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Jewel Link Chronicles: Legend of Athena – Review

Jack Joly
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Jewel Link Chronicles: Legend of Athena
Developer: Cerasus Media
Publisher: Avanquest Software
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: Puzzle
Released: Out Now

The match-3 genre experienced a real surge a few years back when ‘Bejeweled’ hit the scene in which you had to slide adjacent gems to form lines of three or more. The genre has since had countless imitations of this, as well as plenty of other games giving their own take on the match-3 area of the puzzle genre, but don’t be fooled by the name Jewel Link Chronicles: Legend of Athena which, admittedly, sounds like it’s another by-the-books copy of Bejeweled. Although it’s similar in that it’s still match-3 meaning it will always bear huge likenesses, it actually has enough differences to set it aside from others of its kind. Plus, you don’t move jewels anyway. You move fish, olives and grapes.

The reason Jewel Link Chronicles: Legend of Athena is different is that it features a curious combination of genres; it gives an incentive to your symbol-matching in the form of a RTS-like (real-time strategy) civilisation builder. As you slide the tiles together to destroy sets of three or more through the 100 levels, you earn various points which can then be used against new buildings and features for you settlement. These earnings correspond to the symbols in-game as well; matching a group of olives, fish and the like will give you bonus points of ‘nourishment’ to spend; sets of coins or rings will earn you a cash bonus, adding to your stocks of ‘gold’; or lining up groups of timber and other resources will add to your value for ‘construction materials’.


Once you’ve accumulated enough points in the necessary areas and meet the build criteria, you can add these new features to your settlement and watch it grow. That is, provided you have completed the level to unlock the next patch of land for building, because a set number of levels unlocks the next building allotment. There’s no doubt that this civilisation builder extension gives more depth to the game and livens it up beyond just a trawl through a set of 100 puzzles, but it is very limited. For the DS it’s more than sufficient, but that’s just to say that it is primitively basic, with specific developments assigned to each plot of land – you simply have to earn enough of each resource to construct each of them individually.

You will see your settlement through 5 dynasties, and you will see the changes depending on the era your ancient Greek civilisation is currently in. It’s well presented for the DS in this sense, as your city has a charm and character as you watch in grow and facilitate your people (which you never get to see) with new instalments to improve their quality of life, from fields for farming, to town halls and markets. There are minor tagged on extras with respect to the building aspect of the game, such as in one instance where you have to slide panels to piece together the blueprints of a building project, although, fortunately, you are given the option of skipping them with no consequences, which most will feel compelled to do given they seem to have been added a side-idea/afterthought.


However, even with all this talk of the building options, the main part of the game is the match-3 puzzles. A variety is achieved in what would have otherwise been a mundane task by the use of different objectives and different shaped grids. Objectives range from destroying a certain number of combos, eliminating panels of a certain colour, unlocking chained up pieces, and guiding a ball to the bottom of the grid by clearing a path for it. The grids, on the other hand, are always different shapes and sizes. As you progress through the game, the levels become progressively harder with grids which isolate certain pieces and give you less space, making it more difficult to execute lines of three or more.

A time limit ensures you never get too comfortable, but isn’t overly constricting as more time is added for each combo. Finishing combo after combo can also amount to in-game power-ups to help you clear the grid quicker, such as blasts which destroy everything in the vicinity. Other grids have abilities taking up squares which help clear the grid when they are activated when involved at the start or the end of a nearby combo. On top of the main story, there’s ‘Relax mode’ which is just a quickplay mode, allowing you to go back and re-do any puzzles you’ve already completed, and subsequently unlocked, in the main mode.


Overall, Jewel Link Chronicles: Legend of Athena offers an interesting combination through its use of a ancient Greek city builder teamed with match-3 puzzler, but for some reason it works and makes the puzzling sections more satisfying as there’s a rewarded after accumulating a set number of points. The graphics allow your settlement to take shape nicely, and gameplay is a decent enough example of match-3. With a reduced price point as well, the 100 puzzles and additional 15 bonus levels are worth a go if you enjoy simple puzzlers.

