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

„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

Starting off Microsoft’s 2011 Summer of Arcade stands Bastion, an action-RPG that boasts a detailed hand-painted style and a reactive narrator. Is there more under the hood of this visually graceful game or are there cracks beneath the surface? Read on to find out.

Bastion places you in control of The Kid during the aftermath of an event called the Calamity, which has wiped out a significant portion of the populace. Tasked with rebuilding the bastion, a safe haven for the victims of the wreckage, The Kid must seek out core pieces from various places of the shattered world. Along the way our hero meets Rucks, one of the few remaining survivors who serves as the game’s dynamic narrator.

What does dynamic narration mean? Many of the actions you make in Bastion are recounted almost instantly by Rucks as they are carried out. Should you choose to stick around and smash crates for money, the narrator may chime with ‘The Kid rages for a bit’. This narration exists throughout the entire game, with enough variety that I never heard the same advice more than once my first time through. While dynamic narration doesn’t stir up gameplay mechanics, it’s the little things that really help you immerse yourself. Logan Cunningham’s smooth jazzy voice as Ruck’s voice actor certainly doesn’t hurt things either.

Unfortunately the plot of the game is slow to pick up, as much of your motivation early on dissolves into going from point A to B. Things start to get more interesting as you are fed more information about the mythos of the world but only at the end did I find myself starting to get truly engaged. It is a story tale that I wished would have lasted longer. All and all, your first run-through will take you from 3-5 hours to finish, with a New Game+ mode to boost replay value.

If not for the refreshing variety in the weaponry and the well-set pace in which you acquire them, the combat would teeter on tediousness. While there are a variety of enemies, many will see you mashing the same button over and over. It is lucky then that the equipment system works well with a bevy of weaponry such as dual pistols, a machete and more, each with several levels of upgrades. The setup is simple, with one weapon mapped to each the X and B buttons, and a special skill mapped to the right trigger. Playing with different combinations and working strategies together to use them is exciting and fun.

Not one to be satisfied with simple upgrades, each level of weapon upgrade comes in two flavors for you to choose between. Do you need extra range on that musket or more power? Higher critical strike chance or ricocheting bullets? Hunting down these enhancements requires you to find an item unique to each weapon and combine it with some money at a Forge. There’s nothing revolutionary here, but all of this combined gives a combat system that is surprisingly more satisfying than one would think.

As you restore parts of the bastion, you also unlock new buildings, such as the distillery to equip stat-boosting spirits, and the shrine, which allows you to increase the difficulty of the game in return for more XP and money. As well, you’ll find proving grounds that provide trials to shake up the gameplay with new ways to use your arsenal and several arenas, facing waves of enemies while the narrator recounts the backstory of The Kid. I was continually drawn back to the proving grounds as I upgraded my weapons, eager to test out my improved abilities and earn new rewards.

I couldn’t complete this review without some mention of Bastion’s artwork style, brandishing a finely detailed painted aesthetic. Animations are smooth and flow gracefully—the world is vibrant with an array of greens, blues, yellows and browns, all of which literally spawn at your feet. Enemy designs are creative and just as colorful. The background is perfect for the story that you unfold, with music that is befitting of situation without becoming annoying or repetitive. It seems that the impressive presentation does take a toll, as loading screens sometimes take a significant portion of time. However, in the larger scheme things it is a very small mark on the quality of this game.

Too Long; Didn’t Read
Bastion is a gem; there’s nothing genre-bending here but it is well-polished and fun to play. Simple combat mechanics provide a surprising amount of depth and variety via the game’s upgrade system and proving grounds challenges. The game’s world bursts at the seams with charm and allure, from hand-polished artwork to dynamic narration and finely-tuned music to serenade the action. While the narrator speaks often, the plot itself is formulated to be what you make of it and sometimes a bit thin because of it. Despite any minor flaws, Bastion stands as a great start for Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade and is definitely worth any action-RPG fan’s 1200 MS points to purchase it.

Free Giveaway
This giveaway does not, in any shape or form, affect our review score for Bastion.

