Wheels of Destruction
Developer: Gelid Games
Price: $10/7.99 £
Platform: PS3 (PSN)

Remember my Smash N Survive review a couple weeks back? Remember how it sucked and it is a car combat game that shouldn’t be played? Well I’m glad to say that Wheels of Destruction is nothing like that. WoD is actually worth checking out.

After my run in with SNS I was a bit worried about reviewing another downloadable car combat game. However after starting it up and playing a few sessions, I quickly realized that Wheels of Destruction wasn’t a lazily designed mess, but actually a pretty fun little game.

To give a basic rundown, WoD is a car-combat game that focuses on firearms, meaning that you’ll be using long-range weapons to take your opponents down. It plays very much like an arcade game, the goal of the game modes is to get the highest score and win, nothing more, nothing less. It’s designed for competitive play, which is evidenced by the leaderboards and one other, very important thing: there’s no story mode.

Yes, if there was one thing that bothered me, it’s the fact that there’s only multiplayer in this game. Well, to be more accurate, you can play against bots alone offline, but there’s not a whole lot of point to that. This is essentially WoD’s biggest flaw, it’s strictly for players who like to play competitively online and doesn’t offer anything more. Whether this is a problem or not depends on the player: if you’re looking for a fun car combat game to play online with other people, you’ll like WoD. However, if you want some sort of campaign mode to play with actual storyline and objectives, you won’t find any of that here.

The game offers three different game modes: deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag, with five different maps to play on. As far as modes go, this is pretty standard stuff and it left me wondering if there couldn’t have been more. There’s also other settings, such as firefight, which will leave you with only the starting weapon and random, which will start you off with a different car each time you spawn. Speaking of weapons and cars, there are four weapons (each with a secondary fire mode) and five cars to choose from. The cars themselves have different stats and ability and are built with different preferences in mind. The Heavy can take a lot of hits, the Engineer can jump higher, you get the idea. Also, all of them are destructible which is a very important asthetic for a car combat game. As for the weapons, I found myself using the rocket launcher as much as I could and ignoring the rest, as there isn’t a whole lot of point in using the weak gatling gun or the flamethrower, when you can use the heavy hitting rail gun or the homing rockets. I suppose the gatling gun is the starting weapon and has infinite ammo, but there are plenty of weapon pickups you can find to get your hands on better weapons.

The controls can take some time to get used to. Particularly the aiming. Oddly enough, the right analog stick doesn’t control the camera or lets you aim. Both steering and aiming has to be done with the left stick, which can take some time getting used to and can be very jarring at first. However it’s really not that big of a problem, thanks to the semi auto-aim.

As you have probably already figured out, Wheels of Destruction lacks variety and replay value. No campaign, three game modes, five maps, five cars, it’s small numbers all around. While some of it is understandable, (for example the cars are all unique and different) it still leaves you wanting a bit more. The gameplay is fun, you drive around, destroy other players cars, pick up weapons, shields and health wherever you find them, and just generally enjoy the fast-paced action the game brings. But how long can that last? If you like the genre and you’re looking for fast-paced, simple online play, this game is for you. However, if you’re not into that, you really shouldn’t bother, WoD’s simplicity is both its strength and its weakness: if you don’t enjoy the gameplay all that much after playing a session or two, you’ll have no reason to continue playing.

The Final Word
Wheels of Destruction is not a bad game, it can be quite fun for what it is, and one can see the effort that was put into the game. However its lack of variety and overall simplicity ends up becoming its biggest flaw, which keeps it from being anything more than a nice distraction to play when you’re bored and have nothing better to do. If you want a simple and cheap car combat game that is worth the price, Wheels of Destruction might just be for you. Just don’t expect it to hold your interest for more than a couple days.

MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average

I really like to review good games. Or at least decent ones. Whenever I find something I genuinely enjoy, it is always easy to write a review for it. It is as if the fun gameplay and well executed ideas jolt my creativity, and the review just writes itself.

Too bad Smash and Survive sucks, huh?

When Diego told me he had a car combat game to review, my first thought was „A car combat game? When Twisted Metal is coming out?” Right from the start, I wasn’t very optimistic about SNS. It felt like it was going to be nothing more than a poor man’s Twisted Metal. Upon actually playing it however, I realized that calling it a poor man’s Twisted Metal was much too flattering for SNS.

Initially, things seemed positive. Starting up the game, I was immediately hit with a fitting metal soundtrack. Then I soon realized there were lots of cars to unlock as well and the tutorial levels were also pretty decent, if simple. However this didn’t last very long. I would say that if I wasn’t obligated to play SNS, I would have quit after the third level or so.

The basic idea of SNS is simple. You’re a rookie trying to get into a gang called the Necromancers. In order to do so, you must become a master of vehicular combat and destroy enemy cars. Simple, right? So simply in fact, that if it wasn’t for the short briefing texts between each level, you wouldn’t notice, but I’m not going to hold that against a PSN car combat game of all things.

