While Tales of Monkey Island progresses the story of mighty pirate Guybrush Threepwood, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition takes the classic franchise back to its roots with some added polish for the HD generation. Essentially this is the 1990 classic all over again, so if you still have fond memories of that game then there’s plenty to love here. Back then it was one of the most hilarious games you could ever play and the majority of the humour remains just as relevant and funny today. Of course now there’s also another dimension to the humour never seen or heard before that makes this entry one you‘ll want to spend your 800 pieces of eight on. This is a special edition after all and that means updated visuals, sound and functionality to give The Secret of Monkey Island a refreshing new facelift with it’s improved production values and streamlining.

Right off the bat the most obvious change is the new visual style. Updated for next-gen systems, the new art is stylish, smooth and highly detailed. It fits in with the look we’ve seen from the more recent entries in the series and it works well. Some characters look a bit odd, but overall this is an impressive update that adds plenty of grandeur to this classic adventure tale. Although, if you’re not a fan of the new look you can always switch back and forth between new and old on the fly. With a simple press of the back button you can travel back to the early 90s and play through the original game with all the same pixelated goodness you remember. Entering a new area for the first time and being able to see what it originally looked like is always a welcome site to behold, and it just shows how big the new changes are in adding to the whole experience. They aren’t large enough to stray away from what made the game so brilliant in the first place, just subtle nuances like the light of a full moon glistening off the water at the pier, or the new high detail revealing things that were a little too difficult to notice first time through. The updated visuals should be good enough to impress and please everyone, but for those not too fond it’s excellent that you can just switch back to the original at any time and carry on from there.

Although if you did that you’d also be missing out on the all new sound design. The original music remains intact but on a much larger scale. It’s easily recognisable and the added quality given to each track really helps give the music much more prominence within the game. However, the biggest change is the inclusion of voice actors. The original only featured text, so giving voices to these characters easily ups the comedy value and immersion in the experience. Most of the cast will be recognisable from other Monkey Island games, and the new additions are perfectly cast in most places. Hearing these characters come to life makes The Secret of Monkey Island that much more hilarious, and the quality of voice acting actually manages to add new jokes to the original script purely with subtle tones and changes in pace. The original was a complete riot to begin with, so now imagine that with a performance thrown on top. Fantastic.

However, the same cannot be said for the new interface. The various options took up half the screen in the original so you’ll be pleased to know that they’ve been hidden behind the shoulder buttons in the Special Edition. It’s probably the best way to use it with a controller but it can still feel too clumsy and clustered. There are so many options to chose from that navigating through them and your items is always a slow process, especially when attempting to combine different items to solve a particular puzzle. It’s not ideal but it’s one of the problems that comes when converting a game like this to a console and controller setup. The only other problems arise from the games old design. It’s to be expected from a game nearly 20 years old, but some objects are often quite hard to make out, particularly on the overhead maps. You’ll often find things by chance, just by hovering the cursor over an area and seeing the text pop up. As you can imagine it can be hard to find what you’re looking for at times. I know they wanted to maintain everything from the original game with updated sound and visuals thrown on top, but it would have been nice to see some objects highlighted to improve the games functionality.

Luckily the new hints system goes some way to pointing you in the right direction if you ever get lost. By holding down the X button you can reveal three stages of hints. The first will give you a general idea of what you may need to do; for instance, it may say “maybe you should talk to the prisoner”, or “look for a sword” and so on. The other subsequent stages give you bigger hints until eventually giving you giant arrows to follow. It’s a great system that eliminates some of the frustration that comes with the adventure game genre, and also stops you breaking the experience by searching online for FAQs. You may find yourself relying on it more heavily than you would imagine, but you just need to fight your own willpower in those instances.

It may have been a long time coming but Monkey Island is finally back and just as good as we remember it. It’s disappointing that LucasArts have taken this long to go back to their adventure roots but the quality of product on offer more than makes up for it. The Secret of Monkey Island is still one of the greatest games of all time and this new Special Edition presents it to a new audience with its fantastic production values and hilarious dialogue. There are some problems with the old game design and animation, but the subtle new additions like the hints system make it an easier experience for new players to enjoy. For the old fans that played it back in the day this is the game exactly as you remembered it. There is absolutely nothing stopping you from setting sail once again, so get your crew ready and remember to bring a helmet. Ahoy!

So, with X-Men Origins: Wolverine kicking off the summer blockbuster season, it’s time for the inevitable video game tie-in to stick its adamantium claws where the sun don‘t shine. But wait, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself here, for all we know it could actually be good – I mean, first impressions are actually pretty surprising; while the film is rated for early teens, the game takes a much more visceral approach and grabs itself an 18+ rating. With the majority of the films target audience unable to even play the game, it’s apparent from the get-go that maybeX-Men Origins: Wolverine – Uncaged Edition isn’t just another rushed tie-in and can actually stand up on its own without the movie watching its back like a supportive, money-hungry entourage.

