Put simply, Monster Dash is Canabalt with guns (or as Accidental put it; Canabalt meets Metal Slug. He’s also got an annoying top score too, 4920 vs. my 3848!). Monster Dash is made by Halfbrick Studios, its first iPhone game being Fruit Ninja, which also proved quite popular.

You have two buttons; one to jump and one for guns. Each side of the screen is given to these buttons. And the great thing about it is there’s no horrible d-pad controls. Your hero (called Barry Steakfries — but I prefer he remain nameless) runs along automagically from left to right. The buttons also disappear completely after several taps which is a nice touch.

Your goal is to jump those gaps, spikes, and monsters. Weapons include the default shotgun, and ones you pick up along the way such as a submachine gun, machine gun jetpack and electric shocker called Mr. Zappy. You have 3 hearts like in old school platformers which help you when you run into things. But falling still means insta-death.

There’s also little things to slow you down, just like Canabalt when your strides get a little too brisk. Something that’s not like Canabalt are the locations. Every 1000 points the setting changes to a new theme; Zombie Metropolis, Vampire Kingdom, Tomb Town or Demon Dynasty. The background changes, as well as a new variation on the music. The monsters are new too. You’re no longer jumping on mummies in Egypt, but cute little zombies in Transylvania.

Unfortunately the hero’s witty speech bubbles at the end of each run aren’t as great as the interesting fruit facts in Fruit Ninja.

However, the Open Feint leaderboards, statistics and all the rest make up for this slight error in judgment. There’s some great achievements in there too if you get bored of simply going for the longest distance. These are more than just the Open Feint achievements and there’s a lot of them too. The only problem is that some of them are a little hard to decipher. What does Spirited Away or Smokey Head mean? Plus many of them simply use question marks as placeholders.

Closing Comments
For $1.29, Monster Dash gives incredible value, and I feel that Halfbrick may have priced it too low. Just like Canabalt it’s super easy to get into and so much fun. An insta-buy if I ever saw one.

Download Monster Dash here for iPhone/iPod Touch (no iPad?).

So this is it, the last episode of season three — episode five. The Devil’s Playhouse drawing to a close. Following up Beyond The Alley of the Dolls, Max is transformed into a giant beast roaming New York City. And it’s up to Sam and friends to restore Max to his original yappy self.

Surprise, surprise, there are no psychic powers to play with this time. Though you will encounter some remnants of them in unexpected ways. As with the other episode titles this season, this one’s based on a film — The City That Never Sleeps.

Sybil Pandemik is back, this time with a new career: motherhood. She’s pregnant with the offspring of the statue of Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Featherly makes a short appearance, as well as the talking computers, together once again.

After being swallowed by giant Max, the gang’s task is to take control. Max’s body looks more like an immaculate home with decor from the 60’s, rather than the insides of a rabbity thing. Each part of the body has its own little area. A kitchen for the stomach, gym for the feet yada yada. You’ll even discover where Max keeps all his inventory items!

Even though Max is now a rampaging monster, Sam is kept company in the form of eerie flaming Max heads that float overhead in most of the game’s areas. Offering the wit of Max when he can’t be himself.

In this concluding episode the mystery is finally solved. The character responsible for plotting the events of the season is named. And even having only played the previous episode I actually guessed correctly!

There was a little sad moment in the middle of the episode there that I don’t think was treated with enough respect. You had to carry on immediately with the fast paced story and comedy. Like in the last two chapters of Tales of Monkey Island I do appreciate it when Telltale go for other emotions and not just the laughing variety. 

So puzzle-wise this episode may have been too easy, or maybe just because I’m now an adventure gaming veteran? Each puzzle makes sense in its own bizarre way. You just have to be tuned to the right level of wackiness. 

Closing Comments

I have talked a lot about the story and characters here, because that’s what this season has all been about. Standing alone it might not be the best episode ever, but given the context of the season, it fits in rather well. The ending is surprising and leaves an interesting premise for next season, provided Telltale aren’t too busy with Jurassic Park and Back to the Future.

