X-Men Arcade Review

I honestly never thought I'd play X-Men Arcade again once the coin-operated industry withered and died. Fortunately, despite the fact that Activision currently holds the license for X-Men games, Marvel and Konami have struck a deal that allows me to gather up to five of my friends to stop Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil mutants. In many respects the game is just as fun as it was back in 1992, but there's no doubt the game shows its age and considerable eccentricity.

Konami and developer Backbone Entertainment have painstakingly recreated the six-player brawler, and in doing so they have ported one of the best games of the genre. But, typical of that genre back then, there are considerable problems. The game is incredibly simple, repetitive and it suffers from the most ridiculous dialogue and storyline you could possibly imagine. And yet it works. It's simply a blast to play with friends. As kids we loved challenging Magneto's army of Sentinels with strangers in a packed arcade.

More Footage From X-Men Arcade

In every way, this is a straight port of the original experience. You play as one of six X-Men, punching and kicking your way through eight or so levels, fighting endless waves of a rainbow battalion of Sentinels and… odd alligator people. The story is laughable, not only because of its shallow nature (save your friends and the world) but because it makes little sense. In one scene a giant Sentinel unleashes a horde of enemies upon you… and 10 minutes later you hitch a ride on it to challenge Magneto on Asteroid M. The reason? There isn't one - just go along for the ride. As a quarter-munching arcade game none of this mattered much, but in the solitude of your own home, you're going to notice. It's probably because I still love the X-Men and have such a fond nostalgia for the game, but I found all of the ridiculousness amusing. Your mileage may vary. 

The dialogue in X-Men Arcade deserves a special mention as it is amongst the worst (and therefore best) in the industry. No doubt you're all aware of the "All your base are belong to us" case of terrible translation from Zero Wing. X-Men carries some of its own gems, including "I am Magneto, Master of Magnet." And I hope you love repetitive music, because you're going to get a ton of it – when you can hear it over the primal shouts of Colossus as well as characters yelling out their names every time they die and restart in the level. 

By any modern production standard, X-Men Arcade is ludicrous. That was also true back in the '90s, but many of us were too young to notice. But knowing this game is mostly a social affair, Konami has added full online support for both XBLA and PSN. In the case of XBLA, recruiting online players is the only way you can reach a full six player roster since the Xbox 360 only supports four controller connections. PSN players don't have the worry about that restriction, as the system is more than capable of allowing six local participants. 

More X-Men Battles Ahead

Online play is a breeze, thanks to several options for players. A Quick Match will jump you into the first game the system finds. With Custom Match you can search for particular settings such as difficulty, location and even the version of the game (more on that below). You can also host public or private games with the Create Match option and even disable voice chat to prevent pesky commentators. Konami also included leaderboards which can track a number of statistics, ranking players by points, which can be filtered by a number of criteria. 

Perhaps the weakest element of X-Men Arcade isn't quite Konami's fault. As part of the deal with Marvel, no alterations could be made to the original code outside of online functionality. There are no added characters, no new enemies, no redone graphics… this is the exact same game, one that will likely only take you about 30 minutes to complete. To be fair, Konami did its best to add in a few perks for fans. One is the ability to switch between the Japanese and USA versions of the game. The Japan version of X-Men is actually easier. Health and Mutant Power items are dropped by enemies, and in the Japanese version your mutant powers use the "Power tokens" first and health later. For some inexplicable reason the USA version does the reverse. There are also a few levels of difficulty, which become necessary if you want a challenge when you're sporting a full co-op mutant roster.

Mafia II: Joe's Adventure Review

When Mafia II was originally released, I reviewed it and gave it a 7.0. I loved the story of the game -- the life and times of an up and coming gangster -- but the fetch quests, empty world, and dated cover/shooting mechanics were a real turnoff. Mafia II: Joe's Adventures starts on a high note and seems like it's going to address those issues, but then it sinks back into the same old same old.

A meaty piece of DLC, Joe's Adventures drops you in the shoes of -- you guessed it -- Joe Barbaro, the best friend of the former main character Vito. If you played Mafia II, you know Vito goes to the big house for part of the game, and that's where Joe's Adventures is set. You'll play as the fat man as you set out to exact revenge on the stool pigeon that sent Vito away, and then you'll just continue doing tasks for the seedy individuals you work for as the story unfolds.

Don't mess with the fat man.

Some of these are cool and shake up the Mafia II formula. At one point, you're driving across a frozen lake as you chase your target. You need to zig and zag around gaps in the ice and catch up to the bad guy. Trouble is, when you do catch him, he just sits in the car like a spud and lets you cap him in the head. He doesn't fight or react like a real person. 

