game tropes. In a genre as stale and numerous as its central enemy, how can Dead City differentiate itself from the rest of the horde of zombie games?
Gameplay Dead City is pretty self-explanatory: slaughter the dead as you make your way through an overrun city. You do so via the mechanics of a side-scrolling twin stick shooter: left stick controls movement, the right aims your weapon. It plays like Metal Slug, fitting neatly into the conventions of a run-and-gun shooter. The screen moves left to right automatically, with the player moving around within that, as zombies approach from the either side of the screen.
You won’t find anything particularly new in Dead City, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t enjoyable for what it is. The conventions it uses are implemented well, making it undeniably fun to play. Zombies are the go-to enemy for games that need a heap of targets on-screen at once, and thankfully Dead City throws a bit of variety into the enemy types, to stave off the fatigue of looking at 40 thousand of the exact same zombie.
There’s a pretty commendable number of zombie types with different attributes. Some move faster, some take more damage, some leave puddles of hazardous slime, some explode on death. Even among the stock-standard zombie – with average speed, attack and health – there’s plenty of variety in their design.
But you know what’s even more fun than shooting zombies? Running them over in a car. Collect enough fuel in a level, and you can jump behind the wheel, bouncing defenceless ex-humans off your front bumper. Offering a car as an entertaining reward is a clever method of encouraging players to strive for the pickups, rather than just for the sake of a better score.
Advancing through the game is made more fun with the addition of a few RPG elements. Spending gold can improve your weapons and clothing, for perks, movement speed, higher damage and better critical percentages. You start with a bit of gold, and completing levels nets you more, dependent on your zombie kills. But the most effective source of income is the bonus for levelling up.
Each new rank is reached by meeting a few set goals: you might need to rack up a certain number of kills in total, or of a specific type of zombie. Maybe you have to destroy x amount of barrels, or run over enough zombies with a car. The tasks are varied enough to keep things interesting, and the system keeps progression feeling organic. There are no direct barriers to keep you from advancing, but you might struggle on later levels without upgrading your equipment. Replaying earlier levels to fulfil your zombie kill quota or other goals is the quickest way to advance, and it never feels like a grind. Success always feels like it’s only just out of reach – and that’s a good thing, keeping you engaged enough to continue playing.
Unfortunately, as with many iPhone games, the controls are a little awkward. The virtual thumb sticks work in theory, but without physical ones there’s no tactile feedback. The character is less responsive to your thumb sliding around the touch screen than is necessary for a game like this, leading to some frustrating deaths.
In-game micro-transactions let you use real money to buy continues, better weapons, or gold to spend on upgrades. I don’t have a problem with them as a business model, but they’re a little too blatant in Dead City. They’re still optional of course, but ads for better equipment pop up far too often, and the prices are rather ludicrous – a weapon like a flamethrower can set you back $9.99. It brings up all sorts of complicated questions about the iOS pricing structure – a game like this is worth paying for, but I don’t think an in-game weapon is.
Visuals & Audio As mentioned, Dead City plays like Metal Slug or similar side-scrolling shooters, and the visual style matches those classics. Its gritty urban setting meshes well with an almost-comic book style. It’s all together much cleaner than the retro-pixel look it could have borrowed from the games it draws inspiration from.
There’s a generic rockin’ soundtrack to the game, which accompanies the action well enough, but isn’t exactly memorable after you stop playing. The rest of the sound is fairly limited, with the player character only contributing a few basic comments during play, and most zombies essentially making the same sounds. It feels like a missed opportunity to use specific sound effects as indications of which zombies are about to appear, and as a whole, the audio seems to have been largely overlooked.
Overall Dead City is hardly groundbreaking, but it nails what it’s trying to be: a decent side-scrolling shoot-em-up, and an entertaining way to spend a train trip or two. The only major downfall is the invasive micro-transactions, which chip away at some of the enjoyment to be had. I’d rather pay a couple bucks for the game than for in-game items of little consequence. On the plus side of that, the core game is free, which makes it very easy to recommend.
Many of us remember Sega’s latest adventure into the world or kart racing with Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and most of us remember it as a fun attempt to create a new racing game with some of Sega’s best characters. Now Sega his taking another swing at the racing genre with Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and after they announced that Danica Patrick would be sponsoring the game with her race car, I was able to get some hands-on time with the PlayStation 3 version of the title and see what all the fuss was about, and you know what? All that fuss is well deserved.
