Wii Review: Wario Ware: Smooth Moves

By now it's become almost some sort of unwritten law that when you develop a game for a Nintendo system, it has to feature mini-games as well. Nintendo's newest Wii effort harks back to a mini-game series it created on the Game Boy Advance. While the Wario Ware name is nothing new, the innovations Nintendo continues to inject into the series still makes it one of the most appealing and freshest franchises on the market.

Of course with Wario Ware: Smooth Moves being on the Wii, the mass of mini-games thrown at players will utilize the Wii Remote in a crazy number of fashions. While one could say the choice of control is the only asset that sets Smooth Moves apart from its predecessors, the motion control really does add that extra layer of game play which prevents the game from being a mere "been there, done that" affair.

The premise of the game hasn't changed one iota since the original released almost four years ago: Players work their way through a number of levels, each designated by a character in the Wario Ware universe. The levels are filled with nothing but a string of mini-game in which players can only fail four mini-games. Each stage only takes a few seconds to complete but as the stage progresses the mini-games speed up and lead to a more-involving boss stage.

While in initial execution, the stages will only take a couple of minutes to work through, completing them will unlock more stages as well as a number of extra features, galleries, extended mini-games and multiplayer modes. After completion, players can also return to the stages and work through them endlessly in order to obtain personal high scores. So while gamers will rip the plastic off Wario Ware and start off with barebones options, through single-player dedication, eventually a bevy of options will be selectable.

Unfortunately, that marked a glaring weakness for me as Wario Ware: Smooth Moves does not come with multiplayer out of the box. Furthermore, the multiplayer modes won't even surface as selectable options until someone completes the single-player mode's storyline (which will round out at about two to three hours unless one is sidetracked by some of the unlockable options).

Being able to fly through the game in a couple of hours isn't the most appealing of features for those who aren't completists or willing to replay levels endlessly. However, Smooth Moves executes very well on the Wii – the game really shows off the capabilities of the remote, can be picked up and played by virtually anyone and has a multitude of options that can occupy players for either a few minutes or hours at a time. It, in essence, is one of the titles that exemplify the "everyone" philosophy the Wii was created behind.

Smooth Moves brings a variety of art styles to the table all of which are visually appealing and lend to the series' wacky off-the-wall charm. While the menus and cut scenes feature a vivid, crisp paper animation-type style, the mini-games are appropriately themed with some featuring mere lines and white backgrounds, some are more meticulous featuring full environments and characters and others are exact copies of Nintendo titles (my personal favorite theme). With so much going on in such a short time span, the game is always visually stimulating and stays true to random nature of the series.

The audio of Smooth Moves is just as random; yet, it is appropriate to each situation. The music drives the action along in the background, most of which is quite strange, and speeds up along with the progressing levels. As a bonus, the music and sound in each of the retro Nintendo stages is true to the original game, including titles such as Star Fox, Punch Out!!, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Animal Crossing and much more.

Players should be thankful all of the control schemes in Smooth Moves are explained in "inspirational" segments, which, much like the rest of the game, are quite humorous. The demanding mini-games are each proceeded with a picture of the control schematic that will be utilized in the next mini-game, giving them a few seconds to position the controller in the appropriate fashion. For the most part, the motion sensing controls are spot on, reacting appropriately whether the player is sweeping the controller back and forth, pretending they are unsheathing a sword or even putting the controller on top of their head and squatting.

The game comes with a few potential frustrations, though, stemming from the motion control and the random nature of the game. The games each appear with a very brief description of what to do and with such a short time to react, there tends to be a small handful of mini-games in each Wario Ware where a player just doesn't understand what to do. Also, there are occasions while pointing at the screen where the controller doesn't register on the screen and sometimes the motion controls up and down do not register.

All in all, though, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves is an impressive addition to the Nintendo Wii's quality lineup of casual games. While the single-player mode is hardly deep in any sense of the word, it is a game of potentially infinite replayability due to its random nature and the multiplayer, which spans more than five different game modes, is staple party game material. Just as Wario Ware: Touched served on the basis of showing off the unique system capabilities of the DS, Smooth Moves slides in to show players the multitude of ways the Wii Remote can be used.

Smooth Moves definitely serves as the Wii's greatest title so far for 2007 and fits nicely in Nintendo's releases of mini-game games for the Wii. Wario steps up and fills a gap in the Wii’s launch list, which finally picks up again in the middle of the month. With all there is to do in Smooth Moves, there's no doubt the title will keep players occupied until the next batch of releases for the Wii.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5

PS2 Review: Lumines Plus

Squares have never been seen the same way since Lumines hit the puzzle scene at the launch of Sony's PSP, and while it's surprising it took so long, the musical match up title finally hits the Playstation 2.

Lumines Plus for the PS2 changes only a sliver of the original Lumines release's content in 2005, but thankfully for Buena Vista (now Disney Interactive), the old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" comes into fruition. With an injection of extra skins from Lumines II, Lumines Plus plays 99 percent identical to the original iteration - and that's initially a good thing, especially for gamers giving the series a first go, but not quite as much for those who already played the original to death.

While dropping squares of two colors down to form same-colored squares doesn't sound too appealing off the bat, leave it to the creator of Rez to work in the aesthetics that really drive a player's sense of sight and sound. When four identically colored pieces form a square, they do not disappear from play until a line panning from left to right sweeps over the piece with a speed reflected by the tempo of the music in any given skin (level).

Players clear each skin by activating blocks and combos to keep the music from looping, and once the track plays all the way through, game play transfers to the next skin. As with all puzzle games, getting through the songs and to the later songs requires skill and planning.

While waiting for the line to clear pieces from play, players can add even more pieces of the same color either on top or to the side to create combos for even more points. Special pieces with a blue jewel in the middle can be activated in a square and will also clear away every single piece of the same color that is connected either horizontally or vertically.

The most obvious piece of news to point out is Lumines Plus is not a sequel, off spin or new entry for the series - don't expect anything more than a special edition of the original Lumines. Aside from the addition of "Plus" on the title screen and nine extra skins from the portable sequel, the endless, versus, time attack and mission modes are exactly the same as the PSP version.

The game's skins not only feature a unique song to every stage of a player's progress but also a backdrop that represents the nature of tune, much like a rhythm game would. While the menus still feature the plain, bland silver background and staring at blocks isn't often too visually appealing, starting the game is the green light that puts the game's presentation into fruition.

Not only is each of the levels' backgrounds bright and "in your face," many of them feature busy streams of animations that just want to draw the eye away from the action. Truly, no two skins are the same and they really represent the charm of the game and along with the game's infectious music tracks (well, most of them at least), are the sole contributors of what makes the game's presentation so great.

As a port of PSP game, however, Plus receives no real visual boost and due to the adjusted screen ratio, the console version seems to move differently than the portable version. The game's constant action, moving backgrounds and flashing tends to block out these nuances, but it's sad to see no extra punch was delivered to take advantage of the hardware and the much larger television sets players will be seeing Lumines Plus on.

Lumines Plus, of course, also carries over the interactivity of the music tracks with actions such as moving pieces left or right, speeding them downward and placing them having different audio effects that compliment the current song being played. Much like Rez, the music tracks in tandem with effects based on the player's actions creates a hypnotic beam that moves Lumines from "just a game" to an "experience for the senses."

When the PSP launched, in my mind, Lumines was the only game I wanted to play on the system and for good reason - it's game play is simple, solid and addictive. Once a player presses the X button to enter an endless mode, it's likely they will be glued to the screen for a good hour and that's just for one game. With all of the unlockable skins, avatars and more, players are rewarded with dedication to the game in every single game mode.

Unfortunately for Lumines Plus, the title's biggest crutch is that it is basically a game that is aging toward the two-year-old mark. Many gamers have already experienced this title and it's unlikely a handful of extra skins will keep them absorbed into Lumines Plus as long as the original if they choose to put money down on the title once again. Owners of a PSP should be more tempted to snag a copy of Lumines II for its expansive set of new features and skins for only $10 more.

Not to say Lumines Plus isn't a blast to play, especially in the comfort of one's own home with a television and blazing sound system, but we've seen this package before. To its benefit, though, the versus mode is a lot more accessible now that two copies of the game and systems aren't necessary. As far as benefits go, however, home comfort and accessibility are the only clear advantages for Plus over the PSP versions.

