WipEout HD provides eight events to compete in and you must get a certain amount of points in each to unlock the next event, each of these events consists of various races and race types, ranging from single race, multi-race tournaments, to speed laps and time trials. One of the most tricky to succeed in is the zone race type, where you have no control over acceleration only steering and your air brakes. as you progress through the laps the speed increases gradually leaving you to rely on your reflexes to get you ship through to a medal place without destroying it, there are no power ups or health to help you, when your ship is out of shield it is game over.

Most of the races in each event are locked and you can unlock them by winning a gold, silver, or bronze medal in the currently unlocked races. When you manage to unlock a new event, you also unlock some goodies including new ships. If you stick with using one ship you do receive loyalty points, which in turn can buy you different paint jobs, unfortunately they do not make your favorite ship perform any better.

Each race type may be best approached by picking specific ships, but I think it is possible, albeit difficult to complete everything with the same vehicle. Races and tournaments against opponents are a fast and furious affair, weapons being fired left right and centre, explosions everywhere, cunning AI, it’s a pleasure to watch it in action.

WipEout HD is not a new game, it’ss actually a compilation of tracks and teams from previous games, but with High Definition visuals, online play and a discount price, it is well worth it.

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A year or so after Tower of Goo was created 2dBoy was formed, a partnership between 2 like-minded game developers. Their first game was to be World of Goo - an update to Tower of Goo, with some real gameplay objectives. The objectives are basically to save the goo-balls. The levels generally all follow the same pattern - there are some goo-balls, sometimes together - sometimes spread around, and you have to get them to the goo-tube and to safety.

The levels are made up of increasingly convoluted physics based constructions. Some levels are empty with nothing more than a yawning chasm to cross, whilst others have mines and spikes and cogs, and wheels, and fire, and all manner of other contraptions that need avoiding (or occasionally using).

Added to the physical objects there are now a whole host of different goo types. In Tower of Goo there were only the tar balls but World of Goo has more than I can count (ie - I haven’t tried to count them). Some examples that I can remember are goo water (hangs straight down), dead goo (can touch spikes), and explosive goo (can be set on fire and burn). The different goo types combined with the wide variety of level designs makes the level variation very interesting.

Once the goo balls have been rescued they are sent to the World of Goo Corporation Factory where you can then compete, with other gamers around the world, to make the highest Goo tower you can (it’s Tower of Goo all over again). The towers are saved on a central server and you can see how others are doing and compare their score with yours. This is a neat way of tying the original Tower of Goo to the new game - and it also gives you an incentive to optimise each level rescuing the maximum number of goo balls possible.

On top of all of this there is a story - something is going on in the Goo World, and it’s up to you to find out what - and I am pretty sure you won’t be able to guess. There’s also a helpful sign painter who leaves hints and tips around the levels. The sign painter, the crazy characters and some charismatic goos all add up to give the game a distinct sense of personality often lacking in games these days.

The sound and visuals both really deserve a mention. The music is wonderful and compliments the look and feel of the game perfectly. The slightly quirky gameplay, visuals and music all meld to make a complete cohesive whole. In fact the game is slightly dark in tone and could even be described as the type of game Tim Burton might create, which is a very good thing.

If you get stuck on a level then you have the option of skipping it, although that means less goo saved, and there are some sometimes annoying, flying bug things that can be clicked on to take you back to a previously safe point. If you do skip a level you always have the option of coming back to it, and you can always go back to older levels to rescue more goos as well.

World of Goo is a fantastic achievement and incredibly enjoyable while it lasts - but it won’t take you very long to complete. To increase longevity there is an OCD (Obsessive Completion Distinction) option in the game that challenges you to complete each level in a tiny amount of moves, and you always have the tower to go back to.

