Gamin' Girl

Kane & Lynch 2 Pre-launch event

Twinkling82 — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:44:47 +0000

Last week I attended a launch event for the new game, called Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. The launch itself was more mellow than the invitation e-mail was leading on, but nonetheless, it was an experience I wouldn’t have been without.

Then the developers presented the game and told a bit about their ideas behind the game and how they ended up with some of the decisions.

They visited Shanghai with a handheld camera and filming the city and the underground world – they were even walking around with a cameraman behind them, like a 3rd person view in a game would be – and running too! But it got too blurry, when running in full speed, it was impossible to see anything. They got this effect in the game, which make it very authentic, but it seemed to be distracting – haven’t got the time to play the game yet – but it’s possible to turn off the handheld feeling.

They were inspired a bit by youtube, so when the game loads a level, it shows up the buffer animation from youtube – and they grainy effect from non-pro cameras as well. The game has a certain feel when you watch the gameplay videoes, and has plenty of bloody gore and violation in the game, so players that like those things will be satisfied by this game.

Though, I am really not a fan of shooters, I’m intrigued by the game, and I will play it at some point, but right now, I have too many games to play, so starting on that game would be nuts.

Anyway, it was a great few hours, and I loved the feeling of be a part of the press. I am getting something back in return for my hard work on this site!

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From One Musician/Gamer To Another…

destinee_ehgc — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 03:35:12 +0000

As a real life musician I jumped straight on the band wagon (no pun intended) when rhythm games came to the latest generation of consoles. Combining my love of music and games seemed ideal to me, so I snapped up Guitar Hero II as soon as it came out. Despite a lot of fellow musicians/gamers not seeing the point in trying to combine two hobbies, I loved it. I was hopelessly addicted and continued to rack up the retail titles. Then came Rock Band; I bought it but I was sceptical. With so many Guitar Hero titles emerging did we really need more? The market suggested yes, but this started my decline of interest in the genre.

A few years on and we now have Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Band Hero, DJ Hero, Singstar, and a wealth of others. With most of these titles now leaking onto portables and DLC being released at up to weekly intervals you really have to ask yourself if it’s time to give up and move on.

As far as I can see it’s exploitation. The producers of these games wrote some clever coding, yes, but with so many sequels and expensive DLC they are milking the cash cow dry before looking at other options. You really have to question whether half the games released are even sequels; in many they seem to have solely run some new songs through their software and regurgitated potential DLC as a retail game. With the DLC on these games being hideously overpriced in most circumstances and not providing new achievements/trophies you have to be a immense fan of that star to buy it. This leads to retail games stacking up because people are more willing to pay for a full game.

I browse through my games news at least once a week. I was horrified to find Guitar Hero DLC (for both consoles and the iPhone), Rock Band DLC, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and DJ Hero 2 all stealing headline space in one week. This was not in any way a special week for rhythm games and yet such a limited genre has managed to obtain that much coverage. It is impressive, but is it deserved? It really made it apparent how much this area of gaming has expanded without ever having to stop for much “development time”.

Obviously, for gamers new to the genre it’s great that they have a wide choice. However, if you mastered the skills long ago and are just farming these games for the points then please stop and think if your cash could be better spent, even if it’s for the sake of your own enjoyment! If we want to get the developers back to the drawing board and coming out with new and fresh ideas then this constant churning out of essentially the same game needs to stop, and that starts with us.

Impression; PS Move & Start The Party!

Twinkling82 — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:22:39 +0000

A week ago I went to this rather big music event. It turned out that PlayStation had a tent there, promoting PlayStation Move. Thomas Bense, a rather wellknown and famous danish TV host, gaming reviewer and entertainer was onstage, presenting the prize: A 250gb Ps3 Slim!

I didn’t get the opportunity to try it myself, but it looked really fun and it seemed to work much better than I imagined. People who usually don’t play games was on stage, competing in the games, using PS Move – and they seemed to enjoy it, not to mention they were able to play the games.