One of the key elements that makes Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed different than other racing games of its type is the fact that the game will feature brand new transformation mechanics with the player’s vehicle switching between a car, boat and airplane quite literally on the fly. Rather than having players try to press a button or choose whether or not they want to transform, they will fly through a transformation circle which will automatically switch their vehicle to the required type. This is done in a visually pleasing manner and there are a number of tricks which can be done to give the player an extra edge. For example a player can fly their plane up to the highest point the track will allow before entering a transformation circle, then as their car or boat falls back to earth they can perform a number of aerial tricks to give themselves a large boost when they touch down.
To make things even more interesting, each of these three vehicle types handles differently. While drifting is a major mechanic for the basic car racing, attempting to drift with a plane instead causes extremely tight turns. The change in handling is quite interesting to experience and provides some ever changing gameplay to go along with the fact that a few of the courses themselves will undergo changes as you race through them. One of the three stages available for play at Sega’s E3 booth was a Panzer Dragoon based level which actually tells a small story as you race through the area. Two dragons will be battling in the area and will actually start wrecking pieces of the track, forcing players to take different routes than last time due to the fact that the track is either destroyed or blocked as the creatures battle it out.
Of course Sega also had two new characters to show off during the show, including my favorite, Vyse from Skies of Arcaida, and as one would expect each character has different handling mechanics. A number of new weapons have been added into the game and the developer with us explained that they would not be game-breaking weapons, but ones which may help swing things in your favor. For example, players can use a baseball glove to catch and use projectiles shot at them, or shoot three snowballs out of their vehicle with the first snowball slowing down a targeted racer, a second damaging handling and a third one actually freezing them entirely. With the combination of some touched up visuals, transforming vehicles and revamped stages Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed may just overthrow Mario Kart in the kart racing genre.
Now most of us witnessed the amazing looking Assassins of the Caribbean segment that was shown off at the pre-E3 presentation by Sony, but what other features have been added into the game to create a new and unique experience we have never seen before. Amongst a number of demo choices we opted to see how gameplay out on the Frontier would look like, as many people have been curious about how Connor will navigate through the wooded wilderness that was the Colonial United States. From what we were told, Assassin’s Creed III will cover a thirty year time span that shows events that will be happening before, during and after the American Revolution.
But that isn’t what is important now, what is important is the fact that the newly developed tree running system looks absolutely amazing. We witnessed as Connor easily climbed up the side of a tree and began running along branches, jumping and swinging from tree to tree as he snuck through the frozen limbs before dropping down into what the development team is calling stalking zones. These stalking zones are basically bushes and foliage which allow Connor to stealthily hide in. By taking advantage of this stalking zone, the player was able to kill a deer, one of the two dozen animals able to be hunted in Assassin’s Creed III. Unfortunately for her however, the smell of fresh blood drew a pack of hungry wolves, though it could have easily attracted a large bear or even a few cougars as well.
To take out this back of blood thirsty wolves we watched as Connor dropped multiple wolves with practically no interruption in his motion. He went from dropping a wolf with his axe in his left hand while pulling his black-powder pistol out of its holster and shooting another wolf with his right hand before quickly returning the gun to its holster and dropping a third wolf with his hidden blade. You see, Connor is an expert and using two weapons at the same time which plays a major role in how the team wanted Connor to always be in motion as he is fighting against enemies or assassinating targets.
More on that in a minute, because our presenter wanted togive us a peak at the way snow navigation and quests would work in the newly revamped world of Assassin’s Creed III. ACIII will be the first game of its kind to feature a quest log and allow players to undertake side-quests, such as delivering deer meat to a butcher amongst other things. These side-quests can provide a number of bonsues, though what these bonuses were was not revealed at this time. Navigating through the snow covered fields, either on horseback or on foot can be quite difficultmech, as the team has developed a deep snow mechanic which will make all characters move slower as they trudge through two feet or deeper snow-drifts. Don’t worry though, there will also be plenty of time in the summer as well for those who don’t like snow.
Earlier I mentioned how Connor would always stay in motion whenever he was in combat and nowhere was this more prevalent during the final moments of our time with the game. We watched as Connor climbed through the tree branches before firing a rope dart at the last soldier in a platoon, stringing him up in the tree and hanging him to death before dropping down to deal out death to the rest of the squad. Now firearms are much more prevalent in ACIII than in any past title, and Connor has learned quite a useful skill, the ability to take a human meatshield to protect himself from enemy gunfire. After avoiding being riddled with bullets Connor jumped into the fray with his axe and sword in hand, dealing out fluid death without any animation interruptions in the slightest. One of the key animation changes is the fact that Connor will actually begin countering attacks as he finishes off other enemies through the use of his second weapon, ensuring that combat will always be fluid with zero break in animation.
