Zen Studios’ been doing a great job bringing new content to their flagship product, Pinball FX2. But I guess I already said that before. That’s a great thing. Very rarely do we get to see such a following from a developer for their game post release. Considering how one of these tables was free for a couple of weeks to begin with, it’s hard not to like it. It helps that it’s also an awesome Pinball FX2 table.

THE GOOD:

Humorous!

The Paranormal table explores the funnest and most influential clichés in popular tales of sci-fi and paranormal activity. The main character is a mix of Fox Mulder and David Lynch who’s always getting too far into his cases. Considering this is a simulation of a pinball, there’s only so much they can cram it in but man, there’s a ton of hilarious hidden kinks to find.

Discovery!

If you were lucky enough to grab this for free, there’s a ridiculous amount of content to flip your way through. Regardless, if you’re buying this later on, you won’t have much to regret. There are plenty of levels and challenges to tackle later on. Like the previous PBFX2 releases, you’ll find a heavy dose of challenges in Paranormal. I was also refreshing to see how missions are served out – by placing bullets in a gun chamber, looking your pinballs and culminating in a multiball frenzy.

THE BAD

Cramped!

At points, it feels like this table is cramped. This might sound ridiculous, considering this is a videogame and practically anything can happen but that’s exactly the problem here. There’s so much happening at once that Paranormal feels really cramped. It looks a little smaller that the usual FBFX2 table too, so that’s probably the reason why I had this feeling.

THE UGLY

For a temporarily free table, Paranormal was one hell of a deal. For 240 MS Points, the usual price for Pinball FX2 DLC, it’s still very much worth it. Just like previous downloadable content, there’s a enormous amount of replayability in the form of online scoreboards and the Pinball FX2 friends list integration.

THE GOOD

Fresh… sorta.

Sorcerer’s Lair started out as a Zen Pinball PlayStation3 table and now it’s part of the Pinball FX 2 catalog. We’ve been getting a wave of licensed tables lately, so it’s refreshing to see an original theme dropped into Pinball FX2. The fantasy theme of exploring a sorcerer’s castle is an interesting premise for a pinball table and Zen Studios managed to cram a lot of secrets into this table.

Layers… more than a wedding cake!

Do you remember the NES version of Pinball? No? Well I do. I used to love playing that game with my brother and uncle when I was a kid. Granted, these days it’s considered to be the worse of the pinball games on that system but I wasn’t aware of that fact at the time nor cared. It had special levels that could be accessed by doing certain mundane tasks like lining up icons and scoring points. Sorcerer’s Lair takes that concept further by opening up challenge sections off table, like a complex series of gears that are used to guide the pinball or using flippers to kill spiders.

Light show… to a point.

Like the Marvel tables, this particular table is extremely flashy. Falling in with its name, magic is shown off with plenty of flashing lights and colors.

THE BAD

Alone in the dark

Similarly to the hero tables, things tend to get a little confusing at times due to the table layout, which twists and turns rails that arch over each other and can easily confuse you if you’re not paying attention. That’s made relatively worse due to lack of lighting during special portions of the game, like when multiball mode is activated.

THE UGLY

Pinball FX2 fans have plenty to be happy about with Sorcerer’s Lair. The theme is relatively new to the game and the table design is extremely fun. It’s easy to go into the million point area right away, so don’t be surprised to see +8 digit scores in the online leaderboards. The many layers of special stages and secret sections are also very fun to unlock and go beyond the mechanic of nailing a trick shots repeatedly.

I had the chance to play and preview this game during my visit to E3. During my play time at that event, Kill Team seemed like a cool twist on the 40,000 franchise, which up ’til now had only been used as fiction for a few RTS games and a couple of forgettable shoot ‘em ups. So how did it end up?

THE GOOD

Cool classes

The Space Marines are tough dudes and the classes you can pick from show it. Each has its own pros and cons, some favor ranged fighting, while others like to get in close and melee the crap out of Orks. There are some twists in that ying/yang relation though, one class in particular serves as a support unit, with its own special power up in the form of a deployable turret. I enjoyed jumping around the classes but ended up sticking with the guy that carries around a huge rocket launcher. Call it ‘playing it safe’! You can even pick which sect your space marine is from, which boils down to which color his armor is, really.

Somewhat hectic gameplay… but fun?