They were playing this upcoming game, called “Start The Party!”, using the PlayStation Move controller. Taking turns, the contestants were bashing bugs, dissolving ghosts, blowing chicks into baskets and more, trying to get the most points – what where the most odd thing – the best player turned out to be this 45 year old woman, and I believe, that she’d never had played a single game before – and the least best player was this 21 year old kid, with a high potential of being more or less of a regular gamer.

Now, the Wii seems to have taken most of the casual market, but I do believe that both Sony and Microsoft’s upcoming motion sensing controllers have a good chance of raising the contest in being the best motion sensing experience.

Move: Seems to respond really good, and as I could see, there weren’t a bit tiny sign of lag or hesitation from the movement from the controller to the reaction onscreen. The form of the controller seems also to fit fine in all sizes and shapes of hands, so this one-size device is designed pretty well.

Start The Party!: It doesn’t seem like this game had many different modes of challenges, but this version is a pre-release version for the press and a demo for the hopefully, full and much larger, game. What I saw of gameplay seemed really fun, maybe not new and yes, experienced before, but with a really good look and artstyle all the way through, with great sound effects, which is doing really really well for the game. Cartoonish effects are making it even more fun to play – bugs hitting the screen and sliding down on the inside of it, is one of the really funny animations made in this game.

I must say, watching Move and the response – not to mention the possibilities – impressed me, and now I really want this controller for my Playstation 3 – but I also want Kinect for my Xbox 360. So.. Now.. What to buy?

If you have both systems, which motion sensing controller do you want most? Answer below with a comment.

I ask you to not start fanboytalking – and if you say you want one of the controllers, because you only have one of the console systems, that’s a moot-point, and we don’t need that – unless you are planning on buying the console, purely for the motion sensing controller of course.

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Final Fantasy XIII Trilogy

destinee_ehgc — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:18:09 +0000

As a hardcore RPG fan and a long-term follower of the series I was delighted with Final Fantasy XIII. Sure, it wasn’t perfect but after the dismal and out of character FFXI and the disappointing FFXII it felt like a return to what made the series great. Fantastic storylines, gorgeous graphics and characters that you ended up attached to… it really was a reminder that Final Fantasy had been, and could again be great. However, with announcements that there will be not one, but two follow up games under the bracket of FFXIII, are they putting too many eggs in one basket?

By now most of you would have heard of Final Fantasy Versus XIII, now confirmed as multi-platform on PS3 and 360. Although set in the same universe and with the same basic mythology the story takes place at a different time and setting to that of the original game. This means taking it along the lines of the FFVII spin-offs rather than the slated FFX-2. As it is a free standing game with neither sequel nor prequel status, this does lead to questions of what the similarities will be. Are SquareEnix simply planning to spurt out average games under the successful umbrella of the FFXIII name? With claims that this may be the darkest Final Fantasy game yet and a more action orientated demeanour I must say that this looks like a fabulous addition to the series but fingers crossed.

Unfortunately, the current area of debate surrounds the third title, Final Fantasy Agito XIII. With a vast story and a large array of characters rumoured, this game could be big… or could go nowhere. Since it’s announcement in 2006 it has been planned as a mobile phone game, a PSP, and now a PS3 exclusive. The problem with all of these options is the limited fan base. A lot of fans who have loyally followed Sony for the games have moved on to the 360. The third instalment being on a different platform could cause major troubles, and I certainly can’t see 360 owners switching to PS3 for just the one game. It seems to me that anything related to FFXIII is now essentially stuck being multi-platform and if SquareEnix can’t produce this then there may be some very unhappy customers down the line. With the series finally looking like it’s back on track we can only hope that the right decisions are made to keep the fans wanting more.

The trilogy will be known collectively as Fabula Nova Crystallis – Final Fantasy XIII.

