I've never really been into Mortal Kombat, despite fighters being one of my favorite genres. I only played a few versions in arcades, and quickly convinced myself that it was a bloodier, shittier Street Fighter. This impression was completely changed by the new Mortal Kombat game for Xbox 360 and PS3 (abbreviated to MK9 from here on to avoid confusion, because dammit it's the ninth game).
I want to be very clear about this- I am loving this game. I'm starting to think it might be the best fighter this year, Marvel be damned. It's one of the first fighting games I've seen actually pull a story off well, as well as offer more content in single and multiplayer than you could shake a severed leg at. It's got a great engine, a deep yet accessable combo system, and is probably the best MK yet.
I emphasize that I like it so much because I'm going to spend this whole post bitching about some of the really stupid things that I've noticed.
10: No one uses their head
The return of gory fatalities is the one of most well known features of MK9. Between the X-ray attacks and the two fatalities per character, you're going to see more innards than any previous Mortal Kombat has shown. I noticed a common theme throughout most of these- this game has a complete disregard for human heads.
Nearly every fatality involves the removal or destruction of the head of the opponent, and in most cases that's just the first thing they do before mutilating the body. I don't understand it. The only people that would be hurt by what goes on post-decap are the founders of the Geneva Convention from all the rolling they'd be doing in their graves.
9: Raiden is senile
The plot of MK9's (remarkably well done) story mode is that Raiden is receiving visions from his future self, the purpose of these being to prevent Shao Khan from kicking the world's ass. His goal is to use said visions to change the future so that Shao Khan never conquers Earthrealm (our world). At first, this is handled with all the care and twists that a time changing plot deserves, but by the end the sheer amount of fuck ups that Raiden makes is too long to count. From what I understand, he's supposed to be an immortal pseudo-god of thunder. Why is he incapable of doing anything right?
For the record, it's not just me that feels this way. The other characters in game get angry at Raiden for sucking at everything he does throughout the story, and by the end that's almost all they talk about. Raiden, we've had a good run. You've killed loads of people and done a damn good job of it. But I think it's time to consider moving to a home.
8: NetherRealm has no concept of difficulty curve
One of the biggest single player offerings in MK9 is the Challenge (Khallenge?) Tower- a collection of 300 missions that require to you win fights and mini games with all sorts of conditions. For the most part the missions are creative, and provide an interesting take on the standard MK fare. Every several missions, however, you'll come across a mission that's just ridiculously difficult compared to the others for no real reason.
For example- there's a mission somewhere in the 70s where you have to take on Reptile, Ermac, and Goro in a row with Baraka. Anyone who knows MK knows that this is a far cry from fair. The condition is that you get a damage buff for every combo you do that gets or exceeds 5 hits, but as none of the listed combos in game have that many, you need to have spent some time in training to nail down at least one or two decent Baraka combos just to clear the mission. By contrast, only a few missions before this you have to fight 3 generic baddies in a row who have no specials and lowered health. What?
7: Canonically, no one ever kills anybody
Last I checked, Mortal Kombat is all about kicking someone's ass and doing terrible things to their head. So why do you never get to use fatalities in story mode? Enemies are left alive only to come back with a vengeance again and again throughout the story. Why do they ignore the Mortal part of the title?
Now to be fair, the story does do a pretty good job of giving reasons as to why the bad guys aren't killed most of the time. A character may not want to kill who they're fighting because they like them, or never planned to kill to begin with, or need the ass kick-ee to do something for them, etc. But there are plenty of occasions where a fight is hyped up against a significant villain, and not killing them off afterwards is just not in the MK spirit.
6: Shao Khan is a goddamned juggernaut
This probably isn't news to any MK fans out there, but Shao Khan is ridiculously powerful. Before MK9 came out, some people were upset that Shao Khan was deconfirmed from being playable. It's clear now why he's not- he is absolutely obscene. Anything you can do he can do better, and probably take a third of your health with.