Download The Devil’s Playhouse here.

As an iconic videogame heroine Lara Croft needs no introduction, after a fairly blocky 16-bit start she has become one of gaming’s most enduring and streamlined characters. In this incarnation Crystal Dynamics have taken Lara’s pedigree and given it a fresh twist by changing the playing field and throwing in a spin by adding a co-op mode.

Begging the question after a campaign of pretty impressive titles in recent weeks, has Microsoft saved the wrong game to close out their Summer of Arcade?

Weighing in at 2 gigs this is a hefty Arcade title the size alone may put a few people off, but it really shouldn’t and you cannot mistake the quality from the get go. The Developers have taken the classic third-person Lara Croft formula and dropped her into an isometric environment a-la Dark Alliance or Sacred and it works so very well. The gameplay has been simplified to suit this style and that is not really a bad thing, Lara may not be as nimble as her third-person alter ego and the environments do not offer as much scope for climbing or chimney jumping. What they do offer is playability, puzzles, action and a fun time. At it’s core the game is aimed squarely at being a co-op experience, sadly the online co-op was pulled at the last minute and will be added later once Crystal Dynamics are happy with it, that said there is a great couch-co-op experience to be had and the game plays robustly for the single player too. The game is spread across a variety of levels as Lara and Totec (the Guardian of Light) chase their nemesis Xolotl in their adventure to retrieve the magical Mirror of Smoke. in true Lara Croft style there are also some hapless human mercenaries on the trail, but so far they have been limited to corpse appearances and have the habit of leaving piles of ammunition around for you, which is nice.

The co-op teamwork between the two main characters is nicely implemented by use of their individual talents, Totec can hold his shield up for Lara to use as a movable platform, similarly she can (at specific points) shoot out a grappling line allowing Totec to use it as a tightrope. As an action game, there is plenty of opportunity to enjoy standing back to back and mow down some creatures of the the tombs. However the game does not rely solely on the two character interaction, a solo player gets the use of Totec’s never ending spear, a useful projectile that can be used to create platforms where there are non.

Puzzles are aplenty, they may not be particularly challenging, but they are generally enjoyable. Most of the non-story related puzzles are specific short detours from the map in hand and will reward you with an upgrade for your troubles. Neatly bringing us on to upgrades, Relics and  Artifacts can be collected during the game, they are also rewarded for completing level specific challenges. These upgrades can then be swapped around in your inventory to tweak your characters performance in a way that suits you, Relics specifically affect your combat and can add effects such as a multi-shot to your weapon, as long as you can fill your relic meter and then maintain it without taking any damage. The level challenges also give great incentive for re-playability, ranging from tiered scoring levels across each map, to beating a specific puzzle in a certain way and certain environmental challenges that pop up like ‘crossing a river without touching the water’, they can be ignored and some of them will be achieved in normal gameplay, but the collector in you will enjoy seeking them out. It’s also worth a note that some of speed challenges seem at this stage impossible, I hope that a few more grinds through each level will make them seem easier or perhaps a dedicated online co-op partner would make them achievable. There are also a set of collectible red skulls on each level, 90% of which are pretty obvious although it is easy to miss the odd one.

Atmospherically the game is spot on, it just reeks of ‘Tomb Raider’ and graphically the game world is quite beautiful, from thundering waterfalls to eerily lit crypts and beautiful foliage. Character animations are just right, the creatures are varied enough and some can be challenging, the only downside I have found is that sometime Lara’s pace is a little too quick as she scoots around the screen, especially when you are trying to edge up to a jump.

