While graphics may not be essential, the artistic side can set them apart and make them individual and unique. The artistry of graphics is very important in defining a series or making it instantly recognizable.
Kirby’s Epic Yarn
Yarn. Who would have thunk? Using yarn to create the world is probably one of the most original art designs I have ever seen. Why does such a cutesy art design beat out other games that have tons of research behind them? Because it’s original. That’s the keyword. The game makes you feel just as fuzzy inside as the characters look.
Dead Space is a surprising new gaming franchise from EA that is actually original, in-depth, and just really amazing. The whole story behind Dead Space is just so surreal, thanks to all the different forms of media, from movies to books to comic books. Dead Space is an alien artifact that somehow unleashed a deadly race of aliens onto a planet colony and found its way to the Ishimura, which is a planet-cracking ship.
Dead Space: Extraction sets itself between the comic books and the first Dead Space game. Think of this as what happened before Isaac Clarke entered the Ishimura. Extraction may initially throw you off guard since it’s an “on-rails” FPS kind of like old arcade games. This may turn Dead Space fans completely off since you don’t have control over exploration. While this does hamper the score a lot, there is so much fun and fright to be had in Extraction.
The main focus in Extraction is getting the hell off the Ishimura and finding a shuttle. You play several characters throughout the game, but your main guy is Nate. He is a P-SEC officer who is working with his sergeant to get as many people to safety as possible. You really only see your reticle; the main focus is to point and shoot. The controls are really great and laid out for both regular use and the Wii Zapper (or any other gun attachment you may have), so I will be reviewing this game off of the Zapper control scheme. You have a lot in your hands besides weapons, and this includes your stasis (which slows down objects) and your telekinesis, which will pull objects towards you. You also have a swipe attack for melee and cutting things throughout the game.
Most of your weapon arsenal is tools, and all the weapons from the original Dead Space are back with lots of additions. Some of these include the P-SEC pistol, welding gun, and nail gun. The nail gun is standard and has unlimited ammo, but each weapon has secondary fire. For example, the pulse rifle has a shotgun blast that must be charged, the P-SEC pistol has a spray shot, and the flamethrower can shoot fireballs. All of these weapons will be needed and strategically used for certain situations.
Most of the game plays through the creepy and eerie story, with the character moving on his or her own. While this is immersive and cinematic, it can be boring sometimes since several minutes can pass by just looking around at nothing. The game moves at a slower pace than you would want, but it fits the atmosphere. There will be times when creatures will grab you out of the dark, and you must shake your Wii remote to turn on your glow worm. You will hear strange voices and creepy visions that pop up out of nowhere. While you’re roaming these halls, you need to act fast and use your telekinesis to grab ammo, upgrades, health, audio/text logs, etc. All of these are tallied up at the end of each chapter, and you are scored.
When it comes to creatures, I can’t really recall any new forms. Every single form from the original Dead Space is here, and even some environments. The developers recycled a lot of content, and this felt like a big no-no to me. While there are some simple mini-games, such as a rewiring game where you can’t touch red circuits, a turret section, and some parts that have you nail stuff up to keep things out, The game is riveting and exciting, but by the time you get through all ten (long) chapters, you just want it to end. This is partly due to the difficulty factor and the unbalanced ammo versus creature problem. Scrounging ammo is very difficult in this game, even in the easiest setting, and it makes you wish the developers would just stop doing that.
I, however, highly enjoyed this game and found it to be worth the $50 purchase. A number of weapons, a decent length, and amazing graphics helped make this game easy to chew. There is just enough mixed around for you to stay on the edge of your seat, and that’s what keeps you playing.
I remember talking to my family years ago about a game where you can play as a bug, animal, etc. instead of a human or some other form of biped. THQ finally delivered with the interesting concept of playing as a tarantula or scorpion in Deadly Creatures. The game is about some guy who killed another guy and said deadly creatures did it. Yeah, not very interesting, but Dennis “King Koopa” Hopper and Billy Bob “Major Pervert” Thornton’s voices as the two hicks in this game make me wonder where this low-budget game got the money for that.
Anyhow, you start out like a tarantula crawling around in a desert, trying to find nests of real-life enemies such as tarantula wasps and different types of lizards and scorpions. All represent real-life creatures and are as gross as their real-life counterparts. While you’re skittering around as either the tarantula or the scorpion, you can walk up on walls to collect grub to slightly add health while also unlocking concept art. There are crickets and grasshoppers to give you health, while bright green ones permanently increase your health. When it comes to combat, this is where things get interesting. You can use the A button for your basic attack, then combo from here with a wiggle of the Wiimote. You can shoot your web to stun enemies, pounce on enemies, and if you’re the scorpion, you can even flip that Wiimote upside to bury underground, then turn it up to pop out and attack your enemy. The control scheme is fairly neat, but there were a few moments when the controls wouldn’t respond unless you held the Wiimote a certain way. Among these moves, you can slowly unlock more by leveling up, such as being able to climb on ceilings (passive moves) or the ability to burrow under designated areas. Along with these, you can unlock an “execution move,” which will display buttons to press for cinematic camera cuts, and this can be pretty epic.
