Street Fighter fans, or at least those with an iPhone/iPod touch are in luck. Street Fighter IV Volt is currently a limited sale price of just $0.99. If you haven’t already, now would be a fantastic time to purchase the game. With 22 playable characters to choose from, there isn’t much point fighting. In the end, Street Fighter IV Volt is going to win.
Click here to purchase Street Fighter IV Volt for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Street Fighter IV Volt Beats Down Price
Scribblenauts Remix Creates An iOS Sale
Ghost toilet, huge blue crab, jetpack. What do these words have in common? Well, nothing at all except for that fact that I have typed each of these, and many more obscure combinations into the iOS game Scribblenauts Remix. The game is nothing short of spectacular and well worth the $5.50 that I paid for it. If you are one of the many who have purchased the game, you are sure to agree that it is something rather special. If you are not one of the many who have purchased it, then I implore you now to purchase Scribblenauts Remix now at its current price of $0.99!
Click here to purchase Scribblenauts Remix for both iPhone and iPad.
Michael Phelps: Push the Limit Review
Michael Phelps: Push the Limit
Developer: Blitz Games Studios
Publisher: 505 Games
Platform: Xbox 360 Kinect
Release Date: 14th October
Price: $49.99 – Available Here
Overview:
When hearing the words ‘Kinect swimming game’, the mind conjures up some pretty wild images. Someone lying facedown on the floor, reaching out with their arms and kicking with their legs as they struggle to ‘swim’ through the carpet. Clearly Blitz Games Studios didn’t feel that Kinect’s floor detection abilities were advanced enough, otherwise they would have almost certainly had you writhing on your rug, craning your neck to get a glimpse of the screen. Instead, they’ve opted for a standing up swimming game, which make use of just your upper body.
Gameplay:
There’s no doubt about it; someone doing breaststroke in mid-air is a strange sight to behold, but the team behind the game have made mostly sensible choices with its design. Tracking just your arms does mean it cuts out kicking, a vital part of swimming, but it’s tiring enough as it stands. Including leg work could run the risk of bumping the game up into some kind of military workout category, anyhow.
The four swimming styles featured – front crawl, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly – are a mixed bag really. Front crawl – probably the aspect everyone will come into contact with first and the main component of the game – handles well once you get the hang of it. Similarly, the Kinect responds well to butterfly, and for this stroke you can feel your off-screen actions affecting the onscreen standings. Breaststroke and backstroke, however, can be a little unreliable.
Firstly, breaststroke; while this too can become relatively consistent once you understand the exact arm movements needed for the game to agree with you, this all goes out the window once the race enters the final ‘Push the Limit’ sprint section, as, to much frustration, the game struggles to pick up the breaststroke motion when done at a faster rhythm.
Then there’s backstroke…where to begin with backstroke. Once of the great things about Michael Phelps: Push the Limit is that, because it only uses upper body, the space-deprived among us can breathe a sigh of relief. Finding the room for Kinect to see you from head to toe is challenging, so a game that only needs to see you from the waist up is significantly less of a furniture-moving strain. That is, until backstroke rears its ugly head.
The motion itself is a cross between backwards butterfly and front crawl, and you’ll be pleased to know the developers were sensible enough, despite it being a backwards race, not to get you with your back to the screen. The problem with backstroke comes from the starting dive. Up until this point, you may have been relishing only needing to be monitored from the waist up, meaning the problems Kinect has picking up the squat position that Kinect forces you to adopt for the backwards dive are all the more irritating.
Otherwise, the gameplay systems in place are fairly decent. The aforementioned diving mechanic is well handled for all other forward-facing strokes. You simply enter a crouch position and, upon hearing the starting pistol, straighten up and extend your arms. The game measures your response time and uses it to determine when you dive in relative to your opponents based on their response times.