Closing Comments

Either for a single player or for a house with a couch-co-op team this is a great purchase, in comparison to a similarly priced XBLA title I have no doubt that once completed I can see myself going back to run through some of these levels just for fun. Not to mention that there are going to be 5 extra DLC packs built by Crystal Dynamics to extend the game beyond this download, which will add even more longevity and the mooted September online patch will add a new dimension for players. Given that the game is named a Lara Croft adventure and having seen the final result, I would be keen to see a follow-on adventure and I would be surprised if we had to wait too long.

In all, a fitting fanfare for the Summer of Arcade and a great way to spend 1200 MS points whoever you are.

Up until recently I was a bit of an offline RPG junkie. But thanks to many a session of Gears of War 2, Borderlands, and Halo: ODST online with the ButtonMasher community I have embraced the online shooter and now enjoy a good multiplayer evening. Even so it was still a strange feeling to actually want to get online with a new game and check out it’s multiplayer content, which in the case of Monday Night Combat is pretty much it’s entire content. But whatever the outcome, a game that has a shotgun shell high-fiving a piece of bacon for the loading screen is already a winner in my books!

An arena based, third person, class based, tower defence, team shooter would probably describe Monday Night Combat quite well. All game modes are based around the defence of your Money Ball and in the case of Crossfire Mode, the destruction of your opponents Money Ball. Blitz Mode is all about defending your Money Ball from waves of bots. Hard points, or nubs, are prepositioned around each arena and allow you to spend your cash on various turrets to aid your defence. You can call on the aid of up to three friends on Live! or one friend in split screen to help as well. As well as turrets, money collected from kills can also be spent on upgrades for your ‘Pro’ character. Each of the six classes has unique upgrades to their weapons, grapple, speciality to make them even more hard-ass.

Crossfire Mode is the heart and soul of Monday Night Combat. This online battle pits up to 12 Pros in a six versus six battle which requires you to escort your bots to the oppositions Money Ball to allow them to take down it’s shield so both you and the bots can destroy it. Sounds easy enough, but with the multiple tasks of getting your bots to the enemy Money Ball, Defending your Money Ball, and killing opposition Pros, things can get pretty busy. Team work is the key here. A Gunner or Tank with a Support Pro in tow can be a pretty formidable set up while Assassins can take advantage of covering fire and sneak around behind opposition Pros for an assassination kill. Snipers and Assault Pros round out the six available classes. Every now and then the Monday Night Combat mascot, Bullseye, will show up. Shooting him will net you money and the chance of bacon. Mmmmm, bacon. Apart from being a delicious meaty treat it will endow your Pro with some pretty mean powers.

Visually you can’t help but compare Monday Night Combat to Team Fortress 2. This is a good thing and it works well in this high paced arena combat. The sound and presentation is done in the over the top American sports style which you tend to either love or hate. But overall the look and sound is all very good and fits in well with what the game is trying to do. Some nice touches include host migration so if the host disconnects it’s no longer game over for everyone, and a helpful little NAT status to tell you if your connection is Open, Moderate, or Closed. Matches are currently really easy to find, long may that last, and there is an option for Private matches if the desire to kill just friends pops up.

Closing Comments.

Overall Monday Night Combat is an excellent online team shooter. It has been designed to be easy and friendly to play with things like Host Migration and Private matches so one way or another you can find, and complete, a game. Although the content and variety is a bit on the light side it doesn’t affect how much fun this game is to play. I do worry how long it will be before it becomes too hard to find a match online but so far there is a good number of ButtonMashers who have purchased it so at least there will always be community matches. 1200 MS Points seems just a bit too much for my liking but unfortunately this price point seems to be the current trend. But if you enjoy your online shooters then this is one bloody fun example of the genre. Just remember to always keep your bacon hot!

Released on 11/8/2010 for 1200 MS Points.

The second release in the 2010 Winter of Arcade, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, may seem familiar to some out there. This is because it is a sequel to the original 1999 arcade great, Hydro Thunder, which also appeared on the Dreamcast, Playstation, and N64. Various spin offs where also made including 4X4 Thunder and Arctic Thunder. So what we have here is a good solid arcade jet boat racer that really reminds me of Star Wars: Episode One – Pod Racer, which is a good thing in my books.

