Here’s another batch of reviews I’ve written lately over at GamerDad.com. Please click on the links and read as many as you can and maybe even post a comment or two. I’d really appreciate it. I’m also using this blog to commemorate a gaming ‘milestone’ for me. Recently, I passed the 50,000 Achievement Point mark on Xbox LIVE!
The game that got me over the hump was Child of Light. I didn’t even think I’d make it with it, but I got more achievement points than I thought I would just for beating the game! But even then I was just ten points shy of 50,000. However, after the ending, they put you back right where you first started at the beginning of the game. One of the small achievement points was to win a battle without losing any HP, and I hadn’t gotten that one yet. So I just went up to one of the first enemies you fight and decimated them with my leveled up characters and made it past 50,000! Yay! I’ll talk more about Child of Light in a bit.
I know it’s not THAT big a deal that I have that many Achievement points because I review a lot of games and get points that way. Plus, my brothers and friends helped out along the way, too. I don’t go crazy trying to get Achievement points or Trophies in games, but sometimes they can be fun to strive for. Also, if you and your friend have the same game, you can compare which Achievements you both have, and if they have more than you! Then you can try to beat their score, just like an old arcade game!
And that’s why I think Achievement Points and Trophies are neat. A lot of people rag on Microsoft lately, but they were the first to come up with that idea, and I think it’s a good one. I only have a few games that I’ve gotten ALL the Achievements for: Pac-Man Championship Edition, Pac-Man: CE DX, Dig Dug, the first season of The Walking Dead and Sam & Max, some free Doritos game with a dinosaur, and Banjo-Tooie. I don’t have all the Achievement points for this game, but the title I have the most Achievement points for is Soul Calibur IV. OK, on to the reviews:
Child of Light (360)
If it weren’t for Kirby Triple Deluxe, this game would probably win my “Best Game of the Year SO FAR Award.” You’ll be able to read that blog in early July! The game is a creative mix of 2-D platforming and turn-based RPG gameplay. The watercolor artwork graphics are extremely detailed and fun to look at. And the music is hauntingly beautiful. From start to finish, I never did get bored and the game kept me interested all the way through. The battle system is simple but still fun and engaging. Even though the game is a bit short, I’m glad it is because many of today’s RPGs are just too long and meandering. I was happy to play an RPG I could actually finish! This game also reminded me of one of my favorite early newspaper comic strips: Little Nemo in Slumberland (yes, the same Nemo from the Capcom NES game). Anyway, you can read about all this in more detail in my review, and I hope you get a chance to.
Scram Kitty and his Buddy on Rails (Wii U)
Super-intelligent lab rats have cat-napped pet felines and are holding them hostage at a space station for revenge. You must rescue the cats with your wall-traversing spacecraft. This game is a mix of 2-D platforming and shooting. You can only walk on walls and ceilings, but you can jump and shoot. This game reminds me of Treasure titles like Bangai-O. Unfortunately, like a lot of Treasure titles, this game has a lot of good ideas but gets too darn hard for its own good.
Jungle Rumble (iPad)
This one is a mix of strategy and music rhythm. You must move your monkeys around branches like a board game to nab bananas and coconuts, and knock rival monkeys off their branches. But to do this, you have to tap in time with the drum beat and hit branches in a certain order. The cartoony graphics and music battle style gameplay remind me of an old PSP game called Patapon. It’s too bad that Patapon was only fun in the demo, the rest of the game was lacking. Jungle Rumble is a bit better, though.
Max – The Curse of Brotherhood (360)
It’s a sequel to Max and the Magic Marker, and it is a 2-D platformer where you use a marker to draw pillars, branches, vines, and other things to get around obstacles and enemies. So it has a heavy puzzle element, too, and is very physics-based. Aside from the clever puzzles, the best part about the game is the Pixar-quality graphics, even during gameplay! I think the game would’ve been better suited for a console with a touch screen, like the Wii U or 3DS, but otherwise it’s not that bad of a game. I don’t like the title, though. Brothers aren’t a curse! I love all my brothers and I wouldn’t be the game reviewer I am today without them!
4444 (iPad)
In this neat little simple puzzler, you must tap squares to make them change colors, and if you make a bigger square of the same color, you’ll get points. There are lots of gameplay modes and it is certainly different over your average color matching puzzle game. Not sure if it’s pronounced “Four, four, four, four” or “Four-thousand, four-hundred and forty-four,” though.
Luminux (iPad)
And this puzzle game is even MORE simplistic than the last. Slide around squares to match three of the same color and make them disappear for points, but be quick because squares constantly appear. You can slide squares anywhere you like as long as there’s room, and when there is no more room, it’s Game Over. It gets hard pretty quickly. I think this may have been one of my shortest reviews, but then, there’s not a whole lot to this game.
SXPD: The Rookie (iPad)
This is a mix of underground style comic book narrative and battle and chase driving gameplay (like Spy Hunter, but not near as good). You are a member of a futuristic police force made entirely of female officers, and must uphold the law by any means necessary. It was directed by David Perry, who made the Earthworm Jim game. While the artwork is neat and really adds to the gritty, underground comic atmosphere, the story is hard to follow and the text is too small. Plus, the driving gameplay is awful. Play control is unresponsive and the black and white graphics make it hard to see anything.
SQUIDS Odyssey (Wii U)
And finally, in this one you play as a group of squids who must recruit an army to fight off a mysterious ooze that’s covering sea creatures and making them evil. Gameplay is like a turn-based strategy game, but you battle enemies by stretching your tentacles and flinging yourself at the enemy, like the game of marbles. It kind of reminds me of an old Capcom GBC game that nobody’s probably ever heard of called Metal Walker. It’s an all right game, but gets too hard too quickly. And it also has too much of a tablet game kind of feel to it (which I think it’s also on tablets as well). The game is also coming to 3DS, and will probably fare better there.
Conclusions
And that’s all for now! Thanks for reading my reviews and posting comments! I really appreciate it. Later! --Cary
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