To be completely honest with you, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon is a very difficult game for me to review. That’s because I’d much rather be playing it than writing about it.

The bugs are BACK, baby. Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon (henceforth referred to as EDF:IA, or just awesome game) is a reprisal of the cult classic Earth Defense Force 2017, though this time by American developer Vicious Cycle as opposed to Japanese developer Sandlot. Some things have changed, but trust me when I say the insect crunching action is just the same, and in some cases better.

The premise of EDF:IA is hardly unchanged from 2017, and if you’re not familiar with that there’s not a whole lot to explain. Extraterrestrials dubbed Ravagers attack the world with giant insects, robots and spaceships, and it’s up to the worldwide coalition Earth Defense Force to crush them. This time the setting is the near future New Detroit, and you play as the soldier Lightning Alpha, essentially an avatar for yourself. Unlike past EDF heroes (and there have been a few; Japan and Europe have more than 2017) Lightning does actually talk, but he’s hardly chatty. For the most part he just acknowledges whatever order is given.

As you can imagine then, EDF:IA is a very basic and arcade focused game. It doesn’t take itself seriously, it doesn’t have a deep or cinematic story, and it’s not about carefully directed gameplay or quick time events. Simply, you grab a gun and you start shooting at the giant insects around you, which there will seldom be a shortage of.

"Welcome to Earth, stupid bugs!"

Of course, it’s hard not to compare the game to 2017. Right off the bat, 2017 seems to win out on amount of content. EDF:IA has far fewer stages than 2017, although the actual stages are much longer. This can work against EDF:IA at times, since on the harder difficulties stages can take well around a half hour or more to clear, which defeats 2017‘s pick up and play value a little. You can quit out early but then you lose you character building progress. Furthermore, all the stages take place in New Detroit, and although they cover three distinct regions, they come across rather samey nonetheless. This is in contrast to the varied settings 2017 has, like beaches, underground tunnels and already ruined cities.

On the other hand, EDF:IA definitely wins out when it comes to refinement in gameplay and character abilities. For example, players now have the ability to sprint, and to reload their weapons without having to burn through the clip. Simple updates yes, but they make a whole world of difference. You also have the ability to revive your fellow players, and everyone gets back some HP whenever one person grabs a health pack. These additions make multiplayer a lot more fun and lasting; no longer does a player just have to sit and watch the other guy when he dies. Some might think these would make the game too easy, but trust me when I say you’re still very apt to getting overwhelmed and crushed. One small slip up can make a lot go wrong, and stages don’t have any checkpoints.

The biggest change by far is the addition of multiple character classes and the ability to level them up. The score you accrue as you kill bugs acts as both experience and money. Gain enough experience and you’ll move to a higher rank, where your class’s health and native abilities improve. Meanwhile, the money is used for purchasing new weapons. The game boasts over 300 weapons, including various assault rifles, shotguns and missile launchers, although some are specific to a certain class and many are not available until you rise to a higher rank. Furthermore, roughly a third of the weapons are random drops from elite enemies, harking back to 2017‘s system of gaining new weapons.

"I don't think we brought enough ammo for this."

Going into more detail on the character classes; the Trooper is the most basic type. He doesn’t have any special abilities, but he does reload, plant chargers and revive players faster as he ranks up. He also has access to all the weapon types. Nice features, but it’s rare they’d really turn the tide in battle. The Jet class is a call back to Global Defence Force‘s Pale Wing character. The Jet has the fastest mobility but is also the weakest. He can also fly for a limited time, and his weapons are generally energy based. The Battle class is essentially the tank, very good at dishing out and taking damage, but he moves the slowest. He also can bring up an energy shield, and has some special short range power attacks. Finally there’s the Tactical class, or as I like to call it the Useful Trooper. He has the same health and damage tolerance as the Trooper. Where he differs is his ability to lay down support items, such as various turrets, mines and radar systems.

EDF:IA also has superb multiplayer options. The game features two-player split screen for local co-op, which already sets it apart from most 360 and PS3 games out there. Online, you can play in the campaign mode with three players, or play survival mode with six. Survival is basically endless rounds of bug attacks with increasing difficulties. There is also a campaign remix mode, where you can play the campaign but with alternate bug spawns to add a bit of spice. Both survival and campaign remix are playable offline as well. I must stress though, as fun as the game is, it’s infinitely more fun when you play it with friends.

I think it’s also necessary to delve into the game’s cheesiness, since 2017 was indeed a deliciously cheesy game. I’ve noted a number of people say that EDF:IA doesn’t seem as cheesy, but really it just offers a different kind of cheese. In 2017 all the characters took what was happening in a dramatically serious tone, with some nearly cracking under the pressure. It was very reminiscent of a 1950s B science fiction movie. On the other hand, in EDF:IA the characters seem to take on an attitude closer to the player; they are all too happy to be blasting away aliens and seldom seem very concerned about the world falling apart around them. The characters do seem to have less memorable one liners, but there’s still quite a bit of funny writing to go along with the nonstop action, which still works to make you smile.

"Short stack of buttermilk pancakes would sure hit the spot right now."

Earlier this year I did express some worry over Vicious Cycle taking a stab at Earth Defense Force. Playing the game now, the only thing I can fault them for is not doing more. This is a fantastically fun and action packed game, and at its budget price it’s practically a steal. Yeah sure, you got your Uncharteds and your Metal Gear Solids, but those are fun in the same way as reading a good book. You consume it and then you put it away to seldom appreciate it again. But with a game like Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, you will still want to be slaughtering bugs and robots for months and months.

Heck, if you get this game for Xbox 360, I will be more than happy to play it with you.

This review is based on a copy of Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon for Xbox 360 purchased by the reviewer.

I’ve been a bit irresponsible when it comes to Dragon’s Dogma. I had my first taste of the game a couple months back while at Captivate 2011. In lieu of there being any Mega Man titles, Dragon’s Dogma was easily my favorite of Capcom’s offerings (and this was still the case at E3). I fully intended to report my impressions on the game back then, but I sort of just… let it fall by the wayside. It would be a travesty to make the same mistake twice, so I’ll now, finally, regale you my impressions along with data I picked up from Captivate.

