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.

Did you know that Wugga doesn’t like Coffee? Not only that but he doesn’t like the flavour of coffee in things like cakes. Crazy huh.

iTunes - RSS – Play

Warts and all.

iTunes - RSS – Play

Two games announced in one day, by the same developer no less. Insomniac sure is a beast now. Resistance 3 by the main studio, and Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One (featuring 4-player co-op) by the new studio in North Carolina.

But where’s that multiplatform EA title I wonder? Aren’t these both Sony properties?
Live-action Resistance 3 teaser after the break.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As promised, here is your Dragon Age II trailer.

Featuring an epic battle between your character, Hawke, and some scary dude with horns. Though like Commander Shepard, of course your Hawke could be female if you wanted to.

In other news, Mass Effect 2 is coming to PS3 early next year.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

While 2K Marin was left to take care of BioShock 2, Irrational Games was sneakily working on the third BioShock game. And guess what, it takes place in the sky! First exploding RC cars, and now flying cities — videogames are crazy!

So BioShock Infinite. The story takes place in 1912, a good 30 years before Rapture was built. Your character actually talks and has a personality, and you also get an AI companion. So it might not have the same creepy atmosphere as the first two titles, but change is good, and that’s what the industry should be about. It’s scheduled to drop sometime in 2012, so hopefully Levine and Co. can finish it before the world is destroyed by meteors or something.

These epic CGI trailers are a bit too common these days, but there’s one after the break if you care to look.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And you thought they couldn’t possibly trump the night vision goggles. The prestige edition for Treyarch’s new game contains… a remote controlled car!

And it’s no ordinary RC car either, it’s a fully equipped “surveillance vehicle” with a microphone and video camera that transmits back to the controller. The car also features as a killstreak reward in Black Ops’ multiplayer.

Sure it’s about as useless as the night vision goggles — I mean how discrete really is an RC car? But if you want to plunk down your money on one, the opportunity’s there…