Hugh Jackman lends his voice and likeness to the game, and the story loosely follows the plot of the movie, butX-Men Origins: Wolverine – Uncaged Edition is its own beast. The gore won’t come as a surprise to those that know developers Raven Software’s credentials, having developed the ultra-violent Soldier of Fortune games; but it’s still no less shocking and surprisingly brutal considering the Wolverine character we’ve become familiar with on the big screen over the past ten years. This Wolverine is one we haven’t seen since the comics, one that has no regard for his own health and those around him as his deadly adamantium claws dismember and decapitate his enemies, spilling buckets of blood onto the streets in the most gruesome fashion. This amount of gore may seem like a cheap gimmick to rake up some extra thrills, but they effectively showcase Logan’s ferocious power and animalistic nature. He’s not a friendly guy, and with those claws you’d expect him to rip people limb from limb. Seeing it all unfold in motion is a refreshing experience when you consider the Wolverine-lite we’ve seen in the movies where blood rarely comes into play.

Of course, having a brutal, visual showcase doesn’t make for a good game, so luckily the gameplay can back it all up. As you would expect, Wolverine is essentially a brawler; it borrows elements from Ninja Gaiden, God of War and Devil May Cry so it’s all very familiar coming in. You have a decent amount of combos at your disposal within the four main attack types: light, heavy, lunge and grab; and combining all four together is the key to success, especially when implemented with the quick kills, special moves, counters and environmental kills. There are quite a few attacks to learn here, but the controls are intuitive enough and it‘s easy to get a hang of things, particularly when the game isn‘t all that difficult to begin with. The lunge attack can be used to take care of most enemies, and is especially effective across large distances – working as a long jump – and the quick kills, as you would imagine, are quick, easy and pretty ferocious; you’ll be stabbing people in the face and ripping their heads clean off, using their own mutilated arms against them, and even forcing their own shotguns on themselves. Combining this with the environmental kills where you impale people to forklifts and tree trunks, and you have a degree of variety to proceedings. Obviously, as you get deeper into the game these attacks won’t work on stronger enemies, but there are plenty of other moves and combos in your repertoire to keep the killing frenzy going and stop repetition from setting in – even if the game doesn’t always encourage it.

And the pacing and combination of other gameplay styles aside from the straight-up brawling helps as well. It may not sound terribly exciting but during the action down-time you’ll be pushing and moving objects to reach higher levels, balancing on boards and climbing ropes; jumping from platform to platform and scaling walls as you take part in some good old fashioned platforming. It provides a nice break from all the killing, and the mechanics aren’t frustrating enough to drive you to insanity – apart from a select few jumping sections where the camera is rooted to the spot. However, one aspect of X-Men Origins: Wolverine – Uncaged Edition that is guaranteed to bug you is the reoccurrence of two different mini-bosses. During the stages in Africa you’ll meet a large molten-rock monster known as the Leviathan; this is all well and good the first time you fight against him – using the dodge move to evade his attacks before lunging onto his back to deal out some damage – but when he appears another dozen times thoughout the game it can get pretty redundant. Add to this another, similar beast, in the Weapon X stages known as the W.E.N.D.I.G.O – who you defeat in the exact same way – and you’re in for some terribly boring encounters.

“Aside from this, though, there’s also some room for exploration. Wolverine is a fairly linear experience but there are a number of branching paths for you to find some collectables. There are a good number of dog tags hidden throughout the game as well as some Wolverine action figures – used to unlock four different costumes – and you’ll also find health boosts and mutagens to upgrade Logan’s skills and abilities with a degree of customisation. Mutagens work like infinite power-ups, as you progress through the game and collect them you can assign three mutagens to the three different slots in your inventory; it’s up to you to choose which one’s you want to utilize, whether it be three defensive options, three attacking options, or a mixture of the two. It’s a fun way to get the most out of Wolverine and add a little more oomph to the moves and abilities you’re most accustomed to using. You can also upgrade all of Logan’s skills as you earn experience from each kill and dog tag found; so, you can upgrade his claw strength, health and the power and longevity of his special moves as you progress to higher and higher levels – Logan becoming more deadly in conjunction.

And deadly is definitely the key word here, not just with his attacks, but also with his ‘nearly’ indestructible health. You see, Wolverine is similar to Superman in that he can’t really die; Superman games have never handled this very well, and the same can be said for any X-Men games. However, X-Men Origins: Wolverine – Uncaged Edition has got it spot on; you have two heath bars, one is essentially for his skin and clothing and once that’s worn down there’s another health bar for his internal organs; this reaches zero and it’s game over, bub. As you take damage, Logan’s clothes and skin will begin to rip off in real time, so you’ll actually see chunks of skin missing from his body as bullets rip through the flesh and explosions blow it clean off. It’s extremely cool to see as you literally get down to the bare bones. Of course, once you’ve taken out everyone it’s time for his healing ability to come into affect as you’ll now see all of his skin slowly grow back and cover up those gaping holes. You’ll want to take damage just so you can zoom in and see all the havoc caused on his body and the subsequent healing process.

