This post is in response to the wonderful post over on Engadget about the latest release of NPD numbers concerning portable gaming.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/10/timber-ios-and-android-take-60-percent-cut-of-mobile-gaming-dol/

Saw an interesting story fly across the wire on Google Plus. Apparently, nearly 60% of all portable game software sold is on Android or iOS. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise, most of the world’s high-tech industries are seeing major changes as mobile platforms become the dominate form of computing, business, and entertainment. Gaming is just one of many industries being completely changed from the ground up.

In the classic system, becoming a game developer on a console or handheld system is extremely difficult and expensive. First, you must contact Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo to obtain a very expensive development kit for your particular system. This is a hard enough barrier to entry. If you have the creative ability and development skill to put a game together, but don’t have the funds for the development kit, too bad. You don’t get to create a game. Even worse than this though is the fact that game companies can deny you the sale of the developer kit for just about any reason, especially if you are just one guy who wants to make a game. Its happened before and it will happen again. The next thing you need to worry about is licensing fees. Can your game make enough money to pay the console manufacturers off so they will sign off on your game and allow people to play it on their console? Hopefully. This is why games today have publishers and game publishing has become an industry of its own. Just like artists used to need record labels before the internet music scene changed everything. Video game developers need someone to pay the bills for all the big fees and purchases. As an indie developer who wants to put out a boxed copy of your game, the barriers to entry make it almost an impossible reality.

Game companies have been attempting to help the small guys out with online stores such as Xbox Live Arcare and Xbox Live Indie Games, the PlayStation Store, and DSiWare and WiiWare. These stores have helped a great deal, but it doesn’t help capture the one thing that will make an indie game endlessly profitable: Market. Yes, all of these stores have huge numbers of users, but for the most part, people are tied to a device that are tied to a wall. In the case of the PSP or DS, indie developers run into many of the same licensing and dev kit cost issues that console developers do. The price of entry is too damn high.

Enter: The Smartphone. With the meteoric rise of smartphones and powerful always-connected mobile devices, it was only a matter of time before games on these devices took over the industry. Recent NPD numbers indicate that iOS and Android mobile game sales account for 58% of the total revenue of U.S. Portable Game Software. 58% of the industry’s revenue is because of iOS and Android games. Even the once-proud king Nintendo is down to 36%. Nintendo has always had a very cocky attitude towards competition in the mobile space after they launched the original Game Boy in 1989, always quashing the competition without so much as a second glance. Even the PSP, their biggest competition yet, stood no chance against the DS’ onslaught of sales. Nintendo has always battled against other gaming companies, but they’ve never battled against a different business model entirely, and they’re losing the game. For the first time since 1989, Nintendo isn’t winning the mobile games race.

One point to consider: These numbers signify revenue, not sales numbers or profits, but actual money brought in from sales. Some may claim that the statistics are unfair to Nintendo and Sony, its two companies versus the entire world of developers, but that’s exactly the point: Smartphone developers have no barriers to entry (aside from the $100 or $25 developer fees depending on platform) to get into the market and sell their game to the world of smartphone users. People who want to develop for the DS or PSP need to jump through rings of fire to do so. The old theory from the IBM and Microsoft days stands true, if you make it easy for developers, that’s where the programs will go, that’s where the people will go, and that’s where the money will go. And that’s exactly what’s happening in today’s smartphone-powered world. Great games can be created with small teams and put out for sale in the public market for the cost of a developer account and the time it took you to make your game, nothing more. No publishers, no additional licensing fees, no hoops. Just you, your game, and your potential customers. At this point, the developer doesn’t need to worry about making enough money to cover fees (if you make a game for $1 on either platform, 30% is taken from that, not up front like most manufacturers require), they don’t need to worry about playing politics with exclusivity, they don’t need to find a publisher for their game, they only need to worry about one thing: Reviewers. Just like its always been, the great games rise to the top. The thing developers need to concern themselves with making a great game and making sure bugs are fixed. If that happens, if the game is good enough, it can make an incredible amount of money, with almost no overhead costs, and end up fueling their bank account for the next several months.

One of the reasons that people are buying games on smartphones instead of handhelds is that the smartphone markets offer better choices for consumers, a better buying experience, and a better way of treating your customers. When I buy a Virtual Console game on the Wii, I can’t play it on my 3DS. It doesn’t work that way, Nintendo wants me to buy it twice. No thank you. If I buy Fruit Ninja, however, all I need to do is download it onto my tablet, and I’m gaming in no time. Its that easy. I buy it once and I have it forever. I upgraded my phone to the Nexus S and all of my games re-installed, it was so simple. When I bought my 3DS and the e-store opened, I couldn’t have been more disappointed. Even though I had bought games on the Wii, I thought a few would allow me to re-download them and play without being tethered to my Wii all the time, but no. They wanted me to re-buy them. The e-store on the 3DS is slow, buggy, crashes, sometimes downloads don’t complete successfully. All in all, its a bad buying experience. Because the e-store is so slow, I never open it, I check for new games every two months, if that. The e-store is simply awful to use. Now, with Android, I can read a game review of Angry Birds Rio, go to the Android Market website, and have it download without ever having to touch my phone. I get up from my computer and the app is right there on my phone. Seamless, easy, simple, helpful. These are the things I, as the consumer, should think of when I use an online store.