After last weeks short but brilliant Limbo, I’m glad to say that Hydro Thunder Hurricane has substantially more legs (flippers?) too it, even if it is a tried and true arcade racer. With four different single player modes as well as eight player Live! multiplayer, and four player local multiplayer, there is plenty to keep you going, even if it is only on eight different courses. The good thing about each of the eight courses is the amount of different paths and secret routes there are one each one. This can cause a basic three lap race to become quite strategic in which path you take. There is also a swag of unlockable boats and paint jobs for those who want more.

The gameplay is as simple as you would expect from an arcade racer, accelerate and brake with the triggers, steer with the left stick, and boost and jump with the A and X buttons respectively. But before you can jump or boost you need to pick up the boost power ups that are scattered around the courses. Once collected you can expend these power ups by boosting your speed to catch your opponents or to launch off a ramp to gain access to a secret route, or by doing small jumps with your boat to avoid explosives, rocks or other obstacles. This small jump is also useful in gathering just out of reach collectables and power ups. Also scattered around each course are switch pick ups which raise and lower ramps, and turn on wave makers. Useful to access that hidden area or grab that out of reach collectable.

The exception to this power up gathering is during the Ring Master Mode. In Ring Master, a basic follow the rings slalom mode, your Boost Meter is increased each time you pass through a ring, meaning if you are good enough you will have a constant supply of boost. But miss one ring and your Boost Meter is emptied and missing a ring at the wrong time could leave you out of boost when you need to make a jump to follow the ring path. Ring Master Mode is also a good mode to find many of the secret routes you may have missed in standard race mode as the path of the rings will quite often take you through these secret locations.

Gauntlet Mode pits you against the clock with the added bonus of explosive barrels scattered around the course. Hitting one of these barrels will cause you to respawn, adding valuable seconds to your time. The final mode is Championship Mode which takes a selection of Gauntlet, Ring Master, and Race events and combines them in a championship system with points awarded for where you place in each event, the most points at the end winning the championship. Add to these modes the multiplayer element and you have a pretty decent arcade racer, on water.

Closing Comments.

It really looks like Microsoft are holding onto some really great titles each year for their Winter of Arcade promotion and while Hydro Thunder Hurricane is by no means ground breaking or leading edge stuff, it is still a very solid and enjoyable arcade racer. The visuals are nice and the controls responsive, which is good for this kind of game. I did have one moment when I nose dived under the water and ended up outside the game area with out being respawned but the Back button respawns you anyway, so no biggie. And again, like Limbo, to make the 1200 MS Points a bit easier to swallow you can easily earn a T-Shirt and a Prop for your Avatar. If you want a good solid arcade racer in your XBLA library then by all means grab Hydro Thunder Hurricane, it’s a great example and more than enjoyable to play.

Released 28/7/2010 for 1200 MS Points.

Normally one of the talking points of a new Tiger Woods PGA Tour release is what new holes there are to do, but given the real life events that have occurred in the last 12 months, EA Sports probably decided it would be better to focus on other aspects of Tiger’s game. South Park had earlier hinted at a change of direction for the series, but the final product takes a more traditional approach to the Gentleman’s game (Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden).

Incremental updates to sports games tend to become more incremental as a console platform ages. Now the 6th iteration of the game to appear on the Xbox 360, it is increasingly difficult for EA Sports to keep the game fresh with new “features” without tinkering with the fundamental gameplay of the series.

The game plays much like every Tiger game since the advent of analogue sticks. Pulling down on the stick represents your backswing, then push it forward to take your swing. To decrease power, reduce the length of your backswing. An onscreen meter gives you feedback on how straight your swing plane was on the analogue stick, which ultimately decides how cleanly you hit or shank the ball.