Nothing about Mr. Khan is fair. He only takes about half damage, his X-ray does 52% of your health, his hammer projectile does enough stun to allow him to do an infinite with those alone (though the AI seems to be limited to 3 before he just hits you), and he has armor on almost all of his moves. This isn't just super armor where you can break it in two hits though, no. This is a variant called random ridiculous bullshit armor where most of the time no amount of hits will stop him, but every once in a while he'll get jabbed out of the same moves. The only sure thing about Shao Khan is that he will ruin your face repeatedly before you beat him.
5: NetherRealm is bad at making arcade sticks
One of these things is not like the others.
One of these things just doesn't belong.
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?
I realize that it's the MK layout, but the game is so pad friendly and that layout is so strange that there's no real reason to get this thing. Don't bother.
4: No one reads manuals anymore
MK9 has no manual. That's not an exaggeration. When you open a new copy, you get a "katalog" of merchandise, the code you need to play online, and a single piece of paper folded like a manual that contains nothing but the necessary warnings and legalese. It is essentially just the cover with no pages inside. When your included ads are more numerous than your instructions, you've done something wrong.
3: Uppercuts are the most powerful technique to ever exist
Uppercuts have always been a force to be reckoned with in fighting games, but most of them have a reason for it. The Street Fighter Shoryuken, for example, is a huge jumping uppercut with a fancy spin on the way up. That's a gigantic punch. MK9 uppercuts (one of the normals that everyone has some variation of), are executed from a crouch and are done with the arm alone. Despite this, they take a huge chunk of damage and launch people into the air. What?
This isn't an issue with the game or anything, it's just weird. Why does a punch with no special attributes out damage almost every other normal and projectile in the game? I might understand it on some characters, like Sheeva or Jax, but having this tiny punch of doom just looks weird.
2: Liu Kang is inexplicably well liked
Let's be honest- Liu Kang is boring. He's a shaolin monk, and...that's it. Despite this, he canonically wins almost every tournament ever. Why?
I've always had a very Street Fighter-y vibe from this guy, as if Ryu and Fei Long somehow spawned someone even more boring. Fireballs, parries, and fucking bicycle kicks, all accompanied with ridiculous yells and noises that no one would ever make in a fight. I realize that he's been in almost every game and has played a large part in the story, but given that the concept for the plot was a re-imagining of the plot from the start of the series, it's a shame that a character so dull still plays such a huge part. That said, he does have a couple great moments, and what he says to Raiden throughout the end game are some of my favorite lines in the story, so that says something. Still, fuck Liu Kang, dragon fatality and all.
1: The Krypt is really fucking stupid
I mentioned before that there's a ton of stuff to unlock. The vast majority of said stuff can be unlocked through The Krypt, where you spend the Koins you earn from playing the game to unlock goodies. Unfortunately, it isn't exactly that simple to use.
The Krypt is basically a giant map with 5 areas in it. 4 of the areas contain the stuff you can unlock, while the last, the Nekropolis, holds all your swag, as well as character models and bios. Notice I mentioned the map is giant. That is because you need to navigate each area manually to find each individual unlock, which are numbered. You have no idea what you're getting until you pay for it, and having to move from spot to spot to unlock stuff takes longer than this sort of thing should. Every time you select an unlock and pay, an animation plays that either opens a grave somehow (in the first area) or does something with a body (the other 3). The animations tend to take a while, and honestly they're not even worth watching once. You can skip these, but be wary if the animation doesn't skip right away, because there might be a pop scare.
Yeah, that's right. The Krypt has pop scares for no reason. Once in a blue moon you'll be unlocking something, and then RAAAAR MONSTER IN YOUR FACE DEAL WITH IT. There's no reason for this, honestly. It's not like MK is a horror series, why have jump scares? It's stupid. The only word I have for that is stupid.
