Transformers-Rise-Of-The-Dark-Spark-Review

when I was a kid, Optimus Prime seemed to me like everything a leader should be: intelligent, compassionate, and, of course, capable of turning into a truck. It's been frustrating in recent years to see the Transformers become defined in this generation not by the charm and personality of the original cartoon but by the cacophonous stupidity and visual chaos of the Michael Bay films. I always hope that video games might be the one area where the Transformers can be redeemed. Alas, Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark is not the game that redeems them.

Though it's developed by Edge of Reality, Rise of the Dark Spark's action is closely modeled on developer High Moon's games War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron. Narratively, however, where this game falls is completely unclear. In some ways, it seems to exist in the same universe as the cartoons, but on the other hand, the robot designs sometimes resemble those from the films, and there are plot details that refer to Michael Bay's latest opus, Transformers: Age of Extinction. The result is an incoherent story that feels like it was cobbled together from the spare parts of other stories.

The gameplay doesn't fare much better. High Moon's Cybertron games were mostly enjoyable shooting galleries, and there are times when Rise of the Dark Spark seems like it might manage to be the same. Playing as a variety of Autobots and Decepticons over the course of the game, you unleash hot robot death on countless enemy grunts. At its best moments, Rise of the Dark Spark is fun in the generic and familiar way that so many blandly competent shooters are fun--a pleasant enough way to pass the time if you have nothing else to do. There are a good variety of weapons for you to use, and although you rarely have much incentive to transform, it's nice to have the freedom to drive or fly away from enemies when the action heats up.

Unfortunately, although you move around with a feeling of appropriate heft for a sentient being constructed of strong and heavy metals, when you get swarmed by enemies, you go down so fast that you might as well be made of aluminum cans. It drains all the joy from being Optimus Prime to see him crumple almost immediately in response to enemy fire, and these poorly designed combat encounters make victory not a matter of playing defensively and using smart tactics but of just trying again and again and hoping this time it works out for you. Some sections go on for much too long, keeping you stuck in one spot fighting off waves of identical enemies when all you want to do is advance, and the game's maddening checkpoints regularly require you to replay lengthy sections of frustrating action when you fall in battle.

Nobody told Cliffjumper that he's supposed to fall over when his health meter runs out.

In fact, Rise of the Dark Spark's entire campaign goes on for too long. By the time you come to the end of its 14 chapters, you'll have had enough of shooting robots to last you at least until the next three Transformers movies have been released. It doesn't help that the game is so unpleasant to look at and to listen to. The urban environments on Earth are so drab and simple that they look like the miniature set of a low-budget monster movie rather than a real city, and the sound design may drive you insane. In one level, I heard the Decepticons shout the line "Let's see what we got!" so many times that I decided it had to be part of a psychological warfare campaign meant to undermine the Autobots' morale.

Your progress is also hindered by the occasional bug, and I don't mean those pesky Insecticons. During one boss battle, I fully depleted my foe's health bar, but nothing happened. I had to let him kill me and restart the fight to advance. During another boss fight, I became completely stuck on the geometry and was helpless to defend myself against my enemy's attacks.

There are a few merciful moments of reprieve from the standard action, like one sequence in which, as Jetfire, you must fly your way out of a structure before a weapon goes off, and another in which you play as the massive dinobot Grimlock, who can unleash a constant stream of flame from his robotic jaws. This power trip feels like a reward for slogging through so much tedious and frustrating action, but it's too little, too late.

No game with robot dinosaurs in it can be all bad, but Rise of the Dark Spark comes close.

There's also Escalation, a cooperative multiplayer mode in which you and up to three other players fight off waves of invading enemies, but one wave feels very much like another. There isn't enough variety to it to keep it interesting for long. The game tries to keep you hooked by doling out a constant stream of rewards for your progress in the form of weapon upgrades, experience point boosts, and other doodads, but the action is too shallow to make any of these rewards meaningful. The Transformers are a great property, one that seems like it should lend itself to the creation of great games, but Rise of the Dark Spark is so sloppy and incoherent that it feels more like a cheap knockoff than a proper Transformers game. Optimus Prime deserves better, and so do you.

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Batman: Arkham Origins - Cold, Cold Heart DLC Review

Batman has what some consider the greatest rogue gallery of any comic book hero. But of all his villains, none have a more tragic origin story then Victor Fries. "Cold, Cold Heart" sets players up to experience the tragic beginning of the man who eventually becomes known as Mr. Freeze.
This story-centric downloadable content for Batman: Arkham Origins takes place just a few days after the main story's ending. Bruce Wayne is hosting a party in Wayne Manor to honor Ferris Boyle, CEO of GothCorp, with a humanitarian award. Before he can accept the award, the party gets crashed by a bunch of thugs carrying cryo guns, with Mr. Freeze following right behind them, demanding that the guests hand over Ferris Boyle. This scene pays great homage to Mr. Freeze's first appearance from Batman: The Animated Series, mimicking almost the entire scene from the show. Though the story primarily focuses on Mr. Freeze, it was nice to see some familiar faces such as the Penguin, who is once again voiced by Nolan North. It's also important to note the story doesn't spoil the events of Origins, but rather jumps around major plot points and the mentioning of other villains that appeared in the core game. I also enjoyed the work that went into Batman's dialogue, as his understanding of Freeze's motivations gradually develops.

The DLC quickly puts you in control of Bruce Wayne as he combats thugs on his way to the Batcave to retrieve his Batsuit. I was looking forward to using the awesome looking EX suit but was disappointed to find out you only acquire it halfway through the add-on. As you unravel the mystery of Mr. Freeze and his motivations, players will once again engage in free-flow, counter-heavy combat and predator stealthing. The add-on introduces a new enemy, though. The cryo-gun-wielding enemies are able to freeze the perch points during predator encounters, leaving them inaccessible. In combat, the same thugs will freeze Batman, leaving him trapped in ice as he tries to break free. They also throw grenades after you've been frozen for a quick one-two.
The add-on allows Batman to explore a small area of Gotham City that was available in the core game, and just like the core game, the add-on allows players to complete side missions which see the return of Anarchy's gangs rioting in the streets while introducing plenty of frozen police officers for Batman to save. After acquiring the EX suit, players who complete these side missions will unlock heat upgrades for the suit, which is also used to survive sub-zero temperature environments to solve unique puzzles.