The DLC is stuck not knowing what it really wants to do -- it's somewhere between the disc-based game and the arcade DLC that has come before. I'd love to get a compelling Joe story that has some substance like the one told in the proper Mafia II game, but that doesn't happen here. We get a few cutscenes in the beginning of the game, but then you start getting the static screens that introduce missions with text -- the storytelling flair disappears. With the movie-like atmosphere removed, you're just running to floating "mission start" icons on the screen, getting your mission and trying to get it done before the timer runs out. 

It's boring. Joe isn't getting the attention Vito's tale did. While that was OK for the arcade-style "Jimmy" DLC missions that came before, it's a weird juxtaposition now. 

With the story feeling, well, nonexistent, you're left to rely on Mafia II's stiff gameplay. Again, just like the retail game, you have forced stealth missions, stupid AI that will chase you into shops and then forget about you, and really dated cover and shoot mechanics. There are still cars to drive and oldies to listen to, but it all feels like well-worn territory.

DanceDanceRevolution Review

When I think of arcades, I think of DanceDanceRevolution (DDR). Its intense, rhythm-based gameplay not only helped uncoordinated gamers exercise, but it also served as our window into the delightful oddities found in Japan's gaming world. DDR has made an appearance on a number of consoles and now players will be able to dance frantically with DanceDanceRevolution on the PlayStation 3.

The newest title in the sweat-inducing line of games offers more of the same gameplay we've come to expect, along with the inclusion of Move support. It's a polished game with a diverse track list, but some odd issues hold back an otherwise enjoyable experience. It's also based on an outdated formula that's been surpassed by other dance games available today.

DanceDanceRevolution uses the same formula as its predecessors: directional arrows flow up the screen towards a "Step Zone" at the top of the display. When the arrow crosses the corresponding marker in the Step Zone, players step on the indicated part of the included dance mat. The more accurate steps a player completes, the more points they earn. As players complete the steps, the Groove Gauge fills up. When it caps off, players can activate the Groove Trigger, which adds a multiplier to the points they earn. This is all traditional stuff for DanceDanceRevolution, and it still works.

Watch 'Plastic Beach'

The track list is a sticking point for DDR enthusiasts, and the tunes in this DanceDanceRevolution make for an interesting set. A number of popular American songs like Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" and Paramore's "crushcrushcrush" are included alongside several older tracks like "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang. Most are fun to dance to and work well with DanceDanceRevolution's style. A handful of the high-intensity Japanese songs that DDR veterans love also make the cut, but most of the initial tracks are American. Luckily, more tracks can be unlocked on top of the initial 30. 

Incorporating your upper body is where Move support comes into play. The Step & Move mode tasks players with hitting on-screen targets with the Move controller while dancing normally. There are four targets -- one in each corner of the screen. When the icon for the upper right target appears, players move their hand towards that target in time with the music. This mode adds an extra layer to the experience, which is refreshing for long-time DDR players that want a new challenge. The Step & Move gameplay is similar to the motion functionality found in previous Wii versions of DanceDanceRevolution, but it's more accurate here. 

Overall, I was happy with Step & Move. It's more difficult than the traditional modes, and hitting the on-screen targets is a fine way to mix things up. 

For those bored of the typical modes, the additional ones are a good way to mix it up. The Club Mode strings a set of songs together with special challenges tossed in to keep players on their toes (no pun intended). The Dance Off game type pits multiple players against one another in an attempt to own the most arrows in a song. This is done by taking turns on a looped track and working to be the most accurate dancer of the bunch. IGN Editor Jack DeVries and I played through this mode and enjoyed it because it brings a more immediate competition to the formula. It's about as close to a dance battle as you're going to get here. 

Both Club and Dance Off are appreciated, but I'm especially happy with the included tutorials. This was a smart idea on the developers' part to bring in newcomers, and giving players the ability to practice songs (or parts of songs) at a slower pace is invaluable. 

You go, girl.

You'll need to slow down songs and practice, too, because DanceDanceRevolution has some issues that make it occasionally brutal. There's a massive difficulty spike between the Basic and Difficult settings. On Basic, things are way too easy for me, but jumping to Difficult seems steeper than it should be -- and Difficult isn't even the hardest setting available. Also mindboggling is the lack of a pause button. Perhaps there's a secret pause feature that I'm not aware of, but no button on my mat or controller paused the game. Oversight? I'd say so. 

Along with difficulty and interface, the thing that holds DanceDanceRevolution back the most is its age. This is largely the same game we've seen for years. This is a good thing for those that have happily followed it, but I personally want something more out of a dance game. The tech has evolved to a point where we don't necessarily need to follow a set of four arrows to "dance." There's more realistic ways to bring dancing into games. The Kinect title Dance Central, which involves real dancing with no peripherals, makes dance pad games feel antiquated.

Eat Them! Review

There were plenty of days lost to Rampage on my SEGA Master System. Friends would come over, and we'd side-scroll our way through the world as a giant ape or a giant wolf, destroy buildings, and eat the inhabitants -- the finale coming when Lizzie the lizard reverted back to human form and we got to see a pixelated naked woman. Now, developer FluffyLogic -- creators of the strategy game Savage Moon -- is inviting you to pick up a controller and smash everything in Eat Them!.