Elsewhere, the game tries to turn swimming into a science. It’s as if you have an ear piece-come-user interface software installed in your swimming cap. You have a stamina gauge which decreases if you don’t match the stroke rhythm and a boost bar which grows if you do match the stroke rate. In order to boost, you shout ‘boost; to the Kinect’s inbuilt microphone (the Kinect microphone is also used to shout ‘skip’ on automated videos). There’s also a strange middle section to endurance races where you no longer paddle, but play a mini-game to gather energy by holding your icon over the correct markers. It’s presumably present to prevent long races tiring you out, but it’s similarly frantic, if not more so.
The career mode is a fairly standard affair, comprising three seasons of swimming. You must place third or above to qualify for the next stage, ultimately working your way to the annual games to compete for medals. It does well to give you some time with all the strokes, even if your first encounters with backstroke and butterfly don’t carry a satisfactory explanation. They are explained later on through a tutorial, but this comes after you’ve already struggled through events for them.
Audio:
Unfortunately, the person who comes over your ‘head piece’ (who weirdly doubles up as commentator for the others) comes across as a bit of an arsehole, as the last thing you want to hear after physically exerting yourself only to finish last, is him calling you just short of pathetic. His semi-robotic tones soon begin to grate on you. Also, aside from the rare voiceover of a menu screen, Michael Phelps does little more than lend his name and physical likeness.
Visuals:
The graphics are nothing special, although you barely notice as you are so focused on the various sections of your HUD and matching the stroke rate. If you do pay attention to detail, the water effects are a little naff and the character models all look similar, but in reality, it makes no difference. You will be far too preoccupied with the gameplay to care about the visuals.
Overall:
I’m not sure how much demand there was for a Kinect swimming game, but I’m glad to see Blitz Game Studios didn’t go down the route of a typical motion-controlled sports like baseball, dodge ball and the like. They’ve tried an alternative and, to a certain extent, it has paid off. Some of the techniques behind the swimming are a bit iffy, as is the overall vision they’ve had with the sport, such as with the odd endurance stages or the boost ability. It has got to be one of the most energy-sapping Kinect releases – Fruit Ninja Kinect aside – although, most importantly, the movements are all fairly natural. There isn’t that straining, unnatural feeling the leaves you sore the next day – more a feeling that you’ve had a bit of an upper body workout.
AKB48’s Final Fantasy Costume Designs
Today in AKB48 news, Yuko Oshima, one of the many (48 to be particular) girls that make up the hit japanese pop idol group AKB48, has designed two costume designs for the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII-2.
The two costume designs, also include moogle clothing along side human character clothing, were designed by Yuko Oshima in conjunction with Square Enix. Both designs will be featured in the title and can be seen below.
What do you think of Yuko Oshima’s costume designs? Can a member of AKB48 really design costumes for a popular RPG series such as Final Fantasy? Let us know what you think in the shoutbox and comments section.
Everything Must Go Review
Everything Must Go
Studio: Roadside Attractions
Publisher: Madman
Release Date: 5th October 2011
Price: $34.95 AUD Available here
Overview
It’s always interesting to see an actor play a role that is slightly out of their element, especially one who has continued to keep me in stitches through his various movie and television roles. It’s always a risk as well, as to how audiences will react to an actor they are so used to seeing playing a similar persona, when cast within a totally different media environment. While other actors in the film such as Laura Dern have played wide and varying roles across their careers, Will Ferrell has stuck mostly to the same genre, excelling in his roles as the penultimate man-child and delighting us with his borderline manic character portrayals. So the ultimate question is; Does Will Ferrell seem as out of place as Al Bundy in anything but Married with Children?
The answer thankfully is no, not ever during the entire duration of the film was there any hint that Ferrell’s natural comedic behaviour was going to unconsciously appear at random and put the whole tone of the film out of sync. Will Ferrell, for me, is not dissimilar to John Cleese in that even his comedies have a much deeper and darker underlying tone to them. From the manic and moody Jackie Moon, to the reclusive yet borderline genius Chazz Reinhold who picks up potential “one nighters” at funerals, as according to him “ it’s like fishing with dynamite”, there is always a sadness to Ferrell’s characters that seemed to allow him to make an easy transition to Nick Halsey and his mundane existence. Thankfully the story is also a whole lot deeper than what is on the back of the Blu-Ray case.
