My first introduction to Rare was back in the mid 90’s with the Donkey Kong Country games that I had for my SNES along with Killer Instinct in the arcades and they quickly became one of my favourite developers. Then in 1997 they brought out what I still to this day hold as the best game I have ever played; Goldeneye on the N64. I loved Goldeneye but after playing it I realized that I was starting to grow up from ‘cutesy’ games, I still enjoyed playing Super Mario 64 but I had forever been turned into an FPS junkie. So when Banjo Kazooie came out I never bothered to pick it up, I remember watching a few demos in my local games shop and not being interested at all. So here I am 10 years on reviewing it for Live Arcade so I must admit this is the first time I have ever played it, and I am not impressed at all.

I recently dug out my old N64 and had a quick go on Super Mario 64 and found the game to still be very enjoyable and it has aged well but I cannot say the same for Banjo Kazooie. The game has many similarities to Mario 64, just nowhere near as good though. The controls are rather limited and Banjo feels sluggish when he jumps and swims, the camera controls are sticky and not particularly easy to rotate around, getting a good view of your surroundings can be annoying. The textures in the game world seem dull and lifeless  too, I know this may all seem a bit harsh for a game that was made 10 years ago and I’m sure Rare did the best they could with the tools they had at the time but at the end of the day this game just feels like 2 steps back from the awesome Mario 64. The later levels have some very frustrating game play elements and this is all for a hefty price tag of 1,200 points. Those of you looking for a trip down an N64 memory lane will be sorely disappointed with this title. 

I’d say there’s quite a lot of competition out there for block based puzzle games, I enjoy playing Bejeweled and I still love Super Puzzle Fighter.  So here we have a new entrant into the market with Meteos Wars , it doesn’t really bring anything new to the genre but it’s addictive, there are plenty of game modes to keep you entertained and the online multiplayer is pretty fun too.

The main objective is to match three colours in a row, either  horizontally or vertically and then blast them off the top of the screen. There is a cool sci fi twist to the game also the blocks are supposed to be the alien invaders or ‘Meteos’ and you are blasting them off your planet as they land. It’s a very basic story but so what this is a block puzzle game.

As usual with these types of puzzle games the gameplay is fast and addictive but what I really liked best was the gravity effect that is in the game. Each level represents a planet and each planet has different strengths of gravity, so some of them will have zero gravity making it very easy to launch the blocks off into space but later on there will be much stronger gravity on the planets and thus the blocks get heavier which results in them being launched upwards a lot slower. This can make for some really frantic levels later on and you need to be pretty fast to get through.  There are also special blocks to destroy for certain missions along with some interesting power-ups.

When I first downloaded this game I was very skeptical with the amount of similar games there are already on the market but I am pleased to say that Meteos Wars is both unique and enjoyable and I highly recommend it as one of the best Arcade releases in a while.

Try saying that 3 times fast!!

As we wait with much anticipation for the return of the best and most well known beat-em-up series of Street Fighter in its fourth installment of the series Capcom has made the wait a bit easier by blessing us with a graphically vamped edition of the classic Street Fighter II Turbo. This is a game that was the sole result of the controllers for my SNES getting worn down to nothing during my teenage years. It was one of those games that you could even pull out at parties and everyone would want to have a go. The game overall is still very straightforward and still holds true to the original gameplay. In fact I found the gameplay so sold after all these years that it made me wonder why the majority of modern fighting games still can’t replicate it.

HD Remix has fantastic visuals that are bright and sharp, all the characters look like they have been taken straight from one of the Street Fighter anime movies, which is exactly how they should look. The sound has also been remixed by OC Remix and they have done a fine job. I found the controls to be very tight which is quite rare for games that utilize the D-pad on the 360 controller. You can of course plug in an arcade stick but I am someone who grew up mainly playing Street Fighter games from home so the D-pad is what I know best.

