How are the two games similar?

Let me count the ways…

-A visually striking 2D platformer with 2 player co-op? Check.

-Presentation framed around a man reading a storybook? Check.

-Protagonist equipped with a whip-like weapon used to lasso enemies into spheres that can then be tossed at other things – as well as being used to grapple and swing from hooks? Check.

That isn’t to say that this game is simply Epic Yarn starring a decomposing octopus girl. The combat system, while not more refined, is much deeper. Also, it is possible to die in Scarygirl, and it is possible to die a lot.

Therein lies the most noticeable mechanical difference between Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Scarygirl; while the former wants you to make it to the end of the game with little effort and explore arts and crafts projects they call levels with minimal consequence, the latter starts out with a similar philosophy, but at some point decides that it instead wants to see how much crap you’ll put up with for a chance to get a glimpse at the next colorfully macabre landscape.

Granted, Scarygirl presents a series of beautiful landscapes – the kind you wouldn’t expect to find in a downloadable title. For the sake of comparison, I took a peek at the game’s 2D source material, and I was amazed at how well the developer was able to add an extra dimension to that work within the game.

Sadly, Scarygirl suffers from a problem shared by many pretty games; the graphics often get in the way of the gameplay. On many an occasion, objects in the foreground will completely block a generous portion of the screen, leaving you blindly mashing the attack buttons, hoping you’re hitting whatever enemies are hiding behind them.

Blindly mashing the attack buttons, by the way, is a perfectly viable way to get through most of the game, whether or not you can see the enemies, but I’ll elaborate more on that later.

Sound is a curious and mixed bag deserving attention here, varying between good, serviceable, and entirely non-existent. When the game begins and players are collecting mass quantities of gems, the action sounds like you’re running your fingers across a wind chime – a cool effect that supplements the ambiance of the game.

The narrator also has a generous portion of gravitas, spending the time it takes for the game to load to further the story in a pleasantly organic way. Unfortunately, the further you make it into the game (nine words that could begin many statements about Scarygirl), the more objects you encounter that are inexplicably silent in the play and interaction.

When you’re fighting a giant mechanical dragon for instance, and it approaches you to shoot flames in your direction, you’d expect those flames to make some sort of roaring and/or crackling sound, not a silent and/or nonexistent sound.

There are also a few airships with huge cannons that are apparently enchanted by some sort of sound-cloaking spell, because when it fires said cannons, which shoot out balls twice the size of Scarygirl, they make not so much as a peep. Also, I have no idea what an axe getting reflected by a force field sounds like, but I’m pretty sure that it’s not total silence.

All in all, Scarygirl is a game that confuses the ears.

For the most part the platforming in Scarygirl is competent, but it has its hiccups, particularly when navigating the game’s ubiquitous rotating platforms; if you land on a platform while it’s rotating, the game has a really hard time deciding whether or not you actually landed on it. There are also moments where you’ll really lament the fact that no matter how hard you press the jump button, Scarygirl will always jump the same height, especially in some of the later parts of the game where if you jump too high YOU WILL IMMEDIATELY DIE.

Fighting the bad guys in Scarygirl is an experience that starts out similarly tolerable, if not somewhat delightful; the tentacled protagonist has a series of combos of light and heavy attacks at her disposal, and can buy more of them using the gems collected throughout the game.

However, that potential is undermined and essentially tossed into the dustbin given that, for the most part, players can just mash the two attack buttons and kill anything; the only motivation you have to not do that is that Scarygirl is able to use near-dead enemies as weapons by grappling them. Unfortunately, unless you know the precise number of hit points an enemy has, and are meticulously counting the numbers flying off of their heads, you will more than likely kill the enemies mid-combo.

And when the game flips the switch from a “fun little button masher” to “frustrating fights with those damn blue guards armed with poles and swords twice as long as your reach,” you’re going to need to grapple as many enemies as you can, leaving you chipping away at half-beaten enemies with light attacks until the purple grapple icon shows up, giving you the “OK” to do so – a terrible strategy when there are TWO OR THREE MORE DAMN DIRTY BLUE GUARDS BEHIND IT WHO CAN REACH YOU FROM BEHIND THE STUNNED ONE.

Sorry, I just had to vent – there’s this one level near the end where the game just drops a crapload of some of the strongest enemies onto this small flat surface, and you fight them 3-9 at a time, and after you die on that a couple dozen times, the game just stops being fun. That being said, there are difficult enemies in this game that are actually pretty interesting to fight – particularly the bosses, who each have a unique weakness that you have to figure out, rendering them stunned and ready for an open can of button-mashing.

In addition to the several hours of gameplay that you’ll experience going through the game the first time, there is some replay value to be had. Several of the levels split off in multiple directions, adding some variety for revisits. Counter-intuitively, there are also bonuses to be had for accomplishing certain feats in each level, such as finding every gem, and if you want to do that, you’ll probably have to take both paths each stage offers. There’s also an online leaderboard, if you want to show off your combination of sick fighting skills and obsessive gem collecting.

Maybe in the end, this game isn’t that much like Kirby’s Epic yarn after all. Scarygirl is like a rainbow puppy making stool on your carpet; you want to get angry at it because it’s so hard to control, but then you see its adorable eyes and colorful coat, and can’t stay mad at it for too long.

Also, the puppy is missing one arm and has a tentacle for the other.

Also, I am not good at similes.

Scarygirl

Developer
TikGames

Publisher
Square-Enix

System
PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Network), Xbox 360 (Xbox LIVE Arcade) (Xbox LIVE Arcade Reviewed)

Modes
Singleplayer, Local Co-op

Release Date
January 18th, 2012 (Xbox LIVE Arcade) / January 24th, 2012 (PlayStation Network)

Price
$9.99, 800 Microsoft Points

*A copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review

InXile Entertainment’s HD revival doesn’t detour from this core formula that made the most of technical limitations, offering a sidescroller that asks you to travel from one end of the screen and back again, again, and again. Despite what I consider a premium price point for the privilege, Choplifter HD is also a game of cheap and immediate thrills that doesn’t beg for more than a minimal time commitment, satisfied with whatever little bit of time you have to spare here and there. But aside from the explosions and burst play style, it’s not so easily written off either.

Plus, trying to squish people hoping to be saved is still a guilty bit of fun.

Choplifter HD’s mission structure digs for variations on the core theme of back and forth gameplay that is easy to fall into, but hard to spend anything more than ten minutes at a time with. Rescuing hostages or trapped civilians is a key activity, but so is escorting soldiers, evacuating people by crossing a warzone, hitting key military targets, and yes, even rescuing people from the zombie horde when the game takes that last inevitable move toward throwing in everything plus the kitchen sink – and a Duke Nukem cameo to boot.