Sadly, it could have looked a bit better. Wolverine doesn’t have particularly bad visuals, but they’re not exactly great either. While it’s cool to see the flesh ripped off his body, a lot of the time it just looks like random red splodges rather than actual muscle and organs. Hugh Jackman looks great though, and the other characters are admirable too; it’s just too sloppy with the presentation. You can clearly see that this was rushed to coincide with the movie release, so plenty of corners have been cut throughout. The in-game cut scenes are terribly compressed, leading to an awfully pixelated look, and you’ll also encounter plenty of graphical and gameplay bugs across Wolverine’s five acts, with Logan getting stuck in mid-air; plenty of texture pop-in, and some dodgy looking kills where his claws won’t quite line up right with the target. However, the worst of all came during one of the aforementioned mini-boss fights. After draining all of its health and going in for the last QTE finishing kill, the framerate slowed down to single digits and the boss unexpectedly disappeared, only to continue attacking me; it should have been dead already, but now I’m fighting something I can’t even see. Eventually I managed to go in for the finishing kill again, ripping off the head of something that’s not even there. Looking back it’s pretty hilarious, but it’s something that should have been caught during bug testing, especially since you encounter the enemy so many times throughout the course of the game.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine – Uncaged Edition is one of the best movie tie-ins in recent memory. The gameplay is a lot of fun, showcasing the bloodthirsty, animalistic nature of Wolverine with some cool, over-the-top gore; and the pacing and mixture of other gameplay styles, however small, keeps it moving towards its final conclusion. Sure, the repetition is there, but it doesn’t spoil the party like the production values do. There are just too many weak spots here with bugs and glitches, and fighting the same boss over and over again is just poor game design. The convoluted story also doesn’t help matters, jumping forwards and backwards through time with no real reasoning as it introduces plenty of throw-away characters and scenarios you have no reason to care about. It’s too confusing even if the plot of the movie is still fresh in your mind.

Sadly, this is another case of a game falling victim to the tie-in; cutting corners to meet a short deadline. If it were possible for more time to be spent fine-tuning everything this would be a much better game; as it is, it’s a competent action-adventure that’s probably better than its movie counterpart, and that’s all we can really hope for.

It starts off with the combat, which is mediocre at best. You have two attack manoeuvres: powerful and fast; neither of them are particularly exciting, and the combos are pretty boring and ultimately it‘s a very unsatisfying experience – even if chopping off limbs can be fun for a while. Frustration continues to mount when you start getting hit by off-screen enemies. When you’re fighting what’s in front of you, more enemies will respawn around the area, so you often won’t see them coming. The berserked enemies are by far the worst though. There is no let-up in their attacks, so if you get knocked down it’s very hard to get back up again. Whoever thought this was fun? However, this doesn’t compare to the infuriating defensive moves.

Once again there are two to chose from with a dodge and parry. The dodge works fine and allows you to avoid enemy attacks and then counter-attack. The parry system, on the other hand, is a pain. The animation is poor in general, but here it actually disrupts the gameplay. You see, Tyris goes into an animation when you press the parry button, resulting in a slight delay before she actually sets up the block. This wouldn’t be so bad if she remained in the parry stance if you hold the button down, but instead she drops her weapon back down to her side. Because of this you have to time the parry exactly, otherwise you’ll end up getting hit every time. It’s a major annoyance, especially when you can’t chose whether to dodge or parry – enemies will glow orange before attacking to signal that you need to dodge, or blue to parry.

Even the actual Golden Axe is implemented poorly. It’s thrown at objects using a clunky aiming system that’s excruciatingly hard to use with enemies around, rendering it kind of pointless. The only fun I had with it was when I threw it at enemy across a river. It didn’t kill him, but got him mad, so he tried to come after me, stepped into the water and randomly exploded.

The beasts from the title don’t really add anything new to the gameplay either. They’re very sluggish to turn so you can easily become surrounded by enemies that will hit you off at the first opportunity. To fight back you still only have two attack options, much like the on-foot gameplay. However, for a lot of the beasts, one of the attacks will actually drain their health, so it’s pretty pointless using it. The sword combat is better than this, and that’s saying something.

The visuals are ok, but the level design is very bland and uninspired, and everything is set to a brown colour palette. There’s also no reason why you enter these environments. Whilst the story is fairly decent, it’s still a nonsensical mess and only really serves to move you from location to location. Levels also end rather abruptly, and then continue on from where you were anyway. Seems weird why they didn’t just carry it on with save points spread around each area. The rest of the visuals don’t hold up much hope either. Character models are low-res, and there’s a lot of screen tearing and the occasional framerate issues – with the game sometimes coming to a complete halt for a couple seconds.

The sound is passable, although the music is so quiet it’s hard to even hear it. I suppose the only good feature about Golden Axe: Beast Rider is the little homages to the original game. Die hard fans of the series will enjoy these, and for what it’s worth they may enjoy the simple hack and slash nature of the rest of the game, even with all of its flaws.

