NDS Game Roms

Screens: Viral Survival (Wii)
Developer: NIS America
Publisher: NIS America
Genre: Arcade
Release Date: Spring 2010

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I hope everyone turned a page on their calendars, as today brings us our first Xbox LIVE Wrap-Up for the month of February 2010. This week we’re looking ahead to many more updates in order to see what is in store for Xbox LIVE gamers. The week of February 4 is actually pulling in the return of the game demo, one of 2009’s sleeper hits goes on the price chopping block for seven days and, of course, we have our normal lineups of Games on Demand, Xbox LIVE Arcade, Music Marketplace updates and more, so let’s just cut to the chase and dive right into what you’ll be seeing this week.

Xbox LIVE Arcade – Chime
The Xbox LIVE service lands yet another music-based puzzler, but the combination of Zoe Mode and OneBigGame is really making this entry unique. OneBigGame was formed in 2007 as a nonprofit publisher and it has pledged, at least for a limited time, a minimum of 60 percent of the sales pulled in from Chime will be donated to children’s charities. When you consider the good cause and the fact Chime weighs in at only 400 Microsoft Points, the game sounds like quite a beneficial proposition, doesn’t it?

Chime looks to pull some inspiration from titles such as Lumines and Tetris, featuring pieces that must be arranged in a square or rectangular fashion in order to have them locked into place on the game board. A sweeping line keeps pace along with the song’s tempo and locks the pieces as the line passes over, revealing more layers of the songs included in the game. The title includes Phillip Glass, Markus Schulz, Moby, Orbital, and Lemon Jelly among its acts and is available now on Xbox LIVE Arcade.

As promised, we do now have a review of Death by Cube up courtesy of Sean Madson, while I took the time to give a thorough review of KrissX, last week’s Arcade edition. If you’re still holding out on those titles, you can see what our staff thought about them and you can expect a full review of Vandal Hearts in just a couple of days’ time.

Xbox Deal of the Week – Splosion Man is now 400 Microsoft Points
The crazy sleeper hit from 2009 is now back in the spotlight, being featured at half price in Xbox LIVE’s Deal of the Week. I, personally, have not been able to check this title, but given the word of mouth I’ve heard about the title, the price might finally be ripe enough for me to snatch it up. I was able to dabble with demo for a very brief time and what I saw was a very interesting platforming/puzzle hybrid and many gamers like to note it was one of the very first titles to offer up avatar awards. We unfortunately have no reviews on Diehard GameFAN for the title, however, if you would like to see what the game is all about, you can check out our Splosion Man screenshot gallery.

Game Add-Ons – 0D Beat Drop
I was just notified today one of my favorite recently-added Xbox LIVE Arcade titles is receiving an add-on pack, as Arc System Works’ music-based puzzle title 0D Beat Drop now has an additional BlazBlue-themed DLC pack available for it. This week is going to be good for music-puzzle gamers, I suppose. At 320 Microsoft Points, the pack contains new stage skins and music based on the themes of Noel, Nu, and Tsubaki from BlazBlue. The addition also adds a new Planet Quest + option to use the skins in the single player game and a DLC-only leaderboard is added for those with the extra content.

Games on Demand – DanceDanceRevolution Universe 3
This week, Konami’s last (and perhaps final) entry in the Universe line of DDR titles falls onto the Games on Demand service for the price of $29.99, officially marking the first time the game could be purchased “new” without having to adopt yet another dance pad into your home. Although the game had some disc access and framerate kinks, Universe 3 is easily one of the best recent entries in the series you can buy, unless you’re a diehard for mainstream songs. There is a good amount of song content original to the title, a wide variety of song genres, and the game can be as easy or difficult as you want it to be. Not since DDR Extreme 2 for the Playstation 2 have I put so much time into a home DDR title, so this one definitely gets the D.J. Tatsujin stamp of approval if you’re willing to give something new and original a shot. Mark B. reviewed Universe 3 upon its release in 2008, noting the same technical issues, but given how much of a nose dive the series has taken in the past few years, Universe 3 is probably the only great DDR game to come out in a while aside from some of the Hottest Party content. Obviously, it would be wise to own a dance pad before picking this one up, but, hey, I like playing the title using nothing but a 360 controller just fine.

If you do not live in North America or Asia, however, you will find Medal of Honor Airborne has been added to the On Demand lineup.

Game Demos
This week sees the return of the game demo and it appears we have some pretty significant additions coming to us. As we speak, a Battlefield: Bad Company 2 multiplayer demo is up for grabs and Xbox advertisements have been indicating that starting today, an Aliens Vs. Predator demo will be surfacing on the service. With two such first-person additions to the demos, fans of the genre or series will definitely find something to enjoy this week. If shooting isn’t your thing, however, racing fans will be covered with the addition of Superstars V8 Next Challenge. After a drought of demos, it’s good to see a few pop back up and deliver some high-profile titles.

Xbox Avatars Marketplace – Valentine’s Day, Carnival
If you’re looking to snaz up your avatar even more, this week will see two sets of new items being launched in the Avatar Marketplace. Both Valentine’s Day and carnival-themed items will be made available on the service starting today.

Music Game Marketplace
With many music game titles receiving expansion content on a weekly basis, it may start to become hard to follow, especially with these updates usually covering up the entire line of recent updates on the Xbox dashboard. This week, new updates unfold for our usual lineup of titles:

Rock Band
Kenny Chesney – “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy”
Montgomery Gentry – “Gone”
Rascal Flatts – “Me and My Gang”
Sara Evans – “Suds in the Bucket”
Trace Adkins – “Swing”
Willie Nelson – “On the Road Again”

Lips
The Cardigans Song Pack
“Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)”
“Carnival”
“My Favourite Game”

Guitar Hero
30 Seconds to Mars Track Pack
“Attack”
“From Yesterday”
“Kings and Queens”

There you have it, your additions for this week on Xbox LIVE. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to stop talking and start downloading some of these items. We’ll see you back here at our normal time and date to keep you updated on the world of Xbox LIVE.
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KrissX
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Regolith Games Ltd.
Genre: Puzzle/Casual
Release Date: 01/27/2010

Last Wednesday, Konami sprung a new casual title on us, bringing KrissX to Xbox LIVE Arcade. Amid a couple of weeks that brought us heavy-hitting games such as Matt Hazard, Death by Cube, and Serious Sam, KrissX takes a step back and brings forth a more gentle and relaxing experience to the service for 800 Microsoft Points. Thankfully, the title comes in as a change of pace and is immediately one of the most accessible titles made available on LIVE Arcade so far in 2010. Those looking for a new spin on word puzzles will definitely find a fix here and, while the game will definitely not be for everyone, it is a well-produced game based on its technical merits even though it does admittedly fall short in a few areas.