For Playstation 2 owners, Lumines Plus will definitely feed the need for any puzzle fanatic looking to get even more mileage out of the system. The original Lumines returns in all of its glory for a mere $20 and won't disappoint fans of the series as well as players who never experienced the game the first time. While the game play never gets old, Plus falls flat just a little faster than any other game in the series and the lack of healthy, new material is a real sore spot on what could have been a exceptionally magical debut for the series on Sony's home system.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 3 of 5

PSP Review: Kurulin Fusion

It seems I’ve been assaulted with puzzle games to finish out the decade, but you’ll hear no complaints from me. Instead of trogging through multi-hour RPGs or generic movie-based titles, the puzzle genre just lets me sit down, relax, and have fun, which, given the hectic holidays, is like a vacation for me. The latest puzzle effort to pass by me is Kurulin Fusion, a downloadable-only title available now on the Playstation Network for a mere $4.99. Featuring classic-inspired puzzle gameplay fueled by compositions from Nobuo Uematsu, Kurulin Fusion refreshingly gives us a straight puzzle game, eschewing the current norm of relying on a sub-genre such as RPG or music. While the end result will feel all too familiar and maybe even a little “borrowed,” Kurulin Fusion gives players an amazing value with solid and addicting puzzle gameplay and a healthy supply of game modes.

Kurulin Fusion doesn’t mess around and pretend it is something other than a puzzle game, so there is no story involved with the title. Perhaps you could script your own story that leads to a multiplayer grudge match using the game’s local battle function, but given the fact Kurulin Fusion doesn’t feature its own story, this portion of the review is based solely on its mode offerings. Right out of the gate, players will have access to an “endless” arcade mode, a time attack mode, a mission mode and local multiplayer. Each mode gives players a variation on the gameplay and each style of endless and time attack featuring its own high score table for players to challenge their best scores. While those two modes are based on score, the mission mode puts forth a variety of challenges, tasking players to form combos, chains and more in order to clear the challenge and progress through tiers of tasks. There are 30 tasks in all and players will be treated to an unlockable if they can tackle each one. Finally, of course, what puzzle game would be complete without a multiplayer mode? The title allows a player to go head-to-head with another player in local gameplay that allows players to flex their puzzle muscle against another human.

While there is a great scope of modes in this title, these are all but expected from a puzzle game anymore and nothing goes above and beyond to offer a fresh, new experience. The core gameplay doesn’t change from mode to mode and each mode merely alters the conditions of when the player stops playing the game. In the end, though, everything is certainly serviceable here and there is a mix of modes to allow players to pick up the game for a couple of minutes or stick with it for a couple of hours if they want to – a great formula present in well-made portable titles. You’ll find everything you’d expect to see in a puzzle game here, but don’t expect to see anything more.

It doesn’t take a lot to describe how one plays Kurulin Fusion. The game revolves around the use of orbs and power pieces, very much akin to the setup of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo – players set different colored orbs onto the playfield and they are cleared by matching a fusion block of the same color either horizontally or vertically. The title also features other puzzler conventions such as being able to store one piece at a time to switch into the gameplay later when you really need it. The one extension Kurulin Fusion adds to the formula, though, is in the ability to join fusion blocks together (if that wasn’t made obvious by the name). Normally in similar puzzle games, when a player joins two power pieces together, they are removed from the playfield, however, in Kurulin Fusion, this fuses the pieces together. Players can fuse these pieces up to a three by three block before using them to remove orbs from the playfield. Each piece fused adds to your combo multiplier and if players clear a three by three fusion, every orb of that color is removed from the playfield. While the change seems simple on the surface, it does change the dynamic of the game and utilizing these fusions is the key to scoring high in Kurulin Fusion.

It can be a bit annoying at times that the game doesn’t allow players to link fusions beyond three spaces, but it’s a bump that players will quickly get over and learning exactly how the pieces fuse is part of learning the game. The only other nuance I had with the gameplay is amid some of the challenges, players will be pressed for time, and while the animations of the pieces clearing (the orbs get sucked into the power piece in a rotation) is pretty neat, it takes a bit too long to clear the pieces from the field, meaning chains can eat up a sizable amount of your time. These are aspects that can be generally overlooked, though, as they are a handful of minor issues in an otherwise solid puzzler.

Seeing as the title feels familiar to a number of other puzzle titles, most players should be able to jump straight into the title with minimal effort. The d-pad handles all of the piece movement and a simple press of a button rotates the double puzzle piece sets and all of this handles just as well in Kurulin Fusion as it would in most other great puzzle titles. With this simplicity and its price tag, the title should garner a lot of appeal from a number of different people and, as such, Kurulin Fusion carries a great sense of game balancing. The arcade mode starts off simple at level one, with only a few different colors to manage, but, as players progress, more colors are thrown into the mix to challenge you puzzle management skills. Players can choose to start at varying levels of the arcade mode, which lets players of any skill to jump straight into the game. Time attack mode has a variety of settings and the mission mode challenges start off insultingly easy and appropriately progress to more challenging tasks with each tier. Considering the title should appeal to many gamers looking for a great puzzle title on the go, Kurulin Fusion does offer something for everyone. When you further consider the nearly infinite replayability and addicting nature of the genre, which does carry over into Kurulin Fusion, what you get with the title is a great deal.


Outside of the main gameplay, Kurulin Fusion also stands tall on its presentation. The graphics are similar to what you might find in a title such as Lumines or Geometry Wars – the graphics are basic, but they’re filled with eye-catching bright lighting and illuminated colors. A number of animations also accompany the title in the background, so the screen is kept fairly busy even though players are viewing what are essentially basic shapes. The menus are fairly simple, but everything is clean and easy to navigate. When you boil it down, the visuals are minimal, but in that sense, being a puzzle game, sometimes less is better and in Kurulin Fusion, the visuals are a perfect fit. Along with your conventional puzzle game sound effects of rotating and clearing pieces, Kurulin Fusion has the hook of featuring a soundtrack composed by Nobuo Uematsu, most widely known for his audible contributions to the Final Fantasy series. For the title’s soundtrack, Uematsu has revisioned a handful of tracks from classical composer Bach and the results mix well with the game. Unlike music-based puzzlers, Kurulin Fusion’s gameplay doesn’t hinge on these tracks at all, but they are very well produced and feature enough variety to keep them interesting as players tackle the game multiple times.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5

As a straight puzzle game, Kurulin Fusion isn’t confused about what it wants to be. While it borrows a number of puzzle elements from other titles, the few revisions made to the formula add a little bit of depth and uniqueness while still maintaining the replayability and addictive nature of the puzzle genre. The musical styling of Nobuo Uematsu is a nice touch, and the spread of game modes will give players a lot to work with whether they are relaxing at home or playing in quick bursts on the go. If the $5 price tag doesn’t entice you, then it’s clear you just aren’t into puzzle games.

DS Review: Lunar Knights

Lunar Knights marks Konami's interesting new foray into the Boktai series, which is now appearing for the first time on the Nintendo DS. While gamers have always seemed to have mixed opinions on the series that "forced" people to play under the sun, what happens when you take the sun away from the game's universe?

Straying away from once again using the infamous sunlight sensor, Lunar Knights launches players into a world where vampires have succeeded in placing the world under perpetual darkness. While this might seem like a bad thing at first, it initially puts players in the shoes of Lucian, a seriously pissed off sword-toting vampire hunter whose inhuman powers derive from absorbing the light of the moon.

Following strings of leads, Lucian tackles one of the head vampires, which puts a hole in the blanket of darkness engulfing the planet. Finally, with a shred of sunlight now hitting earth, the game's second character, Aaron, armed with what seems to be a useless solar gun, realizes his potential and sets off with Lucian to rid the world of the evil vampires.

While players initially control only Lucian or Aaron through the story's introductions, when the two heroes meet, they can be switched on the fly with a press of the select button. This element becomes crucial to progression in the game as with the light sensor gone from the Boktai cartridges, Lunar Knights uses an in game day and night cycle.

To further stress strategies, the top screen of the DS not only indicates what time of the day it is, but also the current weather conditions. Cloudy conditions will obviously block the sun or moon and traveling indoors will also hinder access to whichever light is currently available. If characters have no access to light, they will have to depend on restoration items players pick up through the course of the game - thankfully, they are plentiful.

While the changes mix Lunar Knights up in a good way, the core mechanics of the game stay the same. Each area has a denizen of baddies to hack and shoot through and as the kills tally up, so does a character's experience. By leveling up, the game will throw stat points your way to distribute in areas that raise the attack, life and magical levels of that character. All of this culminates in a very satisfying dungeon crawling romp that plays very reminiscent of what Castlevania would play like in an isometric view.

The title is a mixed bag graphically, showing an obvious strength in anime-style portraits and FMV sequences glowing beautifully from its screen. During game play, however, Lunar Knights doesn't seem up to par with many other titles on the Nintendo DS. While everything pops off the screen in vivid colors, many items in the environments, and, most notably in the characters, lack detail. In essence, Lunar Knights looks very similar in appearance to its Game Boy Advance predecessors, only touched up a bit.

To push the hardware a little more, however, Lunar Knights replaces the need to backtrack the carcass of a vanquished vampire boss through an entire Boktai level and implements 3-D rail shooting segments. A vampire's body is this time cargo in Lucian's spaceship, which is now taken to a space satellite that destroys a vampire in a beam of light. The space shooting scenes show much more of the title's graphical muscle and the shift to three-dimensional graphics puts some much-needed punch to detail.