Still, they will be severely disappointed to find that Beast Rider is a single player game only. One of the best aspects of the original Golden Axe was the co-op play; many days were spent playing it with friends, so it’s baffling why it wasn’t included here.

The only other game modes are arena based stuff, so it’s not much to get excited about. The combat isn’t any good in the main game, so needing to use it to battle tons of enemies isn’t something you’re going to want to try out.

I can’t really recommend Golden Axe: Beast Rider to anyone, apart from maybe the die hard fans. The combat can be fun, but ultimately it’s rather boring and uninspired, the beasts are sluggish and unresponsive, and the defence is just plain annoying. This is just more proof that some franchises should stay dead, no matter how good they were back in the day.

There’s not really much of a story to talk about. You’re basically just thrown into each level with little to no explanation or reasoning behind it. Adding in some random flashback missions doesn’t help matters in the slightest, and you’re left wondering “why?” On the plus side, Ron Perlman reprises his role as the big, red, kitten-loving machine, but he’s sparingly used. Even Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien – two major characters in the universe – can only be seen in co-op – they aren’t included in the single player in any way, shape or form; wasting the Hollywood talent providing the voice work.

The rest of the game continues the poor form, with gameplay offering nothing more than boring, button-mashing. Just tapping X gets the job done, but if you want some extra thrills you can also throw Y into the occasion to deal a tad more damage. It’s extremely boring, and Hellboy’s slow-moving attacks leave him susceptible to damage, which can get pretty frustrating after a while. Grabbing enemies is more of a hassle than need be, with the right trigger being extremely unresponsive. And who’s idea was it to make the throw button the right trigger as well? It just means that when I tap it out of frustration I end up grabbing the enemy and throwing him rather than using a finishing move like I wanted to. It’s all just excruciatingly tedious, repetitive and uninteresting. Extracting an ounce of fun out of it is a difficult task, indeed. Even dragging in a second player for the aforementioned online/offline co-op is a bore. It just ends up making Hellboy: The Science of Evil even easier than it was before. There’s not even a defensive button since enemies just stand there waiting to get hit most of the time.

You’ll fight annoying little creatures, werewolves, lizard people and Nazi zombies, but none of their attacks are varied enough – when they decide to actually do something – and you’ll just end up pressing X over and over again to defeat them. The environments aren’t much better, following the monotonous old rule of locking you in a small arena until all the enemies are cleared away with linear pathways guiding you between each one. This is supposed to be an Xbox 360 game, but it feels more like it was intended for the original Xbox.

And the same can be said for the visuals. Hellboy looks the part with his signature look of giant hand and mutton chops, but the rest of the environments are pretty bland and uninspired. You’ll fight your way through graveyards, forests and deserts but textures in each area are weak and drab, with bland character models lacking diversity; and the, admittedly cool-looking, destructible areas just hamper the framerate. The locked camera doesn’t help as it’s usually too far away or too close, leaving you open to attacks from off-screen enemies. And it also has a habit of blocking objects from view, so exploring is basically out of the question.

Sound-wise the music is pretty good, but it’s normally too quiet to really hear; and as I mentioned earlier, the voice work is put to waste in the non-existent story. Ron Perlman has built up a vast resume of video game voice work so you’d think they’d at least put him to some use with his most iconic character. No such luck.

Hellboy: The Science of Evil is an uninspired mess. With a franchise like this it’s sad to see it put to waste. But if you like pressing the X button a lot, then this is the game for you! The rest of us will avoid with ease as another tedious brawler slips out of thought.

From the offset it doesn’t look that way; it’s actually rather promising. Travelling back to the time of King Arthur, it’s quite a departure for the Sonic franchise, but one that brings with it some excellent production values. The opening, pre-rendered cutscene sets the tone and the stylish main menu is very cool, capturing the feeling of that long-foregone era whilst also adding the quirkiness expected of a Sonic title. The hand-drawn cutscenes keep up the quality, even if the story is a nonsensical mess featuring characters that look strikingly similar to some of Sonic’s old friends such as Knuckles, Tails and Shadow. It may disgrace English history, but it’s rather easy to follow and keeps the game moving at a brisk pace throughout.

And the visuals keep up the impressive production values, offering some of the best graphics seen on the Wii so far. A lot of the levels may be a bit brown and grey in colour, but the texture work is excellent and the characters – especially Sonic – look outstanding, particularly when the framerate manages to keep up with all the action.

Although that isn’t such a mighty feat as one might imagine. There’s still a degree of fast paced action here, but thanks to that sword it’s severely slowed down, tiresome and generally boring. The production values might stand out, but that doesn’t constitute for poor gameplay – a trait that seems to crop up in Sonic games recently, along with the criticism that it might be a bit too on-rails at times.Sonic and the Black Knight takes this and basically plays out as a straight-up, on-rails game. You just hold down forward, occasionally needing to swerve and jump over obstacles; but really, these instances are surprisingly rare.