Whilst great I do have a couple of little niggles with the game. Generally the levels are balanced very well, but there are one or two that annoy you to the stage where you want to give up (and in my case do), they can always be beaten but it sometimes takes one too many attempts (and I don’t like to skip levels). Also the undo creatures can get in the way and more than once I clicked one without meaning too. If you want to go back and replay old levels to increase your score then you have to sit through the cutscenes at the end again which can be a bit of a pain if you’ve seen them before and just want to rescue more goos.

The game could also do with a few basic setup options. I suspect their lack is primarily due to the game being developed with the Wii in mind, but I would really have liked the option to play World of Goo in a window rather than full screen and some volume controls would have been nice (the music is fantastic but I like to listen to my own music and with Goo it’s all or nothing).

World of Goo is coming out on PC and Wii on the 13th of October (that would be tomorrow then) and I would highly recommend nabbing a copy as soon as possible. Personally I pre-ordered it which meant receiving it a week early (hence the early review) but whenever you buy it you’re sure to have a lot of fun.

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Pure is a quad bike based racing game. In my opinion quad bikes have a less than stella video gaming history, but Pure takes things back to basics. It’s about racing, and stunts. It’s about getting huge air and doing cool stuff - and travelling incredibly fast!

Before the racing begins you have to complete a very simple (unskippable) tutorial. Once complete you can start the World Tour, but not before building your ATV (All Terrain Vehicle). The quad bikes are built up from scratch, you have to choose the brand and design of every element. There are thousands of combinations of different bike parts, with loads to be unlocked, but personally I found this to be rather overwhelming and don’t really see how they would be that different. It would have been nice if there were some preset bikes you could start with and then customise as you go but I can see it being lapped up by the stats junkies.

The game is split into a variety of game modes but the main one is the World Tour. In it you race in a series of championships earning points according to your finish position in each challenge. Earn the specified amount of points and you will open the next championship. There are 10 tiers with 4 to 7 races in each. Within this there are also 3 types of event. Race, my favorite is a traditional first to the finish line affair, with 3 laps of long complicated tracks. Sprint, is 5 laps of much shorter, simpler, faster tracks. Finally Freestyle mode gets you performing tricks to earn as many points as you can, hopefully doing better than your competitors.

Of the three events the traditional racing is my favorite, with the freestyle levels coming in second. In freestyle mode stunts are key so thankfully they’re easy to do. Before a jump you have to crouch down and then flick up with the left stick, then when in the air press a button with a direction, the more stunts you perform, the more power you earn, which in turn opens up more complex tricks. The power can also be used to boost, making you move even faster.

The races are frantic affairs - you start in a crowd with 15 other racers all pushing for the front. The tracks are very wide and there are loads of possible routes - I love the way the tracks criss cross each other and you can jump from one section to another without getting penalized. There are places where you will get reset by the computer, but mostly you can go wherever you like and this adds a sense of freedom, and realism, where other games often skimp.

For me the elements of the game that make it that something a bit more special are…

1. The sense of speed. Something I often find lacking in racing video games - why do I always feel like I could walk faster than the cars in Need for Speed? Burnout gets the speed thing spot on… so does Pure!
2. The vertigo inducing jumps and the way the music cuts out as you plummet to earth - simply awesome!
3. The wonderful vistas. Many times you will see some roads off in the distance, at the bottom of a ravine, only to find yourself driving along them a couple of minutes later

One thing I do miss is some sort of offline multiplayer, I don’t have XBox Live but would love to have a race against some friends - but that’s just not possible at the moment, however when stacked up beside the rest of the game this is a minor problem everything else is very good indeed.

There really aren’t many things I’d change with Pure, the simplicity of the gameplay, the beautiful art, and the frantic races all add up to make something that really is just, well, Pure.

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Lost Winds seemed to come out of nowhere, only being announced a month or so before it’s release, and looked to be a stand out example of indie ingenuity.

Lost Winds has it’s grounding in the platform genre, but it spreads it’s wings and flies when it comes to the unique features. On screen the Wiimote is used to control a blue cursor that represents the wind spirit Enril. With the power of the wind you can lift Toku, the main character, carrying him across gaps and around the environment. As the story progresses new skills and abilities are unlocked and you get to interact with other objects and elements.