The attention to detail in the add-on is greatly appreciated. Environments are covered in chunks of ice and Batman's cape and armor form packs of frost from the cold temperature. The much-improved investigations from Origins also make a return, and though I would have expected Mr. Freeze's tragic story to be unveiled in a cutscene, I enjoyed the investigative take on it. Putting the clues together to find out what caused the tragic accident of Victor Fries was executed surprising well.
One of my favorite aspects of Arkham Origins were its boss fights. Though the boss fight with Mr. Freeze wasn't bad, it also wasn't very original. The fight itself was reduced to nothing more than a predator encounter. This may sound familiar to players of Arkham City and the encounter players had with Mr. Freeze in that game, where, utilizing Batman's unique gadgets, players had to weaken and chip away at Freeze's armor. The difference this time is that he's accompanied by gun-wielding thugs. I was also disappointed in the DLC's abrupt ending.

The add-on itself costs $9.99 (free, for season pass holders) and took me about four hours to complete (including all side missions). At the end of the day, this feels meaty enough to justify leaving it out of the core Origins title as a worthwhile side story.
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Titan Attacks Game Review

There is no greater way to honor your most revered inspiration than with a bona fide tribute, and both Puppygames and Curve Studios shoot for the stars with Titan Attacks, a clear preserver of the old-school, intergalactic arcade shooter. The game’s inspiration is pulled directly from retromania, taking many cues from classics like Space Invaders and Galaga. Both simplistic and archaic by design, this faithful little Cross-Buy title pays homage to some of the most cherished contributors to its genre, but without trying to enhance the formula with something unique of its own.
Right from the start you’ll take notice of the game’s familiar dressing, from the laser-filled skies to the 8-bit sounds. Much like in its pixelated ancestors, you captain a single vehicle that serves as Earth’s protector against extraterrestrial invaders from the starry skies above. This ultra-familiar portrait does little to impress, but thankfully the addictive, score-chasing objective and reflex-dependent gameplay still remains very much intact. 
This is still a fixed shooter in which you can only maneuver your vehicle on a horizontal plane, and this is still largely about racking up points by obliterating enemies that advance towards the bottom of the screen. Where Titan Attacks attempts to stray from the formula is in its combo system and upgrade economy. Certain enemies and bonus saucers will provide you with money, which you can rightfully use to purchase upgrades from a screen that appears after every wave. These are generic improvements that enhance both the offense and defense of your space tank, i.e., increased fire rate, artillery add-ons, and shield slots. While not wholly original, it does provide the game with a much-needed reward system, albeit a trivial one.

The game also sports a combo system that brings the competition to all high-score seekers. Your combo counter will only increase if you wipe out an alien wave without getting hit. This number racks up after every flawless wave and caps out at nine, but it will drop to zero the moment your space tank takes a hit. The benefit of sustaining a healthy combo counter not only affects the score multiplier, but also increases the amount of money you receive for upgrades. The frustration of maintaining your combo will challenge you in later stages when gunfire gets much too frenzied and near impossible to evade, but this system provides a much-needed oomph that keeps your twitch reflexes in tune.

With respect to locale, Titan Attacks pits you against adversaries from Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, thus purposing the title. You’ll begin your voyage on Earth, and the more gunfire you rake on the game’s descending baddies, the further you ascend towards your final destination at Titan--rendering enemy lines to heaps of pixel-popping debris along the way. Enemies are diverse, with alien soldiers parachuting below, gifting you with cash bonuses, or with ships snaking across the screen in every direction. The game’s five worlds are loaded with its own set of waves and a closing boss, each posing an increased difficulty as you progress through the awfully short campaign. The game will restart and relocate you to Earth after completing the final stage as a means to further increase your score, which adds just a hint of longevity to the already brief experience.

The game’s aesthetic is coated with pixel-layered visuals and 8-bit sound effects. Its retro-contemporary appeal gives it a comfortable sense of age that performs well on all three PlayStation devices, although the game does not push the hardware by any means. I was surprised, however, to bump into a minor sound bug that occurred twice in my overall playthrough with the game. After picking up a shield power-up, its obnoxious sound effect kept roaring through my speakers through an evident succession of enemy waves. While this annoyance was negligible, it did disturb the rhythm of the experience. 
With a few simple additions, this neo-arcade shooter calls for age-old skills that would make any arcade disciple smile, if not outright grin. While it fails to innovate the formula on all fronts, there’s no denying that it’s a formula that still works, even after decades of carbon copies and imitators. Titan Attacks is a fan service to space-invading brethren of old, but strip away the charm and flattery and you are left with an antiquated, short-lived experience that facilitates just a tinge of classic fun.
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Child of Light Game Review

Never in my wildest dreams did I believe a video game could make me believe it was more than just a game. That is, until I played Child of Light. The RPG-platformer's familiar but moving story is brought to life by some of the most exquisite art design I've ever witnessed in game, a moving musical score, and a turn-based combat system that is not only easy to grasp but hard to master. Indeed, Child of Light can only be described as a work of art.

The game's story follows a young girl named Aurora who sets off to return to her home to save her ailing father and liberate the kingdom of Lemuria from the "Queen of the Night," who has stolen Lemuria's sun, moon, and stars. Though this story may sound familiar to anyone who has read any fairy tales, its presentation is both welcome and refreshing. Written in verse and rhyme, all the characters speak as if they were in a playable poem reminding me of old Shakespearean plays. On her quest, Aurora encounters plenty of colorful characters that join her party and tell their own magical story. The most important of these characters is Igniculus, a small firefly sent to help Aurora on her quest.

The first thing players will notice about Child of Light is its captivating and gorgeous hand-drawn graphics. Ubisoft's own Ubi-Art engine has created a living, breathing world with superb animation. Aurora moves with grace and speed as she runs through the 2D environment, while her hair and dress flow gracefully in the wind as she flies with her fairy wings. The game's art itself looks as if it was created by Final Fantasy's own Yo****aka Amano, whose art was used as an inspiration for Child of Light's own aesthetics, so much so that Amano-san himself drew a promotional poster of the title.


Child of Light's combat system is presented as a turn-based role-playing game. When entering combat, a timeline bar will be displayed on the bottom of the screen, which features an icon for both the player's party and enemies. The timeline itself consists of a blue "wait" gauge and a red "cast" gauge. When the icons reach the red "cast" gauge, players will be able to act; it is here that gamers will have to utilize strategy for the fastest and easiest victory. If players are attacked while in the "cast" phase, their attacks will be interrupted and they will be moved back on the timeline. This can also be utilized by the player to knock enemies back into the timeline, giving the party more time to act.