The bulk of the gameplay consists of fighting enemies. You’ll hold forward till enemies appear, and must then swing the remote about the place until all the enemies are dead. There are no suggestive movements here for sword swings, it’s just the dreaded waggle; and the unresponsive controls don’t help matters. You’ll swing and then wait for Sonic to perform the action about a second later. This delay can get extremely frustrating as enemies are quick to attack the majority of the time, with QTEs becoming particularly aggravating. It just drags the combat down to terrible levels of mediocrity even worse than it was to begin with. Sonic should be all about speed, but that aspect only lasts for a few seconds as enemies continually pop up over and over again, forcing you to stop and take them on. There is no variety here at all, and the enemy types are at the bare minimum. There are some bigger foes, but that just means you need to swing the remote twice the amount of times than usual. There are no unique ways to take down particular enemies, there‘s just more waggle in store.

It all just consists of stop-start, stop-start gameplay, with unresponsive controls and bland level design. Massive corkscrews and giant jumps are no where to be seen; instead, you’re just running through castles and woods on a linear path, slicing up enemies as you go. It’s not fun, especially when you end up repeating each stage a couple of times with only a few minor differences on each run. The only other game mode is a poor arena battle system which uses the same terrible sword combat with up to four players. It would be best to take a pass on this.

And I suppose that applies to the rest of the game as well. Sonic and the Black Knight can be mildly enjoyable for about an hour, but eventually the gameplay leaves a sour taste as you just want the little blue guy to soar free, blasting through each level at full speed without a care in the world. He doesn’t want a sword to participate in some terrible sword play, so stop providing him with these redundant gimmicks. Another disappointing effort.

The story centers around Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) an orphan from the slums who is adopted by the king of Persia after he witnesses the young boy’s act of kindness and bravery. Although not of the royal bloodline, Dastan is an integral member of the royal family. He accompanies his older brothers (the elder is the heir to the throne) and the powerful Persian army to the mythical city of Alamut. The king’s brother, Nizam (Ben Kingsley), who is serving as a mentor of sorts to the future kings, lobbys the young princes to invade the city because they were aiding Persia’s enemies.

During the siege of the city, Dastan shows remarkable skill infiltrating the city the biggest reason for Persia’s victory. The ruler of Alamut, Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton), attempts to hide the mystical secret weapon of their civilization, the Dagger of Time. However, during the hectic final moments of the battle for the city, Dastan comes into possession of the weapon, yet doesn’t realize it’s full power.

Tamina is presented as the husband of the future king, a role she is willing to take only after she realizes that it will bring her closer to the dagger. During the festivities following the victory, Dastan is fooled into presenting a poisoned gift to his father, King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup). Believed to be the assassin, Dastan is forced to flee the city along with Tamina. When Tamina attempts to steal the Dagger of Time back, the weapon she swore an oath to protect, Dastan stumbles upon its ancient power. The holder has the ability to reverse time for up to a minute. After a series of argument, Dastan and Tamina agree to work together to clear the name of the innocent prince and to protect the dagger. On their journey, they encounter enemies and make new friends.Of particular significance is Sheik Amar (Alfred Molina), a gambling boss who has a fetish for his ostriches. Amar serves as some comic relief, similar to Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow in Bruckheimer’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. He certainly isn’t as funny or as important as Jack Sparrow, yet he lightens the tone of the film and allows for some good laughs.

The journey across the vast Persian Empire is perfect for showing off some incredible visuals. Filmed largely in Morocco, the desserts and vast canyons are breathtaking, and reminded me of John Ford’s classic western The Searchers. Increasing the eye candy, the film is filled with spectacular special effects that create imaginative cities and exciting fight scenes. There are a few homages to the video games, particularly the camera’s movement during fight scenes. The scenes are enjoyable, but at the same time, they don’t revolutionize sword fighting (which, I am fully aware, would be a difficult order to fulfill).

One of the bigger criticisms of the movie by some leading critics (such as Roger Ebert) was that the acting by the leading actors seemed contrived.  Although there are certain lines that seem a little awkward, I found the rapport between Gyllenhaal and Arterton genuine. The beautiful Arterton oozes sensuality and serves as a confident, strong heroine, while Gyllenhaal plays a Peter Parker type of hero (unbelievably strong, yet very self-conscious). While I was pleased with certain elements of the acting, I was surprised with the lack of screen time for Kingsley’s character. Although Nizam is an integral part of the plot, none of his scenes were especially memorable.

When I walked out of the theater, I was expecting to come to some more detracting points from the more obvious ones connected to the storyline. This was a video game movie right? It couldn’t possibly be a good film. However, the more I thought about it, I realized that although Prince of Persia: Sands of Time wasn’t going to join the pantheon of great superhero films that have been released in the last decade, it was an enjoyable ride. Although it doesn’t destroy the notion that video game movies are terrible, it certainly points the genre in the right direction. Simply put, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is the best movie based off of a video game and an entertaining summer blockbuster.

The Star Wars universe is one of the most expansive in modern fiction and allows for the creation of games that explore the initial success of the films. The lucrative franchise has given birth to some of the most impressive games but also shows how such a popular entity can be misrepresented and misconstrued.