Kill Team is played pretty much the same way you would play a game like Robotron. You’re constantly flanked by attacking Orks that charge at you with no regards to anything. There are a few different types of enemies, including bosses that try to vary things up a bit but the main thing you’ll be doing in this game is walking back and laying down the lead on foes. The few power-ups that you can uncover for your weapons help out your odds of surviving the onslaugh and are the basic offerings you’d expect to see in a game like this: shields, weapon buffs and health pick-ups. There’s also a few perk upgrades you can earn which add a few options for you to customize your marine with as well as two or three new guns that are unlocked as you progress through the game.

THE BAD

Can’t see where I’m going or doing!

It’s really tough when a developer tries something different or stylish within an already well developed genre. Although Kill Team is a competent dual stick shooter, there are times where I didn’t know where the hell I was going thanks to some insane camera shifts, tilts and angles. Not to mention the overuse of slow motion during certain kills. What’s even more annoying, you can’t skip cutscenes either, and those are pretty darn long to begin with. If you die during a stage, get ready to watch these over and over again.

Grabbing a friend to play… locally!

How are we still getting local only multiplayer in downloadable games these days? Sure, playing locally with a friend is fun but the option to take things online is vital for a game like this. Tough luck, you won’t see it in this game!

Over in a whim…

Kill Team’s only five levels long. If you want to stretch the game out a little, you can go after the scattered collectible aquila badges hidden throughout levels, but beyond that, there’s only a handful of survival stages that take place in enclosed parts of the campaign stages. You’re able to battle friends over leaderboards in regards to how long they can last in this mode. Beyond that, there’s very little to do in this game after you’re doing with the “story” mode. There isn’t even the option to rank up the difficulty.

THE UGLY

Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team isn’t a bad game. It’s a pretty competent twin stick shooter. That’s the problem. It’s just competent. There’s a metric ton of better shooting games out there in the download space. It’s a saturated market and if you don’t try to set yourself apart from the pack, you’re doomed to be forgotten. There’s a small tie-in to the actual Space Marine game set for release later this month in the form of an unlockable power sword. That’s it. Emperor or not, Kill Team is just another forgettable game that you’ll be done with in a weekend.

Does this table stack up with previous pieces of downloadable content for the excellent Pinball FX 2?

THE GOOD:

Sploding with character!

Ms. Splosion Man is probably one of Twisted Pixel’s funniest characters and that’s saying a lot. The transition from an action platforming game to pinball was done perfectly. Not only that, but all the charm from the original game is intact as well. Be ready to get the same funny quips from the Ms. Splosion Man game along with a few new ones.

Miiiiiiillios of points…

Seriously, I stink at pinball games. Things get way too hectic and I don’t really keep up. Even so, the Pinball FX2 tables manage to help me squeeze out a lot of fun in the limited time my skills let me keep a ball in game. Ms. Splosion Man’s table is no different, in fact, this is probably my most successful scoring table for this particular pinball game. I was able to do a lot of the objectives in my first run through and was even placed in the top scoring leaderboards among my game reviewing friends, with a few million points to boot.

Don’t get her wrong!

That’s not to say this Ms. Splosion Man table is a walk in the park. Just like her actual game, this lady does not pull any punches. There are a lot of layers of missions and quests to play through as you progress in the table, like taking down the hunkering Mighty Eternal bot, blowing up scientists and even saving Splosion Man from the clutches of evil. All’s done through a variety of objectives that involve this table’s many twists and turns, some of which are extremely tricky to do and require a ton of skill to pull off. All in all, expect to spend a lot of time with this lady and her table’s balls in play.

Her looks are also explosive

Pinball FX2 is a very colorful and vibrant game and this Ms. Splosion Man table only carries that notion forward. The visual style and character design of the Twisted Pixel games was carried over perfectly, along with the rest of the presentation. This is one truly beautiful table, for sure.

THE BAD:

The lights! They buuurn!

Like I mentioned before, Pinball FX2 is an extremely busy game. If you don’t get ‘into the game’ and focus on the pinball, you won’t last long. There are a ton of lights and flickers doing their best to draw your attention away from the game at all times. That really isn’t a detractor to PBFX2, all pinball games are like that, but be prepared by a double dose of crazy if you decide to get this table.