Saving people, defeating enemies, and doing these things within the allotted amount of time rewards players with stars after each stage, unlocking alternative helicopters for stages – there was at least one instance where unlocking a different ride was the only way I was making it through the midway point of this game.

As light and fluffy as that sounds, there’s a level of strategy that creeps into the mix. Resource management becomes the major focus of play, with players burdened by a need to monitor the damage level of their helicopter, their fuel supply, and a machinegun that loves to overheat when your trigger finger gets too heavy – this is complimented by a limited number of missiles as well.

Fueling stations are often scattered throughout longer areas, but repairs and missiles can only be gained by returning to the original launch point. While on the one hand this means that it’s easy to stay alive by simply retreating back to base for repairs and fuel, that pace proves continually aggravating and forces a different approach that favors crawling ahead through stages, attempting to take out soldiers firing bullets and deadly RPGS in addition to AA guns and all manner of light and heavily armored vehicular opposition.

Adding some unique difficulty is the fact that there are two positions of attack. As players fly across the screen, they point an analog stick in the direction they wish to fire and to gain missile lock, either weapon activated with a tap of the shoulder button. But the helicopter can also pivot, and will need to in order to face the screen to attack enemy positions on a secondary plane. This means that players need to get quick at switching angles in order to face and deal with enemies on both planes, making it deadly to blaze ahead versus the cautious crawling approach, poking ahead to spot enemy positions only to back off again to dodge a wave of missiles and gunfire that could quickly send players packing back to base.

But one can’t ignore the ridiculous dare that exists, particularly aided by a bust ability that will add speed at the expense of more fuel, allowing players to attempt suicidal runs through fortified areas. There are plenty of times where I was able to survive when my patience demanded a faster pace of play – though just as many times where that approach saw me crash and burn.

Somewhere in this mix I keep walking away from something disposable only to return to a game that really is quite clever in making the most of a limiting play focus. There’s certainly more than the cheap exploitation of the Choplifter title I expected, but also plenty of enjoyment to be had in that very idea. It’s fun to blaze a trail of destruction through the game, at least for a few minutes before falling back into the frustration of methodical play necessary for success.

The dry hidden objectives, thirty missions, and helicopter variations invite modest replay but really leave me hanging on the $15 price point, which is unfortunate given that there really is enough here to merit some light distraction. I just can’t shake the feeling that compared to other titles in the same price range, and others selling for even less, you’ll feel a pinch of buyer’s remorse before too long.

Choplifter HD

Developer
inXile Entertainment

Publisher
inXile Entertainment, Konami

System
PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Network), PC, Xbox 360 (Xbox LIVE Arcade) (Xbox LIVE Arcade Reviewed)

Modes
Singleplayer

Release Date
January 11, 2012

Price
$14.99, 1200 Microsoft Points

*A copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review

I’m guessing no given that if that had been the case, I sure as hell wouldn’t be wistfully mentioning RE4 at the beginning of a review once again.

Alas, my bizarre question is rooted in reality with the release of Jurassic Park: The Game, Telltale’s newest episodic movie-to-adventure game adaptation. Events unfold around the time period of the first film courtesy of a new cast of characters; some of whom work on the island, some of whom are mercenaries flying to the island to evacuate that first batch of people, and still others are sneaking onto the island to retrieve the million dollar Barbasol can full of dinosaur embryos that Nedry was trying to steal at the epicenter of this dino-disaster. In fact, ol’ Newman himself is the only character from the movie to appear in the game, though only as a mangled and faceless corpse.

For the record, there actually is a QTE-driven knife fight between one of the mercenaries and a Velociraptor, which turns out to be pretty awesome.

The characters may be different, but the park is the same, and the game is chocked full of moments and landmarks that will be familiar to fans of the film. The camera angles are dynamic enough to make this seem like a movie – a movie casted entirely by decent-looking polygon models with facial expressions that rarely express the range of emotion you’d expect from a group of people running from dinosaurs and constantly betraying each other. That being said, the game is very generous with the bump mapping on the dinosaurs and faces of the more grizzled men.

As can be expected, staying on an island full of genetically unstable dinosaurs leads to turmoil, and characters are evading hungry dinosaurs from the very first scene of the game.

How is a mere human supposed to evade and escape a violent lizard-induced death you may wonder? Why, the answer is quick time events, of course!

A directional prompt will show up somewhere on the screen, abstractly tied to some sort of action that a character could perform, and it’s your job as the player to press it, or face the dire consequences of having to repeat the last 15 seconds of the game.

I have to admit, I somewhat liked how sneaking around was handled by rhythmically alternating left and right, with circles closing in on the prompts a la Ouendan or Elite Beat Agents. But more often than not, a prompt will appear out of nowhere, and you’ll probably end up memorizing those ones after getting eaten by the same dinosaur a few times. Worse still are the game’s rather liberal use of the “mash this one key” prompts; sometimes they make sense, like if one of the characters is running really fast, but there is one point where somebody is investigating dino tracks, and a slow sweep of the ground is performed by erratically tapping a key, as if the game is some sort of slideshow, and pressing the key moves it to the next frame.

Heck, this is even during one of the parts where you can’t die – yes, unless there is a medal in the upper right corner grading your QTE-detecting abilities, the game is less “press X not to die” and more “press X to incrementally progress at your earliest convenience, thank you very much”.

Failure to properly input the right key at the right time isn’t penalized too much – unlike Dragon’s Lair or similar games, making a mistake isn’t always penalized with death, but sometimes with a slight trip-up of a character, resulting in him or her having to adapt and wrestle away a dinosaur or steady his or her nerves a la Fight Night (by the way, the “line up these two gliding circles” parts in this game are absolute dogballs).

In a way, I appreciate not only the forgiving nature of the game in that regard, but also how it adds slight variance to the game’s otherwise linear story, no matter how inconsequential it winds up being. Additionally, it is a bit amusing that the game’s medal system penalizes you equally whether you trip over a branch or get eaten by a T-Rex; in fact, getting eaten by a T-Rex is somewhat better of an outcome, because then you at least get to watch someone get eaten by a T-Rex (albeit in minimally gory detail).

The game isn’t entirely about running from dinosaurs though. Jurassic Park also offers exciting moments of conversation moderation.