Review; Naughty Bear (X360)

Twinkling82 — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:45:02 +0000

What to know
It’s fluffy violence time! Bash your way through hysterical, but sweet, bears and make their stuffings fill the air around you. Naughty Bear is the black sheep in the herd, and has been excluded from the fun times by the other bears. Who wouldn’t be frustrated in this situation? Make the bears suffer from their evil mocking, take their weapons and use them against the colorful individuals. Kill them fast, vary your ending kills and don’t let the multiplier decrease, so get your hands on the next bear fast!
Get as many points as possible and get those trophies, so you can unlock more levels. I’ve heard that the game offers 120 different ways of killing a bear, and I want to see them all if possible – and that’s what’s make the game for me, besides getting better at each level/challenge.

Gameplay
Highly violent, highly addictive. Get your hands on the weapons, which are unlocked, as you progress in the game. Burn, shoot, bash, break and clutch those colorful and cuddly bears. Learning curve is great, not too slow and not too steep, and you aren’t getting interrupted by annoying and lecturing messages.
While the weapons are great, they are not the only way to get rid of a bear. Use scare tactics! There’s a “Boo!” function included, and frankly, I think it’s even funnier to use than the weapons. It makes another dimension to the game than just running towards a bear and bash it down. It’s adding a strategy to the game, and makes the game more thoughtful – strategize yourself, this game isn’t just about running and bashing bears. Would it be best to just set traps, and wait for the bears to get walk into them, then kill them off, or just run towards them and bash their heads off with the first weapon you get? Scare or bash? For me, mixing it a bit makes it funnier and less repetitive. Some challenges are quite challenging to get through – for me, the hardest ones is “don’t get hurt”, which basically means you can’t let the other bears hit you – you fail the challenge the second you get hurt, even if you get caught in one of your own traps.

Playing with friends
I haven’t had the opportunity to play online (too few players with the game online) but as I can see from the different modes, there’s some opportunities to have a few good hours.
- Cake Walk: Look for the golden cupcake, and keep hold of it longer than the opponents to win the game, be aware of the highly possibility of being backstabbed the second you relax one bit.
- Golden Oozy: Find the golden machinegun and score points by using it to bash, punish and kill your opponents. Don’t lose it!
- Jelly Wars: Teamgame, avoid Naughty Bear and his rage against the cute friends in the forest – and gather as many jellies as possible.
- Assault: Teamgame, destroy the opposing teams unistatue and defend your own – the game is going on for two minutes, the team with most round wins, wins the entire game.
But really, this game doesn’t need those multiplayer modes, it feels like the developer just made them, because it’s mainstream to include online multiplayer these days.

Amusements
Do I really have to point the fun out in this game? Smack those stuffed bears, till they don’t have any more stuffing – use golf clubs, hams, knives, machine guns, you name it. Kick them in the knockers, and make that mine pulverize the bear, or give them a face cleaning – in the toilet!
Voices and effects are cute and cuddly, yet so violent – it’s a beautiful harmony of squeeks, girly screams, and not to mention the sound of something hard hitting stuffed and plushy animals.

For eyes and ears
The graphics are acceptable, but yet, it could be so much better. There’s way too much clipping going on – bears going through walls and doors, when making the ultimate kills, is really ruining the experience. Camera angles can be horrific – so horrific that there’s a good chance you will encounter them while making a ultimate kill, and not be able to see the kill at all, because the camera are at the other side of the wall or three.
Sounding effects are quite good, but could be more rich on different sounds for each event going on – the speaker suits the game in an odd way, but the tone and using of voice is more like story telling than regular voice and thoughts. Sounding like he is talking to a kid, very understanding, clearly, slow and lecturing – which I don’t like too much, but because it’s cute and cuddly bears you are dealing with, it kinda suits the mood for the game. Background music is quite repetitive, but I didn’t think of it when playing, as I was quite busy chasing down screaming cuddly plush animals.

Gamer goals
Looks like the achievements for this game is easy going and fun to gather nonetheless – which is the best part – ironic kills for example, where you in each episode has a task of killing a specific bear, a specific way. It seems that there’s a few very hard achievements, where you have to do the challenges in the episodes fast and flawless to unlock the best ingame trophies, as there’s an achievement with the task of getting all the ingame platinum trophies. There’s only a very few online multiplayer achievements, and it seems you can gather them within a short amount of time, so those are quite easy to obtain – in spite of the restricted playerbase this game has.