Conclusion
MK9 is an amazing game. It really is. If you like fighters at all, get it. If you like MK, get it yesterday. If you're on the fence, get it anyway because it's surprisingly accessible to newbies, even without a manual (sigh). I have to emphasize: these things are basically the only bad parts of the game. It's a great title, online or off, and you're going to have fun so long as you're not too squeamish about blood and such.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to practice my Quan Chi so I can do this to people:
I still don't have anything to review, but I've been bothered by something. I heard the song Mrs. Robinson on the radio recently. After listening carefully, I noticed some oddities. Here are my findings.
(listen along with the weirdness!)
And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson Jesus loves you more than you will know (Wo, wo, wo) How nice of these people to say so! Surely they mean well. God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson
Heaven holds a place for those who pray
(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey) Little weird to talk about the afterlife to a living woman, but eh, we'll roll with it.
We'd like to know a little bit about you for our files Wait, what? We'd like to help you learn to help yourself This is sounding less pleasant by the second. What's wrong with dear Mrs. Robinson, and why can't she fix it? Look around you, all you see are sympathetic eyes
Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home Oh goodness.
Question. What do you call places where you'll find sick people that can't help themselves roaming the "grounds"?
Answer: Insane asylums.
Welcome to hell.
And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson Jesus loves you more than you will know (Wo, wo, wo) Doesn't seem as nice now, does it? God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson
Heaven holds a place for those who pray
(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey) The people watching her are expecting her to die! What kind of sanitarium is this?
oh my dear sweet lord no next verse
Hide it in a hiding place where no one ever goes It? What is "it"? Drugs? Booze? A gun? Her diary? Is it bigger than a breadbox? Put it in your pantry with your cupcakes THIS ANSWERS NOTHING YOU HAPPY BASTARDS It's a little secret, just the Robinsons' affair Huh. I doubt it's a marital affair. I mean, clearly she knows about it, and you can't really hide that sort of thing too easily. Unless... Most of all, you've got to hide it from the kids My god, she killed him. Mr. Robinson had an affair and the missus went Dolores Claiborne on his ass. Not only that, but there's some kind of proof and it was hidden in the house! Clearly she didn't hide it well enough though, or she wouldn't be in the happy house.
Coo, coo, ca-choo, Mrs Robinson
Jesus loves you more than you will know (Wo, wo, wo)
God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson
Heaven holds a place for those who pray
(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey) Coo coo ca-fuck you, you sadists.
Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon Don't play innocent, Mrs. Robinson. You know what you did. Going to the candidates debate Huh? Laugh about it, shout about it When you've got to choose Wait, was she bragging about what she did in a public place? Did she succumb to the guilt and yell it to the world at a fucking political rally? What is with this woman? Ev'ry way you look at it, you lose
Man, this is absolutely nutters. Hopefully the last verse will make some sense of this, because honestly I don't know what to think anymore. Who's helping who? Is Mrs. Robinson sane? Are the orderlies sane? Is ANYONE sane that was involved in this song?
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you (Woo, woo, woo)
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson
Joltin' Joe has left and gone away
(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey)
Joe DiMaggio. Professional baseball player for the Yankees from 1936-1951. Nicknamed "Joltin' Joe".
When the wonderful folks at Dejobaan released what is essentially a purchasable alpha for their new music game, I jumped at the opportunity. Dejobaan has a solid track record of titles, in particular the Katamari inspired "The Wonderful End of the World" and BASE jumping fun times in "AaAaAA!!!- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity". I had heard of this several months ago, and was excited to see what they had cooked up so far. After playing a decent variety of songs, I felt a preview was in order, so here we are.
The game plays very similarly to "AaAaAA". You fall through gyrating geometry, nearly missing obstacles and crashing through score plates to get the highest score possible. The difference here is that, like Audiosurf and many other recent rhythm games, you insert your own music and the game generates a level around it. Here lies the issue with the game: the level generator isn't too great as of yet. If the song you're trying to play doesn't have a strong beat and bass, you probably won't have much luck- there will barely be anything in the level to interact with. Songs that do work lead to a fairly varied series of obstacles, though I found that some sequences repeated.