Dragon’s Dogma is a completely new game from Capcom, which we were told at Captivate has been in development for the past four years. It’s an action adventure title set in a Tolkein-esque world of mythos. I’m not quite clear on the game’s story, but you essentially play as a warrior tasked with hunting down and killing a mysterious dragon with the power to threaten mankind (and naturally, as seen in the trailers, there’s an evil culty guy wanting to use its power). On the other hand, said dragon has a bond with the main protagonist (since it kinda ripped out the main protagonist’s heart), and speaks to him telepathically and gives him tasks to fulfill, hence the name Dragon’s Dogma.

Some have been noted to consider this game Monster Hunter for westerners, or Monster Hunter if it were made by BioWare. To an extent I have a hard time disagreeing. You essentially run around in an open world taking quests and hunting various big monsters like hydras and griffins. You can be joined in adventure by up to three AI controlled heroes called Pawns, and issue them basic commands in battle like “attack” or “fall back.” While not perfect, Pawns can be surprisingly efficient, and in most cases my smothering defeats were due to my Pawns getting wiped out (you can revive them if they’re felled, and vice-versa, but I just wasn’t paying attention).

Another factor that makes it similar to Monster Hunter is that there’s no RPG-style skill system. Every means to improve yourself is based on finding, buying or making new equipment. Even the magic based mage class doesn’t have stats like MP or such; the effectiveness of the spells they use is based on how long they chant its incantation. Thus Dragon’s Dogma becomes a lot more focused on skill and action rather than balancing statistics. Big monsters are also similar in that you have to learn their attack patterns to get an upper hand on them, and certain parts of their bodies are more vulnerable than others. However, there is a system in place unlike Monster Hunter that lets you grab onto virtually and part of the monster and climb around on it, as well as attack it while attached.

There are three classes available. Fighters, who specialize in brute strength. They wield a big sword and shield, but it sounded like they might even have elements of hand to hand or unarmed combat as well. I’m not certain how this would work, but it would be awesome to just punch a griffin in the face. Striders are they light and swift class. They are armed with short swords as well as bows. Mages, as I mentioned above, use magic spells and incantations. While they seem to have offensive ability, they are just as useful in support since they can heal you and imbue your weapons with special attributes in the midst of action.

The game is wrapped in an over-arching story, but as I said it’s open world and you can seemingly follow events at your own pace. You’re free to wander the land, which we were told at Captivate would take roughly an hour to traverse on foot. Events are always taking place; you might come across a town being attacked by a big monster, for example. It’s to your discretion whether you jump in and help or keep on walking. The outcome of your decision may affect later events. There is also a day and night cycle that affects the availability of some events and such. Towns themselves are customizable, although it wasn’t explained how this worked exactly. But the option is available to have a town attract certain classes above others. All NPCs in towns are fully voiced, have their own attributes, and are capable of being potential Pawns. Your own character is also customizable, and even attributes like the weight of his weapons and the length of his legs will have an impact on his performance. However, since the game does have an implicit story in the background, I’m unsure if it will put limitations on character customization (if you can make your character a woman, etc).

The original demo at Captivate had a fight with some orcs, which quickly sprawled into a battle with a griffin. This demo was also available at E3, as well as another that had you surviving an attack from the dragon, making your way through some catacombs and then fighting a chimera-esque beast (which I think they called a Wyrm). Everything is pretty dynamic in what can happen in a battle. Your Pawns can grab onto smaller enemies and hold them down for you to kill, and you can then use their carcasses as bait to attract bigger beasts. The fighter class can launch you into the air to grab onto flying enemies. Mages can imbue your weapons with fire, and then attack a monster will set them aflame. It was pretty impressive to see the griffin get hit with a flaming arrow and come crashing to the ground in a blaze. The big monsters get noticeably deformed and banged up as you assault them.

There are some setbacks. The controls can be a bit cumbersome to get a handle on, as pretty much every button is utilized. Outside of jumping, your main buttons are also used for different attack types, but I found myself usually sticking to just one button. Also like I said, Pawns are pretty helpful but they’re not perfect. Every time a Pawn does some assist move, such as grabs an enemy or prepares a spell to help you, the action slows down and the camera pans over to where the Pawn is. I can understand why they made it do this, but it really pulls you out of what you’re currently doing. Pawns also have a tendency to talk a bit too much and say the same lines over and over. Then they can just sometimes do silly things. In one instance of the griffin battle, the mage kept climbing onto the griffin where he was useless to everyone. Admittedly, I noticed most of these things more from the Captivate build; the E3 build was a bit better. They also gave monsters plenty more health, giving big boss monsters stacked health bars. This was great because the griffin got ridiculously easy to beat at Captivate.

I was also bummed that I couldn’t carve parts off the griffin after killing it, but that’s an aspect I think I’ll have to live with.

The guy I chose to tape here wasn’t quite getting the hang of the demo, so this is not the most exciting footage around.

One of the things I really look forward to in Dragon’s Dogma is its online capabilities. As fun as the game is looking so far, I can see it being many times more fun by replacing the Pawns with your online friends. Capcom has yet to get into details about the online mechanics. While it was announced at Captivate it would make use of online, they wouldn’t reveal anything more than “it will have a twist,” to paraphrase.

Dragon’s Dogma is set to release for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, expected sometime in 2012. I can tell you that I’m definitely looking forward to this one, and if you have a taste for open world action games that are full of depth, I think you should be too.

"Monster Hunter meets anime in Gods Eater Burst."

With the Monster Hunter franchise currently selling approximately one hojillion copies per entry in Japan, it’s no surprise that other companies are taking notice. Several games borrowing its formula of mission-based, cooperative beast slaying have popped up recently. Among them is Gods Eater Burst, a game that fortunately has enough fresh ideas to become more than just a “Monster Hunter clone”.

Gods Eater Burst takes place in a post apocalyptic future where giant monsters named Aragami attack what is left of civilization. As part of the anti-monster group Fenrir, you (as a male or female character of your own creation) must take these creatures down with your rag tag crew of overly fashion conscious teenagers.

More than just a setting, this sets up (for better or worse) Gods Eater‘s first obvious difference from Monster Hunter: the presence of a story. This is mostly told through cutscenes that occasionally appear between story missions. Sometimes they can be a bit long, but if you’re only in it for the action, they’re entirely skippable.