Igniculus becomes extremely important in combat. Players are able to control Igniculus with the right analog stick, moving him around the battle screen. Igniculus has two major abilities he is able to utilize. The first is hovering over one of the party members and healing them with the press of the R2 button, while the other is to use his glowing light to blind enemies, slowing them down on the timeline and allowing you just enough time to slip ahead of your opponents. But these abilities can't be spammed, as Ingiculus has his own usage bar that depletes the more his abilities are used. It's also worth noting that Ingiculus can be controlled by another player in local co-op.
During combat, I constantly had the urge to attack like I do in most turn-based RPG games, but Child of Light made me utilize all the strengths of its combat system. Allowing me to switch party members during my cast phase to adapt to the situation at hand saved me from the dreaded "Game Over" screen. Enemies will strike with elemental attacks as well as cast buffs and debuffs, making themselves stronger and faster while your party wilters. Battles were difficult enough to demand using enemies' tactics against them, and I'd often quicken my parties and slow the enemy before proceeding with attacks.

Finn, my magic-casting ally whose spells were a frequent boon for exploiting enemy weaknesses, was used similarly often. Interestingly, the enemy AI reacts to the situation and goes after Finn before he is able to use his magic. I would counter this by throwing in the party's heavy-hitter to get everyone's attention with Taunt. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses, just like the enemies you encounter. Oengus, for example, has great physical strength but will fall quickly to magic attacks. I was always kept on my toes, and my strategies changed to suit every encounter. One boss, in particular, had multiple attack points, with each one having a different weakness, forcing me to constantly change characters to adapt to the situation. It's as if I was playing a constant game of rock, paper, scissors throughout the 12-hour adventure. Although some players my get frustrated with some of the encounters, especially toward the later half of the game, I found the challenge refreshing.
The game also packs a simple upgrade system that can greatly change the tide of battle. When players level up, they get one skill point to use to acquire new skills or add stat boosts for extra strength or defense. Each character has three different categories. One focuses on physical skills and stats, another focuses on magic abilities, and the third on speed and critical hits. Players have the freedom to upgrade their characters as they see fit.


Another important aspect is the game's crafting system. As is the case with combat, this system is easy to grasp but hard to master. Players acquire gems throughout their journey--namely, Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald variants--and can equip them to weapon, armor, and accessories. As the game doesn't have shops to buy new gear, these stones become vital to your progression. Each stone adds a different effect depending on where it's placed. For example, if a player sockets a Ruby stone into their weapon, it will add an 8-percent fire damage bonus to physical attacks, while equipping it on one's armor will add 12-percent fire resistance.
 
These stones can be combined to create not only all-new stones, but enhanced versions of the original stones. Combining three small Ruby stones will net you one medium-size stone, three medium-size stones will net you a large, and so forth. You can also combine different colored stones to create new stones that add different effects, such as gaining extra experience points from battles and increasing your speed on the timeline. Players are encouraged to experiment and create whatever combination of stones they like. It's also worth noting these stones become very helpful in combat as every enemy in the game has a weakness to some sort of element, so equipping them on different characters will help when you need to switch party members mid-fight.
Child of Light's on-screen antics are accentuated beautifully by French-Canadian Composer Béatrice Martin's (Coeur de pirate) orchestral score. The strong use of piano, flute, and violin complement each other and the mystical world of Lemuria perfectly. The small but effective orchestral track depicts the sad and depressing lands Aurora travels through, and the use of piano is heard throughout the journey, enhancing the atmosphere and mood the game instills in and draws from players.


Never have I played a game that moved me like Child of Light. Thanks to its excellently crafted combat, superb art design, and a tear-inducing soundtrack, Child of Light is a game that should not be missed. If someone were to ask me to give an example of why video games are considered art, this would undoubtedly be it. As such, Ubisoft's must-have RPG is easily an early contender for Game of the Year.
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EA Sports UFC Game Review

Joining EA Sports’ repertoire is the Octagon of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The steady increase in UFC’s popularity has been infectious, so it was only a matter of time before EA Sports stepped into the Octagon with its team of sports-savvy developers. Now is a perfect time for the company to do so, since THQ is no longer around to handle the UFC Undisputed franchise. With that in mind, EA has a lot on its plate, even if the developmental competition isn’t there.
Right out of the gate, the level of detail in EA’s UFC is extravagant, featuring realistic sweat, muscle movement, and facial reactions to impact. Muscle simulation is impressive as well, especially when the fighters are duking it out on the ground. Deltoids tense and trapeziuses pop as the fighters swing, twist and curl. The body itself also buckles and ripples when struck in real time. Wounds are also spectacularly delivered. When a wound becomes more severe, the amount of blood and the significance of the wound itself both increase. On top of that, vast amounts of blood end up being flung around when the wound is continuously struck, leaving streaks and spatters on the players and the mat.

Granted, the real reason to purchase a sports game of any kind is to experience that sport at home, and EA’s UFC does exactly that. Player movement is unprecedented on all fronts, and the visuals are borderline photorealistic, apart from the occasional unnatural foot slide or continuous shuffling into the Octagon wall. Apart from the basic intentions of the game, the rest of the presentation is rather neutral and sparse. Menu layouts are nice and even, but many of the same links can be found in multiple places, such as UFC Spotlights, where players can upload their match highlights and viewers can “like” them, emulating a very basic UFC social network. The Spotlight can be found from both the Home tab and the Fighternet tab; the latter tab is intended only for highlights and seeing player profiles. Then, all forms of play are found in the Play tab; that seems sensible, but it also contradicts the formation of a word like Fighternet when the Fighternet tab doesn’t include matching up against other players. As such, Fighternet becomes more of a barebones internet browser than a featured section of the game.
The Career Mode in itself is another topic worth mentioning, considering it’s the only other gameplay mode apart from Challenges. While the intentions of a career mode in any sports game are to go from match to match on the way to the top, the journey to the title is dull. All cutscenes, though they’re live-action featuring legitimate representatives of the UFC, evoke feelings of reality-TV competition, complete with dry acting and a false sense of motivation. However, the most determined of players will see a game that really trains players in all the complex commands needed to succeed on all fronts, and the level of repetition and rotation around training routines allows the learning process to occur more naturally. Still, even on the easier difficulties, the artificial intelligence is sophisticated on an almost-human level, leaving the risk-taking nature of actual players the only thing not well emulated.
With that in mind, the Career Mode is limited to male fighters only. EA’s UFC does feature female fighters (seven of them), but female fighters cannot join the Career Mode. Similarly lacking is the ability to create a fighter: female fighters cannot be created either. There are more than seven female fighters in the real-world UFC (though the same can be said for the number of in-game male fighters), but the previously acclaimed inclusion of female fighters ends up feeling like more of an afterthought than a well-considered inclusion, which places a major negative on EA’s newest sports title. Meanwhile, players seeking to fight online will only be greeted with Tournament Mode, Rivalries Mode (for challenging friends), and the expected Quick Match. Even though the servers are lag-free, the reasons for going online are sparse, so long-term multiplayer appeal may be reserved for only the heartiest of fans.