The controls are incredibly intuitive. It does take a little while to get going but the game introduces new elements in a well thought out progression, so you rarely struggle. There is clearly some inspiration taken from the Zelda series in the way that skills are learnt and the levels are structured. You often revisit old locations using new skills to access previously unreachable areas.

The environment is also very interactive. Causing wind gusts not only lifts and carries Toku but it moves grass and trees, lifts and throws rocks, and in later areas lets you control the path of fire.

Lost Winds is presented as a 2d game playing in a 3d environment, which is almost essential considering the wind based control scheme. The visuals are wonderful and, whilst a touch simplistic, serve the game perfectly.

The primary challenge in the game is the controls, learning to move Toku around the world. Before playing I was concerned that there would be some Super Monkey Ball style levels of frustration. When it comes to games I don’t have a lot of patience and I was concerne that there would be parts where I would get stuck. There were moments of this but it always felt like the problems were mine and not the fault of the game so I persevered. As the game progressed the controls became second nature and revisiting the previously troublesome areas proved easy.

The secondary challenge comes from the games enemies. These enemies are a representation of the evil that has been unlocked, and they don’t prove much of a challenge, however some of the later enemies are useful in other ways…

Lost Winds is quite a short game it took me a little under 3 hours to finish, but it is exceptional fun while it lasts and is a great example of the types of games possible from WiiWare. It is also the first chapter in what will hopefully be an epic series.

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I remember playing a demo of Metal Gear Solid on PlayStation 1 many years ago, I had never played anything like it before, the way it opened up like a movie, the gameplay was clever, the mix of sneaking and action was well balanced and the demo ended with a cliffhanger cutscene… I was hooked and wanted more… needless to say it was a game I purchased and played multiple times.

So, what does MGS4 and Solid Snake’s “final” mission bring to the table…

Well, from the opening act of the game you notice how brilliant the game looks, the attention to detail is fantastic and from watching the opening cutscene, you find yourself in control of ‘Old Snake’ infiltrating a warzone to find and assassinate Liquid Ocelot. Snake is disguised as one of the local militia, who are fighting against the invading PMC (Private Military Company), The fact that neither PMC or local Militia are your enemy means you do not really need to get involve in the war raging around you however if you are spotted by the PMC they will fire upon you and hunt you down. On the other hand helping the Militia by taking out the PMC troops will work in your favour and you can walk freely among them without fear of being shot at, but shooting at Militia will mean that both forces will be after you if they see you!

I have to say this is the best looking game I have seen so far, I think Call of Duty 4 comes close but this is something else. The transition from the opening cutscene to gameplay is seamless and its very impressive in some places. The first time you play the opening level is very intense, with large, rampaging, unmanned bipedal tanks called Gekko stalking you through the war torn streets with the rousing musical score adding to the increasing tension.

So what’s new in MGS4?

First of all, Snake has aged somewhat since we saw him last in MGS2, we later learn this is due to nanomachines which he was injected with in MGS.

The Controls have been tweaked, with an over the shoulder aiming system in place which allows you to switch shoulders as you move around, this is handy for aiming while walking through built up areas. You can switch to first person mode at any time for a more accurate shot at your enemy.

Another modification to the game is the weapons and upgrade system, the weapons found on the battlefield are usually ID locked which requires you to pay a visit to Drebin, a gun launderer, he will unlock weapons in exchange for Drebin Points, these points you can accumulate by picking up multiples of the same weapon which Drebin takes off you. With these points you can purchase weapons and extra ammo, even during an intense set piece or boss battle. Weapons can also be customized with the same system so you can add such things as silencers and scopes to your weapons.

Standard Crouch and Prone moves are present as always with the added moves such as edging sideways while prone and rolling sideways while prone. You can even roll onto your back and fire your weapon or throw grenades from there.