Veteran hunters will find the game’s skeletal structure quite familiar. There’s a mission counter you’ll grab quests from, you’ll teleport to an area and defeat the monster or monsters in question, you’re rewarded with money and materials to make new equipment with, and you’ll continue in this fashion until you unlock the next difficulty tier.

"Colored flashes indicate how vunerable each part of a monster is to your attack."

But while there’s the same co-op focus of four-man teams, Gods Eater adds a few tweaks to make solo play more interesting. Even when playing alone, you’ll fight alongside others in the form of NPCs. During story missions, these teams are chosen for you, but in free missions you’re able to select various party members from a list yourself. While on a mission, you can even make use of a set of squad commands to make your AI teammates a little more useful.

One of the most interesting features in Gods Eater is your weapon. Rather than choosing one weapon in a class, your weapon is composed of four separate parts, three of which have their own classes. In all, you’ll need a blade, gun, shield, and control unit. What’s really neat is that you can mix and match the sub classes any way you like. Want a giant, slow sword attached to a quick, weak shield? No problem! Now throw a bazooka, sniper, or assault gun on there while you’re at it.

Each weapon piece (aside from the control unit) has its own uniquely designed look, stats, and perks. Building a collection of parts to mix and match is very satisfying, which is good since this level of detail is sadly absent for the “armor” category. In fact, aside from two accessory slots, your clothing serves only aesthetic purposes despite the sometimes high crafting cost.

"Some Aragami are bipedal."

If you’re wondering why your weapon has both gun and blade parts, it’s because it transforms. At the touch of a button, you can switch between these two modes. This creates an interesting dynamic to the combat, since attacking in blade form fills the gauge your gun form uses as ammo. While you’re not required to make use of your gun form, it’s quite useful for targeting enemy weak points. It is also great for causing a variety of elemental damage.

Aside from normal attacking, you can do something that makes the game’s title make a little more sense. You can charge and release a giant mouth from your weapon to take a bite of an Aragami. This puts you in a powered up state and also grants you a double jump. More interestingly though, it has a Mega Man effect. Biting an Aragami will give you a few special bullets for your gun that are specific to that creature. Each creature has a few different ones that can be absorbed, but once they’re used up they’re gone until your next bite.

Speaking of bullets, one of the deepest aspects of Gods Eater is the bullet crafting system. Aside from a handful of default bullets, you can combine a large number of elements and behaviors into your own custom bullets. As you progress, you’ll gain more tools to work with. You could, for example, make a fire shot that, when enemy contact is made, causes a wave of ice to move around in a clockwise circle that’s axis has a 30 degree vertical angle. Confused yet? You can keep on stacking these behaviors to a ridiculous degree, but the more you add, the more energy it will take each time you fire it. There’s even a testing ground in the creation menu with in-depth stat readouts. It’s absurdly deep and fun to play around with, albeit confusing.

"Bullet crafting is absurdly deep and fun to play around with."

Combat in Gods Eater generally feels a bit faster paced than Monster Hunter. Between all the jumping and dashing (instead of dodge rolling), I definitely felt more agile. But the Aragami are quite agile themselves. Even some of the earlier boss monsters can move rather quickly and will keep you on your toes. The familiar mechanics of using traps and other items will definitely give you an easier time.

Map design is where the game really suffers. Being a post-apocalyptic world, you’ll often find yourself in destroyed urban environments. This would be fine if they weren’t all so flat and uninteresting. Monster Hunter has always nailed down the feeling of a living, breathing ecosystem. Gods Eater‘s maps, while similar in quantity, start to get repetitive far quicker. This is not only due to their bland structure, but also because of the creature density. The Aragami that aren’t boss monsters are still quite large and few in number. Without packs of small creatures, bugs, or resources to gather that are more than an occasional glowing mark placed at random, each stage feels barren. It fits the setting, but also makes each map fairly boring.

The monster design is quite bizarre. Each Aragami looks somewhere between a Final Fantasy summon and a Persona from SMT: Persona. Often times they have animal, human, and even mechanical elements to their design. Some even fire actual missiles at you. But while they certainly have visual cues to help you read their attacks, their behaviors and movements never felt quite as detailed as the creatures of Monster Hunter.

Still, Gods Eater manages to be a mostly successful alternative to Monster Hunter in spite its flaws. What it lacks in environmental immersion it makes up for in deep character customization and that oh so satisfying feeling of accomplishment from taking down a giant monster with your own skill. While it can get a bit repetitive and lacks the polish of its inspiration, Gods Eater Burst brings a lot of fresh new ideas to the old formula that make it worth checking out if hunting monsters is your thing.

This review is based on a copy of Gods Eater Burst provided to us by D3Publisher.

It turns out Monster Tale has absolutely nothing to do with Monster Hunter, but it’s still a really good game.

Monster Tale is a 2D platformer, specifically a Metroi…cast…roidio…vani… one of those games where all the areas are interconnected. It’s developed by DreamRift, a studio born from the Henry Hatsworth developers. It tells the story of Ellie, a young girl who finds a mysterious bracelet that transports her to the Monster World. She runs into a newly hatched monster that follows after her, and names him Chomp. She then journeys to find a way back home, though she’s obstructed by other kids who’ve come to the Monster World and taken over, and now refuse to return.

You play the game as Ellie, while Chomp operates like a familiar from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and acts of his own accord most of the time. Ellie has short ranged melee attacks which can be executed with Y, and can fire projectiles from her bracelet with A (which consumes energy). With jumping set as B, this scheme may seem wonky to platforming aficionados, but you get used to it fairly quick. Ellie gains more abilities as she finds runes from statues (very much like in Metroid), like executing melee combo chains, ground pounding, firing more powerful bracelet blasts, and wall kicking. All of these are crucial to opening up additional areas, as well as giving Ellie more options when combat heats up.

Meanwhile, Chomp enjoys the game’s RPG-geared elements. Chomp can either be on the top screen or bottom screen. The bottom screen is his “rest area,” and the various items you pick up from beating enemies are sent here. Items include things like food, toys, books, and other gadgets, which each take Chomp a bit of time to consume or otherwise use. When items are “consumed” they give Chomp experience as well as stat boosts depending on what the item is. When Chomp is summoned to the top screen, he will automatically follow Ellie and attack enemies (which also grants experience). Chomp will also learn attacks which you can assign to L and R and use at will.