During my time with EA’s UFC on PlayStation 4, my positivity ebbed as much as it pulsed, where some things were absolutely incredible and others made the final product feel generic. Fighter detail is second-to-none and the simulation of the fighting on all fronts approaches what can be seen on television. There’s a lot of room to grow, however, as the Career Mode and Create-A-Fighter limit players to only male fighters, and the lack of game modes also leaves a hefty damper on the experience as a whole. The gameplay of EA’s UFC is a superb starting point, but the game’s content needs more, and more inclusive, options.
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Soul Sacrifice Delta Ps Game Review

A lot of games these days release updated, more enhanced versions a while after launch with the hopes that fans will be interested enough in the little additions to buy the game again. Though definitive, enhanced, and special editions are nice, few come close to packing in content like Soul Sacrifice Delta has done when compared to its original counterpart released nary a year ago. To top it off, Delta adds a few nice enhancements and new features to the game itself that makes jumping into a new version of a previous title that much easier.

The first point that must be assessed is that newcomers will not be held in check from the get-go: all content both old and new are available to play in Delta. With that in mind, owners of the original Soul Sacrifice can import their saves to Delta, so story progression doesn’t necessarily have to be done over again. At the same time, players will lose their affinity levels gained by either saving or sacrificing enemies from the original game. In hindsight, this isn’t exactly a substantial loss, considering the fact that there is almost double the original content in Delta, so making up for lost time can be done with a bunch of new quests and a few new enemies.

Character customization has been amped up nicely, and though the aesthetic side of the customization hasn’t doubled, the ability to obtain new looks has become much easier. Specific costumes are earned by collecting souls, performing skills, and meeting other habitual requirements to the game. A Bazaar Ledger has also been added to the game, allowing players to buy said costumes, or raiments, as well as Rumors that grants equippable stat boosts to the plagued arm that the main character has. 

All in all, the most substantial improvement outside of the vast array of extra content is the refined gameplay and the overall increase in combat pace. Performing abilities seems to be much easier than it was in the original Soul Sacrifice. The speed of combat feels a fair amount faster as well, though the enemies don’t necessarily speed up. In fact, the new speed is more thanks to the refined and tighter controls, making dispatching your foes that much quicker. Enemy difficulty doesn’t decrease either, but fighting them does feel that much easier due to more responsive controls.

Though the game has its improvements, Delta maintains the flaws that the original version had. Enemy variety is still rather limited, even if more bosses have been added to the roster. There are a few new basic baddies, but the repetitiveness remains constant. However, the increased pace of the game does make the grind a bit easier to swallow, even if the content growth with Delta doubles that of the original game.

The core concept of Soul Sacrifice remains wonderfully intact in Delta and the extra content ensures that dedicated players will have something to do for a long time. The one limitation to that is of the same sort found in many games of this genre: the grind. Delta still supports four-player co-op, and though new players may benefit more from bringing a friend than veterans may, the grind of the game is still undeniable. Surely, the verbal-only story that accompanies the player through the narrative is intriguing enough to make it for dedicated players, but the way that the story is presented may not be enough for everyone to appreciate. Regardless, the combat scheme has a universal execution that makes the Soul Sacrifice franchise one that wouldn’t need much to bring in even more gamers later on.

Soul Sacrifice Delta brings to the portable table sophistication, gameplay, and longevity. Though the length of the game is found after a rather hefty grind, the path to Magusar isn’t as bad of a grind as games like Ragnarok Odyssey--even if it’s still good in its own right. Sony Computer Entertainment has created a reason to own a PlayStation Vita in Soul Sacrifice, and Delta enforces that fact with extra content, more customization, and gameplay refinement. Though Delta is technically more of an expansion, the improvements to the game and the doubled mission base make this more than the definitive version of Soul Sacrifice, and PS Vita owners would have to outright hate the genre to not enjoy it.

Mind Zero PS Vita Game Review

Very few games become a series, and very few series become fan favorite, instant sellers. So it is always tough for every new IP to live up to games in the genre before them, especially when you look like a Persona clone. Welcome to the world of Mind Zero on the PlayStation Vita. A walking, talking clone of Persona, but does it hold the same swagger and greatness as its inspiration?

This is a game I saw last year when I was living in Nagoya, Japan, and immediately I knew this was a Persona type of game. From the artwork on the cover, to the screenshots on the back of the box, and the cool looking display advertising it, there was no doubt where the inspiration came from. Flash forward ten months and now I’m starting up the game, only to be bombarded by one of the most psychedelic and unique intros of any video game. Sadly, this is the high point of the comparison to Persona.

Once in the game you’re given a narrative involving your “Persona’s”, called MINDs. Each person gets one and that is it. Each character also gets one weapon and that is it. What you get instead is a focus on your skills, which can be given to anyone. After battles you will sometimes get skill cards as rewards, and once you make it to a certain point in the game you can spend skill points to enhance their level or use other cards to upgrade them into something completely different. The drawback is when enhancing them you won’t know how much more powerful they will get. You have to memorize the damage from battle and compare it to a new battle to figure out if the spell or ability is worth it.

Even on easy the game is a grind, and up there with old NES-style games. Skills require a mixture of tech points and/or health, with health coming in short supply later on during boss fights and new dungeons. Your MIND is unique for an RPG mechanic as their first function is to act as a shield. When they are activated, at no cost, they take the damage for you and you lose MIND points. Once they are defeated you’re stunned for a turn or two, but then you and the MIND recover, and it can be called again to battle. When a MIND is defeated it becomes quite evident how weak the characters are without their shield, which is nice intertwining symbolism between story and game mechanic.

The story takes the form of a mystery, with a group of high school kids and other random people like a private detective and police detectives, trying to figure out the mystery behind MINDs. While the main story by itself is fine, there is not much else going on in the rest of the game. The side quests are simple fetch and carry, if there is any fetching and carrying at all as some are just reading text and that's it. There is also a distinct lack of a world to explore. The idea of the overhead map made it feel like a page out of the Persona 2 playbook but there is nothing to populate it but the main characters of the game. No random people speaking random stuff to give the world purpose.

Mind Zero is a bit of a conundrum in the music department because of how backwards the music is. The opening theme is awesome and energetic, fitting the theme of the game perfectly. The overview map and inside shops has that Persona 4 feel. Inside battle, though, the tunes take a nose dive of sad proportions, as I immediately was reaching for my MP3 player. The musical director did a great job with everything non-combat, but the battle music was so shrill and grating on the nerves that it was a massive disappointment. In boss battles this was alleviated to a degree, but when you have to do a lot of grinding in normal battles, a good tune is key for longevity and replayability.