THE UGLY:

Pinball FX 2 was already a blast to begin with and pardon the pun, but Ms. Splosion Man’s even more of a bomb. It’s a fully featured piece of downloadable content that expands PBFX2′s truly awesome gameplay even further. If you like Twisted Pixel’s games, you shouldn’t waste any more time. Just go get this table and have a go at it. You’ll thank me later.

So what makes Bastion so great?

THE GOOD:

GORGEOUS!

This is one of the best looking downloadable games around. The art is amazingly colorful and detailed all throughout the game. Every environment you visit has its own look and feel, and the characters you’ll interact with, both allies and foes
feel like live, breathing creatures and not just sprites.

Atmosphere… breathe it all in!

Awesome art is just a slice of Bastion’s charm. The inclusion of a dynamic narrator is sure to keep you glued to the game until the end and probably beyond that. The way the narration follows your actions is easily one of Bastion’s coolest features. It hardly repeats, either, so the added challenge of discovering what else that guys has to say about the story if you do something different here or there is yet another reason to keep playing. Bastion’s soundtrack is also noteworthy, featuring some of the best tunes I’ve heard in a game, period.

So much in such a small download!

There’s a lot to do in this game. Depending on the combination of weapons you choose to use, there will be numerous other ways to play the game that will take you more than one playthrough to see. Some of which them are vastly different than the rest and require a whole other style of playing Bastion. Plus, you’ll want to discover all of the hidden idols and runes that add an extra layer of challenge to the game, along with making your score ever so popular in the leaderboards.

Combat revolved!

Bastion takes a cue from popular dungeon hacking games like Diablo but manages to carve its own style with much simplified controls. It’s all down to evade dodging incoming attacks and countering with your own. There are no magic bars preventing you from using certain weapons repeatedly, it’s all down to a very well designed cooldown system. Extra props to allowing the interchange between buttons when picking weapons – if you’re down to going with just ranged weapons, be Bastion’s guest!

THE BAD:

Chaos…

The combat in Bastion is tight and works extremely well regardless of the weapon combination you choose to implement. However, there are instances where you can get a little too busy, mainly at the beginning of the game when you don’t have as many weapons or power-ups, with enemies swarming you left and right. This happened very rarely during my playthrOugh and maybe it’s just my fault for not being very good at games! Who knows?

THE UGLY:

SuperGiantGames’ debut game is absolutely phenomenal. The influences from games like Diablo and Torchlight are obvious, but Bastion has a lot of personality and more than enough content to stand on its own as an unique game. From the start screen down to the final stage, Bastion has variety and challenge to keep you coming back for a long while.

Editor’s note: Special thanks goes out to SuperGiantGames Creative Diretor Greg Kasavin for kindly providing a review code for the game. Also, if you aren’t very interested in diving into this title on an Xbox 360, be sure to check out the upcoming Steam version of Bastion on August 16th.

WH4K Kill Team is an isometric twin stick shooter. Okay, don’t jump off your window yet. It’s not just another shooter. You get to pick from a handful of classes based on the 40,000 fiction. I picked the engineer marine who had the ability to hey, put down automated sentries down. But hey, he had other powers as well, like a super grenade that practically decimated all orks and greenskins that flooded the many screens I ran through.

Cooperative play is probably the best part of this game. I had a buddy along for the ride during the demo and it made all the difference. I’m not sure how balanced the game is for solo play, but it’s pretty ridiculously fun playing with someone else. Orks really outnumber you all the time and your marine is a complete murder machine.

You turn said soldier into a murder machine when you get to upgrade that bad boy when he levels up. You get experience points as you defeat enemies and such, as usual. The upgrades, though, are pretty cool and benefit each class specifically. For instance, my engineer was able to get a few new abilities in the demo when it was time to upgrade, like a stronger ‘area of effect’ (AOE) attack that I ended up not using, sadly.

Kill Team looked pretty darn cool, especially considering it’s a downloadable game. The customary super-exaggerated armor proportions that’s Warhammer’s signature is in full effect in this game and so were the ridiculously slimmy, disgusting and hilarious orks. They die oh-so funnily.

In a way, I really can’t wait to fully play this sucker when it’s out later this year. It’s just fun and in the end, that’s pretty much the reason I still play games. Sure, bring on the serious games but keep making stuff like this, people. It’s fun to shoot monsters in the face. And I certainly love that.

