One of SNK’s classic games is set to return this year to the Playstation 3 and Playstation Portable via the Minis service on the Playstation Store. Part of “NeoGeo Station,” it is set to hit Japan on August 25, and the top down shooter is most likely releasing everywhere else as well.
One of eight squad troopers is under your control as you fight through the jungle to rescue a scientist and his granddaughter. You can watch the trailer for the game below. Are you excited about returning to the rough and tumble world of retro games? Or should old games be left where they lie?
Publisher/Developer: SNK Games
Consoles: Playstation 3 (Reviewed), PSP
Genre: Shooter/Retro
Price: $2.99
Vanguard is one of eight games recently released by SNK onto the Playstation 3 and Playstation Portable. Available on the Minis section of the Playstation Store, if you buy one copy of the game, it can be played on either system for no extra charge.
The first trait you’ll notice about the game is that it is completely retro. It appears that this game is a direct port from the original game released in the 1980s. Therefore, you should expect frequent deaths, different controls and some gameplay elements that are based on getting the most quarters into a machine as possible.
Game: Vanguard
You pilot a spaceship through a variety of side scrolling and top down shooter levels. As you fly by brightly colored geometric shapes, enemies try to impede your progress by shooting at you, or by attempting to manipulate you into smashing into the walls. Like many older games, there are no health bars. One hit or mistake, and your toast. Luckily, in this game, you can insert up to 50 virtual quarters at a time and you can have up to 5 lives, so it eases the pain of death.
Of course, you also have guns to fight back with to reach your objective. The guns are actually the most unique part of Vanguard. It is possible to shoot in all cardinal directions (Up/North, Right/East, Down/South, and Left/West). Interestingly, the controls for the guns are mapped to the face buttons of the controller. This approach to controls for shooting is novel and is a great mechanic, allowing for different strategies. It also adds one more thing to keep track of, which can a positive or negative feature depending your thinking. Although this game is over 20 years old, the face button control system could easily be introduced into a modern game and it would be an innovative and nice change of pace from the endless parade of twin stick shooters.
The most frustrating part of the game is that although I expected the game to be tough, this game is more difficult than most because of cheap deaths. Oftentimes, a ship would spawn in the middle of the screen right off the bow of my ship and kill me immediately. This issue was compounded by some hit detection problems. For example, in the above situation when a ship would appear by magic, I would be firing like a madman, trying to anticipate it. Yet, most of the time, I would still die instantly.
Overall, Vanguard is an addictive, entertaining and good experience. It is easily one of the best of the recent releases from SNK Playmore. The lack of HD graphics and annoying deaths do make playing it a chore sometimes, but most of the time, it is highly enjoyable. There is a variety of enemy types, solid level design and lots of action. In addition, it is truly amusing to see how the shooter genre has evolved, and to see how it could be improved. I would love to see a remake of this game or have another developer expand on the control system. All in all, for $2.99, this game is a blast. Try it.
If your young daughter owns a Mattel brand Girltech IMME and constantly asks you for extra pocket money to spend at the local hobby store, it might be time to worry. According to a team of research developers from Pennsylvania University, the childrens device can be used to disrupt the signals of radio communications of every major American law enforcement agency.
Matt Blaze, who co-authored the security paper, notes that although it is at the moment beyond the expertise of most common crims, it wouldn’t last long in todays free flow of information. “It’s going to be someone somewhere creating the Project 25 jamming kit and it’ll be something that you download from the net, “ he goes on to add. When referring to Project 25, he is referring to the codename for the wireless standard used in federal, state and local radios. These things don’t come cheap with a handheld P25 selling for just over $3000 and a scanner around the $500 mark.
One of the most alarming findings that came from the study is that officers and Federal agents frequently don’t bother to even turn the encryption on. Here is a section of one of the papers that has now been made public and was first obtained by cnet.