A new game mechanic has been introduced this year which is dubbed “Shot Focus”. You can use available Focus to read putts using the “putt preview” (which gives you a sneak look at how your putt will roll as you have lined it up to give you a chance to correct it), add power, spin, or increase the accuracy of the landing area for an approach shot. The meter automatically replenishes with each shot (excluding putts), and did not seem to be related to how well you play (drives into the rough giving you as much Focus as one into the fairway). The Focus meter therefore limits the usage of in-game aids, but the fact that it does not depend on how well a golfer is player is rather unrealistic – sportspeople “in the zone” should theoretically have more “Focus” than those playing like Michael Campbell has been playing of late.

The biggest addition to the Tiger Woods franchise this year is the inclusion of the Ryder Cup competition for the first time, allowing players to compete in the USA Tour vs. European Tour rivalry, which is set to take place at the Celtic Manor Resort in Wales this coming October. It is a nice addition to the game, but also frustrating because when playing alone you only have influence on one out of the 4-6 matches being played in each of 5 rounds. No matter how well you might be playing, you have no control on what goes on in the other matches, and it is left up to the CPU simulation to decide the fate of the competition. You can choose to switch golfers (but not sides) at the conclusion of each hole, which might for example allow you to mount a comeback in a losing match. However that then leaves the original golfer you were controlling to once again be left in the hands of a CPU simulation.

To overcome this problem, you can choose instead to take the Ryder Cup format online and play a 12 vs. 12 competition. However that would require 24 players to convene at once and then to stick around while the 28 matches of the format are played. It is a great initiative, but ultimately useless as I struggled to find more than one or two players in this lobby, let alone 23 others.

On the subject of online play, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 is historical for being the first game to require EA Sports’s “Online Pass” in order to access online features (Xbox 360 owners additionally require an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription). This controversial scheme requires players to enter a one-time-use token to unlock online features. If this token has already been used by someone else (most commonly arising when a player has purchased the game on the second-hand market), then you will be invited to start a free 7 day trial, or else purchase an Online Pass for 800 Microsoft Points ($13.33 NZD). Unlike an Xbox LIVE subscription, you are not purchasing a defined period of access – “EA may retire online features after 30 days notice posted on www.ea.com”.

There are plenty of online modes to justify the 800 MS Point spend for serious players, including head-to-head games as well as regular daily/weekly/live tournaments organised by EA Sports. You will want to spend plenty of time practicing and levelling up a created golfer before you brave the online leaderboards though. The differential between first and last in one tournament I participated in was huge, with the leader at (-22) and last place at (+126).

Creating a golfer is an easy process and supports the Xbox LIVE Vision camera for creating a “game-face”. Your mileage may vary though – my golfer ended up looking like he had had a facial transplant after a serious accident. XP points are gained either by playing rounds of golf in the career mode, or though the Skills Challenge mode, and are then used to improve the attributes of your custom golfer. Players worldwide have obviously been very busy with the game, since many are driving over 400 yards and regularly hitting sub-50 rounds on the tour. That’s not to say that this game is easy though – putting is still a horrible experience, and the aids such as the putt preview do very little to provide gamers with a realistic representation of the real world experience.

The final note-worthy addition to Tiger Woods 11 is the new “True Aim” mode, which is designed to give you a more realistic point of view during play. Instead of the “ball follow” camera that we are all accustomed to watching after the ball is played, True Aim is all presented from a first-person camera. So once you have taken your swing, the camera stays still and pans over to where your ball is travelling, just as if you were playing in real life. It will be a mode that players either love or hate – personally if I wanted to have no idea where my ball ended up after I hit it, I would just go out onto the course and play.

At the end of the day this is still an arcade golfing game, as much as the game tries to be a more realistic simulation. It also happens to still be the best golfing game for any game console despite its flaws. If you have any recent Tiger Woods game then there is probably very little in PGA Tour 11 to warrant the purchase unless the Ryder Cup makes it a must-buy. But if you have an older version of the game, then PGA Tour 11 is a decent game to consider upgrading to.