Don’t let the rhyme or the use of the word “exciting” fool you; this also does little to improve the game. In much of Jurassic Park, the dialogue is selected by the player using a dialogue wheel not unlike that of Mass Effect. Unlike Mass Effect, however, the decisions made never alter anything. Instead of thinking of what would be the best way to persuade other characters, you simply have to choose the line you’d like to hear, then there will be a short exchange of words related to that choice, and then everybody goes on to the next portion of the game, which is the same either way.

You’re also left selecting trivial crap like which wisecrack you want the character to say just before some dinosaurs attack. Mind you, I play a lot of Nintendo games, so I’m fine with being offered choices of dialogue that have zero effect on the game’s outcome, but aside from the QTE marathons and a couple of simple-yet-convoluted logic puzzles, the gameplay is nothing BUT selecting dialogue; if a game is based around talking to people, I’d expect it to branch out better than a Christmas tree bound up in twine.

Jurassic Park: The Game is a lot like a tour through Jurassic Park itself; there’s a lot of sitting still, being guided around, listening to people, and observing things – all accompanied by the sinking feeling that you’ll soon regret embarking on the experience. Taken for what it is, a mildly thrilling interactive Jurassic Park movie, it might be worthwhile for those die-hard fans who have been pulling their hair out for the last 18 years wondering what exactly happened to that can of Barbasol, but for anybody who wants to watch a Jurassic Park movie, I’d recommend just going back and watching the actual films. Not only do they look better, but they don’t require you to constantly mash a single button.

Jurassic Park: The Game

Developer
Telltale Games

Publisher
Telltale Games

System
PC, Mac, iPad2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 (PC Reviewed)

Modes
Singleplayer

Release Date
November 15, 2011

*A copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review

Perhaps something along the lines of, “and on the eighth day, Michel Ancel and company created Rayman Origins”.

Whilst tripping through the Glade of Dreams with Rayman and friends, I was reminded of a recent documentary, Walt & El Grupo. The film details the 1941 goodwill trip Walt and a team of artists took to South America, and the primary thread captures the cultural inspiration and artistic influences that would take shape in future Disney creations as a result. I mention this because there were plenty of moments where I wondered where Ubisoft had sent the folks from Montpellier – what cultural exposure might explain the environments and creative madness of Origins.

As pretty as that thought is, the roots likely aren’t so mysterious. Plenty of the environments within the game tread the familiar, from thick jungles to snowy peaks – we’ve just never seen them captured with such vivid detail and organic flow. In many ways, Origins looks the way I remember games from my childhood to look, finally realized in the here and now when so many 2D games offer cheap and dirty visuals with bland palettes.

It only takes a few moments with the game to appreciate what a kick in the teeth this is to an industry largely devoid of color, and certainly short of concerning itself over minute details that gamers might never notice, but are certainly invited to linger with here. Feel free to dive into the water as bright schools of fish scatter for the simple joy of it and tell me I’m wrong. Where the focus of so many games remains the satisfaction drawn from a singular event, achieving X results in Y, Origins takes the road less traveled, layering visual and audio cues that blur against the foreground action, offering a painting in motion one could spend forever picking out details from.

The worlds Rayman visits range from robot filled factories to a Mexican themed hell, not striking new ground so much as taking familiar templates and then seasoning them with fantastic oddities – sausages that sit in roasting pans as if at the spa and forks with moustaches come to mind. In many ways Origins reminds me most of the bent that made Earthworm Jim and ToeJam & Earl such delightful oddities in their time, particularly when I’m swinging from the beards of meditating monks. As with those two franchises, Origins creates a bold and distinct world of humor and awe that isn’t easily compared to any other title. Black blob creatures with teeth are fashionable occurrences in other titles of course, but there are still more creatures to encounter that look like brilliantly mad sketches come to life.

Looks aren’t everything however, and there has certainly been no shortage of fine looking games that leave plenty wanting in the play of them this year. While the visuals demand attention, Origins’ real achievement is the delivery of controls that convince a sense of tactile fluidity matching the character animation, allowing for an equal share of rewarding platforming and awe struck sight-seeing. The controls are just loose enough to revel in the playfulness of that animation as players jump from vines and stretchy blue hands to jump off walls, but not so loose that you’ll blame them for repeated deaths while trying to accomplish what the game asks – a fine line few games earnestly tackle with the level of success seen here.

Rayman gains moves after freeing imprisoned fairies, granted the ability to punch, hover on the air, run up and along walls, change size, and dive into those aforementioned blue waters. There’s no great challenge to using these abilities to reach the end of the game, but plenty to master in recovering every medallion by acing stages. That typical two tier level of challenge makes it easy for up to four friends to slap each other in local play, and leaves plenty for single players to pull their hair out over.

Enemies are a great example of two tier challenge. Whenever an enemy is hit or crushed, their body balloons (bubblize’s), at which point they are harmless and can be ignored or hit once more to cause them to explode, or they can also be used as leverage for gaining a bit more altitude on a jump to reach tricky peaks.

While Origins isn’t an especially hard game, you can expect to die plenty during speedier sequences, because there’s very much something to needing to know where the game wants you to be at points – driven home by a borderline infuriating final chase sequence of falling debris where the slightest delay of timing will see you trying again – perhaps fifty times before the credits finally rolled in my case. There’s a strange sort of trust you need to have in the game, particularly during chase sequences, where you simply sprint, shut your brain off, and tap the jump button, trusting that some helpful arms will grab you and hurl you toward the next landing, which they will. But there’s also a frustration, because Origins hasn’t resolved how to continually capture the seamless action it strives for hand-in-hand with the player.

Origins also subscribes to a one hit equals death equation, save for a heart Rayman can pick up that will allow him to take one more. The game liberally spreads hearts throughout areas, which comes in handy because I got pretty antsy whenever I didn’t have one for insurance.

The primary platforming concern is collecting Electoons, happy pink dudes that have been caged up throughout the various worlds. They tend to sing and dance excitedly when set free, and also need to be collected to unlock extra features. Finishing stages rewards an Electoon, and several hidden areas within stages offer the chance to free additional ones – you can hear them calling for help when you are near their hiding spot. Players also collect gold Lums throughout stages – just think of them as coins that have a penchant for swaying and humming happily. At the end of each stage, those Lums are tallied up to offer the chance for more Electoons as well as a completion medallion to signify the player’s domination of a stage. A special larger Lum will even temporarily turn others pink and double their value. Treasure chest chase sequences found throughout the various worlds require a certain amount of Electoons for access, but the game itself isn’t too demanding about progression.

When players aren’t chasing treasure chests or jumping for Lums, the gameplay is broken up by a series of side-scrolling shooter stages where Rayman rides on the back of a mosquito, which can fire shots but also suck in enemies to spit them back out at others. There’s a basic shooter structure at work, elevated at later points by skies of debris and intense projectiles, and yet the shooter by numbers approach yields a better experience than I’ve had recently with some full-scale efforts in that genre.

