Review – Spice Invaders

SPICE INVADERS – Developer: On5 – Publisher: Chillingo – Format: iOS – Price: Free

Tower defence games are one of the most popular genres on the iOS platforms. The reason behind their overwhelming dominance of the App Store charts is due to their accessibility and addictive gameplay. So how does a new tower defence game on the scene attract new players? The innovative chaps at Chillingo and On5 believe that space pirates and their unhealthy obsession with spice is the way to capture your attention, and it works. The wacky concept, design, world map, music, all of it is of an impeccably high standard, which grabs you initially, but is Spice Invaders’ attraction superficial? Or does this free game have the makings to be a great pastime? Read on. Read More

Review – The Witcher: Versus

Hand to hand combat has never felt so hands off.

The Witcher: Versus is a new kind of experience for me – a game focused on combat that relies mostly on human psychology and chance.

Combat takes place in a turn-based system with each player queuing up their defensive and attacking tactics and clicking play. Once combat starts your input stops – kind of like rock, paper, scissors, but with sorceress’ and a cash shop.

The game starts well with a great introduction to the systems and the combat through the use of a few simple tutorials and a handy help section. Even without these little introductory pieces, the gameplay is so simple it wouldn’t take long for you to pick it up and start playing.
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Review – Ascendancy

As much as everyone loves firing birds from slingshots or making frogs bounce from cloud to cloud, sometimes you just have a craving for something a little more in depth and traditional.

Nothing could scratch that itch better than the classic empire building strategy genre, known as the 4X genre.

For those who are not familiar with that category, 4X is short for ‘explore, expand, exterminate, and exploit’ and while those core features appear in many strategy games, the 4X games generally max out the complexity & detail. These games saw a surge of popularity in the mid 90’s, with games like Master of Orion & Space Empires proving popular. One other title that came out during this time was Ascendancy, which was one of the better games to come out during that boom.
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Review – Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1

Even for a die-hard Sonic fanboy such as myself, there have been some dark times in the franchises recent years.

From giving the primary characters weapons such as swords and guns to turning Sonic into a “werehog”. All of these titles have had on thing in common, they all looked to have so much potential and then upon release proved disappointing.

So it was with no small amount of trepidation that when Sonic team announced Sonic 4 and a return to 2D,I allowed myself to get caught up in the buildup again. Now that it has been released I get to ask the questions – Will this be one more title that promises so much and fails to deliver? OR Will this be the title that brings Sonic spin-dashing back into greatness?

When you first fire up the game you are instantly granted your first dose of nostalgia, with Sonic proudly popping though the logo and waving his finger at you, which when you start a new game takes you straight into the first zone.

However the moment you finish that first zone you are given a reminder that this is a modern game, and (unless you also get to do the chaos emerald/Special stage) brought out into a world map when you can choose which zone & stage you want to play.

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Dante’s Inferno

Score: 10.5/13

Written by Drunken Gamer

OK, you can take that quizzical look off your face, just because I’m known as the DrunkenGamer does not mean I not cultured.

The guys at Visceral Games & EA have released Dante’s Inferno, to allow us to play out their take on the epic journey of Dante through the various circles of hell. Now, if you know your Divine Comedy from your left elbow, do not go in expecting a direct interpretation of the original works. It’s based on the epic, but has definitely taken artistic licence with it.

This is only to be expected, as the epic’s Dante is a scholor who is just traversing the circles, and that would not exactly make for great gameplay.

Viscerals Dante is a kick-ass warrior who fought in the crusades, which included a fight with the Grim Reaper for.. some.. reason. After the fight with death Dante takes his scythe and heads home, wrecked with self-doubt about what he has done while away, but semi consoled by the fact that the church had absolved him of his sins.

He arrives home to find that his beloved Beatrice has been slaughtered. As he kneels there holding her dead body, Satan makes his appearance to claim her soul and take her to into the inferno. You see, in return for his safe return from the crusades, she had made a deal with the devil. Dante, not wanting to see his beloved lost to the fires of eternal suffering on his behalf, instantly sets off for the 9 circles of hell in order to save her soul and guide her to her rightful place in paradise. Thankfully, to help you on your travels through hell you are not alone, as you are guided by Roman helper Poet Virgil.

The gameplay itself is your regular action game format; hordes of enemies will attack you and you have to give them a good old fashion whooping. As you already have the scythe of death himself, your more than prepared to give the hordes exactly what is needed.

You have three basic attacks: a light fast attack for small damage, a slow heavy attack for big damage & a ranged blast of holy energy that comes from the cross of your fallen love. As you progress through the game you can gain combo’s for these attacks to make your killing even faster. On top of the basic attacks are magic abilities that you gain. Examples include Righteous Path, which sends you hurtling towards an enemy while leaving a trail of icy shards behind, and Lust Storm, which temporarily surrounds you in a vortex of damaging dark energy. Some of the spells are gained from items you pick up on your travels, others are only available from the character upgrade system that also gives you access to the combos mentioned earlier.


Read More in Issue 24

About the game

Everyone that has done any form of literature education, and many who haven’t, will have heard of The Divine Comedy. This is the epic poem written in the 1300’s by Dante Alighieri, chronicling the journey of the poems protagonist, also called Dante, through the three realms of death. The first of the three realms is the Inferno, which is home to the various circles of hell, each specifically meant to correctly punish the souls damned there for the sins they committed.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Score: 10/13

Written by Johnny Clapham

Lets start by being honest, Ghostbusters is not the most original game out there, nor is it the most technically polished, but one thing is guaranteed from the moment you load up the disc until the final credits roll – you will be sat there with a big grin on your face.

Put simply, while Ghostbusters probably won’t be the best game of the year, it will almost definitely be one of the most fun and hilarious titles of 2009…

Read More in Issue 16

About the game

Set two years after the second movie, Ghostbusters: The Video Game casts you as the fifth Ghostbuster – a nameless rookie hired to test some of Ray and Egon’s more dangerous new gadgets. No sooner has your first day begun than you are called into action against a whole army of ghosts both old and new, which threaten to destroy the world as we know it.

Taking the form of a third-person action game with a style reminiscent of Gears of War, the player will use a whole host of gadgets to catch ghosts and solve environmental puzzles. The majority of the films original cast return in a new story written by Ghostbusters creators Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis.

Squeeballs Party (Review)

Written by TurkeySaladBoy

Format: PC

Genre: Party Game

3.. 2.. 1.. Every day is play-time in the Squeeballs factory of fun

Like the annual camping trip, Squeeballs Party will keep the whole family occupied for hours, in what is by far one of the best value-priced party games on the Wii.

The premise is simple: Squeeballs are a new range of toys being prepared in a secret factory on an island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Your role is effectively a Quality Assurance product tester, testing the toys before they can be cuddled and petted by appreciative children. You have to test the Squeeballs through a series of mini-games using just the Wii-mote, performing a range of sweat inducing motions to push the toys to their limit. The Squeeballs all have individual personalities, which tug on the heart-strings and make you feel remorse for inflicting so much harm and punishment (they love it really, those kinky Squeeballs).

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