First, we will address the title KrissX: Instead of pronouncing the game phonetically like it is some kind of breakfast cereal, the actual pronunciation of the title is “criss cross” (like the pattern, not the child rappers that wore their jeans backward and had their own SEGA CD “game”). In KrissX, players are tasked with unscrambling jumbled words arranged in a crossword-style fashion. Once the specific word is spelled correctly, it is locked in place and the player scores points and bonuses until the player clears all the words on a stage in order to progress. Surprisingly, a sliver of story has been inserted into the game, revolving around a wise owl named Wordsworth. Poor Wordsworth has fallen out of a tree and upon hitting his head, all of his knowledge became scrambled, resulting in the mixed-up words. It won’t win any awards and nothing is done with the story beyond that point, but it is definitely charming and explains why the presentation is arranged the way it is in KrissX.

As such, KrissX depends more on its modes to engross the player. Thankfully, there is a span of modes players can unlock by progressing through the main quest mode, where players tackle 150 stages of progressively difficult words, to gain access to a new time attack mode, a timeless free mode, and special puzzles based off themes such as featuring the names of U.S. states or world countries. While tackling all of these modes, players will also gain badges through their performance. Some of these badges merely proclaim a mode or feature has been unlocked, but others are based off the player’s ability to grab tokens, create chains and more. While the collection of badges does nothing more than net the player an achievement, everything comes together to give the game much more breadth than other casual word games.

Ultimately, though, the modes do nothing more than alter the time restraints placed on the player and, in some cases, the words involved, as nothing radically changes the root gameplay. Furthermore, the absence of any multiplayer or online interactions further damper the game as the ability to create and share puzzles of your own would have pushed the game’s replayability to near limitless levels. Fortunately, the title’s menu does sport a “Downloaded Puzzles” mode, so we’ll see what lengths Konami will go to keep this game swimming along. On the other hand, even though there is no multiplayer, there are leaderboards for each individual game mode, so it is possible to have a score rival. When you look at everything as a whole, if you don’t mind tackling the game on your own, KrissX should serve you just fine, however, don’t count on it to service a crowd.

KrissX wouldn’t be much of a casual title if it had complicated controls and, thankfully, the title’s controls are as simple as one would expect. The cursor used to highlight the alphabet tiles is operated with the d-pad or left analog stick and the tiles are selected and swapped by pressing the A button. The only deviation from this simplistic scheme stems from the tokens that fall from completed words. Players will need to watch what color the tokens appear as – blue, yellow, or red – and press the appropriate face button, X, Y, or B respectively, to pick them up for extra points time or power-ups. In between stages, players will have single-line puzzles tasking them to create words or place letters in alphabetical order for bonuses or switch tiles between multiple stacked words in order to break up the gameplay; however, these sections play out in exactly the same way.

The balance in the title is handled quite nicely, with early stages throwing seemingly insulting words at the player, but as he or she progresses, the number of words, the difficulty of the words, and the number of letters contained in each word increase and players can make use of a few techniques and power-ups to increase combos and score. Some of the power-ups increase a tip meter, where if a player gets stuck, they can press the right bumper to highlight two tiles that can be correctly flipped and this meter slowly increases every 30 seconds or so to ensure no player will be stuck on a puzzle forever. At certain durations, some words will light up in a red color and correctly forming this word while highlighted will switch one pair of letters to a correct position and spread a wildfire to its neighboring words. It is possible to clear an entire level through the use of wildfire, which is obviously good for racking up combo bonuses. After a handful of stage, non-movable asterisk tiles are placed in the puzzle, masking one of the correct letters to challenge players; however, clearing this word, much like the wildfire, will correctly flip two tiles in a neighboring word. Some of the tokens will even perform correct flips and freeze a random letter in its correct position, so there are some real-time elements to juggle while busting your brain and these elements are where KrissX really shines

Even though the game is simplistic in nature, KrissX still carries a very solid presentation. In fact, the title will likely remind people of a PopCap product, which most definitely isn’t an insult. The game’s colors are vibrant and each stage background environment pops out with fairly detailed storybook-style art. Starburst effects and the small wildfire blazes accent what would normally be plainfully dull alphabet tiles on the main playfield. Wordsworth also has a number of different poses based on the current situation to make him jump when a word is clear, appear to be deep in thought if players are idle and if players take too long to make a match, he actually falls asleep. On the other hand, aurally, the game doesn’t shine quite so much. Some of the sound pipes through without being in crystal clear clarity and while nothing is inherently bad with either the visuals or the audio, many aspects are repeated way too many times to be wholly engrossing. Aside from the repetition and a few minor knacks, though, KrissX is as appeasing to behold as it is play.

A player could potentially play KrissX indefinitely, so there is a good amount of replayability to be had with the title and if you’re one to get buried into puzzles, the title certainly has a bit of an addictive nature. As mentioned earlier, online interactions could have taken this further, but, still, once players clear all 150 quest levels, they can keep playing ad infinitum, which, aptly enough, the game refers to for every level after 150. Eventually, though, players will run into words and clues that repeat themselves and I even ran into this occurrence sooner than I thought I would before even clearing level 100. Also, the leaderboards in the quest mode are an accumulation of all play, so it is more of a measure of time sunk into the game as opposed to overall skill. Regardless, there is a lot to do and see in the title and it should deliver its full worth to most gamers, especially those looking into word puzzle games.

It will definitely take a few hours to tackle everything there is to see in KrissX and in good news for achievement buffs, the title is actually a fairly easy 200 points. Seeing as I am a journalist, though, maybe words just work into my favor. However, I don’t believe many of the words would be beyond the grasp of anyone looking for a decent casual game to play and by matching clues to words, hopefully players will be able to deposit a few new words into their word bank. One could probably argue a book of word puzzles might take them further than KrissX; however, the title provides the interactivity and feedback you can’t get from paper and power-ups and real-time aspects of the title add to the title more than one might initially think. As such, if you’re looking for a decent casual title or just want a break from the recent wave of action titles, KrissX just might be what you’re looking for.