Ryman Origins delivers six worlds of stages along with four additional worlds where players will face some formidable bosses to open the pathway to the finale. By the time the game asks you to accept that challenge, you’ll have seen the bulk of what the game has to offer and be familiar with the formula on hand. That said, the remixing never left me feeling like I was making that final grinding push to complete the game for the sake of doing so, with the scenery, action and challenges maintaining the wildly organic and chaotic rhythm that makes me ridiculously happy this game exists, because it’s just the refresh of color and bizarre creativity needed from studios like Ubisoft.

Aside from the slight repetition that can set in and the absence of any sort of online play features, my only earnest complaint about Rayman Origins is that the ride inevitably comes to an end.

Rayman Origins

Developer
Ubisoft Montpellier

Publisher
Ubisoft

System
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii (Xbox 360 Reviewed) (Nintendo 3DS / PlayStation Vita TBD)

Modes
Singleplayer, Local Multiplayer

Release Date
November 15, 2011

*A copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review

Lording over your Assassin minions is much as it was in Brotherhood, with a few quirks. Assassin’s are recruited in small sidequests and can be deployed at the touch of a button to emerge from the shadows and nail enemy targets.

These disciples see upgrades through combat and can still be sent away on missions to gain experience, but the missions now have more tangible rewards—in that completely freeing a city of templar control yields continuing income and bonuses, much the way renovating shops does.

Additionally, Ezio’s Assassin forces wage a war for control inside Constantinople, whereby Ezio’s captured dens can be contested by Templar forces—resulting in Revelation’s most curious offering: a tower defense mini-game.

This is an interesting step for the series, if not as refined as it needs to be. Winning a battle largely involves stacking a crapload of units on the right rooftop and the liberal application of cannon fire, but I admit some visceral satisfaction in being able to look over Ezio’s shoulder as he commands the army I’ve assembled for him.

These mini-games are technically optional; they can be avoided entirely by keeping a close watch on the Templar awareness meter and keeping it low. This feels like an experiment, and though I wouldn’t describe it as a full success, my interest is piqued, and I’ll look for future entries to refine the formula.

Assassin training culminates in a two part quest whereby the Assassin student will become a master, and his assigned den will become impervious to further attack. An optional but nicely satisfying avenue, the training system lends some resolution and legitimacy to the concept of controlling a league of Assassins, and blends rather organically with the events of the core game.

By contrast, Altair’s side-missions don’t fair quite as well. The earlier Assassin’s interludes should have been played as an opportunity to provide unique missions, but instead are the least engaging of the campaign. Logically, Altair cannot possess the abilities and technology of Ezio, and thus playing as Altair is a more limited experience with a more limited Assassin, and the uninteresting scenario design doesn’t help. Besides the potential to drop a few plot elements, these missions offer little to look forward to.

The title distinguishes itself from its predecessors with a series of curious puzzled-based missions, revolving around the game’s third protagonist, Desmond Miles. These puzzling interludes are a comfortable change of pace, sitting the player down and telling a story during the solving of some simple, organic puzzles—and finally shedding some light on the character of Desmond. These, too, are clearly experimental, and can be avoided if the player chooses—but I wouldn’t recommend it.

It’s the odd little touches like these missions that make it clear Ubisoft is still seeking to make progress in a game that can sometimes feel very “samey.” It’s also worth noting how impressive it is that the game switches between the viewpoints of these three core characters organically, without breaking down the narrative.

Back on Ezio’s side of things, the increasingly aged guild master employs a couple of new tricks. Climbing is sped up by the addition of a hook to extend Ezio’s reach—also providing some combat applications—while a fairly robust bomb-crafting feature provides a wealth of new options for distracting, luring, and engaging guards.

Bombs can be customized for effect, area, and detonation—from timed grenades to trips wires, and smoke bombs to amusing loot grenades that eject fake coins to lure crowds.

Like anything in Assassin’s Creed, bombs are only as satisfying as you make them. Four games into the series, there’s a truly ridiculous number of ways to engage and escape enemies, and you’re unlikely to see all the options at any given time. It’s easy to find a niche, and maybe a little too easy to get comfortable in it; those players who experiment will find themselves the most rewarded. My advice? Try assassinating an enemy while parachuting off a tall building. Not because it’s an especially practical kill, but because this is a videogame, and because you can.

All things considered, the annual schedule appears to be wearing on the franchise somewhat. Brotherhood, despite also being an annual release, was a game-changer that introduced multiplayer and expanded and refined the core gameplay experience in such a way that it was leaps and bounds beyond its predecessors—and against that standard, Revelations doesn’t quite measure up.

That’s not to say Revelations is a poorer game; it isn’t. It’s just not an obviously superior game; it hasn’t taken the steps that say “Yes, I deserve to be here, as a sequel.”

Revelations is comparable in its scope to Brotherhood—expansive on its own, but notably smaller than Assassin’s Creed II. Additionally, though there is a great deal of content to be had, it is mitigated by the fact that much of it is the same basic content as the last two entries. Many concepts and scenarios recur (such as Ezio’s dungeon-crawling interludes), unfortunately creating the sensation that one is playing the same game rather than a sixty-dollar sequel.

Some areas remain ripe for improvement; Revelations still doesn’t always communicate well with the player (critical in a game with so many play options), while the graphics engine is showing its advanced age, and a few bugs and quirks may crop up. At this point in the series, one expects details such as these to be ironed out.

Where revelations picks up the slack is in its multiplayer component. Two years ago I never would have guessed it, but multiplayer has become the purest, most satisfying expression of the core gameplay goals of Assassin’s Creed. It’s where you’ll find the unpredictable, unscripted, and above all, adaptive gameplay that the franchise originally promised, only infinitely better realized by the addition of a human element.

At first glance, multiplayer is fundamentally the same as it was in Brotherhood, with the same careful, intelligent design—but some subtle and deliberate improvements have been made.

New modes are at the forefront of this effort. In addition to a handful of novelty objective game-types, Revelations includes a handful of unique spins on the core “kill or be killed” game mode. Specifically, these modes tune out certain elements of hunt, allowing players to choose a mode tailored to their particular goals. If you feel the target compass or special abilities obfuscate that raw hunt-and-kill imperative, there are game modes to omit those features.