THE GOOD

Great, ’cause otherwise, I’ll erase your ass!

Mars is a fun little table for Pinball FX2. It isn’t as busy as the Marvel Pinball or Fantastic Four tables and it’s on par with the main set you got with the original game. You still get a fair share of missions to partake which are very fun to play through, like navigating your space shuttle in order to avoid solar flares, by shooting the pinball through different corridors. Other quests like gathering soil samples aren’t nearly as tense but work within the theme.

Liberals! Intellectuals! Peacemongers! IDIOTS!

Thankfully, Zen Studios avoided most of the Mars clichés. There aren’t any green men running around the pinball table at any time. Mars is mostly bereft of life this time. No one at home. This is mostly set in space and for that, they’ve done a great job with the presentation. You’ll see your space shuttle fly in from off screen, little robots doing their thing and even a probe here and there scanning the table. Everything looks and sounds as good as you’d expect after playing the other Pinball FX2 tables. There are lots of lights, flickers and sounds all the time.

Anyone keeping tally?

This plus is pretty much a given when we’re talking about Pinball FX2. The online leaderboard system is amazing and ridiculously fun. Battling friends online for the top score is still one of the best parts of FX2, proving that they got a great and viable platform that can be kept alive by quality downloadable content.

THE BAD

I saw Elvis

There really isn’t anything particularly wrong with the Mars DLC. It plays exactly like the original set of Pinball FX2 tables (read: fun!). The theme, though, is a little stale in comparison to the previous DLC packs, which made great use of the Marvel Comics properties. Mars is just okay as a theme. It isn’t bad. Just okay.

THE UGLY?

The Mars DLC for Pinball FX2 is a great table. Even though it isn’t as interesting theme-wise as the previous download packs for the core FX2 game, it looks just as good and play as well as any of the other tables you’ve played in the past. So if you’re looking for an excuse to keep Pinball FX2 in your hard drive (and why wouldn’t you?), Mars just might be it.

THE GOOD:

Fun, fast… furious?

Pinball is a guilty pleasure of mine, even though half of the time I’m so concentrated on where the little metal ball is going that I have no idea what the hell is going on. The Fantastic Four table is very well made and it’s full of missions that are waiting to be activated.

Fantastic presentation

While not as visually busy as the Spider Man table featured in the original Marvel Pinball DLC, Fantastic Four is pretty damn colorful and well animated. Luckily for us, the voice acting is actually much better this time around and characters like The Thing actually sound like the “real” thing.

Lots to do

The entire roster for Fantastic Four make appearances at the table, including Doctor Doom. Each of them present you with a quest of their own that usually involves having you make a trick shot of some kind under a strict time limit. These missions are layered, so you’ll have to finish a certain set of quests before moving on to what can be called “endgame”, where you face off against the usual evildoers and save the world, all the while racking up ridiculous scores.

Challengers welcome

Once again, Zen Studios does a great job setting up a competitive scene for Pinball FX2. You’ll face off against your friends in personalized leaderboards and like past DLC packs, your highest scores go to online score boards, against people from all over the world. It’s very fun to go for higher and higher high scores just to see your friend’s avatar hang its head in shame or just for personal satisfaction. This is one of the very few online components in a game that I can actually see myself getting back to time and time again.

THE BAD

Focus on what yer doing, kid!

With so many little lights and distractions going on at once, it’s sometimes easy to get lost and lose track of what you’re doing while playing Marvel Pinball: Fantastic Four. This is an issue that’s been present in Pinball FX2 since the beginning due to how crazy most of the tables get. This is a very minor but still valid nitpick for me, personally. I did, however, find myself getting into the “zone” while playing, but it required me totally zoning out of everything else around me and just focusing exclusively in the game.

THE UGLY?

Sweet Aunt Petunia… Marvel Pinball: Fantastic Four is by far one of the best uses of the Fantastic Four license. Sorry, Jessica Alba, but your movies were awful. This table is ridiculously fun to play and it’s full of little things for the inner comic geek in all of us. With that in mind, do yourself a favor and download this DLC. For three dollars (240 Microsoft Points), you could do a lot worse.