The Scores
Story/Modes: GOOD
Graphics: GREAT
Sound: ENJOYABLE
Control/Gameplay: INCREDIBLE
Replayability: GOOD
Balance: VERY GOOD
Originality: ABOVE AVERAGE
Addictiveness: GOOD
Appeal Factor: GOOD
Miscellaneous: ENJOYABLE
FINAL SCORE: GOOD GAME

Short Attention Span Summary
KrissX is definitely the most accessible and universally appealing Xbox LIVE Arcade title to release so far in 2010, giving players a more laid-back break from the recent wave of action titles that have dominated the year thus far. The title takes the simple concept of a word jumble and livens it up with power-ups, comboing, and other real-time involvement to spice up the gameplay. Still, nothing is overly complicated and the game is great to pick up and play for an hour or even just 15 minutes. KrissX has a lot of repetition going for it, however, and players that sink a handful of hours into it will start to see the words repeating, which greatly diminishes the challenge. When you add in the fact the presentation is very repetitive and there is no online interaction or multiplayer, there are a few kinks in the game’s shell. Fortunately, those kinks fail to prevent the title from being a good time for one player and those looking for a relaxing word puzzle title will find plenty to like in KrissX.
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The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces
Developer: Namco Bandai / Project Aces
Publisher: XSEED
Genre: Flight Simulation
Release Date: 01/12/2010

When I first heard about Namco-Bandai’s Wii bound flight sim, The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces, I was at that time unfortunately not familiar with Hiroshi Mori’s novel series, or the recent Mamoru Oshii (of Ghost in The Shell fame) animated film that the game was derived from. I was very interested however, as the game was developed by Namco’s Project Aces, the team behind the successful and acclaimed Ace Combat series. I’ve been a fan of the series for years, and I was hoping that this game would carry on the tradition of quality Project Aces is known for. So does it?

Story:

The events of The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces take place in an alternative history that one could assume, based on the characters’ garb and the propeller operated planes, is set during what would be the second World War. In this alternative Japan, the world is seemingly at peace, but in attempts to excite and stimulate the bored country, two weapons corporations stage elaborate aerial battles with adolescent genetically engineered pilots known as “Kildren”, who never grow old, and are expendable in favor of the “game”. Your character, identified as call sign “Lynx” (and later, call sign “Cheetah”), and the other adult squad members are caught in the expected drama and lack of morality of the Kildren’s situation.

During story sequences, the plot is presented by way of fully animated cutscenes created especially by the studio that handled the film, which develop the characters and appropriately set the stage for the next mission. The storyline in The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces is tailored after the recent animated film in regards to plot and pacing, and both Mori and Oshii were involved with the writing and overall plot of the game. The heavy concept and story elements don’t weigh too heavily on the actual gaming experience, and the plot gives you just enough exposition with its twenty or so minutes of animation to potentially get you interested in seeing the film or reading the book. Regardless, it’s an interesting concept, even if the plot presented here is only a sample serving of the main course, and it does a terrific job of keeping you interested and caring about the eighteen missions you’ll be flying through.

Graphics:

As I mentioned previously, the animated cutscenes in The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces are created by the studio who worked on the associated film. The cutscenes are passionately animated and look terrific. The interesting character designs appear as static images during mission briefings and radio transmissions during the actual missions, which, though only a small addition, helps integrate the gameplay with the animation. However, regarding the actual 3D graphics, admittedly, The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces would probably have been better suited for the Xbox 360 or PS3. It’s not that the visuals in the game are bad, but a more immersive visual presentation goes a long way in a flight simulation game, and the game simply doesn’t quite pull it off. Ace Combat 6 for example, is a considerably more effective experience overall, as the level of graphic detail and other various effects push the aspects of aerial dogfighting to the next level. The same could be said about pretty much any game, but a flight sim is one of a few types of games that really needs a good amount of detail to make it shine, and The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces can’t quite manage to pull this off as often as it should.

While the graphics are certainly not terrible, and they do the job well enough, those who have played Ace Combat 6 prior to playing through The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces will most likely think of how the experience could have been all the more vivid if on a console with more punch in the graphics department. If the Wii was the only choice available, perhaps a more stylized approach to the graphics would have been a good choice. I could easily imagine a light cel shading filter applied to the existing unimpressive Wii 3D graphics would have worked well for the game. This would have given it an element of visual flair that could differentiate it from similar games in the genre, and would have helped tie the game closer to the animation on which it’s based on. That, of course, might just be my opinion. The point is that, while the visuals aren’t bad, they’re not impressive either, and they’re not the best quality in the genre or on the system.

Sound:

Much like Project Aces’ Ace Combat series, The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces features an epic soundtrack that always paces itself well with the aerial dogfighting action. In addition, the game is fully voice acted and the almost constant stream of radio chatter during missions is well acted, and very effective. The sound effects are spot on as well, with various explosions, machine gun fire, and whooshing engine noises complimenting the in-game action at every point. The game sounds great overall, and this adds a lot to the experience.

Gameplay:

Ace Combat fans will feel right at home with The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces and its particular flight simulation mechanics. Things will feel familiar, but some interesting and very cool innovations have been added to Project Aces’ tried and true formula to makes things new and exciting in the gameplay department here on the Wii. Generally, The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces is an Ace Combat game. You’ll tackle missions in various aircrafts, which can be customized and upgraded with new and better parts and weapons as you progress. Radar indicators similar to those seen in just about any Ace Combat or flight sim game will identify enemy aircraft types, ground units, and so on, and each mission usually will have a specific objective to accomplish. Along with your computer controlled squad mates, you’ll evade and attack the enemy across eighteen story missions, which can be played in a free mode upon their completion. Though a little more character and story driven than the Ace Combat games of the past, The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces can essentially be compared to those games with little difficulty, as most of the mechanics from those games are used here.