My favorite variation is the assassination mode, where targets are chosen by the player rather than assigned by the computer. With a vague awareness of the positions of other humans, the player can spot, target, and kill anyone on the field—and the real thrill is that the player you’re stalking may also be stalking you. It’s important to be aware of other humans, even if they aren’t tracking you—because if you kill your own target while they lurk nearby, they’re likely to spot and pursue you next.

Regardless of the variant you choose, Revelations will remain a game that rewards patience, cunning, and quality over quantity. There’s nothing so satisfying as rocketing to first place after spending several minutes lurking in a haystack for a perfect, devastating kill. The game is designed to punish impatience and run-and-gun players and reward the careful and deliberate, in a wonderful inversion of multiplayer norms.

For those players who fell in love with multiplayer in Brotherhood, Revelations is an excellent (if subtle) refinement of the formula that may warrant your attention. Meanwhile, those who skipped Brotherhood have even greater reason to give Revelation’s exemplary multiplayer component a try.

On the campaign side, long time series adherents may find that three games set in the same time period (in a series that could instantly redefine its experience by moving to, say, the industrial revolution) has worn on some of the appeal, but Revelations remains a solid entry for those looking for another go ‘round. As for those new to Assassin’s Creed, this entry is easily the most well-rounded in the series and an obvious choice from a gameplay perspective.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Developer
Ubisoft Montreal

Publisher
Ubisoft

System
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC (Xbox 360 Reviewed)

Modes
Singleplayer, Online Multiplayer

Release Date
November 15, 2011 (PS3, X360); November 29, 2011 (PC)

*A copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review

Aspirations to live my life as cliché stirred a desperate want to love this release – Travis Touchdown has Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly 5, and I was going to have Otomedius Excellent. But as much as I can appreciate this game upsetting the digestion of Western audiences with wrappings your mother would certainly disapprove of, I’d rather play the aforementioned shooter mini-game found within No More Heroes 2.

Beneath the bubblegum aesthetics, Otomedius Excellent is a hard game to love, striving to find ways to break my heart with an experience I could love nearly everything about, except for having to actually play it.

“Shoot the Core!”

That favorite phrase of the shooter genre serves as the entire design focus for Otomedius’ boss battles. Every end of stage encounter provides ships with candy colored cores, guarded by shield plating through an opening as narrow as the Death Star’s infamous weak spot. A series of predictable attack patterns works to keep players struggling to maintain a line of sight on that goal, creating a race against time as bosses will grow bored of waiting to be defeated and simply fly away to fight another day.

This approach doesn’t break the game however, and could earnestly offer a reasonable challenge if only the weapons were up to the task. There’s an element of immediate gratification most shooters offer, and I wouldn’t fault Otomedius for asking players to dig deeper for it if any sense of satisfaction ever emerged for the effort. But the weapons of Otomedius continually underwhelm the visual and tactile expectations, largely leaving players to choose between a three-directional stream of fire, which is ideal for stage enemies but not bosses, or pea-shooter alternatives more suited to tackling core attacks.

Since it wouldn’t be a Konami game without a laser I could take or leave, there’s one of those, as well as a special attack that strikes at multiple points on the screen, which I so rarely found use for I eventually forgot the option was available.

Gradius inspirations factor into the weapon system, which has players picking up power-ups to cycle through available weapon upgrades during stages, which then remain with players until they die. Weapon loadouts can even be customized, as each of the playable female characters can be edited before starting a game. There’s a proven formula for success here, undone by the unfriendly way the game symbolizes upgrades during stages, and the fact that all these weapons look more fun to use in the small pictures describing them than they actually are within the game.

I never felt that my weapon choices prevented me from defeating a boss in a Gradius game, which is how Otomedius constantly feels – as if I can never select the right tool for the job, because it simply doesn’t exist.

At first I relied entirely upon one character with the three-directional split fire in order to get through stages. But the more I dug around, and the more I finished stages to earn stat increases, the more I could start making some sense of Otomedius’ agenda – though I still feel wanting for true comprehension. Eventually I made better use of additional gunpods and dual streams of fire, discovering that I could even recover said pods after dying if I was quick enough. And yet, no amount of discovery alleviates the sense that the rewards fall far short of justifying the effort – so either I’ve succumb to a need for immediate gratification, or Otomedius is simply a bland shooter any way you slice it.

There are some legitimately clever ideas going on within the game however, with a stage where players can blast pillars to cause pieces of the environment to move, a boss encounter where a very determined blocker works to safe-guard the core, and even some slight camera pivots when the battle reaches space and puts players up against an obligatory armada.

Part of the problem might be that the game is boldly and unapologetically Japanese in presentation. There’s no attempt to endear itself with a narrative that is subtitled in tiny print during stages, tossing any chance of peace with the story out the window – aside from the idea of high school girls piloting ships that expose their entire body I have absolutely no idea what is going on even after repeated sessions.

Certainly I could attempt to summarize the plot, but it really isn’t worth the trouble.

Otomedius simply isn’t offering enough in the design or depth of its seven stages, and while I can’t deny that there is some substance to dig for and experiment with, neither can I suggest that such efforts yield a better game experience. Only a precious few will do so, and anyone else would be wiser to pick up a game like Deathsmiles for an oddity shooter fix on the 360.

I could stand to be more forgiving of Otomedius’ bland visuals and design if the online hadn’t so completely disappointed. Up to three players can tackle the game together over LIVE, which provided a legitimately better experience, at least for a few short moments before discovering that co-pilots are sent back to the lobby menu if they die. This meant that I’d have to stop playing, exit the game, and then start a new session just to try multiplayer again, something that makes so little sense I really shouldn’t have to explain it, because Konami should certainly know better.

I’m glad to see Konami still interested in shooters however, and I’m glad to see them willing to bring less mass appealing titles over here. But Otomedius Excellent is several miles away from the publisher that brought us Gradius 5, and even further away from the kind of game you really want to stick your name on.

The bizarre factor is the only selling point here, and it’s a bloody shame the gameplay can’t back it up with something worth playing. I sincerely hope Konami tries again, but urge them to pick up the phone and give Treasure a call before doing so.

Otomedius Excellent

Developer
Konami

Publisher
Konami

System
Xbox 360

Modes
Singleplayer, Local Multiplayer, Online Multiplayer

Release Date
November 8, 2011

*A copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review

In almost every other regard, however, these are two radically different games.

BurgerTime is a lot like Resident Evil, in that both are games of survival and conservation of ammo in the face of hordes of the reanimated dead, the difference being that the deceased in BurgerTime were first pickled, or ground into sausages.

Hold on, I’m going somewhere with this…

With that comparison in mind, BurgerTime: World Tour is the Resident Evil 4 of the series, in which the protagonist is instead constantly armed to the teeth and stumbling upon more firepower than he can use. Once again, it is a controversial move, but for BurgerTime, the change isn’t as successful.