A classic franchise returns with a long overdue refit, touch-up and tweak. From a time when point and click adventures were vogue and players thrived on the mix of puzzles and humorous narrative this series stood out and firmly lodged itself in the rose tinted memories of anybody that lived through it’s adventures.

I do admit that there is quality behind these games and I acknowledge there are a lot of gamers with a lot of love for the series, personally I am of the viewpoint that this game type has a definitive time and place.

Both of which are round and about 1991.

I love a bit of retro gaming as much if not more than the next guy, but I know what I like and it is fair to say these titles do not fulfil their promise to me. The alleged ‘hilarious’ narrative is often puerile and predictable, never so much as raising a smile. The puzzles, while complex and challenging in terms of logic can often be a frustration and the pace of the whole affair just does not deliver an entertaining experience in this day and age.

The game has certainly benefited from ‘having the decorators in’ and the static backdrops are now quite striking in their style, the hand drawn art style adding some much needed modern day colour to the proceedings. The character models have been overhauled and along with the HD sharpness comes a Disney-esque look, extra animation and a touch more personality.

The control system has been well adapted from the yesteryear point and click interface and having done a good job of avoiding the first Monkey Island game on XBLA, my first hand exposure to the system took no time feeling comfortable. I was using objects alone or together and attaching string to sticks before I could say ’shiver me timbers’!

Sound wise the game has a reasonable grasp of background noise, where it falls down, grazes both knees and lands in dog mess is with the ridiculously grating voice of your character. Guybrush Threepwood annoys the hell out of me and if it wasn’t thankfully for the skip button I wouldn’t have gotten very far. The reason I feel so strongly is down to the nature of this type of game, there is a lot of narrative and triggering that narrative there are a lot of conversational topics to be explored before you can move things along. Every menu driven question or statement is accompanied by the aurally offensive tones of your character and he revels in being a smartass.

I know that this opinion sounds very negative and that if I don’t get flamed I will probably expect to see a line of pitchfork wielding Monkey Island flag carriers down my street, but this is my problem: It may be pretty, but it does not belong in the modern arena.

Closing Comments

This game is nice to look at, but has it’s roots firmly fixed in the ground over a decade ago. Even at 800 MS points, I would struggle to recommend it as a purchase, but that is my lack of rose tinted spectacles talking. The point and click adventure genre may benefit from modern technology even down to the lack of disk swapping, but I challenge modern gamers (first and second timers) to stand up in a crowd and swear that spending time with this game was worthwhile and better than the likes of Read Dead, Demon’s Souls, or any other top hitter of the current generation.

Perhaps it’s time we stopped expecting these retro refits to rekindle those first excitement fuelled steps into gaming and took then for what they are.

Or maybe I just don’t get Ron Gilbert’s sense of humour.

The Sam & Max franchise continues to be Telltale’s longest running series – now in its third season. This review is about episode four in The Devil’s Playhouse. It’s a chilling title for a series built on the funnies, but I can assure you the comedy is still well intact. And the supernatural is ever more pervasive. In the first season we had Abraham Lincoln’s statue come to life and mind control devices. Now we have ghosts, clones, psychic toys, and beings from other dimensions.

This is the first episode I’ve played since S02E01 (that’s season two, episode one by the way), Ice Station Santa. So I’ve had a wee bit of a Sam & Max break. Telltale urges you to play the third season from the very first episode, so that made the story seem a little more crazy to me, jumping in like I did. Before in previous seasons, each episode was slightly connected, but now just like Tales of Monkey Island, the five episodes tell a continuous story.

In fact it’s not only the story arc that was inspired by Tales of Monkey Island. The point and click adventure game is but mostly forgotten. Now we have a more console friendly approach with the WASD keys controlling Sam, or the more troublesome click and drag with a virtual joystick popping up.

