“Too many ports!” consumers cried as they looked at the list of upcoming 3DS games after the system’s launch. With titles like Street Fighter, Ocarina of Time, and Star Fox taking most of the spotlight, it seemed the handheld’s early life would be devoid of truly new content.

But there sat Nano Assault, hiding away in the shadows during the busiest gaming season of the year, just waiting to be picked up by lovers of score based, arcade style action.

A sequel of sorts to the very finely crafted shmup Nanostray 2, Shin’en took the opportunity to mix things up by switching over to two similar genres. Much like the past game alternated between vertically and horizontally scrolling stages, Nano Assault divides its time between being both a twin stick shooter and a rail shooter.

Of course, considering the hardware, calling it a twin stick shooter is a bit misleading. With movement on the circle pad, aiming is handled by the face buttons (a/b/x/y). Using them in combination will only allow you to shoot in eight directions, a far cry from the wide range of motion provided by an actual stick. Clearly understanding this limitation, the game never throws as much at you as a high score run in Geometry Wars. The difficulty is always manageable allowing the buttons to be a surprisingly adequate stick substitute.

These ground stages have you roaming around the surface of round structures. But unlike Super Stardust HD, you won’t just be traveling around spheres. All manner of interesting shapes make up each stage. The goal is simple: to collect three DNA strands scattered across the map and eliminate all enemies. But the amount of variety present in each stage prevents it from ever getting stale.

Stages start short, but gradually increase in scope throughout the campaign. Environmental aspects like gates, rotating walls, and destructible sections allow levels to range from open shooting grounds to maze-like structures. The variance in enemy design also helps to keep things interesting as your pitted against tunneling worms, spinning saws, and organisms that explode into bullets to name a few.

Air stages make up the rail shooter segments. They’re far fewer in number, but are significantly longer than the ground stages. By default, there’s a weird disconnect between aiming and maneuvering. The targeting reticule actually starts moving before your ship will. This has its advantages since it allows you to aim at an enemy without moving directly in front of its line of fire, but I found it too disorienting. It wasn’t until I cranked the sensitivity to the maximum setting that I felt more at home, with the controls then resembling Star Fox.

Like the ground stages, the air stages have a lot of variety. Not just between each stage, but within different stage segments as well. You’ll dodge the environment almost as much as you’ll dodge enemy fire.

Most boss encounters take place with the rail shooter controls, but a handful make use of the twin stick mode and even a third mode. This third mode uses the twin stick controls while granting only left and right movement around a disk as you fire at an enemy in the center. Bosses are a real highlight as each feels different from the last. Unfortunately, the final boss is both one of the least interesting and least challenging fights in the game, making for a rather anti-climactic ending.

As you progress through the campaign, you’ll get a few different secondary weapons to play around with. You’ll only be able to select one per level, though, and certain weapons only apply to ground stages. It’s not much, but it allows you to mix up your play style a bit and they help fill the void caused by a lack of in-stage powerups.

Since the concept behind Nano Assault is that you’re fighting viruses in a microscopic ship, the art direction is very abstract. Expect lots of bizarre color palettes and blobular baddies. 3D is used to great effect on the curvature of the ground stages and depth perception in the air stages actually makes it easier to to dodge bullets heading toward the screen thanks to increased spatial awareness. It’s easy to enjoy these visual perks since the 3D seems to have no negative impact on the framerate. But when the screen gets too busy, it will occasionally dip regardless of whether the effect is in use.

Story mode will only take a few hours to beat, but arcade mode lets you replay each stage for high scores and compete on online leaderboards. Unfortunately, since there are 32 separate leaderboards (one for each level) across an already fairly niche game, these lists are currently populated with tens of people. A few alternating goals in each stage such as “score a certain amount” or “beat this level without dying” give you more to shoot for and will grant you coins that you can spend on enemy models and music. There’s also a boss rush mode that divides the games fights into three separate gauntlets.

For those who love a good, old-school shoot ‘em up, Nano Assault mostly fits the bill. What’s there is well designed and full of variety. But the lack of higher difficulty modes leaves little motivation to revisit the fairly easy campaign which can be completed in a few hours. Competing for high scores in arcade mode would be where the game thrives, but the limited install base of the system holds the feature back from its potential. It doesn’t feel quite as strong as its predecessor, Nanostray 2, but it’s still a solid effort from Shin’en.