With a third-person view and a really slick cel-shaded look, Eat Them lets you create monsters by plugging together arms, heads and other pieces you've unlocked. Then, take out the baddies across a number of different gameplay modes where you smash, kick, roar and jump on buildings and vehicles that have earned your ire. At first -- and definitely in small doses -- this game is full of win. Eat Them looks pretty and runs well as you punch out building walls, hurl fire trucks and dance atop high rises. It's only later when it feels like the same old same old that the game gets tripped up, but I'll get to that.

Get'em out of jail, big guy!

Anyway, all of the actions you take consume your power; so does the damage you receive from the cops and the military. To keep your monster from falling in battle, you need to scoop up passersby and eat them as fuel. (Get the title now?) Missions range from causing as much damage as you can to competing in checkpoint races to polishing off a number of story-based tasks. 

These story-based quests are the highlight of Eat Them because they're clever and challenging. See, in the tale, a mad scientist has whipped up these beasts and is controlling them for his own gain. You'll need to smash a prison and then protect the orange-clad escapees as they make a break for it through the city streets, break open banks and fend off the feds as your getaway cars flee with the money, and so on. Each of these special missions starts off one of Eat Them's worlds/settings, but then you need to medal in each of the challenges a world contains before moving on to the next story segment. 

Here's where Eat Them slips into ho-hum territory. These missions -- the aforementioned cause the most damage and race modes -- can definitely be fun, but you have to do them again and again. As you progress, the destruction challenges get tougher as army men in mechs start showing up and the races won't allow for as much property damage (that's right, you're not supposed to destroy stuff in races), but it's still the same thing over and over again. And I'm talking about being done over and over again in the same world. It's not like you're getting one destruction challenge every time you go to a new area -- you're getting a bunch. 

Eat them all!

Of course, smashing the crap out of a city and leaving it a burning mess of rumble is what this game is about, right? I shouldn't be too hard on it for repeating that same idea again and again. I'd agree with you if the gameplay was flat-out amazing and designed to wow you, but it really isn't. In my experience, I felt like certain moves were doing no damage and I didn't know why. There are challenges that need you to knock down specific buildings in certain periods of time, and I'd be left kicking and punching this one flaming structure and the damn thing wouldn't fall. Why the hell not? I had just destroyed four other buildings, what was I doing wrong here? Why were my kicks not doing anything? My attacks felt like they were whiffing even though I could see them hitting. 

Eat Them packs multiplayer for up to four local players. The cool part is that you can actually play through the story here and unlock new areas. The four-player destruction is fun enough, but the races break the screen into four parts, and the already sensitive camera wigs out even more. I was swinging the camera all over the place trying to find the next objective (which appears as an arrow and can be very hard to see), and by the end of the round, I was carsick.

LittleBigPlanet 2 Review

Let's get it out of the way early -- LittleBigPlanet 2 is awesome. The levels are clever, a bunch of new additions change platforming for the better, and the community tools are smarter than ever. This game is a fantastic way to kick off a 2011 packed with PlayStation 3 exclusives. Still, the game has some nagging issues that won't be unfamiliar to folks who rocked the first game. Does it ruin the experience? Not at all.

LittleBigPlanet 2 packs 30 story levels that tell the tale of the Negativitron, a horrible beast that has invaded Craftworld and is gobbling up all the cities on the planet. You're Sackboy, and you've got to travel to spots on the globe to run, jump, shoot, grab and fly on your way to saving the day. The story is cute like a children's storybook, but it's not all that engaging. Luckily, the levels are exciting and the gameplay's a blast.

Watch Sackboy go in the IGN Video Review.

The majority of this plays out in the familiar LittleBigPlanet style, which is essentially 2D platforming similar to a Mario game. Sackboy starts on one end of the level and runs to the other side while jumping over obstacles and on top of enemies to make it to the goal. There are three planes for Sackboy to live on (background, middle and foreground) and you move him between them with your controller. All the while, you're nabbing point bubbles and hidden prizes on the screen. If you get lonely, you can team with up to three other Sackpeople either locally or online.

Media Molecule has outdone itself on these story levels. Each world feels unique, and the platforming challenges get more intense as you go along -- one minute I was fighting a possessed cupcake and the next I was using deadly fireflies to navigate my way through a pitch black room full of spots to die in. As great as those levels are with their colorful motifs and truly rocking tunes, the stuff that I really dug had nothing to do with platforming.

Have a question the review didn't mention? Check the LBP 2 FAQ.