On Google Plus, Darnell Clayton shared this link with me and said, “Apple and Google are killing the gaming industry.” This got me thinking, are Apple and Google killing the gaming industry. Yes, but only this chapter of the industry. Here’s my response (which was a comment on the original post):

Actually Apple and Google are becoming the gaming industry. The gaming industry itself is just fine, alive and well, its just trading out cards, just like what happened with the fall of Atari. The big companies aren’t Atari and Commodore, and it isn’t going to be Microsoft and Nintendo anymore, with platforms that support open development without the need for hugely expensive SDKs and hardware, just about anyone can make a game in a few weeks that could become the hottest thing ever (see Angry Birds). Sony is in an interesting position because they aren’t only accepting this change, they are embracing it. With the release of the Xperia Play and their official PlayStation app, they wholly admit that the best gaming device is the one you have on you (like the best camera is the one you have on you), and they are making moves to thrive in that market.

If existing gaming companies don’t get a handle on the changing market, they’re dead. They will be killed by companies like Gamevil, Glu Mobile, and Halfbrick Studios. These tiny dev houses haven’t just survived the harsh gaming industry, they’ve thrived in it. Even EA Games, classically one of the more stubborn and un-inventive publishers, has made moves to exist in emerging markets like social network games (Facebook and Google+) and smartphone games. The games industry is like any other industry, when your industry is undergoing rapid change, you either evolve with it or die.

The next few years will be interesting. With Nintendo claiming that they’ll never embrace the future, clinging to their rotary phones and cassette tapes, and Sony jumping headfirst into the mobile phone space, things are going to get very interesting very quickly.

The first was simply put as the Iron Man fighting game tournament. I was in a group of 6 people and I had to face each of them in each of the following games- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Capcom vs SNK 2, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Breakers Revenge, and last but not least Vampire Savior which is the 1997 version of the Darkstalkers series. To be honest I was completely outmatched by damn near everyone that I had to go up against. Each game you played two out of three out of five rounds and I learned a few things right off the bat.

1: No matter how good I think I am or how decent I may be at a game someone will and can kick my ass no matter what I do.

2: Breakers Revenge is full of broken shit that allows me to do nothing all the while the people I go up against keep coming at me with an onslaught of terror.

3: Apparently I am a lot better at Vampire Savior than I ever would have thought (Felicia FTW!).

Yea shes a cat, whatever she kicks so much ass.

4: That my combo of Cammy, Ryu, and Sagat are hard to beat if in Capcom vs SNK 2 if I just remember how the hell to use sagat as a spam/distance fighter.

5: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure might be up there for the best fighting game I have ever played even though I cannot imagine what the hell the people were on when they made the comic and the two fighting games based off of it.

Regardless of all of that I went 5 out of 25 and did not advance to the next round. It was a huge learning experience and one of the many I had throughout the day. The best part was I started to realize that all these guys were like a community of friends and when they watched each other they wanted to give tips on what they could have done to do better. Even without knowing any of them I was quickly accepted and was involved in a lot of discussions with the overall group of people. Jesse also participated in this tourney but did not do as well…although I cannot recall his record.

Ok time for tourney two of the day and of corse as luck would have, it turned out to be a “Mystery Game” tournament. Essentially I was forced to play some of the worst titles I can ever imagine.You played two out of three rounds…if it was a fighting game and if you lose twice you are out of the tournament.

The first game I played was entitled: Joy Mech Fight. This game was a fighting game made back in 1993 for the famicom. We played it on a top loader and I have to be honest, if you look at this game for a second you will say “Wow this game has to be one of the shittiest games I have ever seen.” Honestly I loved it, they had a lot of diverse fighters for a game that was released on Nintendo. I also just found out that it had a 38 player roster, which if you can your math most games in 1993 had roughly 15 so that is astounding. I won my fight using a character that was named Tiger and did it using his diving kick attack.

To me he is a cross between Sagat from Street Fighter, and Rax from Eternal Champions. Oh in other news the attack is called the eagle kick, and was my weapon of mass destruction.

The next game was DX Hird…which I would love to provide you with a good review or picture but it has been so long the only thing i remember is that it played like Battle Arena Toshiden 3 and was terrible looking. It is so obscure that I spent 10 minutes on google looking up and down for it and I have nothing but one man talking about how bad it is in a forum…I was unaware that a game could suck that bad that no physical evidence exists.

Next up was Masked rider Agigo, which is a game based off of the Japanese television series Kamen Rider. This game was one of the prettiest games that I can remember from the tourney and the actual movement from the characters looked great. This game was not responsive at all and even if you wanted to use one of your strong attacks it would take about 4 seconds to load the damn thing up before you could go and use it. None the less I won this game as well. Once again I cannot get a picture of the game I am referencing so deal with it.

After that came Heaven’s Gate which is a game so bad that wikipedia does not have an existing article about it. I remember it being for the PS1 and kinda reminding me of Virtua Fighter except way way worse. All I know is that I won this game as well but honestly I cannot remember anything about it upon seeing pictures other than what I just told you.

THIS GAME IS BAD! I also realize Jin looks like Hanzo from World Heroes.