This review is based on a copy of the game provided to the reviewer by Majesco.

With a site named “WingDamage” and a podcast called “Barrel Roll!” it shouldn’t come as any surprise that many here on the site grew up adoring the first couple of Star Fox games. As I’ve written about in the past, the series really hasn’t been able to find a clear direction that works after Star Fox 64. Each game after that point has been a mess of ideas that fail to satisfy the way the core, rail shooting gameplay of the originals did.

Perhaps it’s because of this lack of confidence in the future of Star Fox that I was so eager to revisit the glory days of its past. Star Fox 64 3D may be a remake of a fourteen year old game, but it’s also a remake of the best the series has to offer by a large margin, and one of the greatest gems you’ll find in a genre that barely exists anymore.

You won’t find much in the way of new content. This is largely a prettier version of the same game you played (or didn’t) back in 1997. But there are a few changes. The new 3DS Mode gives you the option of playing the game using the gyro sensor in addition to the standard circle pad. It isn’t a good idea to use it with the 3D effect since you will likely lose focus of the screen. But because it uses slight motions similar to a steering wheel instead of a 1-to-1, Face Raiders style, aiming actually works much better than you’d think and won’t require you to leave as much of your dignity behind. Still, it feels like a novelty at best and doesn’t work any better than the traditional controls.

Multiplayer, while identical in concept, has been given an overhaul. The maps are new, though they’re still small in number, and extra powerups like stealth mines have been added. Unfortunately, there’s no online play, though four player local can be played with a single cartridge through download play. It’s only Arwings this time around, but considering how incredibly unbalanced playing as the Landmaster or on foot was in the original, this is for the best. Even with the new features, multiplayer remains a mildly amusing diversion. The star of the show is still the campaign, just as it always has been.

Score Attack mode is a very welcome addition as it allows you to select any level you’ve previously completed in the campaign. No longer will you have to play through the entire game just to get a shot at earning medals on the last few levels. The feature also really compliments the game’s new portability. You might not have time for the entire campaign on the go, but a single level can be completed rather quickly.

Strangely enough, the voice acting has all been rerecorded. Since Star Fox 64 has some of the most memorable quotes in gaming (causing countless memes to sprout), I was very happy to find that the new voice acting is exactly as cheesy as the original. None of the nostalgia was lost in the new recordings. I also noticed one changed line. No longer does Falco sarcastically refer to you as “Einstein” when you shoot him. The line has been replaced with “Hey Genius! I’m on your side!” Considering this is a world full of animal people flying around in space, this change actually makes a lot more sense than the original.

Of course, the most obvious change is the graphical upgrade. There’s a world of difference between the graphics of the remake and the original. There’s an even larger level of improvement on display than Nintendo’s other recent remake, Ocarina of Time. As a game where you are constantly looking off into the distance, the 3D effect works exceptionally well, and I found myself playing with it on the entire time (except to test 2D and gyro controls). Stages like Venom are especially impressive, as the added level of depth actually gives you a better sense of space between the various obstacles, making the game a bit easier to play.

But all this would be nothing if the game didn’t hold up. Thankfully, Star Fox 64 is still a fantastically designed rail shooter. Stages are packed with plenty to shoot, dodge, and fly through and the controls are as tight as ever. The alternate paths and stage affecting triggers also help to keep multiple campaign runs fresh. Help out a character in one stage and they’ll help you out in another. You’ll fight your rival Star Wolf near the end of the game in Bolse if you don’t take care of them in Fichina, and so on.

I almost forgot how great some of the alternate path triggers were. Sector X in particular has a pivotal moment where Slippy charges toward the stage boss. Destroying the boss before he gets there will take you to Macbeth. Fail to do so and the boss will knock Slippy’s ship away causing it to crash land into the desert planet Titania where you’ll have to go on a rescue mission. It’s touches like these that help the game to stand out, even today.

In some ways I appreciate Star Fox 64 now more than I did in its day. It managed to successfully tell you a story (albeit a cheesy one) while you play it instead of constantly interrupting you; something many games today still struggle with. It also had a great approach to a non-linear campaign within a hyper-linear genre.