What I am going to hold against it is everything else. SNS may not being a triple A title and it may have low production values, but that doesn’t excuse it from being generally a bore to play. The missions are repetitive and there really isn’t much to do. You smash up cars and avoid getting yourself destroyed. It is pretty reminiscent of Destruction Derby on the PS1, except not nearly as enjoyable. Car customization is ultimately pointless as you can only alter the cars’ appearance to a very minor degree and all weapons are preset. You want a fast car with sawblades? Well you better find one in the shop, cause you can’t just put sawblades on whatever car you please. The customization option may as well not be in the game. And even with the stats of handling, strenght and acceleration, there doesn’t seem to be much difference. All cars feel clunky to control, all are fast and none of them can take many hits.

Speaking of weapons, most of the are close range. Fitting for a game called Smash and Survive I suppose, however it would have been great if these weapons weren’t so one dimensionals. You crash into things and you activate your weapon, and that’s all you need to know. There’s not much tactics involved and not having guns like in Twisted Metal only serves to make things even more simple and boring. Oddly enough the game can’t even be called an arcade-style derby game, because somehow it manages to be too slow for that. Enemies take far too much damage to kill, while the player’s car feels like it’s made out of glass. There’s also no health pickups or powerups, so your stuck with whatever you have.

So in short, the gameplay of SNS is just plain boring. It feels too empty and winning missions leaves you with no real sense of satisfaction. This is not helped by the fact that the soundtrack is terrible. The metal fits the game’s theme nicely, however it has few songs and they are constantly looping. The menu music is roughly 10 seconds of generic heavy metal, looping over and over again till your ears kill themselves.

The thing is, this could all be forgiven somewhat. Sure it’s repetitive and simple, but what if you’re really just looking to smash up cars? I’m sad to say that even then the game is not worth it. By far the most irritating function in this game is the slow motion that happens when you crash into a car or use your weapon. The camera angle during this is always horrible and disorientating. Every single time I found myself not knowing where I was heading or even where I was. Eventually I tried to stick to the pulsar weapon, because that fires in a circular arc around you and the slow motion camera shows the car from above, leaving you with at least some idea of what you’re doing. However this function makes the game incredibly annoying to play and the whole function itself just seems ridiculously counter-productive for the game’s genre. I mean honestly, when you make a derby game where the player would rather not hit an enemy car, you know you screwed up. And the kicker? The slow motion can’t be turned off.

Couple this with the fact that the music is terrible, the graphics are on the level of a PS2 game, the environments are small and bland and the long load times, and you’ll find that after playing a few levels of SNS, you’ll feel no sense of accomplishment and just turn off the game. The only somewhat fun thing in the game is the local multiplayer mode, but even that gets old very fast and there are so many better alternatives to play with friends instead of this.

The Final Word
Smash ’N’ Survive is a failure in every aspect. It is at least playable, but unless you have friends to play with it won’t be much fun. The price tag is high for the game’s value, the gameplay is boring and overall it doesn’t feel like any real effort went into it from the developers. You’d be better off saving your cash and buying Twisted Metal if you want a car combat game. Or hell, hunt down an old copy of Destruction Derby. You’re not missing out on anything by not playing this.

MonsterVine Rating: 1.5 out of 5 – Terribad

If you’re not familiar with Scarygirl then you probably haven’t read the graphic novel the game is based on. Nathan Jurevicius is the man behind the curtains controlling the brand and while I’ve always been a fan of his work I was never that big into the comic itself. SquareEnix decided to give this guy his own game based off his comic and that’s how the Scarygirl game got started.

Once you start the game you’re introduced to Scarygirl who is an abandoned girl who was found by Blister, a giant intelligent octopus. Scarygirl begins to have nightmares about a mysterious bearded man and the only person who can give her any advise on it is a mystical kung-fu rabbit called Bunniguru. He tells you the man can be found in a far off city, so Scarygirl sets off to discover the truth behind her nightmares. You’ll travel through gorgeous envrionments that vary from sewers, lush forests, ice caves, a bouncing club, and more all done in Jurevicius’ signature style.

Scarygirl offers some neat level design with some interesting perspective changes that keep things a little fresh while you venture through the 21 different levels. Each environment has its own set of environmental hazards, unique enemies, and visual flair. Some levels also feature multiple paths that you can take with some paths focusing on platforming and others on combat. You don’t necessarily need to think too hard on which path you want to take since they both reach the same destination so you can just go back to the other path once you finish the other. Once you finish a level you’ll be scored on your performance based on deaths, enemy kills, gems collected and more. It’s not that difficult to get a perfect score, you’ll just have to take care to pick everything up in a level and make sure not to die of course. Gems can be collected to purchase new moves, weapons, and ‘trophies’ of defeated enemies from Cthulhu an Octopus monster thing. Everything seems decently priced so you’ll be able to buy what you want when you get to a store with most levels netting you at least 200 gems, but the main issue is that the store only shows up a few times throughout the game with no way to get to it except replaying a level. By the time I got close to the final stages I had only encountered the store *maybe* 4 times in the 21 stages. I went quite a few levels with hundreds of gems in my wallet before I found a store, it’s really surprising that they wouldn’t at least put a store in the interactive main menu so that we didn’t have to replay stages to find it.