Most of the sound effects in the title sound like they could have been ripped straight from a GBA version of the series, but Konami really stepped up to provide Lunar Knights with a memorable score. The music definitely sets the mood for each encounter and the soundtrack overall really nips on the heels of the quality set by Konami's Castlevania titles for the Nintendo DS. Small snippets of voice work are sprinkled here and there to liven up the game's dialogue and, along with the music, brighten up the title's average sound effect work.

Thanks to the step up on hardware, Lunar Knights provides much more action and less stealth and thinking than its previous editions. The beefier action is very enjoyable thanks to a fluid control scheme that makes use of the touch screen to cycle between various elemental familiars accumulated through the adventure or activate a extremely powerful (almost too powerful) character transformation. While targeting with Aaron's solar gun can be finicky at times, hacking away with Lucian's sword and using the DS microphone to distract enemies couldn't be any easier.

The biggest factor that distances Lunar Knights from the enjoyment of Boktai is the decision to drop the solar sensor. While the sensor made its bid as the true innovation of the series, it dictated when and where people could play the game, making it not only more of a chore to play but a real turn off to some gamers.

Konami, however, implemented a very suitable and more appealing alternative to the matter and not only does it make the game more playable, but it also brings a wealth of strategy and character management to the table. For those who don't want to give up playing in the sun, though, those who have a Boktai or Boktai 2 cartridge can utilize a double slot feature between the DS and GBA slots and use the sun sensor to further strengthen characters.

For Lunar Knights, Konami takes a very interesting concept (although the clichéd storyline reads like a Castlevania subplot) and by ditching a gimmick creates one of the better adventure titles released so far this year. The title is full of action and the nature of the game's two playable characters and customization allows for surprisingly deep game play. Despite its presentation blemishes, Lunar Knights freshens up a unique concept and successfully transitions an underrated series onto a new platform.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5

GameCube Review: Super Monkey Ball Adventure

Monkeys. Balls. Oh, the countless jokes I could make about the game’s title - Super Monkey Ball Adventure. Unfortunately for gamers, the real joke is this game’s tedious, fetch-questing adventure aspect.

Super Monkey Ball has always been known for its simple but frantic single player puzzle mode and its addictive and highly competitive multiplayer modes. While both of those elements are still present in Super Monkey Ball Adventure, they are hacked down in number and take a complete backseat to the chore that is the story mode.

In order to flesh out the puzzle mode, developer Traveler’s Tale added a full-fledged overworld environment to the game’s story mode. Things begin innocent enough with the Monkey Ball crew barbecuing bananas on the hottest day of the year. But when a mysterious “mechanical bird” flies overhead and crashes into the local lighthouse, the situation turns ugly when the monkey heroes not only have to investigate the crash but also find out why the joy of Monarch is missing.

With all of the monkeys’ joy gone, everyone on Jungle Island has a sudden dilemma and players will later discover the same has happened throughout the monkey world. For the most part, it ends up that almost all the monkeys are now missing something and it’s up to you to fetch it for them. While the idea seems good on paper, the big 3-D worlds just add an annoyance factor with extremely frustrating and mundane tasks.

The worlds' layouts consist of areas that are either completely flat or inclined and fail to capture the essence of speed or precision that the games before brought to the table. While some areas are easy to access, extremely awkward camera angles, poor collision, and a pretty much useless map will lead to a lot of frustration as players attempt to navigate the remainder of each world.

When a player does reach someone in need, missions sometimes just add up to trial and error and require a lot of exploration. While there are some enjoyable missions such as ones that require stealth and running down monkeys, they are mixed in with a huge number of missions that are nothing more than “collect this” and “find this.”

Players are also not able to take multiple missions and if you should fall off the map and fail the mission, your monkey comes back in a seemingly random location with the mission deactivated. You then have to track down the monkey in need once again and start the mission completely over. After failing a mission multiple times, the repeated process becomes quite annoying.

The frequent disc access will also have players banging their head against the wall. Every world is made of multiple sections, which require loading when going back and forth. Accidentally entering another section during a mission will cancel the mission and players will have to start from scratch no matter how far they are into the task.

On a good note, however, the large worlds will keep curious players rolling around for quite a long time. The landscapes are riddled with bananas that, when enough are collected, will help players accomplish a few more missions and — more importantly — purchase extras that will increase the number of features in multiplayer.

Over the course of play in story mode, some neat power-ups become available to the player. Incorporated into the game as chants players learn to string together, the monkeys can customize their ride with power-ups. While some simply transport players to a different location in the world, others deck your ball out with a spring-loaded boxing glove, suction cups, invisibility, growth, and more. Of course, the power-ups are the key to solving much of the later missions in the game.

The puzzle and multiplayer modes still remain in the game with more than 50 new puzzles, which are also encountered periodically throughout story mode to unlock certain doors.

Puzzle mode is basically the original single player modes from the first two Monkey Balls in which players make a mad dash for the exit for maximum points. The multiplayer modes are cut in half with three new additions – cannon, bounce and tag. While it brings new games to the table, the only one I personally found any fun was the addicting Monkey Cannon, which has you shooting down other players’ castles by using your monkey ball as a cannon ball.

Graphically, Super Monkey Ball Adventure loses its flair over the previous titles through the story mode’s generic looking environments. Instead of the bright, zany graphics of the puzzle mode, players are given areas that seem like they were pulled out of Sonic Adventure with frame rates that sometimes aren’t consistent with the action.

All the sound in the game is recycled from previous versions, including the ever-annoying monkey talk. The story mode is filled to the brim with these sound bytes and will drive anyone older than 10 completely insane. Pound for pound, every sound byte in the game is 100 percent from other versions of the game. You get nothing original, but, just as in the previous versions, what you’re given does its job.

The game controls just as well as the previous versions, but the game is chock full of horrid camera angles that will cause many bad situations for your monkey. Although there is some questionable physics with the inclines, your ball will do everything you command it to do.

Overall, Super Monkey Ball Adventure is an excellent idea that falls victim to poor execution. While the game is very playable, the story mode will try many gamers’ patience and the cutback in everything that made the game a success in the first place is lost among the expansive fetch-driven single player mode. Players will most likely spend most of their time in the puzzle and multiplayer modes for a quick fix of monkey action.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 2 of 5

DS Review: Mario Hoops 3-on-3

Mario and crew lace up their sports shoes once again, this time taking it to the basketball courts in Mario Hoops 3-on-3 for the Nintendo DS. The game teeters on the rim with its mix of pros and cons, but in the long run Mario Hoops shoots and scores

The Mushroom Kingdom cast originally balled with the NBA pros in NBA Street Vol. 3 (and I guess technically also with mini-games in the Mario Party series) but now the ball is in Mario's court and the game of basketball is given the full Nintendo treatment.

The game is actually developed by Square-Enix, and adds even more flavor to the superb presentation of the game with classic Final Fantasy characters and settings.

If the title of the game wasn't a clear indication, players will man teams of three and hit the court in exhibition, multiplayer or tournament modes. Hoops also offers up several practice lessons to help players learn the game as well as a training mode and mini-games.

Players will notice as soon they start the game that Mario Hoops is one of the most vibrant and visually polished games yet to be released on the system. Very few games on the system have yet to the match graphical shine, superb sound and overall style that 3-on-3 brings to the table. The menus are easy to navigate and are full of great visuals... and of course there's that uber-catchy theme song.

Even in the midst of game play, the graphics are second-to-none for the Nintendo DS hardware. The characters have full detail and still look good when in animation and all of the explosions and items look just as nice. While the environments aren't distracting during play, taking a look at the surroundings still reveals great detail and notables such as the 8-bit advertisement boards, ghosts and Podobos (yes, those fireballs have a name).

While the music during play isn't as dominant as it is in the menus, it serves as an appropriate backdrop to the theme of the current court you're on. Add in all the crazy voice-overs and sound effects you'd expect from a Mario sports title and presentation-wise, Hoops is right on par with the style from even the Gamecube's sports titles.

Unfortunately for Hoops, though, while it looks and sounds like a dream, its most glaring issues are in the areas where it counts most - control and game play.

The main hook of the game is the one-of-a-kind control scheme which allows players to tear up the court with stylish dribbling and on-the-fly passing and shooting all by using the touch screen. Taps and strokes of the lower screen will perform not only passes, shots and steals but also pin-point dribbling, item use, sidesteps and flashy special shots.

While the schematics sound good in theory, ultimately, the commands just end up feeling gimmicky and sloppy in execution as there were many times where my stroke or tap of stylus yielded results much different than my intention. Even a couple of the simple tasks presented in the practice lessons became an exercise in patience - especially in tasks that required jumping and multiple stylus strokes.