While on the top screen, Chomp’s energy gradually decreases, and will also decrease when you use his special attacks or when Chomp takes damage. You can send him back to the bottom screen to recharge, though if he gets knocked out he’ll just be sent back and become unresponsive until his energy recharges fully.

"Monster rave!"

As you might expect, Chomp levels up as he gains experience, and gaining levels will let Chomp learn new attacks and other assignable traits like stat boosts or elemental affinities. But making things much more interesting, leveling up Chomp also unlocks new forms for you to use. Each new form starts back at level 1 and has a different distribution of base stats. Forms are also elementally based in either fire, water, or earth (a common chain if you’ve played Pokémon). Leveling up these forms will let Chomp learn attacks and traits related to them, as well as unlock additional forms down the tree. What’s more, while Chomp starts with the “child tree” of forms, the game will also open teenage and adult forms as you progress, creating many more assist possibilities for Ellie.

You may want to play a little with each form and see what abilities they will learn. Leveling a form more, however, will let you master their abilities. Abilities that are mastered can be used with any form. You have to be careful, though, since each form caps at level 30. If there are still more forms down the chain yet to be unlocked when you hit 30, so far as I can tell it makes it extremely hard or even impossible to unlock them. I found this out the hard way.

To be honest, most of Chomp’s possibilities are fine since Ellie can kick a lot of butt in her own right. Once you learn the combo chain and upward bash, you’ll be juggling enemies in the air with painful blows, even after they’re defeated. This is key, since the longer you can keep bashing an enemy without it falling, the more money and items are likely to spill out of them. And really, juggling enemies is just a lot of fun, though it can leave you vulnerable to attack if you’re not careful.

"Even on the bottom screen, Chomp stays pretty content."

As mentioned before, Monster Tale is designed with an open world in mind. The world is split into five kingdoms, each of which are split into two or three unique regions. Some of the areas are from the typical platformer environs, while others are pretty unique, such as a wind swept wheat field with large, toy windmills. Also, a monster dance club. While the game is an open world, there isn’t very much in the way of exploration. Every path leads to a new power up, which in turns leads you to the next power up, and your next destination is always marked on the map. Furthermore, the game has you backtracking quite a bit just to progress. Even when you’re waist deep in the adventure, you’ll find yourself continuing to traverse back and forth across areas near the game’s beginning.

Areas are also dotted with the typical save rooms, as well as rooms where you run into a shopkeeper character. He will offer items that increase Ellie’s health and attack damage and so forth, as well as items for Chomp to consume. This is helpful since many of Chomp’s forms have preference to specific items.

Monster Tale is also pretty strong in the audio department. The sound effects are fitting, and really add a sense of physicality to Ellie beating down enemies. The music is pretty catchy, and upbeat where it needs to be. The variety of different lands allows the game to offer a good mix of styles, but most are still suited to an action platformer. Monster Tale also features small bits of voice acting, which don’t come off quite as well. Ellie’s sound bites lack consistency. Sometimes she sounds like a young girl, while other times she sounds like a mature woman. The other kids are also pretty cliché in character and have quips that are pretty corny. Some of them still do have their charm though, like the nerdy kit who attacks and yells “Blast processing!”

"Ellie still comes off as more manly than Alucard."

I’ve gone on record numerous times saying that the only developers who can still make worthwhile platformers are those who were there during the arcade era. But I always give credit where it’s due, and DreamRift has made a very solid and very enjoyable game with Monster Tale. It’s a little rough in places, especially with world design and all the backtracking. It’s a little on the short side, but the mechanics are pretty spot on and the world is fun to experience nevertheless.

I’m pretty sure Monster Tale will fall into obscurity being released by a developer that’s not well known and coming out so close to the release of the Nintendo 3DS. Some have even called it the DS’s Shantae. But I will say one thing; I know a number of people who are presently still not too confident in picking up a 3DS with its selection of launch titles. If you’re one of those people, I think Monster Tale is a great choice for you. It’s definitely fun and a lot cheaper than jumping into new hardware. And if you do finally get a 3DS, the game still looks and plays pretty good on it.

This review is based on a copy of Monster Tale purchased by the reviewer.

At 99cents, the pack will be a welcome addition to Magicka’s frantic spell casting action. This is the first paid DLC for the game (the first pack was part of a free update), and according to the game’s publisher, more is on the way.

“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

As the resident Mega Man fan here, you… oh wait, I guess Jesse is here too. As the resident other Mega Man fan here, you might think I love the series all over and I think it can do no wrong. I mean, I do maintain a Mega Man fansite and try to shill for it at every opportunity I get. But the truth is I’m pretty discerning in what I see as quality in games, and Mega Man 5 is an interesting case. While it was the first Mega Man game I ever owned and I do have fond memories of playing it, I’ve come to determine it’s one of the weakest games in the series.

It’s by no means a terrible game; it was derived from a tried and true formula and had the benefit of a few years of experience and fine tuning. It’s probably still one of the better NES games out there. But Mega Man 5 is also where the series really starts to run out of steam. If Mega Man 2 was lightning in a bottle, Mega Man 5 was a bottle opener. Had I not been 10 when I played this game, my perspective of the whole franchise might be wildly skewed from what it is today.

So let’s get to the details. In Mega Man 5, Dr. Wily creates a shape-shifting robot to impersonate Proto Man and kidnap Dr. Light, making Proto Man appear to be the villain. Oops, did I spoil it? Truth be told, this is actually a fairly interesting story. Proto Man is a very mysterious figure introduced in Mega Man 3, where you only find out at the end that he’s Mega Man’s long lost robrother. Proto Man only makes a brief appearance in 4, so a Proto Man-centric story seems like an interesting place to explore. Though, since this is one of my first Mega Man games, I probably figured this Proto Man guy was just around all the time and the significance was lost on me.

Mega Man 5′s new features are pretty underwhelming. He’s now equipped with the Super Mega Buster, which allows him to charge up an energy blast the size of his body, any time he wants, with no real cost. This effectively negates any challenge the majority of enemies might wield. The game also introduces a robotic bird that follows Mega Man around and attacks enemies by crashing into them, although you have to find plates that spell MEGAMANV to unlock him. Beat is pretty useful against certain bosses, but otherwise isn’t all that amazing. And is it really any fun to just run around and let Beat do all the work?