Hello readers! Want to get your hands on Supergiant Games action-RPG for free? There are two ways to win (you can do both to increase your chances): 1) Comment on our post (right here!) about why you would like to play Bastion. 2) “Like” our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/monstervine and comment on our review link for Bastion. Contest entries end July 31, 2011 at 11:59pm PT and a winner will be selected August 1. Make sure to have valid e-mails/Facebooks so we can contact you by!

Ubisoft weren’t wrong when they described ‘From Dust’ as the spiritual successor to the classic Populous series. Both make use of the player being a god like entity to control the environment and help civilisations grow. While Populous was more of a Real Time Strategy From Dust works more like a Puzzle game.

You play as a Deity called ‘The Breath’ who has the power to pick up and drop certain environmental objects such as, soil, lava or water. Your main objective is to guide a nomadic tribe through hazardous environments and help them find a safe civilisation and help vegetate the world. The main campaign is split up into a series of missions where the main objective is to set up villages and find a gate which will allow you to enter the next mission. All missions follow the same structure but how you go about completing the mission vary drastically depending on what situations and hazards comes before you. There are many ways in which you can use your powers to manipulate the environment to help your tribe. For example Water can be taken away to protect villages from flooding or dropped on wildfires. Soil can be placed to form bridges and help vegitate the land quicker and Dropping lava will instantly cool down and form solid rock which can be used to block water or lava flows.

You don’t directly control the tribe but you do guide them to certain objects in order to find powers or new homes. The tribe can only set up camp at totem poles spread out all around the map. Once a camp is set up the land around it will blossom with wildlife and will continue to spread as long as there is soil and water nearby to help it grow. They can also grant you additional powers such as jellifying water, enhance the powers of your breath or infinite earth to name a few. All of which will help you complete the task at hand. Villages can also be protected from fire and/or water if a tribesman finds and collects power from the stones of musical knowledge and take it back to the village. Once told where to go a white line will tell you of their path with a red line marking an area they will get stuck or stranded at, meaning you will have to clear the path for them.

However the environment is doing all it can to prevent you from succeeding after mastering the basics of your powers you will have to fight off tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and often both together in order to help the tribe survive. Much of the challenge comes from finding the best course of action in any given situation and making use of all your powers on the fly. You will need to think carefully of where to divert water or lava because making a giant pool isn’t going to stop an ever flowing stream or you may need to transverse that area you divert the lava to later. The last third of the game will kick your arse as hazards get more frequent and dangerous even going as far as drastically changing the environment in an instant. Gameplay is only slightly dampened when you go to build a new village. The game has a habit of being picky when there is the smallest amount of water surrounding the totem which can be a pain if you’re running short of time before a tsunami or volcano hits. There is a bit of trial and error involved but there is no clear cut way to complete a mission. There is a certain sandbox element that allows you to do anything you see fit, this is very obvious very early on in the game as you are given much more time and space to do as you will. Though as the missions get tougher and more frantic it will become apparent that there are a few set ways to complete that mission. But the sheer variety and massive differences in the way the map evolves depending on the player more than makes up for this slight problem.

Outside of the main campaign you have a challenge mode which limit your powers and asks you to complete a task as fast as you can. These vary from protecting the village before a tsunami strikes to helping clear a path for the tribe to cross. These offer nice short distractions and make good and interesting uses of the games mechanics. There are also collectables in the form of memories of the tribe which are extra bits of information based on the games world. You collect these either by simply completing a mission, getting a certain percentage of the map full of vegetation or collecting special stones. These help add an extra layer of difficulty to missions and an excuse for completionists to go back. Though outside of this there is very little reason to go back unless you want to try and find different ways in which to complete a level. You can also if you wish go back to a previously explored level and continue to mess with it which almost acts as a sandbox mode.

From Dust looks great. The game has gone for a very minimalist approach despite the odd highlight and prompt, the game lets the environment do the talking. Map design varies from level to level, you go from such environments as a volcanic island, tropical island and a desert. All of which have a distinct look and feel different from one another and the fact you can change the appearance of any given level just adds to the appeal. One level for instance only consists of a few small islands and by the levels end you have a big and sprawling playground most of which was created by you. In short From Dust is a good looking game and not just for a downloadable title. The game has a certain charm and character to it.