Story
Nick Halsey is not what you would describe as a complete screw up, just a very lost soul that has used up his last chance, seeing his career flushed down the toilet and his marriage in tatters. After an illustrious career with the bottle, Nick finds himself jobless and upon returning to the quiet suburbs where he lives, finds himself greeted by all his worldly possessions strewn across his front lawn, his locks freshly changed and his wife gone thanks to an alleged adultery incident. Having no one to turn to, nowhere else to go and no money, Nick sets up camp in his front garden, intent on staying put until something better comes along (and you get the feeling a lot of his life decisions have been left to this method of thought). Thus begins his journey into what in his mind is a quest to win back his wife, but is in reality a journey to win back his life and soul. Even from this early point in the movie we can see the destructiveness of alcohol on relationships, through an exceptionally sad scene where Nick is asked about his indiscretion while on a work function and had to quietly admit that he was so inebriated he couldn’t remember whether any adultery had even taken place.
Needing some good old fashioned booze to numb the pain, and turned down by the attractive new woman to move in across the street, Nick reluctantly puts his trust in Kenny Loftus, a neighbourhood street kid, to keep an eye on his stuff. Right from this point, where Nick loses his keys amongst the mess and has to ride Kenny’s bike to the store, Nick begins to show the incompetency’s that have landed him in his current position. While many movies focus on hardships that are way beyond someone’s control, Dan Rush has set the perfect atmosphere to show Nicks hardships to be almost completely of his own doing. Even his own sponsor, Frank (Michael Pena), despite being the local detective and keeping an eye on him, has a defeated tone when talking to Nick, knowing his self-destructive personality cannot be easily reasoned with.
Where others try and fail to alter Nicks behaviour it is only Kenny ( Christopher Jordan Wallace), who manages to chip holes in Nicks defences despite being initially made to feel as welcome as the local dog. Through his relationship with the sad, lonely and heavily pregnant Samantha (Rebecca Hall), we see how even in such a fragile state, the tables can be turned and someone who looks like they are in need of help can actually offer a great deal of insight and wisdom of their own. Apparently, and unfortunately for Nick, it is illegal in his neck of the woods to reside within his front yard, regardless of the fact that he owns the property. Fortunately, thanks to some weird and wacky law (as is common in various states across America so I’ve heard), Nick is allowed to run a yard sale for up to 5 consecutive days, biding him some valuable drinking time. Not wanting to actually sell any of his things and lose the only memories he has of better days gone by, it is Kenny, working for a measly few dollars that attempts to clear out the junk and hopefully Nicks mind in the process.
Without giving away too much more, I would like to place an emphasis on the exceptional feeling of frustration and sympathy the viewer feels for Nick. Additionally he has no concept of the sadness and hurt he is radiating upon the only people willing to stick by him. It is no more evident than seeing the sadness in Kenny’s eyes when Nick can’t stick to his end of the bargain and teach him how to play baseball. Similarly the embarrassment and sadness felt for him as he regresses into the past and looks up an old high school friend (Laura Dern). The relationship between these two although very brief was very important in showing Nicks state of mind and just how fragile he had become. Although it didn’t by any means pull him away from the mindset he was in, his characters demeanour and behaviour was changed by the encounter.
Visuals
Everything Must Go is not the kind of film that requires ridiculous special effects and explosions as well as city wide destruction to distract viewers from its weak storyline and get its point across. The quiet streets and modest houses set a perfect scene for Nicks current state of mind and truly convey the mundane existence he has created around himself. The acting is very strong throughout the film and had to be due to much of the camera work which has the actors much closer on screen and more exposed. What this also succeeds in doing is presenting a much more intimate connection between the characters and the viewer. In terms of the actual visual quality of the film, the attention shown to detail is superb, with every whisker on Ferrell’s unshaven face clearly evident.