The OctoCamo suit is a camouflage suit Snake wears throughout the game, its technology is based on the camouflage tactics that some species of octopus use to blend in with their surroundings. This suit comes in handy for evading PMC troops or Gekko by blending in with any background or surface with the touch of a button. A nice touch is that if you want to remove the pattern the suit picked up when you last used it, you can shake the PS3 controller and the it will blend back to its normal state, this can be done mid cutscene too.

CQC or Close Quarters Combat has been streamlined since its introduction in MGS3, It is a lot easier to use this time round and you will find yourself using it when a PMC Soldier just won’t move from his post! There are various moves; disarm, choke, throw to the ground, hold up and search for items, throat cut and many more. All CQC moves depend on which weapons you are holding at the time.

So Far so good, but it can’t be all good can it? In a word, no, as always throughout the Metal Gear series there are cutscenes that pop up in between short sections of gameplay, which can be a little frustrating having only walked a short distance, as well as the longer cutscenes normally at the end of each act, however in MGS4 they are some of the best you have ever seen, most are action packed, well directed and add to the story and overall experience nicely. The one major downside is the long Mission Briefings which is normally a conversation between Snake and Otacon about what to do and where to go next, while these are playing it does show a more human and vulnerable side to the ageing Snake, they can drag on a little. Whilst they are talking you can take the Mk II (A remote control robotic device) for a spin around the briefing area and pick up items which you can use in game, such as extra ammo and rations.

Once the game has finished there are a series of cut scenes that tell you what is happening to the surviving characters - the cutscenes total a little over an hour, fans of the series will watch and appreciate all the loose ends being tied up, but newcomers may not have a clue what is going on as a lot is covered from previous games.

That aside the rest of the game is simply awesome, old characters make welcome appearances Metal Gear regulars like Johnny and Colonel Campbell are there also, and the new characters are welcome additions, even the shaved, nappy wearing, soda drinking monkey!

Some of the below may be classed as spoilers but I count them as some of the highlights of the game - highlight the text to read it.

All in all the new Metal Gear game is more of what series has given us up until now, however it has been fine-tuned, tweaked and perfected playable in any way you like, stealthily sneaking or all guns blazing, the choice is yours and despite its small frustrations this is a fitting finale to Solid Snakes story, a truly a brilliant cinematic gaming experience.

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This is quite a negative way to start a review. The game is good, very good, and I had high expectations, but unfortunately the bad parts stand out too much to ignore, so I’ll start with them.

Assassins Creed sees you taking the role of a (potential spoiler alert) kidnapped man who was once a killer for hire. He has been taken by a corporation that specialises in some sort of scientific stuff that means they can see into your memories and, more importantly, the memories of your ancestors.

To be honest the story was one of the worst parts of the game for me. Not the fact that it existed, or it was badly written, but that it got in the way of the game. Ubisoft seem to be big fans of having vast amounts of unskippable exposition - and it gets on my nerves. I much prefer the games that tell the story in small amounts as you progress (Zelda, Call of Duty etc), and why can’t I skip the stuff? The first time around it’s mildly interesting, but if you die and have to sit through it all again - and that’s just not fun.

Another thing I didn’t like was the combat. Again, the combat itself was pretty good, but there’s just so much of it. Kill a guard and almost instantly you will be surrounded by more guards. The fights themselves are quite easy to win, and they look great (the first dozen times) but pretty quickly you get to the stage where you can use a single move to win (the counter attack) and so you just have to be patient and get on with it.

Finally, I didn’t like the side missions. Again, the missions themselves were fine, there just wasn’t enough variety to hold my interest - by the time you’ve completed the first three assassinations you have seen all the variety the reconnaissance missions have. Apparently the pc version of Assassins Creed includes a couple of extra types of side mission, and I suspect they would be a welcome change.

Now for the good stuff.

The control and animation system is the most complex, beautiful thing I have seen in any game, ever. The precision with which you are able to run and jump around the environment, the way in which you can climb pretty much everything, it all adds up to some incredible fun. In fact often I was perfectly content running around the cities ignoring the game proper - and the fantastic controls made the stupid flag collecting missions more fun than they should have been.