I haven’t tried online play due to the fact that my connection isn’t so good. Slow down in fighting games can ruin the experience so if your connection is slow like mine then stick to local games. I always found it better to be sat next to your rival when you take him down with super ‘Ha –do-ken’ anyway

Super Street Fighter II HD Remix is aimed squarely at hardcore Street Fighter fans, it can of course be enjoyed by casual gamers and first timers just don’t expect any bells and whistles though. The gameplay is probably stronger than any other XBLA action/fighting game out there though and I can guarantee that you’ll be playing this for months to come.

Kingdom for Keflings initially sounded like a teeny bopper game that I usually wouldn’t touch with a 10 yard pool but thankfully has turned out to be a real gem and a nice original title to add to XBLA and it’s heavily addictive.

The basic concept of the game is something much similar to the Civilization series but a lot simpler. This is the first game that utilizes your avatar from the new dashboard update. Your avatar acts as a giant that can interact with the Kefling people and help them out with duties such as chopping down trees, carrying them around etc, it’s quite like the giant pets you have in ‘Black and White’ and works very well. Due to using my personal avatar I felt much more attached and involved than using a pet.

So the basics of this game are resource gathering and building your town up. You can assign tasks to different Keflings by picking them up and then dropping them off say at the forest and then they will chop and gather wood. You can upgrade your resource gathering by building a lumbermill that turns logs into boards and then later a woodcarver who can make carve the planks to make more intricate designs for your buildings. Once your town is built and populated you become the mayor and then need to complete quests to improve your giant and enable him or her to move faster, build quicker etc.

Overall I found this game pretty good, I am quite into complex strategy games but I still managed to enjoy this and highly recommend it.

I remember this coming out on the Playstation back in the late 90’s, if I can recall it was pretty good at the time but also there seemed to be quite a few other ‘death race’ style games around then and this one didn’t exactly stand out from the crowd. Initially I was excited to play this but I realized that 10 years on the gameplay hadn’t aged that well, for most of the battles I was either driving straight into enemies and blazing away with my weapons or I was reversing back from them whilst trying to keep them at bay with my rockets.

For single player there is a quest mode where you can choose from eight vehicles and then play through three different arenas and for each arena the number of enemy vehicles increases. Downed enemies drop salvage which can be collected to increase your damage points and weapon combos.

Single player mode gets pretty dull once the nostalgia has worn off but luckily the multi player mode is pretty solid. For online play you can have a total of eight buddies playing and there are five arenas, there’s also a split screen mode. It’s also worth mentioning that you can have 4-way split screen which is pretty rare these days. From the little amount of time I spent playing this online I didn’t incur any lag and found it quite enjoyable but I am not sure how long the online community will stick with V8.

Overall Activision have done justice with V8 and if the online community sticks with it then it should be in the top ten for a while.

Yes ok I know I shortened the title but sorry the full name is ridiculously long….anyway on with the review. Back in May Penny Arcade was ported over to XBLA and was an instant hit. If you don’t know about Penny Arcade it was originally from a website that made fun of video games, it had a wacky story with some great combat and ridiculous dialogue. After the first one was released the developers promised a saga of episodes and thankfully they haven’t made us wait too long for this latest installment.

Players returning from the first episode get to keep all their stats in part two, if you are new to the series you can still create a new character but you may miss out on some of the jokes from EP 1. Episode 2 is like all great sequels, it takes the best parts of the first game and builds on them, the turn based combat system is well balanced and  will get you hooked  and the weird humor will keep you laughing throughout.  There are two characters to choose from and each has 3 moves including a special attack. The special attacks are performed via mini games and are pretty fun but can get repetitive. You get experience points for your character but sadly there are no skills or perks to unlock, I’m guessing the developers wanted to keep things simple as it’s just an arcade game but I would have liked at least some skills to build on.

Some people may be turned off by this game if they aren’t RPG fans or think that they need to have followed the web comic to enjoy the game. This couldn’t be any further from the truth, anyone can pick this game up and enjoy it and downloadable RPGs on Live Arcade are pretty rare. Ok the price isn’t cheap pout it’s a polished product and if you are prepared to pay 800 points for a basic port of some early 80’s game then you should be prepared to pay 1200 for a quality game like this. 

