Microsoft’s new XBLA compilation ‘Triple Pack’ bundle will feature three award winning Xbox Live Arcade games Trials HD, ‘Splosion Man and Limbo. For those who missed out on playing them the first time around, ‘Triple Pack’ brings these three award winning Xbox Live Arcade games together on one standalone retail disc. “We understand that there are still many gamers who only purchase games through traditional retailers. Thanks to our partners at Microsoft, all Xbox 360 owners now have a chance to check out the Trials experience, along with two other great games” so said Tero Virtala, CEO of RedLynx the developers of Trials HD, which has sold more than 1.3 million units since its release in 2009.
Microsoft’s ‘Triple Pack‘ bundle is set to be released in North America on April 19, Europe on May 13 and Japan on May 19, for a suggested retail price of $29.99 USD.
Genre: Comedy, Science Fiction Platform: Blu Ray (Reviewed), DVD Produced by: Madman Entertainment Directed by: Mamoru Hosoda Voice Actors: Michael Sinterniklaas, Brina Palencia, Pam Dougherty, Maxey Whitehead, J. Michael Tatum Running time: 144 mins + extras Language: English dub, Japaneese with English Subtitles Release Date: March 16, 2011 Available At: Madman Online Store,Amazon US, Amazon UK
Kenji is your typical teenage misfit. He’s good at math, Bad with Girls and spends most of his time hanging out in the all-powerful, online community known as OZ. His second life is the only life he has – Until the girl of his dreams, Natsuki, hijacks him for a starring role as a fake fiance at her family reunion.
Things only get stranger from there. A late-night email containing a cryptic mathematic riddle leads to the unleashing of a rogue AI, intent on using the virtual world of OZ to destroy the real world, literarily. As armageddon looms on the horizon, Kenji and his new “family” set aside their differences and band together to save the worlds they inhabit. –Blu-Ray Blurb
Overview
It’s easy to see how Summer Wars is so critically acclaimed. From the award winning director Mamoru Hosoda, Summer Wars contains some very impressive art direction and animation, and any anime fan will easily feel familiar to almost every aspect of the film, and will appeal to a wide variety of audiences regardless of taste in genre. It contains many different aspects of anime one may not ever expect to see within the one film, but it is done so in Summer Wars, and done quite remarkably well. Summer Wars is a must see, preferably own to all kinds of fans of Anime, and is truly a masterpiece in every sense of the word.
Plot
The film begins with an introduction to a social networking system called OZ- a virtual world accessed via mobile phones and computers where you can do almost anything, or buy almost anything, and runs much like an MMORPG video game such as World Of Warcraft, but more popular and accessible to the population like Facebook. We then meet our protagonist Kenji Koiso, a math nerd who does maintenance checks on OZ who agrees to pretend to be a ‘fake fiancée’ to the girl of his dreams at her family gathering. Things get out of hand though when a rouge AI program in OZ known as Love Machine hacks into Kenji’s account and uses it to cause widespread damage in OZ. It begins to spread and eventually becomes a worldwide hazard, hacking into millions of accounts and damaging economies and eventually begins hacking into military bases and firing weapons into the human world. While this is going on, the family begins to realises their true values and beliefs and eventually decided to gather all their OZ accounts together to fight against the wrath of Love Machine.
Summer Wars will have a very familiar feel to all fans of anime, regardless of taste in genre. The plot has been done before (Think of the original Digimon Movie, or even The Matrix) but it has a unique twist on combining it with a strong sense of family values and traditional Japanese culture. Jumping between the world of OZ and reality really has two completely separate tones, exploring two completely separate styles of anime. OZ represents a fantasy world where characters can fly, preform superhuman fighting skills and cute animals can talk, while reality has more believable character designs, family dilemmas, comedy, a love story and human emotions. One would think that skipping between these bipolar opposite worlds would be strange, however the script and directing combined makes it feel quite natural and it never seems out of place at all. It would’ve been nicer to see the world of OZ more explored in depth as the main focus is in reality, but its plain to see it was intended to be focused mainly on the character development of characters in the real world. It should be noted there is a scene that looses its relevance and appeal to western audiences based around a Japanese game called Koi Koi. There are a few parts of the movie that make you wonder though, such as why the main family appears to be the only ones fighting the global crisis, while the military appears to not be involved at all, and there are a few plot points and relationships that did have the opportunity explored in depth which never came around. But that’s the beauty of the film, it gets you so involved it leaves you wanting more. At times it does feel that Summer Wars is just taking all the best parts of various anime and throwing them into the same film, but it never feels like a rip off or a cliché, but rather homage, creating a sense of familiarity to the film and making it more appealing to a variety of audiences. Some will enjoy the scenes in OZ more, other will enjoy scenes in reality more, but Im sure most will just enjoy the film in it’s entirety, as it is a really enjoyable plot to follow.