Some moments in combat can actually be pretty epic, such as the rattlesnake and tarantula fight (as seen on the cover). Some moves are button-timed sensitive, which is used for great cinematic camera cuts. While that sounds like that’s all there is, that is really true. The whole game is combat-based, and there’s not much in terms of variety. The level design is a bit funky since it can be hard to find out where to go thanks to the bland brown environments, which make it hard to figure out where to go. There are a lot of invisible walls, and there are just certain places you can’t climb. You have cacti blocking your path, cracks in walls, and even some collision detection issues where if you move too far to the side of a log underground, your creature will just stick to the air for a second, then fall off and die. There are certain obstacles each creature must overcome, such as jumping for the tarantula and digging for the scorpion, but these don’t pose too much of a problem.
My main gripe about the game is that it’s too damn difficult for larger creatures to fight. There are no hints on how to beat these guys, and it just makes things so impossible and frustrating, especially when the guys take forever to kill. The environments tend to be a little cramped, and it may take a long time to use every move on the enemy until the right one kills them. Some enemies must be turned upside down, some have to be stunned, etc.
When it comes to looks and sounds, the graphics are just OK with flat textures, and everything is really brown. The creature models are highly detailed with excellent lifelike animations, but that’s about it in the looks department. The sounds the creatures make don’t seem to sound accurate, but hey, this was kind of an experimental game anyway. I really hope THQ makes another game in the series or someone else picks up on the idea. There is a lot of potential here, and I hope the idea doesn’t die.
Overlord is back in action. Hand-tailored to the Wii, it comes with more precise control of minions and overall easier ‘Overlording’ gameplay. Dark Legend is a whole new adventure, and while it isn’t going to knock your socks off, it will make you laugh, cry, scream, and even strangle people. To enjoy this game, bring an open mind, a dash of patience, and a hint of speed in your fingers to give your minions a run for their money. Get ready to take control of the young Dark Prince of Gromgard.
The start of the game feels like a narrative from a book, written so well that it really makes you wonder if it is a tale or if it is a true story. You play as a young Dark Prince of Gromgard, running through the castle talking to people, learning about your wonderful evil siblings, and rescuing the cook from the clutches of crazed Halflings.
The whole idea behind Dark Legend was to give fans an idea of how the young prince started out before gaining his evil overlordship. You will be wandering through the castle hallways and getting your first introduction to your gauntlet of evil. All gloved in, you will learn how to use your minions in basic and advanced ways. With your loyal servant and mentor Gnarl by your side, you will traverse the dangerous depths of Gromgard in search of minions, destroying your evil siblings and taking the throne of Gromgard. Dark Legend has a bit of a Lord of the Rings feel to it, with the whole Knights in Shining Armor/Medieval setting to boost this idea. To complete the picture, you can throw some fairy-tale stuff into the Lord of the Rings mix. Little Red Riding Hood makes an appearance, and there is no shortage of wolves either.
Now you are probably thinking, “That sounds evil enough for me, but can I play the game to fit my evil Overlord ways?” The answer is, of course, you can, but it will require a little bit of patience, so sit back and take some notes. You play the game with the remote and Nunchuk. The Prince is controlled with the analog stick, the camera can be reset, and you can move the camera manually by holding down C and moving the cursor around the screen. When you actually get your first set of minions, you sweep them by holding down the B button and moving them around on the screen with the cursor. I know this sounds just fine, but wait, don’t get too excited yet! There’s a problem with this setup; the AI is pretty dumb. You can’t just move the cursor anywhere and hope that the little guys will follow. No, you have to put the cursor right in front of them, like a carrot held in front of a donkey, to get them to move. This becomes very frustrating when you have several enemies hitting you and you need your minions to go across a log to cross a stream (only blue minions can go into the water). Just holding down the B button on the other side is no good; you have to “drag” them over there, which is a serious drag.
Unlike minion sweeping, switching magic spells is really simple. You just hold down the + button, move the cursor over your spell, and let go. Wow, genius! Ok, maybe not, but the fighting mechanics of the game are definitely not so genius. All you do is swing your weapon with the Z button or wave your Wii-mote around. Yep, that is all, folks. Just wave the ‘ol remote around or tap that lonely little Z button. There are no combo upgrades or anything like that. You can switch between different colored minions with the left, right, and down D-pads. The D-pad is also used to do magic. Setting markers is done with the + button, and this allows you to tell a certain color minion to stay and attack for ambushing or get enemies you can’t reach.
