Remember that guy Himura Kenshin? Yeah that red haired rurouni with a dark past. Well turns out he is back after more than a decade, in the rebooted manga of Rurouni Kenshin. Pretty cool right? Glad you agree.
The reboot of Rurouni Kenshin launched in Jump Square Magazine recently but it’s not quite what most would expect. The reboot doesn’t follow the same plot continuity of the old series, instead it focuses on the storyline of the upcoming live-action movie based on the series you have probably heard about. Or not? Regardless, it is all pretty badass and it goes without saying that it is a very good time to be a Rurouni Kenshin fan.
Sound off in the comments section below what you think of the rebooted Rurouni Kenshin manga that just launched.
Mutant Mudds Developer: Renegade Kid Platform: Nintendo 3DS eShop Release Date: January 26, 2012 Price: $8.99 DOWNLOAD NOW!
Overview
Over the past few years, the indie scene has brought the 2D platformer back to life. Super Meat Boy, Fez, and several other throwback games have definitely aided the revival, delivering challenge and gimmickry to keep the modern gamer invested in a dated concept. Renegade Kid’s Mutant Mudds is a bit of an oddball by today’s standards, however. The only gimmickry included is very light, and the worlds are so simply crafted that the challenge is medium at best. With that said though, there is something truly special about the entire experience as right from the start, you can tell that love has been injected into every pixel. What do I mean? Here is my review for Mutant Mudds.
Story
Remember the days when your main objective in a video game was simply to make it to the end? Well, much like Mario, Kirby, and several other classics, Mutant Mudds is almost the same by those standards. Players take the role of a young, blonde protagonist by the name of Max who hears about an mud-tastic alien invasion on television. In just a few seconds time, Max goes from average kid to superhero and sets out with his trusty water gun to save the world from these dirty foes.
As you can tell, there isn’t a whole lot of narrative within Mutant Mudds. That’s honestly what makes the game so appealing, though. At no time does Mutant Mudds try to pull the player into some deep adventure or even attempt to get you to fall in love with the main character. This title let’s it’s 8-bit charms to all the talking, and that alone goes miles in making everything so enjoyable. Letting the player have enough room to use their imagination is what made each and every one of Nintendo’s main mascots a star, and due to the same execution used here, it’s a shame we didn’t see this title released 20 years ago as there is no doubt Max would be standing beside the greats.
Gameplay
When it comes to 2D platformers, you really can’t get more basic than Mutant Mudds’ main gameplay mechanics. Players traverse a good number of stages jumping from platform to platform, simply trying to make it to the end. Instead of coins, Max has to collect a set number of diamonds that are scattered about while avoiding dangerous obstacles such as enemies, spikes, and steaming hot lava pools. Max can pop a shot off at a foe with his water gun by hitting X or Y, and has a small jump that can be executed by tapping the A or B buttons. Yeah, it can’t get more simple, but there are a few tricks up this small hero’s sleeve that enhance the platforming stylings within greatly.
Max has a water pack equipped on his back that lets him hover for short distances. This can be done by just double tapping the jump button, and works well to cross longer gaps with greater ease. Nearly every stage is built for this mechanic, and the clever placement of platforms apply a nice layer of challenge without ever making an obstacle feel impossible. Some of the water pack’s usage comes down to perfect timing as well, as there are many areas where high platforms can switch on and off. Unless you hit a batch of spikes, you must then go back up and give it another try. It’s trial and error at it’s finest, and thankfully there is very little room for frustration due to the naturally low difficulty to the game itself.
Another nice mechanic included are pads found on the floor of stages, which can let max leap to and from the foreground and background. This doesn’t change any mechanics really as the effect is mainly a visual one, but it does make each level feel longer and more substantial due to all of the new diamonds to collect and muddy enemies to destroy. For those who may need more insight, think of Shantae, but instead of having the camera follow the protagonist (Max, in this case), it stays put and has the player either get a far-away view, or a more close-up perspective. This also boosts the challenge, as you must determine if close up platforms are a part of your current area, or if they are a piece of the foreground. It’s such a small idea, but was executed with so much polish that these shifting perspectives make the 3D worthy of keeping on while Max scuttles about, giving the whole experience a distinctive trait that sets it apart from all other titles on the platform.