The next game was Sailor Moon S, which as you could guess was a Sailor Moon fighting game. The control and response to this game are some of the saddest I have experienced. I mean they could actually be worse but holy god, I really think they just liked to rush fighting titles based on random cartoons in Japan because they know people would buy it. Think about it Sailor Moon was/might still be that popular over there so this makes sense. Once again this game was another win for the Martyr.

This game is a lot worse than it looks.

The only game I played that was not a fighting game was a heated match of Frogs and Flies. You are a frog who jumps in the air and tries to eat the dots they call flies that are on the screen. Two people go at the same time and it starts off as day and after every 30 seconds or so it gets darker and darker until it goes black and a winner is determined. This was the closest game I actually played during the entire Mystery Game match-up. It was also a great game to shout expletives as my frog would jump like a huge pussy or just jump way too hard off his lily pad due to the great controls of the Atari that we played it on. Chalk up another win.

This game is actually more fun because the controls suck so bad. I have never cussed more at a game in a short amount of time then I did at this one.

The final game I would win at was Natsuke Crisis Battle and it was for the Super Famicom. After getting my ass kicked the first round I had the misfortune of picking the female version of Zangief and somehow pulled off some of the biggest bullshit moves once I figured out she was just like him. I do not mean in the spamming lariat sense, but the 360 degree rotation while jumping to throw my opponent into the ground type of character.

Very obscure never heard of game of good god damn reasons.

Finally I was able to play a arcade game for the tourney and it was Karate Champ. This game has one of the least responsive controls I have ever seen in a fighting game. You play until you get two full points or the time runs out. Points are given based on the attack you use and where you inflict the attack. You use two joysticks, one moves you and the other helps attack. Depending on the two directions you move the joysticks, you can do front flips, jump kicks, and other crazy karate shit. Biggest problem with this game is that the hit detection has to be really perfect. If you are off by 1/18th of a second or if you are kinda too close to them the move will not be  completed. None the less I had a hell of a fight but still lost by a half a point.

There is not a better feeling than executing the jump kick for the full point. TO THE FACE.

The last game I was able to play for this was the very creatively named FIST. This by far was the worst thing that I played the entire day. I really wish I could get a picture of it just to show you how bad it is. The controls were terrible, the game play was worse. It was on the PS1 but I swear it looked and felt like a blind man made a game using random code that sounded good to him in his mind and he turned it into FIST. 

Yep this is all I could find. Thank you Ebay.

After my two losses I had to get ready for the final tournament of the night and I am not sure where I finished exactly I just know that I did really damn good and came pretty close to actually getting to the final. I then had to prepare myself to be entered into the King of Iron Fist Tournament, or at least the sixth edition of Tekken anyway. As fate would have it I had to go up against my buddy Jesse in the first part of a round robin event. Each match was 3 out of 5 rounds and 2 out of three fights. The first match I decided to use Bruce and after Jesse dominated the shit out of me I looked him in the eyes told him I was sorry and picked Eddy Gordo. I do feel bad that I had to use one of the cheapest characters against a guy that never really plays Tekken too much but I needed to get that first (and only win of the day) so I chose him and beat Jesse’s ass. I decided that after the fight Jesse and I had that I had to pick a character I was good with that was not someone people knew how to defend well. I thought about Eddy again, but he is a beginner character so I knew I stood no chance with him…after several minutes of debate I said “Fuck It” and I picked Jack 6. Jack is slow as all hell but is very powerful and has great reach and the ability to put the opponent into the air to juggle…slight problem is that I am not good enough with him to know how to consistently keep the person in the air. Overall I faced about 10 different people and lost to all of them. Most of my matches were very close and I met a few people that will be at the Power Up event at the end of the month that I plan on attending.

While playing against all these great players I was told a few different things from some of the participants.

1: The fact that I chose Jack when almost no one really is comfortable with him, threw most of my enemies off because they did not know what to expect.

2: I am very good at blocking and anticipating low attacks which is key to keeping a match as close as it can be given most juggle attacks start from a low to high position.

3: That for it being my first tournament that apparently I was skilled a lot higher than anyone thought I would have been when I told people it was my first tournament.

4: That the word Perfect, is described as “The seven golden letters” and you better not let that shit happen to you.

Like I said before this was one of the best things I had ever done and I learned a lot from it. Met a lot of awesome people who seem to want me to go back, and I earned the respect of people I have never met because I had the balls to pick a character that no one plays with while trying to compete with people much better than my sorry ass. If you ever have the chance to go to Arcade Legacy you need to. It is 10 bucks to play all night, and all the games are free and set up so all you have to do is hit the start button to enjoy some classics such as Killer Instinct, MVC2, Point Blank and many others. For further understanding check their website.