My biggest issue was that the game seemed to have trouble keeping up with some songs, often having a split second of delay between the music and the game's beat. This wasn't a majority of songs, but it was enough to be annoying. However, the game is still in pre-release, so I have faith they'll fix it soon.
But honestly, this game is the sort of thing you just have to show, so I made a video with one of the songs the game did better with: Dance Commander. My recorder isn't great, hopefully it came out OK.
You can grab "KICK IT!" for half price ($5) on Steam right now. If it seems appealing to you, give it a go.
If you've ever played a video game, you probably at least know of this one. You may not have played it, but you know it. Let me prove it.
Yeah. That line that everyone makes fun of? That's from this! And in this XBLA release, nothing has changed. The game's still coated in Engrish, virtually mindless, and incredibly fun with friends. But is it worth $10? Debatable.
First of all, it's a beat-em-up. Just about every beat-em-up has a few things in common: endless baddies, shallow gameplay, and multiplayer that saves the game. The last part is the kicker. Unless you're playing River City Ransom (which is basically the best beat-em-up there has ever been), you need other players to make it fun. Xmen initially seems to have this handled by making the legendary 6 player coop a reality online. Shooting off mutant powers with 5 people online sounds fun, until you realize that Xmen is a game that was fun because of the social aspect. You're better off playing locally and enjoying the silliness that way, even if you can only play 4 player local.
For the few of you who don't know how the game works, you punch loads of baddies in various locations until the game ends. That's it. To shake it up, every character (who otherwise controls the same) has a mutant power that lets them kill loads of dudes and do loads of damage to bosses. You get more mutant power uses as the game goes on, or when you die. This leads to another problem with the game. Infinite continues with no penalty means infinite mutant powers, which means it's impossible to lose. The arcade-y fun of the original is reduced by a lot when you don't have to risk another quarter every three lives.
This doesn't mean it's a bad game, not by a long shot. It just means that you've got to have company to enjoy it. It's a solid party game, but nothing else. If you've got friends that enjoy games like this, you've got a solid night's worth of entertainment here. Whether or not that's worth $10 is up to you. Personally, I've had a bit of buyer's remorse. Don't let nostalgia goggles make this an impulse buy.
Sorry for the short review, there's just not much to say about something this simple and, well, short.
Sorry folks, I haven't had time to finish what I'm currently working on, so that's going to have to wait for next week. Instead, I have a treat- an old review I wrote back in 2009 for Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament for the PSP. It was...ugh. Just read for yourself.
Today, I'm going to tell you about a game I took back to the store.
Let me start with a little background info. The original Steambot Chronicles was a PS2 game that became sort of a cult hit. It combined sandbox gameplay wth a bizarre but interesting world, along with a system for creating some of the most original mechs you'll ever see.
The mechs in the series tend to look like someone took an old car, removed the wheels, and added arms and legs to the body. That is to say, they're really unique and lend a lot of personality to a genre that's barely changed since it was created. My only gripe with them is that the series calls them "Trotmobiles".
<rant>
What in the hell were they smoking when they thought that "Trotmobile" would be a good name for a car-robot thing as tall as an average house? That's got to be one of the worst names for a main gameplay mechanic I've ever heard. No matter how imposing some of the mechs (that is what I will be calling them from here on) were supposed to be, I could never take them seriously because every single character never stopped saying the word Trotmobile.
</rant>
To simplify things, the first one was a unique sandbox game. But we're not talking about that one today, now are we?
First of all, this game decides that a plot would be below it and gives you the patented Pokemon opening instead, that is to say, you want to be the very best and show your opponents the power that's inside.
The game claims to be a sandbox game like its predecesor. It even says it on the back of the box. That blurb is one of the most blatant acts of false advertising I've ever seen. You do two things in the entire game- take jobs from the job center to earn money and fame until the game decides you've grinded enough, then go to the colliseum for a few fights. Then you'll ascend in rank, and you have to go back to doing grunt work for a while.