The innovative feature that Project Aces put into play here would be the very intuitive and useful Tactical Maneuver Commands, or TMCs for short. If you can keep on an enemy aircraft’s tail long enough, a meter will begin to fill to a maximum of three levels. Pressing the TMC button during this time will execute a dramatic maneuver that will see you maneuver to the enemies’ rear, and give you an almost foolproof opportunity to fill them with hot machine gun lead. Activating the TMC at a higher level will put you at an even greater advantage. You’ll need to stay on the enemy to achieve a level three TMC rating, but they’re usually as good as toast if you can manage that. This feature adds a new dynamic to the traditional dog fighting formula in place in the Ace Combat games, and though simple in concept, it puts a considerably different spin on things. The TMC actually removes some of the more hardened simulator aspects one would expect from a typical Ace Combat title and replaces them with a simple function that guarantees the player sees more action and feels even more like a master pilot. As the innovative cover system found in Gears of War added to the standard third person action format, the TMC system in The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces achieves a similar effect for the flight simulator genre.

The other cool feature follows the lead of the TMC attack function. The player is given access to a great number of preset Top Gun quality aerial evasions with the flick of the Nunchuk stick. By pointing the stick in a direction you can select and activate everything from a reverse barrel roll to an awesomely badass triple diving dip on the fly. Again, this takes some of the simulator aspects out of the game, but in return offers a much more accessible and action oriented air combat experience. The accessible flight command innovations found in The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces make it easy to recommend this game to those who might not be into flight simulation games, as the gameplay is balanced quite effectively with both the elements of satisfying action and traditional simulation in mind.

Replayability:

Unfortunately, the eighteen missions in The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces don’t take to long to get through, and by the game’s end you’ll have access to all of the various plane models and upgrades. Unless you want to challenge yourself by playing at a higher difficulty, you’ll see nothing new in consecutive playthroughs. The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces does feature a free mission mode, which basically lets you play any of the individual missions you’ve cleared in the story mode, if you want to play around with specific missions without having to go through the story again. In addition, there is a co-op component that allows a second player work as a secondary gunner in your aircraft. By using another Wii Remote, the secondary gunner can fire at enemies with a machine gun while the first player zips around. The co-op concept is novel, and a fun way to get a friend involved who would simply be watching you play the game anyway, but as I discovered alongside fellow staffer Mark B., for two players looking to really take the highway to the danger zone together, it’s ultimately uninspiring.

Balance:

The TMC system in The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces naturally makes the game somewhat easier that its Ace Combat counterparts, but as mentioned in the gameplay portion of the review, this introduces its own form of challenge by tasking the player with properly managing and activating the TMC. This can become especially difficult in heated dogfights with multiple enemy aircraft, thus simply relocating the escalating challenge of the game instead of removing it entirely. Even simple maneuvers that would have to be manually executed in Ace Combat and other similar flight sims can be performed here with no effort, which also changes the general formula of the gameplay. Ace Combat veterans might consider the modifications in The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces stifling to the experience, but later missions, though not at an Ace Combat caliber of difficulty, will still put your flight skills to the test, especially on higher difficulties.

Originality:

Though The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces is structured just like any typical Ace Combat game, the addition of the innovative TMC system and a more accessible and easy to understand interface set it apart from other flight sims considerably. Points are definitely to be awarded to Project Aces for implementing gameplay mechanics into a genre that usually is very difficult to make work outside of its mold. The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces has the weight and technicality of previous Ace Combat games, but plays ball in such a way that the experience is not just for pilot pros exclusively. The source material on which the game is based is handled very nicely, and unlike so many other games based on other properties, a few missions into The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces will confirm that both attention to detail and fine craftsmanship were applied when trying to maintain the integrity of the film on which the game is based.

Addictiveness:

Flight sim fans might find The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces to be over a bit to quickly, but are most likely to be glued to the entire product all the way through. For me, utilizing the TMC functionality never once got old at any point during the eighteen mission run, and the detailed and well executed story narrative made it easy to go from one mission to the next. While the game might not give you great reasons to come back to it once it’s completed, it gives you plenty of reasons to come back to it the first time through, as it’s an intense and action-packed ride the whole way through.

Appeal Factor:

I’m sure Wii owning flight sim enthusiasts will be all over The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces, but given its very reasonable thirty dollar retail value, I hope that others will be willing to give the game a try. Specifically, those players who might not think of themselves as enjoying a traditional Ace Combat style flight sim will find a pleasant surprise in The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces. The film the game is based on is available on DVD, and thought I don’t own it yet, I’m sure an advertisement for the tie-in Wii game is inside, much like an ad promoting the film is on the back of the enclosed instruction manual for the game. Those who did purchase and enjoy the film will find the game to be a worthwhile acquisition, as it presents an interesting and, hopefully, faithful expansion of the film in interactive form.

Miscellaneous:

Much like many of the games publisher XSEED puts out, The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces can be played with the recommended Wiimote and Nunchuck combination, or the Wii Classic controller. I very much approve of being able to use a regular controller with my Wii games if that’s what I wish to do, and it seems XSEED is one of the few who can appreciate the fact that maybe we don’t want to flail our arms around at the TV anytime we want to play a game on the Wii. Both control schemes work well enough, so if you lack the Classic Controller you needn’t be scared away, but it’s nice to see a developer who understands that sometimes, you just want to hold a controller. Bravo, I say.

The Scores:
Story: GREAT
Graphics: ABOVE AVERAGE
Sound: CLASSIC
Gameplay: CLASSIC
Replayability: MEDIOCRE
Balance: GOOD
Originality: GOOD
Addictiveness: GREAT
Appeal Factor: GOOD
Miscellaneous: GREAT
FINAL SCORE: VERY GOOD GAME!

Short Attention Span Summary:
The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces makes great use of its passionate source material, and incorporates the dramatic story into a great flight simulation game. Outstanding gameplay innovations really make The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces stand apart from similar flight sims while still feeling familiar to fans of the Ace Combat series. The mechanics are designed in a way such that even those who don’t typically enjoy flight sims may very well find themselves into the over the top action found in the game’s eighteen missions. These gameplay alterations only slightly dilute the technicality of the genre’s typical structure, but Ace Combat fans will still be more than pleased, and less experienced flight sim players will find The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces to be a fun and accessible game that’s well worth its asking price.
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Walk It Out
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
Genre: Exercise/Bemani
Release Date: 01/12/2010

Long-time readers know that I’m the go-to guy for exercise or Bemani games on the Wii. Walk it Out is Konami’s attempt to cross the two over. With Rhythm games, Konami has generally done a really good job with DDR Hottest Party 1, HP2, and HP3, which came out a few months ago. There are also god awful rhythm based games like Just Dance.