Ever play the original BurgerTime?

Remember how you started with very little pepper with which to stun enemies, and regained it with items that appeared with the frequency of Pac-Man fruit? To add insult to injury, that pepper was supposed to last you the entire game.

In what seems to be an effort to modernize the formula, each of World Tour’s 50 levels is a completely self-contained experience, and upon stacking all of the burgers within a level, Mr. Pepper starts anew in the next level with a full supply of pepper and lives.

As if that wasn’t enough help, the levels are peppered (sorry, I really couldn’t think of a better word) with power-ups that either refill Peter’s shaker or give him some new sort of enemy killing/evading ability. The challenge is not to survive each level using pepper as a last resort if cornered, but rather to spray that pepper with all the discretion of an Oakland cop and finish stacking the burgers as fast as possible, thus earning yourself rankings that range between one and five stars, as well as competing against an online leaderboard, if you’re into that sort of thing.

In addition to Peter Pepper’s newfound armory of food-subduing items, he can also jump; he can jump off the ground, he can jump from ladders, and even onto ladders as if he’s some cross between the Swedish Chef and Jason Bourne.

Sticking a landing isn’t pleasant, but not being completely screwed if you’re climbing a ladder with enemies nearby is still a welcome change to the recipe. Of course, with great power comes great responsibility. In BurgerTime: World Tour, “great responsibility” is often confused with “half-baked vertical ascents littered with unstable and/or moving platforms”. Sometimes it seems as if the game wants you to fall and go all the way to the other end of the level to start again.

There are some levels that focus heavily on a new rocket power-up that vaults Peter several stories in the air, and that’s mildly fun, in a “no idea what sort of spiky death awaits you above or below” trial and error sort of way. Regardless, that does offer more of a change of pace than the boss battles, which are essentially normal levels with several more obstacles and a cultural stereotype of a chef in the middle of the stage taunting you.

Admittedly the first boss fight is pretty amusing; one of Peter’s rival chefs has built a machine that sends cows down a conveyor belt into a processor that turns them into burgers. Peter Pepper, who for some reason believes that burgers should be made the old fashioned way – by repeatedly trampling across the top bun with one’s feet – sabotages the machine by putting hamburgers onto the conveyor belt, creating some sort of burger paradox that eventually destroys the machine. It’s the kind of twisted logic that gets funnier the more you think about it.

One of my biggest concerns upon hearing of this game’s existence was that Peter Pepper would fall on the same sword that many other classic arcade icons have when trying to make the jump to 3D graphics – a generic and ugly sword. Sadly, this sword goes clean through his torso and pokes out the other side.

Admittedly, BurgerTime’s chef isn’t exactly the most iconic figure in gaming, but he deserves better than to be given purple Justin Bieber hair and a character model with the proportions of an Xbox Avatar, and a quarter of the polygons. His face is a sign that reads “abandon all hope ye who enter here” put in front of this game.

The levels are the most colorful piles of clutter this side of an episode of Hoarders, and are arranged within a cylinder (think the boss battles from Sonic Rush). While this may add the illusion of depth to the game, as well as provide a logical approach to the time-tested arcade trope of a character entering one side of the screen and exiting the other, it also means that half of the level isn’t visible most of the time. If not for a burger icon that points to the location of the closest unfinished burger within the level, there would be an abundance of moments where I would be completely lost amidst that mess.

In addition to the cylindrical levels, there is a list of aesthetic choices that work against the gameplay longer than the list of components of a Big Mac. More often than not, the screen is a cluttered mess of clashing colors and vaguely defined walls and/or passages that are only visible from certain angles.

The myriad of special platforms in the game commit a similar offense; these disappearing and/or crumbling platforms are easily distinguishable when viewed from the top, but this is a game viewed from the side, which proves especially troublesome.

Figure 1.1: The swapping platforms in BurgerTime: World Tour are absolute dogballs.

One of the worst examples of said trouble is a swapping platform that works a lot like that one from Super Mario Galaxy, which is a domino-shaped framework with a tile that’s either red in one area or yellow in the other. This worked well in Galaxy because the camera angle was high enough to readily tell which side of the platform was the active one. In BurgerTime: World Tour, this platform is sometimes seen at an angle where the framework is all that is visible, leading to a lot of guesswork and cheap falls.

I refer to this diagram that I just drew in MS Paint.

BurgerTime: World Tour is much more than an HD remake of the original, but it is also somewhat less. I like the idea of a faster and more capable chef, but he seems almost too capable. Also, the fact that he’s placed inside a series of ugly cylindrical labyrinths doesn’t help much either. It’s a fun game, but simply not fun enough to make me overlook the flaws.

BurgerTime: World Tour

Developer
Frozen Codebase

Publisher
MoneyPaw Games, Konami

System
Xbox 360 (Xbox LIVE Arcade), PlayStation Network (WiiWare, PC TBA) (Xbox LIVE Arcade Reviewed)

Modes
Singleplayer, Local Multiplayer, Online Multiplayer

Release Date
November 2, 2011 Xbox LIVE Arcade / November 15, 2011 PlayStation Network (WiiWare, PC TBA)

Price
800 Microsoft Points, $9.99

*A copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review

Then I played The War of the Worlds on XBLA.

I think the difference is that, while Nimoy’s role was buried under the fact that the game was about a fish-man that you talked to with a microphone peripheral, The War of the Worlds wears the fact that Sir Patrick Stewart narrates it like a badge of honor – a shiny badge on an over-starched and uncomfortable jacket.

The War of the Worlds is about a British man named Arthur, who resists an alien force that wishes to dominate and destroy the Earth. I think his last name is Dent, but I could be wrong.

Wait, it’s Clarke – Arthur Clarke – a man who must flee from genocidal Martian technology, destroy it, find his family, and do it all while narrating his journey with the gravitas of Captain Picard. In his role as narrator, Sir Patrick Stewart doesn’t disappoint with his vivid yet bleak descriptions of the incoming Martian invasion, maintaining a tone of awe-stricken despair throughout. Trust me, if the gameplay were half as good as the voice acting, this would be a real gem of a title.

Unfortunately… well, I have a few paragraphs about the graphics before I can start tearing this thing down.

Foggy Martian-occupied London town, like certain other recent 2D platformers, is rendered in grey, with generous use of blurry silhouettes; it doesn’t look exactly like Limbo, but it’s certainly Limbo-ish. Quite frankly, if they were going to make a game based on H. G. Wells’ work that heavily borrowed from a popular indie platformer, I’d rather they made The Time Machine, using Braid’s gameplay mechanics.