Finally, they changed how Rush Coil works, which is just ridiculous. Now instead of launching you into the air, Rush launches himself up with you on top. As newbish as it sounds, there are so many times I’ve slipped off this and made Rush leap up without me. Fortunately, there are fewer places than ever that you’ll need to actually use Rush Coil. This style of Rush Coil was never revisited in another Mega Man game.

But the real meat and potatoes of any Mega Man game is the bosses; the Robot Masters, and their weapons. And this is where Mega Man 5 really begins to falter. I do have to praise the Robot Masters for being on the unique side, and there are a handful which use themes previously not seen in a Mega Man title. But at the same time, they kind of come off as… un-MegaManish. And I can’t really put my finger on why that is. Perhaps it’s because they started getting too detailed looking, eschewing the simple but effective designs of the previous games. And honestly, there’s nothing especially cool about a Robot Master modeled after a steam engine, or a Robot Master made of bricks. Sure, every Mega Man game has at least a couple of oddballs, and the likes of Napalm Man and Gravity Man are pretty cool. The Mega Man 5 crew ultimately accomplishes being one of the more unique sets of bosses, yet at the same time it’s almost entirely uninteresting.

What’s much worse than the Robot Masters are their stages. They are largely devoid of any interesting features. Something is definitely wrong when you introduce new stage types such as a train, a space station, and a Vietnam War-esque jungle military base, and yet none of them make a strong impression. Wave Man’s stage doesn’t even have enemies during the entire first half of it. Only Gravity Man’s stage comes off as particularly interesting, where the gravity is constantly being flipped and you spend stretches walking on the ceiling. I would have much rather had this concept revisited in Dr. Wily’s castle instead of the ceiling presses from Dust Man’s stage in Mega Man 4.

Speaking of the castles, I will concede those stages are better designed and provide a real challenge. It’s a nice treat if you’ve invested yourself this far into the game. Also, I love that Dark Man’s castle is shaped like Proto Man’s head, as if Dr. Wily thought he had to try that hard to make sure Proto Man appeared to be the villain.

Then there are the weapons. The only nice thing I can really say of them is they’re better than the weapons you get in Mega Man 6. I would suppose Crystal Eye is the best weapon for its low energy consumption and ability to split into smaller crystals that ricochet off walls. Gravity Hold is interesting, but uses too much energy to be used effectively. Gyro Attack is a take off of Magnet Missile, except slower and you have to prompt which direction it goes. Charge Kick only activates while sliding, and joins Napalm Bomb and Water Wave as weapons that only work on the ground’s surface. Power Stone isn’t awful but you’d be lucky to hit anything that isn’t right next to you. Star Crash at least has a wide area for a barrier, and you can throw it which makes it entirely better than the previous title’s Skull Barrier. You also get the Super Rod with Star Crash, which is an interesting but not highly useful device. It’d be fun to use the arrows to ride through stages if not for the fact doing this immediately drains the power. Ultimately there is no weapon better than your ridiculously powerful charged shot, which you start the game with.

Other than that, it’s pretty typical Mega Man fare. A lot of the game’s little enemies come off as weird shapes and don’t have much character, though they did use this game to really diversify the types of Metalls and Joes. The game’s music is good and well composed, and fun to listen to as a soundtrack. But as game music, it comes off as more environmental and doesn’t really push you as hard. A lot of the songs are long and overly technical as opposed to just relying on a strong, catchy melody and a good beat. And why is there only one theme for the respective castle stages? This just seems entirely lazy. At least they’re some of the game’s stronger themes (if you haven’t realized, Mega Man 5 only starts getting good after you beat the eight Robot Masters).

All in all, you just get the feeling the developers really stopped caring with Mega Man 5. When you look at the first three games in the series, each one builds off the last and adds more content and ideas. But following Mega Man 4, it’s like Capcom decided, “This is enough for a Mega Man game. We don’t have to do anything more.” Evolution of the series became centered around adding useless features and using plot contrivances to make you believe Dr. Wily isn’t the real villain. Again, it’s not an awful game, but Mega Man 5 wastes a lot of its potential just being phoned in and cookie cutter, and that’s a major warning sign for any series.

Why did I pick this game?

I have a friend who swears up and down that this is his favorite classic Mega Man game of all time, and I really just can’t grasp why that is. Granted, it’s not like I’m discontent to let him sit with his opinion, but I’ve lately felt the urge to go back and analyze it to see if there’s something I’m really missing.

Besides that, as I mentioned, this was my first Mega Man game and I have fond experiences with it as a kid. I can even remember when I thought the game was pretty hard! It’s fascinating to me that a game that holds such strong nostalgic value really turns out to be one of the laziest Mega Man games ever made.

How does it hold up over time?

Honestly… pretty well. I mean yeah, it was a lazy, dumbed down Mega Man game, but it was always that. While I may be old enough now to realize how hollow so much of the game’s content is, it’s not like it’s any worse to play now. It’s still Mega Man. It still has tight, well-defined controls. It just doesn’t offer up much of an adventure to go with it. Unless you disliked this game back in 1992, it still holds up well now. It hasn’t aged any more than any other NES game in comparison to today’s high definition, throbbing polygon games.

"When in Rome, do as the assassins do."

What’s this? Crotchety old schooler Adam is reviewing a modern, immersive, narrative-driven game!? After all that stuff he’s said about old games being so much better!? What’s the world coming to!?

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I know this is quite a shock to you all. I am outed. Much in the same way a Halo and God of War loving self-proclamated hardcore would be sheepish to admit he likes Pokémon, I must confess that Assassin’s Creed is one of my guilty pleasures.

Okay, so it’s not like I’m actually embarrassed about it or anything. And as much as I’d love to review something like Donkey Kong Country Returns, truth be told I was looking forward to Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood for some time (or AssCreBro as we’ve come to call it around the WingDamage HQ).

So how does it stack up?

Some people have dubbed this game Assassin’s Creed 2.5 and honestly, such a label is neither untrue nor unkind (well, depending on how you feel about Assassin’s Creed 2). Despite the new locale and other new assets, you will pretty much feel like you’re playing Assassin’s Creed 2. Storyline-wise, the game even picks up at the exact moment Assassin’s Creed 2 left off. Soon Monteriggioni falls under siege, and Ezio travels to Rome, which is under the oppression of the Borgia family. Ezio will have to fight to free Rome from the tyranny of his new nemesis, Cesare Borgia, as well as retrieve the Apple that was stolen from him. In the present, Desmond replays these memories with the prospect of further improving his assassin’s skills and locating the Apple in the present day.