The Final Word
From Dust is a great and pretty original little gem. The concept of changing the environment is an endearing one and works very well. You are given a lot of control of how to tackle each situation and even when the going gets tough the pay off is satisfying. It may not last you very long but it’s definitely worth checking out for those looking for something different. There aren’t many games quite like From Dust.

- MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great

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

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

As with pretty much every Sonic game nowadays, the main thought that crosses everyone’s mind when thinking about Sonic 4 is „does it suck?” Well, does it?

In short, no. Sonic 4 is actually not bad. But to elaborate further, it’s not exactly a masterpiece either. In fact, far from it. It’s a very odd situation, for one thing, Sonic 4 has a lot of what made the Genesis/MegaDrive Sonic games good, plus some new things. However, on the other hand, it still suffers from the same flaws those games did and a couple of new problems that arise with the new homing attack.

The basics are simple, as usual for a 2D Sonic game. You run from left to right through the stages, avoiding obstacles and have the usual 10 minute time limit to do so. You still collect rings, you still have lives and you still have the classic special stages if you reach the end of the level with at least 50 rings and jump into a giant ring. Nothing special at all, but that’s how we like it. The only exceptions are some timed jumping puzzles, which honestly not do much good, they just slow down the fast pace of the game. Other than that, we got the homing attack from the 3D Sonic games, and it adds something new and fresh to the formula. The only problem, is that when there are no enemies, it works as a rebound-like move, used to gain a little bit of extra distance for your jump. Sonic does this while in the air, and if the game detects your not standing on anything, Sonic uses this move. This can be very annoying, when you try to jump off a platform right at its edge, but the game detects it as you already being in the air and uses the rebound. This causes many frustrations throughout platforming.

Going back to form was a nice thing for Sonic 4, but honestly it’s just not that impressive. We get some nice new features, like the Mega Man-esque stage selection and the homing attack, but not much else. It’s basically just Sonic again, and what’s more it doesn’t even have some of the nice features that even Sonic 2 had, like the competitive two player mode. Also, no other characters make an appearance either. I understand that the fans don’t want to see a lot of new characters, but what Sonic Team doesn’t realize, is that the characters are not what made games such as Shadow the Hedgehog or Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 bad – it was the gameplay. Heck, Shadow is one of the most hated characters among the fans, and even he was considered cool by many until Shadow the Hedgehog came out. In other words, as much as I dislike some characters as well because of their bad characterization in said awful Sonic games, I really wouldn’t mind playing as other Sonic characters from the series. It could even add extra dimensions to the gameplay: remember how Knuckles could climb walls and glide? Playing as Knuckles in Sonic 3 & Knuckles really added a whole new level of exploration.

Anyone playing should be prepared for some frustration along the way. Although the game is generally easy, in the sense that gathering lives and rings is really not as difficult as in previous games, the levels themselves still have a lot of „artificial difficulty” as we like to call it. There are a lot of trial-and-error parts with unpredictable bottomless pits to watch out for, most of which you’ll probably fall victim to at least once. Also, some bosses are just plain unfair. Eggman in the Lost Labyrinth zone is one of those, he just uses instant kill attacks over and over again, and you need to be incredible careful and precise to defeat him. I never thought I’d ever see the day when a Sonic game would go as far as to design a boss that just smashes the walls on you repeatedly and instantly kills you, but it’s here.

The Final Word
In the end, Sonic 4 is what it promises to be. It is the standard, fun 2D Sonic that we’ve come to expect from the series. If you like Sonic, you can safely give this game a try, but if you’re expecting something new, you’ll be disappointed. Newcomers can give it a go as well, although to be honest, you won’t be missing much if you don’t play this. Also be prepared to be frustrated quite a bit, though older gamers who grew up on the Genesis/MegaDrive games will probably feel right at home with the difficulty.

- MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average

Costume Quest is a Double Fine game, like Psychonauts and Brutal Legend. Does this mean it’s good? Will it share the fate of Psychonauts, becoming overlooked despite its quality? Well first off, lets backtrack a bit and start at the beginning. Double Fine’s latest game shows off the same charm and fun gameplay that made their previous games stand out.