http://arcadelegacy.wordpress.com/

In Japan it was known as Street Fighter Zero 3 so this picture is still accurate

I personally remember seeing this at the local video store the day the game came out and losing my shit. The day was April 30th 1999, and I remember being the first person to rent that game to this day. By now you can tell that I am a huge fan of fighting games and there are so many that I need to review so why would I choose this one to follow Killer Instinct you might wonder? This is the best game in the entire series that changed the genre of fighting games forever. This game boasts the biggest roster for a street fighter game to this day with a whopping 34 fighters when it hit the home consoles. The entire reason everyone is fighting is because Bison has something called the Psycho-drive, he of course being the level headed man he is wants to use it to destroy the world as we know it to basically make it a wasteland and blowing away all the people he has met in the process. Slight problem is that even though he is the second strongest person in the world he cannot power it himself so he needs the body of a “Fighter” to throw into the Psycho-drive and power the unholy hell out of it until it makes the world a’splode. Depending on who you choose to fight with the story will change and you even have dialogue set ups before certain matches to give you a little insight to what the hell is going on. Even better is the fact that if you do get to what you assume is the final showdown with M. Bison you have to fight a sub boss consisting of Balrog or Juni and Juli (Both the girls are actually clones of M. Bison and basically copycat Cammy the whole time.) Once you get through all that and you finally get to face the man himself…you only get one opportunity. You either win two rounds, or lose two rounds and waste all that time getting to him because it will just show a cut-scene of your character being thrown into the Psycho-drive and chaos ensues.

Another unique thing about this game is how there are several different styles you can use for your super combos. You have the normal A-ism combo system which basically just gives you three different levels to get your meter up to and depending on what button you press that determines the amount of damage you can inflict with your super combo. The second is the X-ism which is basically just one big ass meter you have to fill before you can pull of super combos and then there is finally the V-ism which gives you the ability to actually make up a combo using certain buttons presses on the fly so pick your poison and either way if you know what your doing then you should be good. Back to the characters for a minute. Like I previously stated there happen to be 34 of them but in all honesty I pretty much pick the same five or six all the dame time.

First and foremost when it comes to Street Fighter games in general if this person is in it I must play with them. Cammy White is single handedly the hottest thing that the series has ever had (Fuck Chun Li and her huge offensive lineman like thighs) and is the first girl I ever had a crush on which 1: Is sad to admit that a video game character that could kill me in like 1,000 different ways is the first thing I had a crush on. 2:Is completely plausible because shes hot as hell and I will defend that (along with her honor) to my dying day.Lastly 3: Is probably the exact reason I decided to start playing as her and kicking ass all the fuck over the place. She is fast but not strong, which is really not too hard to compensate for if you just have a good strategy and hell her special moves help her avoid projectiles so shes good against characters that throw random shit. Also the fact that she is not a charge character even if her moves seem to be that of a person who would require a charge is a good thing so you can just use the same rolling motions some of your favorite characters have and completely dominate.

Cammy Fucking White is dressed up as a soldier promoting one of the best games Capcom has ever made holy shit I don’t think my brain can handle the awesome. Quick question is it a little odd that I now want to fuck that plane because of Cammy being near it?

Second there is Rolento. Rolento is a military genius that is fast yet stronger than most fast characters and has what might be the second strongest super combo in the game. He throws out a trip wire to lynch the opponent when a man from the sky dangles a god damned metal hook to assist you. His attacks overall are kinda iffy at best but if you can get used to his style he is a very good character to use. By the way Capcom I am not calling you out for being Disney-esque when it comes to overt racial prejudice, but if anyone has the opportunity to play as Rolento and do the trip wire lynching to Balrog…all I have to say is that I have not seen anything as blatant as the expression Balrog’s face has when he gets the attack done to him since the civil rights movement existed. Seriously Capcom, I have never once doubted you or questioned at least to a serious degree but holy fuck.

Third is Balrog. I remember playing Street Fighter II Championship Edition in the arcade and picking him simply because he looked just like Mike Tyson. He is a slow but amazingly powerful charge based character and I honestly think he is one of my better people to play as in any of the games he has appeared in. Mind you he is a little harder to use due to his sluggishness, but honestly if you get good with him he is a serious contender in any match you can throw him in. Plus his throw consists of him just throwing headbutt after headbutt into the persons concussed skull.

Forth is Ryu. Yes hes the poster boy for the series and yes he is a bad ass.

Fifth is undoubtedly Akuma. For starters his name means Devil in Japanese, and you cannot get much more over the top than just being named after the demon-man himself. Second he is the most powerful character in the game and is very fast as well so you simply cannot lose when you are using him, or well if you do lose you should probably just quit your life as you have failed harder than most people ever could. His best and most powerful ultra combo is the “Shun Goku Satsu” which translates into Instant Hell Murder. There is not a move in video game history with a better name. There just simply is not one. When it comes to Akuma he only fights people that he actually thinks pose a threat to him and can test his skills as a warrior. He will never fight an unworthy opponent because of his “moral code”. Hell the man has even stopped fights (in the actual storyline) when he knew the person he was fighting was not up to their 100 percent top form. My question is that if he only fights people that are worth it and people that can test his skills as a warrior…then why the hell would he ever face a person like Dhaslim or Dee Jay when we all know for a fact that Yoga and Jamiaca are not known for their warriors. Akuma was and still is banned from most tournaments in America which just shows how dominant he really can be.