This key element is further watered down since a "help button" option allows players to use the DS's face buttons to emulate touch screen strokes. While this saved the control and made Hoops much more playable and enjoyable for me, it defeats the purpose of which the game was designed around since I played the whole time without using the touch screen.

While Mario Hoops is basketball on the surface, the coin system used in tallying a team's score really detracts from the finesse of basketball and puts the focus of the game more on coin chasing than anything else.

Players will find a number of Hatena Blocks (you know, the Mario blocks with the question marks on them) on the court and by dribbling on top of them, coins will be added to a team's total coin count (to a max of 100). When a team scores a basket, not only is it awarded 20 or 30 points (based off of regulation basketball's 2- and 3-point scoring) but also one point for every coin in the team's tally.

When players can score 130 points in one shot, games amount more to running around tallying coins and fetching items (when a player without a ball steps on a Hatena Block, they are provided with a Mario Kart weapon) instead of concentrating on the deeper facets of basketball.

When environmental hazards such as Podobo explosions, cannonballs, ice and more are mixed in, players are constantly being slammed and the game can occasionally turn into a trial of making it past half court. While all the inclusions provide the essential Mario style, basketball takes a backseat to coin collecting and item flinging.

Thankfully in exhibition modes, the Hatena Blocks can be turned off, making the game a more traditional 2- and 3-point basketball game without turtle shells and banana peels flying all over the place. While the items do add a nice competitive element to the game, dribbling over a block a handful of times and making a quick dunk yields more results than using skill to set up a pick and netting a three.

Sticking with the game through all the modes will reward players with a number of new features including new characters, new ball designs and mini-games. Square not only developed the game but also placed a piece of the company in Hoops with unlockable characters - White Mage, Black Mage, Ninja, Moogle and Cactar. While there is a ton to unlock, the process starts slow in the tournament modes.

The first three cups will give players no problem whatsoever, with easy computer AI. The problem is that same AI is laughable - easy to the point where playing through the cup seems more like a chore than anything else. Blowing the computer away in 1,000+ to nothing shutouts is only fun after the first time and it takes some time before the matches seem worthwhile with challenging AI.

However, it seems computer-controlled teammates never increase their AI. Your teammates mostly choose to run around on your flank and provide little assistance in your efforts unless you pass them the ball and control them yourself. While they do a decent job of keeping open for passes and stick decent man-to-man defense on opponents, they do not chase loose balls, converge under the basket for rebounds or even run to the paint so you can hit the post.

While there are some nagging issues with Hoops, it still maintains the fun of the Mario sports series, although to a slightly lesser degree. While the lack of Wi-Fi play is a disappointment, the multi-card and download play has a lot of playability, especially in the addicting Coin Hunter mode - basically a Mario Kart battle mode minus the karts.

Mario Hoops 3-on-3 adds the Mushroom Kingdom charm (although it adds almost a little too much) to the classic game of basketball in a title that stands as one of the most technically impressive and appealing titles on the Nintendo DS. While the remixed basketball game play might turn a few people away, those who give it a shot will find a fun twist on the sport with a huge number of accomplishments to tackle.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 3 of 5

NES Review: TMNT Tournament Fighters

Regardless of their quality, Konami had three extremely popular Ninja Turtles games for the NES under its belt and when the Street Fighter craze swept the world, the company had no better license to slap onto a fighter than the heroes in a half shell. While this meant the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis received yet another obligatory fighter in its pile, surprisingly, NES owners were treated to one of the very few one-on-one titles ever officially released for the system.

The menus are very clean and the up-close character portraits are very detailed, but in-game, the characters resemble the small models seen in previous NES entries, making the large character Hothead seem much more detailed than the others. Regardless of detail, however, the bigger distraction is the massive flickering occurs during every second of the match. While players learn to ignore it, it is by far the biggest nuisance of the entire game. If the character models and animation could have measured up to the rest of the game, Tournament Fighters would be a perfect graphical concoction. Thankfully, excellent music and “voice effects” are present to flesh out an overall superb presentation.

Although the control is mapped to only two buttons, the fighters have a lot of versatility during matches, with a number of punches, kicks, running attacks, special moves, throws and even a super projectile that can be executed after picking up an item. While the turtles mostly play the same, all of the characters differ slightly in some way so players should be able to find a favorite among the seven playable fighters. The real joy of playing the game is in multiplayer since the CPU fights pathetically unless pumped up to the hard difficulty. With a total of four players alternating the controllers, the game’s tournament mode alone can produce hours of intense play and rounds out the surprisingly robust option set the game offers.

Overall, when it comes to the NES, Tournament Fighters may surpass what gamers expect from an 8-bit fighter. While the single-player mode lacks depth and flicker runs rampant, the title will certainly entertain those who can look past the flaws. Collectors should take special note of the title as for a number of reasons: Releasing in 1993, it was Konami’s final NES offering in the U.S.; Tournament is the final game series based on the original 1987 animation; it is the only game in the TMNT universe where the turtles do not use their trademark weapons; complete copies feature the NES variant cover of Leonardo fighting Hothead. As such, values on the cart are climbing insanely fast with a recent eBay auction netting nearly $140 for the complete package.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 3 of 5

Lost Capsule Reviews

The following is a couple of capsule reviews I did for a source that were killed before publication. They aren't very long, but, hey, it's better they finally see the light of day instead of being buried forever.

Title: SNK Arcade Collection Vol. 1
System: Playstation 2
Developer: SNK-Playmore
Publisher: SNK-Playmore

SNK’s first multi-IP collection hits the PS2 with a bang, offering up a number of titles from multiple genres that will keep any MVS diehard happy. The span and quality of the titles is more than worth the money and there is plenty for one or two players to enjoy. With 16 total games and a lot of challenges to tackle for unlockables, this collection without a doubt tops all of the company’s previous retro offerings and will provide hours of game play for less than $20. While there are a few odd choices in the lot and the genres lean heavily toward fighting, Vol. 1 leaves us looking forward to Vol. 2.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5

R-Type Command
System: Sony PSP
Developer: Irem
Publisher: Atlus

Switching up the genre of the classic shooter hasn’t put it down in the least, as Command offers up a great futuristic tactics game on the go. Progression is nicely handled as players have a ton of options with building ships, managing pilots and positioning fleets and even have the option to replay earlier levels with more powerful fleets to unlock items missed before. While the game’s presentation is great, the disc access on the PSP really kills the game flow if all of the cinematics are toggled. However, with one or two players, Command is sure to please strategy fans.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5

PSP Review: Creature Defense

I enjoy a nice tower defense game every once in a while, but with access to the Internet, at the same time, it’s kind of spoiled me in regard to the genre. When you jump on the Internet, you can find a massive number of free tower defense games just waiting for someone to give them a tender click of the mouse. So whenever a tower defense game would land on a console or handheld, a price of $20 or more would usually equate to sticker shock. Fortunately, Hudson Entertainment looked to do something a little different with the genre by mixing the tower defense genre with a card management scheme and for the first time, I paid attention to a handheld tower defense game. By tossing in a fantasy element akin to what people might see in Magic: The Gathering, Creature Defense creates a unique identity for itself, but fans of tower defense games will be pleased to know the title didn’t mess around with what makes the genre fun.

As far as I could tell, there is no official story for Creature Defense, which given the rich fantasy tone of the title is a slight disappointment, but, then again, I could easily rattle off a good handful of great tower defense games that also have no rhyme or reason. Regardless, it is always kind of nice to know why waves of baddies are attacking your tower (which, conveniently in most these titles you never even get to see) and why the player can summon defense creatures – it isn’t necessary, but it certainly would have enriched the experience. As such, most of this review’s attention will be placed on the title’s modes of play and variety.

There are no real discernible game modes, per say, instead, the title features a single mode that thrusts players onto an overhead parchment map that features all available environments as well as the game’s shop. Each environment obviously places players into new territories and how the enemies attempt to storm your tower, however, each environment also comes packed with multiple phases (differing the order and frequency of the monster types that spawn in each wave) and an eventual time attack mode. Players do also have access to deck editors, help menus and more, but as a whole, there is only one game mode in the entire game, which, if you’re picking up a tower defense game, though, you’re probably expecting nothing more than the straight-forward strategy provided in Creature Defense. Even though there is a lack of variety, the title does provide a lot of scope in its offerings and tower defense and card management fans will find it hard to be disappointed in Creature Defense’s offerings.