Beyond the traditional swinging and jumping story levels, there is a lot going on. LBP 2 has head-to-head challenges where I was trying to nail button combinations faster than my opponent, races where I was piloting a caterpillar up a tree, and more. Single-player is spiced up, too, and flying a bee while shooting honey in a 2D side-scrolling shoot'em up and riding a nanomachine through a guy's body to fight an infection are really cool worlds that I didn't expect to play when I got my hands on LittleBigPlanet 2. The newfound focus of creating games in the game really shines through. There were moments where I was giddy over how fun it was, so the fact that you have complete access to these newfound creation abilities is impressive to say the least.

Media Molecule has whipped up challenges that I'm going to remember for quite some time, and that inspired me to get back to creating LBP levels. When the original game came out, I spent a week trying to get the hang of the tools, got frustrated and eventually scrapped my ambitious Ghostbusters level in favor of a rudimentary platformer about my life. I was happy enough with the level, but compared to what other people were doing, it didn't really deserve to be on the servers.

Forget platforming, let's shoot stuff -- 8-bit style.

After running through LittleBigPlanet 2's story mode -- which only took me a day to roll through but packs plenty to go back for -- I was creatively rejuvenated. I jumped headlong into "IGN Asteroids" (a level where you pilot the IGN logo and shoot down bad guys) and eventually "Superman: Brainiac Attacks!" (a sidescrolling shoot'em up). Now, neither of these levels are going to win any awards, but I did find that the Create mode was a bit more user friendly than the first game. The tutorials are all on a giant list now so you don't have to go object by object searching for help. Switches and modifiers have big connection cones now so that you can see how things are supposed to go together, you can add your own voiceovers with a microphone, create movies with the cutscene camera, and so on.

It's mindbogglingly deep and it's going to be crazy to see what people come up with -- you can use Sackbots to play parts in your levels and create tunes via the new music sequencer -- but don't think that Create mode is a snap for everyone.

My creations in the original game had me up at 12:30 a.m. desperately trying to figure out why my Ecto-1 wouldn't move. This time around, that late night conundrum was replaced with me wondering why I couldn't categorize a Kryptonite bullet as a projectile so that when being projected from an emitter it would count on Superman's projectile sensor.

Is this or any of the little snags I hit something the game should be flogged for? No, I've seen what people can do with these tools, and those creations dwarf what I could even dream of, so my failings aren't applicable to everyone. LittleBigPlanet 2 is doing a million things this time around so it's impossible for Media Molecule to hold my hand on every issue, and that means Create mode did leave me hanging in certain spots. I recovered and made concessions to finish my levels, but there were those moments of frustration. I wish Media Molecule would let me take peek at its levels in Create mode so that I could see how certain things I admire work, but that isn't an option here.

I'm being a whiner, though. If I wanted to put in hours on top of hours, I could figure out all of the things that have tripped me up. I don't though, so I'll sit back and play the levels more creative people whip up in between trying to beat every level without dying, find every prize bubble and unlock every in-game reward pin.

Jump pads make me happy.

That's the beauty of LittleBigPlanet 2; you can be as involved as you want to be. If you have no interest in creating a single level, there are 30 story levels and some challenges to play through, more than 3.5 million user-created levels from the original LBP that you can access with the new game, and a slew of levels people are about to create will soon be ready to try out. If you don't want to platform and only want to tinker, you can jump into Create mode and have at it without touching the story.

Whether you're the world's most brilliant creator or as dumb as I am, there's something to love in this game.

And there's a lot to love here. Making their debut in LittleBigPlanet 2 are a bunch of items that change the way Sackboy platforms. Jump pads launch the little guy into the air and make for my favorite survival challenge (i.e. keep Sackboy airborne via a moving platform of pads and out of the deadly traps). Creatinators are helmets that fire whatever object you want them to, and swinging around with grappling hooks is some of the most fun I had in this title -- and I can't wait for the inevitable Spider-Man and Batman levels using it.

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All this expands what you expect from LittleBigPlanet while keeping the core the same, which means some of the original issues are here, too. I know some said jumping was "too floaty" in the first game, so it's worth pointing out that it's the same here. I've always said that's how LBP plays and been fine with it, but I know there are people who demand more responsive movement (which you could create in your level if you wanted to). On top of that, I still had a time or two where I'd miss-jump between planes and end up in the foreground when I meant to end up in the background. It's better than it's been in the past, but it's still an issue. Meanwhile, load times are still lengthy when you're trying to start a community creation. However, on a happier note, all the collectables and DLC you grabbed from the original game carry over to this sequel.

LittleBigPlanet 2 introduces Versus levels, which are levels specifically designed for head-to-head battle. These are in addition to the 30 story levels and act as little mini-games for you to hop into with friends and family. Remember, the game supports online and local play for up to four players in every level, but that can be just be more Sackboys jumping around collecting stickers. Versus levels are designed for multiplayer so you have a sense of purpose – sink the most balls in a game of pool, score the most in a game of air hockey, etc.