What makes up for the music is the triple-A quality voice acting. The game comes with the original Japanese voices and with an English cast. It quickly became apparent that the cast gelled together and had a great working chemistry, as there was a flow to the humorous and awkward scenes. Sometimes those moments fall a bit dead because of how they are synced together in-game. The characters also felt like they had unique personalities, even though some of the girls did sound the same vocally. One odd problem in the sound department was the doors. Sometimes during conversations there would be a ‘door’ sound, which is linked to the story. The first time I heard it, it sounded like a cat. To say the least, for the first chapter I was confused trying to figure out why they were talking about a door, when I heard a cat. I've never had that experience before, thus why it stood out enough to warn about.

This is a dungeon crawler so graphics are not on the top of the list. The character models in combat look from the PS2-era, while in the outside world they are represented by slick anime models. NIS sets the standard for anime characters but Mind Zero put in an A+ effort to make a varied cast, and to show off their personalities with their looks. The dungeons do their best to look varied and original. They won’t push the Vita’s power in the slightest, but at least an effort was made to make them weird to fit the theme of the game. Whether or not you like that weirdness will determine how much you care about the dungeons.

Mind Zero has an interesting narrative, taking the Persona model and going in a different direction. RPG gamers and Persona fans will enjoy the game, but those wanting an experience laden with side quests and little grinding are going to be disappointed. The foundation is there for another great RPG franchise, as long as the flaws like the battle music, side quests, and overworld are ironed out in a potential sequel.

Resogun Heroes Ps Game Review

Resogun’s Heroes DLC only adds two game modes, but each adds something meaningful to the game’s addictive arcade action. Even better, both modes cater especially well to a different kind of player.

The first, Survival, throws down the gauntlet for veteran players seasoned by leaderboard success with Arcade mode’s levels and extra lives. You get neither in Survival: one life against a never-ending onslaught that starts fairly intense and gets positively overwhelming, very quickly. The kind of precision, awareness, and technique required to survive for more than ten minutes against these formations aren’t in my possession, but there are cool ideas on display that even novice players can appreciate. For example, there’s no need to pick up humans and carry them to evacuation platforms for extra points. Merely flying through them will do, but there are way more on-screen at a given time, and a lot more ways for them to die, thanks to the destruction of ground sections over time. Heavily armored enemies house screen-clearing explosions, and an overdrive attack could break them in seconds, but it could also clear dozens of enemies and give a scant few seconds of breathing room. Tactical choices abound and must be made faster than ever.

In other words, Survival mode is hardcore Resogun: lots of enemies, tricky formations, for skilled players who’ve long since mastered the five story levels. Neat touches, like Monuments representing player scores your best run is close to beating, keep the competitive spirit alive where balance falters. Absolutely any ship can be used in Survival mode, even custom creations borne from the recent addition of a ship editor. The leaderboards don’t pay attention to stat distribution (across Agility, Boost, and Overdrive) or weapon types, so direct comparison of two high scores is devalued somewhat. At the same time, there’s no easy way to tell what combination is most “winning” without experimenting for yourself, so replay value is kept intact. Being able to change the music in Survival, from its default tracks to level-specific tracks or a random combination, is also a nice touch.

Ultimately, Survival doesn’t seem like enough to rope back in folks who enjoyed some time with Resogun near PS4’s launch but have since moved on. For me, that hook is Demolition, the second of Heroes’ additions and one that toys with the formula enough to feel completely unfamiliar. For starters, Demolition strips you of all your weapons and your boost ability. All you’re left with is a controlled radial blast that can be charged to different power levels--but use it at all, and you’ll be defenseless until it recharges.

The blast also functions as a pushback for Wrecking Balls, which fly through the cylindrical stage with destructive aplomb. Demolition fills the stage with stationary targets to test your Wrecking Ball aim and enemies to dodge in the meantime, so while it behooves you to take time perfectly setting up each “shot,” the game will test just how quickly you can do so. Enemies will harass your attempts to carefully maneuver through tight pathways formed by stationary targets. Finesse is rewarded in that the very best Wrecking Ball pushes can rack up obscene points and swiftly clear a stage. But knowing when to forget about the balls and use your radial blast to clear a path is also imperative.

I love that Demolition effectively takes the pace and intensity of your standard Resogun match back to the drawing board. From there, it uses the same controls and mechanics to fuel an entirely different experience. Foresight and planning are more important than split-second arcade reflexes. An eye for detail and stage-wide awareness helps too--time slows to a crawl as you’re charging a radial blast, and shot alignment is a multi-faceted affair. I noticed that folks on my PSN friends list with astronomical Survival scores weren’t having as much success with Demolition, but I found its emphasis on strategy and positioning to be more accessible and a ton of fun. The power-up spirit is alive and well, too. Extra balls will drop onto the stage from time to time, and you can exploit creative moves--like shooting a ball into an Extra Ball power-up to spawn three--that really reward being in the right place at the right time. It takes a different skillset than twitch reflexes to consistently find yourself there.

The music and visuals are still pitch-perfect, and eight months later, Resogun is still one of PS4’s most aesthetically pleasing games. The question, then, is which of Resogun Heroes’ new modes appeals to you more. Both are fun, polished, and thoughtfully designed, and with the recent (free) addition of online and offline co-op, plus the aforementioned ship editor, there’s never been a better time to return. However, I had way more fun with Demolition than Survival, which, barring a few new power-ups and mechanics, is more of the same, just way more intense. Demolition, on the other hand, challenged me in new ways and reveals surprising depth for experimentation with Resogun’s core elements. By my money, that’s worth the price of admission; bonus points if you’re a Resogun fanatic who can’t wait to try both.

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Valiant Hearts: The Great War Ps Game review

War is not pretty. It’s full of death, sadness, emotion, and it corrupts the most noble and sincere of men. Valiant Hearts: The Great War depicts the horrors of war not by putting a gun in your hand but through an emotional story and an artistic style that highlights the gritty darkness that overshadowed the world between 1914-1918.

Valiant Hearts: The Great War puts players in the shoes of four brave souls and their canine companion. Although each character has their own story to tell their paths quickly intersect and unite them to a common goal; namely, to reunite a young German soldier with his wife and new born baby.

The game begins when a young man named Karl, who is working on his father-in-law’s farm in France, is soon drafted to serve in the German army and must leave his family to serve his country. Soon after, Emile, Karl's father-in-law, is signed up as well to serve in the French army. During his first battle, Emile is shot, wounded, and taken as a prisoner of war. Emile then discovers that Karl was part of the squad that Emile had engaged in. After their heartwarming reunion the French army attacks and the two become separated.