7-0-capsules-out-of-10

Dead Island ships 1 million to North America in week one; 2 million sold worldwide by week’s end

Travis Bruno
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It is always a good thing when a game does well. No matter how some people may bash a game, when a game sells well good things happen for not only the fans but also the developers of that game. With its very hyped marketing campaign, we have been interested to see exactly how well Dead Island has done as far as sales go, and it seems that things have been going quite well.

Dead Island publisher Deep Silver has just released a few numbers for the game, including one that says that the game has shipped out one million copies to the United States alone and they are expecting to have sold two million copies by the end of the second week on shelves.

Geoff Mulligan, Chief Operating Officer at Deep Silver, stated in a press release that “the critical ‘first week’ of game sales has been an enormous sales success for Deep Silver. We’re working quickly with our distribution partner in North America, Square Enix, to restock shelves as quickly as we can.” When your game is literally flying off of shelves and has to restocked quickly, its a good sign.

The PS Vita’s weakness – Memory and batteries

J. Bradshaw
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Since the Playstation Vita’s announcement and pricing plans were revealed, it seemed as though this system would have no equal, and that it would roll over its competitor and might even take a nice stab at mobile gaming. However, at TGS 2011, two announcements were made that made this system much less desirable. First off, it was revealed that although “some software titles are capable of saving [saved data] on to the PS Vita card itself,” other “PS Vita software titles may require the use of separately sold memory card.” These seperately sold cards will NOT be universal though, unlike what the PSP used. Yes, no SD or Memory stick cards will fit in the PS Vita. To save games, buy PSN content or full games from the Playstation Store, you will need a special memory card, costing anywhere from $29 to $124 for a 4, 8, 16, or 32 GB card.

Secondly, the battery life on the system is expected to last for about 3-5 hours in game mode, with slighly longer times if video and other features are used, and if only default settings are used. Default means that Bluetooth is turned off, headphones are used instead of speakers, the “default setting” is used for screen brightness, and there is no “network” use in games. Making matters worse, Sony will charge $36 dollars for a docking station, unlike Nintendo who started packing a docking station into new 3DS packages to combat the short battery life of its system. You’ll have to use the packed in cable for your Vita’s charging needs, unless you shell out even more dough.

What do you think? Will the system be a boom or a bust based on these revelations?

Source: Sony

Dead Island patch fixes up Xbox 360 version, PC and PS3 later

Travis Bruno
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While I may have loved Dead Island for what it was, an open world zombie survival game that is extremely enjoyable, it also had a number of bugs. These bugs were meant to be addressed in a day one patch by Techland, however that patch still hasn’t been available over a week after release.

Well if you own the Xbox 360 version of the game, you can download the patch right now which will include “improvements to matchmaking, AI, quest and escort fixes, visual glitch fixes and a ton more.” This announcement came via Dead Island’s twitter, where they also said that Dead Island fans on the PlayStation 3 and PC are going to have to wait just a little bit longer, but the patch for their versions of the game is on the way.

Persona fighting game caught on video at TGS 2011

J. Bradshaw
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Persona fighting game caught on video at TGS 2011


The development team behind the BlazBlue fighting game series, Arc System Works, have been rumored to be creating a Persona based fighting game. The gaming magazine Famitsu also confirmed that this would be happening. However, at TGS 2011, 10 minutes of video was recorded of the game, and it IS actually as insanely bizarre as you would have thought.

If you want to take a look at the video, you’ll have to go the Japanese video sharing site Niconico. Keep in mind that this video is rather mature and therefore NSFW. The link to the video is here.

Street Fighter X Tekken – TGS 2011 trailers

J. Bradshaw
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Capcom is in a frenzy at this years Tokyo Game Show. In addition to releasing a hilarious Street Fighter X Tekken trailer set in a bar (which you can see and read about if you click here) they released 3 other videos detailing other characters and the story that is present in the game. A box named Pandora has fallen from the sky, enabling new game features in addition to providing a story to the game.
Farting bears, fighting men, girls, and more are also included in the game. Which matchup are you most excited to try out?