Limbo comparisons aside, the game does look nice, and it has quite the cinematic presentation, which is code for “there’s dramatic music and no HUD”. There’s not so much as an arrow to point out where Arthur is amidst a crowd, though they do distinguish Arthur by making him dress really flashy; while all of the other fleeing Earthlings wear grey or black, Arthur struts his stuff in a BEIGE jacket.

Hell, he’s practically Liberace in this game! Seriously, the only real color on screen is provided by fire, electricity, and (for the lack of a better term) “alien effects”. While these effects sort of look out of place in a game that’s otherwise sepia-tone at best, they do a fantastic job of letting the player know which objects will kill them. Color notwithstanding, this game does have the vibe of an old 50s film, even if it’s a film where all of the actors are 100 feet away from the camera at all times.

War of the Worlds is a game that prides itself on being “old-school” to a fault. It’s a simple 2D platformer that uses only two buttons. Unfortunately, it wants to be more fast-paced than its controls will let it be. Imagine playing N+ as the Prince of Persia – not the new time-traveling wall-jumping Prince, but the circa 1989 2D Prince – and you have, more or less, an idea of what it’s like to play this game.

Borrowing one of the conventions of “old-school” games that I hoped would stay buried, the direction of Arthur’s jumps cannot be altered while mid-air. Add this to the fact that Arthur is just a slow man all around, and you have the recipe for a lot of frustrating and occasionally unfair deaths.

Even when running, Arthur moves too slowly to immediately react to openings in the random alien surveillance. It especially doesn’t help that after almost every jump onto the debris-formed terrain, Arthur is forced to either stumble around or hang onto a ledge and slowly climb his way back up, which is often just enough time to get zapped into dust or eaten by black smoke.

To a certain extent, I have to admire the tone that is set by having Arthur be a human of average strength and agility struggling against far superior alien forces, but such decisions should not be made at the expense of decent gameplay. This isn’t some radio drama read by Orson Welles meant to fool gullible Great Depression-era listeners; I’m willing to suspend some disbelief about an average man’s free-running abilities if it means that I don’t have to navigate another clunky puzzle where the slightest easily-made misstep is punished by constant death.

Fortunately, the hard-on that the developers have for unbearably antiquated gameplay softens up a bit when it comes to saving progress.

Arthur has infinite life, and there are checkpoints right before many of the more complex sections of the game, but the placement of some of them is purely asinine. Early in the game, there is a sequence where the giant machines fire a series of three sweeping heat beams that force Arthur to seek cover until they’re finished firing. The checkpoints of that level take place RIGHT BEFORE the firing of these weapons, so whenever you die, you have to spend somewhere around 15 seconds idly ducking for cover before the next attempt to escape them. Words escape me for how utterly horrible that design choice was.

I really wanted War of the Worlds to be good, partially because its concept sounded so awesome on paper, and partially to confirm my hopes that there were still decent games being released on XBLA for less than $15. But all of the dazzling graphics and celebrity voiceovers in the world can’t make up for such rigid and frustrating controls that make you die so many times that you get tired of hearing Sir Patrick Stewart recite the same line over and over, which believe me, is a lot.

The War of the Worlds

Developer
Other Ocean Interactive

Publisher
Paramount Digital Entertainment

System
Xbox 360 (Xbox LIVE Arcade)

Modes
Singleplayer

Release Date
October 26, 2011

Price
800 Microsoft Points

*A copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review

The core concept of the title is simple, and in the end, the core concept is really all there is to it. Mow zombies, keep moving. There’s little nuance and little window dressing, and the title makes no effort to disguise this fact.

The hokey, tongue-in-cheek story features the grown-up equivalent of a 13-year old Call of Duty player, Ned Flanders with a shotgun, the obligatory angry rapper and doubly obligatory hot girl, all making bad jokes as they stroll through the blackened streets of an anonymous city and paste zombies.

Each character has a pair of unique tools; a throwable (such as a Molotov or a zombie-baiting boombox), and a special “Pwnage” ability that can be activated when the appropriate meter is full. If there’s anything akin to strategy in this game, that’s where you’ll find it: there’s a degree of interplay between the abilities that can be taken advantage of by intelligent players, but by and large the core tactic here is simply to deploy abilities at the right time.

The characters also have unique melee weapons, though to be honest I could discern no gameplay difference between them, nor any particular usefulness for them.

More interestingly, characters have a number of stats that level up as they’re used—though new levels must be bought after being unlocked. Strangely, character progression (and also story progression) does not carry over between modes; if you level up a character in single-player, you’ll have to do it all over again in multi-player.

Equally, if you are not the host of the multi-player game, don’t expect to be afforded your upgraded characters or story progress. This is made slightly more frustrating by the fact that the only way to guarantee that you’re the host of a game is to invite your friends. If you choose matchmaking, the option to host a game will only appear if no other suitable games are found. The inevitable result is that you’re pretty unlikely to play a game on a map of your choice, lest you select single-player.

On the plus side, single-player play (as well as the two-player local co-op and any online game with less than four players) affords you the opportunity to switch between characters on the fly. This is essential, as the AI will simply refuse to use special abilities (or even shoot with reasonable frequency). Playing wither fewer than four players noticeably increases difficulty, and demands more active management of squad powers.

Still, online co-op remains the optimal way to play the game, and despite my assorted criticisms, Never Die Alone is fairly un-terrible. The title carries itself on frantic, four player action, and though four player co-op will lock players into their character choice, it dramatically increases gameplay speed and excitement.

There are—at maximum—three hours of playtime in the campaign, short even for a download title, but levels remain entertaining on subsequent playthroughs by virtue of the simplicity of the core gameplay. That said, with the character progression being largely unnoticeable, there won’t be much incentive to replay, except for those who wish to grind out the games various optional objectives.

I found myself comparing NDA to Dead Nation, Housemarque’s own entry into the crowded zombie market. Another top-down shooter, its gameplay goals were decidedly different (providing a slower and more nuanced game), but ultimately it proved to be a more well-rounded and exciting experience. Though both titles are characterized by some similar weaknesses, Dead Nation remains the superior choice—and though Zombie Apocalypse is a fair title in its own right, it’s difficult to recommend while Dead Nation is available (to PS3 owners, anyway).

That said, players searching specifically for a four player download title could do worse.