One of the game's biggest additions is an easy way to share your LittleBigPlanet 2 experience. Once you create your level, it's just a button press to get it online with your customized description and logo, but the real fun starts when you're looking through other people's work. Play a level and you rate it with a smiley or frowny face. If you like the author, click over to his or her profile to learn about the designer and heart some creations. When you're done there, compare pins or check out who they've hearted and go check out those levels. Media Molecule wants to have a more functional community this time around, and that's evident in itsnew website, LBP.me. Over there, you can search for levels, peruse profiles and build a queue of creations you want to play through when you get back to your PS3. In the game and online, you can sort levels by Media Molecule recommendations, popularity and more.

Want an original soundtrack? Create it.

I've seen a lot of people asking how PlayStation Move works in LittleBigPlanet 2, and the short answer is "It doesn't." It isn't broken; it just isn't in the game. Sackboy's Prehistoric Moves (a Move game available right now on the PlayStation Store) is on the disc, but that's it. At the moment, LBP2 doesn't use the motion controller at all but it supports it for future additions.

Auditorium HD Review

To an outside observer, Auditorium HD looks like an interactive screensaver, an explosion of light and color that serves to dazzle the senses. To the player, it's a surprisingly deep puzzler, one where you're tasked with manipulating streams of light so that they touch specific boxes on the screen. When the light hits the designated areas, a portion of a song begins to play. If you're on a later stage, where you likely have several places the light needs to go, you can expect each box to correspond to an instrument in the song, forcing you to activate them all to hear the song with its full instrumentation. Of course the levels get increasingly complex as you go through the numerous stages, with new tools introduced slowly to make sure things don't get too repetitious.

More Auditorium Videos

Auditorium HD doesn't start with a lengthy tutorial. Instead, you're just dropped immediately into the game, given some tools, and challenged to figure out what to do. Not that it's hard to determine if you're doing something right, though, as the audio cues are vibrant and gratifying, compelling me to keep doing what I'm doing. 

The tools are fun to use not because they're unlike anything I've seen before, but because they're so intuitive to use. All the tools are represented as circles, which you can enlarge to make them affect a larger portion of the screen. Instead of beating you over the head with a bunch of video or audio instructions, each tool is introduced one at a time with a simple level that teaches you by doing. All the tools make sense within seconds of using them, allowing you to do things like bend light in a specific direction, reverse the flow of light, speed up the flow, or even change the color of the beams. These tools also work differently when overlapped, adding strategy and depth to the later levels. 

The challenge -- and delight -- comes from the way Auditorium HD mixes these tools together. Some levels will task you with directing light all over the stage while also changing it to several different colors. How you do this is really up to you and may require a lot of experimentation. Most stages have several solutions, and while a good portion of the pleasure in Auditorium HD comes from divining a solution, the journey to that moment is also great. Every level culminates in an epiphany, a point where the child-like sensibilities we often suppress as adults come out, and we just enjoy the pure spectacle of how we're affecting the environment. Watching the light bend, swirl and activate portions of the music is surprisingly enthralling, making every stage a visual playground. 

More Auditorium Videos

While you can play Auditorium HD with a Dual Shock or SixAxis, it functions really well with a PlayStation Move controller. Shifting the tools around is super easy and much faster with the Move, enabling you to use them in ways that are simply not possible with the SixAxis. You can essentially swing the tools around on the screen, moving the light around so rapidly that you can solve several levels with hardly any of the other tools. Sure, it kind of feels like cheating at times, but it also makes you feel like a conductor, directing the music and light to its culmination. 

Ricochet HD Review

I'll admit it: I'm a sucker for brick-breaking games. I was especially enamored with Arkanoid as a child. Its straight-forward, yet incredibly challenging gameplay hooked me early and often, and as I've moved through my life as a gamer, I've always gravitated towards the genre I loved as a kid. So when Ricochet HD was revealed for the PlayStation Network literally the week it was released, it immediately sprung-up on my radar.

Brick-breakin' ain't easy.

Those familiar with the PlayStation Network know that there's no shortage of games that appeal to the brick-breaking niche. And when you consider that the best PSN-exclusive game -- Shatter -- is a brick-breaking game, developers really need to bring their A-game in order to compete. Other attempts at satiating the wants of brick-breaking fans have fallen short of Shatter, but are still enjoyable in their own right. For instance, Magic Orbz and Hyperballoid HD both have their strengths and weaknesses, but unfortunately Ricochet HD has few redeeming qualities, making it not only the weakest of the genre on PSN, but overall a muddled, boring and frustrating experience.

In premise, Ricochet HD is exactly what you'd expect it to be: The player controls a paddle at the bottom of the screen (in the form of a car-like device) that's used to launch and subsequently bounce a ball towards bricks and other obstructions that litter the environment. As these bricks and obstructions are struck and destroyed, the ball is bounced back, and the process continues until there's nothing left to destroy. More difficult stages feature many obstructions that can't be destroyed or require multiple hits to do so. Pieces even begin to move around, while helpful power-ups and hazardous power-downs rain down from the sky to help or hinder your quest.