The traffic we monitored routinely disclosed some of the most sensitive law enforcement information that the government holds, including: Names and locations of criminal investigative targets, including those involved in organized crime… Information relayed by Title III wiretap plants…Plans for forthcoming arrests, raids and other confidential operations…
On some days, particularly weekends and holidays, we would capture less than one minute, while on others, we captured several hours. We monitored sensitive transmissions about operations by agents in every Federal law enforcement agency in the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. Most traffic was apparently related to criminal law enforcement, but some of the traffic was clearly related to other sensitive operations, including counter- terrorism investigations and executive protection of high ranking officials…
While not getting into the finer details, the researchers used a $1000 high quality receiver but Blaze says it can be done cheaply with hobby grade materials. The department of justice has been made aware of the issue as has the defence department both of which use P25 radios. Either way the general consensus from the team was that it is “strikingly vulnerable to a wide range of attacks”. Not a good sign for radios that are used by every agency across a countries law enforcement team.
Overview
Death… is pretty. Two words that should not be in the same sentence but accurately describes Deadliest Warrior: Legends. Prepare for BATTLE and hilarious death scenes!
A culmination of legends from different eras come together to see who is the deadliest warrior. Other than individual stories of fame, this game is strictly about decapitating your opponent. You wanted a storyline? Here is the legendary William Wallace in-game voice response: “Piss off!”
Gameplay
With nine playable characters the arcade version consists of nine battles where you battle every legend including the character you chose. You encounter a few challenges in between the nine stages. At this point you are to fight a trainer in hopes of winning new weapons and armor. Once these side missions are completed successfully, the prize weapons are available at the character selection screen.
Generals plays out like a limited game of “Risk”. Each player distributes their army to take over surrounding lands. The first general to clear all enemy castles becomes the winner. The chance of victory increases by distributing a high amount of soldiers in a specific region. Once a player has decimated an army at a castle, a duel will commence. The duel consists of one round which the winner acquires the castle. Even if you face an army of 100 – though unlikely – the fight comes down to a single duel.
Similar to arcade mode, skirmish allows each player to choose four characters. The surviving champion fights the next in line. The most intriguing aspect of this mode is that characters do not heal at the end of each turn. If Shaka Zulu is bloody after defeating Attila the Hun, you bet your arse he’s going to be bloody the next round. The skirmish ensues until a player runs out of characters to sacrifice.
The multiplayer for Deadliest Warrior: Legends can described several ways. For local matches against friends this game can be a total blast to play. Button mash your way to a hilarious time by decapitating heads and other body parts. On the other hand, online battle suffers from long waits and limited player variance. So if by chance you find someone online, you will be playing with the same person for awhile.
Graphics/Audio
One aspect I truly love about a battle is that you can be completed covered in blood and none of it will be your own. The developers had a lot of fun with the blood and gore as it clearly can be seen in every battle.
Some of the audio should have been given more thought. Character voice-overs had its ups and downs. While being hilarious like Wallace’s comment above, the facial animations were not synced fluidly. And have you ever gone to bed watching a movie to wake up and find the annoying intro playing over and over? That is how I felt if I stayed on the main menu for several minutes. Even though the entrance was exciting and boisterous, it easily became repetitive.
The open environments were beautiful in detail but lacked the depth of a interactive setting. Objects like wagons and burning crates made the game seem very realistic. The only problem was the execution of collisions and lack of collision interaction. If you are thrown into a crate, you are probably going to break the darn thing. Considering collisions, a player can be easily pushed off a ledge to their death. But a player cannot run off a ledge – more realism. (I would at least try it once!)
Overall
In the end, Deadliest Warrior: Legends delivers a gory mess that can be sorted out is several limbs and other mangled parts. The graphics are beautiful and yet leave the player with unfulfilled environmental interactions. With blood spurting everywhere, the fun factor remains and extends the game’s life.
After releasing a teaser trailer a few days ago, EA Sports have released an extended trailer revealing some of the legends that will be available in the game. The game will include 9 of the greatest NHL players, including the likes of Hall of Famers Wayne Gretzky, Ray Bourque and Chris Chellios.
The legends will be apparently available in all modes in the game, and most importantly in the all new “Be a Legend” mode. Essentially this is a revamped version of the Be a Pro mode except using one of the legends, attempting to break records and earn the player the legendary status which they enjoy in the real world. Additionally, players will be able to unlock footage which will feature Wayne Gretzky presenting some historic record-breaking moments in the sport.
