Shadow Complex
I touched on this title last month. What really interested me about this title was the Gamasutra interview. Donald Mustard became someone I must meet when he said…
Super Metroid, to me, is the pinnacle of 2D game design, and there’s no reason we shouldn’t be pushing that pinnacle forward and see what else we can do with it.
Super Metroid was certainly one of the most influential games I played in the 16 bit generation. Its experience was only topped by Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in the 32 bit generation. Shadow Complex succeeds in rekindling the joy of this genre and moving it forward on current-gen consoles. While Gamasutra talks about the control scheme being so unique, I actually found it to be very similar to another classic side-scroller – Abuse.
Shadow Complex is the new standard that future side-scrollers will be judged against. It brings this classic genre into the current generation and makes it just as accessible as any other best-seller on the market today. I don’t have the same patience as I did when I was a kid so I was thankful for Shadow Complex’s very generous Easy mode.
I honestly believe Shadow Complex may be the most important game to hit XBLA this year. Please do yourself a favour and play it.
‘Splosion Man
People had been talking about ‘Splosion Man for a while so I decided I’d pick it up. The game has filled a nice niche in my gaming habits namely being the “5 minutes before dinner” quick game session. The puzzles are fun, satisfying and easy to bite off small chunks. I’ll fire up my X360 and play a level or two of ‘Splosion Man when I only have a few minutes to kill.
Scribblenauts
I’m not much of a portable gamer. Maybe I’m too old-school but in my day games were played in a dark basement on a TV. I can’t get into the gaming mood hunched over a tiny screen on a bus. With that said – Scribblenauts is still an incredible game. I can’t comprehend how this game was created. It’s an amazing feat of game development that everyone should take the time to appreciate. The puzzles are pure entertainment and I often spend a long time staring at the screen to come up with a wildly unique solution. I put the game in front of Melinda and she lost track of time. This is a major accomplishment for a game.
Now if only I could find a proper place in my gaming habits to play Scribblenauts…
Wet
Wet wasn’t on my gaming radar at all. That was until I saw The Sound of Cold Steel video. Eliza Dushku and the audio direction promptly put Wet on the list of games I’d have to experience in 2009. When the reviews starting trickling in I was impressed with how wildly fluctuating they were. It was obvious people were approaching this game with entirely different expectations. So I bought Wet and I played it. I completed it after only a few sittings. Overall: I liked it. The music and visual art style were clearly the stand-out strengths of the title. The story was simple, but effective at making you feel like the carnage was FOR something. Eliza’s voice-acting was better than most games. There were certainly flaws. The game is shallow and is hard to justify at $60. The 3d models and animations are really rough around the edges and look like rushed jobs. The control scheme can be irritating at times especially during the junkyard challenges.
Wet is a fun, gritty, ridiculous-at-times, unpolished – but stylized shooter that really fits nicely with what made Grindhouse great. It doesn’t reach Tarantino levels of perfection but instead should be seen as a “B” List game that is better than most other offerings out there.
Halo 3: ODST
I’ve never played a Halo game for more than a few hours. A couple of key game mechanics always made it hard for me to click-in and enjoy the franchise. Namely: I get lost easy and I seem to have strong bonds toward a specific gun and get frustrated when I can’t refill its ammo. ODST was again, not a game on my radar. That was, until I saw the voice-actor talent: Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk and Tricia Helfer. It’s as if Serenity was flying around and picked up Number 6 as another crew member. I couldn’t resist the geeky goodness.
I almost put the game down the first time I felt lost in a dark halllway. Thankfully the HUD made seeing in the dark a lot easier. I also got the hang of using the map and waypoints to keep me moving in the right direction. As for the gun favoritism – I got over it.
The way ODST tells its story really impressed me. The feeling of solitude when you are the Rookie reminded me of Metroid:Prime and the mix between these quiet segments and the more action filled segments made for a great flow. By about halfway through, the city itself had become a strong character that I wasn’t expecting. I really enjoyed my play-through of ODST and I think I might pick it up and complete it a second time just to re-experience the story. Heck – I might even dust off my copy of Halo 3 and give that game another chance.
Fallout 3: DLC – Broken Steel
I bought Fallout 3 for PS3. I had to wait months for this DLC. I don’t want to talk about it because it’s too painful a topic. So please just shut it and let me play this stuff through. *twitch* *twitch*