Glitches and mistakes
The worst thing in this game is the clipping you will experience during the ultimate kills – but the first thing you’ll experience is the bad camera movements, it feels squarely and unnatural, but this you will get used to within due time – then you just have to deal with the horizontal and vertical camera control – but it’s not too bad, once you find what suits you, as you can change this in the settings.
The game could definitely use better graphics, but it doesn’t need it, as the game has a really fun gameplay, I wasn’t too annoyed about this, but I was fairly quickly aware of this.
The AI in this game isn’t too good, but makes the games a bit easier and reasonable to get through – but it feels weird, when a bear chases you (yes they do hit back), is when they suddenly stops for no reason – to warm their hands over a fire, go inside the house or gets scared and lets you get away with your naughtiness.

Hearts
The game is highly amusing, the gameplay and the idea behind the game is brilliant,
highly amusing and I can play it for hours, and I will laugh over and over again – especially in company with other people, that sees the ironic in terrified bears losing their stuffings while you bash them as hard and often as possible – and I am still surprised regularly when playing the game, when doing new ultimate kills, because they are so well done, quirky and not to mention innovative.
What makes me stops at four hearts is the fact that the graphics could be far better, looking at what the consoles can do with the graphics nowadays – but the clipping is downright stupid and really annoying to deal with. In my opinion, this is just sloppy programming.

Developers: Artificial mind & Movement, Website: Naughty Bear Officiel Website, Publishers: 505 Games, PEGI rating: 12+, Buy the game on Amazon.com

Review; Critter Crunch (PSN)

Woon — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:57:54 +0000

What to know
We are following an adventurer named Hank Hudson and his nature show: The Unexplored: Explored. He is, for some reason, jumping out a plane, but okay, who wouldn’t? I would’ve if I got the slightest reason to jump out of a plane 13.000 feet up in the air. But Hudson is landing on the Krunchatoa Island to study the animals living there. But in our case we just have to know 2 species: Biggsliocaucus, known as Biggs, and Crittacocephalus, known as Critters.
Now, the story is that the male Biggs has to search for food to feed his family at home, this is following the normal laws of nature – but! When you “barf” your food to feed your youngsters you barf a rainbow and the food you’re gathering is jewels coming out of a Critters exploding stomach. Hank calls this: The great Critter Crunch.

Gameplay
So, you’re a male Biggs gathering food for your starving family and you can only do that by eating a lot of jewels dropping from exploding Critters and you can only explode a Critter by making it eat so much that it literally will explode. This is very simple. You get a screen with 3-10 rows, filled with a start amount of Critters. The Critters drop one at a time in every row every once in a while(Veeeeery slowly in the beginning). If the Critters reach the bottom: you lose! and get beaten up by a bunch of Critters. If you reach the right amount of jewels (points) you win. From the beginning there is only 3 different Critters, small, medium and large. What you have to do is simply feeding a smaller Critter to a Critter there is slightly bigger. So you can not feed a medium to a small nor a small to a large, but there is an excellent tutorial telling you what to do. Later in the game you’re introduced to new Critters for example vegetarian Critters and blockers – but again, every time something new is introduced in the game you will get a short presentation of it and it’s very easy to learn and remember the new abilities and features because you get about 3 games to remember how to use the new ability or kill the new Critter etc.
The game is divided into 4 types of gameplays: Adventure, puzzles, challenges and survival. Adventure mode is just the normal game play: clear the stage by reaching enough points. Puzzle is a little tricky, henceforth the name: puzzle! You get a screen of arranged Critters and you have a specific amount of moves to clear the screen. Challenges is a challenge over time. You get a task to clear within a time limit and if you don’t – you’ll get your behind kicked by a bunch of violent and evil Critters! Lastly is the Survival mode which is like a normal survival mode in every game. How long can you survive when the critters drop faster and faster?

Playing with friends
You can play offline and online co-op or versus. In the co-op game you and your friend are playing as a Biggs and his son and the only thing you have to do is survive as long as you can, kind of the same as survivor mode. Versus is almost the same as co-op but now you’re against each other and only have to try and survive the longest with no help from a friend.