Characters
Theres about thirty different characters in Summer Wars, all with their own unique distinguishable personalities. The thing about them that makes each one stand out however is how they all appear to be based on a different stereotype commonly seen in anime, so viewers will easily feel connected to the characters and understand them, and provide variety to the story. Each character is presented well, with excellent voice acting and character design. There are many twists to the plot that will change your views on many characters, so they do keep you interested throughout the film. Almost the entire film takes place within a house filled with almost thirty people so as you can imagine it does provide a lot of dialogue and character development. The large cast of characters however can take away from the individuals and perhaps if there were less members of the household or less focus on them, it would be easier to build stronger emotional connections with other characters. Instead, we see a more ensemble cast, where almost all characters are just as important as each other. This isn’t the case as we do have the grandmother who acts as the movies speaker, often conveying the underlying message behind the film and protagonist Kenji Koiso as the leading role. His love interest also plays an important role and a young boy who acts as the lead warrior/protector. However, this isn’t always so obvious, as the film tries to focus on the family as a whole, and so Kenji, the grandmother and a suspicious uncle seem to be the only characters that stand out besides the antagonist who never speaks a word throughout the entire film. However, this is all to convey a message that working together to defeat outrageous odds, respect for elders, forgiveness and family honour, and it does so effectively, and the viewer really does begin to feel love for the family.
Art, Animation & Audio
What truly makes Summer Wars shine is its beautiful art direction. The scenes based in reality contain an interesting approach, having very basic simplistic character designs yet very detailed a beautiful scenery and backgrounds. The contrast to this however are the scenes based in the virtual land of OZ, containing much brighter colours and a fantasy setting with much more simple settings and much more detailed character designs. The vastness of the internet is truly expressed with OZ’s settings being very open-spaced and appearing to be never ending, while the moralistic values of togetherness are represented in reality with often seeing closed-in spaces such as bedrooms and dinner tables bringing characters closer together. The animation is very fluent and highly impressive. Every movement feels natural and graceful and remains detailed throughout the film. The voice acting in Summer Wars are of the highest standard in anime, featuring many well-known names in the world of anime english dubs, and honestly there’s way too many to name. Pretty much just think of it this way: there’s a pretty good chance that one of the voice actors from one of your favourite anime is in this film. It’s also especially hard to compliment particular performances as they all have done quite a splendid job. The music is possibly the weakest aspect of Summer Wars, but honestly it’s not that bad. It does it’s job quite well and does compliment an already amazing movie.
Final Thoughts
Summer Wars is a must see film for all anime fans. It has something for everybody: a virtual science fiction world, traditional Japanese culture, cute talking animals, comedy, awesome action scenes and good character development. Its great to see that the 2011 Madman English dub lives up to the extremely high standards set by the original Japanese film released in 2009. But don’t take my word on how much of a masterpiece Summer Wars is, check out the list of awards it has received:
A number of staff from the deceased developer Bizarre Creations have got together to form Hogrocket games. Bizarre Creations closed its doors and dispersed on February 18th this year, shortly after owners Activision failed to find a buyer for the studio.
However, Hogrocket games have revealed that developing for the Xbox 360 or other home consoles is just too costly seeing how they have just started it. Instead, they are working on the more modest iPhone/iPad platform given that they are self-funded. At this point in time, their priorities lie with more agile platforms, including the possibility of PC and Mac, although if their efforts prove successful, who knows. Maybe we could see an XBLA title from these guys once they are a bit more established.
Genre: Thriller Director: Sean Byrne Starring: Xavier Samuel, Robin McLeavy, Jessica McNamee, Victoria Thaine Tag line: “Don’t break her heart…” Running Time: 81 minutes Available:Madman Online Store ($34.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-Ray)
Overview:
“It’s good… for an Aussie film.”
That unfortunate qualifier is often used when people discuss Australian films. Sadly, even true blue Aussies seem to look down on Australian films simply because of the stigma attached to them, and even worse, the view is often justified.
The Loved Ones is in no sense a bad film; in fact, as far as Aussie films go, (See? Now I’m qualifying it) it’s pretty good. But it does seem to falter in the same areas that many Aussie films do. But please, leave your prejudices at the door, and give it a chance.
Plot:
The story of The Loved Ones is comparable to that of Wolf Creek, or the increasingly awful, increasingly unnecessary Saw series. Thankfully, it’s more subdued than the thirteen-odd hour torturefest that constitutes the seven Saw movies, and much more character driven.
The Loved Ones follows Brent Mitchell (played by Xavier Samuel), a fairly successful high school student, who is asked by Lola (Robin McLeavy), the quiet girl at school, to accompany her to the upcoming school formal. He politely declines, on the reasonable grounds that he is already going with his girlfriend Holly.
As Brent prepares for the dance, he is ambushed and drugged, and wakes to find himself tied to a chair, dressed in a suit, attending a very different dance hosted by Lola. At her mercy, she will make him fulfil her fantasy prom night, whatever it takes.
The story progresses nicely, avoiding the potential genre pitfall of becoming nothing more than a series of inventive torture methods (I’m looking at you, Hostel). Brent’s helplessness is conveyed effectively; one advantage of being categorised as torture-horror is that the genre doesn’t necessarily require a happy ending. As such, we are never sure during the build up if Brent will survive or not, creating a deepening sense of dread.
The film also never glorifies the violence as others are known to do. Most of the torture happens out of sight, only hinted at or shown briefly, which serves to heighten its impact while drawing attention to the characters.