As with any platformer there’s some combat to be had in it and while Scarygirl looks cute swatting enemies with her tentacle arm, the combat just isn’t that fun. You have a light and heavy attack; the light is your faster/spammable move and your heavy is really your juggle move that you’ll use to knock enemies into the air. Once enemies have been hit enough you’ll notice a purple aura around them indicating that they’ve been stunned and can be grabbed. Once you grab an enemy you can use their body to slam them into things, throw them, siphon their health into yourself, or use one of the various moves you can buy in the shop such as using them as a pogo stick. There is a block button and you counter perform counter attacks on any enemy with ranged attacks which will send their projectile right back at them. Scarygirl has a rage meter that slowly fills up each time you attack an enemy and once activated allows you to perform devastating attacks for a few seconds. The effects when you use this are neat, but it felt ultimately useless since even with the rage upgrade it still fills up a bit too slow to be worth using. Since bosses have phases that means once you activate it you only get to pull off one hit (since it does 10x the damage your regular attacks do) which sends the boss to their next phase. It’s never really feels useful since what you do in 1 attack can be done in 4 or 5 with your regular whip and you always have enough to time attack the boss enough to take out the required amount of health to go to the next phase of the battle.

There are around half a dozen different weapons you can purchase from totally not Cthulhu that affect how you play, but only 3 of them will see any use. You’ve got your 3 combat modifiers: an anchor for slower but more powerful attacks (instead of the regular 5 it does 10), a fan for faster but weaker attacks (I think it does 1-3), and a whip that just increases the amount of rage you get. Since the combat itself is ass there really was no reason at all to use anything other than the anchor since it still hits fast enough to kill your enemies quickly. The other whips are more environment modifiers: a leaf to increase the duration of your glide, a magnet that draws gems towards you, and a fish that increases your speed underwater. The leaf and fish are definitely what you want to focus on getting early on since, besides being cheap, they’ll really help you out with the platforming later in the game. The magnet is nice, but I never had any issue with getting the gems, so I’d just recommend to somebody who’s incredibly lazy. Weapons can be switched quickly with the directional buttons.

The Final Word
A gorgeous art style with neat level design hides a very basic and average platformer. With its 4+ hour campaign and re-playability to collect all the vinyls or perfect their scores, Scarygirl will last you quite a while for your money. I will have to say I find it hard to recommend this to some people though; it’s a decent platformer but it does nothing interesting to warrant a purchase to anyone but fans of the graphic novel or platformer enthusiasts.

- MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average

TNT Racers ‘tracks & tricks’ subtitle seems a bit misleading once you play the game. I came in expecting a kart game mixed in with some race tracks and tricks to pull off in these tracks. All I got were race tracks with the occasional ramp to do a small jump off of. I don’t mean to start off in such a negative light, but I just thought that was worth noting to anyone considering to 2 friends I brought over to play it thought it was going to be a Joe Danger-ish kart racer when they saw it. TNT Racers is actually a pretty solid (albeit simple and content lacking) kart racer that hits most things you’d expect in the genre in the right ways.

When you start up the game you’ll be given a tournament mode (regular campaign mode), a time trial mode, and a custom race that lets you tweak a few options to customize a race to your preference. The tournament mode has around a dozen races separated into normal, fast, and turbo difficulties. I did like how each race tries to change up the variety, but most of them are just ‘get the most amount of points in the time limit/lap limit’. You’ll encounter your basic time trial challenges where you need to complete a certain amount of laps before time runs out, a variety of score challenges, knock-out mode, and special unique races. The score challenges task you with reaching the point requirement before your opponents and this is done by collecting coins scattered around the track, doing jumps, hitting a turbo when the race starts, or blowing up your opposition. In knock-outs you have to reach a kill quota by either blowing up the other racers or if they fall behind. I don’t particularly like how all the racers have to stick together and if you fall behind you’re instantly killed. I suppose it works for this game, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. The unique challenges throw in objectives like smashing 60 cacti or completing a certain amount of laps in a track full of landmines. They’re nothing amazing, but they do keep things a bit fresh.

A neat thing about the races is that if you’re killed and the other racers are still around you become a ‘shadow’ racer. You can’t be hurt (unless you fall off the track) or targeted by the opponent and you get a special set of power-ups available only to shadow racers. Your job is to fuck with the remaining racers as much as possible and mess with them before they can score anymore points. This way everyone can continue to participate in the race which keeps the pace up. It’s a pretty cool feature that I hope future kart racers take note of.