While the mechanics are sound in the title, Creature Defense’s presentation isn’t necessarily strong. None of it will make the title less fun and addictive, however, it is entirely noticeable if you are paying attention to everything involved. The visuals get high marks outside of the gameplay as the menus are all very clean and well-organized and by accessing a creature’s stats, players are shown large hand-drawn fantasy artwork that will no doubt please anyone into that style. During gameplay, however, players won’t be treated to heavy details in the visuals, with muddy, pre-rendered environments, low animation and somewhat fuzzy visuals. Nothing is so bad that players won’t be able to tell what is going on and, thankfully, the monster paths are displayed very clearly, but everything else is as average as can be. The graphics do have their highlights, though, which is more than what I can say about the generic audio. While nothing is painfully bad to the ears, the game’s quiet music is easily lost in the action and Creature Defense is full of generic magic sound effects that the player will hear over and over. If there were a few more various sound effects and some more urgency to the music, everything would come across a lot better for the audio.

While a mouse is easily the most intuitive means of controlling a tower defense game, there are thankfully no real issues in navigating the terrain and placing your creatures in Creature Defense. The square button handles the zooming of the playfield, the X button allows players to place a creature and confirm selections and the triangle button toggles active creatures in order to level them up or sell them back for mana, while the shoulder buttons cycles through options to slow down or speed up the gameplay. That is simply all there is to controlling the game and the simplicity makes the format work on the handheld scene and anyone that has touched a tower defense game should feel right at home with Creature Defense.

However, there are a few mechanics that shake things up and insert even more strategy into the genre as opposed to a standard tower defense game. These obviously come in the form of the roughly 50 cards players can collect to cast creatures out into the playfield. However, the catch is players can only bring five of these creatures into each phase. When you consider that each creature has an elemental infinity and each one of these has a weakness, you’ll start to see where the strategy comes in to play. Flying enemies that can only be destroyed by items suitable to attack in the air also make their way into the title, but it goes further than this when you have to prepare fire element creatures that do heavy damage to the forest element. While players start off with a meager span of cards, by slaying a suitable number of baddies, that enemy is added to the card shop for the players to shuffle in stronger and varying creatures into their decks.

What this will mean for most players is eventually during a phase, a poor choice of cards can really haunt players as each phase consists of 50 waves and once the player settles on a deck, they have to use it for the duration of the phase. Players may get well into a phase to find out they are not prepared to battle a flying water element monster, causing them to rethink their strategy. Strategy is the key in Creature Defense because even though you might place in a creature more suitable for fighting off the flying water elements, you may end up replacing a card that is necessary for another wave in the game. As such, the title is equal parts strategy and management, and each lends itself to the game incredibly well. Dedicated players will become quickly addicted to the title and given the title’s challenging nature, the payoff is extremely rewarding for players that can tackle some of the game’s stages.

Even though players can dive through the handful of environments relatively quickly, there is a lot to go back and accomplish. Players can revisit levels after picking up stronger creatures to improve their scores or to more effectively battle powerful enemies to add them to their card store. Eventually, players will also unlock new phases with different sets of waves to challenge players and completists will want to own every single card in the game. Tower defense players looking for a more challenging outlet might be able to find it in Creature Defense as the game doesn’t really hold players’ hands at all, starting out moderately tough and amping up the difficulty from there. While this might intimidate beginner players and scratches the balance down just a little bit, the progression is easily suitable from that point, injecting branching paths and more difficult environments, monsters and waves as players move on. Again, if you’re interested in this title, though, you’re probably somewhat accustomed to the genre and a lot of it should be second nature.

With the combination of genres, Creature Defense opens up its appeal even more as it is definite sell to tower defense fans and a great suggestion to management buffs that like to tinker with customizable decks. The title is also positioned at a comfortable price of $8 on the Playstation Network that is easily worth the price of admission and will give players on the go hours of entertainment. It’s hard to put down once you get sucked in and there are a lot of extra goods to be seen, including a fan service nod to Sony’s Eye of Judgment series as the game contains three creature cards pulled from the PS3 series.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5

While the mixture of genres found in Creature Defense might not revolutionize tower defense games, it actually comes pretty close, and it becomes hard to put the game down once you get into it. Due to the nature affinities each creature has and the limitation of only being allowed five creatures at a time really piles on the strategy and challenge more than one might initially think. Creature Defense drops the ball on its presentation a little and the challenge and balance might not be too welcoming for those new to the genre, but the title doesn’t fail to provide hours of fun and it will do everything that matters to tower defense fans. The title is an easy recommendation for tower defense fans and the appeal should carry over to those that like to micromanage and when it comes to the PSP, Creature Defense is a great solution for those looking for this style of game on the Sony handheld.

Xbox 360 Review: Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot

Borderlands has received yet another DLC update to prove there truly is no rest for the wicked. After opening The Vault and foiling Dr. Ned on an island full of zombies, Xbox 360 owners got to close 2009 out with another DLC update that adds yet another memorable character to the mix in Mad Moxxi. As if the game disc itself didn’t have enough Mad Max and Thunderdome references for you, this newest addition could be considered a flat-out parody of that universe as it thrusts players into Mad Moxxi’s Underdome through a new “Riot” game mode for 800 Microsoft Points. While the Underdome isn’t as expansive as The Zombie Island, it certainly does its job in implementing some frantic action into the otherwise wide-open format of Borderlands and it adds enough to make the battles fresh and easily worth the 800 MS Points if you are a fan of the game.

As Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot is an non-standalone expansion of a retail title, I’m going to eschew the traditional review format as having nearly all of the game’s material recycled to the disc makes revisiting items such as graphics, control and the like a bit pointless. If you enjoyed these aspects in Borderlands, they are served up once again in their purest form in this expansion.

There isn’t much of a story to Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot, other than to introduce the Underdome’s ringmaster, Mad Moxxi herself. The Underdome, much like the obviously referenced Thunderdome, also fits within the conventions of items such as Smash T.V. – “contestants” are placed into a proverbial blood sport where only the strongest survive and fans look on in bloodthirsty fashion. Mad Moxxi fits into the cast of Borderlands characters extremely well and, as expected, her voice acting is top notch. While her one-liners will no doubt become a bit repetitive during gameplay, they also serve in alerting the player to some of the ongoing action and most of the quips will get a few smiles or laughs from players (at least from the first few times they hear them). A few scenes and references in the lobby will shed a little light on Moxxi’s backstory, but what the expansion is really about is in annihilating the competition and scooping up some extra loot.

As I’ve already said, the exploration and questing aspects of Borderlands and its first DLC are pitched to give players a more action-based survival mode. The game handles this in Horde and Firefight fashion (from Gears of War 2 and Halo 3 ODST respectively), placing players into a moderately-sized environment and unloading enemies in waves. As players progress, up to four random modifiers will be mixed in to trouble them with handicaps such as no shields, steadily decreasing health and strengthening enemies or making the combat more interesting by speeding up movement, reducing gravity and making certain weapon types super effective. Each combat round has five waves of varying enemies placed into groups (normal enemies, melee-only enemies, gun-wielding enemies, etc.) with the fifth introducing a boss character from the on-disc quest taking center stage. If players can survive through five waves, they are rewarded with a small loot dump at the stage’s central tower and given a quick breather before the next stage begins. On the other hand, if a player drops dead, they are thrown into a penalty box where they can attempt to shoot at enemies while their teammates try to survive the round to bring everyone back into the game – otherwise, if the entire team falls, all of the players will be unceremoniously booted back to the Underdome lobby.

The premise is simple, perhaps even unoriginal, for sure, but the sheer random nature of the modifiers and the frantic pacing of the mode makes Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot a winner. Not only will players get a survival-based mode that will occupy them for around an hour on just the simplest of environments, but they will also get a much-needed storage bank for items that can be expanded by purchasing SDUs throughout the game. If you’re serious about Borderlands, the storage bank alone might be worth the price of admission, but it’s all about the team-based gameplay and given the odds of survival against the relentless hordes, especially with the later environments throwing a rough 20 rounds (100 waves) each at you, The Underdome provides a great multiplayer mode that is ripe with action. Also, seeing as the enemies adjust to evenly match the host’s current level, players can surely be challenged and with high-end vending machines located in the lobby, this expansion is perfect for players coming in from the end of the Borderlands quest.

Unfortunately, players will see a lot of repetitiveness in the expansion, especially with the few environments being recycled back into the more advanced survival arenas, and the extra achievements aren’t exactly inspiring, but Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot does what it set out to do. The expansion is meant to be a no-frills action experience and on that front, it delivers on all levels. If you enjoyed Borderlands but feel that you didn’t get to pull the trigger as much as you wanted to, this expansion is clearly for you. The only way I could not recommend this expansion to someone is if the idea of spending multiple hours fighting off bandits, psychos and skaggs in an endless onslaught doesn’t sound fun to you, but I would imagine these players would be few and far between if they already own Borderlands. Fans of Horde or Firefight mode will know what they are getting into with this DLC add-on and for $10, players can give this new mode a spin and come away satisfied while taking a break from grinding through the main game.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5

XBLA Review: Matt Hazard: Blood, Bath & Beyond

It was hard for me to look at Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard when it released in early 2009. Vicious Cycle took a concept that I was shocked no one had come up with before – taking all of video game’s noted clichés and a faux gaming universe and throwing them into a blender – and unleashed it as a current-gen offering. See, as gamers, we really should enjoy Matt Hazard in concept and I’m sure a good portion of us still want to, but Eat Lead just didn’t offer what it takes to win gamers over: The story and level progression was a mess, the characters and AI were subpar, the presentation was average and the Gears of War-style cover shooting was woefully plain. However, what probably hurt the most was the fact the title annoyingly sank into the conventions it attempted to make fun of and most of the humor just wasn’t that funny to me. If the title made anything clear, though, it could be said the series definitely had potential if it could balance its humor and gameplay and, thankfully, Vicious Cycle has given the series another go with the new downloadable effort Blood Bath & Beyond. Painfully cheesy subtitle aside, Matt Hazard: BB&B shows the team went back to the drawing board and even though the title misses the must-buy mark, we’ve thankfully seen one step of advancement with this series.