The film is plagued by the occasional clunky line of dialogue, and it’s difficult to tell if the writing or the delivery is at fault. There also seems to be some “padding”, with events that have little or no connection to the main story being given a large portion of airtime. The opening sequence shows Brent learning to drive, and an accident sees him total the car and kill his father. The story picks up six months later, and besides making Brent a brooding emo teen, the tragedy has little influence over the plot. The scenes depicting Brent’s unexplained cliff-climbing behaviour before the dance, and his friend’s date the same night, feel irrelevant.
Towards the end, the plot begins to hint at the supernatural, and although it isn’t a serious offence, it does somewhat break the believability of the story, which until that point was effective because of its plausibility.
Despite its flaws, the story is emotionally engaging as a whole, relying on well-drawn characters rather than copious amounts of gore.
Characters:
The true star of the show is Lola, lonely, unhinged and more than a little psychotic. Her character is given the richest personality, and more is revealed about her during the course of the film than any other character. Her reasoning for the kidnapping and torture become clear, and despite the terrible things she does, you can’t help but feel a little sympathy for her.
Her father is also an interesting character, and while not much is expressly told about him, his actions hint at a history, for him and his daughter, that we can only speculate on. It becomes clear that the father/daughter relationship is just as disturbing as the scenes of torture.
Comparatively, the protagonist Brent is fairly underdeveloped. Beyond a belief that he truly doesn’t deserve what happens to him, it’s difficult to identify strongly with him and as a result, much of the impact may be lost. He never has a lot to say, so we never feel very close to him. After his father’s death, he becomes a quiet, brooding young man, and soon after being kidnapped, his vocal chords are deliberately damaged to prevent him from screaming. Unfortunately, this also prevents him from developing as a character, and his changes through the film are strictly physical, the results of torture.
With that in mind, kudos must be given to the actor Xavier Samuel for managing to communicate a range of emotions with various screams and grunts.
Soundtrack:
Normally, I’m not one to pay particular attention to the soundtrack of a film, but that of The Loved Ones stands out. The song choice contributes much towards the audience’s understanding and enjoyment of the film.
During Brent’s driving lesson at the beginning, his father plays the Little River Band song, “Lonesome Loser”. The upbeat, innocent sound of the song is a good fit for the opening scenes of the film, when everything is fine, while obviously foreshadowing later events.
At several points, Lola sings or listens to Kasey Chambers’ “Not Pretty Enough”, a fitting theme song for her. It’s appropriately introduced at a time when things are becoming unnerving, and the lyrics communicate Lola’s underlying insecurities perfectly.
The background music is kept sensibly low, with appropriate points of interest. One particularly fine example comes at a time when Brent, tied to the chair, has not yet been subjected to any physical harm. On denying Lola’s advances, her father calmly places a hammer on the table. This small action is accompanied by a short, sudden spike in the music’s intensity, conveying an ominous, subtle sense of panic as Brent eyes it off.
DVD Extras:
On the disc are the usual extra features, such as cinematic trailers, director’s commentary, stills galleries, and the like.
The standout features include the director’s previous short films, Advantage and Ben. Both are in a similar vein to the main feature – disturbing, character-driven stories, and are quite good, if not slightly confusing.
Of particular interest is a short behind-the-scenes documentary, dubbed “The Super Awesome Featurette: A Runner’s Story”. From the perspective of an oft-overlooked crew member, the piece follows the runner Tommy, as he buzzes around the set bothering people with his phone camera. It’s an entertaining look into the processes of filmmaking. One scene has Xavier Samuel (Brent) and Robin McLeavy (Lola), in full bloody makeup, drinking coffee and mucking around with each other and Tommy, in jarring juxtaposition with the film. Definitely worth a look.
Overall:
As I started by saying, we shouldn’t let our assumptions about Australian cinema as a whole cloud our judgement of individual films. Whether or not you enter into the film with that kind of negative generalisation in mind, The Loved Ones will deliver a satisfying experience on most levels, despite some setbacks in undeveloped characters and irrelevant subplots. The film’s most noteworthy success is its navigation of the territory of torture-horror, while expertly avoiding the immature trap of “torture porn” that the likes of Saw and Hostel succumbed to.
Yakuza 4 Publisher & Developer: SEGA Platform: PlayStation 3 (Reviewed) Release Date: March 15th 2011 Price:$59.95 US , £49.99 UK, $99.99 AUS
Overview:
The Yakuza franchise is something of an oddity in the world of games today. The series has an extremely large following in Japan and despite nearly the whole series featuring only Japanese voices with English subtitles has accumulated a large following overseas. The Yakuza franchise may only be around five years old but SEGA brings us Yakuza 4 and with it a few changes to the formula and plenty of new things that we have yet to see in an international release. The question is, has enough been changed between Yakuzas to make Yakuza 4 stand out on its own?
Story:
Yakuza has always been a game with a very driven storyline that brought it many of the fans it has today. Of course the most recent game, Yakuza 3 only had players taking control of Kazuma Kiryu but this time Yakuza 4 lives up to its name in more than one way. Rather than having only one protagonist the game instead has four different heroes that take the stage at different times in the story.
Players will step into the role of Shun Akiyama, a loan shark with mysteriously charitable loans, the recognizable Kazuma Kiryu of course, Masayoshi Tanimura a cop who has corrupt ties to the underworld, and Taiga Saejima, an ex-Yakuza hitman who is finally out of jail and looking into a case of his own. It is worth noting that newcomers to the series shouldn’t feel too worried about jumping in to the series because there are a number of videos that explain key plot points for the first three Yakuza games.