Then there are the exercise games. Exercise games for the Wii have either been excellent or awful. Your Shape and Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout are the best of the bunch while EA Active and Wii Fit turned out to be little more than snake oil giving the illusion of exercise while actually provided improper techniques and worst of all, exercises that are actually bad for you, especially your hips, joints, knees and ankles. One of the worst that both those high profile but crappy games feature is walking/running in place. It’s bad for your knees. Now treadmills have impact boards built in to counteract this, but just running in place on your floor or in your basement will put undue stress and pressure on your joints. Bottom line is you shouldn’t do it.

Now Walk It Out appears to have taken all that into consideration by providing you a game where you can use a DDR pad or balance board instead of using the default walking in place option. However, it’s also a game where all you do is walk. So how does it hold up?

Let’s Review

1. Modes

So, here’s the game. You customize an avatar with extremely limited options while a “coach” voiced by what sounds like a cross between a six year old girl and Fran Dresher talks to you. After you make your character, you are let loose on a track to practice walking. After you pass the practice track, which involves listening to Katrina & the Waves’, “Walking on Sunshine” three times in a row, you are allowed to leave and then begins the actual game…

…which is just walking around an island with really bad 3-D graphics that look like they are early PSX/Saturn level in quality. That’s it. You just keep walking. While you are walking you can use the Wiimote to pick up little tokens that help unlock more places to walk or actual scenery so you’re not in a desolate wasteland. “Oh look, I got enough tokens to put a bench on the island! Now I have a fire hydrant! I guess I’ll walk some more, I’m so hooked.” You can also collecting things like Rainbow Spheres or pieces of CD’s to unlock more music, which I strongly suggest you do, because you are stuck with only a few tracks at the beginning and all of them are ear-bleedingly awful. I guess that’s one way to motivate you to play longer.

That’s it though. You just walk around the island looking at bad renders of people and places. There are three mini games that are available from the start as well, the only good one of which can only be played with the DDR pad, so if you are a balance board user, you are screwed. The hilarious part is that some games can’t be backed out of unless you hit the home button and go back to the Wii menu, losing all your progress. This game is full of so many design flaws it’s laughable.

So all you do is walk in a badly rendered island listening to (potentially) 120 tracks of music, most of which are pretty awful. There is absolutely nothing fun about this boring, repetitive game and I jog five miles every day. You would think I, who likes to get up and move my legs rather than being a sedentary couch surfer, would be able to find some redeeming value in this title. THERE IS NONE.

Modes Rating: Worthless

2. Graphics

Every time I think the Wii has hit a new low with visuals for this generation, I get something that proves to be even worse. Walk It Out makes things like Valhalla Knights or M&M’s Beach party look like visual masterpieces. This game looks like something made in an early 1990’s “Introduction to Programming” course. Honestly, if the game is just walking repeatedly, you need to have some sort of decent scenery. It’s not like the game will let you run, so you can focus on speed and pacing. Nope, it’s just walking, and you’re forced to do it in front of some of the worst graphics to ever grace your screen.

Your avatar looks like Charlie Brown with a bad post-chemo wig. The colours are dull, things are poorly rendered. Visuals are basic and look like they were from a decade ago. Honestly, if you’re going to do a walking course, who the hell thought unlocking benches or shrubs would make the game interesting or exciting. Where’s a path along a bubbling brook or hiking through the mountains where the reward is a glorious view of a valley below. None of that is in Walk it Out. This thing is ugly. Damn ugly. I get a better view using my treadmill where I stare at a wall for thirty minutes.

Graphics Rating: Worthless

3. Sound

On one hand, this game boasts the largest soundtrack for a Bemani game ever. With over 120 songs, it dwarfs the collection you can find in an actually fun game like Dance Dance Revolution. On the other, the music is all god awful. Let me give you an example of where bad game design and the horrible choice of music can drive one mad as if this game was a Lovecraftian Horror…

There is a horribly designed mini game called slide whose controls barely work and for which you only use the Wiimote. The walking is just put in so you have to walk while playing. The song I was stuck with was The Pussycat Dolls, “When I Grow Up.” Now, you can’t back out of this game, or even pause it once you start. Your only options are to play or do a hard reset of the game. I had to listen to that damn song for ten solid minutes, looping over and over, while I tried to get the controls to even remotely respond. This, my friends, is no doubt what a sample of Hell is like.

It’s also extremely convoluted to change your song lists. First you have to go to the menu screen, which you have to reach with your wiimote while still walking. Then you have to go to the songs area. Then you have to choose from one of many preset playlists that cannot be edited save for turning a song on or off in them. Then you have to go into that list and decide what you want to listen to, many of which only have a single song for the beginning of the game which means you have to listen to the same awful track over and over again. Would it have been that hard to add a song fast forward, shuffle option, or skip button to the Wiimote controls? NO IT WOULD NOT.

So you have a large soundtrack but with tracks only the mentally infirmed can enjoy. Why Konami? Why do you hate your audience so? I’m also peeved you can put this many songs into a crap game like this and not into a DDR title…

Sound effects are pretty lame too. It’s basically 8 or 16-bit MIDI quality and it’s like blurp or squwark noises when you grab an item or unlock something. It’s all pretty annoying. Worst of all are the voice actors for your trainers. I want to know who cast these people so I can berate them (I’d say pummel, but that’s assault). They are some of the most obnoxious voice actors I’ve heard to date. They also say nothing of importance. It’s just awful all around.

I’ll be kind and give this game points for having such a large soundtrack, but when your big reward is unlocking more awful songs, there’s something insidious with your game.

Sound Rating: Mediocre

4. Control and Gameplay

Now here’s the crux. All you do is walk. Remember what I said in the opening about how you should never walk in place and how it is bad for your hips, joints, and knees? Well unfortunately, that’s all this game is. Basically you are paying $29.99 to do eventual damage to your legs. HURRAH!