Throughout the game Emile exchanges letters between his daughter and discovers that his grandson has fallen ill and his home town had been taken over by the German army. Emile sets out to find his son-in-law and return him to his family. On his journey Emile encounters Freddie, an American soldier after the general that attacked Paris and killed his wife, and Ana, a Belgian nurse searching for her scientist father kidnapped by the same general that killed Freddie's wife.

The game’s story is presented through a narrator who details each character's’ plight throughout the game as if he was narrating a documentary on the History Channel. Of the four characters, Emile's voice is the only one that the player will hear when he reads the letters he receives and writes to his daughter. This carries great weight throughout the story as the game itself is inspired by the real letters written by soldiers during the war.

Throughout the game characters communicate through their animations and picture bubbles that appear over their head showing players what they need to do. I commend Ubisoft Montpellier for deviating from traditional character dialog and telling their story through the characters’ animations, and not once did I feel as if I never knew what any of them were trying to communicate. I would also like to point out that although characters scream and talk in the background, they do so in their native tongue and it's no more than a few words. As most of the game is presented this way I was never bothered with the narration as he only came in before the start and end of each mission.

The game’s incredible art design once again takes advantage of the great UbiART engine used in Ubisofts reimagining of Rayman and the fantastic Child of Light. Unlike the cartoony look of Rayman and the fantasy style of Child of Light, Valiant Hearts goes with a more hand-drawn, comic book style. Characters have an exaggerated look to them but it is done so to contrast the environments that players enter.

Throughout the game players see lush landscapes and cities torn apart by bombers. The Great War’s environments become more dark, gritty, and barren as the years go by, depicting the destruction that sees lush landscapes tuned to dark muddy trenches. But it is also a shame that at points the game’s art style clashes with the dark theme that it begins to shape into. Some characters including the German general that the players are after, felt to comical and was depicted in a way that people would see in a propaganda cartoon and I just couldn't take him seriously.

Being a game based on the first World War, I was expecting to pick up a rifle and start shooting. However, I was surprised to find out that the game was not about killing but finding solutions to help your cause. Although I never felt like I wanted to pick up a gun and shoot I did find that some of the tasks become tiresome and boring. First and foremost Valiant Hearts is a cerebral-based adventure, and as such players will spend most of their time solving puzzles to get through various obstacles. Some of these worked just fine while others fell flat from repetition. For example, when controlling Ana, players will have to heal wounded soldiers by performing quick-time events on a heart beat monitor (which appears on a long bandage) that became annoying as I was doing it up to five times in a five minute span.

Other puzzles felt more satisfying. Emile found himself digging tunnels rescuing trapped soldiers as bombs fall over head, and avoiding mines while continuing to push on the front lines with Freddie and giving him support throughout the game. The companion dog also finds its uses throughout the adventure, such as hitting switches to distracting German soldiers as players sneak by during stealth missions.

Freddie on the other has some of the more fun missions, which are primarily based around action elements. Planting TNT behind enemy lines destroying anti-air guns and driving a tank on the front lines while shooting down German bombers and destroying bunkers were as close to any actual combat I experienced. Some of the more entertaining moments are called the "Taxi" missions. Here, players hop into a vehicle where they will have to avoid obstacles and gunfire. These missions reminded a lot of older arcade games, and are also wonderfully presented with licensed classical tracks that almost everyone will recognize.

Gamers will also find a plethora of collectables in the game, which represent items that people used during the war. Each item that players pick up give an interesting fact about the item and how it was used during the war, which I found extremely informative and sadly gave me a better history lesson then I got in high school. At the start of each mission players can read up on actual facts about the situation that the characters find themselves in, that actual soldiers experienced in the war. Although these facts were a great read some of them turned my stomach especially those about the Mustard Gas used during the war. The only issue I found with these historical facts were their use of actual photos taken during the war. I found these to clash with the game’s art-style, and although I didn't mind that they were actual photos, I would have preferred them use a hand drawn representation in order to maintain visual parity with the rest of the game.

Valiant Hearts: The Great War left a very strong impression on me. When it was all said and done I couldn't help but let the tears flow from the powerful ending, not because of the ending itself but the way it was presented and executed. This can be said for most of the game, and although shooter fans will wonder why in a war game there isn't any shooting, Valiant Hearts decides to take a road less traveled. Telling an emotional story that took me from sadness, to happiness, back to sadness, to anger, and then eventually tears. Valiant Hearts: The Great War depicts the horrors of war not though statistics, or what battles were won, but through the human emotion.

Sourcehttp://www.psu.com/a023877/Valiant-Hearts--The-Great-War-review--a-powerful-story-told-through-the-horrors-of-war

Ultra Street Fighter IV Review Play Station Reviews

Capcom’s Street Fighter IV is often noted for reinvigorating the hardcore beat-’em-up video game scene in the many years following the release of its predecessor. Originally released in 2009, the seminal brawler wowed critics with its lush visuals, diverse character roster, and comprehensive moves set; unsurprising, then, that it’s gone down as the greatest fighting game of the PS3 era. Keen to exploit its potential, Capcom set about improving the celebrated title with a series of incremental updates, starting withSuper Street Fighter IV in 2010, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition in 2011, and finally,Ultra Street Fighter IV. 

While cynics have lambasted the Japanese giant for milking the Street Fighter IV experience, series aficionados have welcomed the extra tweaks, characters, stages, and other bits and bobs these subsequent updates have offered. Indeed, Ultra is a perpetuation of Capcom’s attempts at offering its hardcore fanbase the most complete SFIV experience possible, which long-time players will no doubt lap up. Make no mistake, this isn’t for the casual audience; Ultra’s additions are subtle, but for the hardcore player, this latest iteration of the popular brawler offers all the nuance that SFIV fanatics that been craving for -- it’s been shaped by the community, after all.

Chief among Ultra’s additions is of course the addition of five new combatants: Poison, Hugo, Decapre, Elena and Rolento. Pleasingly, there’s something here for everyone, with this eclectic line-up covering a wide variety of play styles, as is the case with pretty much the rest of the cast. Hugo is a hulking, beast of a man that compensates for his slow speed with some massively-damaging attacks, and a great go-to guy for newcomers (yes, myself included). He’s so chunky it’s almost comical. Conversely, the slim and nimble Decapre - a clone of Cammy - is faster and definitely aimed at the more accomplished player, with more complex moves and combos. In fact, you’ll need some pretty dexterous button work to exploit her Super/Ultra maneuvers, and I spent ages faffing around in Training Mode trying to get them to work, much to my frustration. Then there’s Poison, the scantily-clad, whip-wielding officer from hell, who is an absolutely joy to play as, with more streamlined moves coupled with some great Ultra combos that are both aesthetically pleasing and lethal to boot.