[pro-player]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzcNB_qstSQ[/pro-player]

[pro-player]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVFotMGonOc[/pro-player]

Kinect Sports 2 Impressions at Tokyo Game Show 2011

Philip Federico
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The absolute highlight of my day at Tokyo Game Show 2011 was spending the time with the coolest dudes on the planet Brent Poynton (right) and Travis Ryan (left) from RARE.

Travis and Brent were kind enough to run us through the latest two modes revealed in Kinect Sports 2: Skiing and Baseball. Skiing has you taking on the mountain and manouvering your way between the flags so that you don’t receive time penalties, along the way down you can launch yourself off little jump ramps and while doing that you can perform special posses that give you star points that count towards your final score.  I must admit on my attempt going down the mountain against another journalist, I failed misserably and got beat pretty bad, but my pose jumps were cooler.  The trick to it is keep down as low as possible to gain the speed you need race through the circut, but making sure you skii between the flags.

At the end of each event you also get to see how much calories you’ve burnt wile playing also a cool little feature that if memory serves me correctly works with the style points and score you earn in the game, building a group of fans that love your every move making you that superstar you’ve always wanted to be.

Moving on to baseball Travis and Brent went through a few features in the game.  The person batting can perform a number of differnt batting styles, like big swing hits for home runs, small taps that will drop the ball right at their feet making the run to first base that little bit easier.  Running to the bases is performed by the player batting, you also have the option to slide into the base which can be done quite easily with the Kinect.

Pitching has you selecting either a left or right hand.  Then you can throw a variety of differnt styles of pitches, from curve balls, speed balls, under-arm pitches that can be used to trick the batter and making them swing and miss.  There is also one extra option in the game that allows you call upon your superstar pitcher or batter, that person will carry a or throw a “Golden Ball” or use a  “Golden Bat” that will give that player an advantage in that play.

Finally Travis and Bren briefly ran us through another mode called challenge mode, where you can take on a friend in your friends list to a mini style game,  such as downhill dodge, eagle falls, pop darts to name a few.  The challenge is quite simple the person who wishes to challenge the other player goes first and attempts to go for the highest score possible in that chosen challenge.  Once they are done, the score is sent over to the other person and then once they log back into the game they will see a message saying that they’ve been challenged and then if they want attempt to beat  their score. Doing so will earn you braging rights and a big head and will probably make your friend over live a little mad but hey… they started it, so they can get over it 😉

Keep an eye out for Kinect Sports 2, its set for release end of September.  MasterAbbott gives it a two thumbs up !!

Microsoft attempts to make strides in Japan

J. Bradshaw
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Although Microsoft and the Xbox 360 have faced a rough market in Japan, they are still trying to capture the hearts of consumers there.

According to Major Nelson, “TGS is also about marking the Xbox commitment to Japan, which is home to some of the most legendary games creators in our industry. One of the most important aspects of the Xbox business in Japan is the relationship with our third party development houses…”

At TGS 2011, Microsoft announced quite a few newsworthy items that dealt with the Japanese market:

-A new title from Toylogic, a Japanese developer, is coming to the XBLA. It is entitled ‘Happy Wars.’ At TGS 2010, there were 5 other games from Japanese creators revealed.

-Microsoft will have a “demo of Project Draco from Grounding” that will be shown to the media.

-“Diabolical Pitch (announced at TGS 2010 as codename D) from Grasshopper Manufacture, and Haunt from NanaOn-Sha” will both be playable during the show at the Xbox booth, with Diabolical Pitch set to release in 2012 on the XBLA.

Mortal Kombat surpasses 3 million units sold worldwide

Jack Joly
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Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today announces Mortal Kombat – most recent iteration in the Mortal Kombat franchise which made its way to Xbox 360 and PS3 earlier in the year – has sold in excess of three million units worldwide, making it the highest-selling fighting game this year.