In case Eat Lead’s game box scared you away from ever playing it, Matt Hazard is a fictional video game “legend,” who has starred in an obscene amount of gaming titles from hard-boiled action to kart racing to quiz titles throughout his career. His enemies always somehow find a way to jump between games from Hazard’s past and wreak havoc on the hero’s life and in BB&B, he comes fresh off Eat Lead to contend with General Neutronov, who has abducted his 8-bit self from the past in a plan to eradicate him during his gaming roots. The story isn’t extravagant as it pans out through static cutscenes and boxed-in text dialog, however, the title’s conventions, parodies and ability to turn the other cheek really saves the title from being the mess we were provided in Eat Lead.

Immediately from the beginning, the series lays into itself stating Eat Lead is cluttering bargain bins around the country and the resulting cutbacks in budget immediately eliminates voiceovers and cutscenes in between levels. Call it lazy if you will, but it’s refreshing to see a series poke fun of itself, especially with the fairly humorous ending sequence. Most of the story, though, is just QA and Hazard conversing about the current game they are entering at the moment and while the story is by no means amazing, there is far more humor and less convoluted twists and turns to make BB&B’s tale leaps and bounds above Eat Lead’s. The problem in Eat Lead stemmed from the game just throwing out random game titles, clichés and references without taking any effort to get players accustomed to the character and build a personal rapport with him, which is crucial since players are supposed to pretend they have been controlling the character for the past two decades. Thankfully, some of the items in BB&B actually explain some of Matt Hazard’s past exploits in better detail, While more backstory would be nice, we get to see just a bit more of this fictional past in the newest title.

Outside of the story, however, BB&B doesn’t give players a whole lot to return to. A quickplay mode allows players to tackle one stage of their choosing, a mini-game reflecting one of the segments encountered late in the game is unlocked and there is a gallery of hidden items to unlock and view, so players are really just getting more of the same in different doses. The title was smart to include a two-player mode with Hazard’s “sidekick” Dexter Dare but, unfortunately, this doesn’t extend to online play. On the front of modes, BB&B doesn’t deliver as much as it probably should have for $15, especially considering some of the other offerings at $15 or even less. Regardless, what is delivered is a no-nonsense affair – players paying for a 2D run-and-gun title will receive exactly that.

Being a man of action, Hazard harks back to the days of 2D action titles such as Contra, where players will run to the right and blast the crap out of anything that moves in traditional fashion. Hazard and Dare both have the expected arsenal of a rifle with infinite ammo and Metal Slug-style grenades, however, pickups such as shotguns, flamethrowers and rocket launchers can be picked up from defeated foes to freshen up their firepower. All of this is standard affair for the genre, but BB&B attempts to deviate just a bit by having players hold the left trigger to be able to fire into the background, effectively dividing the gameplay into two planes. Enemies will attempt to overwhelm the players by swarming in from the 2D plane of focus, the background and foreground, with enemies in the background being able to fire upon the players. Honestly, this creates some really challenging situations and freshens up some of the boss battles more than one might initially think, even though it seems strange or counterproductive for a game of this nature. Finally, as players tear up common enemies, their Hazard Bar will fill up and a full bar allows them to press Y to enter Hazard Time. The mode puts players into a balls-to-the-wall action frenzy where their character is invincible and gains spread projectiles for a short time. Finally, now you and your friend no longer have to fight over the spread power-up and, interestingly enough, the mode also spreads special weapons, giving players three-way machine guns, rocket launchers and the like to experiment with.

Outside of these additions, though, fans of the genre will know what to expect from everything else including the giant bosses, vehicle segment and tricky jumps to keep players on their toes when they aren’t slaughtering goons en masse. Thankfully, players will get a decent span of environments to burn through, with each seemingly knowing about when to shift the action from mindless shooting to navigating deadly terrain, racing a clock or solving simple bits of necessary item interaction. As players head into the space sections, the reduced gravity and Lunar Lander-inspired segment further mix up the game play. However, that isn’t to say the game can get excessively repetitive. Much like other titles in the genre, BB&B inherits the certainty of running to the right (or occasionally other directions) and mashing on the fire button. Compared to other titles of its ilk, Matt Hazard doesn’t always measure up. While the fundamentals of running and gunning are all here and the package as a whole is enjoyable, the controls just seem laggy on occasion, there are glitches that can cause your character to get stuck and it annoys me to no end that you cannot fire downward without jumping. I suppose the control issues stem from placing an eight-way directional scheme on an analog controller but, for the most part, everything in BB&B’s gameplay is still passable even in its worst moments. As for the rest of the issues I encountered, well, I suppose that would be blamed on the original Matt Hazard games being programmed with these glitches, right?

What really gets BB&B rolling, however, is its tongue-in-cheek humor which, admittedly, has improved since Hazard’s first outing last year. Packed in with the action, the humor will definitely keep most gamers’ attentions through 10 stages, however, it is unlikely most players will want to tackle the game again, even with achievements and the unlockable gallery that features “previous” Matt Hazard games. The game’s challenging nature might also disgruntle those not so into the 2D shooter genre as the game starts to pump up the difficulty toward the end of the first stage and doesn’t let up. BB&B is ripe with one-hit kill environmental traps and water/pitfall hazards to fall in and players must contend with these likely at the same time the screen is filled with enemy shrapnel. Even on the game’s easy difficulty of “Wussy,” it’s likely players will be taking advantage of the infinite continues offered, especially if a player can’t quite get the patterns of the boss characters down.

Even though BB&B is a downloadable title as opposed to Eat Lead, Vicious Cycle still pumped out a very reasonable presentation for the title. While it strikes me as odd that the game doesn’t hark back to 2D graphical styles or, more appropriately, cycle through various hardware to showcase levels in varying bit displays appropriate for the timeframe the fictional games’ releases (the only 2D model in the gameplay is the 8-Bit Matt Hazard, which General Neutronov amusingly carries around like it is a cardboard cutout), the visuals are indeed solid, making all of the various environments immediately recognizable.

The Hate Boat stage starts out simple enough as a typical cruise ship, but as players descend, it immediately reflects Rapture from Bioshock, complete with Big Daddy wannabe enemies. The Oh. Canada stage takes players through the stereotypical ice rinks with zambonni fight and maple syrup factory, but getting there requires a rooftop scramble that is a dead ringer for Mirror’s Edge’s visuals. The Dismember the Alamo section starts off as a simple western theme, but due to a scrambling of classic games stemming from a glitch, players will begin to see Super Mario Bros. themes mid-stage, culminating with a backdrop straight out of Team Fortress 2. While BB&B tends to pull its references from more modern titles such as Portal, there are still some references to the classics such as Lunar Lander and Rush’n'Attack that will keep longtime gamers paying attention.

Each of these backdrops is handled quite well with appropriate lighting and graphical effects and it is almost possible for the player to get lost in the backgrounds to pick out references instead of focusing on the action. Due to the onscreen action, most of the character models are smaller and not as detailed as in other 2D shooters, but they animate extremely well, something that is further made more satisfying due to the use of ragdoll physics in every single kill. The developers even go overboard with the ragdoll physics with a mini-game where the players collect pachinko coins and drop ragdoll models into a playfield to try and score points. Even while still alive, the characters look smooth even while transitioning from the foreground or background and there are also subtle animations such as a common enemy fist pumping after killing one of the players.

Even though BB&B loses a lot of the spoken dialog seen in Eat Lead, there is still a helping of cheesy one-liners delivered by Will Arnett to maintain authentic Matt Hazard audio. The action does drown out a lot of the game’s tunes, which is a bit of a downer as I found this title’s soundtrack to be much more memorable than the repetitiveness found in Eat Lead. Otherwise, you have your traditional gunfire and explosions, rounded out by splashing of blood and guts littering the floors. Even if a few of the one-liners can get really repetitive, a lot of them are context appropriate such as coming off of a continue, being low on health and the characters even have some banter specific to some of the major enemies they encounter in the game. When everything is said and done, although the developer could have taken some more liberties with the presentation to provide a more authentic fictional gaming timeline, what players get is still pretty well done.