Beyond the Alley of the Dolls starts off with Sam and Max being chased down the street by dozens of half-naked Sam clones (or Samulacra), craving the psychic toys Max has in his possession (just don’t ask him where he keeps all that stuff). They barricade themselves in Stinky’s diner (a familiar location from season two) and your first puzzle is to get the hell out of there. Grandpa Stinky makes the whole situation feel Left 4 Dead, and yes, the story only gets more bizarre as you go on from there.

Straight away I noticed a difference – there was a lot more happening in each scene, and a graphical fidelity equal to that of Tales of Monkey Island. There’s even film grain and a gently rocking camera! While it might not impress everyone *cough-Newsboy-cough*, I think the more detailed environments are a nice change.

Most of the locations are new, and you never see Sam and Max’s street so ever present in the first season, apart from in the opening cinematic. There’s a bunch of new characters in this season, as well as recently introduced lovable-giant-cockroach Sal, and Momma Bosco. There’s a few old faces too, but I’ll leave that a surprise.

Forget your inventory, Max’s psychic powers are what you’ll be using most. Max brings back a few powers from the previous episodes; teleportation, rhinoplasty, and future vision (that’s a guess cos you start with those). Max soon discovers mind reading and two other powers, all accessible from the first-person view of Max – which is a strange and kinda neat way of doing things. You can use rhinoplasty to turn Max into a cake and have him hop around like that for most of the game too if you’d like.

As usual, the witty dialogue is full of pop culture references including celebrities and events. I found out that a TV show I liked got cancelled. There’s even a reference to Tales of Monkey Island! Oh yeah and there’s also some creepy tentacles. Could there be a Day of the Tentacle series in the works? One can only hope.

Overall the puzzles are easily manageable. Though I did get stuck pretty good one time (the part where Stinky is unreachable). I liked the psychic powers, but I don’t think they could still hold up if they were used again in another season.

Closing Comments

Beyond the Alley of the Dolls is a great taste of season three. There’s even a lot of new things that may warm the heart (or is that cool the heart?) of someone who may have burnt out on Sam & Max previously.

Uncertain of his sister’s fate, a boy enters LIMBO. That is all the plot and narrative you get for the whole of your Limbo experience. But it is really all you need to know before embarking on your black and white silhouetted adventure. The opening release for this years Winter of Arcade, Limbo, has some big shoes to fill after last years Winter of Arcade smash hits, Shadow Complex and Trials HD. Well, after playing Limbo I can safely say that the high standard set for the Winter of Arcade is safe, very safe.

Initial impressions, especially from still screenshots, may lead you to believe that Limbo is a low tech bland looking affair. This couldn’t be further from the truth. When great animation comes together with some excellent rag doll physics you have some really great looking moments, most of them being when your life comes to a gruesome end. The eerie sound effects complement this minimalist approach well with the environment sounds not having to fight with any soundtrack or music score. All this pulls together fantastically and allows you, the player, to concentrate on solving the, sometimes fiendish, puzzles and  getting to your sister.

The controls to get you through the land of Limbo couldn’t be more simple. Left stick to move, A to jump, and B to interact with items in the environment. No weapons, time manipulation, or special skills to worry about here. Just you and your arms and legs, legs which don’t propel you very far at that. So moving objects to aid you in reaching that next ledge or crossing that spike pit is a necessity. Some of the puzzles are extremely daunting at first look, I found myself walking away on more than one occasion. But when you do solve that puzzle that has been giving you grief, you will get one of those ‘Aww! Bloody hell! Why didn’t I see that!’ moments due to none of the puzzles being too obscure, a bit weird, but not too obscure.