Amusement
I must admit when I saw this game I just wanted it right away. This creature, Biggs, reminds me of a baby Totoro and a bonus is that the game has been made so sweet, cute and cuddly that the irony is as thick as my grandmothers jam. You eat shiny jewels, but the only way to get them, are to overfeed Critters and make them explode and when you feed your youngsters you barf a rainbow straight in the mouth of your offspring – tasty! And every time you clear a stage take your time to read the quotes showing on the screen, I’ve had some laughs just by reading those.

For eyes and ears
I’ve played this game for some time now and the background music is very quiet and easy going but in the long run you may get a little tired of it. When that’s said I can tell you that this game is beautifully made and I’m surprised that the creators of this game could make it so cheap considering how well-made this game is. The game’s animation is made like an anime with the drawing style and colouring – meaning that this game is made of perfection to its goals. You don’t need the Biggs-World and surroundings to look real and the landscape definitely doesn’t have to look like the real world either

Gamer goals
You can earn trophies in this game. Some of them are quite hard but understandable like: Complete all puzzles, but the puzzles are really hard to solve sometimes and gets harder the higher level you’re playing. And some of the trophies are quite easy to solve when you win a trophy by defeating the first 3 levels.

Glitches and mistakes
Besides the music I have nothing on this game. It’s a simple puzzle with simple rules, and it’s reaching its goals as I would’ve expected.

Hearts
I like this puzzle and the graphics, though there is nothing new to it, it still managed to get me stuck to the screen for many days and hours, though it might be a bit frustrating listening to the same music the whole time – but it’s worth it.

Developers: Capybara Games, Website: Critter Crunch Officiel Website, Publishers: Capybara Games, PEGI rating: 7+, Buy the game in PSN Store

Review; Snoopy Flying Ace (XBLA)

Twinkling82 — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 03:15:59 +0000

This is a fun little airgame, and everybody can join in the fun. As Snoopy or one of his friends from the Peanuts cartoons, even your own xbox 360 avatar, you can attend the high action fun in skies.

What to know
A terrible war is going on. As Snoopy, you have to fight against The Red Baron and his associates. Airborne frontal crashes, missiles, bombs, mines and much much more are awaiting you in one of the most possible intense fights in the air. And yet, the steering and cartoonish environment are making it too much fun to get stressed and depressed about – yes I am not too fond of “normal” shooters, as there’s too much war-element over it. The cartoonish style in both steering and look are erasing all feelings of serious war, and makes the game pure fun. I got to admit that the appearance of Snoopy and his friends was the reason I got my eyes on the game – and the fact that I have been looking a bit out for a little airgame since Afterburner Climax went under my radar.

Gameplay
I’ve been jabbering about the steering. Well, this is one of this games forces. It’s easy to learn, and for advanced gamers it feels natural to use the left analogue stick for steering and the right one for stunts. There’s different challenges, but mostly the game is a shooter, both for moving and still targets. The game vary enough to keep the interest for an acceptable amount of time for an XBLA game. There’s different maps, all with each of their own quirks and feel, and there’s both day and night time, which gives an extra spectrum to the game.

Playing with friends
Clearly, this game is made for playing with others. When the single player is quite fun and a really helping hand for getting ready to play online against other people, the online play is mindless fun and really fulfilled with hardcore action, if there’s plenty of players.
There’s a good amount of different modes to choose from, both all against all and team games. The ultimate death match, capture the flag, keep the bone and score points and an American Football imitation. Fun for all players, also newcomers – and challenging too.
Missions in single player can be played in local co-op, which might easy out to get the gold medals. I haven’t had a chance to test that out just yet, but it’s a sure thing I will, when I get the opportunity.

Amusements
I’ve mentioned the steering system, and I stand firm by this. The feel of the gameplay is so cartoonish and the responding so fast, that it’s pure fun and not at all serious war. I dislike the “serious” wargames, which is why I’m avoiding most shooter games as I mentioned earlier. The story has a few all right fun quirks, but nothing too big to reveal here.