Finally, I find it a bit odd that other items of cultural relevance have made their way into BB&B, most notably movie references. The pirate-themed stage was originally developed to be filled with scantily-clad pirate women, but the timeline had this title to be released during the infamous Congressional hearings in the ‘90s and the pirates were reverted back to males. However, the developer didn’t have time to reanimate the characters, so the pirates wield pistols in a limp-wristed fashion with mannerisms straight from Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie trilogy. I also got a kick out of the J5 boss, a dead ringer for Johnny Five from the Short Circuit series of movies. These didn’t take away from the experience in the slightest and I found them quite humorous, so, hopefully, we can see this series continue with a little more effort under its belt. With its finger on the pulse of popular culture, the Matt Hazard series could really go somewhere and I’m sure there are some retro buff out there that want to identify with the character, but first, we just have to get a solid game out of the franchise. BB&B is a good start, but, for everyone, it definitely won’t be worth the $15 asking price.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 3 of 5

Matt Hazard is a character everyone wants to give a chance, but his games thus far don’t give players to many reasons to do so. Blood Bath & Beyond is a step in the right direction, but it’s too shallow with a few nagging gameplay issues to readily recommend it at $15. It’s balancing won’t do the title any favors as the difficulty gets pumped up fast, which is a plus for those looking for their next run-and-gun challenge, but it will easily turn away those not so in tune with the genre. Still, the title is very serviceable and surpasses Eat Lead in just about every single way. It carries far more humor and action, has an appealing presentation and the video game and culture references coupled with the ability to make fun of itself makes the title a satisfying playthrough, especially with a friend (so you can steal their lives a la Contra, naturally). BB&B falls victim to far less conventions it tries to make fun of than its predecessor; however, when you boil it down, there are better game choices at its price tag, especially when you take its lack of real replayability into account.

XBLA Review: KrissX

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 3 of 5

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

XBLA Review: The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom

Originally from Diehard GameFAN

Since Paul Bellezza from The Odd Gentlemen filled us in on the details of The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom with our recent interview, I had grown even more interested in exploring the black-and-white, pastry-filled world crafted in the title. The big worry, however, was if the game would avoid the trap of allowing its artistic flare to take the spotlight over its game play. Now that we’re a couple of weeks removed from the game’s release date, though, I can assure our readers that this crust has plenty of satisfying filling.

The title introduces players to P.B. Winterbottom, the notorious pie thief plaguing the quaint village of Bakersfield. P.B. will go to any lengths to nab pies and no amount of type of pie is ever enough for his never ending sweet tooth. After a run-in with a magical Chronoberry pie, P.B. gains the ability to bend time and space, recording himself in order to unleash time-looped clones to assist him in scoring more pie than he ever imagined. With the game being featured as a silent film, the story is progressed with still art and rhyming text dialogue, all cued to a wickedly eerie, yet appealing score. As players progress, they find out how Winterbottom’s escapades are affecting the lives of the citizens in Bakerfield as P.B. makes time stop altogether, runs through a blaze at the local bakery and plugs up the water supply in the sewer. Although players won’t be spending a huge amount of time engrossed in the story, it is charming and full of wit, and each level is named and subtitled with a clever phrase or description that taps into a lot of parody and humor as well.

These facets piece together an impressive environment, but players will find a shortage of modes within the game world. Although there is an impressive number of puzzles and film scenes accessed through a central game hub, the game can be boiled down to only two game modes, both of which employ the exact same game mechanics. The top two levels of the in-game hub unfold as players progress through the story-based films while progress also unlocks bonus short films in a third row. The short films act as a sort of challenge mode, where players tackle the same goal of pie snatching while aiming for medals earned by either completing the level in par time or by utilizing a set number of clones (or both). This wouldn’t normally be a negative on its own, however, there is no real incentive to play through the story sequences again once they are completed. The package still offers a suitable amount to do in a puzzler, but a level editor, two-player co-op puzzles, downloadable puzzles, or other modes would have easily taken the game an extra mile.

Upfront, the main hook of the title was in its noir motif and The Odd Gentlemen really ran with this concept to produce top-notch visuals while implementing a varied and intense score. As soon as players boot up the game, they are greeted with a film grain and flicker that transforms your Xbox into a black-and-white world while eerie music in the vein of something you might hear in a Tim Burton film rings in. The P.B. Winterbottom character is immediately identifiable and definitely breaks the norm of the stacked heroes we tend to be presented with in today’s games. The game’s story panels feature fantastic fantasy-style artwork with a number of different characters and even though the in-game models are small, they certainly do not lack detail and are still full of fluid animation. The environments really steal the show, however, with all of the locations featuring detailed and motion-filled backdrops. Even though the vast majority of the game is experienced in black and white, it still looks incredible and the conservative usage of color actually has meaning when players eventually see it.

Instead of being filled with “old-tyme” piano jingles like one would associate with a silent film in its heyday, P.B. Winterbottom pulls in a full-feature ensemble that creates some memorable results. As I’ve already stated, the opening theme makes a huge impression and is definitely memorable. The rest of the music fits each scene well and shares the same quality throughout the title. As for the sound effects, much like the game’s color, sound is used very sparingly, as this is a silent film, after all. There are little jingles when a pie is collected, when clone recordings are made a nice film reel roll is played, and items hit with P.B. Winterbottom’s umbrella result in an appropriate thwack. When you mix all of the visuals and audio together, P.B. Winterbottom has one of (if not the) best presentations you can find on the Xbox LIVE Arcade service.

The gameplay in Winterbottom is as simple as it sounds: the A button makes Winterbottom jump, holding the A button allows him to float using his umbrella, and pressing the X button makes him execute a strike with the umbrella. These simple commands will guide P.B. through the introductory levels until he gains the ability to make clones of himself. As players progress through each film, new gimmicks are implemented in favor of a previous one to keep the game fresh. For example, traveling through the clock tower, pies must be picked up in a numerical order, through the bakery, blue pies can only be picked up by clones and in the sewer, P.B. needs to use specific portals to record clones, and red portals create clones that will harm P.B. if he comes in contact with them. However, no matter what the current gameplay gimmick is, one thing always remains constant: P.B. cannot continue on to the next level until all pies are devoured.

The beauty of the title is this can be done in a number of different ways and players are posting online methods that achieve this in more efficient, quicker and innovative methods. Cloning P.B. allows players to defy gravity or space, hit out-of-reach switches, weigh down floor switches, and more so the player can score the current stage’s pie. The cloning process is actually very responsive and I can’t say I ever had a clone do something I didn’t want it to do. The platforming is also on par with where it should be and all of the game’s puzzles are extremely satisfying once the player triumphs. There are certainly no qualms with the controls and the core gameplay is extremely enjoyable, however, the title gets hit the hardest in its replayability and balancing.

Once again, once players tackle the main story, there is essentially no incentive to go back through the levels unless it has just been a long time since the player cleared the game or they are looking for faster or crazier ways to grab all of the pie. On the other hand, the challenges are more suitable to replay, featuring the different medals and various leaderboards. Ultimately, the replayability in the title amounts to how much of a perfectionist you are and I could see many players viewing P.B. Winterbottom as a once-and-done experience. This further hampers the experience when you figure the title will likely take you only around three hours to complete. Players will burn through the game quickly once they have the mechanics under control, and the shallow amount of content is a definite sore spot on the ‘Bottom.

It should also be noted The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is not the easiest game on the block. The puzzles aren’t afraid to amp up in intensity as soon as the second film. While there was nothing obscenely difficult in the title, there were quite a few times I had to stare at the screen for upwards of 10 minutes before I finally had that “ah-ha!” moment that allowed me to progress. This is great for puzzle junkies; however, the more casual of audiences will most likely be discouraged as the puzzles become more and more complicated. The pacing could be a potential matter for players as well, with one of the game’s mechanics finally picking up full speed only to be dropped completely in the next set of challenges. The balance is nice in the fact each story movie introduces a new game mechanic with a very simple puzzle that holds the player’s hand for a level or two. However, it gets pretty hairy toward the last few puzzles in the lot and players will have to do a lot of experimentation to see what actually sticks. If you enjoy a great challenge, P.B. Winterbottom will definitely be your ticket, but if you get frustrated easily, be warned you will most likely hit a brick wall somewhere amid P.B.’s journey.