Age of Booty is a simple and fun game to play that can be a bit boring played alone but shines in online play. The gameplay is basic and easy to grasp, it’s a point and click RTS , you control a pirate galleon seeking treasure across a battlefield that’s made up of hexagonal tiles on which you must capture towns and gather resources. The resources available are wood, gold and rum all of which can be used for different purposes. You use the wood and gold for making purchases and building towns whilst the rum is for keeping your crew happy. The game has been simplified by making firing and attacking automated, as soon as you move into an enemy occupied area the computer will take over. I suppose the idea here was to keep you concentrating on the strategy side but I didn’t like having battles taken over by the AI. Town’s are captured using the same method and once it is taken your flag is planted next to it, you can then use whatever resources you have to upgrade the town’s defenses and stop other pirates from taking it.

The AI of the enemies leaves a lot to be desired but I wasn’t really expecting much from it. The multiplayer mode is when it really livens up though. You can have up to 4 players on one console playing via split screen which is always a blast and online supports up to 8. There’s also a hefty collection of 30 maps plus a map editor to create your own swashbuckling adventures that there’s a lot of life in this game. Overall Age of Booty is a fantastic Arcade game that has plenty to offer.

Portal was originally part of The Orange Box game pack bundle from Valve and it was quite an interesting addition. Taking a FPS game engine and making it into a twisting and mind bending puzzle game with some real laugh out loud moments. When I first played it I found it a bit dull and didn’t come back to it until long after I’d finished all the Half Life episodes, but on my second play of it I became engrossed and began to appreciate what Valve had done. I must admit I was pretty poor at the game and the last level took me an age but upon completion I had a feeling of satisfaction but also yearning to be tested further.

 If you don’t know much about Portal then here’s a quick brief: you are a test subject (or human lab rat) in an Aperture Science research facility. Here a new teleportation device is being tested that can fire space bending ‘portals’ onto solid objects, you can then use these portals to move around the level. You are released from your sell by an automated machine and are then put through a series of tests using the teleportation device. Some of the tests can have fatal endings, but it’s all done with a humorous twist. To be it seemed like one of the Cube movies crossed with Monty Python.

 So a year later the original Portal is back but this time for returning players it has been extended by an extra 14 levels and also another 12 achievements, it also comes with a hefty price tag of 1200 points. Seeing as I loved the first one though I am prepared to look past the price, if you never played it then I strongly recommend that you get it as it’s probably one of the most original and intuitive games available for XBLA . For those of you who didn’t think much of it in the Orange Box bundle then I’d give this new version a miss.

Megman was always one of those games that made me want to smash my controller and never play games again it was that damn hard. One of the first systems I ever had was a SNES (or Famicom in the US) so the first Megaman game I ever played was Megaman X, this version was much more advanced than the earlier versions on the NES and so I found it a little strange to go back and play this very basic version from the 80’s. Megaman 9 is about as basic as it can get, right from the intro screen you can see that no extras have been added to the graphics or sound, this was quite nostalgic and at first I enjoyed it but once the game started the blocky graphics really made me long for the SNES version. Die hard fans of the series will no doubt love this though as I am sure they will love the gameplay and difficulty settings which are just as hard as the originals. Each level gets tougher and tougher and there is a pretty steep learning curve. All of the levels will also have their own twist making you restart many times too, there are fall through tiles on Concrete Man along with other traps. I really missed the ability to grab onto the sides of walls and slide down them like in the ‘X’ series and also being able to power up my arm gun.

There are 8 levels in the game and experienced gamers should be able to breeze through it in a couple of hours but the replay value is going to come from redoing levels in set times along with the achievements. Capcom have also promised some DLC in the near future.

Overall Megaman 9 isn’t a bad arcade title, I just think for a game this dated it should either have something else added to it or be a lot less than 800 MS points.