The cities are vast, and incredibly densely populated with both people and buildings. Around the cities are buildings that are a little bit taller than the others. Climb to the top and you can unlock another part of your sat-nav/ map making finding the individual missions easier. Once you’ve done this you can dive from the tower into a tiny tiny pile of hay which is much cooler than it sounds.

The assassinations are very good fun, each one takes place in a different environment with different surroundings, and different approaches to the ensuing fight. Sometimes the targets stand and fight, other times they runaway. Each is different and requires a new approach to beat and they provide a sense of relief and finality I wasn’t expecting. Unfortunately they are topped off with more exposition which dampens things somewhat.

The game looks fantastic - the animation and world look wonderful, and there are only a few places that suffer from load times. There is one cathedral in particular in Acre. The tower is huge and climbing to the top gives you the best view in the game - the dive from the top is hugely satisfying as well. What’s more, everything you can see from any point in the game can be reached.

Assassins Creed is both a wonderful beautiful piece of art, and a missed opportunity. The bad parts really do stick out, but only because the good bits are so nice and fresh. On the plus side the game lays a very solid foundation for future games in the series, along with other games that use the engine (such as the upcoming Prince of Persia).

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Years ago my dad said “Why does everyone make violent games, why can’t someone make a game about flower arranging?” and I said “because it would never sell dad, no one would want to play it!”. How wrong I was, because I totally failed to predict the emergence of casual gaming.

In Magic Farm your parents are missing on a botany trip or something and you need to earn money to pay various people to help you find them. You earn the money by growing flowers in your magic garden that seems to grow plants and flowers pretty darn quickly!

You start of by planting some flowers in some plots and then you click “start day”. During the day some flowers will appear and you need to click them to harvest them. Also the plants sometimes need water and you click the water icon on them to give them water. Furthermore, snails, wasps and other pests will attack the plants and you have to click them multiple times to whack them out of existence. A day doesn’t last long, maybe a minute at the most, and then you get to sell your flowers.

You can sell the flowers individually but it’s much more lucrative to put them in special bunches. You do this by dragging individual flowers over pre-made bunch templates that change every time you complete a bunch. If you are a hard-core gamer, this probably sounds lame, but I’m open-minded (man) and it’s pretty good fun - my kids loved it for sure. It’s a kind of matching mini-game I guess.

What do you do with the money? Well you farm on a bigger scale of course! You can buy more water barrels, bigger harvesting baskets, a well, more plots, more plants (different varieties) etc. Spending money in-games is always good fun and I really felt like pushing myself to earn as much as possible each day. The gameplay soon becomes totally frantic with flowers popping up everywhere, and pests invading in droves and plants constantly thirsting for water. It’s a crazy click-fest but it’s most enjoyable - especially as you also are rewarded for clicking stuff really quickly.

Amazingly, there’s another element to the gameplay! You get to upgrade your character’s attributes every so often like in an RPG - so you can upgrade your trading skill, your farming skill etc. You even get given a little dragon that roams the garden and helps you harvest, water and fight pests - plus you can even upgrade its skills too! This sort of character upgrade system always appeals to the geek in me.

So what’s not to like? Well some bits of the interface are under-polished visually and sometimes the actual functionality of the interface is impaired. For example, there is a Sell button but you have to click on the word Sell not the square button it’s sitting on - that’s pretty poor interface design. Also in-game the mouse clicks seem to frequently miss (especially on the water symbols). The tutorial is just an ugly green dialog with white text.

However, despite the lack of polish in some areas it’s a hell of an addictive game suitable for players of all ages. I recommend that you download the demo and give it a try today! This game is hot and is doing very well on Big Fish Games. Oh, apparently Magic Farm is very similar to Grimm’s Hatchery, which was pretty popular, so you might want to check that out too.