As any kart racer, you’ll find a slew of wacky weapons to use as you fight for first place. There are whirlwinds that send racers flying into the air, giant hammers, missiles, shields, smoke machines to blind the screen, oil to spill, an over sized gun, anvils you can attach with a plunger to slow down other cars, and a few others. These all work fairly well and it’s nice how you can drop a weapon if you don’t want it. You’ll find close to a dozen different cars you can use and change the color of. The ones you have to work for to unlock are pretty neat like the UFO kart, but there’s nothing much else to mention about them since they all handle the same. There are also 9 tracks that are also reversible, so 18 total tracks. They come in your basic desert, forest, arctic, and mountainous stages with each environment getting 2 or 3 areas. They’re nothing special but the tracks that take place in the same environment are different enough to excuse using the same setting. The game sports local and online multiplayer, but I’ve been checking multiple times each day since release and haven’t been able to get into an online match with more than a single person. This doesn’t really bode well for the long-term online ‘community’ if I can only find a single person to play with in the first week of release.

The graphics (as you can see) aren’t exactly top notch, but the game has an endearing style that fits together well enough. The music has a nice ‘pop’ to it that adds to TNT Racer’s lighthearted tone. I will mention that the over-the-top view of the action is a bit disorienting since it’s a bit too close to the cars. This makes it hard to drive on a track that you’re not used to and you’ll have to rely on where the AI seems to be turning or the camera turning to realize which way you’re supposed to turn. It really would’ve helped if they put in a camera that’s maybe a bit higher up or angled in a way so you could see what was coming in front of you.

The Final Word
TNT Racers really feels like Keen Games are reaching into your pocket and snatching $5 more than it should be worth. Only a few days after release and there is NOBODY online which makes me think barely anyone cared enough to either buy the game or waste their time playing online. It’s really a shame since the game is solid. It’s got your basic kart racing mechanics in it, there are a half dozen decent stages, the weapons are fun to use, and it controls well enough. The issue here is that I can’t really recommend buying this at $10 since the content the game offers doesn’t reach something you’d expect to spend $10 on. I could definitely see this game doing much better at a lower ($5) price range. If you dig kart racing games (there’s a demo by the way) and don’t mind dropping the extra dosh go for it, but if you don’t then I’d turn the other way from this title.

- MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average

I still remember the glorious year of tears when RE fans moaned and bitched about the action approach of RE4 (wonder how they felt about RE5) but RE4 managed to capture just as much of the same horror vibe as its predecessors with a new control scheme that worked fantastically. Well Capcom has finally decided to bring RE4 to the downloadable battlefield in what they say is an HD update (it’s not). Honestly, if you’re going to shell out the $20 (seriously Capcom?) for this it’s because you haven’t played it before, or you seriously loved RE4.

Resident Evil 4 follows the pun filled adventures of Leon Kennedy, one of the survivors of the Raccoon City incident which got him promoted from first day cop to bodyguard of the president’s daughter. He travels to most likely Spain a wonderful Hispanic village full of charming folks. Somebody in that place kidnapped the president’s daughter on your first day of your new job (Leon just doesn’t get a break) and he needs to rescue her before he gets fired. You’ll go from fighting regular farmers to sea monsters, weird worm/larva, a Gigante (giant), and learning why your friend told you to fear the Regenerator. RE4 really is one of those memorable games with fantastic pacing, great gameplay, and a brilliant cast of characters that you just can’t help but smirk when Leon pulls out his cheesy one-liners.

If you have been living under a rock haven’t played this game before then you’ll probably be quick on the controls if you played Resident Evil 5 or Dead Space since RE4 was the game that basically popularized that control scheme. I still think Dead Space perfected the controls of that tank control, but I had no problem sinking back into RE4 especially since it offers multiple control schemes if you don’t like one of them. You’ll still go from area to area shooting (or running) from the hordes of villagers and scavenging for ammo while you’re trying to decide whether the enemies endlessly respawn or if there are just a ton of them. Every so often you’ll come across one of the memorable boss battles and the environments vary from a peasant village, mountainside village, an ominous castle, and a couple more to keep things surprisingly fresh yet still creepy. You’ll occasionally find a puzzle that varies from insultingly easy or somewhat clever and there are tons of weapons you’ll be able to purchase from everyone’s favorite weapon dealer with upgrades to reload speed, strength, capacity, etc. Here’s a tip: Don’t buy the second shotgun you find or upgrade the starting one, you’ll quickly find the third (and I think final) shotgun quite quickly and it’s worth the wait. Also, the grenade launcher is shit, fuck your opinion.

This release contains all the extras from the previous versions which is of course expected, but Capcom could’ve been a dick and not included them. This means you’ll get the Assignment Ada where you play the game through her point of view while Leon was busy flipping his hair and coming up with puns. Mercenaries is of course back which has you play as Leon, Ada, HUNK, Wesker, or Krauser as you kill as many Ganados to hit that highscore before the timer ends. There’s also New Game+, new costumes to unlock, the bottlecap minigame, and an infinite rocket launcher to go through.

