When surrounded by a horde of sword wielding villains, the key is to remain calm and wait for the perfect moment to strike. Eventually, one of those foes will grow impatient and bellow a battle cry while charging toward you, and just as the steel of his blade turns red, that perfect moment will reveal itself, at which point you may take a quick evasive sidestep before swiftly unleashing your own blade to feast on blood.
The action will pause for a moment before the villain doubles over with a cry and vanishes, possibly leaving behind coins as you sheath your sword and await the next opponent foolish enough to try a similar tactic.
Sakura Samurai is never long for providing another adversary either, all of them determined to prevent your quest to save Princess Cherry Blossom and return peace to the land. But for a game overflowing with waves of opponents, an intimate one-on-one battle system makes every fight a dance of patience and precision that offers a chance to mimic the calm and collected spirit of an anime samurai.
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Posted: January 30, 2012 at 12:07 pm
By Jamie Love |
In addition to exterminating dinosaurs and raising the undead, meteorites can also unleash irritable mud creatures on an unsuspecting world. Unlike other catastrophes however, this one can be dealt with by any child equipped with a super-soaker.
Such is the premise of Renegade Kid’s new addition to a growing eShop library of digital offerings for the 3DS, one which gives such a shout-out to the glory days of the Nintendo Entertainment System – from the visuals to the occasionally infuriating platforming – that you may just feel obliged to blow in the empty cartridge slot before playing.
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Posted: January 24, 2012 at 1:32 pm
By Jamie Love |
There’s something very heartwarming about indie games on Nintendo hardware. Seeing Cave Story across several Nintendo platforms was like an endorsement from gaming royalty for instance – a nod from the company that built those first pixilated worlds out of thin air and inspired so many to follow in that pursuit.
As such, Terry Cavanagh’s PC indie title, VVVVVV, is a welcome sight on the 3DS’ eShop, but I wouldn’t want any idea of indie fan-service to undermine the move, given that the game’s level of polish and play earn placement on the list of eShop offerings worth the investment of player’s time and money regardless of how many people worked on the title.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with why, let’s fill in some blanks below.
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Posted: January 20, 2012 at 8:46 am
By Jamie Love |
Zen Studios has long been offering a digital distribution plan that even the most curmudgeonly anti-dlc advocate would have a hard time complaining about – still, I won’t say it’s impossible for such a person to exist. Available on both Xbox LIVE Arcade and the PlayStation Network for some time now, Zen Pinball offers a package that can be added to as players see fit. Anytime you find yourself board with the tables you own, you can browse, sample, and purchase additional tables at your leisure. I approve of a system by which there’s always the means to refresh the experience while only parting with a few dollars rather than buying an entirely new game.
Said tables vary in theme and license, ranging from generic space opera motifs to tables based on Marvel franchises, and the majority of these offer a wide range of point objectives and shiny neon Vegas styling to seduce the senses. The key ingredient in my continuing addiction is the way the game consistently ranks you against others, urging you to play just a little bit longer to defeat friends and strangers alike.
Zen Pinball 3D carries this exact experience over to Nintendo’s handheld, which would seem to leave little to discuss here. Still, I’m sure we can find something to talk about, so please do read on.
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Posted: January 19, 2012 at 9:02 am
By Jamie Love |
Largely owing to the poor driving skills of law enforcement officials, the streets of the future will be overrun by blonde criminal vixens. As a ludicrously dressed officer of the law, your mission is to search out and apprehend these escapees with your trusty pistol and the ability to phase platform aiding blocks in-and-out of existence.
So not quite RoboCop, but it’ll do.
WayForward’s latest 2D offering is scaled toward creating a smaller series of incidents that fit a quick speedrun flavored agenda, which doesn’t leave nearly so much meat on the discussion bone but does make for a good and proper portable diversion. The objective of tracking down a set number of convicts per stage with the aid of a singular ability is certainly the developer’s most straightforward effort in recent memory, and creates a space where a more narrowly focused title can simply add to the layers of difficulty without losing cohesion along the way.
There isn’t as much space for the vibrant animations of BloodRayne: Betrayal or the long corridors of Aliens: Infestation, but there’s something familiar and quaint here to while away a few hours near a fireplace stoked by digital nostalgia.
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Posted: January 12, 2012 at 12:53 am
By Jamie Love |
Nintendo and Q-Games have joined their power rings together to bring the definitive version of Star Fox back for the 3DS. It’s a sensible partnership considering that the N64 release owes its existence and primary ideas to the original Star Fox on the Super Nintendo, and the unreleased Star Fox 2 – titles forever linked to Q-Games president Dylan Cuthbert.
This remake is also a beacon of hope for a series that has often appeared to baffle Nintendo, and in many ways was left keeping company with Metroid on the outer rungs of Nintendo’s famous franchise list.
Depending on your feelings toward last year’s release of Metroid: Other M, you may or may not agree that Star Fox has received far less respect over the years, often acting like a square tube Nintendo frustratingly attempted to squeeze through a circular hole – whether calling team Star Fox into service to make Rare’s Dinosaur Planet more marketable with Star Fox Adventures (2002) on the GameCube, or attempting to force the series into a more robust but less focused action game with Star Fox Assault (2005) on that same system.
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Posted: September 18, 2011 at 1:49 pm
By Jamie Love |
Essentially an updated, albeit portable, version of the console original, Continuum Shift 2 brings more of the same 2D fighting flash to series fans… but does this update bring enough to the the table to warrant the purchase?
The answer to that question depends on what kind of fighting game player you are. On one side of the argument, this portable update of the PS3/360 original would be the perfect way to get introduced to the series. It’s a near-flawless handheld recreation that boasts smooth animation, brilliant 2D sprites, tight controls, and even throws in the original game’s DLC characters.
These new-comer perks are also the biggest detriment to series diehards; there are just far to few updates to the console original, aside from the character DLC and a new game mode, to be considered a must have.
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