Martin Tremblay, President of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, said: “We are very pleased with the success of Mortal Kombat, as it surpassed our expectations in becoming the #1 fighting game in North America released so far this year”.

NetherRealm Studios delivered a high quality game which has exceeded our sales goals. We’d like to thank our entire team and all of our partners for their innovative campaigns and tremendous support of Mortal Kombat, as the game sales continue to grow.”

Ed Boon, Creative Director, NetherRealm Studios, said: “All of us at NetherRealm Studios are very excited that players have embraced Mortal Kombat. The game was a labor of love for us and we could not be more pleased with its performance. Fan reaction to this latest installment has made all of our hard work worth it.”

TGS 2011: Saints Row The Third: Hands On Preview

Kyle Moore
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Today at their Tokyo Game Show press conference, THQ revealed some details for their upcoming game Saints Row The Third. The first glimpse into the game came in the form of a short trailer, which features the Saints infiltrating a group of cyber criminals called the Deckers. Characters delve into a virtual reality world (ala the Matrix/Neuromancer) in order to defeat the team of cyber criminals. I thought this idea of a virtual world within a virtual world was rather interesting, especially when the phrase: “in the real world you’re just a bitch with the keyboard” was uttered. But lets steer away from that and onto more announcements!

Even bigger news came when celebrated Japanese Game designer, Tomonobu Itagaki graced the stage, revealing his fondness for the game after watching the trailer at E3, and another 14 viewings following the first. It was then announced that Itagaki himself would be a playable character in Saints Row The Third, featuring his trademark leather jacket and sunglasses. THQ showcased the high levels of customizability the game will have, before allowing us to get a hands on look at the game itself.

While the characters were already pre-designed by the time I turned up, some a little more appropriate than others, I still had the chance to edit the character. Built into the game are clothing shops, tattoo parlors and even a plastic surgeon, that allow for players to design and modify their playable character in amazing new ways.

Picking up where the player before me left of, with a guy in a green and blue superhero outfit, I roamed the streets getting the feel of the controls. Volition studio manager Eric Barker gave me a few pointers that helped make the game a lot more enjoyable than my initial roaming the streets throwing grenades.

Firstly, while walking around, you are able to sprint. While this feature may not seem like the most exciting news, it does mean that with a press of a button, your character will spring into a randomly generated melee attack and ground what ever poor victim is next to you. The maneuvers are clearly inspired by wrestling games, including power bombs and some rather aerodynamic jump kicks. I should also note that you are able to jump from tall buildings (in a single bound) and land safely, with the help of a parachute. While it isn’t ever visible until deployed, I am willing to accept this paradox mainly because the game is designed to be very out there, not to mention I am happy my character is able to land safely from dangerously high jumps. Another handy game element branching from sprinting includes being able to jump through car windows while running in order to steal them.

After rocketing through a glass window and driving away from the scene of the crime, I noticed a few other handy little game elements that stood out. Most notable was the GPS system, which as you can imagine, is accessible from the map and gives you directions to locations within the game world. I used this to find my way over to Professor Genki to par take in his Super Ethical Reality Climax. This is basically a little side game in the form of a shooting gallery. I didn’t have the time to develop the shooting skills to make my way through without being killed, but still really enjoyed the challenge. This and a few weapons developed by the Professor, such as the octopus gun, are some of the few new elements that are coming to the Saints Row Franchise.

At first I was unimpressed by Saints Row The Third. I am a bit of a stickler when it comes to the rules of games, and prefer a solid story line grounded in set rules and boundaries. After roaming around and conducting some open play, I found myself easily bored, but that is just me. When I started to get into the missions and the side quests, I found the game pretty enjoyable. Granted, I only played a demo and didn’t get to cater the experience to my personal taste as much as the developers allow you too so I can’t comment on what the increased player agency might bring to the formula in terms of game experience. Regardless, the anticipation for the release of Saints Row The Third is high, and with the release date set for the 15th of November in North America and the 17th in Japan, it won’t be long until you can experience Saints Row The Third too.

Click here for our full coverage of Tokyo Game Show 2011

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