The Wiimote and Nunchuk control scheme is right out because honestly, it’s bad for you, no matter what surface you are on. The game also expects you to walk in place for a mile+ every day, which is just ludicrous. Again, I run or jog every day and I can feel things not moving/clicking right in my ankles and hips after ten minutes with this game.

The DDR pad scheme is about as bad. After all, you’re still walking in place and at a very awkward pace. It’s doing it on quarter beats (although you can slow things down) but I walk a little bit faster than that so I am basically punished for having a faster gait. Thus the game becomes a very slow version of DDR for me and it’s awful. The one good thing about the pad is that you can walk around on it or use any of the face buttons. This means you do have to stand bowlegged on the left and right arrows, slowing stretching your groin muscles in a way you’re not meant to. You can even walk around on the pad, as long as it’s a direction arrow or button key. This prevents the straight up walking in pace wear and tear, but it’s not much better for you in the scheme of things.

Finally there is the balance board which, if you use it as a step that you go back up and down repeatedly, provides you with the closest approximation to actual exercise you will get from this title. However, there is a reason Wii Fit doesn’t have you use the balance board like this or this often and that’s because it’s simply not designed for that much wear and tear. Using this method means you’ll need a new balance board, which means you’ll have to buy a new Wii Fit, and honestly, if you already have Wii Fit or DDR, why would you lower yourself to owning this in the first place.

The other bit of control is holding down the B button and using the wiimote to look around. Sadly, the axis is inverted on this, and the game never tells you this, so expect to be confused as the motions aren’t natural or fluid. Younger gamers will be especially confused as to why up is now down and vice versa. All you can do while looking around is grab more crappy items anyway and using this often obscures your walker from your view as well as any potential arrows and trails you can go down.

Simply put, this is one of the worst games I have ever played. It functions, but just barely. Even worse, it does so in a way that is REALLY BAD FOR YOUR LOWER BODY. What the hell, Konami?

Control and Gameplay Rating: Worthless

5. Replayability

There’s a lot to unlock in Walk it Out, be it scenery, music, or new places to walk. However, this doesn’t make up for the fact that it is both the worst game I have ever played, as well as the most boring. Honestly, in order to play it you need to already own DDR or Wii Fit and either of those is a better alternative to this. Also, considering the game has you walk in place in such ackward ways, why not just GO OUTSIDE FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES AND WALK AROUND. You’ll get a better view, better exercise and you’ll get some sunlight and possibly even make eye contact with another person. These are all things you can’t do with Walk It Out.

There is absolutely no reason to buy this game, much less play it. There are superior exercise options available for the Wii, and you can have more money going up and down stairs in your own home while listening to an iPod. You’ll get a better workout too.

Replayability Rating: Worthless

6. Balance

Balance doesn’t really enter into this game at all. It’s just walking around in place. Worst of all the game forces you to confirm to one of two rhythms, neither of which is a natural walking pace for the majority of people. This means you’re not so much as walking in place as hopping or shifting your mass in time with the beat. Again, this is not good for you and you have to wonder who thought this was a good idea, or even a fun one.

If one wanted to make a quality walking game it would need

A) to let one move at their own proper rhythm instead of forcing one on a person

B) feature extremely nice graphics to even remotely make this an alternative to going outside and actually walking

C) not featuring walking in place which again IS BAD FOR YOU.

In all, this is a badly designed game that does the opposite of what it is meant to be. Shame on you Konami.

Balance Rating: Worthless

7. Originality

There are lots of games that have you use the balance board. This is the first game outside the DDR games I’ve gotten to use my DDR pad with though. As well, although there are other games that contain walking in place horrors, this is the only game that has treated it as a SINGLE game. So yes, you’re getting the game for half of Ea Active or Wii Fit, but you’re only getting a single exercise, and easily the worst one any of these faux exercise games offers (Although crazy jumping is just as bad). If you want a cheap exercise game that actually works, plop down twenty dollars and go buy My Fitness Coach or Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout which is still in my top ten Wii games of all time because it is crazy fun as well as good exercise.

The game is definitely original in its ostentatiousness and Konami certainly has brass balls to sell a game this limited and shallow. It’s definitely a dip into the water to see what people will pay money for, that’s for sure. Walk It Out is certainly innovative in its own ways, but none of them are flattering.

Originality Rating: Poor

8. Addictiveness

Are you kidding? Ten minutes into this game I wanted to stop. Why? Because I knew I was doing something that was bad for my legs. I knew it was ten minutes I could actually have been moving at a normal pace that wasn’t doing harm to me and getting fresh air and/or sunlight. I could walk through my quaint little village of Shirlington onto a path that a river runs by for miles. Even though we had a Winter Storm Advisory and it was coming down in huge white flakes, it still would have been better than sitting through this horrible game.

You’re paying thirty dollars to do something you can do better without anything other than your own flesh and blood! Why would anyone pay for that or willingly get this? More importantly, why would anyone willingly sit through this unless they had to review the game for a gaming website and they were the only staffer with both a balance board and DDR pad? Here’s a hint: THEY WOULDN’T.

Addictiveness Rating: Worthless

9. Appeal Factor

No one should buy this game. No one should play this game. If you willingly paid money for it, please still have your receipt. If you actually found something to like about this game, check yourself into the nearest mental asylum posthaste. There is nothing enjoyable, fun or stimulating about this game. In order to play it, you already have to have Wii Fit or a DDR Hottest party game, and those are far better exercise for you, not to mention more fun than this horrible disc of suck and evil.

NO ONE SHOULD EXPERIENCE THIS. NO ONE.

Appeal Factor: Worthless

10. Miscellaneous

This is the worst “game” I have ever played. Honestly, the only way a game could get worse is if you paid 100 dollars for a game that was nothing but footage of your friends, family, and pets being sexually violated and you used the Wiimote to control the camera angle. This game is bad for your body and you’re paying $30 to walk in place to a horrible video game instead of actually walking and seeing the world or going a few blocks and getting some fresh air. This, my friends, is insanity made digital “entertainment.”

Miscellaneous Rating: Worthless

The Scores
Modes: Worthless
Graphics: Worthless
Sound: Mediocre
Control and Gameplay: Worthless
Replayability: Worthless
Balance: Worthless
Originality: Poor
Addictiveness: Worthless
Appeal Factor: Worthless
Miscellaneous: Worthless
FINAL SCORE: AWFUL GAME!