For a 2D platformer on the eShop, Mutant Mudds is certainly worthy of returning to again and again as well. Hidden doors can be found in each stage that let the player visit the Game Boy inspired G-Land and the Virtual Boy inspired V-Land. Appearance isn’t all these areas take on either, as the challenge is much greater and even finding the doors will require heavy hunting and a few upgrades purchased from your beloved Grannie. Of course there are the diamonds, that literally demand to be required in order to get that short boost for your water pack and boosted techniques, but there are enough levels already to keep most going for hours at a time, making this under $10 title one of pure nostalgic value.
Visuals/Audio
Much like everything within Mutant Mudds, the visuals are also very simplistic. Most backgrounds are just one color, and enemies were given just enough detail to be bursting at the seams with personality. Max himself is a very unique hero with his large bifocals and bouncy hair, and it’s hard to not enjoy watching him attempt to save this oddball little world from a muddy fate. If I could credit to anything within the graphical design though, it would have to be the 3D. Due to the sprites having a very solid and bold appearance, Max and every moving enemy within the game “pop” right out of the screen, which is enhanced even further with the shifting perspectives. As I mentioned, this is a game that you go into with that slider pushed all the way up, as the result is one of the most relaxing and retro-fan satisfying settings I have personally seen in years.
As far as the soundtrack goes, expect 8-16 bit chiptunes that will take you back to being tethered to a console with a 2 button controller in hand, humming along to songs that have just been introduced minutes before. Honestly, the music seen within creates a magical little atmosphere that could even rival the Kirby series for the amount of joy it adds to the game, tying together the themed environments and sprites into a perfect little package. The sound effects were done superbly as well, with Max’s jumps, shots, and general movement seeing a bit of attention to push along that classic feel.
Overall
Mutant Mudds doesn’t ever strive to blow the player away with exciting gameplay elements or fancy aesthetics, but that’s really the point of the entire experience. The game controls wonderfully and never becomes a chore, no matter how great the challenge is at hand. Yes, you will die. You will burn in lava and meet the spikes more than once. That doesn’t matter though, as Renegade Kid perfected nearly every element within Mudds by putting the focus on clean and polished gameplay and in my opinion, gave birth to a franchise that should have been introduced 20 years ago while still making it feel relevant by today’s demanding standards. Mutant Mudds is one of the finest gems on the eShop service at the moment, and one that all 3DS owners should put on their large glasses for to give an extra look.
Team 17 have revealed what makes Worms Revolution so revolutionary. It originally seemed that the upcoming game was little more than a graphical update, but Team 17 announced this week that Worms Revolution will contain a class system.
It was hinted at in the logo for the game, and we finally have more details: players will be able to build their teams out of a set of four types of worms, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
The Soldier is your garden-variety worm. He’s decent at attacking and traversing the landscape, but not outstanding at anything specific. Essentially, he’s the kind of worm you’ve been battling with in previous Worms games.
The Scout is a smaller, more agile worm. He’s better suited to getting around, meaning he can move faster, jump higher and further, and can fall further without taking damage. But, as expected, he packs less firepower than the standard Soldier, and his lightweight means he’ll fly further when hit by explosives or melee attacks.
The Heavy is the powerhouse of the Worms battlefield. His attack power is second to none, and his bulk means explosions are a lot less likely to send him to the watery depths. This reluctance to travel has its disadvantages though: Heavies move quite slowly around the landscape, and won’t be able to get to the high ledges or narrow nooks the other classes take for granted. He can still use utilities like the Ninja Rope and Jet Pack to get around, but don’t expect to be going very fast or far.
Lastly, the Scientist is a support class. He won’t deal much damage, and is a little sluggish moving around, but for each turn he takes, the health of your whole team will go up. He’s also quite proficient with the more technical weapons, so he can build sentry guns and electromagnets to protect your team.
Worms has always been known as a strategy game, and this class system opens up some interesting tactics. Do you make your whole team out of just Scouts and run circles round the opponents? Do you dig a Scientist into the ground to heal your team each turn, while using your other worms to defend him?
My mind is reeling off possibilities and strategies already. I was somewhat sceptical of the game’s “revolutionary” self-proclamation, but this looks like it could be the refresher that the franchise needs.
Indie Royale’s latest pay what you want bundle was released today, entitled the May Day Bundle. The May Day Bundle features five indie games. Headlining the bundle is Trendy Entertainment’s Dungeon Defenders. Originally released for iOS, Dungeon Defenders seamlessly melds intense tower defence game play with Diablo and packages it nicely in a cartoon style presentation. Digital Eel’s Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space is a randomly generated epic space opera featuring worlds to explore and aliens to meet. Also by Digital Eel are Data Jammers: Fast Forward and Brainpipe: A Plunge to Unhumanity. Boot Snake Game’s Containment: The Zombie Puzzler puts a new spin on the zombie genre, providing a branching campaign and survival mode. All games are available as a Desura or Steam key. Weird Worlds is not available on Steam and is limited to Desura only.