The “HD” part of this port seems a bit exaggerated. The game looks like it was just up-scaled into HD with no textures redone or anything. If Capcom had said they were just releasing RE4 just for shits and giggles, it’d be fine. The fact that they’re advertising this as an HD port seems like a slap to the face when you play the game and see just how ugly everything still looks. When I play an HD game, I expect it to look better than the original like the God of War or Sly Cooper collections. There are only a few parts where a friend mentioned “Well the character hands look a little smoother” to which I would reply with “Yea man, glad I spent $20 for smoother fingers”.

The Final Word
All in all if you haven’t played RE4 before or want to relive some nostalgia then this seems like a good buy, but $20 seems a bit much for a game that’s obviously not an HD update and has no gameplay updates either. Also, first I hear that MH3G isn’t coming to America and now you give the 360 version of RE4 a full 1000GS but the PS3 doesn’t get a platinum? That’s fucked up Capcom.

- MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good

„It’s Code: Veronica in High Definition. Look up a review from 10 years ago. The end.”

That was my first thought when I was contemplating how to review the newest iteration of Code: Veronica. Despite how news headlines always say „old game to be remade in HD”, the recent HD conversions, such as the Sly Collection or our current subject Code: Veronica are nothing more than ports of old games with enhanced visuals. They are a simple and easy way to cash in on an old classic one more time.

However, I would be lying if I said that this didn’t have a good side. Obvious cash-in or not, these HD releases are a very good way of introducing new gamers to old games and are also great for older gamers who missed out on a certain game. I was in fact happy to see CV getting an HD release, if only because the Survival Horror genre is practically nonexistent today and it was good to see a game of said genre, even if it is just a port.

As far as new content goes, there’s not much to talk about. As you could guess from my first sentence, apart from cosmetic changes everything is the same as it was in the ’X’ versions on the Dreamcast, PS2 and Gamecube. What is new in CVX HD is the lighting and water effects. The water looks a good deal better than it did before, to the point where it looks a little out of place at first glance. As for the lighting, characters now have proper shadows. The visuals are also sharper and much less blurry than before. As such, CVX HD looks a lot better than its previous incarnations. Too bad I can’t say the same about the CG cutscenes – most of them suffer from frame rate issues. Considering this game is 10 years old, that is pretty disappointing.

To be honest, CVX HD is exactly what I expected it to be. That is why I am disappointed. You see of all the RE games, CV is the one that is most in need of an update. Not because it is so great or because of fan demand, but simply because it was always a lackluster installment, even when it was first released. It was a good game overall but take a look back to its predecessor, RE3. That game introduced a handful of new gameplay elements, had different paths to take, included a minigame and a good deal of unlockable weapons, costumes and an infinite ammo mode. Then you sit down, play through CV, and notice: this game has virtually no extra content or replay value. The only unlockable function is the Battle Game, where you pick one of the four main characters and go on a predetermined path, killing every enemy you come across with infinite ammo. So unless you’re going for an A rank, or playing as Wesker who only has a knife, there is virtually no challenge in it. Other than that, you can unlock a rocket launcher in the main game, but that’s it. There are no extra costumes, gameplay modes or any other extra weapons besides the rocket launcher.

The only truly new features are the trophies and the leaderboards. Now the trophies are kind of pointless. There are only two that aren’t related to plot events, meaning the rest you can all get by simply beating the game. The leaderboards are equally disappointing. First off, the Battle Game doesn’t have them, despite being much more competitive by nature than the main game. It has two boards: one with no restrictions and one that restricts the use of the rocket launcher. So basically, the leaderboards have two categories for speedrunners to compete in. This is not bad, but the developers missed a big opportunity here to make something more interesting. The RE games have many skillful fans around the world who can beat the games with ridiculously hard self-imposed restrictions, like using only the knife. Why not make leaderboards for these kinds of playthroughs?

Speaking of challenges, another reason I felt this game needed an update was because of the difficulty. The game has no difficulty levels to select, and CV is by far the easiest game in the series. It needs a higher difficulty setting to make it challenging for those who have already played it. Even after not having played it for a few years, I still managed to remember enough of it to beat the game in 5 hours, with enough ammo and healing items left over at the end to beat the game a second time. And no, this is not an exaggeration.

The Final Word
Resident Evil Code: Veronica X HD is the same game it was ten years ago. It still has all its good and bad qualities and still manages to be fun, even today. However the HD conversion is not perfect and the game lacks any sort of gameplay update that makes it worth buying again. Despite the fair price, if you already own a copy on an old console, don’t bother buying Code: Veronica a second time. I know I wouldn’t.

MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair

When Deathspank released last year I was in love with its gameplay, environment, and witty humor you don’t see very much in games anymore. Thongs of Virtue came out a month later with some new additions, but was obviously more of an expansion pack than a proper sequel. This time around Hothead Games have knocked Deathspank’s name off the title of The Baconing and are calling this title an actual sequel to the previous games. It’s such a shame that The Baconing ends up feeling like another expansion with less improvements than TOV had.