You could complain about its short length. It certainly won’t take long to finish. But this is an arcade style game, almost like a shmup, that demands to be played repeatedly. If you’re looking for a lengthy campaign to play once and be done with like so many of today’s disposable games, you’ll be disappointed. This is from an era when games were meant to be played over and over again, trying to achieve that last medal to unlock Expert Mode.

This review is based on a copy of Star Fox 64 3D purchased by the reviewer.

Remember when everybody begged and pleaded for a reboot of the 1982 Atari classic, Yar’s Revenge? Neither do I, but here we are. Much like the upcoming Kid Icarus: Uprising, the new title looks like it has less to do with the concepts of its predecessor and has more in common with games like Sin & Punishment, Panzer Dragoon, and Star Fox.

It’s this genre change that had my interest piqued. The move to a third person rail shooter, regardless of its franchise branding, seemed right up my alley. After all, games in this genre aren’t particularly common, especially now. But sadly, the only thing waiting for me in the new XBLA Yar’s Revenge was disappointment.

Yar’s Revenge opens and is interspersed with cutscenes to tell the story. One of the few positive things I can say about the game is that there are some really nicely drawn still frames in these scenes. But each scene is awkwardly silent. The text dialogue uses only colors to signify who’s talking, and everybody seems to refer to themselves in the third person. Needless to say, it’s easy to get confused by this presentation, especially when it blindsides you in the intro.

The stages themselves also look rather nice, containing bright colors and a sense of life. Unfortunately, they get stale rather quickly for two reasons. For starters, every stage seems to last for an eternity with little variation happening throughout. Secondly, there are really only three distinct themes for the game’s six stages. For example, after flying through a level resembling cloud city for far longer than anybody would want to, you get to do it again in the following level for just as overly long.

"The environments look pretty nice... at first."

Perhaps the environments wouldn’t feel so droning if the gameplay wasn’t so repetitive. Much like the stage themes, there are really only three distinct enemy types (aside from bosses) in the game. Aesthetically there are a small handful more, but mechanically describing it as any more than three would be generous. Essentially, you have the turret type enemies on the ground, non-aggressive flying enemies following each other in set paths, and mildly aggressive flying enemies that don’t move around much at all.

To make matters worse, the only enemies that feel like they are part of the environment are the ground enemies. The flying enemies, which make for about two thirds of what you’ll encounter, stay at the exact same place regardless of whatever crazy maneuvers the camera decides to do. This completely takes you out of the game, making the environment seem like a movie playing in the background while unrelated creatures awkwardly ignore it with their unaltered flight patterns.

Bosses don’t fare much better. While they can be amusing to fight initially, you’ll quickly find that these battles are just as drawn out as the levels leading up to them. You’ll find yourself doing the same few repetitive dodges while their health slowly trickles down. The real challenge isn’t whether or not the boss will kill you, but whether or not you will actually stick around long enough to watch them die before you decide to quit the game and do and something else.

"Have fun looking at Cloud City for two full, drawn out stages."

Somehow the controls manage to be even less intuitive than the already awkward (but lovable) first Sin & Punishment. While the twin stick moving and aiming controls are similar, the weapons require a lot of button holding. You’ll hold down the primary fire button most of the time, but will want to be able to access the secondary fire and dodge button without moving. The missiles also require holding a button, so at any given time you’ll find yourself holding or hovering over all four shoulder buttons simultaneously while you maneuver two sticks and occasionally press a face button (A, B, X, Y) to power up.

The powerups themselves are mildly interesting, but simply aren’t enough to save your from the game’s boring pace. Each one is assigned to a specific face button and you can activate them at a time of your choosing. The shield doubles as a healing item, another one provides cover fire for destroying enemy bullets, and so on. As far as I could tell, these items, as well as missiles (which are limited and must be collected), are random drops from enemies. Funny enough, the missiles I found to be the most ineffectual weapon in the game despite it being the only one that is limited.

I really thought I’d love Yar’s Revenge. It resembled so many games that I’m fond of. But even as little as a third of the way through the already short campaign, I found myself finishing it, not out of fun, but so that I could fully warn others of just how joyless it is. Yar’s Revenge feels like a chore in a genre that’s usually full of constant excitement. It’s so far removed from the original that I can’t imagine nostalgic fans caring, and it’s not a good enough game to make it worth a purchase to anybody else.

This review is based on a copy of Yar’s Revenge purchased by the reviewer.