When it comes to actual gameplay, Dark Legend is decent at best. Minions come in red, blue, green, and brown, and they are all unique in their own annoying, evil, and destructive little way. You will first gain brown minions, who are your basic fighting grunts and are no good at anything but looting, pillaging, and beating on things. Later on, you will gain green (which absorbs poison), blue (which can go into the water), and red (which can absorb fire), which are all needed at all times. To solve simple environmental puzzles, certain amounts of minerals are required. Say you have a turning wheel, but it has green gas pods around it. Then you use greens to absorb the gas before sending blues to turn the wheel. Everything works like a chain, and it is never too hard to figure out what is expected of you. You even have a mini-map with a compass that shows you your current objective. Using warp gates, you can quickly move from one area to another.
Summoning your minions is done via hives located throughout the levels. You can use them to pick up relics for spells, max health, and mana increases as well. Such spells vary from petrifying to electrocution, from slowing time to making your minions crazy and powerful for a short amount of time. The best technique, however, is the new ability to strangle your minions and charge them up. Red and brown ones explode, green ones can be used as a gas grenade, and blue ones give you life. I found all of these to be extremely helpful in a tight pinch. To top things off, you can kill enemies for souls to acquire more minions. Gold found in chests can be spent in your castle’s smelting room, where you can upgrade your weapons, armor, and minions. This is a must for harder enemies and bosses later on in the game.
The environments are very pretty at times, and some of the areas will definitely pique your interest. My favorite moment in the game was when I was in the woods chasing down Little Red. The area in which this takes place felt both charming and unique, its ambiance amplified by a menacing-looking moonlight that gave the leaves on trees a creepy look. The dialog the developers chose is clever yet evil, and the voice actors give it all their evil might to help set the mood.
So, there is lots of fun to be had in Dark Legend thanks to the clever use of minions, the good amount of spells, and plenty of relics to find. You will be sucked in for a good 6 to 8 hours. I just wish the minions were a bit smarter and the collision detection didn’t stink. The backtracking can really get you down too. I highly recommend Dark Legend only to Overlord fans or Wii gamers who want to wipe the dust off that Wii. The Wii shovelware stops here, my Lord, and so begins the tale
claps Yessss, thank you, Sega, for making one of the few mature-rated games for us adults out there. Thank you. House of the Dead: Overkill plays more on the great HotD series that started back in the early 90s in the arcades. You play Agent G with his foul-mouthed partner Isaac Washington (yes, he’s black!) as you figure out why zombies are plaguing the US. While the story is hilarious, vulgar, rude, and completely dirty, there are tons of funny voice acting and dialog to enjoy. The characters are played out very well, and you get pretty attached early on (there are only about 8 levels or so), along with the major hottie, Varla Gunns.
The game plays like a typical on-rails FPS where the game controls where you move and you just worry about the shooting. The game has many locales, from jails to hospitals to swamps to theme parks, so you won’t get bored one little bit. There are many guns to buy and upgrade, along with some great unlockables for beating the game. While you wander through levels, there are a few temperature upgrades you can shoot (I wish there were more), such as health, grenades, green blobs that slow downtime for a little while, and gold braids. Yes, collect all these brains, and you unlock artwork, videos, etc. Now upgrading your weapons is mandatory, such as less recoil, clip size, damage, and the whole nine yards. You can have up to two weapons equipped, and switching back and forth between these two is a great strategy when you have too many zombies to deal with. You start off the game with a pistol, and if you save up your money (more on how later), you can buy more weapons. Buying a shotgun first is great since you use all your rounds to clear most of the zombies out and then switch to your pistol to finish off stubborn stragglers.
One great thing about OK is that it never gets too frustrating. When you die, you start off right where you were with no continues. Of course, you take a score hit, but people who don’t care about this won’t break their Wiimotes in anger. The levels are just the right length, taking about 10–15 minutes to complete with super-fun boss fights. Each boss will have their weak point circled in red, and all you have to do is shoot whatever projectile they fire at you and keep on them. The bosses are disgusting, grotesque, and very funny-looking. You’re probably all great, but there’s more!
MULTIPLAYER MAN!! That’s the best ever. While it’s the same as a single player, having someone help you can always be fun. Now, if you beat the game, you get the director’s cut (I won’t say what it is!!). Along with being able to dual-wield weapons, yes, it’s sweet, super fun, and adds lots of replay value. Wouldn’t that make the game too easy, you say? Well, use the “Extra Mutants” tweak before each level, and you have an extra challenge. Sadly, there is no online play, but hopefully, a future HotD will have it. I HIGHLY recommend this super fun game to any adult who has dust collecting on their Wii.
thebinarymessiah.com 
Yep! The fact that I forgot about this game until you made a comment proves that.