The game starts out with the ‘evil’ ending from Thongs of Virtue where our ‘hero’ Deathspank killed Sandy and kept the thongs of power for himself. He decides it’s a good idea to wear them all and this brings an evil entity known as the Anti-Spank into existence. It’s now your job to burn the thongs in the fires of bacon. I never had any issue with Deathspank’s story, but the fact that the fires of bacon extinguish each time he tosses a thong in and has to find another fire of bacon to burn the next thong seems like a lame attempt at extending the excuse of a story they put together (yo Deathspank, just toss them all in at once?). The game just really feels like a downgrade from TOV and it’s not hard to look at the game and see how lazily everything was done. There are barely any *real* bosses such as Santa, the Ork Sergent, or the evil cooking show host. Hell even the trophy icons are just ripped from the last games. I think the icon for reflecting 100 projectiles is the image of the Japanese word bubble from TOV (for the learning Japanese sidequest), which makes no sense since she has nothing to do with this game. Most of the humorous parts of the game come from the reuse of past characters, but their skits are pretty predictable considering we’ve heard their jokes in 2 games already. Hell even most of the humor isn’t even that funny anymore. I was always laughing during Deathspank or TOV, but this time around I found myself barely chuckling in The Baconing. The worst thing about this is that TOV was done right after the first game was finished while Hothead have been working on this much longer.

Alright, let me mention the map. I loved the map in the last two games since each area was beautifully drawn, you could see all the paths drawn out, and it really helped show that you’re exploring this fantastic place. In The Baconing the map is taking some tips from the pip-boy (Fallout) and is completely green with nothing to see but the *linear* path. It also felt as if you were being pushed to the next ‘level’ instead of reaching a new area like the last games felt. Now what I liked about the previous games was that some quests took you all around the map and some had to be found off the main path of the map, hell I think I had a few friends who didn’t even find some areas because they simply didn’t explore/do a side-quest that would’ve lead them there. This time around there are no extra paths to explore with the game being as linear as Final Fantasy 13, and all the side-quests can be finished within the first minute you get it. Deathspank wasn’t exactly non-linear, but The Baconing is nowhere near as open as it. I feel comfortable calling Deathspank and Thongs of Virtue an open-world game, I wouldn’t give The Baconing the pleasure of receiving that title.

Hothead Games really kept boasting that The Baconing had a much deeper gameplay experience and that the AI was vastly improved upon, but I suppose they just learned how to bullshit to people. The AI still has the same patterns and I never saw them try to flank me like I was told they would do, you could easily stay out of their range and spam your arrows (hell, I’d go as far as saying they’ve bumped up the crossbow damage significantly making many fights easy mode), and the gameplay had no difference from before. They did tweak the shield mechanics a bit, even adding the ability to knock back projectiles, but this seemed totally useless since you’d have to keep your eye on the dozens of enemies swarming you AND the guys shooting at your from afar so you can block/reflect shots. One thing that hasn’t been fixed from the previous game is that when you try to use the circle-strafe strategy of locking-on to an enemy it sometimes won’t register hits on any other enemies besides the one you locked onto. Perhaps an option for the game to always lock-on to the closest enemy would improve things. Other than these things the gameplay is still basically untouched and is your basic hack/slash Diablo-clone game. Like Diablo, Deathspank is known for its loot gathering, and it does this well. You’ll come across some pretty sweet weapons such as unicorn fists, dragon airstrikes, drills of justice that summon drills from the ground, and many more. The armor is one of the only things that takes the ‘sci-fi’ theme Hothead talked about with sets based off Star Wars, Tron, and more. Also, once again money is completely useless since you’ll be rolling in so much cash that buying everything in a shop won’t even put a dent in your wallet.

Co-op is still in the game but for some reason it’s still just local only. You’d think after a year Hothead would’ve added in some online support. They did include all the characters from the previous game along with Roesha, a funky revolver wielding lady, and Bob from Marketing (he’s a shark who shoots lasers from his eyes). I really don’t recommend playing the game with a partner if you want to breeze through the game since for some reason the co-op character takes little to no damage, deals MASSIVE amounts to enemies, and will just make the entire game pretty easy (although I suppose this is alright in some stupidly hard segments). Just as an example of how easy co-op makes the game I’ll give an example. Here was my strategy in both the first boss fight, the multiple yeti fight, and another I can’t recall right now: I simply turned on my second controller, kept Deathspank just barely on the edge of the enemy ‘awareness’ radar, took the second controller (as Bob) and simply spammed his lasers. It took around 2 minutes (maybe less) to kill each of these bosses like this when it would take Deathspank much longer.