For eyes and ears
The look of the game is smooth and without any graphical errors that I’m able to remark right here. The style is quite unique and colorful, yet full of explosions and the effects in the different weapons are great and varying. Sound and soundtrack are pretty decent and well responding to what’s going on at the screen.

Gamer goals
Only one really easy achievement, the rest is grinding and skill based. Seems like a harsh game, achievement-wise, when it’s a XBLA game, but nonetheless, fun.

Glitches and mistakes
I can’t pinpoint anything. Maybe the single player is too short, but looking at the difficulty (if you are going for all gold medals) the game seems to extend rapidly, as you have to retry over and over again, because you have to time it right, not to mention get very good at aiming fast to shoot down enemies to finish the mission within the time limit.

Hearts
The game is great, but there’s nothing new in it. It’s not magnificent or mind blowing, so I can’t really give it top score of 5 hearts, as there’s no real reason for it. People, who know and love “Peanuts” cartoon with Snoopy and his friends, will love the game way more than someone who doesn’t know them too well, but this is normal for any game that are based on cartoons, movies, or whatever it could be. Though, the game aren’t following anything from the paper strips cartoons, apart from characters and relationships.

Developers: Smart Bomb Interactive, Website: Snoopy Flying Ace Officiel Website, Publishers: Microsoft, PEGI rating: 7+, Buy the game on Xbox Live Marketplace

Natal christened, Xbox360 light revealed!

Twinkling82 — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 02:07:26 +0000

Source; Kotaku

Kotaku is one of the sites I trust the most, when it comes to gamingnews. Tonight they revealed a lot of stuff, I’ve been anxious to know more about. Firstly, it appears Project Natal’s final name is gonna be Kinect (I actually adore the name…) and secondly, they discovered an Italian website having an ad running, appearantly for an upcoming Xbox360 light/slim or what you can call it.

You can watch a video of the ad below. Appearently, this new Xbox360 isn’t the biggest change from the one, we know. The hard drive seems to be 250gb, which is available as it is. Neither the size of the machine looks like it’s gonna be significant smaller – we can only hope, if this turns out to be true, that Microsoft has solved the heating problems and the noise problems.

Thirdly, a number of games for Kinect (formerly known as Natal, remember?), has also been revealed – though, this time, by USA Today.

•Kinectimals lets you train and play with 20 different virtual cats, including a lion, cheetah and tiger.

•Joyride, a racing game, lets players use their hands to hold an imaginary steering wheel — pull your hands toward you and push back out for an acceleration boost — and their bodies to execute jumps and tricks.

•Kinect Sports has six activities including boxing, bowling, beach volleyball, track and field, soccer and table tennis. To serve a volleyball, you mimic the real motion; in soccer, you can kick the ball or do a header.

•Kinect Adventures includes a river-raft time trial and obstacle course, playable by up to four players. On the raft, playing as a duo, you and a partner must lean one way or another to steer. Jumping helps the raft reach special areas for extra points.

•Dance Central, in development by MTV Games, brings a So You Think You Can Dance experience home.

•Star Wars characters and iconic Disney favorites will be featured in separate new games being developed at Microsoft in conjunction with LucasArts and Disney.

All this seems very interesting, but were are we heading? I know how to treat animals – both digital and real life ones. For peaks sake, I had a Tamagotchi or three when I was a kid! :-p For Joyride, I would way more like to use the regular controller in a racing game – but I might try out the imaginary steering wheel experience at some point…
Kinect Sports and Dance Central was expected. The Star Wars and Kinect Adventures is what intrigues me the most here – seems like some good heads and laughs has been behind these ideas – I really can’t wait to try out those!

Pre-E3 News about Comic Jumper

Twinkling82 — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 02:15:56 +0000

I just got some intriguing news from Twisted Pixel Games’ CEO, Michael Wilford. Another chapter of the very (at least for me and a few of my gaming friends I’ve talked with about the game) anticipiated game has been revealed.