You can go back and fight any previous battles over again, but it only earns you money, and you need fame to get to the next rank and progress in the game. Here's something I don't understand- why is it that you can't earn fame from fights? It certainly makes a lot more sense than doing it by delivering a newspaper to a hermit in the middle of the fucking North Pole (not kidding). It's not like he's going to brave the frozen wasteland to come see you, so what's the point?
So no, the jobs aren't fun. But what really makes them bad is the sheer amount of effort it takes to just do one.
<rant 2>
Most games that involve questing use a very similar pattern. You go to point A, find out what you're doing, go to point B, do it, and report back to point A.
Not this game.
To do a job in SCBT you have to head near point A, get out of your mech, walk slowly to the job center, go through an unnecessarily long menu to confirm, walk veeeeery slowly back to your mech, ride to point B where you receive instructions, go to area C where the job needs to be done, find location D deep in the area, do whatever the hell you need to do (usually takes 10-30 seconds tops) ride all the way back to point B to report, park, and WALK YOUR SLOW ASS BACK TO POINT A TO GET YOUR ALL TOO WELL DESERVED CASH.
The exhausting feeling you have after reading that last run-on sentence is but a fraction of what you'll feel during each and every task in this game.
</rant 2>
I've made a visual aid. Let's look, shall we?
HOW HARD IS THAT, STEAMBOT CHRONICLES? IS IT TOO COMPLEX?
It doesn't help that the fights are boring too. Every fight lasts for two minutes. You run and hop like a fool while clobbering the other person. The fights are laughably easy- the AI doesn't seem to grasp what a combo is until the last fight of the game, meaning that they'll only hit you once or twice at most before exploding, assuming you don't stop and sit perfectly still too often. And as if they were trying to minimize the enjoyment, the higher ranked fights are fewer in number. Yes, you end up spending less and less time actually fighting as the game progresses. Brilliant.
There's actually quite a bit of customizing to do, but it's really all for naught because nearly all of the weapons are inadequate. Firearms are almost all useless because using them forces you to stand still and shoot straight in front of you. This process can be interrupted, and if it is all you did was let them hit you. The only firearm worth using is the missile launcher because it homes in with distance, but you get it right before the end of the game and it runs out of ammo extremely fast unless you spend a shitload to upgrade it.
So all that's left is melee combat, and most of that is garbage too. Any weapon that forces you to charge an attack is even worse than a firearm, and most of the others just swing too slow or not enough times. However, there are two weapons that, if used as a pair (meaning you pay for two of them), get a special combo that actually attacks quickly and can do good damage. For the first third of the game this is the mace, and for the last two thirds this is the claw.
Believe me, I tried to use other equipment. I really did. I bought almost every weapon in the game and tried them all. Nothing stood up to the claw. Combined with a light fast mech, the claw rapes everything, including the final boss. Everything else is inferior.
Oh, and there's multiplayer, but I'm fairly certain no one will ever play it. There's no online, so you have to play local, and to actually use a decent mech (CLAWS) you have to have your own copy of the game. I'm fairly certain rounding up 4 people that actually enjoy this garbage and putting them in the same room would destroy the planet somehow.
So the game is boring and easy. Fortunately it's short- I beat the entire game and got the best ending in just over 6 hours, and almost an hour of that was me dicking around with the claw and fighting repeats. This leads to another oddity- there is no credit sequence in the entire game. And I searched, believe you me. I went back and got the other two endings- no credits for them either. I looked online, and it was confirmed. The game will not tell you who was responsible for its creation, I'm assuming because they know what they did and feared for their lives. All we know is that Atlus made it, and if it weren't for the fact that I love Snowboard Kids I would storm their headquarters for this abomination.
The only nice thing I have to say about the game is that the detail for the mechs is quite good. Everything else looks fairly bland (they kept the theme), but presentable. It's certainly not the ugliest PSP game. The voices are ridiculously over the top, but they were actually the most enjoyable part of the whole game, simply because they were worth a chuckle. The music, on the other hand, is composed of a 5 second loop of noise for each area. It's bad. Really bad. Ironically, the most annoying sound bite in the game is the one that plays when you win a fight- a blast of bagpipes with only the faintest idea of what notes they're trying to make. You'd almost rather lose.