Audio
The background audio is very quiet and needs to be as such to place more of a focus on the dialogue which is paramount to the differing chemistry between the various characters. Truth be told, anything loud or abrupt would have detracted from the overall melancholy yet comedic feel of the film and detached the viewer from Nicks pitiful world. I have to admit that side from John Lee Hooker and Canned Heat, I have never heard of any of the artists that played on the soundtrack. Saying that, it was perfectly orchestrated, with each song being coupled and integrated within the changing mood of the film and Nicks destructive mind.
Extras
Although I’m always interested to hear Will Ferrell speak, there’s nothing overly of interest in the extras section. There is audio commentary with the director and Michael Pena who plays Will Ferrell’s character Nick’s AA sponsor which is interesting but nothing out of the ordinary. Apart from that, Ferrell speaks briefly about his hardships regarding making Nicks character believable, as well as the stock standard Behind the Scenes and deleted footage. Again nothing overly amazing but some interesting additions nonetheless to a fantastic film.
Overall
While the storyline is very strong in itself, it is the shining performances from Ferrell and Wallace that give true meaning to, and highlight the fragility of life no matter what your background. It is a tremendous relationship of learning and understanding between one character who has complete control over his decisions but chooses to self-destruct and another who has very little control but is resilient and accepting. There are some moments of true sadness, where the tone of the film changed from sympathy and sadness to reveal humans in their lowest form as Nick begs for alcohol from passers-by outside the Liquor store. It’s hard to watch this kind of a scene without being reminded of and forced to think about alcohols role in society as an accepted product. There is also a nice twist at the end of the film and it was welcoming and refreshing not to have the typical happy fairytale ending, but rather be left with a still somewhat desolate character whose journey is far from over.
One Piece goes Digital from Funimation
Funimation have now made the entire “First Voyage” of their english dub of the incredibly popular anime series One Piece available for digital download.
You can now get a digital copy of the episode 1-26 from the Zune Marketplace (80 Microsoft Points an episode) and the Sony Video Network (99 cents an episode). So if you have yet to take the plunge into watching the critically acclaimed english version of One Piece, then you can now for an extremely low price.
Will you be setting sail for One Piece in digital format? Funimation sure hopes you will. Be sure to let us know in the shoutbox and comments section.
Shaman King Manga Returns
You read right, the popular shonen manga Shaman King is set to make it’s serialisation return in April 2012. However while this may seem confusing to fans of the Shaman King manga, fear not this not exactly a continuation but more a sequel.
The new manga is somewhat of a sequel to the original series and goes under the title Shaman King Flowers. If that title rings a bell, you’d be forgiven for thinking it sounds familiar. Shaman King Flowers was the title of a spin-off one-shot chapter published way back in 2009. It seems that after all this time that one-shot is finally becoming a full serialisation.
The new manga will follow Hana Asakura, the son of former protagonist Yoh Asakura. What do you think of this announcement? Let us know in the shoutbox and comments section.
Little Lambs iPhone Review
Little Lambs
Developer: Orca, Inc.
Publisher: Orca, Inc.
Platforms: iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone (reviewed)
Release Date: November 8th, 2011
Price: 99 cents – Available Here
Overview
When the developers of Slice It! made Com2uS a significant amount of cash with their simple yet addictive game, they decided to call it quits with regards to the iOS publisher and start their own company, Orca Incorporated.
Now, Orca’s first bun out of the oven has hit the App Store. Little Lambs is an easy-to-use, one-touch puzzle game that puts you in charge of matching various animals in the confined space of a farm enclosure. Does the simple gameplay work as well as Slice It!? Or should this lamb get ready to be served up for Christmas?