More Ricochet HD Videos

Ricochet HD sports a staggering 150 stages spread across fifteen planets of ten stages each. Each stage must be defeated for the next one to unlock, and naturally, the stages become more difficult. As you progress, new paddles will unlock, as well as new balls with which to use. All of this is contingent not only on getting through the levels, but also on collecting Sonic-like rings strewn throughout each stage, which effectively levels you up. The game does have local multiplayer modes for a second player, so if you want to bring a friend in and get him in on the action, he will also be able to enjoy all of the unlockables you've already uncovered.

Unfortunately, while having all of these unlockables and a leveling system is great in premise, the entire experience proves to be more incoherent than fun and rewarding. Ricochet HD is by no means the smoothest-playing brick-breaker out there, but its average gameplay is further hindered by the game's busy aesthetic, not to mention its lack of any sort of concrete explanation as to what the many options even do. A nice job is done explaining the plethora of power-ups available, but it does an incredibly poor job of expanding on many of Ricochet HD's other fine points. Regrettably, this seriously detracts from the experience, since you're not even sure what you're doing and why you're doing it, especially when it comes down to picking paddles and balls with which to play.

The normal frenzied look of Ricochet HD.

For instance, you can unlock a bunch of paddles, and each of them is purported to have special skills. After going over a dozen stages having no idea what the different paddles did, I finally received a power-up that unlocked my paddle's specific perk. But if I never received that power-up, I would have never known that there was even a difference between the paddles, even though Ricochet HD was mysteriously telling me there was. Likewise, the different balls appear to have different uses and powers, but without any sort of in-game explanation whatsoever, it's hard to say for sure if certain balls have an advantage over others.

It's these confusing moments that really sum up Ricochet HD. It has a lot of content, but playing it will leave you feeling mystified. Not only because the gameplay is subpar by brick-breaking standards, but also because its many features can be mind-bogglingly confusing, especially when much of what's offered is barely explained. In other words, Ricochet HD forces gamers to face the ultimate conundrum: a title that's chock-full of content and potential, but one that suffers from flaws that you simply can't look past.

Tetris Review

It's pretty hard to screw up Tetris -- the game's been popular since it was created back in the '80s and came in second on IGN's list of the 100 Greatest Video Games of All Time -- and, thankfully, EA hasn't. Tetris on the PlayStation 3 packs all the block droppin', line makin' fun you'd expect, but it also includes a cool multiplayer feature, a number of different game modes, and a ton of in-game challenges to pull off.

Hopefully, you understand how Tetris works. A puzzle game comprised of seven different blocks, Tetris challenges you to rotate the shapes and form horizontal lines with them. Finish a line, it erases, and you get points. Fail to do so, and a wall of mistakes builds. When you've screwed up enough, the wall hits the top of the screen, and you fail. A Tetris mastermind plays so that he or she is eliminating four rows -- or a tetris -- at once for the most points, but most of us mortals just eliminate a line at a time to stay alive.

Tetris is back. Hooray!

EA's take on that traditional formula is spot-on. The game itself is as fun as ever, the spinning is responsive, the high-definition graphics are crisp, and the onscreen score box lets you know how close you are to your next friend's high score. 

Interfacing with the outside world is what this Tetris brings to the table and makes it a solid purchase for PlayStation Network fiends. Leaderboards let you track the progress of the rest of the world. There are also local and online multiplayer modes for up to four and six people, respectively. Multiplayer Tetris might not sound like a blast, but it is. Last night I joined up with three friends and spent quite awhile going at it in the game's Battle mode. 

Battle mode, where clearing two or more lines on your screen sends lines to an opponent's screen, is just one of the options for you and the world to face off in. Team Battle breaks you into teams of two and allows you to switch between attacking (your cleared lines are sent to opponents) and defending (your work clears the garbage opponents have dumped on your screen). There are a few other options, and all of them are great fun thanks to power-ups that blackout opponent screens and freeze their movements. The cursing and screaming heard over my headset last night were some of the best multiplayer memories I've made in a while, but after each round, we were ready to go again. If you're in the mood for something simpler, there are local and online options that are just the Tetris you already know. 

As great as Tetris is, it has a few issues. The online portion is one of the coolest aspects of the game, but you have to manually log on to the EA servers each time you start the game. It doesn't do this automatically, and without doing it, you can't post scores to the leaderboards, which aren't as prominently placed as they should be. Another hiccup is that while you can invite friends to your six-player contests, you can't form parties or groups. This means that even if you have a good squad together, you have to break up and re-invite each person each time you decide to switch modes. Voice chat also seemed shaky in some of my matches. 