BAD ASS MOTHER FUCKER

There were several different game modes when you were playing this on the home console. You had your standard Arcade mode, and Survival mode but you also had the “Final Battle” mode which let you skip all the way to the final fight with M. Bison so you didn’t waste all that time fighting the first 8 rounds if you ended up losing to him, and Finally the most awesome mode was World Tour. World tour had you choose one character and you had to fight certain people under certain circumstances  and sometimes it would even make you fight multiple people at the same time. Stipulations could be anything from you only being able to damage your opponent with ultra combos, to you having to face two different people at the same time but only one of them takes damage. The final battle (if you are bad ass enough to meet certain requirements) has you face 2 different people per match for three matches. It starts out with Shin Akuma and Evil Ryu (basically the two toughest characters in the game) then you face M. Bison and Shin Akuma, and then you fight them again. It is so damn hard because they will constantly throw projectiles and random moves at you and God help you if you get stuck between the two of them. if you are in the middle of them attacking you have lost this fight and there is nothing that will save you from certain death. This game is hard but so rewarding when you actually do kick some ass.

The art in this game is simply one of the best for a game ever made by Capcom, the music is fantastic and the announcer is amazing. If you do not lose your shit or get amped when he first says the words “Go For Broke!” then you are seriously a huge huge pussy. Simply put this game kicks ass and you need to play it. I do not care if it’s the arcade, the console or emulating it through your computer. Whatever you have to do you simply must do it for the sake of your video game life. If you disagree with me in anyway you can kindly direct your hatemail to me and you will probably recieve a nice cool glass of Fuck Off in return.

Martyr out.

WET puts you in the boots of Rubi, a gun-for-hire who is duped into bringing the son of one Mr. Ackers to who she thinks is Mr. Ackers. Bamboozled by a doppleganger, she seeks revenge when they aim to take her out of the picture. This results in a Kill Bill-esque rampage full of bloody revenge.

Your weapons include dual pistols, dual shotguns, dual SMGs, and dual crossbows. The weapons in Rubi’s arsenal come in twos to utilize the “Split Targeting” system. It’s what it sounds like. While you’re in slow-mo (triggered by jumping and shooting or sliding and shooting), you automatically target one enemy while manually targeting another. Making for a fun and efficient way to bring cronies to the other side.

The car chase scenes remind me of The Matrix: Reloaded, full of far-fetched jumps and improbable dodges. But this is all a part of WET’s over-the-top antics, which get old quickly for some. I played this game all the way through in two sittings I was so entertained. It’s by all means a rental unless you get a good deal on it. It goes by quickly and you find yourself doing similar things from time to time, but they find ways to change up skill use throughout.

“Rage Mode” is triggered by the same cutscene in different levels. You’re minding your own business, all of the sudden a lacky will run at you like they have a chance against Rubi’s brutal fury. She guns him down in a single shot, blood splatters on her face and BOOM… Rage Mode. The level turns red and the enemies turn into faceless black and white clones which become fodder for your guns/sword.

The formula of every level is the same, with an occasional surprise car chase scene. All tied together by a grindhouse feel, grainy film which becomes increasingly more grainy as you take more and more damage. This can be a little distracting when you find yourself in a pickle. But this is one of those occasions where you have to man up.

Again, WET is a rental if you have other games you want to buy. The acrobatics are quite impressive especially when combined with the combat of split-targeting. Health comes in the form of increasing your combo-multiplier in “Arena Mode” or chugging a bottle of whiskey, tossing it in the air and shooting it. Rubi is a badass voiced by Eliza Dushku, the dialogue is nothing to write home about, but if you’re looking for a revenge tale that you can complete quickly, give WET a try.

These past couple of months have been one of the best times in gaming that I’ve seen for quite a long time.  This is surprising, and I’m a tad miffed as to why devs didn’t release these HUGE titles right before Christmas, but alas, the wait was well worth it.  Here again, we have a very big-name title that meets or exceeds it’s expectations.  Surprising, given recent year’s efforts.

Bioshock 2 takes place 10 years after the events in Bioshock.  You play as “Subject Delta”, an early prototype of the Big Daddies you saw in Bioshock 1.  Your assigned little sister is the daughter of a cultist revolutionist, Sophia Lamb.  Upon her discovery of your assignment, she convinces you to kill yourself, relinquishing your control over her daughter, Eleanor.  You are resurrected a few years later to find yourself in search of your little sister.  If you don’t find her, you die a slow and agonizing death in the tunnels of Rapture. This story is quite good, and has enough twists and turns to keep the player interested.  I wasn’t quite as enthralled as I was with Mass Effect 2, but I think this may be due more to my personality more than poor writing.

Gameplay is solid and builds on some of the (minor) mistakes that the first game made.  I really enjoyed the new mechanics involved with the drill you are given as part of your suit.  Some of the most satisfying moments from this game come merely from sneaking up on an unsuspecting splicer and ramming him or her into oblivion against a wall and twisting their innerds into a fine soup.  Other fun dynamics involve the ability to adopt little sisters and take them hunting for adam.  Your job is essentially to defend the sister while she harvests, which can be quite daunting and requires a lot of prior planning before you drop her on the ground.  Setting traps and hacking security machines is absolutely necessary for success.

As the game progresses you are given more and more powerful plasmids and weapon upgrades.  One complaint I did have, however; Is that the game became almost too easy when I acquired the tier III freeze plasmid and the drill specialist ability.  Combat eventually devolved into a quick tap of the freeze plasmid and then plugging away with the drill until the enemy shattered.  I RARELY had to use even a single health pack for a big daddy or even some big sisters.