In fact...maybe you would. Hell, it can't be worse than continuing the game. Maybe the best way to stop the pain is to submit to the cold harsh grip of death.
Followed by the cold harsh smash of a hammer on the fucking UMD.
Double Fine has become famous for creating very unique games with each offering. This time around, they've taken a stab at puzzle games with Stacking, a new game on XBLA. Let's take a look and see if it stacks up.
Stacking is a game based entirely around Matryoshka dolls, aka Russian stacking dolls. The game is based around a simple concept: you, the smallest size of doll, must stack into other dolls that are progressively larger and use their abilities to solve puzzles. The solutions to these puzzles usually involve causing some sort of mayhem, making them especially satisfying. For example, one of the first puzzles of the game requires the player to clear trainyard workers out of a private club. One of the solutions is to find a lady doll that is -ahem- rather stacked, lure the guard away from his post, and invade the club, running everyone out.
This touches on one of the most interesting aspects of Stacking: every puzzle has multiple solutions. It forces the player to look beyond the one or two obvious solutions and really use the doll abilities to their fullest extent. If you're getting stuck on a solution, the game has a built in 3 hint system for each one that can keep the less patient from blowing their stack. Unfortunately, the third hint blatantly tells you the solution, so it's a bit too easy if you abuse it. Each puzzle only has to be solved once in order to progress, but there are rewards for those who go the extra mile in the form of paintings and statues of all unique dolls, which are made by your hobo friend Levi in your secret base. Did I mention Stacking was unique?
There are also Hi-Jinks conditions that you can achieve by using doll abilities, usually to bother other dolls. These are rewarded in the form of some sort of award on the doll; for example, a man's glove will turn from white to gold after you use it to slap a sufficient amount of unsuspecting dolls. Double Fine knew what we would do given the opportunity to bother people, and they not only allow but encourage it.
The game's presentation is also fantastic. It's one of the best looking XBLA titles, and the soundtrack, though limited, is very enjoyable. The cutscenes in particular stand out, in that they're presented in a silent movie style- music and overactive pantomime, interrupted by cards with the dialogue on them. When actually playing the game, however, the sound is plentiful. The sound effects and actions of the NPCs are expressive and often hilarious, and the fact that you can control almost all of them makes them even more so.
So, is Stacking worth the stack of MS points ($15 worth)? I'd say yes. It's enjoyable from start to finish, and actually has quite a bit of meat to it. And really, even if you 100% it, you'll probably go back for more at some point, as there's really nothing else like it. It's the sort of thing you can easily recommend to just about anybody, whether they're a hardcore pro gamer type, or someone who's normally not even interested in video games. The appeal is there regardless, and it's deserved. Double Fine has once again proven that they can tackle just about any genre of game they want and not only make it fun, but create an entire world around it.
And sorry about the stack puns, it's really irresistible.
The Bit.Trip series has become an odd staple in downloadable titles over the last few years. Immediately recognizable, undeniably popular, and simultaneously bizarre yet familiar, Bit.Trip games provide a unique twist on rhythm games that you really can't get anywhere else. With the release of Bit.Trip runner on the PC as of 2/28/11 on Steam, I figured it'd be appropriate to review it before Steam's infamous deals snag everyone's money.
Bit.Trip Runner is, at its core, a rhythm game. However, it's presented as a platformer, and although you cannot control your movement across the level (due to keeping with the beat), you perform jumps, slides, bounces, and other techniques to navigate the level. All of these actions correspond with the background music in some way, making it fairly easy to tell when you need to do things, though exactly what it is you have to do may not be immediately apparent. It's difficult to describe exactly how the game plays, so I'll be linking a video here of a later level (taken from Wii version).
This ties in nicely to my next point, which is that the game is incredibly fun to look and listen to. The music is great, especially in the boss stages, and the graphics are almost guaranteed to make you feel nostalgic for the 8bit games of your youth. It's the kind of game that can draw a crowd, much like the other Bit.Trip titles.