However, these are just minor setbacks as any puzzle fan will find it hard to put the controller down until they finally solve a puzzle that has been eluding them. It is very easy to try and draw some parallels between this title and something like Braid and the whole time and space mechanic is certainly not a new happening. However, The Odd Gentlemen have crafted an experience with so much charm and personality, P.B. Winterbottom easily stands out from the crowd. However, unlike some of the other titles pushing the oft-discussed boundary of art, P.B. Winterbottom actually has some substance under its hood and, mechanically, by far the title is best offering on the Xbox LIVE Arcade service so far in 2010. That isn’t to say the title will be for everyone, however, the experience and puzzling gameplay are well worth the 800 Microsoft Points.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5

Building off its stellar presentation, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom offers up a puzzling adventure that is sure to challenge gamers all the while captivating them in the endearing world of Bakersfield. The audio and visuals are superb and are used to maximum effect in producing a unique silent film environment, and the gameplay keeps players performing new tasks while offering tight controls. The only downsides to the purchase include a very short game with shallow mode offerings and, for some, the difficult nature of the title may turn off a portion of the casual crowd. The difficulty serves as its own reward when players finally reach the solution, however, and the game is extremely memorable even when you consider there is little to be had in replayability. While the experience isn’t the longest, it is definitely sweet and satisfying.

WiiWare Review: Tomena Sanner

When I imagined that digital distribution would break down the barriers between the various regions around the world, perhaps I jumped the gun a little. Japan continually receives goods on the Nintendo Wii that have yet to surface in the United States, and region differences are blocking me from using my Microsoft Points to download items such as Idolm@ster to my Xbox 360. When I first saw Japanese sites promoting Tomena Sanner, a gentleman in a business suit began breakdancing with a panda and various other bizarre characters, which greatly peaked my interest. Given the obscurity, I didn’t give the title much of a chance to reach our shores. Thankfully, Konami proved me wrong and released the quickfire title as a $5 download on the North American WiiWare service, and gamers can also be thankful that Tomena Sanner holds up as a solid addition to the service.

For the U.S. release of Tomena Sanner, Konami has merely translated the game’s text, meaning all of the obscurity and insanity has remained intact. The player assumes the role of businessman Hitoshi Susumu, who, as a businessman, does not like to be late. Susumu has his eye on a number of dance parties being held at the end of each level, but to make it through each environment, Susumu has to contend with dinosaurs, robots, manholes, vehicles, ninjas, and more hazards that will impede his progress. That is all the story the game receives and none of it is really detailed in-game, but it works in this scenario, similar to the games of yesteryear where all of the story was laid out in the instruction booklet and players were launched straight into the action. In a game where the player does nothing but run from point A to point B, the need for a story is very minimal, but the zany premise behind Tomena Sanner just adds to the charm.

The title has a few different game modes. However, none of them drastically change the way the game is played, also recycling the same levels players will experience the first time through. Once players have a feel for the title by completing the nine levels, they can enter a more challenging turbo mode that pits players against the same single-player levels, but the speed of the gameplay increases by about double to reduce the available reaction time to obstacles. Outside of the two single-player modes, up to four players can pick up Wii Remotes and race each other to the finish line. The multiplayer modes do add some power-ups to the madness, and there are also subtle battle advantages such as having a curtain gradually slide in over an opposing player’s playfield as you build up successful combos. Even though the story isn’t fleshed out and there are only a handful of modes, you do get what you pay for and Tomena Sanner is still an interesting game to pick up now and again, especially if you can get your buddies involved.

Controlling and playing the game is as simple as it gets, and that further increases the title’s appeal. Players control the title with the Wii Remote, and the A button is the only button necessary to control Susumu when he is in action. In Japanese, susumu is the act of moving forward and this holds completely true in Tomena Sanner – Mr. Susumu will automatically start sprinting when the level kicks off and will not stop unless he collides with an obstacle or he runs out of time and is late to the party. When he approaches an obstacle, it is up to the player to time presses of the A button in order to avoid the hazard. Players can also have Susumu jump in order to collect bonus coins and power-ups, but a majority of the action is in nailing down an exact timing to avoid obstacles.

By hitting a small timing window, players will receive a “GREAT!” rating, which increases the player’s combo by one, awards a few bonus seconds of time, and usually plays out an animation that places Susumu past the obstacle in the shortest amount of time. If the player is slightly off, a “GOOD” rating won’t penalize the player, but the resulting animation is usually just a tad slower and no combo bonus or extra time is awarded. Of course, if the player is way off or fails to do anything, a “BAD” rating will award no points and the resulting animation will put Susumu even more behind schedule. Once the player reaches the goal, Susumu immediately begins breaking out the dance moves that has the player taking part in a timing-based mini-game for additional bonus points. The timing structure works well and it is very rewarding in the different animations that play out between different items and timing ratings and all of the secrets and bonuses packed in each level will keep players coming back on occasion in order to place new scores on the online leaderboards and discover new oddities that inhabit each stage. Mastering a few of the control mechanics might take players a little bit of time, but in the way of just being able to enjoy the game, Tomena Sanner is an easily understood title that takes little skill to break into.

On the downside, you could probably burn through everything the title has to offer in about an hour. Tomena Sanner’s main hook is in its simplicity and bizarre premise and you get plenty of that for $5, but that still might not be enough for everyone with Wii Points to burn. Also, a huge attraction for the title is in its animations, which are executed extremely well. However, all of them will eventually repeat themselves, meaning there will be a point where seeing a giraffe fart in Susumu’s face will be old news … maybe.

Furthermore, a little more variety in the modes would have taken the title a long way. The multiplayer modes could have used some different levels as opposed to recycling the same content from single player in order to freshen it up, and the turbo mode would have benefitted from some alternate layouts to produce more challenge. Regardless, the levels do feature a decent build in difficulty and it might take some players a little of time to master the third set of levels in the turbo mode. Finally, Tomena Sanner wasn’t all that addictive, in my opinion. Since each level barely lasts two-minutes, the title definitely speaks to the short attention span that lurks within all of us. The title was great to come back to here and there, but I couldn’t see myself playing Tomena Sanner for more than 10-15 minutes at a time. It’s all perfectly fine in getting players to come back. However, don’t expect to have marathon sessions of the title.

I can’t say many negative things about the presentation, though, as it really assists in punching through the quirky nature of Tomena Sanner. The graphics have a cell-shaded look that borrows artistic direction from titles such as Out of This World and Feel the Magic, featuring vibrant characters that lack detail such as faces and fingers. While some gamers might scoff at the lack of detail, Tomena Sanner has a cartoon-style look that goes hand-in-hand with what the game tries to accomplish. The backgrounds also have a fair amount of scenery displayed in the same style, but in order to make the style effective, the game needs to animate well and Tomena Sanner does exactly that. Again, seeing Tomena Sanner in motion takes me back to games such as Out of This World and Flashback, where animation was also handled extremely well. Since the title relies so much on its animations, watching the game is almost as fun as playing it and for some people, these animations could potentially be their favorite part of the entire game.

The game’s audio will mostly be one of the three accompanying music tracks that are placed with each of the game’s stages and while most of it is enjoyable to listen to, it perhaps doesn’t match the frantic pace of the gameplay. I suppose it is weird to say something is out of place in this title, but I felt most of the music in the title was easily forgettable outside of the breakdancing sample that plays at the end of each level. The sound effects have some notable pop to them as they accompany most of the timing animations. Each one is suitable for the situation and well done and they really add emphasis to the animations. I could have done without some of the voice and random noise samples that trigger every time the player meets with an obstacle marker, though. Most of them are unnecessary, and after you hear the same clip played out back to back within seconds, you’ll most likely want them to go away. In all, though, Konami developed Tomena Sanner’s audio to match up with the absurdity of the premise and it succeeds on that front. However, I didn’t find all of it to be as enjoyable as other aspects of the title.

While the title has its ups and downs, most of what is presented is quite original and when all is said and done, Tomena Sanner is a fun 10-minute time killer that players can come back to every now and again. This title is an easy recommendation to anyone who feels the United States doesn’t get enough of Japan’s quirky video game titles. The $5 price tag also makes it easy to pitch to gamers looking for an innovative and humorous title on the cheap. Tomena Sanner might be a little too out there for some gamers to get into, but, as I’ve said earlier, the title is almost just as fun to watch as it is to play and items such as the running commentary at the top and bottom of the screen caters to those who would rather watch than play.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 3 of 5

If you like your gaming ripe with Japanese zaniness, there is no alternative to Tomena Sanner on WiiWare. The game’s quirky nature will no doubt be what pulls most players in and its simple, yet solid, timing-based platforming will ensure they have a good time while playing. Players will get a unique presentation with the title and its animations are no doubt the highlight of the title. A decent spread of challenge and multiplayer modes stretch the title just a little bit, but at the end of the day, there is little to see in Tomena Sanner, which features only about an hour’s worth of content. Tomena Sanner is more of a title players will come back to in short bursts as opposed to sitting through long gameplay sessions and all of the game’s modes recycle the exact same gameplay levels. Regardless of its negatives, though, the title’s one-button nature should help anyone get into the title, making it a solid title to pick up at the 500 Wii Point level.