Following in the trend of re-releasing previous retail games as cheaper downloable times, SEGA and Sumo Digital Ltd. just dropped Sega Rally Online Arcade. Similarly to last year’s OutRun Online Arcade approach to the classic Xbox titles OutRun  and OutRun 2006: Coast to Coast, SROA is an shrunken down version of the previous Sega Rally retail release from 2007, Sega Rally Revo.

The Good:

Looks great…

… for a downloadable game. Yep, you’re probably sick of reading this sort of description for downloadable games, but it’s pretty fitting for SROA – the track deformation, particle effects and car models look good and are serviceable enough to be in a PSN/XBLA download.

Easy to pick up, a blast to play

Unlike DiRT, SROA is playable from the get-go. Even if you’re a lead foot, SROA is friendly enough to provide a fun experience. This is an arcade game through and through, and the gameplay shows. There are more advanced techniques to master, like powersliding, too, which gives this game a little bit more depth.

Progressive rewards

I have to admit I dug the progressive reward system in this game. Regardless of how few and far between these rewards are (this is a short downloadable game, mind you), the way that it delivers new cars and tracks makes great use of the entirety of the game. For instance, beating a certain number of time trial scores gives you access to a new car, or winning a race in a particular track gives you access to that course in other modes.

The Bad:

Not much to go back to

This issue is tied to the previous “good”. There isn’t really a lot to play through in this game. Granted, it’s a ten dollar downloadable and SEGA is sure to stuff some DLC down the road, but the content from Revo was trimed down to the very, very basic. There are only three tracks to race in, with two unlockables. Unlike Revo, there aren’t alternative paths or versions, so every time you race in the desert track, you’ll go through the same course. Even mirrored versions of the tracks would’ve been nice here…

Dead multiplayer

One week into SROA’s lifespan, the online multiplayer is a barren wasteland. Even though there is the option to multiplay locally, it’s a shame not to have very few opponents to race against over the web.

The Ugly?

Sega Rally Online Arcade is a quick game to jump into and have fun. Sadly, there’s very little to go back to once you see all the tracks and unlock all the secret cars. The achievements/trophies are extremely easy to conquer, so even achievement junkies will find little to work towards in this game. If you happen to find a copy of Sega Rally Revo in this price range, go for it, which is completely possible at this point. If not, SROA does about as much as a ten dollar (800 Microsoft Points) game normally would before you hit the inevitable GAME OVER YEAAAH! screen.

Double Fine’s Stacking hit the marketplace a couple of months back with a bang. Most publications fell in love with the cutesy art style and lite puzzle-oriented gameplay. I for one didn’t like it as much but when I heard about its upcoming downloadable content, I decided to give it another shot.

The Lost Hobo King has Charlie coming to his friend Levi’s aid when the hobo community discovers remains of the long lost hobo kingdom of Camel Toe. Before settling in and crowning a new king, though, Levi and Charlie must find the long lost trio of blacksmiths who can forge it.

The Good

Personality aplenty!

If you liked Stacking‘s unique art style and humor, there’s a ton more to fall for here. Every single doll has its own little trick up its sleeve, even though most of those are completely useless in terms of gameplay and work more like an amusement. You’ll still be able to jump and stack into dolls in order to complete an entirely new set of hi-jinks too.

Fits in well

The Lost Hobo King fits in well with the main Stacking adventure. Even though it is clearly an “editor’s cut” level, with a contained story that doesn’t bleed into the rest of the game, it works well to expand the game beyond the whole child labor narrative, giving us something a little more lighthearted to digest. There’s more backstory involving the more obscure sect of characters from the original, the hobos, which is a nice touch.

Somewhat better pacing…

Sure, this is probably due to the smaller dimensions of the world this time around, since there are basically two sets of environments that are interconnected for you to explore. But… in some ways, the objectives are a little more clear and straightforward this time around which in Stacking‘s case, that’s a benefit due to how loose all the story threads felt in the original content.

The Bad

Ridiculously short

The Lost Hobo King is short. You can easily complete it in a single sitting, in about 40 minutes. There are only three objectives to complete before you reach the end. In case you are a trophies/achievement junkie, you might be able to squeeze an extra hour out of the game in search of all the unique dolls, hi-jinks and alternative quest solutions and even then, there’s very little to be done in this DLC.

It’s still Stacking!