Also factored into the development cycle was the fact that most of the action will occur on uneven terrain and the team has accounted for these differences in height as well. This change has also been adapted into the climbing mechanic as it has been revamped for the first time since Asssassin’s Creed I, as players will now be able to climb across rugged cliff faces full of bumps, uneven ledges and more. Taking advantage of his position at the top of a Red Coat camp, Connor caused a large explosion by detonating a storage area for black powder before jumping into the middle of the camp, performing three running kills in a row in what may have been one of the best showings of E3. Connor dropped the first man with his tomahawk, picking up his musket while still running, speared a second man with said musket, taking him down to the ground before scrambling to his feet jumping off an overhang and bringing the musket bayonet down on his finally target in an air assassination.
Welcome to Capsule Computers’ weekly anime segment, Anime Say! After several months in limbo, the show is back and better than ever. There will be several changes to shows formula, but it is still the show you all grew to love. Enjoy bastards! In my return episode, I discuss the Polar Bear Cafe dispute as well as the long awaited return of the Toonami anime block. You can check out this week’s Anime Say! below. Got any questions for Anime Say? You can send me a tweet on my official twitter or alternatively drop me an email at [email protected]. I will do my best to respond to your tweets and emails as well as try read some out on the show. What do you think of the latest episode of Anime Say? Let us know in the comments section below.
Rhythm Scandal is dancing it’s way to iOS and Android devices!
Rhythm Scandal appeared at this year’s E3 as a part of WeMade Entertainment’s eight-game showcase and had gamers tapping away. This music title features a groovy K-Pop soundtrack and customisable 3D avatars. Rhythm Scandal also includes a variety of social networking features including location-based tracking and global online play.
No release date for Rhythm Scandal has been announced yet, but gamers can expect it to be tapping into your iOS and Android stores soon for digital download. Until then, make sure you check out the trendy trailer below as it’s sure to be a blast!
Goblin Mobile (Tentative Title) was one of eight titles displayed by WeMade Entertainment at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).
This title is an action MMO but it plays more like a 2D side scrolling beat-em-up. Goblin Mobile offers players 5 classes with 80 skills, and countless item and character customisation options. Gameplay involves players going on quests where multiplayer is highly encouraged for groups of 1-4 players.
A release date is yet to be announced, so gamers make sure to keep an eye out for Goblin Mobile hitting your iOS and Android stores soon for digital download. In the meantime, make sure to check out the trailer below!
Designing and balancing 16th Century weapons for an arena style FPS must be a real challenge, but luckily for Renaissance Heroes it is an alternative timeline kinda game, so they can pretty much do what they want and looks cool. Bridea and ChangYou have released a new trailer, which can be viewed below, that shows off a couple of the different weapons in each classification.
From rifles, to crossbows, to melee, to special explosive the weapons in the trailer all look really nice and definitely give a feeling of being one step shy of Steampunk. They also look pretty colorful, so it doesn’t like it will be hard to find them laying around the levels. Being built in the Unreal Engine 3, it’s great to see the level of detail that is being put in the designs.
Renaissance Heroes is currently in closed beta testing, with no release date set.
PopCap Games is teaming up with two avid Solitaire Blitz players in an attempt to set the Guinness World Book of Records for longest video games marathon playing a card game. Laura Rich from Cardiff, Wales and Kathleen Henkel of Oakland, New Jersey will both attempt to play for 30 hours straight while raising money for charity:water. This charity helps bring clean and safe drinking water to developing nations. 100% of the money raised will go to charity: water. PopCap Games has pledged to donate £6,500 if Ms. Rich and Ms. Henkel are able to play for the 30 hours. The public is also invited to make donations to charity:water during this marathon.
If those in London wish to see Laura Rich in her 30 hour marathon, drop by the SEA LIFE London Aquarium. The event starts at 2:00 PM GMT on Tuesday, June 26th and the public will be allowed entry from 10:00am to 5:00pm GMT. At the same time, Kathleen Henkel will be in New York at The Lab, situated on the ground floor of the Roger Smith Hotel.
Welcome to Capsule Computers’ weekly anime segment, Anime Say! After several months in limbo, the show is back and better than ever. There will be several changes to shows formula, but it is still the show you all grew to love. Enjoy bastards! In my return episode, I discuss the Polar Bear Cafe dispute as well as the long awaited return of the Toonami anime block. You can check out this week’s Anime Say! below. Got any questions for Anime Say? You can send me a tweet on my official twitter or alternatively drop me an email at 