From its initial announcement, The Force Unleashed has been advertized as the ultimate Star Wars experience. An experience which will not only let the player control Darth Vader’s omnipotent apprentice, but guarantees that the “force will blow your mind”. This promise is seemingly fulfilled at several points in the game because of the engaging storyline and the beautiful level design, but it is diluted by unabashedly annoying enemy design and interruptive technical glitches.

Although fans of the Star Wars saga may find it particularly predictable, the story is still intriguing and fills in the largest gap in the canon. The main focus is on the secret apprentice of Darth Vader, but his own journey sheds light on the dissolution of the remnants of the republic while explaining the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the Rebel Alliance.

While the story unfolds, you will travel to some beautiful locales. Both new planets and familiar places are among the bright and vivid worlds the apprentice explores as he attempts to complete his master’s bidding. Many of the levels are made up of wide open spaces that show phenomenal art direction and allow the apprentice to use his full repertoire of force powers. Yet often times the apprentice is contained-both literally and figuratively-in dark small corridors of space stations.

In addition to the story and the level design, the game does a number of things right, particularly at the beginning. Before you take control of the main protagonist, the player has the ability to fight as Darth Vader on the Wookiee planet of Kashyyk. The game gives an enticing preview of what an all-powerful Sith lord has at his disposal as Vader can force grip, choke hold, and throw his lightsaber among other deadly moves. The prologue level is one of the best parts of the game as you are in a vivid world, able to use all the force powers, and technical glitches do not hamper the experience as they do in later parts of the game.
It is the initial success of the game that makes the shortcomings of the later levels all the more unacceptable. Almost immediately after taking control of the apprentice (aptly named Starkiller as homage to the original name of Luke Skywalker) it becomes apparent that like in so many other games, the player must accumulate all of the force powers and powerful combos.

The prologue’s ease is completely reversed as the apprentice has problems mastering even the most basic skills of lightsaber combat-reflecting laser fire. At the same time, the apprentice has the ability to lift things with the force as monolithic as Tie Fighters but the power is often times rendered obsolete because of the horrid targeting system. In most games where there is an automatic locking system, the way the camera is facing will determine which enemies are targeted. In one of the biggest design flaws, the targeting system in The Force Unleashed is based upon what Starkiller is looking at. This makes beautiful level design burdensome as the confines of small corridors further illuminate problems with the camera.

In an ironic turn, once the player gains experience and chooses which force powers to power up, the enemy design makes the use of force powers less effective. Throughout the game, the player gains force spheres by gaining levels and finding holocrons which allows player to strengthen force powers, force skills, and force combos. However, once the player attains these powerful upgrades, the enemies become less threatened by the force. Some gain force shields and others can block lightsaber blows with ease, therefore making the most simple of enemies a difficult and frustrating affair. Adding to the frustration, many times enemies will glitch, either not having a health bar or simply stuttering around. This coupled with the fact that the player can only load from specific checkpoints (many times placed before unskippable cutscenes) makes many harder sections of the game simply not fun.

When Starkiller faces off against Jedi masters, the force powers become almost useless. Many of the fights will feel like they are more based on getting lucky hits with a lightsaber than any sort of skill or strategy. Lightsaber battles, a staple of the Star Wars experience, are never epic—rather the game relies heavily on the archaic God of War button press mini-game to dispose of bosses as well as the larger enemies such as Rancors and AT-STs.

The gameplay tends to lose most elements of fun and every sense of being fair due to the drastic changes in character design and the unoriginal boss battle mechanics. Yet there are still sections of the game that will prove awe inspiring to fans and non fans alike. As mentioned before, what really saves the game experience is the overall presentation and intriguing story. The game has incredibly imaginative and beautiful worlds and likeable characters which create a Star Wars film experience. One can argue that some characters mirror those in the films and that some take away from established themes, but they are crafted well and combined with John Williams rousing score, add emotional weight to the story.

The Force Unleashed is a Star Wars fan service-filling in holes in the canon and allowing players to have control of mystical force powers. It was promised to give the ultimate Star Wars experience and was hyped to be one of the best games of the year. While the game has impressive elements, unpolished and uninspired gameplay mechanics and frustrating enemies do not allow The Force Unleashed to achieve greatness.

Some people cried foul after the Wii launched without a Mario game. However, after the mediocre reception Super Mario Sunshine received, Shigeru Miyamoto and the team at Nintendo promised to reinvigorate the franchise. Luckily, Nintendo has kept its promise and brought a new Mario game that is completely fresh—whether it be control scheme, musical score or artistic design. The game keeps with the traditional Mario game structure while the change of setting allows for an unprecedented imaginative world. While the Wii has preached to the casual gamer, this is one of the first titles that really crosses into both casual and hardcore gaming realms because it includes something that will appreciated by all.

Mario games are not known for their story–something still apparent from the moment you begin to play the game. Much like Super Mario 64, Princess Peach calls for Mario to come to her castle because she has a gift to give to him. Upon his approach to the castle, Bowser, Mario’s longtime nemesis, attacks the Princess, Mario, and the ever present Toads with Peter Pan-like flying galleons. Before Mario can catch up, Bowser and his minions jet away into space.