Bear with me on this. Yes, I admitted to being somewhat intrigued by the prospect of more Stacking when I heard about this DLC. That was with the vain hopes that Double Fine would somehow turn the game around and make it a little more exciting. The gameplay in Stacking and in consequence, its DLC, feels slow and boring most of the times. Even though this is a plus for younger players just getting into games, it’s clear that Double Fine has its sights on the older demographic as well with the game’s witty writing and sometimes dark themes. Sadly, I didn’t find myself gripped by the gameplay, even though I really, really like the setting, characters and art style.

The ugly?

The Lost Hobo King does a serviceable job of giving (a tinsy, little) more game, but its main problem though is that it’s still Stacking, carrying the same problems the original game had. It doesn’t really add much, other than a new more contained setting to explore and a handful of new objectives to quickly fulfil.

Stacking is probably one of the most left field games I’ve played so far this year. When I first got word that Double Fine was working on a game that involved Russian folding dolls, I have to admit I was intrigued. Now that it’s finally out, I have very mixed feelings about it. Even though it’s extremely charming and fairly novel, I can’t help but think of it as ‘just okay’.

Would it be wrong to just think of a game as ‘okay’? In my mind, yes. On the other hand, I’m a huge Double Fine fan and so far I have really come to enjoy their games. Psychonauts was awesome, Brutal Legend was funny and Costume Quest, as reviewed in Entertainium, was disgustingly cute. So when I end up thinking Stacking as just ‘okay’, it’s a weird feeling.

You must be thinking, when is he actually going to start talking about the game? Well, you’re in luck, I got that out of my chest, so let’s get on with Stacking. This is an adventure game that revolves about the combination of unique character skills through a fairly unique gameplay twist – stacking dolls up. The hero of the game, Charlie, is the world’s smallest doll and thanks to that, he has the power to stack over bigger dolls and use their abilities to his advantage.

The premise is pretty straightforward, but presented in a very charming way. The world is filled with living, breathing stacking dolls and during a pseudo 1920s period, an evil industrial baron is kidnapping kids in order to make them his slaves. It’s a dark subject matter presented in a very neat way through silent movie-esque panels. The story moves along slowly thanks to this due to how dialogue is plastered in separate panels and there’s absolutely no voice acting. But even with a snail’s pace, gameplay is Stacking‘s strong point.

Every level has a set of challenges that can be completed in a variety of ways, by using the various dolls’ abilities singularly or in tandem. Puzzles are mostly easy to figure out but towards the end of the game, things get a little hairy and thankfully, Stacking presents a cool little hint system that like the Professor Layton games, they go from little tips to just telling you exactly what to do. There’s no way you’ll get stuck in this game other than stupidly stoically avoiding this system.

Each of the levels has its own personality and for most of the game you’ll be in a different place. There’s a main world hub that is constant in-between stages, a train station that is a level to be beat in itself. Every time you’ll make your way to other worlds, you’ll have to deal with little puzzles that make their way to the station. These are minor conundrums that pretty much are used to bring new dolls in.

Some of the dolls move on from world to world and get new skills. Doll skills are sometimes just gimmicks, like a little girl who blows bubbles, while others are pretty much vital to finishing a stage thanks to their need in a specific puzzle. I found myself going straight to the dolls I needed for the current puzzle and my interest for the silly antics ran out early in the game. Regardless, much of the humor in Stacking is made through these abilities. The writing isn’t nearly as witty as past Double Fine game, and that’s probably one of the things that is most disappointing about this game.

I can’t say I’m disappointed by Stacking in terms of how it is played but more of how it plays out. It’s ridiculously and needlessly slow. Little of what you do in quests actually change the world and in Stacking‘s case, it’s just a missed chance for being a radically unique experience. Gameplay is slow and the story is pretty much presented at a snail’s pace. Some players would be fine with this, but sadly, I look for something more in a novel game like this and Stacking comes up short in the long run.

Sure, going for easy achievements/trophies is probably reason enough for most people to stick with Stacking in the short long run, but other than discovering the alternative puzzle solutions and finding the rarer dolls, there’s not much else to look forward to in this game. I’m not arguing for the quantity over quality party of thinking and in this game’s case, there are some issues that get into the way of quality.

Sadly, like I started this review out, I can’t get past the feeling of Stacking just being ‘okay’. It could’ve been much more. You can find more to enjoy than I did in this game, the setting and presentation might capture you. If that’s what happens with you, enjoy it while it lasts.