Gameplay
The premise of Little Lambs is a simple one: match sheep on a grid by having all of them bordering each other in adjacent squares. Slide your finger towards the left,and all the animals on screen will move left, and so on for right, up, and down.
You aren’t given any limit as to the amount of turns you’re allowed, but the fewer moves it takes you, the more stars you’ll be rewarded with (there are up to three per level). If you perform the challenge in the “Best” amount of turns, which is indicated at the top of the screen, you’ll be given a “Perfect” rating when you’ve cleared a level, and with many Games Center achievements related to getting perfect scores, there’s plenty of incentive for the completionists to go back and perfect their every move on each of the game’s 90 puzzles.
For the first few levels, the game eases players in with a square grid and only one type of sheep, but the game quickly turns into an interesting puzzler that involves a lot of thinking. Different animal types are thrown into the enclosure and you’ll have to contend with a grid-fence shaped in ways much stranger than a square. On top of that, some of the animals will occasionally be trapped in cages where they can’t move at all, and others will be stuck in bubbles, immobile until another animal bumps into them and busts them out. An array of boxes and passage-creating or closing switches both help and hinder you on the way to achieving the perfect score.
As you progress, the game really makes you think about what your next move should be, and the overcoming challenges thrown your way is ultimately very rewarding. If you get stuck, there’s a helpful shepherd boy at the top of the screen who will give you hints for a fee of in-game currency. As far as I could tell, you earn 3 coins every time you clear a level, and a hint costs 3 coins, so it’s a pretty good trade-off considering you’ll breeze through some levels, and spend up to ten minutes on others.
Despite its attempts at variety and challenge, however, the game does get repetitive over long bursts. It’s great to pick up and play for 15 to 20 minutes at a time, but anything much longer than that and you’ll find yourself leaving the game to check Facebook or listen to a podcast. But going, back after a while and playing another short burst of the game feels fresh and exciting. I can’t quite put my finger on exactly why this is, maybe my brain doesn’t like thinking for too long, but it is definitely an issue that the game couldn’t keep me entertained for the entirety of my 40 minute morning commute.
Audio/Visual
The sound and visual design of the game are pretty standard for an iOS puzzle game. Cutesy looking cartoon animals, a bright green-hill background, and a forgettable tune that somehow makes you bob your head like a child when it’s playing.
Not that this detracts from the experience (though the barking of the shepherd dog every time you swipe in a direction does get a little annoying), it’s just something we’ve all seen and heard before, and we’ll probably see and hear it a hundred times again.
Overall
For a developer to strike out from their parent company takes some guts, and for their first game to be as enjoyable as this shows that the guys over at Orca, Inc. have brains as well as bravado. The mental challenge, the sheer amount of stages, and the simple design all work together to bring a solid puzzler to iOS gamers.
However, maybe the simplicity is a little too much, as the game does become repetitive when played over larger bouts of time, and the cute style of graphics is something that is beginning to feel overused. On the other hand the game remains great fun in short bursts, and should provide hours of solid gameplay, particularly to completionists. Priced at just 99 cents, you’re certainly getting good bang for your buck.
Haunters Review
Haunters
Studio: Zip Cinema
Publisher: Madman
Format: DVD
Release Date: 5 October, 2011
Price: $29.95 – Available Here
Overview
Haunters carries the critic quote that it is “more satisfying than any super-hero movie released this year” (Sound on Sight). I’m a big fan of Eastern cinema, I think that it takes a lot more risks and goes places that Western movies won’t. combine that with the quote and you’ve got some pretty big aspirations going on. Let’s see if Haunters lives up to this.
Story
If there’s one thing I can say for Haunters, it has a range of moods throughout the movie. It started off gritty and incredibly involving, setting me up to expect angsty angst angst (like most superhero movies, cough Batman), but then the entire tone of the movie changed as the focus shifted from the anti-hero Cho-In to Kyu-Nam. Suddenly the movie started showing off its funny side, with the lead actor Go Soo being able to pull of the little humorous moments easily.