Rome is by far the biggest parkour playground featured in any Assassin’s Creed game, and is boasted as such. However, it’s also the only one. Some side missions will take you to other regions, but they’re much smaller and more linear in design. For that reason, Rome features a gamut of terrain types, including large, bustling city blocks, smaller scatters villages, and rural expanses. In a sense it feels like they took all the locations from Assassin’s Creed 2 and rolled them up into a single, huge stage.

"No one seems to like you when you're an assassin."

One of the game’s primary features is freeing Rome from oppression and restoring it, which in turn supports your own crusade. This is carried out by taking down Borgia towers, of which there are ten. Each one carries influence over a certain area of Rome. You must infiltrate them, assassinate the commander in charge, and then burn down the tower.

Once you free the area, you can start opening shops and buying landmarks there, which in turn provides you with continual income. Each tower has a difficulty rating based on its layout, and also two types of commanders: those who stay and fight, and those who try to flee if they catch wind of you. Truth be told, though, they’re not terribly tough if you recon enough, and I managed to take down a four star tower pretty early in the game. The only real “loss” is if the captain manages to escape, in which case you need to wait an in-game day for him to return.

Other ways of effecting change, and padding your pockets, include paying to have aqueducts repaired, opening up underground tunnels for fast travel, and establishing factions for the mercenaries, courtesans and thieves. What’s more, while the initial game objectives will have you do these things just to get a taste for them, for the most part you’re free to tackle them at your own pace. You can use your money to open up new shops as soon as you get it, or buy up weapons and artwork instead. You can try to take down as many of the Borgia towers as possible right away, or not take down any. You can do as much or as little as you want as you see fit.

Besides all this, there are a number of other side quests to distract you from fulfilling the main objectives, including assassination contracts, helping courtesans, hunting down Templars and reliving Ezio’s heartbreaks. Oh, and collecting flags.

Then of course there’s the brotherhood; the titular feature to the game. As the story progresses, Ezio decides to form and train a brotherhood of assassins. You will find citizen recruits being hassled by the guards (an event reminiscent of citizen rescues from the original Assassin’s Creed), and rescuing them will bring them to your ranks. You can find three to start with, and add an additional recruit with every Borgia tower you bring down.

Once you have them, it’s your job to train them. This is accomplished by sending them on missions all across the continent to level them up. A rate of success is determined by the difficulty of the mission, the number of assassins you send and how skilled they are. Leveling them up allows you to improve their weapons and armor. Truth be told, despite “Brotherhood” finding its way into the game’s title, you can’t really ineract with them and they have extremely little bearing on the story. They are little more than your personal hit squad.

"You guys got this? Ok, cool. I'm gonna take five."

And man, what a job they do. Target any unfortunate guard, hit the left bumper, and your crew will fly in and go to town. Early on, I accidentally called a newbie assassin trying to target a guard. I figured he was done for and rushed in to save him, but he felled the guard before I could get there. In fact, once you have six assassins at the ready, you can hold the left bumper to summon an “arrow storm.” And that’s really what it is: arrows will fly in from seemingly nowhere and kill every guard in your vicinity. There was one mission where I was required to assassinate my target while sitting down to get full synchronization from the mission. However, a gaurd was standing right in front of me. I figured I’d target him and summon an arrow to take him out quietly, rather than have an assassin jump in and cause a commotion. Instead, every enemy was slayed, including my target, who I didn’t even see at the time. The mission ended.

Of course, that doesn’t mean Ezio doesn’t have to get his hands dirty. While the game does open with a typical “you lose all your stuff” bit, you still do get to hang onto your hidden blade, which has the poison tip and the pistol. From there you can get new weapons and armaments from shops. You can also meet Leonardo for special missions to get new equipment from him. There are a few new weapons, including the devastating crossbow. It’s every bit as deadly and accurate as the pistol, but you can carry much more ammunition with it.

Combat has also changed a little. In order to move fighting away from the counter-attack waiting game, and to allow for much more threatening enemies, the combat now has a “first strike” system. Simply put, whenever you kill someone, you can immediately target someone else and immediately execute them before letting them get a move in. If your timing is good, you can chain this action and take down huge groups of enemies in no time. This is useful especially for getting the jump on larger, heavily armored guards who you can’t counter-attack.

"For someone who commands fear and respect, this seat is terrible!"

Truthfully though, not much else has changed. The core gameplay, the enemy AI, and even a bit of the music and soundbites are all the same from Assassin’s Creed 2. It also still has the same, somewhat unrefined control system, where your player character doesn’t always jump the way you command him (and usually plummets to his death as a result). To consider the singleplayer alone, it is a smaller game as well, even with the huge amount of optional side missions. I know to overlook multiplayer is missing out on one of the major elements of the title, and the way they formulated it sounds pretty unique, but it’s not something that grabs me so far.

So as a continuation of the storyline, it reaches the same great standard the series is now known for, but there’s just less of it. On the other hand, they truly went all out with the story. While it is a shorter adventure, it doesn’t mean what happens doesn’t matter. I am pretty sure playing the next major Assassin’s Creed installment without following the events of this title would lead to some confusion. That is definitely something to keep in mind when you weigh the value of this title. Overall, if you enjoyed Assassin’s Creed 2 and want to keep up with the story, Brotherhood will probably come through for you. Otherwise, unless you’re really dying for some new online multiplayer gameplay, I wouldn’t recommend jumping into the series here.

This review is based on a copy of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood purchased by the reviewer.

It has come to our attention that some people still haven’t picked up the excellent action/shooter, Vanquish. With all the great games 2010 has brought us thus far, it would be easy for people to forget to try Platinum’s new IP. But make no mistake, we will… stop that from happening.

We’re giving away a copy of Vanquish for the Playstation 3 to one lucky commenter. To prove to us that you’re man enough to take the game on, read the rules below and give us your best grunty, space marine line below. Examples from the game include “I’m gonna need a bigger gun!” and “This fight is for the men going home in pine boxes!” Just keep you’re lines PG (unlike the game) and make sure to grunt a lot while you type them.