Short Attention Span Summary
Walk It Out is the worst game I have ever had to sit through. This is easily the top contender for “2010’s Worst Game of the Year.” There is no redeeming value in it whatsoever. You’re paying thirty dollars to WALK IN PLACE which is horrible for your hips, knees, ankles, and joints to begin with. You are better off just going outside and walking a few blocks. It’s cheaper, prettier, and if you had some sort of music player, it’ll sound better too. If you know anyone that has willingly purchased this game, call your local religious official and have them perform an exorcism on them STAT, as they are no doubt possessed if not an agent of Dread Cthulhu itself. Ia! Ia!
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Screens: Cheer We Go (NDS)
Developer: Natsume
Publisher: Natsume
Genre: Sim
Release Date: March 2010

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Becky Brogan –The Mystery of Meane Manor
Publisher: Mumbo Jumbo
Developer: Let It Rain/Levelord Games
Genre: Hidden Object
Release Date: 02/12/2010

Hidden object games is one of those genres that tends to appeal to both casual and career gamers. The gameplay tests one’s wits as well as their eyes, and they are usually coupled with a strong or fun story between puzzles to keep your addicted. Everyone seems to like them no matter their preferred genre. Nate liked Where’s Waldo, Mark liked The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes and I had a blast with Cate West: The Vanishing Files. So when I saw the cover to Meane Manor, I thought it would be a blast to play as it looked both creepy and would be a fun diversion for a few hours later.

So is this first entry in what appears to be a new Hidden Object franchise worth your $19.99?

Let’s Review

1. Story

There are eighteen different locations in Meane Manor, and you’ll be seeing them all several times throughout the multiple chapters of the game. Although this might seem dull at first, Becky has in-game story reasons for returning to places and you are given different objects to find each time. After you beat the game, you unlock Free Mode, where you can play any of the 18 locations whenever you want, with randomly occurring objects to find.

The story however is not really what comes to mind when I think of casual gamers or puzzle games. It’s extremely dark and although the graphics LOOK like the game is geared for younger gamers, the plot certainly isn’t. It’s quite freaky and will probably spook small children. So of course I loved it.

Becky is a junior in high school who has a knack for solving puzzles and mysteries. Being young and dumb, she decides to try and solve the mystery of Meane Manor, a house that everyone in town considers haunted. Becky enters the property and finds herself wrapped up in a chilling tale of satanism, madness, murder, and g-g-g-ghosts! It’s actually really well done and the story alone had me playing the game from beginning to end without a single break. I mean it’s not Persona 2: Eternal Punishment or an epic story like you’d see in a high-budget RPG, but for a puzzle game/budget game, this is one of the best stories I’ve ever seen in either of those categories.

Becky will not only be looking for hidden objects, but diary entries written by a deranged lunatic, occult tokens that allow a haunted fortune telling machine to come to life, scrolls containing satanic spells, and even items for a sacrificial altar. Throughout the two to three hours it took me to beat the game I was waiting for Becky to be horribly butchered or wake up to the whole, “I’m listening the ghost of a woman who spat incubi out of her womb. WTF, yo?” The ending was a bit weird and a little more over the top than the rest of the game, but it’s definitely a creepy and extremely fun story to connect a ton of hidden object puzzles together.

Story Rating: Great

2. Graphics

There are two kinds of graphics in the game: the story graphics and the hidden object graphics. The story visuals are cutesy visuals that make the game seem like it’s geared for pre-teen girls, but then the story comes into play and you have this very cute but very creepy game taking place and it’s all a bit surreal. I love the art work and I have to admit, it threw me for a loop when the game kept getting darker and darker. I was like, “Look at the name! It sounds cute. It looks cute. Why is Becky making a half corpse – half vending machine?” Very awesome indeed.

The hidden object parts are done with static images. It’s high quality rendered backgrounds with “randomly” placed objects all around the screen. Most of the objects appear to be photos rather than renders, but if they were actually hand drawn, this is some exceptional work. There are some images that are obviously graphics though, such as the scrolls, or diary entries and that’s because they need to be. I highly doubt the developers could get their hands on the Kitab Al-Azif after all…

Meane Manor is a very nice looking game from beginning to end. I really loved the art style of the story images and this is certainly one of the better looking hidden object games I’ve played.

Graphics Rating: Good

3. Sound

There’s no voice acting per say, but the further into the game you get the more you’ll hear ghostly laughter or murmuring mixed in with the background noise. In fact there is more background noise than music. In the library, you might hear sneezing or a cell phone go off. In the forest you might hear a bird warbling. In the house, it’ll be ominous noises and things going bump in the… day. The only real problem I have with the background noises is that they tend to be overwhelming. There’s so much of it, it can be a bit distracting, although that does add to the challenge of the game. Still, I’m glad you can turn the noises down from their default volume.

When there is music, it does fit the creepy story of the game and it meshes nicely with the game. The sound effects are limited but they fit the game. You get a happy noise when you find an object, a bad noise when you screw up and a variety of kitty noises when you find a cat item.

I would say the sound is the weakest aspect of the game and truth be told, it is a game I’d rather play muted, but it is very atmospheric – I’ll give it that.

Sound Rating: Decent

4. Control and Gameplay

Controls are exceptionally simple. When you go into a puzzle, all you do is use your mouse. At the bottom middle of your screen is the list of objects you have to find. Move your mouse to the object when you find it and click the button. If it’s good, you’ll get a “correct” tone and if the object will fly off your screen. If it’s a special item it will move to the middle of the screen and let you get a good look at it before it goes away. If it’s not the right item, you get an “incorrect” noise.

The only problem with this game is that you don’t get a complete list of items at the start. You can only see eight of them, which is a pretty big foul-up in my opinion. Usually you are able to see the entire list of items you need to find in one of these games. Not here. However one could always look at this as making the game easier since you have less items you have to look for right away.