Elena is a flashy capoeira master and essentially Ultra’s answer to Tekken’s Eddie Gordo, possessing some conspicuously long limbs able to strike out at foes from quite some distance. Rounding things off is Rolento, a hardened military type who comes equipped with a few nasty surprises, such as grenades, which are used to devastating effect for his Ultra combo. He’s not the fastest character out of the new players, although his ability to quickly roll backwards or quickly leap off of walls gives him great evasive properties. All in all, there’s something for everyone, and each combatant boasts distinct strengths and weakness, providing a diverse package for fans and casual gamers alike. Even if you’re coming into Ultra relatively fresh-faced, you can still pick up most of the newcomers and feel comfortable getting to grips with them in training. Still, a few might prove intimidating for those unfamiliar with the series.

Elsewhere, Ultra offers up five more stages, all of which are plucked straight out of Street Fighter x Tekken (as is the case with four of the five new fighters). Yes, it’s a bit of a cop out, as for 11 quid it would have been nice to see some arenas built from the ground up; however, the levels themselves are pretty dazzling, so it’s hard to complain. More prominent however, are the array of tweaks to the combat system itself. Chief among the additions include the ability to select two Ultra Combos instead of one or the other, which opens up a wealth of new tactical options. However, there’s a catch; doing so will tone down the amount of damage they do compared to if you select just one of the cinematic showstoppers. Still, this option accentuates the game’s diversity in terms of playing style, and switches things up nicely so you have more tactics to employ in battle.

The Focus Attack has also benefited from an overhaul. Now, holding down the Medium Punch, Light Punch, and Medium Kick buttons buffs the maneuver to become the Red Focus Attack, allowing you to absorb more punishment from your opponent. However, the window of opportunity here is decidedly thin, and therefore meticulous timing on the player’s part is required, not to mention some half-decent knowledge of your opponents moves to boot. As such, there’s a gamble as to whether or not you’ll be successful; if it connects, the payoff is well worth it, but concurrently, there’s also the risk of missing it or your opponent landing a throw. Experts will likely take full advantage of this and mix and match with the regular Focus Attack, further supplementing SFIV’s comprehensive defensive capabilities. The fact it’s there and ripe for the strategic picking is a great little extra.

Meanwhile, there’s also the fact your character’s recovery has now been tweaked so you can delay the period of time it takes you to get back up after being knocked on your arse. This is pretty significant, as a lot of crafty buggers can time their attacks to capitalize on their opponents weakness as they rise off the floor, so this delay allows you to fool or outright punish their attempts at pummelling you as you get up again. Like most advanced moves, it requires judicious use of timing and understanding of SFIV’s nuanced gameplay mechanics, but it proves immensely useful if you can use it right. 

Also up for grabs are two new game modes. First up is the ability to enter the Training mode online with another player, allowing you to duke it out with a fellow gamer, rather than sit twiddling your thumbs in a lobby or smashing your way through Arcade Mode. Then there’s the Team Battle for those of you who like to put a bit of teamwork into the mix, and makes for a break from the usual one-on-one fighting that makes up the bulk of online fighters. SFIV’s online component was already strong to begin with, and these extras only further complement an already-fantastic line-up.

At the end of the day, Ultra Street Fighter IV is a pretty substantial add-on, and while it’s easy to palm it off as another chance for Capcom to relieve of us our hard-earned cash, there’s actually plenty of stuff here worth the asking price. Sure, the fact much of it is tied directly to the intricate nature of the series means hardcore fans will likely benefit from it the most, and the reused SFxTekken assets might leave a bad taste with some gamers. Overall however, the extra fighters, modes, move tweaks, additions and balances make this the definitive version of Capcom’s seminal brawler and a must-have for any Street Fighter fanatic.

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http://www.psu.com/a023704/Ultra-Street-Fighter-IV-Review--the-definitive-version-of-Capcoms-seminal-beat-em-up

Ace Combat Infinity Play Station Game Review

It takes a special kind of mentality to want to travel at mach speed, risking death at every turn like a new-age, technological form of dueling. It also takes a special kind of creative team to put the intensity and adrenaline of being a fighter pilot into a game for the home console. Bandai Namco have been doing just that since the PlayStation One era, but will a switch to a free-to-play model ruin all they’ve achieved with the Ace Combat series?

Last September during the Tokyo Game Show I had the opportunity to play the demo of Ace Combat: Infinity for the PlayStation 3 at Sony’s booth, as they were showcasing lots of non-Sony made games. Immediately playing it I could feel it was an Ace Combat game, with controls, manoeuvring, music, and even the story. I gave it our TGS award for best action game but my main concern was will it hold up on release? Will it live up to the hype of TGS? The answer to that question is mostly yes, but not perfectly.

Due to it going free-to-play there had to be some basic design differences needed for the game. Out goes the infinite amount of replaying stages to your heart’s content, and in comes buying fuel at no maximum limit or waiting four hours per fuel tank, up to a max of three. What this does is give a more realistic feel as in the real world it takes time to fuel up a jet, but in the realm of fantasy it becomes a bit of a killjoy when on a good run of form, or when you just want to spend the afternoon being a top gun.

Although the fuel buying is an annoyance, there are opportunities to win free fuel, as well as mercenary contracts, research perks, decals and cash from either completing challenges or through random drops at the end of a mission. All the gear and planes in the game need to be unlocked through research, with a few special ones for time-specific challenges. Essentially, paying for stuff in the game is more for speeding up progress rather than locking a person out of a super sweet plane or gear. The elite mercenary contracts, for example, simply double your cash at the end of a mission. You can buy them, win them, or not use them, and it doesn’t affect anything other than speeding up your cash flow.

Combat is the jewel of the game. I’ve never been a big online FPS kind of guy cause I’ve always sucked at aiming, and well, when you suck at aiming then they are no fun. Add to it when you always see your name at the bottom of the rankings it is disheartening. Infinity is built differently than typical online games. As of this review, the only online mode is two-team co-op. Two teams of four work together to complete the mission by getting as many points as possible from kills. The team who scores the most is the winning team, and both scores are combined to give you a mission ranking. This idea of cooperative competition allows those gamers who feel like they are of a lower quality on a competitive level to still have fun and contribute to the success of the mission, even when other players are getting higher scores all the time.