So many shapes!

The single-player options encompass some of these multiplayer modes and allow you to play against your friend's replays and the best in the world, but there are also a number of variants. These challenge you to clear 40 lines but with some gameplay modifier like added gravity effects or the screen flooding from the bottom while you try to clear everything. These are a blast and good for local multiplayer, too, but it's worth pointing out they're the same modes that appeared on the PlayStation Mini Tetris a few years ago. 

In fact, this game is pretty much an HD version of that Mini with the online stuff and Trophies tossed in to boot. Even the Feats -- objectives that range from playing for 90 minutes to clearing 12 lines in one turn -- seem to be recycled from the Mini. It's not a big deal as it is all fun.

Venetica Review

There are plenty of reasons to dislike Venetica -- it doesn't look good, the framerate is choppy, character interactions are unintentionally humorous, the map is a total mess, the artificial intelligence is inconsistent at best, and the combat system is repetitive. Yet despite all these less-than-stellar qualities, I found myself having a good time messing around in the Southern coast of Italy as a girl named Scarlett. She's supposedly native to the region, but she speaks with a British accent. This is one of those games that falls under the "so bad it's sort of good" category.

Let's get this out of the way -- Venetica looks really terrible for a game at this point in the console generation. People walking by thought it was an XBLA/PSN title, and even then the blurry textures and stuttering framerate made people cringe. But great graphics don't equal a great game, or vice versa, and that's the case here.

This is one dorky title and it can get pretty melodramatic -- in the opening sequence Scarlett appears to fall off a bridge over a cliff, only for her to roll onto a house roof five feet underneath -- but I ended up appreciating the goofiness of it all.

Watch the Trailer

The premise is also a little odd. You play as an orphan with no blood-related family who turns out to be Death's secret daughter. Except, you do have direct family: a half-brother named Leon that isn't really explained, just shoved into the situation. Also, when it's revealed that Death is Scarlett's father, she barely bats an eye. If I found out that information I'd be stunned, confused, and in denial. She accepts it in stride and never admits how strange the whole scenario is. I guess she's just better at coping than I am. 

Still, Venetica is really about the relationship between the mortal world and the twilight world, and it's cleverly incorporated into the gameplay. There are certain enemies you can only kill if you switch to the twilight world, and you'll need to solve quests by using twilight powers you gain along your journey. For example, in most games, skeletons are scattered about for atmosphere. While the same is true in Venetica, as you progress through the game you can eventually interact with them, which is really cool. The way Venetica handles lock picking is also clever, and although it's essentially just a memory mini-game, it's skinned in an interesting manner. 

Venetica's other saving grace is that the story is told in an interesting way. The game incorporates both morality and branching storylines, which may not be fully original features anymore but are still welcome additions. When you reach Venice there are three guilds you can choose to join, one that's focused on melee and technically the "dishonorable" choice, one that's based on necromancy and the "honorable" choice, and a third that's not associated with any morality or particular skill set. You can only choose one and based on your decision the story will unfold differently. 

Throughout my time in Venice the worst thing I encountered was map inaccuracies. If you're someone who relies heavily on following a game for advice on where to go next, you'll end up really frustrated here. Just navigating the map in general is a pain, but at times the tracking dot will be in a completely wrong spot. For example, it showed that someone's house was in the middle of the Venetian waterways. Call me crazy, but I don't think anybody builds their house in the middle of a canal. After wandering around the outer city for a while I finally found the correct building -- on land -- but it took time and a lot of trial and error. I also had quest givers tell me the wrong place to go, or became frustrated because I didn't realize I lacked the proper twilight powers to complete a certain quest. 

Despite these issues, this delightfully average role-playing game does offer plenty of quests; I clocked in a little less than 30 hours and still had a few quests I had yet to finish. Though they're standard fetch and puzzle quests, they're still fun to complete. The XP you receive levels Scarlett up and grants you points to increase her strength or mental prowess, as well as pick some new powers or melee moves. 

Grippers, the most annoying mutant lobsters to ever exist.

Killing creatures and people is supposed to be an enjoyable element in a role-playing game, but the combat in Venetica is almost too straightforward. You can chain physical attacks with your melee weapon by properly timing your button presses, but it's just hitting the "X" button over and over. I know it might sound bizarre, but the relatively mindless combat system didn't really bother me until almost 25 hours in when I was continually being mobbed. When you get attacked by groups it's almost a guaranteed death sentence. 

Thankfully, when you die in Venetica you don't always kick the bucket. As the daughter of Death you have some privileges, and one of those is the ability to resurrect yourself after getting struck down if you have enough twilight energy. The only way to charge up your twilight energy though is to use a specific weapon (the Moonblade), so the game basically discourages you from using other types of armaments, which is a bummer. The game also does a poor job of explaining that you can actually upgrade the Moonblade, so I almost went into the final boss battle with a weapon that only had 16 damage points. That's not very much. 