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The story follows a young boy, Titus, who is trapped in a magical puzzle book. You must complete the puzzles to open the book and free Titus. Ok - so the story is rather contrived but the gameplay mechanic works very well.

You have a certain amount of time to complete the 9 puzzles that make up each chapter of the book. Some puzzles are easy, and others require more time. Occasionally you can get hints but these reduce your puzzle time for that chapter. Experienced gamers and puzzlers will find that most of the games are quite easy, but there is a certain compulsion that draws you on, keeping you playing.

My favorite mini games are the ones that mimic the adventure games of old (Monkey Island and Sam and Max for example). Hunting for objects and then combining them to create a reaction of some sort - to be honest I’d be happy if there was a game that featured just these types of puzzles. Changing the adventure game so that the items are all on a single screen removes a lot of the frustration I used to feel combining the comb with the banana to make some weird contraption. Sometimes the objects are a little hard to pick out but in general these work really well, and make a nice change of pace from the other options. There are also a variety of colour matching mini games, along with puzzles, tangrams, and move the match style brain teasers.

The game features a wonderful level of polish and sparkle that makes the whole experience a joy. The graphics are very nicely made and, despite the wildly varying locations, have a very cohesive look and add to the overall feel perfectly. Likewise the sound and music are both very complete, never getting in the way, and often adding helpful audio cues.

Once you get into the game you’ll find that things move very quickly and, unfortunately, the end will come all too soon. Thankfully I think the game is just the right length. There are only so many mini games you can play, and they last jut the right amount of time -with enough variety to keep you amused for the 5/6 hours it takes to complete the game.

Yes, it’s short, and sometimes a little easy, but a large part of the enjoyment comes from completing all the games and helping Titus escape from Azada.

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The game was designed by some of the team who made the well regarded Wik & The Fable of Souls and this is obvious by the graphics, music and overall “fairy” theme – not cute cartoon-like fairies but the more dark and mysterious type associated with old fay folk tales.

You play a fairy whom must collect pollen in order to return it to a sacred tree that needs the pollen to either heal itself or fight evil fairies or something – I honestly can’t remember the details because the story was crazy long and boring (and unrelated to the gameplay), which I’ll talk about later. Your aim is to fly around the screen (a beautifully rendered mostly static background that is a close-up of something e.g. a castle wall, a statue etc, because fairies are small you see…) and collect randomly floating pollen whilst avoiding a variety of flies that damage you if you touch them. You control the fairy with the mouse by simply moving it around - this is really intuitive and easy, and the fairy moves in a natural manner due to inertia.

As you collect the pollen it gets stuck to your ponytail which gets longer and longer. You can drop off the pollen at a special place at the top of the screen but it’s more fun to wait until your ponytail is full at which point you can click the mouse button to unleash a circular area-effect magical explosion which takes out all the flies it hits. It’s good fun timing it just right to take out the maximum number of enemies. In addition to collecting pollen you also have to free trapped “Swee”, which are these little creatures (friends of the fairies) floating around in green circles. You do this by collecting small green orbs from certain flies that act as keys to release the Swee. I enjoyed this extra gameplay element and wished that there were more similar things.

Also when you destroy flies, they sometimes drop a bonus that activates as soon as you fly over it. Most of these are destructive and have cool effects. It’s great fun grabbing these and mashing the annoying flies in a shower of fancy particle effects.

Every 5th level has a “boss” of sorts, which is a part of the background that is “alive” and attacks you! For example, there is frog that tries to get you with its tongue, flowers that spit out nasty goo, an evil tree that tries to suck you in it’s gnarly mouth etc. These add an extra tactical element to those levels because you have to basically avoid that area of the screen most of the time (you can’t destroy the bosses).