We have the new video for you guys down the page, presumably there will be more videos shortly revealing the remaining 6 legends which we will get to you as soon as we can. Enjoy!
Japanese analysts are having quite a week. On the back of one telling Sony to drop the price of the Vita to compete with the 3DS, another one is telling Nintendo to expand their IPs to Apple’s line of iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads.
Stats Investment Management Co. fund manager Masamitsu Ohki has told Bloomberg that Nintendo should be looking at the jump after the weal launch of the Nintendo 3DS and the slump in the Wii market. Here is what he had to say:
“Smartphones are the new battlefield for the gaming industry. Nintendo should try to either buy its way into this platform or develop something totally new.”
He isn’t alone on this front. The Pokemon Company, who manages the Pokemon franchise in Japan, the US and UK, announced in July that they were developing a game for Apple’s iOS. Investors reacted positively to the news with share jumping considerably the most after the four months it proceeded. However, the shares tumbled after Iwata told investors that no Nintendo franchise will ever run on non-Nintendo hardware.
But, after reading the report, it does show that, even though the market moves toward smartphones, that these investors seem to be out of touch with Nintendo’s core market.
A trailer has hit the web for the upcoming Brave10 anime series, which is to be an adaptation of the manga of the same name. Brave10 is a spin on the classic Ten Heroes of Sanada story for modern audiences.
The upcoming anime has yet to recieve an airing date, however alongside this trailer the cast was announced.
Daisuke Ono as Kirigakure Saizo
Tetsuya Kakihara as Sarutobi Sasuke
Motoki Takagi as Yuri Kamanosuke
Hiroshi Kamiya as Unno Rokuro
Toshiyuki Morikawa as Sanada Yukimura
You can check out the trailer for the Brave10 anime series below. Leave a comment with your thoughts.
SMBC Nikko Securities analyst Kazuharu Miura believes that Sony will sell 2.5 million Playstation Vitas in Japan by the end of this fiscal year, which ends in March 2012.
Miura was interviewed by Bloomberg Japan about the forecast of the Playstation Vita launch. He also told Bloomberg that his figure can fluctuate on the basis of software. He believes that the figure may go up if the software being released perks the interest of prospective consumers. The opposite can happen if there is a repeat of the 3DS.
A second analyst, Ace Securities’ Hideki Yasuda, revealed that the system’s ability to provide the software will determine whether it will sell. Yasuda notes that the development time is being chewed up due to the higher resolution. Yasuda added that software may be slim if the system doesn’t sell.
Since Sony announced that each unit will be sold at a loss, the figure wasn’t revealed. Miura revealed that, at first, the system will sell at a loss of 5,000yen per unit before falling to 2,500yen by the end of the fiscal year ending March 2013. Miura also believes that the system will sell 8.5 million units in Japan by the end of said fiscal year.
Catherine Developer: ATLUS
Publisher: ATLUS Platforms: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PlayStation 3 Release Date: July 26, 2011 Price: $59.99 – Buy Now!
Overview:
When Catherine was first announced in Japan, many people wondered exactly what type of game it was. Considering the risqué nature that some of the first images of the game showed, people had no idea what to expect as this new game from Japan eventually was confirmed for a Western release. Most likely up until the final few weeks before release, many people were struggling with just how to classify Catherine. That my friends, is the perfect way to market a game that is an odd mixture of puzzle platforming and morality bending situations, so with a concept and gameplay like nothing ever seen before in North America, how does Catherine stand?
Story:
The story for Catherine focuses on a 32 year old computer programmer named Vincent. Vincent has been in a long term relationship with his girlfriend Katherine but hasn’t made any move to try and create a family with her or move beyond being simply boyfriend and girlfriend. That is until one strange night when Vincent has a strange and sudden nightmare where he has to climb a tower with the bottom falling out from under him.