This game is quite beautiful and I really enjoyed the scenery.  Like Mass Effect 2, the Unreal III Engine powers this game.  My favourite scenes here were the underwater parts, where coral, plane debris from Bioshock 1, and other props adorned the city scape.  Immersion is superbly executed, and I had no problems with believability in the slightest.  Sound quality is just as good as the first game, if not better.  The crowning achievement of the immersion factor of this game likely goes to the score.  Shrieking strings and rumbling kettle drums added so much suspense to some parts of this game that, at times, I could barely stand it.  Rounding corners became a terrifying prospect, and walking into a large arena made you think twice about ignoring your options for decent cover. If there’s one thing that Take 2 hit spot-on, it’s immersion.

Overall, I think this game is a solid title.  It’s definitely worth a week’s rental, if not a purchase.  There is little here that I have to complain about, and even then there’s nothing here that I would consider a “deal breaker”.  I had the opportunity to play both the PC and console version, and would recommend both equally.  After you beat Mass Effect 2, definitely try this.  If you haven’t bought Mass Effect 2 yet, then fuck you.

You know when a game seems really far off, so you block it from your memory in hopes it will create the illusion of coming out sooner? Well, that is exactly what happened to me. Tuesday’s release of the game I’ve been awaiting for since completing Bioshock came to me abruptly via commercial. Part of me knew it was coming out in February, but the exact date eluded me… exact knowledge adds to the waiting. Once I saw it had come out that day, I rushed to Blockbuster right away (in case you’re not aware, the best day to rent a game is the day it comes out. Which is normally a TUESDAY. The people who want it immediately usually go to buy it somewhere, and those who only kind of want to play it try to pick it up on a Thursday or at some point in the weekend. This is a bad idea if you actually want the game to be available). I was roughly a year late on playing Bioshock, so I wasn’t about to let a lot of time pass before I got to play this latest addition to Rapture’s lore.

Please note there may be spoilers.

Eight years after Jack strolled through the halls with his own brand of justice/terror, the Big Daddy “Delta” resurrects after a decade of being dead. Rapture has not withstood the test of time well. Leaks are everywhere, barnacles grow on the walls and floors, and the Splicers are just as crazy as ever… probably crazier. In the last game, the game focused on Andrew Ryan’s ideology of Capitalism, Creation and Progress without being brought down by “the Parasite” (Big Government, Religious leaders, etc.) and focusing on the individual. This time around you meet Sophia Lamb, a psychologist with a view which greatly differs from that of Ryan. She believes focusing on “the Self” is, well… selfish. And would rather have everybody succeed or suffer equally. To pull this off, she exploits the influence of religion to burn this point into the minds of Rapture inhabitants. When you walk through Rapture, it becomes very clear this is not the same place Jack left it.

The “Good”

Like its predecessor (and many games before it), Bioshock 2 gives you the choice of taking a “Good” or “Evil” path. Even a crude combination of the two, whatever tickles your taint. I’m not sure there is a special ending for dabbling in both, however. At this point I’ve only ventured through the good path.

Sinclair, the voice which guides you through Rapture, at one point reveals you can either “Adopt” a Little Sister or “Harvest” her. This is similar to the first, but the difference lies in how much Adam you really want. When you first encounter a Little Sister (after taking down a Big Daddy, of course) you’re given the choice. If you choose to adopt her, she’ll climb on your back and sniff out corpses containing Adam (if you don’t know what that is by now, you probably shouldn’t be reading this). If you choose to Harvest, you’ll get the Adam right away. Here’s where the change comes into play: you’re given the choice again when you take the Little Sister to a vent. Meaning, if you were so inclined, you could have her gather Adam and just harvest her later. That’s for the Evil path, which I will review in part two. The good path will seem like a less effective way to acquire Adam, until the Little Sisters give you rewards for setting them free. That shit adds up. In Bioshock, I always felt like I was never getting enough Adam no matter what path I took. Bioshock 2 will leave you in Adam up to your eyebrows as far as the Good path is concerned.

You’re given quite a few decisions to make in your journey. Ones which will be viewed by Eleanor, the Little Sister you were paired with before your death ten years prior. These decisions will effect how she acts when she comes out of the coma she’s in throughout most of the game. There are definitely some ethical quandaries, when on the Good path you’ll run into certain characters you’ll feel deserve the stricking hand of justice. But forgiveness is a key factor of the Good path, so sometimes you just need to walk away even though they may have done something unforgivable in their time.

This game doesn’t skip a beat when it comes to playability. You still have an incredible amount of control, more probably. And now you have a fucking Drill! Downside is it runs out of fuel quickly, so make sure you’re using it for the right cause. The upside to this is the basic melee attack with the drill is still very strong, and will take out a Splicer with great ease.

I’m a much bigger fan of the new hacking system. Although the first one had fun moments, the new system is not only more realistic (as it happens in real time instead of stopping the action) but more fun. It is also a greater test of how well you handle yourself under pressure.

Next time: The “Evil” path, enemies and final thoughts on Bioshock 2.

Recently, I decided to give up on a certain aspect of Batman: Arkham Asylum: The Riddler’s riddles. I beat the game’s Story Mode almost a week ago, but thought the Riddler had to be brought to justice. More on that later.