Costume Quest is basically a standard adventure RPG. You select your character from the twins Reynold and Wren, and began your trick-or-treating on Halloween night. However, your sibling soon gets kidnapped by a monster living in one of the houses, because they dressed up as a big piece of candy. Someone the monsters are fooled into believing this, despite the candy talking and being alive. So Reynold or Wren set out to rescue their sibling via the power of costumes.

One their quest, the hero will encounter a lot of NPCs who will help them out and give them quests. As any modern RPG, the game has a journal to help the player memorize what they need to do, and to check various important things from costume powers to stats. The quests themselves can be mandatory and optional, although for the most part they are all easy to find and complete. Even without a walkthrough, I managed to complete the game to 100% on my first playthrough. As long as you keep your eyes open, you’ll find all the quests and costumes easily, but considering that the game was made with children in mind, this makes sense. While Costume Quest is enjoyable for it humour, charm and gameplay by adults, it is a game that primarily targets children, which shows through in its simplicity. It can serve as a good introduction to the RPG genre for younger audiences.

All this talk of costumes, and I still haven’t mentioned their role? First off, in the world of Costume Quest, costumes grant power to those who wear it. Much like in a child’s imagination, the costumes are just costumes, made out of cloth or cardboard, but they are actually superpowered outfits, that transform you and grant you power. When faced with enemies, you transform into a real robot, ninja, vampire, and a handful of others, depending on the costume you are currently wearing. Some costumes also have special abilities on the field, but most of them are just situational and rarely used. The only one that you will use frequently is the robot’s, which allows you to move faster. Others, like the knight’s ability to shield yourself from falling debris will only come into play two or three times maximum in the game. This is understandable considering the games length, though it doesn’t help that switching costumes in these situations is kind of a pain. It would have been easier if you could just switch party leader with the press of a button and use the character who is equipped with the correct costume. Switching costumes is still easy and efficient enough, but having to put on a costume just to avoid an enviromental hazard, then switch back to the robot one because it runs fast can get a little annoying after a while.

The game’s combat is simple and fun. You enter a battle, and you see a typical turn-based system. Each character has one attack, and one special move that charges up over time. You can also assign special attacks by buying battle stamps, which can power up your characters by boosting stats or giving them special attacks. For the most part you just select your attack and perform a type of Quick Time Event to execute it, and if successful you deal a critical hit. Defense works the same way, except you only need to press buttons, while attacking can require you to time the button press, rotate the analog stick, and other actions depending on which costume your using. Special attacks also range from dealing heavy damage to healing a party member, depending on the costume. The combat system is fairly simple and fun, although it can be difficult at first while lacking a healer. However, I haven’t died a single time in the game, which is easy to do as long as you pay attention to the QTEs. However, messing up a QTE while defending can really turn the tide of battle against you. To be quite honest, the biggest draw of the game’s combat is its simplicity, but it can also be its biggest flaw. Depending on what kind of player you are, you may grow tired of the simple battle system after a while, as you can play through the whole game using just regular attacks and special attacks/healing when they are charged up, and it doesn’t require much strategy. Of course given that this is a downloadable title, and also made for kids, this is somewhat understandable.

Luckily enough, the game’s length is short overall, but perfect for the game. I’d say it doesn’t take more than 6-8 hours to beat the game even to 100%. The game is simple, the quests are simple and sometimes similar, the combat is simple, and due to this it can get boring after a while, however the lenght of the game is just good enough so that it doesn’t outlast its welcome. By the time I started getting bored with it, I found myself at the last boss. This coupled with the game’s charm, and its humour, which is often made for older audiences as well with it’s ironic and sarcastic jokes make it just fun enough to warrant a playthrough and keep it entertaining. The game’s music and sound effects are also quite fitting for the game’s Halloween theme, though there is no voice acting, be it for better or worse. Sadly though, the game doesn’t offer much, if any, replayability. I don’t see myself playing through it again anytime soon.

The Final Word
Costume Quest is a fun and well made game. It provides good entertainment for both children and older audiences and has that Double Fine/Tim Schafer feel to it that makes it stand out. It’s quality makes the price tag seem worth it, although I’d recommend you play the trial version first and decide for yourself if the price is worth it for you, seeing as the game doesn’t offer any real replay value once you are finished with its 6-8 hour story and its simplicity can drag it down to where it becomes a one-time-only ride.

- MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average