There are two unique things this game does. The first is that you can find and unlock story items in the game. These range from very creepy diary entries to tokens that activate the fortune telling machine in the house. These flesh out the story nicely and I enjoyed having to find items that related to the plot instead of purely random things like lunch boxes or dragonflies. The other thing the game does that is quite unique is the hint system. In hidden object games you can usually earn “hint” points which outright gives you the location of an item you can’t seem to find. Here you earn hint points by finding cats or cat-based items in each room. There are three cats per stage and each one earns you a hint. As well, the game also gives you a “half hint” without using a hint point. Here you get a silhouette of the item. I loved this because hidden object games often give you very similar items but only one counts. These games might also give you say three toad and just tell you to find a toad. This leads to guess and check. Here you can at least see the outline of an item so you know a “flask” is a whiskey flask and not an Erlenmeyer flask. The prevention of homonym confusion is something these games tend to lack, but not here in Meane Manor.

So the game does one new thing I don’t care for and two things I think are awesome. Overall I’m quite happy with the game and would love to see these sorts of things implemented in other hidden object games.

Control and Gameplay: Very Good

5. Replayability

Although you unlock Free Play mode when you beat this game, it also permanently locks your profile. This really sucks as I’d like to be able to look at all the diary entries or the scrolls again, but now I have to replay the entire game to do so. Sure the game is only two to three hours long, but it’s extremely annoying to have to replay everything. You can’t even do a second save so that you can play one and go back to the original. Everything auto-saves over the same profile so you’re stuck.

This really killed a lot of enthusiasm towards the game for me. At the same time, I loved the story so much, I know I’ll replay it several times over the next few years. I like the mental challenge in hidden object games and the whole “Satanic Nancy Drew” angle is so awesome I can only hope this horrible aspect of the game in the corrected in the next game in this series. At least I HOPE it’s a series. It’s too twisted not to be.

Replayability Rating: Poor

6. Balance

I found Meane Manor to be rather on the easy side compared to other hidden object games. Often times objects were in the same exact spot each time you “entered” a location, including the cats that give you hint points, so I was able to quickly run through locations. As well, objects were so obvious that it seemed the game was more about unlocking the story than the puzzles. For example, ground animals would always be on the ground, darts and nails would always be in a wall, birds would always be in the trees or at the top of the screen and so on. I ended the game with well over 100 hint points saved up which seemed a little extreme to me. As much as I’d like to think I’m just that damn good at these games, I’m going to be a little more humble and say that the game’s difficulty is like it’s graphics and name – geared for younger gamers, while the story is geared for an older audience.

This isn’t to say the game doesn’t have its moments where it is challenging or its hard to find a piece or two in a puzzle, but it is noticeably easier than most games in this genre and anyone should be able to wade through this in a single evening if they sit down and put their mind to it. Of course, the one benefit to the game being this easy is that at least everyone can then enjoy the plot.

Balance Rating: Poor

7. Originality

Hidden object games are pretty much a dime a dozen, but not like this. Most of them don’t have a cracktastic plot that features Nancy Drew vs. Satan. Most lack the extra story content like the scrolls and diaries you find in addition to other items. Most also lack the two layer hint system Meane Manor contains. Sure the core gameplay and puzzle elements are the same as in any hidden object game, but at least Meane Manor tries a few new things to bring in a larger demographic while also placating fans of the genre.

Originality Rating: Above Average

8. Addictiveness

I actually played Meane Manor straight through without stopping save for a bathroom break and to get a glass of water. It’s only two to three hours long, and if you like a weird or spooky story, you’ll be hooked on this game almost instantly. I was playing more for the story elements than for the puzzles, because it became fairly obvious things didn’t randomize that much (or at all with some pieces) and I was more than a little ticked off that my profile was locked after beating the game and I couldn’t return to look at the creepy occult items and diary entries I unlocked. Still, this puzzle game had me glued to my laptop, although it wasn’t necessarily for the gameplay.

I wouldn’t advise playing the game straight through as I did simply because your short term memory will retain item locations. Otherwise, Meane Manor is a solid game that is hard to stop playing once you’ve started it.

Addictiveness Rating: Good

9. Appeal Factor

Meane Manor is a game that will appeal to casual and ardent gamers alike. Hidden object games are quite popular with the casual crowd, while more hardcore gamers will love the story and the strange blend of family style artwork with satanic horror. I showed screenshots of this game to two of my friends that generally eschew anything casual and their reaction was, “Whoa. Dude, I need to play this thing.” It’s such a weird combination of art style, gameplay and disturbing plotlines that if one can get by the “cute” nature of the name and its alliteration, they’ll find a game that is charming as it is creepy. It still won’t be for everyone, but it should definitely fare well with people who prefer their games a little more mature than one normally thinks of when they hear the phrase, “casual game.”

Appeal Factor: Above Average

10. Miscellaneous

Supposedly a second game in the series, The Epiphany of Demons is in the works and will be released later this year. Just the name has me excited as it promises to be a blend of Lovecraftian weirdness and “Oh look, that’s where the abacus is!” Becky Brogan and the Mystery of Meane Manor gave me a good story and was also a nice diversion from the RPG’s, fighting games and workout titles I seem to review these days. It was light in the game play but offered me a better story than most survival horror games like Silent Hill or Resident Evil have provided me as of late. At only $19.99, this is a nice budget title for any gamer, no matter their usual genre preferences, and aside from the locking you out of your profile once you’ve beaten the game, the sheer weirdness of the title will probably have you coming back for more. I know it will me.

Miscellaneous Rating: Good

The Scores
Story: Great
Graphics: Good
Sound: Decent
Control and Gameplay: Very Good
Replayability: Poor
Balance: Poor
Originality: Above Average
Addictiveness: Good
Appeal Factor: Above Average
Miscellaneous: Good
FINAL SCORE: ABOVE AVERAGE GAME!

Short Attention Span Summary
I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed Becky Brogan and the Mystery of Meane Manor. Not only does this title bring a few new elements to the whole “hidden object” sub-genre of puzzle gaming, but it also contains one of the creepier and more surreal stories I’ve experienced in quite some time, even outdoing a lot of console “survival horror” titles. Don’t let the cute name fool you – Becky Brogan is basically Nancy Drew if Nancy went around conjuring up the ghosts of religious fanatics and satanic murderers while solving mysteries. At $19.99, it’s a nice little budget casual game, although the fact the game locks you out of your profile after you finish the story can be more than a little annoying. It’s definitely worth experiencing though and I’m looking forward to the sequel.

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