Sin & Punishment: Star Successor is often referred to as a “dream sequel”. The original Sin & Punishment never made it to America in cartridge form, though it was later released on the Wii’s virtual console. It’s been a full decade since the release of the last game. Now in 2010, not only is there a sequel, it’s actually released outside of Japan.

For those not in the know, Sin & Punishment is a third-person rail shooter. In other words, it has more in common with Star Fox than House of the Dead. Quite possibly the best way to describe it is to take a Bullet-Hell SHMUP, combine it with a Run ‘n Gun game such as Contra, then put that in a 3D space.

Rather than focusing on power-ups as many arcade-style shooters do, Star Successor uses a handful of actions and forces you to master them all (or die trying). You can fly around in all directions, jump (if you’re on the ground), dodge roll, rapidly shoot, perform a charge shot, slice up fools with a melee attack, and lock-on to targets.

Control of your character is independent of your reticule. While you can move around with the nunchuck, all your aiming is done with the Wii Remote. The dual stick control scheme of the first game is available, but the Wii Remote and nunchuck setup works so incredibly well that any other controller feels like a big step backwards.

"FACT: If you punch a giant eel in the face, it WILL explode."

Since the camera is on-rails, it’s constantly on the move in very exciting (though scripted) ways. There is never a dull moment in Star Successor. At any given time, there are far more things to shoot than you could ever hope to keep up with. It is literally impossible to destroy every enemy in the game even if you are an expert.

Every stage in the game has a ton of boss battles. These encounters are as memorable as they are numerous. Each fight features incredibly bizarre enemy designs, clever attack patterns, and no re-hashing whatsoever. Even the end of the game, which makes you THINK all the bosses will be re-used in a huge “boss rush”, uses completely new forms that hardly resemble anything you’ve fought before.

It’s not just the bosses that ooze with variety. Each level has a distinctly different theme, often with plenty of environmental diversity throughout. The game is a constant adrenaline rush, further enhanced by it’s high energy soundtrack featuring a lot of electronica and even some classic slap bass.

Because things are so busy, paying attention to dodging with your character and aiming with your reticule can require some serious multi-tasking skills. Fortunately, the game has subtle ways of helping you out. After charge shots, your gun needs to cool down (though your rapid fire still works during this time) and it’s hard to watch the meter go back down. There’s a little noise that happens when your gun is ready to go again. It may not seem like much, but little touches like this become your greatest ally, especially on Hard Mode, where things get even crazier.

"Stage 3 nods to the sidescrolling shooters of old."

Much like in the first game, your melee attack can reflect missiles (among other things) back at your opponents. It’s shocking just how many different kinds of things you can send flying at enemies. And where the projectiles go is not necessarily to the sender, but to where you are aiming, allowing for even more crazy strategies that involve making use of one enemy’s attacks to kill another.

It may not be a particularly long game, but there’s a lot of replay value here. Each difficulty is well designed, actually changing bullet patterns instead of just increasing damage. There are two playable characters, each with their own unique play-styles. There’s local co-op, which allows a second player to give you a hand in firepower, though without an on-screen character to control. And finally, you can upload your scores to online leaderboards.

Trying to get the highest score really enhances the fun. Each enemy you kill adds to your multiplier while taking damage decreases it. Standing on the ground makes your score go up constantly, but is often far more dangerous than flying.  There are also lots of medals you can acquire in each level for additional points that will appear after meeting certain, unspecified criteria. If you die at all, your score goes back down to zero. But don’t worry, the game keeps your highest score for the level, regardless of whether or not it’s the same life you used to beat the stage boss.

While Treasure may be known for how hardcore their games can be, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor is surprisingly accessible in ways that won’t offend seasoned gamers. First off, there are unlimited continues. There are also checkpoints everywhere, including between boss forms. Since even a single death resets your score anyway, the real challenge is beating the level in as few lives as possible.

That isn’t to say Star Successor is easy. There were several bosses later in the game that I had to retry far more times than I care to admit. But it’s nice not having to replay sections you’ve already won each time you fail. And you will fail. The second to last boss in particular is where the Bullet-Hell analogy really comes into play.