This time, its following the style of a comic from the silver age, Named “The Improbable Paper Pals”, the style is interesting, but not totally into my liking – nontheless, I like the idea of variating the style of the game!
Also, they revealed the style of the fourth chapter, which will be based on Manga(more details about this after E3).

The cherry on the top of the cake, you will be able to unlock some free Splosion Man DLC with Comic Jumper! This doesn’t mean that we will miss out on anything else – there will be a premium theme (I now know what will take over my Splosion Man theme on my xbox dashboard), gamerpictures AND avatar unlockables – we are getting everything from these guys! Isn’t that rather cool?
- I think so.

I really want this game, as it appeals to my liking in games. There’s nothing better than a 2D platformer – but with TP’s humour included it’s just mind blowing for me!

Full Press Release after the video.

- Full Press Release -

MORE COMIC JUMPER DETAILS EMERGE IN PRE-E3 SNEAK PEAK

Newest information unveils remaining comic genres, announcement of a playable E3 demo, and the inclusion of Splosion Man DLC within the game

AUSTIN, TX – June 10, 2010 – Today Twisted Pixel Games revealed new information about their upcoming Xbox LIVE® Arcade title, Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley. Highlighting their announcement was information on the remaining two genres in the game, an official trailer, and the inclusion of special Splosion Man DLC within Comic Jumper!

In Comic Jumper, Twisted Pixel approaches failed comic book superhero Captain Smiley after his series collapses. They offer him a chance to relaunch his comic if he agrees to work for them. Their technology allows the Captain to “jump” into other comic books and fix their storylines. Twisted Pixel’s previous announcements highlighted Smiley’s first job, a leap in the fantasy genre of comics featuring Nanoc the Obliviator. Today they reveal the game’s two additional genres: the Silver Age and Manga.

Flourishing in the early 60s, the Silver Age of comics featured superheroes punishing evil while held to strict morality guidelines. Captain Smiley and foul-mouthed Star face the ire of the Comics Obscenity Commission (C.O.C.), who constantly attempt to censor Captain Smiley and his chest-mounted sidekick. But with Silver Age heroes the Improbable Paper Pals out of commission, Captain Smiley is all that stands in the way of Mistress Ropes and her diabolical plan to grant women equal rights. As with any of his comic jumps, Captain Smiley undergoes a total transformation when leaping into a new genre, changing his style to fit with the comic.

Captain Smiley finds the Silver Age strange, but he is completely at a loss when faced with the world of Manga. Nonsensical characters, plotlines, and levels that run right to left leave Smiley and Star longing for the American comic ideals of scantily-clad superwomen and problems solved with fists and violence. Stuck in the “shojo” (we don’t know what that means either) manga Cutie Cutie Kid Cupids, Smiley battles between completing his mission and just wanting to get the hell out of there.

But who needs details on the game when there are bonuses to talk about? Twisted Pixel broke new ground with The Maw, becoming the first XBLA game to offer a premium Xbox dashboard theme with the game. Last year, Twisted Pixel was the first XBLA game to offer free Avatar accessories. With Comic Jumper, Twisted Pixel tries to outdo themselves once again, offering not only free gamerpics, a free premium theme, and free Avatar accessories, but also offering free bonus levels for Splosion Man that can only be found within the game. The bonus DLC pack includes one single player and one multiplayer Splosion Man level for everyone who earns them in the game. “We really enjoy coming up with cool new ways of rewarding our loyal fans with free stuff,” says Michael Wilford, CEO of Twisted Pixel Games.

Twisted Pixel is releasing their official trailer for the game, along with some sneak-peak footage of the playable demo that will be shown at E3. Though no details have emerged yet on release dates or pricing, Twisted Pixel promises up-to-the-minute postings and regular updates on the game’s progress at www.TwistedPixelGames.com and on Twitter (@comic_jumper, @mrwilford, @twistedpixjason, and @mikehasnoluck.) Finally, full reveal information and developer interviews about the making of the Silver Age levels can be found at http://twistedpixelgames.com/CJ-reveal-index.htm. After E3, Twisted Pixel will reveal additional behind-the-scenes peeks at the making of the Manga levels.