At first the change was jarring, especially since the cover and first ten minutes of the movie had set up such a dark outlook. But after adjusting to that the movie was quite easy to settle in to. I have to say, the story was quite interesting and had a quite unique way of attacking the idea, without the usual clichés.
Cho-In is a psychic who can control people’s minds and had an extremely rough childhood, so he pretty much goes around and does as he pleases, taking money, killing people and angsting away in his hotel room. One day he tries to steal money from a loan office and he encounters the one person who he can’t control, Kyu-Nam. Kyu-Nam is his polar opposite, a fun-loving and moralistic man. After Kyu-Nam’s boss is killed through Cho-In’s mind-control powers, Kyu-Name goes on a mission of vengeance.
Taking on a guy who has unbelievably strong mind-control powers is about as terrifying as it sounds, because no only are you taking him on, but every other person in the crowded city of Seoul as well. But Kyu-Nam doesn’t stop, he gets pummelled to near death and still hunts down the increasingly violent Cho-In.
The characters have a good depth to them, as I said before, this movie doesn’t approach the genre like you would usually see. Instead, of having a fairly black and white situation, there are greys. While the hero is a good guy, the anti-hero has layers to him and you kind of feel sorry for him in parts.
The ending was a little disappointing for me. I won’t go into it, but it started off really well and then kind of gave up on that idea and took those steps back. Another small disappointment were some of the lines, although that may have been because of the translation from Korean to English. While Kyu-Nam has some really great morals under his belt, at times it comes off too righteous and I found that I was taking a step back from his character and questioning some of the things that he was doing so determinedly.
Dong-won Kang (who played Cho-In) did a fantastic job of bringing the amoral anti-hero to life, his performance really rises above and is worth a mention. Go Soo as Kyu-Nam also does a good job, bringing the comedy to small parts of the movie and levelling out all the angst of Cho-In.
Visuals
The movie certainly benefits from some really great shots, the cinematography is stunning in places. However, there is an odd range when it comes to the entire product, while some are beautifully set up, other shots seem strange and a little odd. The suspense in the film is constructed well through the pace and shots, and shots have clearly been set up with the visual element in mind because they turn up amazingly.
Audio
The audio helps out with the suspense that the movie loves to get a hold of, as well as the action scenes. The only odd and jarring audio in the movie came at the end during the credits, when loud K-pop blared and clashed against the ending of the film.
Extras
The extras included in the DVD are the trailers and some of the deleted scenes. These scenes are interesting to watch and, while its good that they didn’t include the scenes in the movie, they are interesting and will add to your context of the film.
Overall
Haunters has a great concept, a really solidly individual storyline, and good acting. It truly isn’t what you’d expect, in a good way. Although there are little things which could be improved, it really is an enjoyable film overall and I have to say, while I wouldn’t call it the best superhero movie, it certainly does list among the better ones, especially in it’s originality in places.
Content Management Assistant for PlayStation Screenshots
Yesterday, I had brought the news that game saves from your PSP games will be able to transfer to your brand new Playstation Vita via the Playstation 3 or PC. The Content Management Assistant for PlayStation software is the ticket behind all of this and below are a couple of screenshots on what the software would look like at the Vita end:
This screenshot above is the transferring of data (possibly save date) from the game Hot Shots Golf 6 (Everybody’s Golf 6 in the West) from the Vita to the Playstation 3. This is backing up the data, something that will be useful for all the users out there.
This is a screenshot showing that the Vita may copy either video, audio or image files.
So, what can you do on the handheld side of things?
- In case you don’t have space on your Vita Memory Card, you can download games from PS Store to your PS3 or PC first.
- Move Vita content that you’ve finished on to your PS3 or PC for storage.
A special program will be required for the PC, which will be released at a later date. For the PS3, expect compatibility after a firmware update presumably near the launch date.