The visuals aren’t exactly mind blowing, but they get the job done. The 3D models are a bit low poly, but it’s a wise sacrifice as the game is able to run silky smooth even when the screen is drenched with enemies. The incredibly bizarre art direction combined with a sensory overload-inducing amount of enemies on screen at a consistently great frame-rate manages to make the game a treat to look at in spite of its humble poly-counts.

The story is just as nonsensical as the first game. It involves Earth-4, Earth-5, Inner Space, Outer Space, something called Nebulox, and lots of poorly acted dialogue (voiced in Japanese or English depending on your preference). I’ve finished both games, but couldn’t tell you what either is about. The cutscenes are good for a laugh thanks to their campyness, but can also be easily skipped if you just want to jump into the action.

The game itself is often nonsensical too. You will fight a submarine that surfaces up from lava, shadow dolphins that shoot beach-balls of death at you, a centaur in space, and a baby lizard thing that promptly begins operating a crane after being vomited out by the previous boss. I could go on, but the point is that this is a game that will never stop surprising you on your first play-through.

Could you beat Sin & Punishment: Star Successor in a renting? Probably. But this is a game that you’ll want to replay over and over again. I started it over on Hard the very same night that I beat it on Normal. And if Sin & Punishment 3 came out tomorrow, I’d buy it on day one.

Don’t you just hate it when you don’t have a copy of Capcom’s new Wii exclusive rail-shooter, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles? We here at WingDamage empathize with your oddly specific predicament. How? We’re giving away a free copy of the game to one lucky reader. Simply follow the rules below and let us know what your favorite zombie movie is and a winner could be you!

Contest Rules:

1. Leave a comment below and tell us what your favorite zombie movie is
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 27th. We will then randomly select one winner

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

"Like Umbrella Chronicles, only better."

“2 Player Reviews” is a series of articles in which two members of the Wing Damage staff separately review a game, so as to give our readers multiple perspectives on the subject matter.

Player 1 – Jesse “Main Finger” Gregory

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is Capcom’s latest Wii exclusive rail-shooter and the follow up to 2007′s Umbrella Chronicles. You and a friend (or artificial intelligence in single player) will each take on the role of one of the Resident Evil franchise’s established characters as you set out to unload rounds into zombies and other strange creatures.

The Darkside Chronicles features approximately twenty stages spread out over three scenarios: Memory of a Lost City (Resident Evil 2), Game of Oblivion (Resident Evil Code: Veronica), and Operation Javier. The game begins and ends with Operation Javier which, unlike the other scenarios, is an original story (starring Leon Kennedy and Jack Krauser) not based on an existing game.

What’s interesting about the layout of the scenarios is how they relate to one another. Operation Javier is treated as the “present time”. After finishing the first stage, Leon begins to reflect on the events of Resident Evil 2 which you will then play to completion before revisiting Operation Javier. After another stage, the Veronica virus comes into play, triggering the flashback to Code: Veronica.

It’s not until both flashbacks are completed that Operation Javier really starts to progress. I really enjoyed this method of tying the two old stories in with the new one. It is a much more interesting approach then simply presenting you with three random scenarios.

While I don’t generally find rail-shooters a particularly immersive genre, The Darkside Chronicles definitely took suspension of disbelief up a notch with its camera. The entire game uses a “shaky cam” approach. While it takes a bit of getting use to, it definitely sucked me into the game more than the average rail-shooter.

"Sometimes one player will leave the first person view to perform an action temporarily."

The graphics are yet another example showcasing that Wii games can look great when developers put forth the effort. While I did noticed some minor dips in framerate here and there (mainly in outdoor sections), I was very impressed with the visuals. Some of the lighting effects in Operation Javier were especially noteworthy.

While there are three difficulty settings, the game also features dynamic difficulty scaling. Throughout my entire experience with the game, the difficulty felt like it was steadily increasing in a very logical manner rather than spiking unexpectedly. Checkpoints were reasonably placed as well.

I was very happy to see zombies go down in about as many shots as I expected them to. After all, abnormally resilient zombies were one of my pet peeves with Umbrella Chronicles. Quick Time Events have also been greatly improved on since the last game. Failing a QTE always resulted in a loss of health and never an instant death. Also, they only require button presses. Since the “waggle” QTEs of Umbrella Chronicles were more awkward to react to, I was very happy to see their absence in Darkside Chronicles.