You'll also use the d-pad and O button to assign twilight powers (magic attacks) or blocks. One thing I found irritating was that there are different "block" abilities for each individual weapon, so if you start using a hammer but equipped the sword block, you have to go back into the menu system and replace it with the hammer block skill. It's cumbersome, so I mostly rolled around on the floor to get away from enemies instead of blocking at all. 

I think my favorite part of playing Venetica was seeing bugs -- swords are randomly hovering in the air with no owner and gondola oars can be found sticking straight up out of the water with no ship in sight. The AI pathing is pretty hilarious, too. A little boy offered to show me the way through the large city of Venice, but he kept turning around in circles and wandering off the correct pathway. Animations add to the humor, as people move stiffly and lip-synching is poor.

MicroBot Review

MicroBot tells a tale of good robots gone bad. Microscopic robots have been created to aid the sick, but something has gone wrong and they're infecting cells and taking over. To investigate the situation, you control a revised MicroBot devised to not turn evil. After being injected into the patient's blood stream you'll travel throughout the body and destroy lots of evil MicroBots. That's the entire story, so I hope you weren't expecting more.

The game's greatest asset – its illusion of fluidity -- is unfortunately also its greatest weakness. In a twin-stick shooter you want your ship to be responsive and turn on a dime to avoid enemy fire, but that doesn't happen in MicroBot. Instead, you'll find yourself fighting against the current of bodily fluids while simultaneously taking on bunches of tiny, aggressive robots. Even once you get used to it there will be times you're slammed into a jagged wall or sucked into the metallic teeth of a boss robot all thanks to a sudden rush of fluid. It sucks when you don't feel like you have total control over the situation, but that's the way it goes in this environment.

Watch the Trailer

Unlike other twin-stick shooters that switch up gameplay via power-ups, MicroBot relies on upgrading your ship with new parts. Unlocked by collecting data that drops from enemies, you'll also need to gather atoms in the world to max out each part's effectiveness. There are several places to slot weapons, defense mechanisms, rudders, or "special" miscellaneous items like a harpoon on your ship. You start out as a puny 3-sided bot and eventually transform into a 7-sided force to be reckoned with. While I enjoyed the upgrade system in general, sometimes you can accidentally allocate atoms to a part that you didn't want upgrade and you can't undo your mistake. Also, you can only spend atoms to pimp out your bot or change its limbs in specific parts of the level, which is rather inconvenient. 

Besides acting as a sort of currency, certain atoms also regenerate your health, so snagging them is pretty important. It's easy to get knocked out in this game, though that's more of a nuisance than an actual punishment as you have unlimited lives. Still, sometimes you'll find yourself getting respawned at a checkpoint amidst the same group of enemies that just killed you, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. 

A lot of the twin-stick shooters I've played have a gradual progression to the "Holy crap! There are so many enemies on the screen!" point, but MicroBot doesn't. You could be floating casually through a section with no enemies for quite a while and then all of a sudden a bunch of evil bots pop out of nowhere. It's either zero or a hundred in this game, there really wasn't much in between. There are white-blood cells peppered throughout the game that will aid you in your fight if you destroy bacteria or evil MicroBots, but if you attack them, they'll go after you. I liked this, as it sort of felt like you had a buddy, but it is easy to accidentally attack them when you're aiming for something else. 

Bosses end each of the five story stages, and some of them are incredibly irritating, with the exception of the last boss who's a total pushover. A lot of the shots that take you down feel cheap, though it is satisfying to eventually turn the tables on them. All of them lack a health bar and only one of them physically showed damage, so it was often difficult to tell how much longer you needed to survive. Regrettably, the boss battles exacerbate the flaws of the game, as you quickly realize how you can't quite navigate the way you want or need to. 

Time for an upgrade.

MicroBot isn't always about shooting stuff -- there's some light puzzling interspersed throughout the worlds, which can be a nice change of pace. The levels are fairly linear, but there are hidden collectibles called Bucky Balls as well as secret coves filled with atoms that you can miss out on. 

If you don't like playing games alone, local co-op is an option. The ability to drop in and out of co-operative mode at any time is nice, but you're tethered together, so you can only get so far apart from each other. Also, if a friend wants to just play around for a bit in a higher level, they're stuck with an under-powered beginner's ship until they level up individually. I invited other people to come help me with the bosses, but they weren't able to do much with such a sad, little robot. It'd be nice if there were an option to give your friend a ship that had the same status as you did, maybe with the Achievements or Trophies disabled so someone who isn't that into gaming could pop in and play for a while. 

Once you've finished the main campaign, there's still challenge mode. You have one life and can only assemble your perfect bot once, and then you run through levels that are structured like the main campaign until you eventually die. I was expecting the challenge mode to be more of an arena survival scenario, so I'm glad they took the less obvious approach.