Each of these four characters has their own separate storyline which weave into one another’s throughout the actual game itself but the direct correlation between these stories is only noticeable near the end of the game when everything starts to intertwine. The best part of a story however isn’t the ending, but the journey and that is certainly what Yakuza has in spades. The stories are complex and emotional with plenty of twists to leave the player guessing as to what will really happen next. Which means of course that you will find it hard to put down your controller simply because you want to find out what is happening next. That is until you stumble upon the character’s side stories of course.
Each of the four characters has their own separate side stories to go along with their main storyline. For example Akiyama has the ability, being as he owns his own Cabaret Club, to scout and train girls to be Hostesses in his club. This feature as well as the other side character’s missions, which include training a fighter, gang battles and police disputes not only help tie-in to the character’s personality but provide plenty of things to do in Yakuza 4.
A story is only as good as how it is told however and unfortunately Yakuza 4 has a few setbacks in this department. The story is told through various voiced cutscenes that pop up here and there, but unfortunately everything else is not voiced and instead is delivered as text boxes. There are a few occasions where the game will cut from a cutscene, into a few text boxes, and then return into a cutscene with zero actual change. This means that players may find themselves a bit bogged down at times with text and will have to watch out for skipping important information as they tap away at the X button which feels like something that should have been left in the past many years ago.
Graphics:
Like past games Yakuza 4 takes place in Kamurocho which is based on the real world Shinjuku’s red light district. Shades of Yakuza 3 are everywhere in the game and it is quite obvious that plenty of the environment will seem maybe a bit too familiar as you travel through the streets. So familiar that it feels almost confining despite the addition of a handful of new areas such as the rooftops, back alleys and sewers to explore. One thing I did notice however was the inclusion of bits of Japanese culture included which may not appear familiar to the average gamer but when I noticed a billboard on the rooftops of popular website Nico Nico Douga it was a nice realism tie-in as well as other various Japanese websites sporadically placed around the city.
Despite a mostly recycled environment the characters themselves have top notch expressions and considering the vast narrative that Yakuza 4 tells this is a must. SEGA has utilized something known as Cyberware 3D scanning technology and Magical V-Engine which has allowed the characters to have realistic looking facial emotions and responses to the story giving them a more realistic feel. When cutscenes can reach up to being ten minutes long easily without a break this helps smooth out what sometimes can be a bit too long of a break from gameplay.
Audio:
Earlier I mentioned that the story is divided into spoken word through cutscenes and written text for everything else. Unfortunately the game itself does not have an English Dub so that means that all of the voices are still in Japanese and the only way to understand what they are saying, unless you know Japanese of course, is to read the subtitles that are displayed under the cutscene itself. In the end it means that there is sure plenty of reading involved.
Regardless of the reading however the Japanese voice casts sound splendid and the voices accurately match the character they are playing as with no oddities mixed in. The game’s background music is mostly forgettable except for a few areas with interesting music such as the Cabaret Club.
Gameplay:
As you walk around the streets of Kamurocho you will find yourself in quite a lot of fistfights. The majority of combat takes place through fists alone with guns being a rarity. Well… fists and anything you happen to pick up off the street that is. Combat has been made a bit smoother since the last iteration of the series and this is evident with how easy it is to string together combo attacks and leave your foes in a bruised and blood pulp on the ground.
As you pound away at the enemies you will fill up a Heat Meter which will allow your character to perform brutal finishing attacks ranging anywhere from a punt kick to the side of the face to using whatever weapon you picked up in a very painful fashion. My favorite is the sword finisher which you will have to find out for yourself. The final blow of any battle is done in slow motion to emphasize the finale of the fight. Afterwards you will be given experience points that may level you up and give you the chance to unlock more skills.
Of course there is more than fighting to be had on the streets of Kamurocho. Lots more. Characters can heal up by buying food or drinks of all kinds from many different minimarts that are surprisingly well detailed and also partake in perhaps one of the game’s many sidetracking options. Players can choose to enter arcades and play claw machine games or even games within the game itself, as well as pachinko parlors (a slot machine type gambling game).
One of the more noticeable and perhaps best mentioned diversions from the main story is the inclusion of the cabaret clubs to Yakuza 4. Originally censored from the Yakuza 3 release this is the first time gamers outside of Japan will get to access these for the first time. In this mode the player can, by playing as Akiyama, you can change everything about the girls you are training to be the No.1 hostess from her hairstyle, clothes, how much makeup she wears and more. As any of the other characters, or even as Akiyama, you can choose to instead spend time with the various girls at the clubs.
Cabaret Clubs (another name for hostess or host bars) are places in Japan where clients can spend time with girls (or guys depending on the club). There is no nudity involved in the game or likewise as the girls are mostly there for the character to either get a massage from or talk to and try to romance each of the girls.
With the large amount of distractions and side missions that can be done there are a ton of things to do in Kamurocho outside of the main storyline. Players can gather locker keys to unlock lockers around the area and get the items inside, train or romance the hostesses, train fighters and even more which adds plenty of length to this already lengthy title.