Another big step up from the last game is the soundtrack. Many of the songs featured throughout the game are actual orchestra recordings performed by the Tokyo Chamber Music Association accompanied by a chorus of thirty people. The music really enhances the mood, especially in intense sections.

As you progress through the game, you will acquire more weapons. Each of these weapons can be upgraded with money found in the levels. There are a ridiculous amount of secrets in each stage, mostly found by shooting seemingly unimportant objects. This, in combination with a few alternate paths and online leaderboards, adds a little bit of replay value to a genre that is often devoid of it. However, unless you happen to be a die hard Resident Evil fan, going back to unlock every extra will most likely have little appeal.

Overall, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is a very enjoyable rail-shooter. It definitely has a slow start, but once it gets going it is a lot of fun, especially in co-op. The game can be beaten in about six or seven hours, but you can spend more time trying to unlock everything if that is your cup of tea. If you liked Umbrella Chronicles, you will probably like Darkside Chronicles even more. It’s enjoyable regardless of whether or not you like the Resident Evil franchise. But if you don’t care for rail-shooters, this probably won’t change your mind.

"The game has plenty of huge boss fights."

Player 2 – Jonah “spambot” Gregory

I have always enjoyed arcade rail shooters. When done well, they can be a very tight and atmospheric experience. It used to be a hassle to try and get the sort of experience a game like Time Crisis II would provide on your home consoles. You needed light guns to play, so most games in the genre had to come with their own, making these generally shorter arcade experiences very pricey to play at home. Worst of all, since they are best played with a friend, you had to fork over even more money to get a second lightgun. Thankfully, there are those out there that have realized the wiimote is perfect for this situation.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles takes the arcade rail shooter and brings a touch of the more epic home console games in the Resident Evil series. You and a friend (either a real friend or an AI team member) enter the stories of Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil Code: Veronica, and an all new story that stars Leon Kennedy pre-Resident Evil 4. You battle your way through hordes of zombies, creepy crawlies, and incredibly strange creatures all in a first person perspective with a shaky cam designed to emulate realistic head movements.

Darkside Chronicles is a followup to Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, also for the Nintendo Wii. There have been a lot of improvements over the previous game that made it a more accessible experience. In Umbrella Chronicles, all the enemies seemed to take forever to kill. Traditionally in games and movies, zombies die quickly from headshots, but here they still took round after round without falling. DC has fixed this problem. The zombies start very easy to kill, but as the story progresses and the virus causing all the craziness evolves, the enemies very gradually get harder to defeat.

They have also included scaling difficulty in Darkside Chronicles. The better you are doing, the harder the game becomes. When Jesse and I first started, we thought the normal setting was a little too easy, but by the end it had ramped up enough that we were glad to have done our initial playthrough on that setting. If you are brand new to light gun shooters, there is even an easy mode with a lock on feature.

"After the campaign, there are additional unlockable extras like costumes and Tofu Mode."

The story also feels more coherent this time around. I have never played more than a few minutes of the old Playstation and Dreamcast era Resident Evil games and DC did a good job of filling in all the missing pieces of the story. The pacing is a little disjointed in a few spots. The beginning takes some time to get going, but after the first level it stays fast paced throughout most of the game. There are a few slower moments scattered throughout, but like any horror movie, those are there to lull you into a false sense of security.

All characters have a pistol with unlimited ammo and a knife that you swing by holding down the “A” button while moving the wiimote, but you will also find a shotgun, rocket launcher, grenades, a grenade launcher, a bowgun and a machine gun. All of these have a limited amount of ammo, which is shared between you and your partner (if you are playing with another human player). In our playthrough, we found it useful to split up who was using what weapons because of this. You can even reassign weapons at any point just by hitting the “C” button. All the weapons (besides the knife) are upgradable with money you find hidden throughout each level and based on the score you get after completing each level. Even by the end, we didn’t have a single weapon completely maxed out, which encourages completionists to play through multiple times.

Since this is a rail shooter and not a survival horror game, there is a different feel about the weapons. Normally, you would desperately be conserving ammo in a Resident Evil game, but here you are encouraged to shoot everything you see to find as much money as you can, as well as hidden unlockables. It gives the game a very shooting gallery feel as you spend part of the time shooting monsters and the other part shooting everything in sight just to see how it reacts. Thanks to the inclusion of the Havok engine, most objects will move or explode from being shot.