Mario comes into a contact with a cute star named Luna who then introduces him to the leader of a flying observatory, Rosalina. Mario is filled in on the problems which have plagued the inhabitants of the observatory and is promptly asked to assist in recovering the power stars that power their spacecraft. Bowser has once again stolen the power stars and spread them through a variety of galaxies so as to slow down his pursuers. Mario’s principle mission is to recover enough power stars to re-initiate the observatory’s power. This task that seems to be daunting even for the famous Italian plumber, and thus Rosalina instructs Luna to assist him during his quest.

The collection of power stars is nothing new, and could seem very unexciting to a veteran Mario player. But then again, who plays Mario for the story? It is the brilliant efforts by the team at Nintendo to redesign every world that Mario journeys to that makes the game really special. One hardly has anytime to think about the repetitive nature of the storyline as the player is almost immediately thrown into an amazing galaxy.

Every galaxy is made up into several planets, all of which have their own individual parts and none of which you will see repeated. The level design in the game is one of the most, if not the most, impressive ever seen in a video game. Once you think that you have seen it all, Mario will land on a planet where he travels into the inside or travels into more traditional sidescroller with freshening elements like changing gravity pads. These new elements make the gameplay more challenging and thus really make the overall experience that much richer to any Mario veteran.

The way Mario travels between the planets is also unique and utilizes the motion sensing technology in the Wii remote. Sometimes planets will be connected by a series of blue stars with which the player can point the cursor at and then pull Mario along. This movement style is also worked into several challenges at the end of the game that prove to be exhilarating. In addition to the blue stars, Mario will often times find one of Luna friends who is desperately hungry and requires star bits to transform into a launch pad to another planet. Star bits are another collectible in the game in addition to the traditional coins. Whereas coins replenish Mario’s depleted health, star bits can be used to feed Luna’s friends but can also be used to attack enemies. Luna’s primary function in the story is to serve as the pointer on the screen with which players can use to pick up star bits and to aim star bit attacks. Of course she is also there to provide the much needed moral guidance and explanation of puzzles.

One comes to appreciate the different level design through the exploration of the various galaxies. Whereas in other games, players find that the search for the same item every level can be tedious, in Super Mario Galaxy the design of the planets is so intriguing that players will find that they explore every nook and cranny to discover every hidden area.

To create even more diversity within the level design, Mario also is able to don different costumes that will give him different powers. At his repertoire is the ability to change into a bee, springman or a boo, the ability to throw fireballs, and the ability to turn into the ice man who freezes any water that he walks upon. All of the different costumes add even more ways to explore the already impressive worlds. However, some of the costumes evince some of the problems in the game.

One such problem is the camera. The player has very limited control of the camera as it is usually fixed through the entirety of the adventure. This proves to be a problem in some of the later stages when precise jumping is necessary, especially when trying to get several challenge stars or when Mario turns into springman. It is noticeable at first when Mario runs on the underside of a planet as the controls quickly switch and make circumnavigating a planet challenging. The camera also makes the bee parts of the game unnecessarily difficult because it is often times hard to judge whether Mario is above or close enough to a honeycomb to land. Luckily this is really the only time the camera becomes a major issue in the gameplay and thus does not really make a large impact on the overall experience.

Even if the camera sometimes proves to be difficult, the tight controls based off of the genre defining Mario 64 setup are near perfect. Controlling Mario will be of no real challenge to experienced players but is simple enough for the most casual of gamers to pick up and enjoy. The Wii remote functionality is limited, something that proves to be beneficial. It is used for the aforementioned traveling between planets and picking up star bits, but it is also utilized nicely into the combat. By shaking the Wii remote, the player has the ability to do a spin attack which proves to be essential in several boss battles and causes enemies to drop different items than through the traditional jump-on-the-head method.

More importantly, the motion control functionality is used intermittently with various mini games and thus do not become tiresome. When many Wii games go wrong with their inclusion of motion control for every basic action, Super Mario Galaxy gets it right–only using it for certain elements that enhance, not detract, from the gameplay.

Combined with the gameplay and tight controls, the audio and graphical presentation really make Super Mario Galaxy stand out from any other game available on the Wii. The game is simply the best looking game from a graphical and an artistic standpoint as all of the worlds are intriguing while made all the more interesting through the vibrant color pallet. Like the graphics, the audio is one of the best found on the platform. The mix of classic and new sounds is a symmetry that is phenomenal. Players will not only hear the classic Mario songs and their remixes, but also hear fully orchestrated tracks that are memorable.

Super Mario Galaxy can be summed up by stating that it is a return to form. Not a form in the sense of structure, but rather of feel. While playing this game one will surely notice that it is fun and more importantly, different that everything else. The game includes many of the elements that made previous Mario games so memorable while almost completely reinventing the experience due to the new control scheme and the sensational level design. Nintendo’s mascot has never been better, and this adventure is not something anyone can afford to miss.