Overall:
Yakuza 4 has it all upfront. A few new additions to the series which we have never seen before, a new deep storyline with four different characters’ lives intertwining around the events and even plenty of distractions from the main quest. On the other hand, much like most dealings in the underworld, it all is a front for the fact that the game feels dated with the very familiar environment and the fact that despite a great Japanese voice cast, much of the game is unvoiced and relies on plain textboxes.
Dissidia 012[duodecim] Final Fantasy Publisher & Developer: Square Enix Platform: PlayStation Portable (Reviewed) Release Date: March 22nd 2011 Price:$29.99 US, £34.99 UK, $69.99 AUS
Overview:
Dissidia 012[duodecim] Final Fantasy is already a pretty hefty title nowadays when some games only end up getting one maybe two word titles. But that isn’t what sets this title apart of course, what sets it apart is the fact that the Dissidia series brings together characters from every single Final Fantasy game and the fact that they are all at your fingertips to do battle with one another. Now it’s been a year and a half since the first Dissidia was released, does Dissidia 012 shine a new light on the series?
Story:
Characters from every Final Fantasy game sounds like a great idea at first. The only problem is how to tie every character together in a meaningful way. Unfortunately that is something where Dissidia 012 falls short at. Dissidia 012 is a prequel to the original Dissidia and begins with one of the newly added characters and most recent addition to the Final Fantasy series Lightning and her group as they join the side of Cosmos. The mission of the Cosmos fighter is to do battle against the fighters assembled by Chaos whom are also a collection of Final Fantasy characters.
The story is told through a number of cutscenes which involve the characters talking to one another or preparing to enter battle with one another. With so many different characters drawn together to the battleground there really isn’t a whole lot of story to go on. Sure there is actually a long story that happens throughout the game and Final Fantasy fans will be interested to see various interactions between the characters but unfortunately the story doesn’t have enough structure to hold up the little weight it has.
The storyline is very thin and at best it can be seen as something simply to place the characters in a situation together without having to say it was done strictly to see who could defeat who. Practically nothing that happens in the storyline is worth mentioning and often the conversations that the characters have with one another can be seen as idle talk between battles with little redeeming value.
Graphics:
Ignoring the storyline, Dissidia 012 has nothing to be ashamed of as far as looks are concerned. The graphics are simply fantastic especially for a title on the PSP. The overworld is suiting for the most part with enough detail to show which each place is and have various structures and environments the players can walk through but the true gem are the characters and battlegrounds.
Every character, even the old ones which used to be nothing more than a bunch of pixels placed together have been fully upgraded to polygonal beauty. Some may be worried initially that the downgrade of Lightning, whom has taken the stage on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 before would take a major hit after being placed on the PSP but surprisingly still looks impressive and matches the rest of the characters perfectly.
The fighting animations are top notch despite some of the action going on at times. The battlegrounds themselves are great to look at and have destructible environments which are certainly a highlight when your fighter crashes through a pillar to take down the enemy. The stages on the other hand don’t have a whole lot of variety which is a minus as many bare distinct similarities with one another.
Also it is worth noting that the camera has not improved much since the previous game. There are a number of times in the more confining areas that the camera begins to perform badly and struggle to show the action happening on screen. Also it means that there are times you will be beaten around and thrown across the screen without any idea what actually happened to you or any chance to stop it because of camera obtrusions.
Audio:
Without a doubt a game that has a roster spanning every Final Fantasy means that the soundtrack would be superb and Dissidia 012 doesn’t disappoint. Some of the best songs from each Final Fantasy game are included and can be chosen between as you wait for the game to load up the battle sequence. Considering the fact that Final Fantasy games have an impressive musical score to draw from this means you have your pick of great music.
As for the characters themselves their voices, if they had them, are as memorable as anyone can remember. The actors performing the voice work do a great job to voice each character despite the disappointing dialogue they had to work with in the storyline.
Gameplay:
Now anyone who has touched the first Dissidia game will immediately find one of the more significant changes to the game as a whole and that is the overworld. For the most part players will still navigate between areas and story battles through a grid system but rather than jumping around the grid between battles you will traverse the overworld instead. In the end this may have just appeared to be a feature added to help flesh out the story mode but regardless of that it still is a nice addition overall.
The overworld will feature Moogle Shops and treasure chests that the player can acquire items from and use on their characters to help strengthen them. Random battles also occur on the overworld in the form of manikins as well as shining lights that allow the player to use special chain skills in the battle grid and achieve more rewards from their consecutive fights.
Also something added to the game’s story mode and battle grid is the Party Battle feature. As the player advances through the storyline they will of course run into enemies that are in groups and will want to fight as a team. This means that players will do battle with the other teams’ party and defeat them in order to advance. This is done by either having the player fight fighter against fighter with the next fight featuring two different fighters or having the player use the same character until it is defeated and then switching to the next fighter in their party. This is a nice addition which helps emphasize the fact that there is a lot of action going on. Nothing feels overly forced upon the player and a helpful tutorial is there when needed to introduce the player to the fighting mechanics if they are new to the game.
The fighting is of course where the money is in Dissidia 012[duodecim] Final Fantasy. The meat if you will. Players do battle on an open field where they can either choose Action or RPG style battles. In RPG battles players will fight according to instructions given by the player but mostly control themselves. The real fun however is the action battle. Players have complete control of their character and are able to dash through the air, run up and down walls, slide on rails and of course simply charge towards the enemy.