Let me say, as a pretty big Batman fan, this is an exceptional title. With games like this, I still find myself amazed at how far graphics have come. Especially when you spent hours on titles like this:

It isn’t difficult to immerse yourself in the circumstance Batman finds himself in. For those who have yet to play it, I’ll set the scene.

It begins with the night-clad streets of Gotham, the clouds hang heavily above the Batmobile speeding by. Inside, Batman puts the pedal to the metal as his destined nemesis, the Joker, taunts him. A daunting feeling looms over the Dark Knight, the capture of his rival seemed all too easy this time around. He’s right to feel this way, the Joker has something up his sleeve (other than the usual Joker Cards, gas emitting bouquets and revolvers with a “BANG!” sign). As Batman and the guards of Arkham escort the tyrannical trickster down the cold asylum halls, you continue to feel the chill of the criminally insane seep into your bones. Obviously, something isn’t right or you wouldn’t be holding the sticks.

If you couldn’t tell, Joker not only escapes captivity but takes over the asylum. With the aid of fellow inmates and prisoners transferred from Blackgate Prison (after a fire just HAPPENED to spread *wink* *wink*), the Joker plans a party the Batman won’t soon forget.

Ok, now that you’re caught up it’s time to get to the fun stuff.

It took me awhile to actually get my hands on a copy of this game. Thanks to my buddy, Will Handford, I was finally able to take a crack at this title I’ve been hearing so much about. Well worth the wait, my friends. The “Freeflow” combat system is enough to keep you glued to the screen like glitter to a kindergartner’s Mother’s Day card. Keep your combo intact and it will not only multiply your score (increasing your XP and replenishing your health), but allow you to pull off insane ninja-type moves that Batman is well known for. You better believe there will be Achievements/Trophies linked to these combos. It’s astounding how well this system works. You would think there would be many a kink in its execution, but if there were any flaws they were quickly forgotten. I was truly impressed by the work put into the Freeflow combat.

The top villains in my book are as follows:

4. Killer Croc

The detail put into Croc’s creation is downright SICK. Look at him! I’ve seen many interpretations of KC and this was by far the most terrifying. It’s never a pleasant reunion when it comes to Croc and Batman. Bats is high up on Croc’s desired menu, and he’s got the scent. I was a little disappointed in the “battle,” but it was still kind of fun to outrun this beast.

3. Poison Ivy

Ever the harlet, Ivy’s slinky seduction is always a vain attempt when it comes to Batman. This being because he’s well aware of the outcome of locking lips with her: certain death. He’s had his close calls with Miss Ivy, as well as seeing the aftermath of her handywork. The battle is a fun one, albeit slightly frustrating. I won’t spoil the surprise, just know it’s diVINE… eh?… eh?

2. Harley Quinn

Oh man… does this girl do funny things to my brain… and pants. I’m well aware she’s a fictional character, but try telling that to my wang!

1. Scarecrow

Of all the interpretations of Dr. Crane’s alter ego, this is EASILY my favorite. So much so that I plan on getting a tattoo if the image used in the credits (as well as this version’s Poison Ivy & Harley Quinn in a… provocative stance?). His levels were very interesting to say the least. Especially the one that caused me to think I broke my brother’s XBox. Now THAT’S instilling fear! Kudos to the development team on that.

Now I’d like to bring up the riddle aspect of this game. Throughout your venture through Arkham Island, you have the choice to solve riddles, decipher tablets from The Spirit of Amadeus Arkham, obtain tapes containing patient interviews, and pick up Riddler Trophies around the island. Collecting all 240 of these will end in the Riddler’s capture. Thus, giving me incentive to find them all.

Again, I finished the Story Mode roughly a week ago but continued to play so I COULD BRING THE RIDDLER DOWN. I’m down to the LAST TWO TROPHIES. This would normally be a time for celebration… but I can’t find them. I’ve been searching and searching but they seem to be the Bermuda Triangle of trophies.

The areas circled in red are roughly where the trophies should be. The Riddler’s question marks hover around the general area, so it’s safe to say they’re approximately in the middle of their hover pattern. Here’s where I run into the problem…

First off, the trophy closest to the Intensive Treatment area seems to be in or above the ventilation system. It can’t be in it, because I’ve looked… many times… up and down. If there’s a way to get above it, I haven’t figured it out.

The Lower trophy appears to be somewhere on a FUCKING CLIFF. Try to use the Line Launcher to get over there and you’ll fall in the water. Not to mention I’ve looked all over that mother fucker and found jack shit. I’ve checked the little Cave area up and down… it doesn’t seem to be there.

Now, normally I would just consult GameFAQS in this situation. This proved to be a moot point, so I checked other Walkthroughs. Many would call it cheating, I call it doing what it takes to bring the Riddler to justice. After many sites and watching many videos, I discovered that NONE OF THEM SEEM TO COVER THESE AREAS. Which I find a little weird, quite frankly. Every video and strategic screenshot seem to just skip over this little chunk of the game. But why? It seems pretty important, especially when you’ve got 238 of the 240 Riddler puzzles.