Like all Indie Royale bundles, a moving minimum price for the bundle is set, those who pay the bare minimum drive the price up for other buyers while those who pay more than the minimum will lower the price for other buyers. Those who spend more than $7.00 will receive Starscream’s album “Future, Toward the Edge of Forever”.
SNK Playmore has released the second installment of the King of Fighters-i series for iPhone and iPod Touch. King of Fighters-i 2012 is a fighting game featuring special moves and combos. Changes from the original KoF-i is the addition of fight rules which were an exclusive to the PS3/Xbox 360 versions of the game. Also the original roster containing 20 fighters from KoF-i is expanded with four new teams of fighters. The additions of Team ART OF FIGHTING, PSYCHO SOLDIER, KIM, and IKARI raises the number of available fighters to 32. King of Fighters-i 2012 supports multiplayer battles over Bluetooth and Game Center. KoF-i 2012 is available on iTunes for $6.99 USD with additional characters available for $1.99 as an in app purchase.
One glimpse at Lollipop Chainsaw and you know that the game is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. With a peppy cheerleader who carries around a chainsaw to kill zombies in sparkly glory as well as her boyfriend who just happens to be a disembodied head, Lollipop Chainsaw is already a bit out there.
Today however you can learn a little bit more about how the idea to create Lollipop Chainsaw was formed by Suda51 and the writer/director for the game, James Gunn, in the behind the scenes trailer below. In the video they discuss how Romeo and Juliet gave Suda51 a bit of inspiration for the game’s story and many other things. Those who can’t wait to take on a zombie game unlike any we’ve seen before can do so when the game is released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on June 12th.
Yesterday our very own Luke Halliday was quite excited to hear that there would be a new multipalyer trailer released today from Rockstar Games for Max Payne 3. Now that trailer has been released and can be seen below in all its glory.
The trailer itself is the second half of a two part series that detailed the game’s multiplayer mode and this specific video focuses on how bullet time will factor into the online gameplay as well as multiplayer crews, burst abilities and more. One of the biggest focuses of this video is the multiplayer mode known as “Gang War” a multi-stage gameplay mode featuring different multiplayer types.
In what can only be seen as a quite shocking announcement, Bethesda has revealed that The Elder Scrolls series will be going online sometime in the future and it will be called “The Elder Scrolls Online.” The game is currently being developed for the PC and Mac and more details about the title are expected to be revealed in the June issue of Game Informer.
To go along with this huge announcement Matt Firor, lead developer with Zenimax Online Studios, stated that he and his team are “committed to creating the best MMO ever made – and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise.” Currently the only knowledge we have about the game is that there will be three factions warring for the Emperor’s throne. Also revealed was that the game will take place a thousand years before the events in Skyrim and will follow the activities of the Daedric Prince Molag Bal who is trying to pull all of Tamriel into his hellish world.
This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to many, but the official Call of Duty Twitter has revealed that their will indeed be a zombie mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Today they released a piece of red artwork featuring a woman with a shotgun and a dead zombie head. Whether she will be one of the main characters in this zombie journey is yet to be seen.
The full uncropped image can be seen below. To go along with this image they teased “Zombies are coming. Where’s your shotgun?” Everyone loves a good zombie mode and Black Ops I’s zombie mode is still popular even today among those who just can’t get enough zombie killing.
The Steam Workshop was made available for Skyrim mods back in the middle of February and since then Skyrim players have been busy little bees. Since its release, over 11.6 million Skyrim mods were downloaded from Steam alone, bringing the total up to 13.6 million which is quite an impressive number.
The news about this number appeared on the Bethesda Game Studios’ developer Twitter. These mods are everything from whole new quests, new spells, more textures, changes to the game’s physics and plenty of other adjustments. Those interested in what the most highly rated mod at the moment will be surprised to hear it is a simple audio modification which will bring your dungeon crawling experience to life with over 90 more sound effects in the “Sounds of Skyrim – The Dungeons” mod.
Remember that guy Himura Kenshin? Yeah that red haired rurouni with a dark past. Well turns out he is back after more than a decade, in the rebooted manga of Rurouni Kenshin. Pretty cool right? Glad you agree.