Contest Rules:

1. Leave a comment below and give us your best, gruntiest space marine line (example: “I think I’m gonna need a bigger gun!”)
2. Limit one entry per person
3. All entries must be made by legal U.S. residents
4. Entries must be accepted by 5:00pm PST on Friday, November 19th. We will then randomly select one winner

Good luck! And don’t forget to check out our review!

For this review, please imagine me hunkered over, holding my back with one hand while propping myself up with a cane with the other. My trousers are held up with suspenders, my plaid shirt is tapered, and my face wears a constant scowl. Got all that in mind there? Ready? Ok, good. Ahem.

In MY day, games were hard as hell, and we liked ‘em that way! Didn’t need no too-tour-ree-alls, or yer fancy shmancy fast time situations or whatever ya have. Ya hit start at’n the title screen, ya played the game, and ya got yer keester whipped. And that was just fine! … … … AN’ ANOTHER THING! There ‘as no ten minute cuttin’ scenes or surround sound dij’tal Dolby an’ all that nonsense. Only had there 256 colors, at best, and we LOVED it! Why in my day, yadda yadda yadda… I think you get he point.

So many games these days are too complex, too stuffy, and frankly too easy. And I’m from the late NES era. Just imagine what the arcade era thinks! Ahh, but thankfully, before I really do turn into that old man and make my grandchild hate visiting me, there’s Super Meat Boy.

Super Meat Boy is the successor to the Newgrounds flash game, Meat Boy. In this 2D platformer, you play as Meat Boy who must rescue his girlfriend, Bandage Girl, from Dr. Fetus, who is a jerk. The challenge is presented in a gauntlet of stages where you must navigate Meat Boy to reach Bandage Girl at the end. Each stage is pretty short, some even being a single screen, and most can be cleared in under 30 seconds. Provided you get them on the first try, that is, since the game quickly applies difficulty with precarious instant-death obstacles you’ll need to carefully avoid.

"If this looks really hard, don't worry. It gets a lot harder."

However, this difficulty is truly the core of Super Meat Boy‘s appeal. While you’ll die quite often, you never get a sense of being slowed down. With every loss, you immediately restart back at the beginning. The music never restarts when you die or advance to the next stage. Every stage you beat moves you to the next, as opposed to making you return to the world map. Everything about the game psychologically conditions you to keep going; to have a mentality of, “Man, I know I can do this. Just give me one more shot,” instead of, “#@$% I HATE THIS GAME! I QUIT!” Sure, I won’t lie. There are a handful of stages that really ticked me off, and I probably had to play them 50+ times before I figured it all out. But 90% of the time, my anger was typically expressed with “Dawww,” or “Aw man.”

A lot of it is just getting a sense of how Meat Boy plays. He moves around very quickly, and can perform long, floaty jumps. He will also stick to walls briefly, and can jump off from them. This gives Meat Boy a lot of versatility in movement, though you have to keep his momentum in check since he can easily overshoot whatever you’re trying to reach. Once you get a feel for it, it comes together extremely well.

On the Barrel Roll podcast, I expressed this as what I call “meat sense,” where I became so attuned to Meat Boy’s physics that I caught myself paying attention to the obstacles on the screen instead of Meat Boy himself. In some cases, I was practically playing stages without watching Meat Boy at all. Though, I’ll admit that this does not work so well on the later stages. The controls aren’t perfect, and occasionally a jump feels a little delayed, or doesn’t happen at all. I can’t really tell if this is due to the game or the controller (I’m not fan of the 360 controller, especially where old school style games are concerned). But more often than not, you don’t have any problems.

Above, I mentioned that the stages in Super Meat Boy are very short, and that might lead you to believe there’s not much game here. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. The game’s primary campaign contains over 100 stages, which are part of a total 300+ stages. Each main world contains 20 stages and a boss stage. However, you can also switch to the “dark world” version of each world, which lets you play a harder version of every stage you beat below a par time.

A handful of stages also have warp zones, most of which are hidden. Finding these unlocks additional “retro” stages, which have Atari, NES and even Game Boy style graphics. These retro warp zones come in sets of three stages, and unlike the main game have “lives.” Basically, you have three tries to beat the stage, and if you fail, you just get returned to the map. Nevertheless, once you find these warp zones, they become unlocked on the map, and can be played over as many times as you want.

"After beating a stage, relive all your horrible mistakes simultaneously!"

And if that weren’t enough, you can unlock a number of characters other than Meat Boy to play as. Many of them are characters from other indie and small game makers, like Commander Video from the Bit.Trip series by Gaijin Games. While these characters play similarly to Meat Boy, they have their own unique abilities (like double jumping, floating, or sticking to walls), and different speed and momentum. These characters are unlocked by completing special warp zones, or by collecting bandages that are scattered throughout stages, which are very challenging to get. Truth be told, though, I still enjoy playing as Meat Boy the most. It’s like Mega Man 10 where sure, Proto Man and Bass have their own unique abilities, but playing as Mega Man just feels right.

I also can’t wrap this review up without mentioning the game’s style. It’s a very charming mixture of both humor and grotesqueness. The story and hi-jinks are silly, but never get the chance to become hammy or annoying. The game has a lot of disgusting things, but is presented cartoonishly enough not to actually make you sick. I mean, you’re basically playing as a hunk of raw meat that leaves blood everywhere it travels and dies. And while the game is full of typical game obstacles like saw blades, missiles and lasers, it also has a number of other icky things like syringes and maggots. And sure, there are cut scenes, but they serve as brief introductions to worlds and bosses, and toss in a lot of the game’s humor and retro homages (and if you are feeling impatient, you can always skip them). Furthermore, like all good games, the music is fantastic; catchy, pushes-you-forward game music. The sound effects are strong as well.

Warning: Montage video contains squishy sounds. Do not watch while eating a burrito.

Quite honestly, I did not want to like Super Meat Boy and had no interest in even buying it. At the time, paying for what seemed like a mere flash game felt ridiculous, and I’m not a big fan of most indie games. I get the idea: corporate games are so often soulless, and made to feed demographics and earn big bucks. But on the other side of the coin, I find many indie games too pretentious and dull. Like a self-infatuated writer that wants to be innovative, and writes a book without punctuation or from the perspective of dirt; these games are full of things that greatly interest the developer’s creativity and impress their art house friends, but don’t do much for anyone else.