Another thing I found interesting (by which I mean aggravating) was this little nugget of information. The map shots I did find were missing this key component

THIS ENTIRE AREA IS NOT ON THE MAP. This is puzzling considering it’s one of the first places you go in the game. After completing the Intensive Treatment building, you crawl through the vent, go through this little cave area and look at Arkham Island while theatrical music plays (you even get an Achievement for hitting this point in the game). So why is it nobody talks about these trophies? I can’t wrap my head around it. It was driving me bonkers, and I very rarely use that word!

I thought I was losing my mind. My brother had to help with looking up guides and walkthroughs online while I continued to scale the area in hopes of finding SOMETHING. After talking to Tom (aka SamuraiLink3) I discovered there were some bugs involved in the PC version. Was that it? Were these trophies glitched out of the game? If there is no record of them, are they just ghost trophies sent to haunt my psyche? I could almost feel gamer madness take hold until I just decided to drop it. Which is severe blow to my honor as a gamer. This means the Riddler is still at large in the city of Gotham. I failed this aspect of the game.

I’m still pretty miffed about this. Maybe I simply missed something simple, that has been known to happen.  And if anybody knows how to get these trophies, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I’ve scoured the internets just so I could find these two fucking trophies and get my measely Achievement points. I’ll write an article reviewing why you’re so awesome if you can help me out. Seriously. A huge article about why you’re awesome!

Despite the bullshit I endured at the hands of the Riddler, this is still an amazing game that deserves the highest of praise. If you have a vast knowledge of the Batman mythology, solving riddles will help you in certain areas (example: knowing to look for Scarface when a “puppet show” is mentioned). However, this is a great game for anyone. If you haven’t played, you should probably do that soon considering Arkham Asylum 2 has just recently been announced.

And the absolute best part of this game: NO ROBIN!

Recently, with the help of the Playstation Network, I was able to acquire this remake of a CLASSIC game. If you’ve never had the privelage to play “Turtles in Time,” just push in an upward motion to move the rock you’ve been trapped under for God knows how long.

For those fortunate enough to know this game like the back of your hand, prepare yourselves. They based the game off of the original Arcade version, not the SNES version. When I played for the first time I almost lost my shit (in a bad way), but I kept my shit because it is still fun.

It all started in Scene 3, “Sewer Surfin’ “, when I didn’t get to fight the Rat King. At the end of the level, Shredder appeared in hologram form to send me to a prehistoric time. This wouldn’t have bothered me had my favorite boss battle not been on the next level. The first Shredder battle, in which you must toss Foot Soldiers at your screen… as in right at your face! How fun is that shit!? Answer: Very.

It made me quite sad to miss out on a revamped battle of that caliber, however, it’s still a fun ass game.

If I remember correctly, there is a power move of sorts in the SNES version which hurts you as well as others. “Re-Shelled” has a power move that doesn’t hurt you, and easily clears a path in a pinch. So… that’s nice…

I could go through the entire game and list the boss battles that aren’t there, or switched, but that would ruin the game experience. Not for a lack of good gameplay, but because I don’t want to write a giant spoiler. “Re-Shelled” is still a fun game despite changes from the SNES version. It’s a different feel for a classic experience. Get some friends to join in and I guarantee a good time. If you have an SNES, go with the original. If not, “Re-Shelled” is worth the money you’d have to SHELL out.

Here’s the trailer if you haven’t seen it already:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPBQ4A8pbn4 

I avoided reviewing this title because, for some reason, I thought somebody already covered it. Not sure what I was actually thinking of, but this is a title that might look easy to skip over. However, that would be a pretty big mistake.

Zuma is a puzzle game where you play as a frog disk that shoots colored orbs at other colored orbs. Sounds pretty uninteresting when you put it that bluntly, but this game is far from any nearby puddles lamesauce.

I’ve played the demo many times over the past year on the 360 and PS3, I was finally able to spring for the full game over the holiday. So now I’m trekking through the Aztecy goodness that is Zuma. There’s sort of a plot to it, with some laughable lines aimed at a protagonist whose only response is “Ribbit.”

This is one of those “just one more time” games. Easy to lose many hours to this God of Boredom Killers. Bonus orbs, such as Explosion, Reverse and Accuracy, will pop up randomly amongst a cluster of a certain color. Hit the group with an orb of the same color and you’ll obtain that bonus. The main objective of this game is to knock out groups in a way that will string together other knock outs. Eventually, you’ll want to destroy all the orbs before one falls into a skull icon’s mouth.

Although the soundtrack is repetitive, it’s kind of a fun song. The only word in English is “Pressure,” which is what this game mainly consists of. When the pressure is really on, the music will take a more intense tone. Which can really fuck up your game if you let it get to you. Just keep a cool head and focus, keep an eye out for opportunities to knock them all back.

This game may very well keep you glued to your respective chair for a long while… So sit somewhere comfortable.

I know that Ratchet & Clank: Race Through Time is just an ad for Insomniac’s newest title (A Crack in Time), but wouldn’t putting just a little effort into it make people want to play the actual game a little more…  Andrew Brophy, A KID, makes fantastic games that are unique and original in every way, and here we see poor quality from Sony (one of the three big first party publishers).  There probably could be some irony in there, but I really just wanted to promote someone that makes quality freeware games.  Strangely enough, Ratchet & Clank probably could work really well in 2D, so I was doubly disappointed by the lackluster ad.  A browser game, shouldn’t lead to this level of annoyance.