Combat is performed through two separate numbers which show the player’s hit and bravery points. Hit points are of course self-explanatory and the first fighter to drop the other’s point value to zero wins. But what is unique with the Dissidia series and remains true in Dissida 012 are the bravery points. The bravery points have two different meanings. One they are meant to show how much damage a player can do to the other player’s HP by using one of six customizable HP damaging attacks, and also show the fighter’s overall defense.
The direct objective of every battle is to lower your opponent’s bravery counter by hitting them with one of six also customizable bravery attacks which will not only lower their bravery amount but raise your own. When a fighter is brought to a Bravery Break, meaning zero bravery, the fighter who caused the break will be able to perform devastating HP attacks and can at times drop the opponent’s health significantly with one blow.
Also returning are the EX attacks which are special moves that every character in the game has that is unique to them. When a player does damage to an enemy or receives their own, small blue orbs appear in the air and whoever gathers these orbs will raise their EX Gauge and a full gauge allows the fighter to enter the EX mode and possibly perform a devastating EX Attack which is visually impressive and can turn the tide of a battle. Players can also use EX Mode to reverse their misfortune by activating it on the defensive, called Ex Revenge. Ex Revenge deals heavy damage to the enemy while stopping them from pounding you into the nearest wall.
A lesser but noticeable new addition is also the inclusion of an Assist meter which allows fighters to have an assistant jump into battle and perform a certain skill/attack to help out the fighter they are assisting. The Assist meter is filled by landing consecutive attacks on the enemy which means if you do manage to gain the ability to call in your assistant it is a tactical choice. There is also an Assist Break which occurs when your assistant is attacked in battle and locks them from entering for a moment. A handy feature of the assist option is the EX Break ability which means Assist characters can be called in to stop the enemy if they are in EX Mode and steal bravery points from the enemy and adds them to the player’s total which furthers the tactical advantage of having an Assist character waiting in the wings.
If all of this sounds confusing it can be at times but the learning curve is actually not as steep as it seems. Through being able to do one on one battles with fully customizable characters you can easily train your fighting abilities without worrying too much about the outcome. There are also countless items to unlock and to purchase from the store, whether it be additional playable characters, costumes, stages to fight on or even experience boosters to level your characters there are tons of things to do and plenty of options outside of story mode.
Overall:
Dissidia 012[duodecim] Final Fantasy may not have the best story around but honestly the title features so much more beyond the storyline itself that you will be hard pressed to put it down. With almost a never ending stream of unlockable content, impressive graphics and the enjoyable fighting mode Dissidia 012 is certainly the game for anyone looking for an in-depth fighting game on the PSP. Also if you are a fan of Final Fantasy then you will certainly be pleased with the new character additions to the roster to flesh out the already impressive roster.
I give Dissidia 012[duodecim] Final Fantasy
A review copy of this title was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.
As usual, it’s been a hectic week in gaming for the Capsules crew – Yakuza 4 was a popular game as was Crysis 2 (but what did you expect?). Check out what else ate away at our time this week, and don’t forget to tell us what you’re playing!
Editor-in-chief: MasterAbbott
This week was a busy one for MasterAbbott.. I started off playing Yakuza 4. Absolutely love that game – every time I play it, I feel like I’m in Japan walking through the streets, checking out the local stores, eating some Ramen in the noodle shops, getting into fights and slapping the taste out of some street punks then making my way to a Hostess Bar and singing the night away in a Karaoke bar !! YEAH BABY !! That’s the life!
Apart from that, been playing some more Double Dragon on the iPhone (Did I mention? I LOVE THAT GAME!). I also got stuck into ATARI’s recent arcade release Ghostbuster Sanctum of Slime (review here) not a bad game but the comic book sections between the missions was a little annoying as I had to read them… come on man I read enough during the day when I play a game I want someone else to read stuff for me. Apart from that the action is fast and furious, you get to play with four new recruits as the original Ghostbusters sit back at head office eating pizza and playing video games. Not a bad life get the newbs to do the work while you reap the rewards.
During the week I got to watch Ben (Link) and Michael play Child Of Eden on the Xbox 360 Kinect (check our preview here) over at the UBISOFT Offices in Sydney, and I totally fell in love with it. It’s AMAZING, ITS BEAUTIFUL, ITS VISUALLY STUNNING and so many other things as well. I would urge you all to get this game once it comes out. It’s simple to play but hard to master, director Tetsuya Mizuguchi-San has done an amazing job with this game from the music to the simple gameplay mechanics.
I’ve also stated played Gameloft’s Legend of Zelda/Fable clone: Sacred Odyssey: Rise Of Ayden. It’s on special at the moment (pick it up here, and check out our preview for the game here). If you’re into those action/adventure games like Zelda or Fable, Sacred Odyssey is right up your alley. It’s simple to play and has a great story with a truck load of quests to complete.