The next day Katherine tells him that she wants have a serious relationship with Vincent and wants commitment from him. Katherine is keeping a secret from Vincent though and she soon reveals that she believes she may be pregnant with his child. That night Vincent goes to the Stray Sheep Bar with his friends and begins to drink his troubles away as he usually does every night, until a young and attractive blond woman named Catherine shows up.
As he goes to sleep again and experiences the same nightmares from the night before he wakes up having absolutely no recollection of what happened in his dream nor of the night before. That is of course, until he looks over and sees Catherine sleeping right next to him in his bed claiming that they both had a wonderful time the night before.
Thus begins the twisted tail of love, cheating, responsibility and freedom that is Catherine. Vincent must choose to either try to stay true to Katherine or fall into the chaos and fall into Catherine’s embrace. The game itself has multiple endings, eight of them in fact, which are all tied into the Law and Chaos meter that is displayed every time Vincent performs a certain choice or talks with one of the two girls. The Law and Chaos meter will determine what girl that Vincent begins to have feelings for and just how the story will end up ending. This creates a massive amount of replay value as there are at least three distinct endings among the eight which will require three separate playthroughs at the very least to enjoy.
Something that feels like an odd choice on the developers part, is the fact that the whole story of Catherine is introduced like it is a TV show being hosted on the Golden Playhouse which then has the logo in the top corner through about 80% of the game. The story is strong enough to hold up on its own without the extra Golden Playhouse bit thrown in, but doesn’t take much away from the story itself, though it could confuse some.
Another interesting thing is that although you spend the majority of your time in Catherine climbing mounds of blocks, you will also meet plenty of other sheep along the way. These sheep are other people who are trapped in the nightmares just as you are and your decisions in either talking to them or ignoring them, as well as your answers to certain questions can either cause them to be encouraged to climb more or simply lie down and die. Your fellow bar patrons all have something a little similar to these sheep in your dreams and talking to these bar goers can not only reveal more about their history, but even the secret behind the dreams themselves. All of the additional side characters, especially Vincent’s friends, Catherine and Katherine really stand out and develop over time. Extra points if you can figure out Erica’s secret.
Graphics:
There are two different presentations to Catherine. First off many of the cutscenes are fully animated by Studio 4C which provides extremely well drawn animation which is top notch and a highlight whenever they are displayed instead of the regular cutscenes. Vincent’s reactions can be a bit over-extended however if you are not familiar with anime reactions, such as his jaw dropping extremely low or eyes becoming pinpricks.
Outside of these anime scenes the game uses cel-shaded graphics and each of the characters has a little something to set them apart. In fact most of the side characters that show up in the dream are identified by their singular most noticeable characteristic. The Stray Sheep Bar is well designed and looks just as you would imagine a bar of that type to appear as. The climbing portions themselves can be a bit repetitive as they are usually not varied graphically but the bosses at the end of every stage are amazingly well designed.
The bosses that Vincent will face will usually always resemble what Vincent fears the most at the time, whether it be a girl in a wedding dress, a purple-heart shooting butt or even a chainsaw wielding baby. These boss encounters are the highlight of the Nightmare stages as they not only present a challenge, but also the most graphically impressive 3D characters in the game.
Audio:
Catherine does something very interesting with their background music. The music that you will be hearing as you climb up the towers changes quite often and usually fits each stage’s theme perfectly. Plus whenever you manage to finish a stage there is the final piece of music which will put a smile on your face for more than simply finishing the level. The sound effects are suitable and the anime style dramatic sounds return, including gong sounding noises when something bad happens.
The voice acting is simply the best that you could ask for in the game. Troy Baker who played the role of Kanji from Persona 4 handles the voice work for Vincent while Laura Bailey who was Rise from Persona 4 acts as Catherine. Finally we have Michelle Ruff, Yukari from Persona 3, playing the more levelheaded and current girlfriend Katherine. The performances these three perform are simply amazing, but as you are listening in you will hear many familiar voices throughout the game, including those that any anime watcher will instantly recognize.
Gameplay:
The gameplay in Catherine can be broken down simply into two parts. There is the section of the game that you spend at the Stray Sheep bar with your friends and bargoers and the nightmare stages. While you are at the bar you can spend time talking with your friends and fellow bargoers and in some cases, nightmare sufferers. You can also play a game inside of a game known as Rapunzel which is a nice little extension for those who simply can’t get enough of the nightmare stages.