The only bad points I could mention would be the overall time to complete the game is fairly short and if you manage to solve the puzzles quickly you could have Limbo all finished in a couple of hours. Although there are these strange white things scattered throughout Limbo which need to be collected for the achievements. They don’t affect the game in any way but do give you a reason to revisit each chapter after completion for a bit of exploration and backtracking. The only other problem I have is at a couple of points through the game you find yourself enveloped in darkness and it becomes a bit difficult to see any environmental objects you may need to interact with. Neither of these problems come close to destroying the fun and immersion of playing Limbo.

Closing Comments.

1200 Microsoft Points. It’s a lot, and you expect to get plenty of bang for your cyber-buck these days. This is where Limbo is a double edged sword. Length wise and the low chance of multiple replays make this pretty pricey but, and this is a huge but, the absolute brilliance that has gone into the level design, puzzles, ambiance, and overall package make Limbo, to me, a must buy. Gems like this are just too few and far between and if buying this at full price means more coins in the developers pockets then hell, buy it twice! You even get a couple of Avatar Awards for your effort.

Released 21/7/2010 for 1200 MS Points.

“To infinity and beyond”. Ok now I’ve got that out of my system I promise not to mention it again. Toy Story 3 is the latest release from Avalanche Studios, obviously a tie in to the recently released Disney PIxar movie Toy Story 3. No-ones going to deny that movie tie in games have a unfortunate reputation for being well, rubbish. Fortunately Toy Story 3 for the most part isn’t. It’s actually pretty good.

Right from the start the game shows it has promise, the opening sequence is a play time mission where our hero Woody has to race and fight his way through a ‘on rail’ level where he’s needs to save the orphans from the evil Dr Porkchop. Considering the first level is a tutorial stage where you’re taught the basic controls required to play the game it’s quite exciting.

The single player campaign is played out over eight levels across a story board. I  believe the campaign loosely follows the plot/story line to the movie (I can’t be sure, haven’t seen it yet), but the game does lack a lot of cut scenes or movies, there is just a simple narration as each stage loads giving a very brief description of why you’re about to do what you’re about to do. As vague as the story line seems it doesn’t distract from the actual stages themselves. Each one is varied and well designed and not to forget FUN. The stages vary between third person shooters, 3d platformer, particularly cool Buzz flying game and a few racing events. 

You take control of either Woody, Buzz, Jessie or all three. Each with their own special abilities and skills. Certain levels will require you to switch between characters to achieve the goals. Also some of the levels can be played in co-op. Unfortunately for me the lack of a second controller put pay to me trying it but I understand it works quite well. The goals are very linear and will be quite challenging for many younger players. I even found myself struggling at a few of the puzzles. But fortunately there’s quite a competent HINT mechanic. Where you can either get a simple hint how progress or the game tells and shows you exactly how to progress.

Now listeners to the world famous ButtonMasher podcast will be aware of Brianemone’s undeniable passion for Toy Story 2 on the PS2 and how he expressed concern that there wasn’t going be collectables items throughout the game. Fear not Brian, they are there. Fortunately unlike it’s predecessor the collectables aren’t essential or required to progress through the game, think of them more as a trophy item you can collect IF you want, another incentive to play through again if you will.

Although the single player is short I must stress the fact that the single player campaign is only a fraction of what this game offers. There’s Woody’s Round Up or the Toy Box mode. Think of it as a Red Dead Redemption for pre-teens. Complete task and missions for the town folk to build your fortune and build/decorate your villages and towns to suit. Personally I found this quite a fun distraction, initially I thought I’d give it a quick go to get a understanding of how it worked, before I knew it I’d sunk over twelve hours into it. Without spoiling anything the Toy Box mode is a ever evolving, colourful and exciting addition to the game.

Closing comments:

I was very pleasantly surprised with Toy Story 3. With out seeing the movie I know there are references and lines that were lost on me. Regardless of that I would strongly recommend this title to anyone looking for a game for their kids, its challenging enough to entertain an adult and accessible enough to please the youngins. It’s not perfect (don’t expect movie quality graphics), but it’s easily one of the best movie licensed games I’ve ever played.