I also mentioned last week I was going to get an Apple iPad2 and do all that wacky stuff like tether it with my iPhone, but I wasn’t going to wait in line for 4 hours like an idiot to get one. So I’ll have to wait till the Apple store get more in, hopefully in the next week. But what I’m looking forward to picking up this Thursday is the new Nintendo 3DS. Yes I know it’s already out in JAPAN and will be released in the US on Sunday (Hate living in Australia – we are always the last to get everything) but this is something I’m not going to miss out on. If I have to wait in line like an idiot for 10 hours I’ll do it 😉
Senior Editor: Travis Bruno
I started out my week spending a majority of my time playing Ar Tonelico Qoga but since I ended up getting Yakuza 4 and Dissidia 012[duodecim] Final Fantasy in the mail both of those have definitely taken up the rest of my time. Considering the long name Dissidia 012 has plenty of content to go along with it but unfortunately the storyline is lacklustre. Be prepared to see both my review of Dissidia 012 and Yakuza 4 on the site shortly. Besides playing what I have to review, I’ve still been dabbling with Koihime Musou and have yet to complete all of the different routes despite the game’s simplicity. Managed to get my hands on Crysis 2 but haven’t really been able to commit a lot of time to it yet so I know that it will be one of the titles I’ll be working on this upcoming week as well. Still a pretty varied week overall for me.
Senior Editor: Jed Bradshaw
I have been playing Barista for most of this week, but I also had time to go get Crysis 2 on the day of release and review it (check it out here). Luckily, this saved me from a lot of tedium, and injected my life with a bit of badass. Yeah!
Crysis 2 is a fantastic game that is engrossing, filled with great characters and sweeeeeeet gameplay. Who doesn’t want a nanosuit with awesome powers? The nanosuit allows you to sneak around while invisible, armor yourself against grendaes and jump like a, uh, jackrabbit? Maybe kangaroo? I’m not sure, but you can jump pretty high. Complemented with a high adrenaline story, this sets the bar for FPS games.
I have also been playing Pix’N Love Rush for PSP Minis – expect a review soon. I can’t wait until next week, as I will finally be playing through my backlog.
Editor: Ben Webb
This week I have been playing Dragon Age 2, Rift and a tonne of Quakelive.
As our readers may be aware, I recently put up the review to Rift which details the game and what to expect from it.
In regards to Dragon Age 2: I have been playing the PC version and am thoroughly enjoying it. I went into it expecting it to be quite console-ised, but was quite surprised when it felt just as a PC game should.
And lastly, QuakeLive: I’ve been playing this game for roughly two years now and have steadily been getting better at it. I frequently come first or second on any team that I am placed on and am generally within the top 3 players in the whole match. Though, lately I feel as though I’ve started lose some of my skill, or I’m starting to cap on my abilities. Regardless, I’m skilled but am humble enough to admit that there are players out there that simply eclipse my skill.
Editor: Jack Joly
I’ve mainly been playing the Xbox 360 this week, with a number of titles getting their share of the action. Of course I was playing Yoostar 2 on Xbox 360 Kinect before writing up a review. It is an absolutely hilarious game to play for a couple of evening’s amusement, but soon you’ll lose interest and parts of it aren’t very well thought-out. As well as this, I played Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2, an over-the-top beat ’em up which is fairly average, and some XBLA games have had some playtime this week, namely Full House Poker and Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime. Full House Poker is an excellent casual game when you fancy chatting with some mates and throwing down some chips, whereas the less said about Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime the better. In my experience with the game so far, there was a lot of bugs that need to be ironed out to make it enjoyable.
Editor: Michael Irving
I told myself I wouldn’t get into Pokémon Black, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to help it. As with each generation before it, I’m now hooked. Conveniently, there’s a lot of train travel in my routine lately, so I have plenty of time to hunt down and imprison the next 150 critters.
But this week that had to compete for my travel playing time with the new Angry Birds Rio, which I blame Phil for getting me into. But at least I can justify my quest to get three stars on each level as “research” for my review.
During the infrequent times I get to spend time at home, I’m into the online multiplayer for Left 4 Dead 2 at the moment. I love the Versus mode, trying to determine the best techniques and places for each Infected character’s abilities, and the co-ordination required for both teams. I find it’s much more dynamic than your usual team-based shooter. Teamwork is not just a strategy – it’s the only option.
Editor: Kelly Teng
This week I’ve been dabbling more in DVDs than I have in games. I had a pile of Madman DVDs lined up (AvN, A Town Called Panic, IP Man: The Legend is Born) to watch and review so that was my first priority. Other than that, I’ve been going a bit old school and playing some Heroes of Might and Magic IV. When I saw the Collector’s Edition for Might and Magic: Heroes VI had been announced, I immediately started playing the old ones again to remind myself of how awesome the series is. I hope Heroes VI will update the graphics a bit, but other than that the game is still great. I’m also still running around in Mass Effect 2, and debating whether or not to buy a Nintendo 3DS when it launches in Australia this Thursday.
Well let us be the first to tell you. Introducing the glamorous Elsa Lichtmann – sultry siren of the jazz lounge, The Blue Room in L.A. Noire.
This beautiful German expat has previously been seen in screens from Rockstars recent feature on the High Life of Los Angeles, 1947 and their behind the scenes Production Design feature on her character design, costuming and wardrobe.
If your interested, why not download the brand new official artwork as a downloadable desktop, Twitter background, avatar or buddy icon from the Downloads section of both the L.A. Noire site and the Rockstar site.
Game: Pix’N Love Rush Genre: Platformer Price: $2.50 Consoles: iPhone, iPad and PSP (Reviewed) Publisher/Developer: Bulkypix/ Pastagames & Sanuk Games Try the game on iPhone here.