But I’m glad I did make myself look into Super Meat Boy, because Team Meat definitely gets it. They focus on the one thing that the big time publishers and the indie artists often overlook; the one thing that’s key to the success of all great games: the player. Playing this game, you can tell they put the fun and fundamentals first. Every block and every saw blade was placed with purpose, and the game’s flow and mechanics were definitely worked out from the perspective of the customers who would be playing this game over and over again. It’s like a fine cut of beef, trimmed of all its fat and spoiled bits, and then slow roasted to perfection so all you’re left with is the highest grade steak you can get. And what’s more, it’s not at filet mignon price either.

This review is based on a copy of Super Meat Boy purchased by the reviewer.

When Shinji Mikami first described how Vanquish would blend the third person shooter genre with the fast pace of an action game, my interest was immediately piqued. I loved the concept, but at the same time I had no idea how it could successfully be pulled off.

Amazingly enough, they found a way. Vanquish has all the normal concepts of a cover based shooter, but polished up to be incredibly smooth. They then added an insane sense of speed and mobility for both you and your enemies, creating a game that really evolves the genre into something truly special.

One of the reasons Vanquish is so satisfying to play is that the core mechanics are such a potent recipe for fun. You can’t help but enjoy yourself no matter what situation the game presents to you. You take control of Sam Gideon, a researcher from a special organization known as DARPA, equipped with an Augmented Reaction Suit (ARS). This robo suit let’s Sam do some amazing things, provided he’s got the juice.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to collect anything to power up the suit. It uses a simple energy bar that begins refilling as soon as you stop using it. However, use the entire bar up and the suit will overheat, causing it to have to completely refill before you can start using it again. Since so many of Sam’s abilities use this gauge, you’ll want to be careful to avoid overheating.

Often you’ll use Sam’s robo suit to go into bullet time. Since the action in Vanquish is so fast and frantic, it might be more accurately described as “Normal Time”. Besides initiating it while stationary, you can also slow down time while rocket boosting at insane speeds across the battlefield or flying through the air.

All your actions chain together surprisingly well. You can rocket boost right into cover. You can then easily walk away from cover without having to press the cover button again, so you never feel stuck when you’re trying to move around. And cover isn’t just chest-high walls. Some cover is so low that you’re practically laying down behind it.

If you don’t mind a guaranteed overheat, you can do a melee attack from a rocket boost as well. This will often cause you to backflip off the enemy, allowing you to go into bullet time in the air to finish them off if they’re still alive. Speaking of melee attacks, what Sam does actually changes depending on which weapon you have equipped. There’s only one melee button, but your equipped gun will determine whether it lets you perform a barrage of fast punches, a kick, or another close combat maneuver.

The cool ideas don’t stop there. If you pick up a weapon you already have full ammo with, that weapon will level up. These levels stay with you throughout the campaign, so it pays to look for guns lying around. Besides in boxes, you can also get weapons from reviving fallen soldiers on the battlefield. You’ll have to be quick, though. Leave a fallen soldier alone too long and he’ll die.

Then there’s Sam’s transforming gun. At first, I thought the gun’s ability to transform into the various weapons you collect was purely aesthetic. However, this allows you to switch weapons with no delay. Almost used up the clip in your assault rifle? No problem! Switch to the heavy machine gun with no break in your fire, then reload both when you’re done and have a free moment. This lets you take an even bigger advantage of an enemy’s most vulnerable situations.

Sam isn’t the only one who’s agile. Often times, enemy robots will leap great distances (sometimes aided by a jet pack) over cover. Some of these robots ARE cover, but transform into laser shooting spiders. In fact, a lot of different enemies transform. Some turn from mini helicopters into bipedal robots. Others roll around like invulnerable bouncy balls before unfolding into death machines. And these are just examples of some of the small enemies.

There are a ton of large enemies that I figured were one-time boss fights. To my surprise, some of these turned into normal encounters. One such enemy can be described as some sort of panther/scorpion hybrid that (surprise!) transforms into a giant bipedal bot with a lance made out of what use to be its tail. Oh, also it can shoot flying turrets at you! The first time I encountered one was intense, but later I encountered two at once, which was (for me) one of the most difficult portions of the game. Later I made my way through an empty looking hallway only to have one jump at me from behind cover.

Remember that giant spider boss from the beginning of the game? Well, sometimes he’ll just come crashing in through a wall to say hello while you’re dealing with swarms of other enemies. With a few exceptions, the characters often viewed as “bosses” are seamlessly worked into levels instead of making a huge deal out of their arrival.

Taking place on a space station creates the opportunity for some interesting set pieces. Everything has an appropriately futuristic look to it. One section had me traveling through a cylindrical area where I could walk up the side of the walls/floor, unhindered by gravity. Another section had me running to stay alive across a crumbling highway. I thought at one point I had found the cliche “two trains shooting at each other” section, until one of the trains started riding on the ceiling track, upside down above me.

Whether it’s any combination of the stages, the enemies, or the incredible speed of the gameplay itself, Vanquish is a constant adrenaline rush. Sure, the story is forgettable and all the voice work is downright silly, but none of that will matter when you’re being shot at from every direction and a giant mech is dashing toward you with drill arms.

It’s a bit on the short side (I finished the campaign in six hours), but would you honestly rather have the campaign diluted just to make it longer? Vanquish makes sure you’re constantly having fun during the entire campaign. Even when you’re dying repeatedly like I did, you’ll be happy to retry knowing that the scenario will never play out the same way twice. It’s a campaign you’ll want to play again and again, especially after unlocking God Hard mode.

You’ll also get more time out of the experience by tackling the Challenge Stages. These stages re-purpose a few set pieces from the campaign to make challenges where you must destroy several waves of enemies in order to get the best clear time and shame your friends’. That is, if you can even survive. The waves get exponentially more difficult and they’re no walk in the park to start with. But any excuse to play more with Vanquish‘s fantastic combat is welcome.

If you’re a fan of shooters or action games, you’re going to want to play Vanquish. Games this satisfying don’t come around that often. The pace is relentless, never letting you feel safe. You’ll definitely want to take breaks to catch your breath, but you’ll be happy to know that no matter where you are in the game when you return, you’ll be coming back to “the good part”.

This review is based on a copy of the Playstation 3 version of Vanquish provided to us by SEGA.