The graphics are the same as usual with a mishmash of 2D environments with 3D characters. The environments this time around aren’t as unique as the previous game since the game mostly has 4 major areas with no extra paths to explore. You’ll find *another* desert/mountain are (The Forbidden Zone), another lake, the Leprechan Mafia casino (but this is a small area), and the only notable area being the Forest of Tomorrow which is full of twisted experiments like cloned gummy bears, evil dinosaurs, and killer Christmas trees.

The Final Word
By the end of the day I really wanted to love The Baconing as much as I loved the first game, but I just couldn’t keep playing through the game ignoring the massive sign that said “LAZY LAZY LAZY!”. At least games like Call of Duty add something new; Baconing rips off previous quests, reuses old characters instead of giving us a bigger cast of new ones, has an incredibly lazy map screen, a weird difficulty curve, and for months the devs boasted a ‘sci-fi theme’ for the game when only one *small* area and the weapons/armor had it. I’d only recommend this to people new to the series or people who absolutely loved the previous two entries enough to want a second helping. You could say I’m being a bit hard on the game, but then I guess that old saying “Too much of a good thing can be bad” just really applied to me this time.

- MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average

I set out this summer to cover more downloadable games; however I was worried that I may lose out on some of the bigger retail titles that would be coming between now and the Fall season. But when a game like Outland finally lands in the PlayStation Store, I began to question if some of the bigger titles coming out in the summer can give me the feeling of fulfillment and excitement like Outland gave me.

Outland is a wonderful 2D side scrolling platformer that tests the player’s ability to use all of the game’s mechanics to succeed. I have to say that this title may be one of the toughest downloadable games I have played thus far, almost resulting in a few thrown controllers. With that said, I never felt that I was being cheated by a spike in the difficulty, or bogged down by spaced out checkpoints.

You play as a man haunted by dreams of two ancient sisters that created the Earth, and then sought to destroy it. The main character learns that the world is once again in trouble and he sets out to fight the sisters and their minions that helped create Earth. The narrator refers to your character as hero and warrior, but beyond that, I felt no connection with him. This is the only issue with the game that I have, and it is something that I can’t let go unnoticed. Without some sort of an emotional connection with the character, I was left uninterested with the story, but thankfully, the game offers a lot more to hook me back in.

Gameplay revolves around light and dark spirits, which the player can switch at the click of a button. Often times I found myself having to switch spirits in less than a second to avoid taking damage from obstacles or to attack an enemy with an opposite spirit. In later levels, the intensity of this challenge increased, forcing me to switch spirits while constantly avoiding obstacles and enemies.

Outland starts with a comfortable pace that allows the player to familiarize them self with the controls, and to understand how and when to switch between spirits. As the game progresses, the difficulty rises, and the game tests your ability to use the different game play mechanics, and utilizes different combinations of those mechanics to really mess with you.

Outland offers a variety of puzzles, enemies, and boss encounters, all of which are provided with a beautiful backdrop that made me feel immersed in a new world. The game looks great with its ink cell-shaded art direction. I got a sense of depth between the characters and background, which is awesome considering this is not a 3D game. Player animations felt fluid enough for a downloadable game, which worked well with the controls and emphasizes having good reflexes to dominate Outland. Mixed with a good soundtrack, carefully thought-out level designs, the world in Outland is as immerseive as any full retail game.

Speaking of level design, it is important to note that the developers crafted each level to be open for players to explore. Now it’s not exactly a free roaming game, there is, of course, a somewhat linear path to follow, but being adventurous and traveling to dead end areas of the level can reward you with collectibles or upgrades to your health and energy bars.

Outland offers two other game modes to pump a few more hours into its replay value. Arcade allows players to return to any level they like, and search for collectibles they may have missed during the story. An online co-op mode is a great addition to Outland. You can play the entire story with a friend, or tackle some of the co-op specific challenges that are offered. Having an online co-op mode makes the game more enjoyable, but does not make the gameplay any easier, so beware of that.

The Final Word: Outland is a wonderful downloadable game that kept me very busy with its increasingly tough game play, and immersesive world. Housemarque proves that downloadable titles can be just as fulfilling as a $59.99 retail game. If you’re looking for a refreshing game to play and want to save some money, I highly recommend Outland.

- MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great

Slam Bolt Scrappers is a hybrid of puzzles and brawling, which with three friends, can call for some exciting moments and intense shouting matches, but is there enough content in the end of the day to make this game worth its $14.99 price point?

Not exactly.

I enjoyed the concept of the game, which tasks players with building towers by combining different color blocks that build different types of weapons, while fighting enemies in quick melee combat. Players scramble around to fight enemies known as Baddies, whom drop different color blocks indicated by their individual color. Once players collect the blocks, they must assemble them on their platform into squares that morph into different types of weapons. Some of the weapons are projectile type weapons, while others shoot out a laser beam or electricity. The blocks can be built up to make larger weapons that deal out more damage. Unfortunately the unique and enjoyable game play can get old quickly, despite new Baddie types introduced in later levels, and new weapons. I finished the main campaign around an hour and a half, which left me disappointed with the lack of content. In that short time, I became bored with the game play, and was left uninterested. The main campaign can be done cooperatively, but I was not able to try this. Challenges are available to those who want to complete 100% of the game, which can pump more hours into this title that otherwise lacks replay value.