Although there are a limited number of stages currently, they are still fun and varied for a person’s play style. Some focus on air-to-air, air-to-ground, and other are well balanced, thus allowing people to get the most out of their planes. Switching targets on the fly can be a bit frustrating at times, but that is nothing new to the series as with so many units flying around the chaos of it all gives a more authentic feel for real-life battle. But with that said, the game is by no means hard. Except for me taking too long to use the machine gun on a ground target, I never died. When I did die, most of the damage was essentially self-inflicted due to the previous reason. The challenge of the game comes from getting the highest score within the time limit, rather than playing on insanity mode and coming out alive.

There is a campaign mode with a story in the game, and sadly that is where the hype from TGS fell short. Unless you buy a $20 pass, you must use your daily fuel to play campaign mode. They don’t offer the same amount of rewards as online co-op, so the only reason is to play for the story and a few story-based challenges. Not only is your limited fuel needed, but also your limited cash flow. It takes 200K or more to unlock future story missions, and currently with only getting 20K at best with a mercenary contract doubling your cash, it is a long grind when finances are needed for planes and parts.

Most games I’ve reviewed tend to have music at the extremes, meaning love it or hate it. Infinity doesn’t have that one song that will stand out a la Duel of Fates, but instead strikes a balance of complimenting each other. Never did I want to turn off the music to play something else. Nothing had me wanting to sign-up for flight school either, like Ace Combat 5 did, but neither did I turn the volume down.

Graphically the game makes use of the PS3 hardware and looks like a PS3 game. The planes look slick, and the backgrounds from afar look realistic. The clouds really do look like clouds, and the billows of smoke cut a stunning scene before a bomber is about to explode and drop out of the sky. Getting paint scrappingly close to the ground or buildings will disappoint those who hold graphics in the highest regard as there is some pixilation but to be fair this is a game where your eyes should be more focused on the target than the scenery.

The transition from a standard game to free-to-play was a risky move for the series but it paid off. It is a fun, challenging game that veterans of the series and rookies can enjoy. The fact that it is free means the consumer has nothing to lose for trying it out, especially if never having played an Ace Combat game before. It is a sequel that does the franchise proud.

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Lemmings Touch Play Station Game Review

One of the most beloved puzzlers of the PSOne era, Lemmings has now been reborn as Lemmings Touch, a touch-screen friendly iteration of the game newly inspired by aspects of contemporary mobile gaming. It’s a new beginning for the dormant franchise which, while encapsulating the charm and challenge of the original, is also mildly hamstrung by occasionally frustrating and clumsy controls. With the titular rodents marching listlessly in one direction, Lemmings puzzle-solving conundrums have always been about knowing which job to assign to which Lemming and where in order to ensure they all reach the end of the level safe and sound.

Lemmings Touch is certainly no different in this regard and from the outset, developer d3t has supplied a set of tutorial levels which do a decent job of familiarising the player with all the various Lemming functions. And what functions the Lemmings have. The little green-haired suicide artists are able to dig a diagonal path through anything, act as a barrier to change the direction of the march, build staircases, climb any obstacle, use an umbrella to float down to safety and much more besides. With such a varied skill-set at the player's disposal, each level has been designed in such a way that it either requires a subset of these skills to be employed or all of them in tandem. Pleasingly, there is often more than one way to complete each level, since the varied number of Lemmings and their jobs provided often allow for multiple paths to the exit.

Where this touchscreen edition of the game differs from its 32-bit ancestor, however, is in the inclusion of obstacles such as platforms and blocks which sometimes appear in a given level.  Here, players have to concern themselves with not only the self-murderous activities of the Lemmings themselves, but also the manipulation of these obstacles to create bridges and so forth to ensure their survival. Elsewhere, an additional wrinkle to the classic Lemmings formula emerges in the form of the red-haired, doppelganger Lemmings. These cheeky scarlet coloured fiends act just like their regular brethren with one major difference: if just one of them reaches the exit, the jig is up and the level has to be restarted. Their presence effectively turns the whole core of Lemmings on its head; though the game typically educates you to preserve life, here you are required to extinguish it instead. It’s a welcome addition to the proceedings for sure, and, when combined with the traditional Lemmings formula, helps to make Lemmings Touch feel fresher than it otherwise would have.

Ultimately, success in Lemmings Touch all comes down to how many of the little critters you can get to the exit and how quickly you're able to do it.  Depending on your performance against the two aforementioned metrics, you'll be granted up to three stars and it is here that developer d3t has visibly embraced the tenets of mobile game design. In a similar fashion to the progression systems seen in mobile titles such as Angry Birds, the next level can be unlocked by just scoring a single star on the current one.  Additionally, players can revisit earlier levels and replay them in the hopes of scoring that elusive and perfect three-star rating.  It's a well-judged and effective system as it allows less-skilled players to see more of the game’s over 100 levels while enabling higher skilled Lemming generals the opportunity to perfect their performances and obtain the trophies for doing so. 

As well as sheer satisfaction proving to be its own reward, completing each level also brings with it the more superficial prize of gold coins.  Once accrued, these coins can then be used to purchase new outfits and new colours for the marching rodents.  The amount of coins that you receive varies too, since there is a wide range of challenges which award different amounts.  These include such things as building a bridge over the exit, using a Lemming to self-explode to stop a red-haired Lemming and more.

Where Lemmings Touch stumbles a tad is in the controls.  The touch controls can sometimes feel unresponsive and it’s an issue which is most notable when the skill wheel is open and you’re trying to assign a skill to designated Lemming. The sluggishness also rears its ugly head from time to time if you’re trying to cancel the skill wheel altogether. It is an issue which is made worse in the later levels where every Lemming counts and multiple skills need to be assigned to multiple Lemmings in a short space of time.  Thankfully though, such clumsiness is partially mitigated by the pause function, permitting players to stop time in order to plan their next move.  While it isn’t the ideal solution to the problem, its presence is welcome nonetheless.

In terms of audiovisual presentation, Lemmings Touch duly impresses. With its sharp, colourful visuals and upbeat remixes of classical music, Lemmings Touch for the PlayStation Vita does justice to the charming aesthetics of the Psygnosis-developed original. The background visuals look especially eye-popping on Vita too, with a great deal of backdrops liberally drenched in a variety of hues and vivid styles. In truth, Lemmings Touch’s design DNA is such that it would find a comfortable home on just about any touchscreen-based mobile platform.  With such razor-sharp visuals and a larger interface though, it’s clear that the Vita version of the touchscreen based edition is the definitive one. Lemmings Touch is a solid puzzler and a worthy homage to a classic puzzler franchise. It just finds itself stuck sometimes due to occasional control-based frustrations which threaten to dampen the proceedings.

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