Review; Things on Wheels (XBLA)

Twinkling82 — Tue, 18 May 2010 20:55:03 +0000

This is unfortunately a glammy knock-off of Mad Tracks. Handling and basics are the same, the basics are the same, it’s just in a new look. Though, it’s still an enjoyable RC car racing game, that you easily can play for a few hours with friends.

What to know
It’s pretty forward, race and win. The game is a bit spiced up by a so-called blog, that makes a little story to follow throughout the game, as you progress. Nothing important, just a sweet little story about you helping out a friend, who was unlucky and broke his hand, so he couldn’t drive in the Citrus Cup. You meet Carla, she builds the cars, and Amor starts to flutter around.

Gameplay
RC racer. The feel and look are pretty decent for an XBLA game in this genre. Unfortunately there’s WAY too much in equal to Mad Tracks, so it’s definitely not a new feeling at all, if you have been playing Mad Tracks. There’s a somewhat short Champion Mode, and an arcade mode, where you can change a few settings, like which car types are used in the game, how many CPU/AI’s to race against, number of laps and difficulty.

Playing with friends
Multiplayer seems acceptable – there’s a few different modes, including team racing, get the fastest lap, elimination race (last player on each lap is taken out until one racer is left). So it’s pretty straight forward, and for the multiplayer, I feel there’s enough different tracks to choose from.

Amusements
Unfortunately not too many. There’s no quirks or twists or special modes that makes you get a heart for the game. The genre and feel of the game is what comes to mind, but not much more than that.

For eyes and ears
The game is beautiful to look at, environments are colorful, peppy and changing quite much from level to level. You will want to own the cars, feel them between your fingers and enjoy them in full – they are that beautiful, shiny and glammy. I really like the design of the cars – and all the tracks are really fun to drive in. I want more of them.
Background music are non-existent in this game, though it has a repetitive, off-beat sound in both menu and tracks – maybe three different versions. Sound effects for motors and cars is mediocre and not varying too much, but this I accept in fully, as it’s an XBLA game, and not a full disc one.

Gamer goals
Really easygoing. Maybe too easy (not enough playtime for achievement whores). There’s no secret achievements or guessing games here, besides from two treasure chests, one of them referring to Load Inc.’s other game, Mad Tracks. Finish story, a timed and an endurance (win x times consecutively) run, a single game online, and then you should have all the achievements. But I know for sure the game will be loaded a few times when friends interested a tiny bit in gaming are coming over at a visit.

Glitches and mistakes
Too few races in championship mode – even for an XBLA game. Too easy as well, as experienced racers like me will only have a bit trouble here and there beating the races in championship mode, and beating the whole thing within 5-6 hours. The endurance achievement was easy, even that the AI is on hard. Sure thing, you have to race 80% perfect to win and not crash heavily more than once, but that’s still a big margin error to have with a single achievement – maybe this margin error was included as the sister-achievement is basically IMPOSSIBLE to get (believe me, I’ve tried!!).
I do have trouble beating the timed achievement, but I’ll get it eventually. The WORST mistake with this game is how equal it is to Load Inc. other game, Mad Tracks. Physics and feelings in the game is one thing – using the same word, font and color when you get lost or drive the wrong way is another – the basics are build up the exactly same way, but the game glitters a lot more – I really like the design and look of the cars and the environment, but that’s about what differs between the games.
Another thing really bugged me every time a new blog post were made in the ingame blog, was that if you want to read it, as you unlock the posts, you have to jump out of the level menu, to the main menu, then go into the blog, read it and then go all the way into the level menu again. A single button that opens up the blogpost and another button to close it and get back to the level menu, would so much have helped this problem out.

Hearts
The need of more variation ruins the game, but being a knock-off of an earlier game of the developer totally crashes the game – I don’t hate the game, but I really dislike that the games are SO close to each other as they are. The game gets an extra heart for being beautiful.

Developers: Load Inc., Website: Things on Wheels, Publishers: Focus Home Interactive, PEGI rating: 3+, Buy the game on Xbox Live Marketplace