Pix’N Love Rush has been a popular game on the iPhone. The cutesy main character and addictive game play has made it an instant hit, and now it has been transferred to the PSP, with even more features and game modes. Since this game has already proven its worth on the App store, and since Sanuk Games, Pastagames & Bulkypix have merely just added more great modes to this game, it is not hard to quickly realize that this PSP Mini is a great game and a natural continuation of the franchise.
Pix’N Love Rush is a rather simple game and is self described as “All you love in classic Jump & Run games stuffed into 5 minute sessions where your heartbeat will not resist the Rush!” If your a lover of Sonic games or other classic platformers, you will most likely feel very at home playing this game, not to mention that the game is just super fun. All 3 modes of play offer different game play opportunities, are challenging and will keep you playing for hours.
The first mode you’ll come across is the original game. Basically, the entire premise of the game is try to go as far as possible in 5 minutes, while also collecting as many points as you can. To accomplish this, there are items to collect that will grant you bonus scores. However, there are also items that will take away valuable points and seconds. In addition, bumping these undesirable collectibles will shoot your multiplier to zero. Jumping up and down across widely scattered platforms is the only possible way to grab these valuable (or not so valuable) treasures. Of course, things still aren’t so simple. Enemies can also obstruct your way, but you can take care these bad boys quite easily. Simply press the Square button to shoot pellets out of your mouth like a Howitzer, and when these bullets come crashing down, the baddies burst into those oh so addictive points that rack up the score. An infinite mode is also included, and this mode is exactly like it sounds. The graphical style in this classic mode is based on rainbow colors, but when you collect a bonus run (running over a string of “Plus” signs) the graphics change to neon colors, with Aurora borealis patterns dancing in the area behind you. If you manage to get another bonus run, then the graphics change AGAIN! Get another bonus, and the again, the graphics change. Woo HOO!
“Cursed” is the second re-imagining of the game. In this game play type, there are 5 levels of difficulty, from Hard to Hardcorest. Yup, there is no easy mode, but this is easily the most fun of the 3 options. The goal is to go as far as possible while jumping across to smaller and smaller scaffolding as the background races by. Eventually, the platforms are so small that it is nearly impossible to play unless you have science fiction-like reflexes and eyesight. It starts out pretty easy, but it does it get super difficult later on. Although it is just straight platforming, I found this simple game type the best and most addicting of them all. In this cursed environment, the graphics are black and white; they remind me of old black and white cartoons.
The final way to play the game is called On/Off mode. Run through the level in daylight to collect the Suns. Once you get to the end of the stage, you will automatically turn around and it will magically turn into Night time. On this run, your mission is to snatch up the half Moons. If, on either run through, you accidentally snag the opposite of the what your going for, expect a drop in score and a nasty red X to show up. A puzzle version of On/Off mode is also included. In this version, your mission is also to grab every Sun and Moon, but this time the platforms are much harder to reach and the timer is much less restrictive. This mode is new to the game for the PSP.
For less than 5 dollars, there are hardly any reasons not to recommend this game. In fact, there are only 3 faults with the game. The first is that you can get the iPhone game for only $1. It seems a little jacked up that the PSP Mini costs $1.50 more. The other problem with the game is that the loading times are pretty long, even when you just want to retry the level. Re-spawn times are also pretty long considering how simple the game is. The final error present in this game is that the controls are just a little iffy. That is, they are not super accurate.
In conclusion though, for less than the price of a Happy Meal that your only going to get one use out of, this game offers virtually unlimited gaming fun. Plus, its a quality game that will keep you addicted and, when you get tired of one mode, there is always the next one to switch to. Plus, by supporting this developer, you will automatically help this awesome indie developer create more games. Just be warned that this game is fairly hard to master, so don’t get scared.
Who hasn’t watched Pokemon? Nobody. Pokemon was the ever-loving shit. I can’t vouch for it now, but that show was legendary back in it’s heyday. If you watched the show you likely have some fond memories of it, I know I do. Those first few episodes showing Ash going out on his journey and meeting Pikachu, that epic intro and amazing Poke-rap at the end and then the first movie! Pokemon was a force of nature back in the day (and it still is, just not as epic) and it owes part of it’s fame to the cast of the show, specifically Ash Ketchum.
Ash was the kid who was meant to be a representative of “ourselves”, our “avatar” if you will. He was the kid that we, as pokemon fans and children (or children at heart) were to identify with. With an undertaking as big as Pokemon, casting this role is no small task. Luckily, the lady (yes, Ash’s voice actor is a woman) who was cast absolutely nailed it and has left quite the legacy. Not only did Veronica Taylor voice Ash, but also Ash’s mom and May from one of the later series as well as a handful of extras here or there. It should be noted that Pokemon is far from her only gig, though it is what she is arguably best known for.
I just stumbled across an old video of Veronica addressing her fans at Anime Boston 2009. During the video Veronica does several voices of both Ash and his mom which is nothing short of awesome. Not only is she the voice of the most iconic character (aside from Pikachu) from Pokemon, but she’s also pretty cool. She makes light of the fact that Mr. Mime and Prof. Oak are always hanging around Ash’s mom which is pretty funny. Anyway, check out the video, it’s sure to make you smile.