The shaky cam took some getting used to. It is there to give the game a sense of you being in the thick of the action, but at times I felt it was a little over the top and distracting. I could see people that had trouble with movies like Cloverfield might start to get dizzy while playing this. I got used to it after a few levels, but wanted to throw that warning out there.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is about a seven hour game for a single play-through, not including other game modes which you can unlock from completing the campaign. For a rail shooter, that is a very beefy experience. DC is also a good example to show that Wii games can look good if a developer puts the effort into it. If you are looking for a fun co-op game for the Wii or are already a Resident Evil fan, I recommend checking this one out.

This review is based on a copy of Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles provided to us by Capcom.

"Easily importable thanks to Virtual Console"

“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.

Sin and Punishment is a Treasure developed rail-shooter for the Nintendo 64. When it came out back in 2000, it was exclusive to Japan. Seven years later, it was released on the Wii’s Virtual Console service, finally making its first appearance in North America and Europe. Was it worth finally bringing over?

The easiest way to describe the basic gameplay in Sin and Punishment is to imagine the rail-shooting in Star Fox. However, unlike Star Fox, Sin and Punishment requires you to move your character and your reticule independently of one another. The game also takes place on foot.

Using the classic controller, you can move your character left and right with the d-pad. Double tapping either direction will allow you to perform a quick dodge roll. Though you can’t fly, you can perform a double jump.

The analogue stick is used to aim your reticule. Aiming feels a little slower than I would’ve hoped, so it can be difficult to keep up with especially fast enemies. To remedy this, you can switch to a lock on mode by pressing “A”. You will still have to aim at the target for a good second before the lock on will take effect, but it can be very useful, especially on a few of the bosses. Fortunately, the lock-on is very balanced and not a “solve all” solution. It’s terrible for situations with large amounts of weak targets, and all your shots are weaker when using it.

Neither mode has a charge shot, so holding down the button is your best bet for rapid-fire shooting. Thanks to the sword attack, you won’t be holding down the fire button the entire time. The sword attack is very powerful, but can only be used when enemies are right next to you. To use it, you must let off the fire button and tap it when the enemy is near. Another cool feature of the sword is its ability to deflect certain attacks. For example, when a battle ship shoots a missile at you, you can hit it back with your sword attack and cause massive damage to the enemy.

Though there is a time limit, it’s not “Game Over” when the timer strikes “00″. Once you run out of time, your health will slowly diminish. If you can finish the level or collect more time before you die, you’re in the clear.

Sin and Punishment is a very short game, but it’s packed with variety. While most levels will have your character running in third person, there are a couple levels that take on a side-scrolling platformer perspective. For most of the game, you control a boy named Saki. Sometimes he is a giant, building-sized creature who controls slightly different. There are also a few sections where you control a girl named Airan, but that seemed to be purely aesthetic.

The game has a few difficulty settings and highscore lists to give it some replay value. There’s also a 2-player mode, but it merely allows one player to control the character while another controls the aiming.

There are lots of lengthy cutscenes with full (and terrible) English voice acting, but every one is easily skippable. Even after watching every single one of them, I still have little to no idea what the story was about. All I know is that the end of the game had me standing on the Earth doing battle against another Earth. I’d still recommend watching them on your first play-through. They’re good for a laugh.

"All cutscenes are easily skippable."

Why did I pick this game?

Treasure has a strong history of making top notch shooters. The company is known for developing my favorite SHMUP of all time, Gradius V, as well as other highly regarded titles including Ikaruga. I had also heard very good things about the game online.

Sin and Punishment 2 is coming to Wii in the near future. It looks great, so I felt that I should finish the first game in preparation for playing the sequel. And as I mentioned earlier, the game is similar to Star Fox.  I wanted to fill the void later Star Fox games left in me.

How does it hold up with time?

Sin and Punishment was a satisfying experience. It is a very well put together rail-shooter. The graphics may be low-poly by today’s standards, but the dynamic camera angles and strange art direction help the game still look exciting.

The game’s weak points are its length and how linear it is. The game only takes about an hour to beat and there are no alternate paths. It’s a very “arcade style” experience.

You can purchase Sin and Punishment on Virtual Console for 1200 points (twelve dollars). If you really enjoy this style of game as I do, it will be money well spent.