Despite the title of Metal Gear Solid, Snake Eater is a very different game than previous installments in the series. After Metal Gear Solid 2 received criticism for its complex story, Kojima Productions created a narrative that was more fluid, yet includes the great plot twists that we have come to expect from the series. While the player does not control the namesake character of the series, Solid Snake, we are put in control of an close-to-complete carbon copy. It will be easy for those who have not followed the story arc to not understand that they are not controlling Solid Snake but are actually controlling Naked Snake, the man who becomes Big Boss.

The mission takes place during the tumultuous 1960s during the peak of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States and the possible nuclear holocaust that could occur with any confrontation. The delicate balance of peace between the Soviet Union and the United States is threatened by the rogue Colonel Volgin who feels betrayed by what he perceives as the weakness of the Soviet leaders during times of stress. Volgin plans to take over the USSR after promoting a conflict between the two powers by capturing key scientists and creating a nuclear weapons delivery system. One of these scientists, Sokolov, defected to the United States but is recaptured by Volgin and is forced to create Shagohold, the mobile nuclear tank that threatens the United States from any position in the world.

The CIA drops Naked Snake into the thick Soviet jungle so as to rescue Sokolov and therefore disrupt Colonel Volgin’s plans. The game creates a sense of survival through the implementation of the stamina bar and the injury treatment system, as Naked Snake is all by himself with no hope of rescue if something wrong occurs.

Keeping with the 1960s time period, Naked Snake is also unable to employ the same high tech gadgetry that is used in previous installments of the series rather he must utilize weapons and gadgets which would be high tech at the time. Even though the aforementioned gadgets can be used, Snake must use the jungle environment to his advantage. He must capture local fauna and flora to eat in order to keep his stamina up and will also need to adjust his stealth strategy due to the large number of environment variations. In order to not alert enemy soldiers, players will need to adjust Snake’s appearances, whether it be different camo patters and face paints or donning a complete disguise.

As there is no hope of evacuation when Snake gets injured, he must perform surgery on himself when he gets injured and administer medication if he gets sick. This new element to the gameplay adds tremendously to the idea that Snake is all alone in the jungle and provides for a small mini-game. However, it is important to note that the injury treatment system does get tedious towards the end of the game, especially when many injuries occur during boss battles.

Unless you are a very skilled Metal Gear Solid player, Snake will be detected and will have to either hide or fight his way out of the situation. The good news is that the implementation of a free moving camera now allows players to scan for enemies in the vicinity more easily which will allow for less unwanted encounters with the enemy. During sections of the game where fighting is necessary, Snake now has a more balancing fighting repertoire due to the inclusion of the “close-quarter-combat” system. Players now have the ability to neutralize their foes when they get too close while not alerting other enemies.

One of the staples of the gameplay in the Metal Gear Solid series are the boss battles. Snake Eater includes some of the most diverse and satisfying boss encounters that one will come across in video games. Not only are boss’ appearances and personalities different, but they also have different fighting techniques which are used to take advantage of the wide range of locations in which the battles take place. One particularly memorable fight is the sniper battle between Naked Snake and The End, which proves to be one of the hardest and longest boss battles you will ever participate in, but more importantly, one of the most satisfying.

The great combat and stealth sections really highlight the overall presentation of the game. When moving around the world, the attention to detail really comes into the forefront of your mind. The complexity and detailed world called for the creation of a new game engine and pushes the Playstation 2 to its technical limits. The amount of creatures and enemies in a world that includes cycling weather patterns and diverse areas of the jungle create one of the most realistic environments seen on this generation. More importantly, the game’s frame rate holds up nicely while their are no noticeable technical glitches–quite an achievement due to the ambitious presentation.

In addition to the graphical presentation, the voice work and musical score are very memorable. David Hayter, the voice of Solid Snake, performs the voice of Naked Snake and proves why he is one of the best voice actors in the industry. However, the one bad element of the voice acting seems to be that of Ocelot’s character. The actor seemed to put stress on the wrong words while delivering lines that really detract from the cinematic experience that is seemingly perfected by Hayter’s voice work and Kojima’s cut scene direction. The musical score, on the other hand, is flawless and thus very memorable, especially the title song “Snake Eater”. Performed in a very James Bond-like manner, the lyrics were written by Hideo Kojima and capture the themes and ideas behind the game, while the actual singer gives a powerful performance that add to the emotion of Naked Snake’s odyssey .

All of these elements combined together creates one of the most ambitious Playstation 2 titles, but more importantly, one of the best. The criticisms of the complex story in MGS2 are eradicated in Snake Eater, but nonetheless include plot twists that one has come to expect in the series. Frustrating camera and close combat control are eradicated and thus no longer detract from the overall experience, while the presentation causes player to really admire the environment that was created. Some of the final missions in the game seem to drag on too long, but one’s enthusiasm and enjoyment is never belittled due to the unsurpassed voice work and cut scene direction. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is simply unforgettable.