The game has an upgrade system (I LOVE upgrades - it’s the RPG geek in me). Once you have collected enough Swee in-game, you get a star which can be “spent” between levels on one of your stats: Agility, health, strength, magic. Agility moves you faster, and health is obvious. You’ll need to upgrade of both of these a bit. Strength increases the area-affect of your in-game attack (it’s cool when you get it really wide), and magic increases the chance of bonuses appearing (can be pretty useful and fun). You also periodically get awarded new wings that have various effects on you, but you can only choose one pair at a time to wear in-game. One thing you can’t do that might have gone down well with players is customise your fairy (so choose face and clothes/colours at the start of the game) – depends on how many of the players are the clichéd middle-aged female gamer I guess…

I think there are 100 levels. I say this because at first each background is shown for 5 levels then you move onto the next background and there are 10 backgrounds. “Hang on”, I hear you say, “that’s only 50 levels”. Well, when you complete the 9th background, you go back to first one and play another 5 levels but this time there are more flies, you need to collect more pollen ,and the bosses appear on more levels (sometimes two on the same level!). I presume that after completing the 9th background for the second time you get to play the 10th background thus making approx. 100 levels. I haven’t got this far yet.

I found the gameplay quick to get into, yet surprising addictive, and it grows harder nicely as you progress. The 3D-rendered graphics are great and very atmospheric as are the music and sound effects. I’m not sure what market the game is pitched at though because the concept (fairies etc) seems rather “casual” yet the actual gameplay is more like a hardcore game (e.g. avoid enemies, set off powerups and upgrade your character). Anyway I liked it.

Only a couple of things annoyed me about the game: the HUD sometimes gets in the way because you can fly behind it, but that’s not a major issue - the main stinker was the story and it could have been so much better! Let me explain. When the game starts there is an introduction that consists of some really nice artwork on some slides and some scrolling text which a fairy is reading out. The problem is that it’s WAY too long. It goes on for at least 5 minutes and the narrator sounds TOTALLY lifeless – it’s awful, enough to make you want to commit suicide. As a reviewer I sat through it (feeling I ought to) with my 4-year-old son on my lap, and eventually I failed to prevent one of his many frantic attempts at clicking past the intro before he reached old age. Then there is no story for many levels but when it reappears it’s the same lacklustre format. It would have been much better as a couple of quick slides and some well-narrated “enthusiastic” speech that appeared every couple of levels. Then *many* more people would have been able to appreciate the great artwork and storytelling. That’s my 2 cents as a game designer anyway…

OK story aside, this is a fun and addictive game with a unique feel, unusual gameplay mechanic and great atmosphere. I recommend it to people who like action games and casual games because this game is a sort of cross-over between core and casual gaming (the new holy grail according to some people).

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It’s a retro style game that reminds me of a classic arcade game called Silkworm, which I thoroughly enjoyed on the Amiga in my teenage years. Basically it’s a side scroller where you control a tank (with the mouse) and have to blow up an assortment of airborne enemies and the occasional ground based vehicle too.

At first it’s easy to play, but it soon becomes pretty damn hard and you need the reflexes of a teenager on amphetamines. However, I enjoyed the challenge up until about level 12 where I stopped playing. There are 19 levels in all. This might not sound like many but you’ll be replaying them a lot trying to beat them.

You can upgrade 6 different weapon types (which all fire at once!) including guns, lasers, rockets etc. You can also get protective orbs that circle your tank and during each level you pick up “mega weapon” parts. When the mega weapon is ready you can unleash some serious firepower for a short period of time. Oh and you also have nukes of course

It’s pretty important to learn the different types of enemies and what waves they appear in to be able to complete a level. Also each level has a boss (as is expected!) The game is pretty funny, for example the levels have names like “vodkavania” and “antagonistan”.

Graphics are well polished with lots of nice effects and the sound and music are appropriate. I highly recommend you try this game out. You’ll have loads of fun just playing the hour demo, although I ended up buying it because I needed MORE!

I’m giving it 4.5 stars because it was so addictive and so much fun at first. Perhaps it could be marked down to 4 stars for being too tough later on as I wish it was a little easier and I could actually complete the game, oh well, maybe you’ll have better luck.

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