However, this game suffers from the same issues as the other Bit.Trips. The game is very unforgiving. Any mistakes whatsoever can ruin your run and make you start from the beginning. In Runner this is less of an issue because of the short level structure, but it was a common complaint of other Bit.Trip games and it's clear Gaijin Games doesn't intend to make things any easier. This is not a bad thing in and of itself. Challenge is good, so long as there's a reward for completing said challenges. But unfortunately, the game ends almost too quickly for there to be a real feeling of accomplishment. There are only 3 worlds, and again, the levels are short, meaning you've only got about 4-5 hours of gameplay here tops unless you're not particularly great at rhythm games. There's not much reason to play the game again afterwards, unless you're determined to 100% every level, but again, there's no real motivation to do so.
Does this mean Bit.Trip Runner is a bad game? Certainly not. It's a great experience from start to finish, it's just that there's hardly anything in between. It's certainly not worth the $10 suggested price, though when it's inevitably dropped to $5 you should consider picking it up. Alternatively, you could watch the entire game played perfectly starting from here:
And really, that's the issue with the game: it's more fun to watch than play. If, after watching some (or all, time permitting) of the videos you still feel compelled, go for it. But for me, the lack of depth and replayability left me dissatisfied once I had completed it, though admittedly I did enjoy what there was quite a bit.
Raskulls is a weird little XBLA game. Imagine a cross between Mario Kart and Mr. Driller and you'll have a decent understanding of what you're getting into: a racing game with puzzle elements that's a bit shallow, but fun with company.
The first thing you'll notice about Raskulls is that it's genuinely funny. It's fully aware that there's little story outside of everyone wanting the "shiny stones", so it focuses on cracking jokes and breaking the fourth wall. The single player is essentially a just string of puzzle and racing missions with more obstacles as the game progresses, but you'll want to continue if only to hear what the characters have to say next. From a cop's passion for doughnut milkshakes, to a mummy with a photography hobby, to a wizard who desperately needs jungle juice (seriously), Raskulls deals with being fairly shallow by making what's there really funny.
I don't want to imply that the game itself isn't fun, because it is, at least for a while. The single player is fairly short, but offers a nice variety of missions and some genuinely difficult bonus ones. You'll unlock all sorts of characters and other goodies, which are usable in the multiplayer (or single if you play with bots). The multiplayer is exclusively racing, and while it does give a very Mario Kart-esque vibe with its use of items and boosts, the lack of variety is what cuts the enjoyment short. There aren't a lot of tracks, and all of the characters play exactly the same. It's really more of a party game than anything else, and like most party games, it's the people you play with that make it really fun.
Local multiplayer is a blast. The splitscreen is fun, and odds are rematches will happen, making the game more entertaining. Online play, however, does not share this fun factor. This is due to two reasons: it's an XBLA game, and therefore doesn't have a lot of people playing, and the lack of interaction with players makes it hardly different from a bot match. The online is there, and it's alright, but you probably won't use it much.
Before I conclude, I want to mention that the game looks really great. If Halfbrick Studios made a platformer that looked and played like this, I would probably buy it in a heartbeat. The music is pretty good too, and they've made it available for download! If you've played the demo and liked what you heard, Halfbrick has you covered.
So, is Raskulls worth 800 MS points ($10)? It's debatable. If you frequently have people around to enjoy the silliness with, I would strongly recommend it. If you're a loner, you probably won't want to plunk down the cash, as you'll eventually run out of things to do. Then again, if the style and gameplay really appeal to you after trying the demo, you may as well. After all, you get a snazzy Raskull for finishing the demo.
Rather than randomly post reviews here and there, I've decided to consolidate all of my reviewing efforts into this blog. I'm aiming to write one review a week, which considering the amount of stuff I have opinions on, shouldn't be too hard.
I have one goal with these reviews: to let you know whether or not the thing in question is worth your money. What can I say, I like it simple.