At the bar you can also drink as much as you want of four different drinks and learn trivia facts about each type. There is another use for alcohol however, and that is the fact that the drunker you are, the faster you can climb up the towers in nightmare mode. You will also receive texts from your girlfriend Katherine and cheating partner Catherine where you can respond to the texts through various dialogue choices which will swing your Law and Chaos meter around depending on your selections.
Outside of the bar you have the meat and anger that makes Catherine one of the toughest games you can play if you choose to accept the challenge. The nightmare stages are rather simple at their core level. You must climb a tower that is made entirely out of blocks that can be pushed and pulled into place and climbed one at a time. While this may sound simple at first, it is anything but.
You must climb as fast as you can and as smart as you can because you can easily block yourself into a corner and not have anywhere to go, forcing you to either use a lot of undos to get back into a continualable position. Or of course, you can retry or fall to your death. Which is something that will happen quite often as the bottom of the tower falls out from underneath of you if you are not quick enough in your ascent.
Besides the normal blocks you will also come across blocks that will not always be simple to navigate. These include trap blocks which can kill you, ice blocks which will send you sliding off the edge and more to name only a few. Plus other sheep are trying to avoid death just as much as you are, meaning that they will try to hit you and knock you down the tower as well as mess up blocks you are trying to work with.
In between stages you will reach a platform that allows you to converse with other sheep and answer a question in a confessional booth that will sway your Chaos and Law meter significantly in one way or another depending on your choices. These choices then end up being uploaded to the internet where your answer will be put into a database and shown in a pie-chart among other players who answered that same question. The questions in the confessional change between each playthrough so you never know what you will be asked.
As I mentioned earlier, at the end of every stage you will encounter a boss battle. These boss battles are extremely challenging and each one throws a unique attack your way. Some of these attacks are projectile based and can knock you down the tower, while others can kill you outright. Plus if you do not climb fast enough with a boss on your tail, they can easily kill you. Of course there are items you can find occasionally to help with your climb, such as a free create a block or eliminating enemies.
To put it simply, Catherine is not a very easy game. Playing through Normal mode is extremely challenging and the amount of retries that you will end up going through can end up being ridiculous on some stages. Though I was able to complete the game a number of times, others may find the difficulty level to daunting, even on an easy difficulty setting.
As you climb and finish stages, you will be rewarded either a gold, silver or bronze trophy and if you manage to unlock a gold trophy on a stage you can actually end up skipping that entire stage the next time you play through on that difficulty level. This helps with speeding up the replay for those who don’t want to deal with the same puzzles, but still lets those who want the puzzle experience enjoy them
Overall:
Catherine is a game that is unique in this day and age. If you wanted to find another game similar to it then you would be extremely hard pressed because chances are, there are none. The story is extremely well written and the number of endings that you can experience are not only enjoyable on their own, but provide continuous replayability. On one playthrough on Normal you can rake in around 12 hours of playtime alone, with subsequent playthroughs depending on your difficulty level or stages skipped due to Gold trophies.
There is an amazing experience to be had with Catherine, and though the difficulty may turn some players away, it provides perhaps the most rewarding experience you can ask for in a game. Never does the difficulty feel cheap and the characters are likable enough that you will want to keep going no matter how many times you’ve died on a stage.
Sony are preparing the release of God of War: Origins Collection on the PS3, which will take both PSP God of War titles (Ghost of Sparta and Chains of Olympus) and remaster each in beautiful HD. Sony want to show users just how these two PSP titles will look in their new, single disc form, and to do so a new video has emerged showing the before and after effect.
As you can see in the clip below, the final result looks pretty awesome and everything appears much more crisp and less pixelated. We are also expecting many other PSP titles to get this game HD treatment this year such as Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, so this remastering technique seems to be just taking off at the moment and I would expect even more hit PSP titles of the past to follow suit. God of War: Origins Collection launches on September 13th in the U.S. and September 16th in Europe for the Playstation 3.