The level design is interesting, offering environment dangers that can either destroy your blocks, or inhibit you from building weapons, but there is not enough levels to keep me interested and on my toes. Visually I was hooked to the game, which provided a cartoon look with bright colors popping out, and accompanied with an amusing and catchy soundtrack. Bosses are introduced in a few levels and I was satisfied with those battles. Players must find the bosses weakness, while being sure to build up their weapons and fight off Baddies for more blocks. There are only a few bosses, but each provides a higher level of difficulty, which could lead to longer, fulfilling fights.

I found that the most of fun in Slam Bolt Scrappers, is in the Battleground mode, which allows you set up your own custom fights with either A.I controlled opponents, or three of your friends. It can get pretty competitive in Battleground, but it is restricted to local multiplayer only, so if you don’t have three friends to enjoy this fun mode, then you can’t really get the full experience.

The Final Word: The Battleground mode shows potential with the help of the unique concept, but unfortunately with out a group of people to enjoy the game with, the game play can quickly grow old. With the lack of content, and hook, I find it hard to justify Slam Bolt Scrappers $14.99 price point, but I still feel Fire Hose Games has created a fun concept, and some people, especially a group of friends looking for a multiplayer brawler, will find a lot of fun moments with this title.

- MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average

The UnderGarden has finally come to the PlayStation Network, but is it worth the time to step away from fast paced retail games for a soothing break? The relaxing atmosphere is worth it, but can be ruined by a few unnecessary, frustrating moments.

The UnderGarden does not feature a plot, but the player is left to interpret their own story of why this mysterious character is floating around blooming flowers in a world that is as mysterious as the character. The environment is dark and lifeless, only altered by the flowers and music that is played in the background (more on that later). The environment, when colored in by the flowers, is beautiful to see. The levels lack a little variety, however. There is different puzzles in each level, but it feels as if many of the levels are just redone with alternate routes, leaving me feel as if I was doing the same level with a different path and different puzzles.

Gameplay is simple enough. The character floats around collecting pollen that is used to bloom flowers which colors in the environment, as well as grow fruit that can be used for solving the puzzles. The puzzles typically require you to lower or raise a boulder like object to allow you to carry on. Different fruit is used for different occasions, for example: heavy fruit is used to put weight on levers, and light fruit is used to raise levers, as well as explosive fruit that clears out certain obstacles. I enjoyed the different fruit and had no problem with their different abilities, however, I had a problem picking up and dropping the fruit. Some of the fruits, like the explosive fruit, blows up when the character drops it, or the fruit that works like a light bulb, goes out once the player drops it, making it an annoyance when I accidentally dropped something. This annoyance comes from the pickup and drop being the same button, making it difficult to carry multiple objects at the same time. I would have much rather preferred there being separate buttons for picking up and dropping objects.

A cool addition to the game is customization for the main character. The player can unlock several different color schemes for the main character, as well as different horns, and silly objects like a helmet, or a top hat with a mustache attached to it, that give a little more personality to the character. I was surprised to find how many combination’s to dress my character, and found this to be very rewarding after completing some of the frustrating levels. The costumes also add a little more “cuteness” to the characters, which I liked a lot.

The music is as unique as the environment. A constant soothing soundtrack is played in the background that can be altered by musicians that are spread out in each level. The musicians add several instruments, like percussion, flute, or even string instruments, which adds an extra layer to the overall music being played in the background. The player can pick up the musicians, and group them together to add color to the background music, which offers more energy to the soundtrack. But picking up the musicians felt more of an annoyance in some situations. For example, I would have to drop musicians to pick up fruit in order to solve a puzzle, but this would lead me to sometimes losing a musician, or accidentally leaving them behind. They would also get snagged on a wall when I was pulling them along, which meant I had to back-track to free them so I could continue on with the level. It felt easier to just leave the musicians behind, which is a shame because grouping the musicians together adds a layer of entertainment to the experience.

The UnderGarden offers drop in and drop out co-op play. The second player can do everything the first player does, which can make solving puzzles, and carrying multiple objects at a time, much easier. The second player can not go very far, however. Whenever the second player goes off the screen, he or she will spawn next to the first player,allowing them to never separate. The only problem I have is that the multiplayer is limited to local play. I would have enjoyed joining in with someone online, to solve puzzles, and find all the collectibles.

The Final WordThe UnderGarden delivers a unique world, that offers a beautiful environment, and a fitting soundtrack that sets the mood for each level. Customizing the appearance of the mysterious characters quite enjoyable, and searching for the collectibles can pump more time into this title. But frustrating controls, that lead to unnecessary accidents, can quickly pull the player out of the zen like state mind the game tries to set up.

- MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5-Average