Zombie Apocalypse: Never Die Alone

Developer
Backbone Entertainment

Publisher
Konami

System
Xbox 360 (XBLA), PlayStation 3 (PSN) (XBLA Reviewed)

Modes
Singleplayer, Local and Online Co-op

Release Date
October 25, 2011

Price
$9.99, 800 Microsoft Points

*A copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review

Few need to explain what they thought of The Dark Knight Returns, or ask about The Long Halloween. It is simply understood that one should know of these stories and their significance, as such tales are the seminal books of Batman.

It’s not often that outside media enters in to this exclusive lexicon, where respect and adoration are implied merely through reference. If one talks about Burton’s 1989 film, it is not simply assumed that he speaks of it with approval.

Those outside properties that have entered this elite class, such as The Dark Knight and Batman: The Animated Series (so revered that its original ideas bled into the comics for years) succeeded in the same way that Arkham City does: by being more than a mere cipher for the source material.

I can’t describe to you the number of times I’ve seen the ethics of Batman’s refusal to use lethal force explored; indeed, many of the notable tales in the mythology touch on or hinge upon this subject. It’s at the core of the character, and ripe for examination—but make no mistake, it can be tiring discussing the subject in the same way time and time again.

Likewise, I’ve seen piles of interpretations of Ra’s Al Ghul or the Penguin, and need not see what has come before merely codified into moving pictures.

Arkham City strikes a fine balance, where everything is recognizable, but still fresh. The mythology unfurls in a way that can still surprise and spin itself in a unique way—and, most important of all, it takes advantage of the fact that it is its own universe.

Writer Paul Dini goes places that the continuity of the comics fears to tread, and enhances the narrative through such. At the same time, the characters are so close to their iconic versions that their actions and events still carry weight; it’s easy to imagine that Mark Hamill’s Joker is the same fans have been watching since 1992.

Arkham is a roadmap to comic book adaptation, and not only in terms of its plot. When developers try to decode comic book panels into videogames, the result is often incomplete. Somehow these properties get boiled down to one idea in the process (usually, that idea is “Beat ‘em up”), and become tired, diminished affairs.

Rocksteady transcends this difficulty by embracing the whole product, not merely to craft a satisfying narrative, but to enable superior game design. This is most obviously apparent in the blending of stealth and combat gameplay, but perhaps the best example is the challenge of the game’s puzzles.

Consider: nobody would have ever thought to make a Batman puzzle game. He’s called the World’s Greatest Detective, but few would buy a game where Batman merely solves mysteries (note: I would, but that’s beside the point). It has simply been easier to stuff the character into a parade of mediocre brawlers.

Arkham City, improving on the model of Asylum before it, adapts an ideal formula, whereby puzzles and mystery are fully half the game, but comfortably explored at the player’s own pace. No longer merely trophies to be found or riddles to be scanned, these new challenges involve honest and creative puzzle-solving, where the solution is rarely obvious and alternative options can be gleaned by lateral thinking—and superior puzzling is one of several significant design refinements that Arkham City brings to the table.

Notably, the new environment of Arkham City isn’t just big and it isn’t just open; it’s a gameplay revelation that’s cracked wide open and poured right out. Where Arkham Asylum offered discrete chambers that were designed for stealth or designed for combat, Arkham City is a sprawling battleground where any enemy type might be lurking, and any tactic might be employed.

Melee enemies mix with the gun totting, and one need not adapt a singular approach for either. New gadgetry and the massively increased options for approach and escape mean that even armed enemies can be engaged in a variety of ways. If you’re not interested in going the stealth route, a group of armed inmates might just as easily be taken out with a smoke pellet and disarming grapnel, followed by straightforward brawling.

Smoke pellets themselves are easy to dismiss as a defensive weapon—that is, until you think to drop one on a group of unsuspecting enemies and swoop down into the resulting panic.

Meanwhile, Batman can now employ freeze grenades and explosive gel in his combos, alongside a selection of special attacks that crowd control. The combat system will be easy to pick up for those who played the original, but is expanded in such new ways that achieving the perfect combo will take a lot of practice.

At first, the wide-open world of Arkham City may seem to sacrifice some of the intimacy that Arkham Asylum thrived on—but as Batman explores the unique locations of the super prison, that sense of isolation creeps slowly back in. Moreover, the world is sized in such a way that it quickly becomes familiar and easy to navigate; truthfully, it is infinitely more dense than it is large.

There’s no wasted space; buildings are crammed into every corner, with multiple levels of verticality for enemies and secrets to hide. From sunken streets submerged in water, to run down industrial buildings and a familiar alley hidden away behind a theater, Gotham is realized with expert craft and care, sacrificing none of Arkham Asylum’s detail for this new and more open world.

The premise of the mega-Asylum is beautiful in that it seamlessly facilitates anything the developers and the fans might want to see in a Batman game. It’s employed to litter the world with side-quests that never feel like side-quests. No NPC on a street corner will tell you that it’s time to save five pedestrians in sixty seconds. Instead, quests unfold organically for the main story and the core premise; Batman is trapped in a city of criminals, where the plans and eccentricities of the inmates are numerous and inter-twining.

If you buy the game new, you’ll also get access to the Catwoman DLC. The pack contains four Catwoman missions that fit into the main campaign, occurring at logical story breaks within the plot. These missions aren’t particularly engaging or even interesting, but the Catwoman herself is a unique and interesting alternative to Batman. Like Batman, she’s easy to play but difficult to master, and because she can be utilized in the game’s numerous challenge maps, the mediocrity of her campaign missions seems incidental. Equally, players can simply use Catwoman to cruise Arkham City, beat up bad guys and claim her 40 unique Riddler trophies.

In addition to the lengthy campaign and Catwoman add on, Arkham City also offers New Game +, which intelligently raises difficulty by changing gameplay circumstances (rather than merely increasing enemy lifebars).

Then there’s the challenge mode (now called Riddler’s Revenge) which returns well expanded with new challenge types and a whole mess of maps right out of the box. As mentioned, the replayability of the challenges can be expanded with the Catwoman DLC, as well as the imminent release of the Nightwing and Robin character packs.

Arkham City is one of the few sequels on the market that deserves to be called such, as it is not merely a continuation, but a game superior to its predecessor in every conceivable avenue. Even more so than Arkham Asylum, it crafts a nigh-perfect Batman experience. Empowered by its premise of showing the player one night in the Dark Knight’s hell, it’s an odyssey through which not even Batman can emerge without consequence—and it demands to be played by the bat-faithful and newcomers alike.

Batman: Arkham City

Developer
Rocksteady

Publisher
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

System
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

Modes
Singleplayer

Release Date
October 18, 2011; November 15, 2011 (PC)

*A copy of this title was purchased by Gamesugar for review